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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- The rhetoric of architecture in the Byzantine context
- This paper examines the rhetorical capacity of architecture, and in particular, “the rhetoric of architecture” rather than the usually examined “rhetoric about architecture.” In this work, the rhetoric of architecture is understood as codified visual and architectural conventions as a series of transpositions that frame specific meanings other than and beyond visible and spatial. Here the proposed “rhetoric of architecture” is also more about its capacity as a “mnemonic tool” and about the “craft of composition” rather than about persuading others or about representation based on exact likeness. This concept is particularly significant in the creation of the sacred. By focusing on the architecture of the critical building of the Holy Sepulchre that enclosed the Tomb Shrine in Jerusalem as described by Patriarch Photios in the ninth and Abbot Daniel in the early twelfth centuries, this paper argues for the recognition of the mnemonic links that the Byzantines may have used not only for remembering the Tomb of Christ, but also for their several reconstructions of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem as well as for embedding the meaning of Jerusalem and New Jerusalem in their churches built elsewhere.
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- The saint of Kotor and the sculpture of the Dečani Monastery
- The paper attempts to identify the sculpture workshop that could have made four previously known sculptures from Kotor. Two of these had already been dated to the 14th century. Based on the similarities between them and the katholikon of the Dečani Monastery, the author suggests that they were made in the workshop of Fra Vita.
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- The staurotheke of the church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Ras, Serbia. A contribution to research
- The subject of this paper is the staurotheke which is now kept in the treasury of the Dominican monastery in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It originally belonged to the church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Ras, Serbia, to which it had been donated jointly by the Serbian King Stefan Uroš II Milutin and Bishop Gregory II of Raška (Rascia). The staurotheke in the shape of a double-armed cross is engraved with illuminating donor inscriptions on the front and back of the handle and a poetical epigram on the sides of the cross. Based on the palaeographical features of the inscriptions and the style of gold work, it has been established that the staurotheke was thoroughly renovated in the mid-sixteenth century but that the content of the inscriptions was faithfully copied from the original. The meaning and function of the staurotheke are discussed in the broader context of the cult of the True Cross in medieval Serbia. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177003: Medieval heritage of the Balkans: institutions and culture]
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- The synthronon and locus inferior (αρχιερατικός θρόνος) of the metropolitan of Požega. Liturgical furniture and wall paintings of the Orahovica Monastery
- The paper discusses the appearance of the synthronon, the position of the locus inferior (αρχιερατικός, or δεσποτικός θρόνος, the episcopal throne in the nave, donje mesto) of the Metropolitan of Požega at the Orahovica Monastery, fresco paintings inspired by the purpose of the throne in front of the sanctuary, and the views it incorporated. The synthronon is in fact a series of niches. The locus inferior has not survived; based on the fresco program, the author places it between the southwestern pillar and the southern wall. The fresco decoration of the locus inferior - one of the largest in Serbian art - is both centered on the topoi of the throne program and unique. Christ and the apostles from the apostolic Deisis draw on the teaching about Christ as the eternal leader of the liturgical community and the apostolic roots of the church and the office of bishop; by emphasizing the presence of St. Andronicus and St. Titus beside the seat, the program incorporates the tradition of the apostolic lineage of the church among the Slavs and in the Metropolitanate of Požega. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177036: Srpska srednjovekovna umetnost i njen evropski kontekst]
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- The texts of inscriptions in depictions of the Dormition of the Holy Virgin in Byzantine art
- Along with the usual inscription that contains the title of the scene, depictions of the Dormition of Holy Virgin in the art of the Palaiologan period abound in texts inscribed on open books carried by holy bishops or scrolls held by the hymnographers and prophets included in the composition. Inscriptions can also be found in the episodes that sometimes accompany the central representation of the Virgin Mary's death. This paper seeks to compile the most typical examples of such inscriptions, identify their hymnographic and liturgical sources and offer iconographic interpretations.
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- The transfiguration at Shivta. Retracing early Byzantine iconography
- The Transfiguration constitutes one of the most important events in the New Testament. Yet, only few pre-iconoclastic examples of the Transfiguration scene have survived: S. Apollinaire in Classe, Ravenna, St. Catherine Monastery, Sinai and Poreć in Istria, each has its unique iconography. Therefore, scholars have concluded that the Transfiguration scene became widespread only after the iconoclastic controversy. We aim to show, that Transfiguration scene in Shivta, an early Byzantine settlement in the Negev desert, allows a glimpse into the early Christian iconography of the well-known scene, providing a missing link to its development in the post-iconoclastic period.
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- The vision of Saint Peter of Alexandria, from the Church of St. Archangels in Prilep
- This text is dealing with a rare thematic innovation that appeared in Byzantine wall painting of the thirteenth century. In particular, the author explores the iconography of the Vision of Saint Peter of Alexandria as found in the Church of St. Archangels in Prilep around 1270. He argues that this work manifests a key moment in the development of this composition over the course of the thirteenth century. This links the same motif found in Melnik from the beginning of the thirteenth century, and a composition from the Church of the Virgin Peribleptos in Ohrid from 1294/1295. In the end, place of the Vision in the painted program of the western part of the Church of St. Archangels in Prilep is analyzed.
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- The wall paintings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at Stemnitsa in the Peloponnese, Greece
- Five churches with mural paintings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have survived in Stemnitsa, a wealthy post-Byzantine town with a rich historical heritage in the central Peloponnese. In the sixteenth century the Church of St Nicholas and in the seventeenth century the wall-paintings in four churches, Panagia Baphero, Prophet Elijah, St Panteleemon and the katholikon of the monastery of the Zoodochos Pege are consistent with the general clime of seventeenth-century painting in the Peloponnese where many and different trends developed in this period.
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- The wall-paintings of Saint Constantine at Missochori
- The complex of the churches of Saint Constantine and Saint Mamas is located at Missochori, close to the capital of the island of Nissyros, Greece. The first church preserves wall-paintings dated to the end of the twelfth century, shared donation of two monasteries/churches. The paintings are partly repainted, probably in 1318/1319. Both the murals and the two inscriptions of the church provide new evidence concerning mediaeval Nissyros.
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- To picture and to perform
- This paper presents and interprets the iconographic programme of the frescoes in the lowest register of the sanctuary in the church of St Demetrios at Markov Manastir in the context of the relationship between mural decoration and the contemporary Eucharistic rite. In the first part of the paper special attention is paid to the scene in the north pastophorion, which illustrates the prothesis rite, and the depiction of the Great Entrance, placed in the sanctuary apse. The iconographic and programmatic features of the fresco ensemble, the most pominent place among which is occupied by the representations of the deceased Saviour and Christ the Great Archpriest - are compared to various liturgical sources and visual analogies (monumetal painting and liturgical textiles) in the medieval art of Serbia and Byzantium. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177003: Medieval heritage of the Balkans: Institutions and culture]
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- To picture and to perform
- The themes in the sanctuary decoration at Markov Manastir (Christ Emmanuel, Virgin Orans, Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles), whose peculiar iconographic elements reveal the mysteries of the Holy Trinity and the archpriesthood of Christ in the liturgical and theological context of the fourteenth century, are discussed in this paper. The remains of the text in the leitourgikon held by Christ the Archpriest have been re-examined. It seems plausible to assume that the inscription or a part of it referred to the opening dialogue of the anaphora. The iconographic peculiarities of individual items carried in the Great Entrance procession, modelled according to the structure of the archieratical Divine liturgy, have been reconsidered. It has been established that the way in which the large aer was carried, and its place in the procession escorting the Eucharistic gifts - which was very close to the holy offerings - followed the iconographic tradition of the Heavenly Liturgy in the dome, while the evidence for its shape and size can be found in a somewhat later liturgical source - the Patriarchal liturgical Diataxis of Dimitrios Gemistos. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177003: Medieval heritage of the Balkans: institutions and culture]
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- Traces of the throne of grand župan Stefan Nemanjić and the fresco decoration of the main church of the monastery of Studenica
- This paper deals with the bearings of the structure preserved in the floor beside the southwestern support of the dome in the Studenica katholikon, and on the dado rail of that pilaster. From the appearance of the bearings, their position in the space, and the writer Theodosius’ account describing the place where the grand župan Stefan Nemanjić stood during the liturgy, the author concludes that this refers to the bearings of the ruler’s throne, which had a loggia-like form. A series of features indicates that the installation was prepared before the painting of the main church and then installed afterwards. The text on the scroll of Saint Sabas the Sanctified testifies that it influenced the concept of the neighbouring fresco-ornament. Written sources (from the thirteenth and fourteenth century) maintain that the idea in the fresco painter’s mind was the role of the principle of ascetism in medieval images of the ideal monarch. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177036: Srpska srednjovekovna umetnost i njen evropski kontekst]