Composite Icons of Cyprus
Dorota’s project focuses on icons consisting of two panels inserted one into another. Panayotis Vocotopoulos was the first to notice this rare type and coined the terms ‘composite icons’ and ‘σύνθετες εικόνες’ in his bilingual study that should be seen as a valuable attempt to catalogue them. These icons are particularly numerous in Cyprus and date mostly to the 16th century, constituting a fertile field for focused research. The aim of this project is to investigate a group of Cypriot composite icons, with special attention being paid to the act of insertion. It seeks to provide a better understanding of the phenomenon of embedding and embedded icons which, although acting as one physical whole, are very often visually and conceptually distinct.
Professional Biography
Dorota Zaprzalska is a PhD candidate at the Jagiellonian University’s Doctoral School in the Humanities (Krakow, Poland) and received her BA and MA in Art History from the same university. Her research interest is focused on icons, particularly their use and re-use, and her PhD project investigates the phenomenon of so-called ‘composite icons’. During her research stays in Cyprus supported by the Erasmus+ Programme at the University of Cyprus and The Cyprus Institute, as well as the Anita Cecil O'Donovan Fellowship at the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, Dorota identified and studied a group of icons of this type that was largely unknown to the broader academic community. She is to continue her research on Cypriot composite icons at Dumbarton Oaks.