Zograf : časopis za srednjovekovnu umetnost

: Aquileia, Parma, Venezia e Ferrara; (italijanski) Il saggio prende in considerazione le quattro testimonianze di pittura dell'Italia nord-orientale menzionate nel suo titolo, per cercare di evidenziarne i vitali rapporti di dipendenza dei loro modelli (se non di rovenienza dei pittori) dall'area bizantina, di possibile mediazione serbo-macedone. Qui, come altrove, i modelli della pittura bizantina furono cercati e utilizzati per la loro valenza rappresentativa dei valori affettivi e umani, oltre che per gestualità espressiva. La qualità della ricezione fu diversa sia per la diversità delle situazioni locali che per la qualità stessa per gli esecutori. In ogni caso si tratta di testimonianze che a pieno titolo mostrano il ruolo essenziale della figuratività bizantina.

: Archbishop Danilo I; The frescoes in the prothesis of the Church of the Holy Apostles in the Patriarchate of Peć in Kosovo, date from around 1260. They are in poor condition and little has been written about them. Only the portraits of the Serbian hierarchs and saints in the apsis, Sava and Arsenije, have drawn attention, chiefly because the image of the second Serbian archbishop Arsenije - is believed to have been painted during his lifetime. The scenes of the prophet Daniel and the composition The Penitence of King David, are considered to have been painted for their symbolic meaning, primarily regarding to the Holy Communion. Among the compositions, one can see that besides The David rebuked by Nathan, all of them are linked with the life and visions of the prophet Daniel [Daniel in the Lions' Den, The Prophet's Vision of the Kingdom of Heaven (Daniel 7, 1-28). The Archangel Gabriel Foretells Future Events to the Prophet Daniel (Daniel 8, 3; 8, 16-27) and perhaps, The Three Youths in the Fiery Furnace). The small, painted area in the interior (2 *3.70 meters), mostly with scenes devoted to the prophet Daniel, clearly indicates that the prothesis was dedicated to this Old Testament character. In Byzantine churches, the lateral sections of the altar area, the prothesis and the diakonikon - like the parecclesion - were dedicated to the Mother of God and the saints, in most cases, St. Nikolas and St. John the Forerunner. The choice of the prophet Daniel, as the patron of the Peć prothesis was quite unusual. This was obviously done according to the wishes of the Serbian archbishop, Danilo, who thereby wished to pay tribute to his Old Testament namesake. There are several instances in medieval times when Serbian donors dedicated churches to the saints, who were their namesakes. The donor ship of archbishop Danilo 1 also determines mi-date when the frescoes in the prothesis came into being. As he administered the Serbian church for a brief period of less than two years 1271-1272, the frescoes in the prothesis originated from that time. The dating of the other frescoes in the sanctuary and the naos could be shifted to the period between 1260 and 1265, because the prothesis was not decorated, probably due to the illness and death of archbishop Arsenije I (1266). The new dating of the prothesis in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Peć is also important because its refutes the thesis that living Serbian archbishops were painted alongside of the old Church Fathers in the scene of The Officiating Holy Bishops. Namely, the dating of the frescoes in the Peć prothesis in 1271-1272, excludes the likelihood of archbishop Arsenije having seen himself preparing the Holy Eucharist in the small apsis of the prothesis of the prophet Daniel, because he died in 1266. Since B. Todić established that the frescoes from the central section of the sanctuary and in the naos of Sopoćani originated between 1272 and 1276, one must exclude the possibility that archbishop Sava II (died in 1271) was painted in the scene of The Officiating Holy Bishops during his lifetime. It would therefore emerge that the Serbian archbishops in the prothesis in Peć and the sanctuary in Sopoćani. and in medieval Serbian churches in general were not painted beside the most revered Fathers of the Orthodox Christian Church, during their lifetimes.

: Autels portatifs (Altaria portatilia) - Antimensia. Courte note; The paper deals with the origins of the portable altar - the Byzantine antimension. Altaria portatilia were mentioned in literary sources since the seventh-eighth centuries. The sources also evidence their indispensable role related to liturgical rites, especially during military campaigns. The earliest known Byzantine antimension dates from the twelfth century. It is part of the Guelph Treasure, held by the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin. Originally, portable altars were mainly made of wood but over time, textile fabrics prevailed over this hard material. Their iconographic decoration has from the beginnings been related to their liturgical function.

: Beards that matter. Visual representations of Patriarch Ignatios in Byzantine art; The paper discusses twelve visual depictions that in all likelihood represent St. Ignatios of Constantinople and were created between the ninth and the thirteenth century. Most of these depictions show Patriarch Ignatios beardless, which reflects the fact that he was a eunuch of the ἐκτομίας category. The paper analyzes two iconographical elements distinctive of his portraits: beardlessness and youthful appearance. It concludes that, on the one hand, the artists who painted the beardless portraits of Ignatios strove to depict the saint as realistically as possible; while, on the other hand, his beardless and youthful appearance also had a metaphorical meaning and served to highlight the chastity and purity of the eunuch saint. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177032: Tradition, Innovation and Identity in the Byzantine World]

: Bellini's Mother of God with Infant Christ in Dobrota; In the parochial church of Saint Matthew in Dobrota, there is a preserved painting by Giovanni Bellini and his workshop, The Mother of God with the Infant Christ. In the iconographic sense it is customary: a bust of Mary with the little Christ in her arms, a parapet in the foreground, green drapery and a landscape in the background. The motif of the parapet indicates the separation of the holy figures from the earthly world. However, this border is not strong: the emotional closeness between the Mother and the Child is transferred into the everyday world of mortals. The parapet is also an association with the Holy Altar. It expresses the Eucharistie, sacramental role of Christ and the Mother of God. The idea about the Mother as the tabernacle of God is underscored by the motif of the curtain. The landscape in the background makes the painting especially valuable. The softness and transparency that characterize it point to a possibility that Bellini created this painting at the end of the 15th or the beginning of the 16th century, at the time when he was under the influence of the Arcadian circle from Asolo. The landscape on the painting is passage moralize, because all the elements - the tower, the garden, the spring, goats, swans - are clearly symbols of the Mother of God. This altar painting, purchased by an unknown native of the Boka Kotorska Bay, and brought back to his birthplace, proves that the spirit of the renaissance also touched the southeastern coast of the Adriatic.

: Between Southern Italy and Dalmatia Missal MR 166 of the Metropolitana Library, Zagreb; The Missal MR 166 from the Metropolitana Library, Zagreb, written in Beneventana script and dating back to the twelfth-thirteenth centuries, has long been considered a Dalmatian product, similar to the coeval illuminated manuscript in Beneventana script preserved in the Trogir Cathedral and originating in Zadar. Nevertheless, later studies - specifically based on the textual features of the manuscript - showed that it is undoubtedly a Southern Italian product, and a significant testimony of the uninterrupted book circulation that existed on both sides of the Adriatic for three centuries roughly from the eleventh to the thirteenth, thus influencing the activity of the Benedictine scriptoria on the Dalmatian coast. On the basis of the study that makes it possible to define more closely the group of manuscripts that make up the 'corpus of the illuminated manuscripts from Dalmatia', the paper aims to support the Southern Italian origin of the Missal by means of a critical analysis of the theories put forward so far about the 'typically Dalmatian' features of its Initialornamentik.

: Between iconographic patterns and motifs from everyday life. The scene of an eye surgery performed by Saint Colluthos; This paper presents the investigation of a scene on the second layer of paintings done around 800 in the Virgin Church of the Monastery of the Syrians (Deir al-Surian) in the Scetis Desert or the Nitrian Desert (Wadi Al-Natrun). In it one can see Saint Colluthos performing a surgical operation on an eye. Also presented are writings dedicated to the saint and his cult and images of him. One can recognise influences of pagan traditions and Christian iconographic patterns and details of contemporary everyday life in the scene. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177036]

: Bezirana kilisesi (Cappadoce). Un exceptionnel décor paléologue en terres de Rūm. Nouveau témoignage sur les relations entre Byzance et le sultanat; This article deals with a rock-cut church (Bezirana kilisesi), dedicated to the Theotokos, recently rediscovered in the Ihlara valley (Cappadocia). The paintings from the very end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th, of exceptional quality, indicate that the patron of the church, whose identity is unknown, was a high-ranking, wealthy and literate individual. They bear witness to the maintenance of close links with Byzantium in this region, as well as to the mobility of artists, and bring new testimony on the cultural diversity of Seljuk Anatolia.

: Capturing light in Late Antique Ravenna a new interpretation of the archbishops’ chapel; Analysing the cultural context in which the archbishops’ chapel in Ravenna was built, the article proposes a new interpretation of the structure. Designed in a period when the Catholic Church and the Arian court were clashing, and displaying numerous baptismal motifs, the chapel seems to have been designed as a secluded baptistery. The structure’s baptismal character transpires from its architecture and iconography, analysed here on the backdrop offered by Late Antique baptismal theory and iconography.

: Cattolica in Stilo and its frescoes; This paper analyses one of the most representative monuments of Byzantine painting in Calabria. It is the church in the town of Stilo, known as Cattolica. It is believed to date from the last quarter of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century. After a brief historiographical and architectural analysis of the building, the author considers the chronological and stratigraphical problems of the frescoes preserved inside the church. In this process, he pays particular attention to the Byzantine layers of fresco painting that were done from the end of the tenth to the end of the thirteenth century. An in-depth analysis of the frescoes from the first phase of decoration from the end of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century has produced valuable results that could lead to collecting fresh data about possible artistic contacts and the routes along which the models traveled between southern Italy and the countries of the Byzantine cultural circle.

: Certains aspects du portrait laic Georgien du haut Moyen age; The article discusses Georgian relief portraits of the early medieval period. Besides religious motifs, church facades and the pillars of stone crosses depict images of laymen - the commissioners of these votive cult objects. The images are accompanied by inscriptions indicating their names and official titles. The incorporation of images of noblemen on cult objects indicates their social status and place in the hierarchy of feudal society. Iconographic schemes of the 6th-7th century Georgian relief portraits unite a local tradition and the Byzantine artistic canon of the epoch.

: Christian sacred architecture of late antique Romuliana (IV-VII c.); At the very end of the third century AD, the emperor Galerius (293-311) built a memorial complex Felix Romuliana in order to commemorate the place of his birth and he dedicated it to his mother Romula. Shortly after his death in Serdica in 311, he was buried in the mausoleum built on the hill Magura, at about 1 km distance from his memorial palace. It was also the place of his consecration and apotheosis. Considering the fact that the imperial cult was the most prominent and the most widespread cult in the Roman Empire, the imperial palace was treated as the focus of the cultic activities. By the end of the fourth century Romuliana lost its strictly memorial character and became, most probably, a refugee for the local inhabitants trying to find a place safe from the attacks of the tribes living north of the limes. At the same time the first church was built. According to the up to date information from the archeological investigations that are still carried on the site, eight churches were discovered in or near the fortress of Romuliana, five of which inside the fortified walls. Unfortunately, four of them were only partially discovered and are still waiting to be fully published. The remaining four were created by the transformation of the original rooms of the imperial residence, so called Palace I. The oldest church, dated to the end of fourth or the very beginning of the fifth century, is the three-aisled Basilica I embedded into the room D, the old aula palatina of the original Palace I. Although the original room had an apse on its eastern end, the builders of the basilica built new apse on the distance of 13.10 m west of the original apse, maybe deliberately neglecting the old one as the focus of the cult of the Roman emperor. The transformation of the aula palatina into the Christian church marked the beginning of the process of desacralization of the tetrarchic imperial palace. Basilica I was probably used until the sixth century, when the new church was raised on the same spot. In the second half of the fifth century, room R of the Palace I was transformed into the small single-nave church by building the new apse on its eastern end. It was connected with the small room M, which was transformed into the baptistery by building the small cross-shaped piscina. By the beginning of the sixth century the small room M was added an apse in the east, so it was also transformed into the church. Basilica I was destroyed and the new church was built in the same place most probably by the middle of the sixth century, presumably at the time of the restoration of the fortresses along the limes and in the hinterland during the reign of Justinian I (527-565). Procopius informs us that Romuliana was among the renovated fortresses and that it fell under the jurisdiction of the Episcopal see in Aquis. The newly built three-aisled Basilica II was wider than the older one and had a quatrefoil baptistery at its south-western side. Geographically and chronologically, closest parallels for this architectural type of baptistery would be the quatrefoils baptisteries in Stobi and Caričin grad (Iustiniana Prima). The existence of the baptistery, made some researchers connect Romuliana with the episcopate of Meridio or define settlement as an Episcopal see of the sixth century, but the available archeological data do not permit any precise hypothesis referring its place in church organization. Despite the lack of the information in the written sources, the number of Christian sacred temples on the site of Late Antique Romuliana testify of the size of its Christian community in the first three centuries of the official Christianity.

Zograf : časopis za srednjovekovnu umetnost

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