Landscape and Iconicity: Proskynetaria of the Holy Land from the Ottoman Period

Abstract

Proskynetaria–Ottoman-era paintings of the Holy Land on textiles, made in Jerusalem for Christian pilgrims–can be seen as icons of iconic landscape. From this perspective, the paintings and the biblical land functioned as a chain of topographical media that, by mediating between the faithful and the absent divinity, fortified faith. The stimulating nature of the biblical landscape is the point of departure for an examination of the paintings as a means of concretizing religious values, as substitutes for the biblical land in remote places, and as cultural instruments for constructing individual and collective identities.