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Over the last thirty years, ARCE has published more than forty catalogues, conference proceedings, bibliographies, anthologies, excavation reports, and critical editions. The publications attest to the range of scholarship undertaken by scholars and institutions in Egypt under ARCE's auspices, and to the wealth of the nation's artistic, architectural, scientific, literary, and religious culture.
A Focus on Conservation
During the past fifteen years, ARCE has undertaken an extraordinary new mission to preserve the cultural heritage of Egypt. With generous grants from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), more that fifty conservation projects have been completed, spanning many time periods and geographic regions within Egypt. Documentation and publication of these valuable projects are an ongoing priority.
In 2002 Yale University Press produced the first of these publications. Monastic Visions: Wall Paintings in the Monastery of St. Antony at the Red Sea by Elizabeth Bolman, documents and studies the extraordinary Coptic art revealed during conservation activity at the monastery. A follow-on volume, The Cave Church of Paul the Hermit at the Monastery of St. Paul in Egypt by William Lyster continues the scholarly exploration of the early Christian monastic community and the artwork it produced. This latest book was released in 2008 by Yale University Press.
The American University in Cairo Press' ARCE Conservation Series presents other dramatic ARCE conservation activities. The series began with The Monuments of Historic Cairo by Nicholas Warner published in 2005. Volume 2, Quseir: An Ottoman and Napoleonic Fortress on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt by Charles Le Quesne, and Volume 3, Villa of the Birds: the Excavation and Preservation of the Kom al-Dikka Mosaics by Wojciech Kolataj, Grzegorz Majcherek, and Ewa Parandowska are available from AUC Press. Volume 4, Babylon of Egypt: The Archaeology of Old Cairo and the Origins of the City, by Peter Sheehan, was released in October 2010.
For those readers interested in a comprehensive overview of the many ARCE conservation projects within one volume, ARCE has published Preserving Egypt's Cultural Heritage, edited by Randi Danforth. This large and sumptuously illustrated publication is available now. Purchase the book>>
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Monastic Visions: Wall Paintings in the Monastery of St. Antony at the Red Sea
2002. Yale University Press and the American Research Center in Egypt
342 pp.; 210 color plates, + 85 b-w and line drawings. 31 cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index
Cloth ISBN 0 300 092 24 5
Distributed in the United States and Europe by Yale University Press
Distributed in Egypt by the American University in Cairo Press
Copies are also available for purchase at the Monastery of St. Antony at the Red Sea. Royalties from the sale of the book are donated to the monastery.
Ignored for centuries because they were covered with soot and overpainting, the paintings revealed by the conservation effort, completed in 1999, are of extremely high quality, both stylistically and conceptually. While rooted in the Christian tradition of Egypt, they also reveal explicit connections with medieval Byzantine and Islamic art.
The paintings constitute the most complete and best-preserved iconographic program of Christian paintings to come from medieval Egypt. In addition, newly discovered wall paintings in the church, dating back to the sixth or seventh century, are published here for the first time. Monastic Visions includes contributions by art historians, conservators, historians, an archaeologist, and an anthropologist, documenting the results of ARCE's conservation effort. The text includes a full analysis of the paintings, which are reproduced in full color, and situates them within the artistic, historical, and religious context of Coptic Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean region during the Middle Ages.
Monastic Visions was recently awarded honorable mention in the Outstanding Scholarly Book (Art category) by the Association of American Publishers, and received a design and production award from the Association of American University Presses.
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US Office: 8700 Crownhill Blvd. Suite 507 San Antonio, Texas 78209-1130 p: 210.821.7000 e:info@arce.org
ARCE Cairo Center: 2 Midan Simón Bolívar Garden City Cairo 11461 Egypt p: 20 2 2794 8239 e:cairo@arce.org
