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Life imitates art: writings on Byzantine art history, 1991–1992

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Leslie Brubaker*
Affiliation:
Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham Wheaton College (Norton MA)

Extract

The following remarks continue the review/overview of scholarship on Byzantine art history initiated in the preceding volume of this journal. The author stresses, once again, that her remarks are idiosyncratic, and that this review/overview makes no claims to be exhaustive. The omission of any article or book from the overview usually reflects either her own ignorance or her inability to get hold of it; in particular, offprints — especially from the less well-distributed journals — would facilitate inclusion in subsequent issues. Both the author and the editor reiterate their earlier appeals for criticism and advice on the form and content of the survey, especially as a different approach has been followed in this year’s article.

Type
Critical Studies
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1993

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References

1 The author’s name is rendered as Ovcharov in JöB; to avoid confusion, I have used the spelling found in BS (see the preceding citation in the bibliography) throughout.

2 Henry Maguire and Gary Vikan ran two of the sessions just cited; Charles Barber, Liz James, Thomas Mathews, and Helen Sarandi — among others — spoke in them.

3 Cutler, A. and Oikonomidès, N., ‘An Imperial Byzantine Casket and Its Fate at a Humanist’s Hands’, Art Bulletin 70 (1988) 7787 Google Scholar. This should be compared with Maguire, H., ‘The Art of Comparing in Byzantium’, Art Bulletin 70 (1988) 88103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 I do not, as it happens, agree with this assessment of the Palazzo Venezia casket; but my own opinions about the casket per se are not the point.

5 Kalavrezou, I., ‘A New Type of Icon: Ivories and Steatites’, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and His Age, Second International Byzantine Conference, Delphi 1987 (Athens 1989) 377396 Google Scholar, quotation at 394–395 note 32.

6 ‘The Evidence of Restoration in the Sanctuary of the Church of the Dormition at Nicaea’, DOP 13 (1959) 235–44.

7 On another visualisation of this doctrine, see Corrigan, K., ‘The Witness of John the Baptist on an Early Byzantine Icon in Kiev’, DOP 42 (1988) 111 Google Scholar, an article not cited by Barber that might usefully be read in conjunction with his.

8 See note 54 below for a (possible) later response; Cutler (1992) may also provide a partial parallel, on which see the following discussion.

9 Magdalino, P., ‘Observations on the Nea Ekklesia of Basil I’, JOB 37 (1987) 5164 Google Scholar, esp. 54–55; the mission and letters are recorded in Mansi XVII, 441–444,461,484.

10 This has been much discussed of late. In addition to the references collected by Corrigan, those interested in the topic will want to read Av. Cameron, ‘Texts as Weapons: Polemic in the Byzantine Dark Ages’ to appear in Bowman, A. and Woolf, G., eds., Literacy and Power in the Ancient World (Cambridge, in press).Google Scholar

11 An Appendix provides a detailed description of the manuscripts themselves (excluding illustrations), with discussion of the liturgical markings.

12 Khludov remains exceptional in its range of images of conflict and opposition; both Khludov and Pantokrator use juxtaposition and antithesis (see esp. 4–5, 112).

13 Walter, C., too, believes the Pantokrator Psalter to be later than Khludov: ‘“Latter-Day” Saints and the Image of Christ in the ninth-century Byzantine marginal psalters’, REB 45 (1987) 205222 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 220.

14 This leads him to the intriguing speculation that the episode functioned as an emblem of national revival in the face of Islamic expansion (57).

15 E.g. for the enemies of Constantine the Great.

16 I note as well another recent publication on icons: Demus, y, Die byzantinischen Mosaikikonen I, Die grossformatigen Ikonen (Vienna 1991).Google Scholar

17 ‘Eventually’, she notes (personal communication, August 1992), ‘these intercessory canons were addressed to saints as well, to the main Nicholas icon of a Nicholas church, for example’.

18 See the previous issue of BMGS, where several relevant publications were summarised. It must be said that Dagron does not ignore only recent art historical literature: he barely cites it at all, nor does he examine other attempts to deal with the issue of ‘likeness’ in Byzantine imagery aside from Kitzinger’s, E.Some Reflections on Portraiture in Byzantine Art’, ZRVI 8 (1963) 185193 Google Scholar. On this latter issue, see the discussion of Kazhdan and Maguire (1991) below. Perhaps because Dagron is not really interested in art history, he retains the old renaissance paradigms: he opens and closes his article, for example, by opposing religious painting and cult images, and defines the former (without discussion) as ‘a Virgin by Raphael’ while the latter term (also without discussion) is used to refer to icons, with anonymous or at least depersonalised painters (23). For indications of why we should not lump all Byzantine icons into a single amorphous category, see, e.g., Oikonomidès (1991).

19 ‘The Contents of the Byzantine House from the Eleventh to the Fifteenth Century’, DOP 44 (1990) 205–214.

20 On which see further the article by Ševčenko, in Davezac (1992), discussed below.

21 On whom see Browning and Cutler (1992).

22 It might be noted that the icon was removed from a convent, and thus acquired a larger audience of mixed gender than it would otherwise have had.

23 On some of the problems with this thesis, see the essays collected in Ousterhout, R. and Brubaker, L., eds., The Sacred Image East and West, Illinois Byzantine Studies 4 (in press).Google Scholar

24 The question of copies was considered briefly in this section in the last issue of BMGS; the forthcoming collection on The Sacred Image, cited in the preceding note, contains further discussion.

25 Ševčenko also notes that, from the mid-twelfth century, such metal embellishments were no longer restricted to the frames of painted icons, but were also applied to parts of the panel surface (e.g. haloes and cuffs); gems and pearls might further enhance the worth of the image.

26 On which see Ševčenko, N.P., The Life of Saint Nicholas in Byzantine Art, Centro Studi Bizantini Bari, Monografie I (Turin 1983).Google Scholar

27 In addition to those discussed below, see also Hunt, L.-A., ‘A woman’s prayer to St Sergius in Latin Syria: interpreting a thirteenth-century icon at Mt Sinai’, BMGS 15 (1991) 96145.Google Scholar

28 See too ibid., esp. 107–110.

29 A third, and only partial, inscription was recorded in the seventeenth century; it was in Greek.

30 ‘Thirteenth-Century Icon Painting in Cyprus, The Griffon new series 1–2 (1985–86), 9–112.

31 Emmanuel has also published a book — Hoi toichographies tou Hag. Demetriou sto Makrychori kai tes Koimeseos tes Theotokou ston Oxylitho tes Euboias (Athens 1991) — which was not available to me; Nancy Ševčenko, whom I thank for this and the following references, as well as many of the references in notes 42, 48 and 49 below, informs me that it includes a long summary in French. Other recent studies of Greek monuments which I have not yet seen include: Constantinides, E., The Wall Paintings of the Panagia Olympiotissa at Elasson in Northern Thessaly (Athens 1992)Google Scholar; Hetherington, P., Byzantine and Medieval Greece (London 1991)Google Scholar; and Kalopissi-Verti, S., Dedicatory Inscriptions and Donor Portraits in Thirteenth-Century Churches of Greece (Vienna, 1991).Google Scholar

32 On which see also her recent San Pietro at Otranto, Byzantine Art in South Italy (Rome n.d.), which arrived after this article was in press.

33 See James, L. and Webb, R., ‘“To Understand Ultimate Things and Enter Secret Places”: Ekphrasis and Art in Byzantium’, Art History 14/1 (1991) 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 Parts of this section seem directly to contradict Dagron (1991), published in the same journal: see in particular his comments on eikonismos (28–30).

35 James, L., ‘Colour and the Byzantine Rainbow’, BMGS 15 (1991) 6694 Google Scholar. A number of relevant texts were collected, for a different purpose, in Kessler (1991/2).

36 They note the ‘lower horizon of expectation’ thesis of, e.g., Grigg, R., ‘Byzantine Credulity as an Impediment to Antiquarianism’, Gesta 26/1 (1987) 39 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and the related hypothesis that, because their expectations were more limited, Byzantine viewers saw more: on which see Onians, J., ‘Abstraction and Imagination in Late Antiquity’, Art History 3 (1980) 123 Google Scholar (not, for some reason, credited by Kazhdan and Maguire). They do not, however, mention the recent arguments, expounded by a number of scholars, that Byzantine perception was actually different from ours, and that the Byzantines interacted with images in ways no longer familiar to the modern viewer: on this, see the articles collected for discussion in BMGS 16 (1992) 210–213. See also Cameron (1992) 33–34, for yet a different slant on the problem.

37 This is rather a pattern of Lowden’s: earlier, he wrote extended (and insightful) review essays on Belting, H. and Cavallo, G., Die Bibel des Nicetas (Wiesbaden 1979)Google Scholar and Cutler, A., The Aristocratic Psalters in Byzantium, Bibliothèque des Cahiers archéologiques 18 (Paris 1984)Google Scholar: ‘An Alternative Interpretation of the Manuscripts of Nik etas’, B 53 (1983) 559–574 and ‘Observations on Illustrated Byzantine Psalters’, Art Bulletin 70 (1988) 241–260, respectively.

38 Rahlfs, A., Verzeichnis der griechischen Handschriften des Alten Testaments, Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens der königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen II (Berlin 1914) 374382.Google Scholar

39 He admits that by the late fifth or sixth century, when the manuscripts were made, Christianity was firmly enough established that both would have been ‘preaching to the converted’ (49–50).

40 This was apparently under preparation by Weitzmann, Kurt and Bernabò, Massimo: Lowden (1992a) 5 note 42.Google Scholar

41 For comments on some individual miniatures in the Smyrna manuscript, see also Kessler (1991/2).

42 On the Vatican Kokkinobaphos, see now also Hutter, I. and Canart, P., Das Marienhomiliar des Mönchs Jakobos von Kokkinobaphos, Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1162, Codices e Vaticanis selecti 79 (Stuttgart 1991).Google Scholar

43 See, e.g., Lowden (1992a) 21–26.

44 In addition to the Viator article noted above, see his ‘The Seraglio Octateuch and the Kokkinobaphos Master’, DOP 36 (1982) 83–114.

45 His discussion of the marginal catena (82) is usefully augmented by Corrigan (1992) 104–111.

46 It is unfortunate that Lowden used this discussion to attack Weitzmann on sometimes rather petty grounds: whether or not Weitzmann separated the two registers of the miniature in Vat. gr. 747 to enhance his main point, the reintegration of the two scenes does not make the upper one any closer to its counterpart in Vat. gr. 746; pace Lowden, this is not ‘a difference created largely by a pair of scissors’ (109).

47 Lowden (1992a) 29 note 109 was told that this volume had been cancelled; he was, mercifully, misinformed. Black and white reproductions of all the Vatopedi Octateuch miniatures appeared in Huber, P., Bild und Botschaft (Zurich 1973)Google Scholar; also in French: Image et message (Zurich 1975).

48 Other recent major manuscript catalogues include Lappa-Zizica, E. and Rizou-Couroupou, M., Catalogue des manuscrits grecs du Musée Benaki (10e-16e s.) (Athens 1991)Google Scholar and Polites, L., Katalogos Cheirographon tes Ethnikes Bibliothekes tes Hellados, ar. 1857–2500 (Athens 1991)Google Scholar, neither of which were available to me; and Weitzmann, K. and Galavaris, G., The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai, The Illuminated Greek Manuscripts I: From the Ninth to the Twelfth Century, (Princeton 1990)Google Scholar. I would also signal Manafis, K.S., ed., Sinai, Treasures of the Monastery of Saint Catherine (Athens 1990).Google Scholar

49 Caveat emptor, the captions are, however, not always correct. The colour plate on p.343, for example, is not Paris, gr. 64, but the Paris Psalter (Paris, gr. 139, f.419v). I have not yet seen the catalogue from the Cologne exhibition (October 1992-January 1993): Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Liturgie und Andacht im Mittelalter.

50 Drijvers, J.W., Helena Augusta: Waarheiden Legende (Groningen 1989)Google Scholar, cited in Wharton’s note 67, has recently appeared, somewhat revised, in English as Helena Augusta: The Mother of Constantine the Great and the Legend of Her Finding of the True Cross, Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History 27 (Leiden 1992).

51 It was also at precisely this time — in Ambrose’s eulogy for Theodosios in 395, in fact — that the discovery of the true cross was first linked to Helena. See Drijvers (cited in the preceding note), 36, 95 and passim.

52 Though not cited by Bassett, Gordon, R.L., ‘The real and the imaginary: production and religion in the Graeco-Roman world’, Art History 2 (1979) 534 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, provides an excellent account of the antecedents to this type of appropriation.

53 Bouras, C., Nea Moni on Chios: History and Architecture (Athens 1982)Google Scholar; Mouriki, D., The Mosaics of Nea Moni on Chios, 2vols. (Athens 1985).Google Scholar

54 In this connection, Maguire mentions the Arab who recognises the triumph of the cross in the mosaic of the crucifixion (213); following the model set out in Corrigan (1992), might this be understood as another visualisation of the anti-Muslim polemics?

55 This latter date is credited to Oikonomidès’ researches on Theodosios Leobachos, discussed immediately below.

56 E.g. Chatzidakis, M., ‘A propos de la date et du fondateur de Saint-Luc’, Cahiers archéologiques 19 (1969) 127150.Google Scholar

57 As Oikonomidès notes, the best edition and discussion of this document remains Nesbitt, J. and Wiita, J., ‘A Confraternity of the Comnenian Era’, BZ 68 (1975) 360384.Google Scholar

58 Connor, C.L., Art and Miracles in Medieval Byzantium, The Crypt at Hosios Loukas and its Frescoes (Princeton 1991) 51, 120121 Google Scholar. Connor and Oikonomidès differ, however, about Theodosios’ date.

59 See the forthcoming article by Ousterhout, R., ‘The Virgin of the Chora: An Image and its Contexts’, in Ousterhout and Brubaker (see note 23 above).Google Scholar

60 Thierry’s reliance on Weitzmann’s long abandoned attribution of these manuscripts to Asia Minor should be ignored.

61 Teteriatnikov — following Kazhdan, A., ‘Constantin imaginaire. Byzantine Legends of the Ninth Century about Constantine the Great’, B 57 (1987) 196250 Google Scholar — ascribes this combination to the ninth century, but there are strong arguments for locating it earlier: see Winkelmann, F., ‘Das hagiographische Bild Konstantins I. in mittelbyzantinischer Zeit’, inVavrinek, V., ed., Beiträge zur byzantinischen Geschichte im 9.-11. Jahrhundert (Prague 1978) 179203.Google Scholar

62 E.g. icon B.44 (ninth or tenth century) at Sinai: Weitzmann, K., The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai. The Icons I: From the Sixth to the Tenth Century (Princeton 1976) 713 Google Scholar, pls. XXIX, XCVII-XCVIII. In a discussion of the Life of Theodore of Sykeon, Ovčarov also seems to confuse a vision of St George with a representation of him.

63 The plate layout is incorrect: the captions for figs. 1 and 3 have been reversed.

64 For the anthropology: Mauss, M., The Gift. Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies (London 1966).Google Scholar

65 On this issue, see Brubaker, (1991), BMGS 16 (1992) 224 Google Scholar, and Corrigan (1992) 110, 132.