IKON

The Iconography of death or, as Paul-Albert Février would have put it: le décor entourant la mort, gains in importance towards the end of classical antiquity. The evolution is due not only to the rise of Christianity but also to a shift in burial customs which has brought about the changing aspect of tomb decoration. The sarcophagi, since Hadrianic times, have provided artists with a new support for their skill, but a growing sense of the need for an image expressing religious and otherworldly beliefs is present in various wall decoration techniques as well. In this article, I intend to go back to a couple of well known marble sarcophagi from Salona, capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia. The two sarcophagi were originally put up in the same family tomb (memoria) in a pre-Christian cemetery north of the city. Later they were moved to a small corridor in front of the memoria and buried underneath the new cemetery basilica, erected on the spot in the first third of the 5^th century. Both sarcophagi are dated to the beginning of the 4^th century and probably pre-date the crucial period of Constantine. One of them is known as the “Good Shepherd” sarcophagus and is associated with the newly converted elite of the province capital, the other one bears a frieze with the theme of Phaedra and Hipollytus, one of the favorite subjects on mythological sarcophagi. As different as they are in iconography and religious outlook, they both are representative of what it meant to be Roman in this very fine and private place.

The article deals with the problem of identification and dating of a stone relief which is conserved in the Abkhazian State museum in Sukhum. Due to iconographical parallels with some Palestinian floor mosaics of the 6th-7th centuries, the image of a bull and a lion near the cross carved on the above-mentioned slab can be regarded as an illustration of the Isaiah’s prophecy (11.7). The analysis of the evolution of this iconographical motif as well as archaeological, historical and epigraphic context permits to date it by the 11th century. In medieval period it was used in decoration of the sepulchral monuments being associated with death and Resurrection.

Being omnipresent in all societies of medieval Europe, death and the human attitudes to it were reflected in rich artistic production in a number of ways. This text surveys iconography of death in the Byzantine and medieval Balkan art with attention to complexity existing in this particular sort of imagery. Therefore, wall paintings, miniature illumination and sculpture reveal diverse representations of the dead, from typical schemes of one dying on a deathbed, over violent deaths in battles or assassinations, to various examples of imagery illustrating theological notions of hereafter and resurrection, based on an overall optimism. This survey presents also analysis of less known examples or of some recently discovered, while the others are given a new interpretation.

Within the medieval Orthodox Balkan culture, visual memory of death has manifold functions. Representations of violent death were preserved within images in Menologia, such as the one in Treskavac Monastery, and through particular hagiography cycles, like the one of Saint Parasceve in the Monastery of Donja Kamenica. The image which commemorates the death of an anachoret is very important in ascertaining the identity of the saint’s cult, which can be seen in the representation of The Funeral of Saint Gavril of Lesnovo in Lesnovo Monastery.

The author discusses the issue of the confessionality of stećci, Bosnian and Hum mediaeval funerary monuments, proving that below these tombstones followers of all the three Christian confessions were buried: Orthodox Christians, Catholics and the Bosnian Church followers. The question of religious affiliation of the stećci has been present in historiography ever since the beginning of research on them, with attempts to resolve it by completely contradictory theories. Since the understanding of Bogomil nature of the stećci took root, mostly influenced by the English archaeologist Arthur Evans and a member of the Hungarian parliament Janos fon Asbóth, since the late 19^th century, which was later used as a ground for their “bosniakisation”, there have been unsuccessful attempts to elucidate the question of their religious affiliation by “serbianising” or “croatianising” them. Since the mid-20^th century, beliefs have gradually started to prevail about their non-Bogomil origins, their interconfessional character respectively, which in the meantime has commanded a large following in scientific circles. To which of the mentioned Christian confessions the largest number of the stećci belonged is an open question; however, the fact that the patronage right was related to the right to burial with a significant number of the Bosnian nobles, for instance with the Pavlovićes – followers of the Bosnian Church, may be considered as scientifically established.

This paper seeks to demonstrate the influence of biblical texts and rabbinic literature (the Talmud and the Midrash) on Iconography of Death in Jewish art. The first part of the paper deals with the extensive biblical, Talmudic and Midrashic texts on death, life after death and the Angel of Death. Part two gives some examples from Jewish art, with particular reference to the miniatures in Haggadahs and the frescoes in the Dura-Europos Synagogue. These images helped to dispel the view of the prohibition against visual images based on Exodus 20:4: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

The idea of toll-houses, through which souls pass after death, gradually became widespread in popular Eastern Christianity mainly due to the Life of St Basil the New and his disciple Theodora who were probably travelling Paulician preachers from Asia Minor (9th century). The toll-houses are not evident in the Bible or the early church fathers and have never been approved by church councils. The present article discusses the sources of this myth which are found to be in the Egyptian Book of the Dead and various Gnostic apocrypha. Three versions of the toll-houses are reflected in folklore. They are present in literature, especially Russian, as well. The earliest available image of the toll-houses is preserved in the tomb of St Neophyte in Cyprus in 1183. Cycles of the toll-houses were widely depicted in Western Bulgarian art of the 19th century and exercised a strong didactical influence on the illiterate believers.

La chiesa dedicata a Nostra Signora de Sos Regnos Altos è uno dei pochi esempi, in Sardegna, di cappella palatina all’interno di una fortificazione. Si trova entro la cerchia del castello di Serravalle a Bosa, centro ubicato sulla costa nord-occidentale dell’isola. L’importanza di questo monumento è determinata soprattutto dal ciclo pittorico al suo interno, sviluppato sulle pareti nord e sud e sulla controfacciata. La fortuna critica di questi dipinti, derivante anche dal loro ruolo di unicum nel panorama isolano, ha portato gli studiosi a cercare di determinarne la committenza, l’ideazione, i principali modelli e riferimenti stilistici e iconografici. Tuttavia per alcuni aspetti il ciclo pittorico di Bosa sembra ancora non essere completamente “risolto”. In questo intervento ci si propone di analizzare in particolare una delle scene: L’incontro dei tre vivi e dei tre morti. Ripercorrendo la vicenda critica del ciclo si cercherà di mettere a fuoco le modalità con cui il tema è stato affrontato, cercando di individuare riferimenti stilistici e iconografici che conducano all’individuazione dei possibili modelli utilizzati.

Church of Nostra Signora de Sos Regnos Altos in Bosa is one of the few Sardinian examples of a Palatine Chapel within a citadel, situated in the complex of the castle Serravale on the northwest coast of the island. The importance of this monument is determined primarily by painting cycle of the church interior, which stretches to the north, south and entrance wall. Since these paintings are unique in the island’s art corpus, the researchers sought to identify their patrons and masters, the main models and the iconographic and stylistic references. R. Sfogliano dates the cycle to 15th century, F. Bologna and P. Leone De Castris connect it to the work of Maestro di Offida, R. Serra and R. Coroneo propose the second half of the 14th century, with a range of different influences while A. Caleca assumes that a painter, active in Bosa, could have brought the Pisan and Sienese influence in the first year of 14th century. The monograph of the frescoes in Bosa by F. Poly, published in 1999, brings a historical frame and analysis of the frescoes proposing the dating and a reference framework which is still considered relevant. The most famous scene of the cycle is, no doubt, Encounter of the three living and the three dead. The presence of this theme seems closely connected with the guiding principle of the fresco decoration: memento of inevitable death united with call for reflection on the vanity of earthly existence. Painting cycle in Bosa represents different degrees of complexity. Lack of documents and accurate information lead to hypotheses such are claims by F. Poly, who has recognized in it the cycle hand of a Tuscan painter as well as a comissioner, Arbore Giovanni, brother of the future ruler of the Kingdom of Arborea, Mariano IV, resident of Seravalle castle between 1338 and 1345. However, the value of frescoes in the church of Nostra Signora de Sos Regnos Altos, which are the key part for the reconstruction of historical and artistic mosaic of Sardinia in the 14th century, is indisputable.

Early Italian illustrations to Petrarch’s Trionfo della Morte and Trionfo del Tempo already introduced the theme, not only of the man’s transitory existence but also of the destruction and decay of his worldly achievements. The association of the concepts of Time and Death were also mirrored in the interchange of their attributes in the Trionfi illustrations and other allegorical depictions. By the second half of the 16^th c. time and death were often shown to destroy all human achievement, thus introducing a pessimistic and sometimes cynical attitude to the ideals of scholarship and cultural endeavor. The iconographic analysis of these modifications demonstrates changing attitudes towards the concepts of Time and Death.

The symbolism of the tree was very widespread towards the end of the Middle Ages and saw the abundant production of depictions of the Tree of Estates with its arrangement of various estates in its crown. The depiction of the Tree of Estates with Death, who very obviously aims at destroying this hierarchical order with its bow and arrow, is a variation of this motif, similarly to the Dance of Death, highlighting the equality of all in the face of Death. The meaningful connection between these two motifs can also be seen in the fact that the Tree of Estates is often depicted directly next to the Dance of Death. Such depictions can be found in graphic prints (for example in the two copper engravings by the Netherlandish printmaker Master with the Banderoles) as well as in wall paintings (Morella, Bern) and manuscripts.

Nella biblioteca Marciana di Venezia viene custodito il Codice, datato nel 1466, intitolato Cod. marc. It. XI, 196 ( =7577), Scritture varie di argomento religioso, No. 7577, di interesse per vari ricercatori il cui interesse scientifico può variare dall’orientamento linguistico, teologico, alle ricerche storiche e alla storia dell’arte. A giudicare da un testo nel Codice, si potrebbe dedurre che esso fosse stato commissionato da Buchio fiollo de ser Michiel de Bucchia, un nobile di Cattaro. Nel Codice troviamo anche alcuni testi tra i quali la trascrizione del Purgatorio di San Patrizio (La legenda de santo patrizio el qual tracta della pene del purgatorio et tracta del gaudio delo paradiso terestro et quelo a trovato, ff. 10r-42v e ff. 62r-76r). Si suppone che questa sia la variazione del testo di Henry de Saltery in latino, datato all’inizio del XIII secolo. Il presente scritto prende in esame le miniature che adornano il testo, la cui trascrizione viene presentata per la prima volta al pubblico.

Biblioteca Marciana in Venice contains a codex under Cod. marc. It. XI, 196 (= 7577), Scritture varie di argomento religioso, Nr 7577 - a very interesting piece for researchers of language, theology, history and art history of the 15th century. It is dated in 1466 according to an inscription in the manuscript, which leads towards the conclusion that it had been commissioned from a nobleman of Kotor, Buće Mihovilovog Buće (Buchio vial de ser Michiel de Bucchia). Several texts of different subjects are bound in the codex. The author draws attention to the miniatures that decorate the text of the transcript of the Purgatory St Patrick. The first part of the text is on ff. r10-42v, whereas the second, the final part is on ff. 62r-76r. Researchers who have studied textual analysis of the transcript from Kotor assume that this is a Venetian translation of the famous Latin edition of the legend, which is connected to the Abbot Henry de Saltery, from the early 13th century. This article discusses the four miniatures that adorn the transcript of the famous medieval legend: an image of sinners pricked on the wheel and roasted on fire (f. 42v), a representation of a tree with hanging sinners (f. 43r), a miniature showing the arrival of the knight Alvis at the doors of the Paradise (f. 74v) and a miniature that displays the sojourn of the knight Alvis on the paradise mountain (f. 75r).

Masaccio’s famous fresco in Santa Maria Novella consists of two parts; the upper zone focuses on the three persons of the Trinity and the lower depicts a fictive tomb and a skeleton. The interpretation of the skeleton as an image of Death has been strengthened by the finding of 15^th century tombs under the floor next to the painting. The presence of the Crucified among the persons of the Trinity in the upper part must refer to Salvation. Seen as a whole, it is natural, therefore, to see Masaccio’s fresco as a representation of the Christian concept of Salvation through the sacrificial death of Christ. However, the words uttered by the skeleton (“I was once what you are ....”) introduces a temporal aspect that adds new meaning to the figures of the Trinity in the upper half. In fact, ancient philosophy saw time as tripartite and the Fathers of the Church considered the modalities of time to be united in an Eternal, triune God. This idea must have been familiar to Late Medieval and Renaissance visual culture since illustrators of Petrarch’s Trionfi always visualized the final triumph, that of Eternity, in the shape of the Trinity. In light of this, Masaccio’s Trinity fresco is just as much an image of Time and Eternity as Death and Salvation.

Nell’articolo si tratta di un tipo specifico dell’iconografia funeraria femminile del Medio Evo. È la rappresentazione dell’effigie di una donna giacente che tiene un libro aperto davanti agli occhi. L’autore discute gli aspetti particolari di questo tipo iconografico, la storia della sua apparizione nel Medio Evo e il suo significato. Gli esempi principali sono la tomba di Eleonora di Aquitania nell’abbazia di Fonevraud (inizio del XIII secolo) e la tomba di Maria Vilalobos nella cattedrale di Lisbona (XIV secolo).

The article discusses a particular iconography of the sculptural tomb of Eleonora of Aquitania, one of the most important and famous sculptures of the royal pantheon of the Fontevraud Abbey. It deals with a specific new type of a pantheon of the royal family which is established in the European West during the XIIth century. Special attention is paid to the attribute which characterises the particular iconography of this tomb: an open book which the deceased Queen, lying on a funeral bed, holds in front of her eyes. The book is evidently a vehicle of the pray addressed to God and to His Mother and can be interpreted also as a symbol of the Virgin and a sign of the eternal life. It is surprising enough that this feature of the funerary iconography seems to be very rare. Another example can be found in the XIVth and XVth centuries in the feminine tombs of the Portuguese nobility in the Lisbon cathedral. During the Middle Ages several tombs of ecclesiastics engraved with their images show them with books as an attribute of their career and faith. In the XIIth century appears a new type of the royal tomb with an effigy of a king lying on the funeral bed. It is probable that this type takes its origin in Spain, more exactly in the pantheon of kings of Navarra in Pamplona. A particular place is occupied by a discussion of the Eleonora’s effigy and by a problem of the meaning of the small book which she holds open in front of her eyes. This iconography translates also a specific attitude to the death, not only as a sleep in which the deceased is immersed in the expectation of the future Resurrection, but also as an eternal state of being awaken, spent in prayer addressed to God and to his Mother. The book is here an essential funerary symbol conducting the deceased to the eternal life.

The libraries of two Slovenian Charterhouses – Žiče / Seiz and Jurklošter /Gairach – contained some interesting literary works. The ascetic Charterhouse order dedicated a lot of attention to the motifs of penitence, “good death”, salvation, grace etc., they embraced the death as one of the constants, death is exactly defined by apocalyptic and mystic points of departure and by concepts, deriving from the Greek and Roman philosophical teachings. This paper concentrates to the text of a dialogue between the soul and the body, Carmen de disceptatione anime et corporis, now Budapest, cod.lat.242, most probably from the Žiče library. The spoiled and sinful young aristocrat is reminded during a sleep by his soul that he has to repent, if he wishes not to condemn his soul to the eternal tortures. In the morning, he hurries to the Charterhouse monastery, where he receives the cassock. – This text was possibly written by Walter Map, who lived at the court of King Henry II of England at the end of the 12^th c., while in the mid 13^th c. a similar text, based on experiences of his own life, Commendatio celle, was written by Syferidus Swevus in Jurklošter, now Ljubljana, National and university library, Ms 40: but he recites about his sinful life and consequent penitence without the literary form of a vision, brought to him by soul during the night. Syferidus writes as awaked person and as such, this is a documentary text of a high value.

The Johannesschüssel is an image type that sprang from both text and relic. It is also an image type that presents death. This death is not an ordinary death; it is the mother of all deaths: the decapitation of the last of the prophets and the forerunner of the martyrs. The frontal display of the pieces and the invitation to eye-contact show important analogies with the phenomenon of the Andachtsbild. During the fifteenth century, when the cult of the Johannesschüssel reaches its apogee, the subject begins to appear also in a pictorial form. Idol becomes icon; Johannesschüssel reaches vera icon. The growing reciprocity between the cults of John and Christ at the end of the Middle Ages is mirrored in the reciprocity of the media. This ultimate step – the exchange of medium – was the necessary ‘sacrifice’ for a complete in utroque. The Johannesschüssel would now become the flat re-presenting (and not plastically presenting) image of death. So, by the end of the medieval and early modern periods, the two men are fused into one single prototype, emphasizing the importance of masculinity sacrificed and salvation by blood in Christian salvation history.

In the legend of Saint George, painted on the walls of one of the rooms of the castle at Jindřichův Hradec (Neuhaus/Böhmen) in 1338, the Saint is tortured and killed repeatedly, even if the unbelievable moments of his legends had been criticized by the Church several centuries ago. The narrative about his repeated dying survived the criticism, because it answered the needs of believers. The pictorial legend was an effective illustration of general Christian doctrines about life and death, but it integrated some older traditions, too. The resurrections of George did not result in a spiritual body, but in a material recreation of the natural body, in which the person of the Saint could continue his activities in this world. More specifically, the pictorial legend addressed the participants of the Northern crusades. The images offered the knights powerful inspiration: a hope in supernatural intervention and a shining role model on how to confront the physical suffering.

The image cycles of the Hungarian Angevin Legendary, a luxurious Bolognese codex ordered by King Charles Robert ca. 1330, regularly end with the burial of the deceased saint. There is usually no written sources of these representations, or, if the legend describes this event, it is depicted with significant differences. The prototype of them is the legend of the Death of the Virgin, represented in the manuscript as an independent cycle: important elements are the peaceful death, the burial and the miracles of the relics. The coming death is often announced by Christ or an angel. The saint bids farewell to his beloved and receives the sacraments. One of the most frequent and stereotypical scene is the burial. The compositional arrangement of the burial scenes is quite standard, nevertheless, the details may vary. Following the death and burial scenes, a translatio can be depicted in order to stress the present location of the relics. Miracles at the tombs are represented in the legends of Ladislas, Emeric, Stanislas, Martin, and Mary Magdalene. All of them are related to the Hungarian court. This suggests that beside the universal rhetoric function of these episodes, signaling the end of each cycle, a most specific message is encoded in the final part of some of the legends, underlining their local importance.

The article explores the function of effigies in the design of holy shrines in late medieval Venice. Even though representations of deceased laymen were a common feature in sepulchral art, precedent-making holy shrine, Nicola Pisano’s tomb for Saint Dominic from 1267, did not include an effigy. Even much later elaborate shrines, such as the tomb of Saint Peter Martyr (1335-9) by Giovanni di Balduccio, refer to the deceased through a mourning scene, although that scene takes a prominent frontal place in the narrative relief. In Venice, however, we find a concentration of effigial tombs such as the one that Venetians acquired for relics of Saint Simeon by Marco Romano (1318). An earlier or coeval shrine for the same Old Testament prophet in Zadar is equally an effigial shrine, although the body is sculpted as a high relief rather than a three-dimensional sculpture. Equally as well, Filipo de’Santi‘s Venetian work for the deceased Blessed Odorico da Pordenone (1332) is an effigial tomb that demonstrates the purpose of such tomb design: to create a simulacrum of the precious tomb content of miracle working relics. The main premise of this discussion is derived from pilgrims’ accounts that testify to the fact that relics, fragmentary or full-body, were the main attraction at Venetian churches. Starting with the end result — viewers’ reaction to holy sites — this research attempted to isolate the representations of the dead body and elucidate some artistic choices that artists made in order to enhance the viewer’s experience.

In this paper the discussion topics comprise some aspects of the complex iconography of death on one of the masterpieces of European Gothic goldsmiths’ work, St Simeon’s shrine in Zadar, the work of Franjo (Francesco) from Milan, who signed it in 1380, and his workshop. The allusion to death in the hagiography of St Simeon, the power and the character of the saint’s relics, also the royal devotion behind the commission of the reliquary, will be considered as the most likely explanation for such a high occurrence of direct references to death in the various scenes and also the explanation for the analogies with European sculpture prompted by the overall shape of the shrine. These considerations will stress again the originality of the iconographic concept of this monumental silver reliquary, while focusing attention on the fact that it encompasses also the allusions to death of historical personages, or even depictions of them dying or mourning their dead relatives, which is unprecedented in the history of medieval art, as it has been already pointed out in art historical literature (A. Munk). The character of the holy relic influenced the shape of the reliquary of St Simeon, especially its construction (figures of angels as supports suggesting Elevatio animae are the primary interest of this paper) and its segmentation, which were borrowed from the shape of some of the contemporary Gothic funerary monuments. The attention of the authoress will focus on some of the most influential works in Italian Gothic sculpture in the attempt to trace the goldsmith’s inspiration more closely by aid of the iconographical motif of four angels which were often forgotten as an important part of the original appearance of the shrine.