federıca a. broılo
unıversıty "carlo bo" of urbıno
Federica A. Broilo is a specialist on comparative art histories. She is a lecturer of Islamic art for the Department of Communication Sciences, Humanities and International Studies of at the University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”. She holds a PhD in Oriental Studies from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. She worked for nearly five years as Assistant Professor at the newly founded Department of History of Art at Mardin Artuklu University. On several occasions, she has also collaborated with UNESCO as an external consultant. Her early research dwelt on the Ottoman architecture in the Balkans and it has been supported with fellowships from the Oxford Barakat Trust and the New Europe College in Bucharest. Her primary research is on space, ritual and water in Byzantium and the Islamicate world. She lectured and published widely on fountains and ablutions rituals, particularly in the Constantinopolitan context. Her last contribution on this topic came out in 2016 in the edited volume by Cambridge University Press: Fountains and Water Culture in Byzantium.
fantastıc fountaıns and where to fınd them
a comparatıve analysıs on fountaıns ın byzantıum and the ıslamıcate world
Tracking the circulation and exchange of models, technology, and ideas in the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages makes easier the comparison between cultural systems that, although very different, were not kept in sealed boxes. This is undoubtedly the case of zoomorphic fountains in Byzantium and the Islamicate Mediterranean. Much has been written on the history of fountains from many different perspectives, and the literature on the subject is varied and comprehensive. This contribution employs different sources never used before for the study of fountains and their zoomorphic fountain heads, such as the tales from the Arabian Nights and other fantastic narratives, in a double attempt to present a fresh perspective on the subject and to determine if such literature should be used by art historians in their research