Dr. Vladimir Ivanovici

Previous positions 

• since 2025 Associated Researcher, Mapping Sacred Spaces, Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, Rome 
• since 2015 Lecturer, Mendrisio Academy of Architecture, University of Lugano 
• 2024 Guest-Professor, Byzantine Art History, University of Vienna (declined) 
• 2023 Research Fellow, Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia  University (declined) 
• 2021-2023 Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, Protestant Theology Department, University of Vienna 
• 2019 Summer Fellow, Dumbarton Oaks Research Institute, Harvard University 
• 2017-2020 Postdoctoral Researcher, Art History Department, Masaryk University Brno 
• 2015-2017 Postdoctoral Fellow, Bibliotheca Hertziana–Max-Planck Institute for Art History, Rome 
• 2014-2015 Teaching Assistant of Salvatore Settis, Mendrisio Academy of Architecture, University 
• of Lugano 
• 2011-2014 Research Assistant of Daniela Mondini, Mendrisio Academy of Architecture, University of Lugano 
• 2011-2014 PhD candidate, Art History, Mendrisio Academy of Architecture, University of Lugano 
• 2008-2011 PhD candidate, History, University of Bucharest  

Monographs 

1. Vladimir Ivanovici, Il battistero di Riva San Vitale. Arte, architettura e rituale dal V al XVII secolo (Pregassona: Fontana Edizioni, 2025) (https://www.fontanaedizioni.ch/prodotto/il-battistero-di-riva-san-vitale/).  
2. Vladimir Ivanovici, Between Statues and Icons. Iconic Persons from Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages (Paderborn: Brill-Schöningh, 2023) (https://doi.org/10.30965/9783657790821). 
3. Vladimir Ivanovici, Manipulating Theophany: Light and Ritual in North Adriatic Architecture (ca. 400-ca. 800) (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2016) (https://doi.org/10.30965/9783657790821). 

Edited volumes/special issues 

1. Vladimir Ivanovici, Fantastic Tales from Late Antiquity: Recovering Christianity’s Popular Literature (Fortress Press, under contract). 
2. Vladimir Ivanovici and Alice Sullivan (eds.) Artificial Light in Medieval Churches (Leiden: Brill, 2026) (https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004747876). 
3. Vladimir Ivanovici and Alice Sullivan (eds.) Natural Light in Medieval Churches (Leiden: Brill, 2023) (https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004527980).  
4. Vladimir Ivanovici, Adrian Brändli, Roberto Leggero (eds.) Christian Belief and Practice in the Alps (ca. 250-ca. 600), special issue Zeitschrift für schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte 79/3-4 (2022) (https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=zak-003%3A2022%3A79%3A%3A206). 
5. Michele Bacci and Vladimir Ivanovici (eds.) From Living to Visual Images. Paradigms of Corporeal Iconicity in Late Antiquity, special issue RIHA Journal (2019), online (https://doi.org/10.11588/riha.2019.2). 
6. Chiara Croci and Vladimir Ivanovici (eds.) Entre terre et ciel. La coupole de l’Antiquité Tardive au haut moyen âge : structure, fonction, décoration, special issue, Études de lettres 2 (2018) (https://doi.org/10.4000/edl.1115). 
7. Daniela Mondini and Vladimir Ivanovici (eds.) Manipulating Light in Premodern Times. Architectural, Artistic, and Philosophical Aspects (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2014) (https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1318840). 
8. Ilarion Tiu, Filip Iorga, Vladimir Ivanovici (eds.) Revista Erasmus 15 (2009). 

Articles 

1. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Enclosing Divine Power: The Mise-en-scène of Hallowed Rocks in the Holy Land and Beyond (ca. 320-ca. 900),” Arte Medievale (2026): 1-13.
2. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Touch, Sit, Drink with Mary: Interacting with the Divine at the Kathisma Shrine in Late Antique Palestine,” in D. Zaharia, F. Mihut, D. Pavel (eds.) Istorie si politica. In honorem Vlad Nistor emeriti (Bucharest: Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti, 2025), 97-112.
3. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Relicless Martyria: An Overlooked Category of Late Antique Shrine,” in Basema Hamarneh and Davide Bianchi (eds.) Architecture as Holy Space (Vienna: Phoibos Verlag, 2024), 51-62.
4. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Making Christs: An Overlooked Aspect of Patristic Theology,” in N. Tanase, M. Portaru, D. Lemeni (eds.) Knowing God in Light. Theophany and Language (Münster: Lit Verlag, 2024), 157-165.
5. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Defending God: Early Christianity's Road from ‘Turning the Cheek’ to Religious War,” Kunst und Kirche 1 (2024): 20-25.
6. Stephanie Miller, Matthew Pelowski, Vladimir Ivanovici, Eleonora Marengo, “What Did  the Art Mean? A Case Study of an Installation by Artist Anselm Kiefer, ” Art & Perception 12 (2024): 43. 
7. Vladimir Ivanovici, Gabriel Herea, Alice Sullivan, “Natural Light in the Church of the Holy Cross at Pătrăuți Monastery,” in Vladimir Ivanovici and Alice Sullivan (eds.) Natural Light in Medieval Churches (Leiden: Brill, 2023), 228-252. 
8. Vladimir Ivanovici and Elizabeth Dospel Williams, “Liturgical Stoles and Authority between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages,” in Antoine De Moor, Cäcilia Fluck, Petra Linscheid (eds.) Dress–Continuity and Change in Egypt in the 1st Millennium AD (Veurne: Hannibal, 2023), 54-65. 
9. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Dalla tarda Antichità al Medioevo. Il battistero di Balerna e il suo contesto storico”, Arte e cultura 28 (2023): 40-55. 
10. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Space and Ritual in the Riva San Vitale Baptistery,” in Sergio Bettini and Marco Di Nallo (eds.) Il Battistero di San Giovanni a Riva San Vitale. Storia e restauri recenti e passati (Mendrisio: Mendrisio Academy Press, 2023), 14-17. 
11. Vladimir Ivanovici, “The Church and the Alps: A Search for Patterns of Dissemination,” Zeitschrift für schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte 79/3-4 (2022): 215-226. 
12. Vladimir Ivanovici and Adrian Brändli, “Introduction: From ‘Christianisation’ to ‘Christianness’ in the Alps,” Zeitschrift für schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte 79/3-4 (2022): 185-189. 
13. Alice Sullivan, Gabriel-Dinu Herea, Vladimir Ivanovici, “Space, Image, Light: Toward an Understanding of Moldavian Architecture in the Fifteenth Century,” Gesta 60/1 (2021): 81-100.  
14. Vladimir Ivanovici and Nathan S. Dennis, “Light, Vision(s), Transformation. Experiencing Baptism in Canopied Fonts (ca. 230-ca. 500),” Hortus Artium Medievalium 26 (2020): 97-108.  
15. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Pseudo-Dionysius and the Staging of Divine Order in Sixth-Century Architecture,” in Francesca Dell’Acqua and Ernesto Mainoldi (eds.) Pseudo-Dionysius and the Origins of Christian Visual Culture (London: Palgrave, 2020), 177-210. 
16. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Solar Effects in Cultic Architecture: A Very Short Introduction,” in Gabriel-Dinu Herea, The Symbolic Presence of the Sun at Patrauti (Timisoara: Ed. Univ. de Vest, 2020), 9-17. 
17. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Iconic Presences. Late Roman Consuls as Imperial Images,” Convivium 6/1 (2019): 128-147.  
18. Vladimir Ivanovici and Sissel Undheim, “Consecrated Virgins as Living Reliquaries in Late Antiquity,” RIHA Journal (2019) (https://doi.org/10.11588/riha.2019.2.70058) 
19. Michele Bacci and Vladimir Ivanovici, “Introduction: From Living to Visual Images. Paradigms of Corporeal Iconicity in Late Antiquity,” RIHA Journal (2019) (https://doi.org/10.11588/riha.2019.2.68103) 
20. Bogdan G. Bucur and Vladimir Ivanovici, “‘The Image of Adam’s Glory’: Observations on the Early Christian Tradition of Luminosity as Iconic Garment,” RIHA Journal (2019) (https://doi.org/10.11588/riha.2019.2.70048) 
21. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Reuniting the Waters, Separating the Lands. Windows and Liminality in Late Antique Baptism,” Hortus Artium Medievalium 24/1 (2018): 386-395.  
22. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Soleils Nocturnes. Visions progressives dans les édifices à coupole de l’Antiquité tardive,” Études de lettres 2 (2018): 103-122. 
23. Chiara Croci and Vladimir Ivanovici, “Avant-Propos - Entre terre et ciel,” Études de lettres 2 (2018): 7-16. 
24. Vladimir Ivanovici, “The Ritual Display of Gospels in Late Antiquity,” in David Ganz and Barbara Schellewald (eds.) Clothing Sacred Scripture. Book Art and Book Religions in the Middle Ages (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2018), 221-232.  
25. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Divine Light Through Earthly Colours: Mediating Perception in Late Antique Churches,” in Chloë N. Duckworth and Anne E. Sassin (eds.) Colour and Light in Ancient and Medieval Art (Routledge: Abingdon, 2018), 79-91. 
26. Vladimir Ivanovici, “The Prison of the Mind. Growing Up with Myths in Communist Romania,” Convivium 4/1 (2017): 128-141.  
27. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Building Prestige. Processions, Visual Codes, and Episcopal Power in Fifth-century Rome,” in Norbert Zimmermann, Tanja Michalsky, A. Wieczorek, S. Weinfurter (eds.) Die Päpste und Rom zwischen Spätantike und Mittelalter. Formen päpstlicher Machtentfaltung (Mannheim: Schnell+Steiner, 2017), 11-27. 
28. Vladimir Ivanovici, Daniela Mondini and Vladimir Ivanovici, “Luce e luci a Santa Maria Antiqua e nelle chiese altomedievali di Roma,” in Maria Andaloro et al. (eds.) Santa Maria Antiqua tra Roma e Bisanzio (Milan: Electa, 2016), 378-385. 
29. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Visceral and Induced Reactions to Art: The Late Antique Case,” in Véronique Alexandre Journeau and Christine Vial Kayser (eds.) Notions esthétiques (II): la perception sensible organisée (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2015), 307-318. 
30. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Luce renobatus: Speculations on the Placement and Importance of Lights in Ravenna’s Neonian Baptistery,” in Daniela Mondini and Vladimir Ivanovici (eds.) Manipulating Light in Premodern Times. Architectural, Artistic, and Philosophical Aspects (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2014), 18-29. 
31. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Capturing Light in Late Antique Ravenna. A New Interpretation of the Archbishops’ Chapel,” Zograf 37 (2013): 17-22. 
32. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Windows and Church Space in Early Medieval Byzantium and West,” Opuscula Historiae Artium Supplementum 62 (2013): 38-47. 
33. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Competing Paradoxes: Martyrs and the Spread of Christianity Revisited,” Studia Patristica 62/10 (2013): 231-244. 
34. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Christianity’s Plea for the Good Barbarian. On the Roman Barbarophobia and Christianity’s Role in Appeasing it,” Analele Facultatii de Istorie (2009): 95-114. 
35. Vladimir Ivanovici, “On Abraham and Agamemnon. Short Essay on Pride and Self-Sacrifice in the Ancient World,” Erasmus 15 (2006/9): 7-20. 
36. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Between Word and Image. Early Christianity’s Road From Aniconism to Representing God,” Analele Facultatii de Istorie (2008): 3-17. 

Book Reviews 

1. Francesco Massa and Maureen Attali (eds.) Shared Religious Sites in Late Antiquity. Negotiating Cultural and Ritual Identities in the Eastern Roman Empire (Basel: Schwabe, 2023) and Michael L. Satlow, An Enchanted World. The Shared Religious Landscape of Late Antiquity (Princeton-Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2026), The Classical Review, forthcoming. 
2. Caroline Johnson Hodge, The God of this house: Christian domestic cult before Constantine (University Park 2025), Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
3. Jane Chick, From Wilderness to Paradise: a Sixth-Century Mosaic Pavement at Qasr el Lebia in Cyrenaica, Libya (Oxford 2024), Plekos 27 (2025) 447-449. 
4. Mark J. Johnson, San Vitale in Ravenna and Octagonal Churches in Late Antiquity (Wiesbaden 2018), Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 61 (2018) 297-298.  
5. Nadine Schibille, Hagia Sophia and the Byzantine Aesthetic Experience (Farnham-Burlington, Ashgate, 2014), Speculum 93/1 (2018) 262-264. 

Entries 

1. Vladimir Ivanovici and Alice Sullivan, “The Church of the Holy Cross, Pătrăuți Monastery,” Smarthistory, June 3, 2024, https://smarthistory.org/holy-cross-church-patrauti-monastery/ 
2. Gabriel-Dinu Herea, Alice Sullivan, Vladimir Ivanovici, “The Church of the Holy Cross, Pătrăuți Monastery,” Mapping Eastern Europe, 2024, https://mappingeasterneurope.princeton.edu 
3. Vladimir Ivanovici, “Light in Churches in Byzantium and Beyond,” Mapping Eastern Europe, 2024, https://mappingeasterneurope.princeton.edu