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  • Carr, The Mother of God in Public

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    danaethom
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    A. M. Carr Mother of God

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    A. M. Carr Mother of God

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    31 Ansichten14 Seiten

    Carr, The Mother of God in Public

    Hochgeladen von

    danaethom
    A. M. Carr Mother of God

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Als PDF herunterladen oder online auf Scribd lesen
    Markieren Sie unangemessene Inhalte
    von 14
    Mother of God Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine Art edited by Maria Vassilaki Annemarie Weyl Carr 205. fen ofthe Vig Parades Sta of Pl. 200. . The Mother of God in Public and in public settings. Increasingly over the centuries, such images took on a dominant role in public life, both in civilian events and on special state occasions. The infiltration of the Virgia into the civic, military, and imperial sel-image of Byzantium can be traced through- out the empire, especially in the churches and ceremonies of Constantinople. It will be explored here through a number of revealing cases. ‘Public’ ig taken here to mean engaged with the lay public, either in rituals of lay character like war, or in religious rituals engaging lay people. Our concern is less with the Virgin herself than with the artefacts in which her public presence was expressed. To a striking degree, the city ‘of Constantinople is central to their formulation T: prestige ofthe Mother of God in Byzantium was promoted by her icons, both in private ‘The Mother of God and Constantinople Jerusalem pioneered both the ec celebration ofthe Virgin and the miraculous sanetiy of her image, and itwas from Jerusalem that the Virgin's relics reached the capital? But it was in Constantino pie that the public Mother of God was invested with her distinctively Byzantine body of content. Key components of this process occurred ateady well before Ieonoclasm, The events of 626 at Blach- cernai prove that a civic conception ofthe Virgin as the city’s defender had been formed by this date. Heer relies had been welcomed into Constaxtinople with imperil csremonies elevating her to sta ‘tus akin to that of a civic goddess;> regular vigils and processions had woven her into the rhythm. ‘of the city’s ifes*and emperors had adopted her as their mediatrx with God: we read of Leo I depicted before the Theotokos at Blachernai, and when in around 570 the seal Bf the emperor abandoned pagan for Christian imagery, it did so by replacing the figure of Victory holding the clipeate por- trait ofthe emperor with one of Mary holding the clipeate form of her Son, aif one figure of eter- nal victory and its protection ofthe populace had suoceeded another. Imperial, military, and civic, these components formed a matrix within which the publicimagery ofthe Mother of God unfolded “The image of Mary that emerged from these developments is sen inthe famous encaustic icon preserved on Mt Sinai (Cat no. 1) Her frank, fll form i clothed in her familiar blue Virgin May’ dress and veil, but she is seated formally on a heany throne. As goddesses (but rarely empreses) had done before, she bears her child on her enthroned lap, He wears rule's golden robe, and she herself is flanked by angels, for as God's most intimate associate she was the Queen of Heaven and the intermediary between him and his angels. The manus Dei explodes in a thundezclap of light above her head, manifesting her ageney a ridge to the very presence of God. Istartles the angels ‘who turn to it amazed. Before her throne loom the taut forms of two male saints in courtly atti. ‘They ace customarily identified as the warior stints, Theodore and George. Like the neatly con- temporary image of the Visgn on the emperor's eal, these saints link her with the theme of ete al victory, The icon is smal for alts cive implications of rlership and military protection its ‘0t of public sale. Yet it finds an echo in monumental images lke the apses of Parenzo (PI 45) and Bawit (PL 169) and the textile icon in Cleveland (Pl 170)’ and lends plausibility tothe exis. ‘ence of comparable civic images, such as the portrait of Leo I at Blachern 2s ‘The Sinai icon tells us that key themes of the Virgia’s public image were forged before Icono-

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