Zograf : časopis za srednjovekovnu umetnost
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Publisher: Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade
Country of publisher: Serbia
ISSN 0350-1361
eISSN 2406-0755
Pages
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- A Post-Byzantine Creation
- This paper deals with a specific iconographic type of Archangel Michael: he is shown bearing a soul in the form of a swaddled infant, while subduing an old man who is wearing only a loincloth. Who is Michael subduing? Three possible answers are considered: 1) the figure can be identified with Satan the fallen angel who, like Michael, has an immaterial nature and is commonly considered as his enemy par excellence; 2) he can also be an anonymous sinner, whose soul is depicted in Michael's hand; 3) finally, one could identify him with Hades, the god of the Underworld and personification of death, because he is depicted as an old man, semi-nude with a pronounced musculature, as well as because of the assimilation of Michael to God. Rather than making a single choice, the author proposes a combined interpretation of the image, which allows for the integration of all the aspects of Michael's cult (military, triumph over Satan, psychopomp, archangel of the Last Judgment) and unifies the past (the fall of Satan), the present (death of a sinner) and the future (Last Judgment).
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- A Reference to Altar Paintings in the Kotor Archives of the 15th and the Beginning of the 16th Centuries
- New iconographies themes, but also well-developed and enriched older program solutions, are the most vivid expression of the theological teachings and piety of an epoch. Some of the favorite themes in European art at that time were the Madonna di Misericordia and the Immaculata Conceptione. Written sources lead us to conclude that these iconographies solutions existed and were developed in the Kotor area. The Madonna di Misericordia was made for members of a religious brotherhood, while the Immaculata Conceptione is mentioned in reference to a chapel of the same name, in the church of the monastery of the Franciscan Observants of St. Bernardin. Like the demand for the wider accessibility of theological books intended for layman (breviaries and Psalters), so the increasing demand for altar paintings reflected new trends in the Catholic Church that developed from the 13th century according to the decisions of the 4th Lateran Council. The most important role in developing the new aspect of piety in towns was played by the members of the Franciscan and Dominican orders. Besides the many novelties they introduced in religious practice, they also gave a strong impetus to the veneration of holy pictures and to the development of new iconographies solutions. Altar paintings were frequently commissioned by the brotherhoods who reflected the spiritual and commercial life of the town through their religious activities and craftsmanship. It was for the brotherhood of St. Trifun that the painting of Our Lady of Mercy was produced, the existence of which is indirectly recorded by means of a decree of the brotherhood written in 1413. On the other hand, an even more exhaustive amount of information, both about this and about the Altar of the Immaculate Conception in the Franciscan church, is found in the wills of the Kotor inhabitants. On their deathbeds, the testators frequently bequeathed especially revered paintings or donations to have them produced, as acts of charity and as bequests. The information in the wills testifies to the fact that, at the very beginning of the 16th century, a chapel of the Immaculate Conception existed in Kotor that housed a much venerated painting of the Immaculata Conceptione, a theme especially supported by the Franciscans in their debates in medieval times. The possibility that a developed iconographies form of the Immaculata Conceptione existed is confirmed by the icon of Our Lady of Škrpjel, created about half a century prior to any mention of the painting in the Franciscan chapel, whose iconography already contained the elements of the Immaculata Conceptione.
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- A Repertoire of Comic Figures of the Antique Theatre in Miniatures of Byzantine Psalters with Marginal Illustrations
- Recent investigations on ninth-century Byzantine Psalters have focused mostly on the impact of the iconoclast controversy on the iconography of the marginal illustrations in these manuscripts. In fact this impact has been greatly exaggerated and the Psalter illustrations that can be connected to the debates on icon are less than a dozen out of a total of a few hundreds. The present article focuses on the iconography of figures illustrating social and moral types in the psalms. These figures cannot be considered as novel inventions of the ninth-century artists who painted our manuscripts. Their origin must be drawn back to late antique prototypes; in particular it is inferred that most of these figures represent characters that were originally modeled after the moral and social types acted on stage in late antique theater, mime and pantomime. A number of examples out of the miniatures in the Carolingian manuscripts of Terence and other media provides parallels to gestures, postures and features of the figures in the Psalter illustrations. The iconographical invention of these characters for the psalms must date from fourth to sixth century, a period during which theater was still very popular, notwithstanding the strong opposition of the Christian Fathers. Chroricius of Gaza' Apologia memoriam and other late antique writings witness the popularity of mime up to the middle sixth century and the ample variety of types that were acted on stage. The figures scissor out of marginal illustrations in the Byzantine Psalters are arranged in five plates collecting examples of, respectively, moral types, emotions caricatures, social types and professions, gods and devils.
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- A Stylistic Tendency in Ninth-Century Art of the Byzantine World
- In the first part of the article the style of miniatures in the three manuscripts is reconsidered, and this provides the basis to prove the Roman origin of the Milan Gregory and Vatican Job. The miniatures of the Sacra Parallela appear to be the work of a Palestinian artist who has most probably executed its vast cycle of illustrations in one of the Greek monasteries in Rome. The second part of the article contains a review of the so-called abstract and expressive stylistic tendency which dominated religious art of the Byzantine.
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- A Teratological Motif in the Ceramoplastic Decoration of the Virgin Ljeviška in Prizren
- The author draws attention to two ceramoplastic details, symmetrical in relation to the vertical axis of apsidal three-light window, created at the ends of the band of a series of identical ceramoplastic patterns. Those details were recognized in earlier literature as "two small fish" of baked clay and are considered to be a unique example of this kind of motive in ceramoplastic decoration in Byzantine architecture, and in architecture inspired by it. The author advocates the verbal definition of the image and indicates that the said details can scarcely be described as fish. He finds a new matrix, to which the images correspond, in the linearly depicted heads of snake-like and dragon-like monsters that appear in the repertoire of teratological ornamentation. The author indicates that the altar window of the church of Virgin Ljeviška in Prizren is encircled by a double asp, a symbol of the evil of this world. He stresses that the design of this altar window is divided into two areas in the iconological sense like the western portals in Studenica and Dečani The external represents this sinful world and the internal, symbolized by the victory cross of Christ (IG XC NH Kfl) represents the community of the faithful in Christ, i.e. the side of good. A comparison is drawn for the first time in the text, between the ceramoplastic decoration on the façade of the church and the teratological ornamentation on the pages of the book.
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- A contribution to the study of architecture of the monastery church of St. Archangel Michael in Prilep
- The paper deals with architecture of the one of the most significant churches in the Prilep region that was built in the years around 1280 as a foundation of John, the megas chartoularious of the West. The main focus is on the typological concept of the church, and its’ unique combination of a two-domed and two-storeyed structure. In the survey the particular elements of the church structure are elaborated with a reference to the most striking structures that bear such elements in the architecture of the Byzantine sphere of influence.
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- A contribution to the study of the "Athonite" church type of byzantine architecture
- The recent study of the history and architecture of the Vatopedi monastery’s katholikon, initially built as a cross-insquare - composite four-column type church with lateral apses (“choroi”) and a two-storey narthex, can serve as a secure base for the study of the so-called “Athonite” church type, which in all likelihood had been already completely formed in Constantinople or in the area under its infl uence, before its architectural plan was applied on Athos.
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- A hypothesis about the earliest phase of Žiča katholikon
- Based on the results of the archaeological research of the oldest horizon of the katholikon of Žiča Monastery, this paper brings the hypothesis that the initial model for its spatial arrangement was the main church of the Archbishopric of Kalocsa. Documented by the historical arguments that give the indirect validation, this hypothesis is considered from the perspective of cultural interactions which left a mark on the artistic creations of liminal geographical and historical zones of the Christian world during the twelfth and thirteenth century. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177015: Hrišćanska kultura na Balkanu u srednjem veku: Vizantijsko carstvo, Srbi i Bugari od IX do XV veka i br. 177036: Srpska srednjovekovna umetnost i njen evropski kontekst]
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- A note on two unpublished Coptic textiles from Belgrade
- This text presents to the academic public two so-far unpublished pieces from the collection of Coptic textiles housed at the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade. The aim of this text is to identify the motifs represented on them, as well as to propose a possible iconographic and iconological reading of their imagery. Both pieces of Coptic textile presented here display a number of iconographic subjects typical of Late Antique Egypt such as the Dionysiac thiasus and other subjects related to Dionysos - vines, lions, panthers and other animals, as well as the so-called Coptic horseman. They are typical of the visual idiom which survived from the classical period into Late Antique Coptic Egypt and was taking on new meanings in the context of religious and cultural syncretism.
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- A sanctuary screen from the island of Koločep
- The paper discusses the structure and carved decoration of the restored marble sanctuary screen from the island of Koločep near Dubrovnik. Based on the early medieval history of present-day southern Dalmatia and the fragmentary inscription commemorating a queen as the donor of the screen, it may be concluded that she was one of the Serbian Doclean (Duklja) queens from the second half of the eleventh century. The inscription is the only evidence that the kings of Dioclea ruled over the Elaphite islands. The carved decoration is typical of the Middle Byzantine period (9th-12th century), with some regional traits. The only exceptions are the figures of putti. They can be associated with Romanesque architectural sculpture in southern Italy created in the late eleventh century, after the Norman conquest of this region. The author puts forward the hypothesis that the donor was Queen Jaquinta, wife of King Bodin (1081-1101), who was a Norman woman from Bari.
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- A staurotheke of Serbian provenance in Pienza
- The paper discusses the virtually unpublished reliquary of Serbian provenance now kept in the Museo Diocesano in Pienza. It tackles the issue of the typology of the staurotheke, its decoration and symbolic significance. Based on its Old-Serbian inscription, “Sava, the first archbishop and patriarch of the Serbs”, the reliquary is dated to the last quarter of the fourteenth century and related to the programme of the Serbian Patriarchate. The surviving sources make it possible to reconstruct the road the staurotheke travelled from the treasuries of Žiča and the Patriarchate of Peć to Pienza. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177003: Medieval heritage of the Balkans: Institutions and culture]
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- An essay on Byzantine architectural influence on the spatial organization of the architect Sinan’s square baldachin single-domed mosques
- The works of the Ottoman Empire’s Master Architect Sinan that he attached great importance to and produced the greatest in number were mosques. Mimar Sinan made use of multiple-support systems such as 4, 6 and 8-baldachins in his domed structures, planning the layouts of his domed buildings around the framework of these systems. In this article, five of Mimar Sinan’s square baldachin, singledomed mosques (Edirnekapı Mihrimah Sultan, Zal Mahmut Pasha, Lüleburgaz Sokullu Mehmet Pasha, Fatih Bali Pasha and Manisa Muradiye) are selected, aiming to present an essay on the observed influence of Byzantine architecture in the domed square-baldachin and adjacent spaces that form the main area of these buildings.