IKON

This paper focuses on the concept of “image” (icon) in the context of Orthodox Christianity and how images/icons relate to “reality.” The author also addresses the complex and ambivalent relations between words and images in “Western” tradition in order to explore the underlying properties of both images and words (in a theological discourse) in relation to reality. The analysis of this tension between words and images enables the author to explore the reasons that led to their sharp contrasting in particular historical periods and theoretical discourses, as well as to explore the ways this tension between images and words can be resolved in Orthodox Christian iconology.

This paper deals with the notion of iconicity which changes the entire field of studies in iconic images. It concerns the reconsideration of icons as a spatial phenomenon which should be removed from the general category of religious pictures based on another matrix.

The Degraded Iconicity of the Icon addresses the challenges facing the traditional doctrine of the icon in a society subsumed by a profane attitude towards the image, and the problems raised by the use of icon reproductions within the liturgical context of the Eastern Orthodox Church. To do so it keeps in mind that in traditional art, “functional and symbolic values coincide”(Ananda K. Coomaraswamy). In other words, the material properties of the traditional icon are not arbitrary, but based on metaphysical principles, and these properties are essential for the icon to function to its maximum potential as a “support” of prayer and contemplation. Throughout the paper it is kept in mind that there is an ideal icon, having “fullness of iconicity.” That is, one that retains not only the canonical pictorial forms, but also, as a concrete object, the material qualities of its traditional craftsmanship, thereby living up to its anagogic and symbolic function within the liturgical aesthetic experience. On the other hand, reproductions are drastically impoverished for liturgical use. In their disregard for the symbolic role of materials, they allow for the encroachment of profane industry into sacred space.

The aim of this paper is to revisit an issue, which I touched upon many years ago in a paper entitled “A Cretan Icon at the Ashmolean: the Embrace of Peter and Paul” that was published in the Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, vol. 40 (1990). In fact, what I tried to show in that paper is that the theme of the Embrace of the Apostles Peter and Paul, which has survived in an impressive number of works, icons and tondi, either signed or attributed to the Cretan painter Angelos, active in the second quarter of the 15^th century, may indicate this painter’s pro-Unionist attitude. This can possibly be further exemplified by the existence of another series of icons representing Christ the Vine, also painted by Angelos, a theme that has also been interpreted as including pro-Unionist nuances. It is not Angelos alone, however, who painted icons with pro-unionists’ themes in 15^th century Crete. Triptychs and icons, which are either signed or attributed to Nikolaos Ritzos and Nikolaos Tzafouris, both active in Venetian Candia during the second half of the 15^th c. and the early years of the 16^th c., may also offer their own evidence to this discussion.

In this paper I attempt to trace the gradual and hesitant depiction of “reality” on icons from the Late Byzantine period onwards. By reality I mean on the one hand the depiction of the natural world, of space and of people, and on the other scenes featuring ordinary mortals shown in contexts designed to serve a religious purpose. It is usually thought that it was Byzantine artists’ growing familiarity with Western art, which from the 14^th century on was undergoing radical change that provided the necessary impetus towards the depiction of the natural world. For this reason I shall begin with a brief overview of the way in which Byzantine scholars reacted to Western works of art of the Late Medieval and Early Renaissance period. After that we will look at how artists enhanced their painting - and above all icons, the most austere form of religious art - with expressions of human emotions, with elements of the natural space and references to the world of mortals. The aim of this examination is to highlight the range and meaning of such changes and to assess the limitations of the icon genre.

Dalmatia has been recognized as a contact zone between the East and the West with many icons still preserved and venerated in its churches and many of them have been considered miraculous. They have contributed to various cases and types of healing or salvation in various kinds of peril. These icons developed individual private or collective devotion through prayers and other forms of veneration. Dalmatian icons, mostly devoted to the Virgin and Child, date from the 13^th to 19^th or 20^th centuries and demonstrate various artistic styles and characteristics of different schools. They have been subjected to various alterations through repainting, the addition of votive offerings and reverential crowning and modern restoration that aimed at their “original condition”. Apart from being objects of worship and cult, the icons convey political significance as the protectors and guardians of cities and communities. The paper discusses several icons, their style, history and status within a broader historical, social and political context.

This paper will explore the imperial image as an icon in the Byzantine perception and, ultimately, question its significance as an icon in the contemporary understanding of the term. Modern scholarship has outlined that imperial the image could rightly be defined as an icon in Late Antiquity and Byzantium, for its powers and status. However, what made the imperial image’s iconicity has yet to be defined. This paper will discuss such iconicity, intended as the fundamental relationship between the iconic character of the image and its meaning, and examine the role of imperial images in the late antique and Byzantine perception. It will question the significance of images of the emperor from a diachronic perspective, from Late Antiquity to the Middle Byzantine period. What is of interest is to determine the iconic power of imperial images, the elements that contribute to transform the representation into an icon - in the common interpretation of this word - and the Byzantine understanding of the portraits of the ruler. Ultimately, this reflection will lead to redefine the status of the imperial image between the boundaries of representation and presence.

This paper discusses the iconography and apotropaic meaning and use of the motif of Solomon’s knot in Early Byzantine art. It focuses on the representation of this subject on the floor mosaic of the room attached to the baptistery by the Large Basilica in Herakleia Lynkestis, dating from the 6^th century. In this catechumeneon Solomon’s knot is framed by repeating geometrical patterns of circles arranged in concentric rings and positioned within a field composed of squares and circles. This paper proposes that in this particular case the discussed aniconic motif can be observed as a sort of eikōn of the purification and salvation gained through baptism. At the same time, it remained deeply imbued with magical agency ascribed to the knot or seal of Solomon in texts of magical treatises which are known to have circulated in Byzantium in Christianized form.

The paper is dedicated to the icon of the Mother of God in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome. The panel was executed in the encaustic technique, which, together with the characteristics of style, allowed scholars to date the image from the late 6^th to the early 8^th century. The icon represents the Virgin as Queen, which is conveyed through her vestments that reproduce the dress of a Byzantine Empress. This iconography, generally known as Maria Regina, was widespread in early medieval Rome. For this reason it came to be regarded as a specific Western variant of Marian imagery, which emerged under the direct influence of the popes and served as an expression of their political aspirations. My research is dedicated to the analysis of the icon in the context of Early Byzantine culture. This paper concerns only one of a wide range of issues related to the topic. The iconographic peculiarities of the icon are considered from a new angle, suggesting that the Roman context alone cannot explain its origin. The analysis of the contemporary female imagery and Marian theology indicates that the Trastevere icon was created under the influence of ideas that belonged to a common religious heritage shared by the entire Christian world - ideas that determined the perception of the image of the Mother of God in the Roman icon as Empress, Virgin and Ecclesia.

This paper charts the evidence that the imperial portrait enjoyed a special philosophical, ritual, and legal status that equated representations of the emperor with the person of the emperor. Building from an analysis of the coin ornaments, the author proposes an iconic model of efficacy for the amulet in late antiquity. Reading the prescriptions of the Greek Magical Papyri through the lens of late antique Neoplatonic thought, the icon, understood as a word or an image, can be understood as an essential component in the construction of a talisman.

Pope Leo III (795-816) built two monumental representative rooms for banquets, court hearings and ceremonies in the Lateran. These, called triclinia, were inspired by ancient and byzantine models, rich in imperial symbolism. The interiors of these buildings were decorated with marbles, paintings and, above all, mosaics in the main apses. The first celebrated the role of the pope as successor of Peter, vicar of Christ and medium for the transmission of the secular power from Constantine to Charlemagne. In the latter, the pope was usually represented taking part in a banquet with eleven diners in the central apse, where Christ, Peter and Paul were depicted, so that the pope becomes part of the group of the apostles, whose stories were represented on the walls. These magnificent buildings are unfortunately destroyed, so this paper offers a reinterpretation of these monuments by reviewing the literary and figurative evidences and taking new elements into account. It reveals that the choice of architectural models and iconographic programs was designed to build an iconic image of the papacy which emphasized the legacy of the ancient word, the pope’s role as an intermediary with Christ and his leadership over the temporal power.

In this paper I look at aspects of the nature of the relationship between the faithful and the holy image inside church space. In order to do this, I will use as examples images from the funerary chapel of the Chora monastery in Istanbul. In examining how the agency of the sacred image is articulated inside church space, I will focus on the interaction between icon and beholder, and demonstrate how the use of a certain pictorial technique, that of rhythm, shapes the beholder’s experience of divine presence inside the funerary chapel of the Chora monastery. Through the use of rhythm, the icon exercises its agency on the faithful not only on an intellectual or spiritual level but most importantly, on a corporeal level.

In the Illustrated Chronicle Compilation (Litsevoi letopisnyi svod), which is a massive illustrated history of the world, composed in or near Moscow between the late 1560s and early 1580s, appears an illustration of the Last Supper. Within the same frame, it depicts four (or five scenes): Judas receiving the moneybag from the priests; Judas returning the moneybag to the priests, Jesus telling the disciples how to go about finding the room for the Passover meal; Jesus and the disciples at the meal itself; and a woman with a halo in a house. The questions this article explores are: what is the context for the representation of Judas, who is the woman in the house, and what is her relationship to the Last Supper scene. In the process an illustration on the previous folio of well-do-do Mary in “Magda town” who welcomes Jesus into her house and subsequently gives it up to follow Jesus is analyzed for its relationship to the Last Supper illustration. The article concludes that the woman in the Last Supper scene is the mother of Jesus, who represents synecdochically the women at the Last Supper (although probably segregated). The illustration of Mary from Magda town is closer to the Gospels’ description of the role of Mary Magdalene than that of churchmen and novelists.

The earliest icons of Nil Stolbenskii from the Lake Seliger region in western Russia played an important role in the development of the saint’s cult after the composition of his vita and liturgy at the turn of the 17^th century. Taking their cue from Nil’s liturgy, the creators of Nil’s iconography modeled the image of the holy man after the White Sea saint Savvatii of Solovki, whose veneration, together with that of his fellow saint Zosima, became popular in 16^th century Russia. Like the early images of the Solovetskii saints, the first non-extant icons of Nil depict their subject as an island saint. The earliest extant icons of the saint, which date from after 1635, express Nil’s spiritual pursuit, his austere asceticism and his pursuit of union with God (theosis), described in his vita, by depicting the saint standing in the wilderness of Stolbnoe Island and communicating with Christ behind a band of clouds. In order to proclaim the lasting spiritual impact of the saint, the designers of these icons used a new iconographic tradition in Muscovy to portray Nil as a monastic founder. By fusing this concept with the recently created composition The Monastery of Zosima and Savvatii, Nil’s iconographers found an effective means to emphasize the Seliger’s saint’s continuing miracle-working power. The dual depiction of Nil as an ascetic/God-seeker in the foreground and as a relic inside the Nilov Hermitage in the center of Nil’s 17^th century icons made a convincing case for the saint’s permanent veneration.

It was probably after King Dušan’s promotion to emperor that he and his wife Helena gifted the Church of Peribleptos in Ohrid with several icons, among which is an icon of the Virgin Mary with Child, inv. no. 81, now in the Ohrid Gallery of Icons, the subject of this paper. Behind the Virgin and Christ according to the stylistic and physical characteristics may be hidden the image of Empress Helena and her son Uroš. The portrait of the Virgin Mary and Empress Helena bear a striking resemblance if we refer to her portrait from Lesnovo church (1345). It is possible that the same master who painted Uroš in the fresco of Dečani may have painted the icon of the Virgin with Child. Dečani paintings in the narthex with the Nemanjić dynasty family tree date from 1347-1348 when Uroš was eleven or twelve. The icon was painted approximately around 1343-1344. Dečani’s main architect was a Franciscan monk Fra Vita from Kotor. An opinion has been expressed that the icon painter was a Byzantine artist working in the Adriatic region, from Dubrovnik, Kotor or Venice, but he could be a western artist, coming from Italy, more precisely from the Siena region. As for the royal portraits on the icon, it is not uncommon subject. There are several portraits of members of the Komnenian, Laskaridi and Palaeologan dynasties, who have been portrayed as saints and there are also many saints dressed like royals in the fresco painting in the Republic of Macedonia and Greece. Thus, the icon of the Holy Virgin with Child from the Ohrid Peribleptos church may be added to this series of royal portraits as a kind of Imitatio Christi.

The Arkhyz Savior, a.k.a. the Face of Christ, is a unique example of a rock-wall icon, presumably the oldest depiction of the Holy Face in Russia. It is located in Nizhnii Arkhyz, Karachay-Cherkessia. Its appearance is connected with the ancient capital of the Alan state, the city of Magas, the center of the Diocese of Alania, which existed here between the 9^th and 13^th centuries. The Arkhyz Jesus also displays a strong resemblance with the icon of Christ Pantocrator from the Monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai - one of the first images of the early Christian Church. This paper discusses current theories and hypotheses, concerning the time of this icon’s creation, its authorship, and certain characteristics of isographic presentation. It argues that this icon may be related to Onomatodoxy (imiaslavie, 1907-1916), the major heresy in 20^th century Russian Orthodoxy associated with the Hieromonk Hylarion’s book, In the Caucasus Mountains. A Conversation of Two Hermit Elders about the Inner Union of Our Hearts with the Lord through the Jesus Prayer, or the Spiritual Activity of Contemporary Hermits, which was first published in this region in 1907.

The way to depict the enemy in Christian art is a wide sphere of research, comprising a multitude of visual motifs. In the Middle Ages, dealing with the world of demons allowed the painters a certain poetic licence for playing with forms and details; however, there existed some “generic indicators” for demonic figures, such as dark colouring, a mixture of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic features and other less evident visual markers. For Byzantine and Old Russian iconography the most important one was hair standing on end. Upright locks in demons appeared fairly early in Christian art and served for centuries to form the image of the enemy. They marked various characters, from infernal monsters and personifications of sins to heretics and transgressors, solidifying them into the army of Satan. Sometimes this motif was used to add dynamics to a picture and show the transformation of a character who became evil or, on the contrary, turned into a righteous Christian. The article is focused on the origin and semantics of this essential marker, and the way it was used in Old Russian iconography to help form the image of the many-faced enemy.

The paper examines the mentioned icons in the testaments of Kotor citizens from partially explored archival documentary sources from the 14^th and 15^th centuries. The bequest of paintings within the testaments scheme in which individual item bequests ad pias causas dominate is an exceptionally developed element of the concept of preparing for a good death. The icons primarily become mental images which the dying retain in their consciousness, which designate hope and faith in the support of the Madonna and the saint protectors for the salvation of the soul. Analysed in this context, the icons to which there were only written references, became the framework for the analysis of personal religious preoccupations on the one hand, and foundations for researching the adopting of religious trends on the other.

The Baptism of Christ in its Early Christian representations is rendered with a naked Christ immersed in the waters of the Jordan River with John the Forerunner and attending angels present. In Eastern Christian tradition this representation perseveres until the late 13^th century, when a girded Christ appears in images at Mt. Athos and becomes dominant in Balkan iconography. The girded Christ makes its way to Rus, but aside from some rare frescoes in Novgorod actually ascribed to Serbian artists, the girded Christ is apparently limited to Moscow and its environs. This study attempts to account for the emergence of the girded Christ in Orthodox iconography and to account for its singular distribution in Muscovite Rus.