Byzantium in the Objectiff: Nikodim Kondakov, Jean Xavier Raoult and Their Photographic Expedition to Sinai

Nikodim Kondakov (1844‑1925), arguably the greatest art historian of the Russian empire, provided a new impetus to the study of Byzantine art. During decades of rigorous travels, he documented and introduced into scholarship previously unknown Byzantine monuments by embracing the power and promise of archaeological photography. The academic impact of Kondakov’s publications was greatly enhanced by the participation of a brilliant French photographer, Jean Xavier Raoult (ca. 1835‑ca. 1890). This article analyses their most challenging venture, the expedition to Sinai in 1881. This journey contributed to advancing a more objective conception of Byzantine art via the collaboration between archaeology and photography. As a key example of how the Kondakov‑Raoult partnership advanced the state of the art of academic knowledge, this article also analyses the historiographic importance of the earliest extant photograph of the Transfiguration mosaic.