ity Eisenhower Express The Johns Hopkins Uni iversi 4100-143 _IMIMIIUTE ILLiad TN: Journal/Book Title: Volume: Issue: Month/Year 11998, 124-151 Henry Maguire Call #: N7852.5.H43 1998 QUARTO Heaven on Earth : art and the Church in Byzantium The Cycle of Images in the Church WARNING CONCERNING COPYRIGHT. RESTRICTIONS ‘The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of ‘photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is thatthe photocopy or reproduction isnot to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research”, Ifa user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use", that user may be liable for copyright infringement. ‘This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment ofthe order would involve violation of copyright law. tion | Name: Nathan Dennis | Username: ndennis2 } Status: Graduate | Department: History of Art Email: nathan.s.dennis@gmail.com Delivery Method: Deliver Electronically | | Transaction # 1169143Color Plate XVEA. Pig eu Soylite the Elder: This “bles ‘Serta, where the holy Symeon stood on ac roken depicting Symeon che otea from san uni the end of his e been acquired by a pilgrim upon his o¢ her visit cheve (Baicimore, Walters Are Gallery, 0. 48.2666). (courtesy Walters Art Gallees) ¢" was made of te at Color Plate XVEB Pilgrim eulogia amputla, made of pewter, with scenes of the Adoration of the (lett) and the Women atthe Tomb on the back (right) (Washington, D.C The ampulla contained a “blessing,” probably oil touched to the wood of som the front Dumbarton Oaks Collection, no. 48.18), 1 Tese Cross in Jerusalem. Other depictions cof the Women ar the Tomb may be seen in Figures 88, 8.20, and 8.29. (courtesy Dumbarton Oaks) an THE CYCLE OF IMAGES IN THE CHURCH Byzantine churches have been described as a set of variations on a theme. A similar phrase can be used to characterize the mosaics and paintings that adomed those build- ings, for here, too, there was invention on the basis of tradition. The inventiveness, o otherwise, of Byzantine art has been a matter of debate since the time of the Renaissance. In his Lives of the Painters, the sixteenth-century writer and artist Giorgio Vasari characterized the deficiencies of the Byzantine art that had been super seded on Italian soil by the work of painters such as himself. Describing such works as the Crucifixion (Fig. 5-1), a mosaic in the basilica of San Marco in Venice that was set by Byzantine or by Byzantine-trained artists at the end of the evelfth century, he tells how the crowd of medieval Greek (by which he means Byzantine) artists covered the churches of Italy with their unvarying products. Ele declared that “none of these painters ever thought to ameliorate his design with respect to beauty of coloring, or any invention.” They produced monstrous figures, of which the artists traced the rude outline only; figures with senseless eyes and jabbing hands, standing on the points of their feet. This was, he said contemptuously, a “style of lines and profil Harsh though this judgment is, there is a germ of truth in it, because Byzantine church decoration was subject to conventions of decorum beyond which artists rarely strayed. It was not so much a matter of laws of painting, as of limits. W:thin those limits, Byzantine artists had a great deal of scope for variation. If we take the scene of Christ's Crucifixion as an example, it is probably true to say that in all of Byzantine art there are no ewo C cifixions that are entirely alike. Figure 5.2, for example, illustrates another Byzantine cifixion scene that is in many respects quite different from the mosaic in Venice, as a brief comparison of the two images will show.a HEAVEN ON EARTH Fig. 5.1 Venice, San Marco. Crucifixion mosaic, ate twelfth century: Compare the same svene in. Color Plate [VA and Figures 5.2, 5.23, 6.29, 8.20, 829, and 8.39 (courtesy Photographic Archives, National Gallery of Avr, Washingron, D.C.) In the mosaic of San Marco (Fig. 5.1), the scene is crowded, At the center of the com position, the crucified Christ is flanked by his mourning mother and by his disciple, Saint John. To the far left is a group of women, their heads bent and their faces distorted from. weeping. To the right of Christ stands a crowd of male spectators, including in the fore- ground the centurion who raises his right hand to recognize the triumph of the cross. To Christ's immediate left the soldier Longinus makes a wound in Christ's side with a spear; to the right, Stephaton holds up a sponge that he has dipped in a pail of vinegar. Below the cross, the soldiers cast lots over Christ’s robe, and between them we see the skull of Adam, who was believed to have been buried on Golgotha. Finally, we see the company of the angels who from the heavens mourn the death of Christ. This mosaic introduces to many of the salient characteristics of Byzantine art. There is a balance and a rhythm to the composition: the angels are above, the mortals below, with Christ in between, both. divine and mortal even at the moment of his death. The women are on the left, the men on the right. We may also notice smaller details that speak of medieval theology. We see, for example, that the crucified Christ is placed directly over the skull of Adam-—through his sacrifice, the new Adam redeems the sin of the old. Fig. 5.2. Ivory panel with the Crocicion, tenth cen- tury (Metropolitan Museum of Art). See Figure 5-1 and seum of Art, Giftof J. Pepont Mogan, 1917, n0. 17,190.44) esy Metzopolitaty Mu In Figure 5.2, an ivory carving of the Crucifixion from the tenth century, it is easy to recognize many of the same elements as in the mosaic. The common features include the central form of the crucified Christ, his body slumped to the viewer's left. Both images show the angels in the sky above, the flanking figures of the Virgin and Saint John, as well as the soldiers below the cross. Yet there are also some majer differences between the two scenes. In the ivory, the group of mourning women on the left and the witnessing men on the right have been omitted. Longinus and Stephaton, with the spear and the sponge, are also absent. Instead, the ivory presents us with a startling new element, the reclining fig- ure of a half-naked, bearded man, whose stomach is pierced by the base of the cross, caus- ing a wound from which flow streams of blood. This man, pierced by the cross, is a depiction of Hades, ot Hell, who is pierced to his vitals by the cross of Christ. The ivory is the visualization of a passage from a kontakion, or liturgical hymn, by the greatest of all 1 Byzantine religious poets, the sixth-century hymnographer Romanos: Pilate fixed three crosses on Golgotha, ‘Two for the robbers, and one for the Giver of life. When Hades saw Him, he said to those below: ‘O my priests and forces, who has fixed the nail in my heart? ‘A wooden spear has pierced me suddenly and [ am torn apart.24 HEAVEN ON EARTH Lam in pain—internal pain; I have a helly-a And I am forced to vomit forth Adam and those descended from Adam ‘The two images of the Crucifixion are, therefore, in many respects quite different. Yet, at the core, they are similar: the central elements the crucified Christ, flaniced by the Vir gin and Saint John—remain the same. Although variation was allowed to Byzantine artists, when one of them went too far and introduced an innovation of which the church authorities disapproved, the clerics were quick to object. For example, we have an agi tated letter that was writren by a famous Byzantine abbot of the late eighth-early ninth centuries, Saint Theodore of Stoudios, to a fellow monk who had encouraged incurtect iconography: Forgive me, Father, for what I am about to say in all simplicity and sincere love. Some persons have charged... that your Holiness had been acting in an im- proper manner. . .. To give one example, they alleged that you had represented in. the windows angels crucified in the form of Christ, and that both Christ and the angels were shown aged. . .. They said that you had done something foreign and alien to the tradition of the Church, and that this deed was inspired not by God, but surely by the Adversary [i.c., the devill, seeing that in all the yeats that have passed no examples of this peculiar subject have ever been given by any one of the many holy Fathers who were inspired by God.* Here, then, was an artist who had clearly overstepped the bounds of tradition. There was no precedent in church art for angels that were crucified or aged; such icons, far from being holy, were inventions of the devil. In this chapter I shall illustrate these two concepts, tradition and invention, through the mural decorations of two churches in Greece that are separated by about one hundred years. Both churches were adored with the costly medium of mosaics, but they show the same basic principles of composition and arrangement as the more numerous Byzantine churches that were decoraved with wall paintings. Both churches received a similar un- derlying scheme of decorations—the theme—but they also showed remarkable varia- tions, both in style and in subject matter, Bach church had its own character; one celebrated the virtue and powers of an ascetic healing monk, while the other emphasized the cult of the Virgin Mary in relation to divine judgment. Thus, in each church the baste Byzantine scheme of church decoration was adapted to different purposes. ‘The earlier of the two churches is the Katholikon of Hosios Loukas in Greece, which is situated not far from ancient Delphi. The monastery is dedicated to Holy Luke of Stirs, not Saint Luke the Evangelist. Holy Luke was a local saint who lived in the tenth cen- tury. He was born at Delphi, up in the mountains where his parents had fled from the coast in order to escape the attacks of the Arabs, who were raiding by sea. At the age of fourteen Holy Luke went to Athens, first visiting the church of the Mother of God that had been constructed inside the Parthenon, the pagan temple of Athena, and then going 5 THECYCI MAGES IN THE CHURCH as on to become a monk in a monastery at Athens. Though he could not have been a more 1, the saint spent part of his youth surrounded by monuments of classi- cal art and architecture. Even the Byzantine ascetic monk could have seen the sculpiuces of the Parthenon, and we shall see the relevance of this to an understanding of Byz tine art Shortly after, Holy Luke left the monastery and fived the life of a wandering hermit, going from place to place in order ro avoid the Arabs, until he reached the age of forty: nine, Ac last, he settled down in a remote spot in the mountains near his birthplace. There he buile himself a cell in which to live, planted a garden of vegetables, and, even tually, began the construction of a church, which. he dedicated to Saint Barbara. After Luke's death, in 953, a substantial monastery was built around his original her tmitage and is comb. Like many medieval monasteries in remote places, it was fortified by an enclosure wall, In the center of the monastery two churches were eventually con structed: the church of the Theotokos (Mother of God), which may have been built on the site of the church started by the saint himself, and a larger church next door to it, the Katholikon (Fig, 5.5). North of the churches were the cells of the monks, where they slept, and south of the churches was the refectory where they ate their communal meals. All of this had been built by the early eleventh century, w thin fifty or sixty yeats of the death of the saint. How did such a splendid complex of buildings come to be erected over the hermitage of such an obscure and remote individual? The saint had two main claims to fame. ‘The first was political, for during his lifetime he forecast the Byzantine recapture of Crete from the Arabs—an event that actually oc- curred in 961, after his death. This prophecy added immeasurably to the saint’s prestige, and it may be commemorated by the fresco shown in Figure 5.3, which was painted on. the west exterior wall of the church of the Theotokos. It shows the Old Testament hero Joshua, in full armor and with a white cloth provecting his head against the desert heat. Joshua was, for the Byzantines, a model for their crusade against the Arabs; it was Joshua who, under God's guidance, had conquered the Holy Land. So this was the first reason for Holy Luke’s renown-—-his connection with the Byzantine offensive against Islam. “The saint, however, had another, and ultimately more important, claim on people's at- tention. He was one of those saints whose bodies, after their death, secreted a miraculous perfumed cil, called myron in Greek, which had the ability to cure a variety of diseases. “The saint's body was the center of a healing cult at the monastery, which operated in a va- riety of ways, For example, oil and condensed moisture were taken from the tomb and given to pilgrims. Such oil from the tombs of saints had curative and protective proper ties. The Byzantines would drink it, rub it upon themselves, or even wear it in a flask sus- pended around the neck (see Fig. 8.26). The most effective method of healing, however, was incubation, which meant that the pilgrim would sleep all night beside the saint's tomb, in the hope of being given a cure. In exceptional ceses, a saint would confirm his participation in the healing process by appearing to the sick person in a vision or a dream during the night.* So the monks of Hosios Loukas acted as the keepers of a kind of hospi- tal that had an invisible doctor: the departed saint. Or rather, his mortal remains were vis- ible, but his spirit was not.saics of the Viegin and C of the Nativity in the (after R. W, Schule The Monastery of [ondoa, 1901), pl.5) il in the apse and H squineh, Fig. 5.3 Stiis (Phokis), Hosios Loukas, church of the Theotokos esy C. Contr) joshua fresc st wall of Sttis (Phokis), Hosios Loukas, Ketholikon. Plag fabeled with location of the mosaics. (after R. W. 1. Barnsley, The Monastery of Sains Luke of Seis (London, 1901}, pl. 1) The saint's body was eventually enshrined in the Katholikon, the main church of the monastery of Hosios Loukas, with its adomment of precious marbles and mosaics. It will be seen that these mosaics are in part concerned with the nature of Holy Luke, and with the sources of his healing powers. ‘As has been discussed in the previous chapter, the naos of the church is a centralized space with a large dome at its core (Figs. 5.4 and 5.5). The dome is supported on four vaults of triangular plan, technically known as squinches; these make the transition from the octagonal base under the dome to the square defined by the walls below. At the east end of the church there is a slightly projecting choir, with its own smaller dome, that i sepatated from the rest of the church by a templon screen. This was the place for the offi- ciants. There are also projecting spaces co the north, south, and west of the central square, so that the ground plan of the church has the shape of a cross inscribed within a square. At the west end of the building is the narthex, or porch, which also contained mosaics. ‘Within these spaces the mosaics were arranged in a hierarchy from heaven above to earth below. This hierarchic scheme was characteristic of medieval Byzantine church d oration. It had already been created in the ninth century, shortly after the end of Icono-18 HEAVEN ON EARTH clasm, as we know from descriptions of destroyed churches in Constantinople. The dome, at the top of the church, represented heaven, and was originally filled by a great image of Christ. Since the mosaic in the dome at Hosios Loukas is now lost, it can be visualized by reference to the preserved mosaic at Daphni (Fig. 4.22 and Color Plate V), to which shall return later in this chapter. Around the year 1200, a Byzantine writer, Nicholas Mesatites, described such a mosaic of Christ in a dome in the Church of the Holy Apos tles at Constantinople, a building that no longer survives. Mesarites said that this image, framed by a rainbowlike circle at the summit of the church, was a portrayal of Christ look- ing out of a window of heaven.’ The fact that Christ was shown as a half figure, without the lower part of his human body, was taken by some Byzantine writers as a sign of his divinity. The decoration of the next zone down, the spaces between the windows at the base of the dome, is also missing at Hosios Loukas. Here figures of the prophets were often placed between the openings. In his position they played a role as sources of illumination, paral lel to the windows, and also as intermediaries between the word of God from heaven, and humanity on earth below. The next lower zone consists of the four squinches beneath the drum and the semi- dome of the sanctuary. Here the mosaics depict Christ's incarnation. The most prominent of them, the mosaic in the eastern apse, shows the Virgin Mary enthroned, with the Child on her lap (Fig. 5.4 and Color Plate Hil; A on the plan in Fig. 5.5). The Virgin, ei- ther with or without her child, was the usual subject for the vault in the apse of a Byzan- tine church. Therefore, in the two most prominent vaults of the church, Christ appeared in images emphasizing his two natures: as heavenly Ruler in the dome, and as human Child in the apse. Even though Christ is clearly depicted as an infant in the apse mosaic, there are many signs chat this is no ordinary baby. The Child is clothed ina magnificent gold robe, and like a miniature adult he raises his right hand in blessing while he holds a scroll in his left. Unlike an ordinary infant, Christ sits upright on his mother’s lap; one anonymous ninth-century poet, describing such an image, said that Christ sits on the Virgin's lap as if ona throne. The Virgin, too, is no ordinary mother. She is seated on a golden throne, upon a purple cushion, wearing the purple shoes of an empress. She wears a blue ‘maphorion, or cloak, which has the traditional three gold stars embroidered upon her two shoulders and above her forehead; later Byzantine writers saw these stars as symbols of the Trinity. It may also be noted that the Virgin does not look down at her child, but appears to stare outward, at the viewer. The reason for this is piven by another Byzantine writer, the patriarch Photios, who lived in the ninth century. Describing such a mosaic, he says that the Virgin assumes a detached expression, composing het gaze, on account of the divine nature of her offspring.* Byzantine artists never wanted the viewer to forget that he or she was looking at a man who was God. For this reason they never depicted Christ in completely realistic terms, as did, for example, the Flemish masters of the fit teenth century. In the four squinches above the naos, on the same level of the church as the vault over the apse, we find the beginning of the story of Christ's incarnation (Fig. 5.4). we 5. THE CYCLE OF IMAGES IN THE CHURCH, 9 Tig.5.6 Scr (Phokis), Hosios Loukas, naos of the Katholikon, Nativity of Christ, mosaic, eleventh century. The ‘mosaic Is seen in situ in Figure 4.21; for other depictions ofthe Nativity, see Figures 4.22, 5.18, 7.31, 7.34 and 7.48, (courtesy J. Powell) First there was a portrayal of the angel Gabriel announcing the birth of Christ to the Virgin Mary, a mosaic that is now lost. It was followed by a depiction of Chriss Nativity, which is illustrated in Figure 5.6 (B on the plan in Fig. 5.5). This mosaic, too, is a carefully balanced composition of signs that reveal the combined natures of Christ It also illustrates an idea that is fundamental to Byzantine church art: the first scene in Christ’ life on earth (his birth) resembles the last (his death), and his last resembles his first. The same echoing, forward and backwacd in time, occurred in the liturgies and sermons of the church year, to which these mosaics corresponded. The Byzantines themselves referred to these Christological scenes in art as feasts, in reference to the feasts of the liturgical year. So the scenes of Christ’s life are in a real sense a cycle, which, like the year, returns on itself. For the Byzantines, the circular path of the liturgy was a likeness of etemity, as were the mosaics and paintings that accompanied it. Speaking of the seven weeks of the Holy Pentecost, the fourth-centuty church father Saint Basil of Caesarea said that Pentecost was “a likeness of eternity, since it begins and ends, as in a circular course, at the same point.”? Ata fundamental level this circularityFig. 5.7 Kurbinove (Macedonia). Bucial of Chis, fresco, ave ewelih century, (cvarvesy J. Powell) had a consoling message of eternal rebirth and renewal, as the imagery of the seasons had in antiquity. The mosaic of the Nativity shows the Virgin sitting up and holding her swaddled child, who lies among golden straw in the manger (Fig. 5.6). The scene is not set in a stable, as in later Western European paintings of the Nativity, but in a cave. The Byzantines be lieved that the birth of Christ took place in a cave, which could, in fact, be visited by pil grims, for it was (and still is) preserved underneath the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. But this cave had a symbolic meaning as well; the Byzantines knew that Christ was also buried in a cave, as can be seen in a fresco from the late twelfth-century church of Kurbinovo, in Macedonia (Fig. 5.7). [na sermon composed for Good Friday by the thirteenth-cencury patriarch Germanos I of Constantinople, the following passage is addressed to Christ: “From a cave, You shone forth to the world, into a cave You sink from the world. Then a cave was found for You ‘when there was no room in the inn.’ And now you are lodged in another cave when You lack a tomb."* Around the Child are seen the signs that reveat his double status: the adoring angels and the rays of light from the star prove his divinity, as does, in a more subtle way, the pose of the old man on the left (Fig, 5.6). Joseph, the stepfather, is shown sitting to one with his back tured to the Child. This shows the viewer that the real paternity of ‘st is not human, but divine. On the far left the three kings arrive from the East with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh; and on the right, the angel announces the birth to the shepherds in the fields with their flocks. Finally, to the right of the eri is a vi- gnette of the first bath of the Child, with one midwife pouring water into the basin, and the other holding the baby to wash him. Although this motif was derived from royal iconography, it also demonstrated the humanity of the child and the phystcal fact of his birch. In sum, the mosaic conveys the paradoxes of the incarnation, paradoxes that the 5 THE CYCLE OF IMAGES IN THE CHURCH pee Fig.5.8 Sts (Phokis), Hosios Loukas, nacs of che Katholikon. Presentation of Christin the temple, mosai, eleventh century, The mosaic is seen in situ in Figure 4.21; compare with Color Plate XILA. (caurtest |: Powell) intines repeatedly expressed in their religious literature. The mosaic can be compared, for example, to a short epigram describing a painting of the Nativity that was composed by John Geometres, a poet of the tenth century: “(Christ) the Son of the motherless Fa- ther who is out of time, Now is the fatherless babe of the mother who is in time.”? ‘The next mosaic in the cycle, occupying another squinch, depicts the Presentation of the Christ Child in the temple (Fig. 5.8; C on the plan in Fig. 5.5). Like many of the mo- saics in this church, its composition is simple but effective, with the figures standing out in relief against 2 luminous gold ground. In the center is and its ciborium, or canopy, which represent the temple. On the right, the Virgin approaches, holding the Child. She is followed by Joseph, who cradles in his arms the white doves for the sacrifice On the left the old priest Symeon steps forward to receive the Child, his hands covered by his garment as a sign of respect; the same manner of approach, with the hands covered, had been used by Roman subjects when they approached their emperors, Behind Symeon is the old prophetess Anna, who is mentioned in Saint Luke's Gospel. The composition is divided vertically into two halves, with an older man and woman on the left, and a he al432 HEAVEN ON EARTH Fig. 5.9. Stirs (Phokis), Hosios Loukas, nacs of the Katholikon. Bapeism of Cheist, mosaic, eleventh century Compare chis composition with Figure 5.19. (courtesy J. Powell), younger man and woman on the right. Within the limits of his style, the artist attempted to bring out the difference between the ages of the two pairs. Thus Symeon, on the left, fas a longer beard and hair than Joseph, on the right, and Anna has V-shaped lines on. her cheek and lines on her neck to suggest her wrinkles. These distinctions, of course, il- lustrate the Gospel text, which speaks of the great age of Anna and Symeoa, but they are also symbolic; they dramatize the confrontation of the old order, the Old Testament, with the New. The last of the four scenes in the squinches of the naos is Christ’s Baptism (Fig. 5.9; D on the plan in Fig. 5.5). Here again, the double nature of Christ is clearly expressed. His nakedness is a sign of his humanity; a contemporary Byzantine writer, the monk Symeon the New Theologian, said that nakedness is not in itself shameful, because Christ "be- came entirely man, even he who was entirely God.” On the other hand, there are two angels in attendance upon Christ, holding out towels of sumptuous purple silk shot with, gold. And there is another, more subtle sign of Christ’s divine nature: Saint John the Bap- tist, as he performs the Baptista, touches the top of Chhrist’s head just with the very tips of his fingers. Byzantine writers interpreted this gesture as Saint John’s reluctance to touch, 5 THECYCLE OF IMAGES IN THE CHURCH 33 the body of one he knew to be divine. Just to the right of Christ, at his feet, is the person- ication of the river Jordan, holding a little vase of waser and turning away fearfully from Christ. This is an illustration of Psalm 114: “the sca saw that and fled; the Jordan was driven back.” Thus the motif demonstrates Christ's power over the natural elements. The Cheistological scenes continue in the narthex of the church, with the episodes of Christ's Passion. We shal! look at two of them. To the left of the door from the narthex to. the nave is the mosaic of the Crucifixion, which is one of the most impressive in the church (Color Plate IV.A; E on the plan in Fig. 5.5). It has a stark simplicity, being stripped to the bare elements of the eeucified Christ between his two principal mourners, the Virgin and Saint John. An eleventh-century description of an image of the Crucifix- ion by the Byzantine writer Michac! Psellos characterizes the figure of Christ on the cross as “a living corpse .. . animate and inanimate.” It is a perfect description of the mosaic at Hosios Loukas. The Byzantine artist showed the death of Christ through the sway of the body on the cross, through the bowed head, and the closed eyes. At the same time, he stopped far short of realism. The weight of Christ’ body coes not truly hang from the nails in his hands, but instead makes a stylized arc, as if miraculously supported by some invisible life force. Both the Virgin Mary and Saint John make gestures of grief, which demonstrate the human context of Christ’ life and death: Saint John rests his cheek on his hand, a pose of weeping, while Christ’s mother pulls at the edge of her mantle, intend- ing to pull it across her face, for she cannot bear to see the suffering of her son. But while we sce these signs of suffering that tink Christ clearly with human sorrow and emotion, in other respects the witnesses to the drama are detached from material reality; the figures of Mary and John do not even have a ground on which to stand To the right of the door leading into the nave is the composition known in Greek as the Anastasis, often referred to in English as the Harrowing of Hell; it shows Christ a cending from hell, breaking open its gates, and rescuing humanity from death (Color Plate IV.B; F on the plan in Fig. 5.5). At Christ’s feet can 2e seen the wooden doors of helf, and all the hardware that had closed them, the iron locks and thei keys. To the right of the scene, Christ takes Adam by the hand and drags him bodily from his tomb; behind Adam, Eve also rises from the sarcophagus (coffin). To the left stand the Old Tes- tament kings David and Solomon, who are attired as Byzantine emperors in crowns and purple cloaks. They are present as the human ancestors of Christ, witnessing and parti pating in his resurrection. David was thought to have prophesied Christ’s victory over death, for he had said in his twenty-fourth psalm: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, .. and the King of Glory shall come in.” In this scene of his resurrection Christ wears a new tunic, on which the folds ace indicated by gold lines—a technique known as clrysogra- phy. Byzantine writers compared the golden lines of Christ's garment to rays, and saw them as symbols of divine light. The golden tunic, against the golden background, dema- terializes the figure of Christ and further removes him from the earthly realm, The final scene from the New Testament cycle at Hosios Loukas is the Pentecost, which is portrayed in the small dome over the sanctuary at the east of the church (Fig. 5.10 and Color Plate II]; G on the plan in Fig. 5.5). Here we see, at the center, the throne of Christ, and above it the dove of the Holy Spirit. From the throne rays descend upon4 HEAVEN ON EARTH Fig. 5.10. Si the sanctuary of the Ka cleverth century. The mosaic is seen in situ i Color Plate Hl. (courtesy j Powell) the heads of the twelve apostles, who are arranged in pairs facing each other, with Peter and Paul on the eastern side of the vault. The two principal apostles can be recognized from their customary portrait types: Saint Peter has short white hair and a short, curly white beard, while Saint Paul is depicted with a balding head and a full, pointed dark beard. This mosaic, in its circular dome, corresponds to Saint Basil’s description of the Pentecost as a circle of seven weeks that retums upon itself. The scene is also appropri- ately placed; it was above the heads of the officiants who were in the sanctuary below, and who were, like the apostles, overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. Below the dome, in the tri- angular pendentives, ate depictions of the sixteen nations who were evangelized by the apostles after the Spirit had descended upon them. At the bottom of the hierarchy, on the lower walls and vaults of the church, are the portraits of earthly saints. In these mosaics there is a clear reflection of the healing cult that was centered on the relics of Holy Luke. The two most prominent images are both of saintly healers: Saint Panteleimon and Holy Luke. ‘These ovo mosaics are set relatively low down, and thus are more accessible to the worshipers who might wish to address their prayers to the saints, Saint Panteleimon is portrayed on the western wall of the south arm. of the church (Fig. 5.11; H on the plan in Fig. 5.5). In real life he was a doctor; he is shown holding the tools of his trade, a box containing medical instruments in his left hand and a surgeon's scalpel in his right hand. {n the same position on the other side of the church, on the western wall of the north arm, is the image of Holy Luke (Fig. 5.12; on the plan in Fig. 5.5). His mosaic portrait is placed directly opposite his shrine (J on the plan in Fig. 5.5), which became the focus of his cult. Unlike the doctor saint Pantelei- mon, Holy Luke does not hold medical instruments; he is curing by different means, which are spiritual. According to the written Life of the saint, before he worked a healing miracle Holy Luke would life up his two arms in prayer, and that is how he is shown he: 5 THECYCLEOF Ih MAGES IN THE CHURCH 35 ig. 5.11 Stiri (Phokis), Hosios julkas, south atin ofthe aos of the Kath tury (HL Maguire ‘mnteleiman Fig. 5.12 Stiris Phokts), Hosios Loukas, north sam of the naos of the Katholiton, Holy Luke, mosiie, clever, cennary. (courtesy C. Connor) In the image of Holy Luke, the artist stressed the immateriality of the saint to a far greater extent than was the case in the mosaic of the Virgin Mary in the apse (compare Color Plate Ili). In the latter image, a balance was sought between the incorporeal and the corporeal, as an expression of the union of the divine and the human natures of Christ. The portrait of Holy Luke, on the other hand, is almost entirely frontal, with a marked bilateral symmetry governing all aspects of the composition, from the positions of the upraised hands ro the folds of the cloak. Each side of the mosaic echoes the other; only in the direction of Saint Luke's eyes is there a hint of movement. The mosaic core- sponds to ideal images expressed in the written lives of Byzantine saints, In their biogra:136 HEAVEN ON EARTH, Fig. 5.13 Daphni, monastery church, late eleventh early twelfth century. Longitudinal (east-west) see- tion. (afte R. W. Schule: and S.H. Barnsley, The Monastery of Saine Luke of Sins London, 1901}, fg. 7) phies, ascetic monks such as Holy Luke were compared to living monuments, or columns, of virtue. ‘They had human feelings, bur they overcame their emotions by means of the greatness of their minds. They wasted their bodies through fasting and self-denial, so that they became incorporeal. According to his biographer, Holy Luke was able to levitate himself a cubit from the ground whenever he prayed. The flat and motionless character of his portrait, therefore, was not due to clumsiness on the part of the artist, but was in- tended to speak about the nature of the saint, about his inflexibility, his disembodiment and his lack of materiality, which made him especially close 10 God, and especially good at healing. Nearly a hundred years after the setting of the mosaics at Hosios Loukas, a sumptuous, mosaic decoration was created for another church in Greece: the Katholikon of the monastery at Daphni, about six miles (10 km) from Athens. The late eleventh- ot early twelfth-contury building, like other Byzantine churches of the period, is relatively small, and dominated by a central dome. The monastery itself was a much older foundation, going back to the Early Byzantine period, and it may have been, in tum, founded on the site of a pagan sanctuary dedicated to Apollo. 5. THECYCLE OF IMAGES IN THE CHURCH nT Inside the church at Daphni, it can be seen that the system of decoration is in many, but not all, respects similar to that of Hosios L s (Fig. 5.13). There is a heavenly zone, represented by the dome, which carries the image of Christ looking dows: from heaven. Between the windows of the dome are the prophets. As at Hasios Louks, the zone of the incarnation is represented by the four squinches that carry the drur of the dome, and also by the apse over the sanctuary. However, at Daphni the images of the incamation also continue on the upper walls of the cross arms of the church, to the north, south, and wes The lower walls are occupied by images of earthly saints, In «ts broad outlines the hierar chic scheme is similar to that of Hosios Loukas, descending from top to bottom, from heaven to earth. Bur chere are some significant differences ir. the selection of scenes, and in the way in which they are depicted. In particular, the Virgin Mary plays @ much larger role in this church than she did at Hosios Loukas, where the cult of a male ascetic was celebrated. This increased interest in the Virgin is a phenomenon that occurs elsewhere in Byzantine culture at this time, and also in Western Europe. It is accompanied by a dis- tinct softening of the ascetic austerity that had characterized the older mosaics of Hosios Loukas. ‘Our viewing of the church must start with the great image of Christ, which stares down, at the worshiper from the center of the dome (Color Plate V). We know the effect that this image would have had on the mind of a Byzantine viewer, from Mesarites’s description of the similar mosaic that he saw in the centrat dome of the Holy Apostles church in Con- stantinople. Describing the features of Christ, the Byzantine writer declared: “His eyes, to those who have achieved a clean understanding, are gentle and friendly and instill the joy of contrition in the souls of the pure in heart ... to those, however, who are condemned by their own judgment, (the eyes) are scornful and hostile and boding of ill” The « Fig. 5.14 Daphai, monastery church, dome. (Christin heaven, mosaic, late eleventh—early twelfth century. This photograph was taken be- fore the restorations compare Cofor Plate V. (after G, Miller, Le Monastire de Daphni [Paris, 1899], fig 48)138 HEAVEN ON EARTH Fig. 5.15 Daphai, monastery chute, apse vault. Vewin ceotheoned with the Christ Child, partially destroyed ost, late eleveath-early ewelfth century. (compare 3. Pose) pression, then, looked friendly to the virtuous, but terrifying to the wicked. It should be noted that when the mosaic at Daphni was restored at the end of the nineteenth century, the restorers altered the expression slightly, for the original mosaic, seen in the old photo- ‘graph in Figure 5.14, was more frowning and severe. Mesarites’s reaction to the image was probably inspired by a striking feature of such portraits of Christ, namely the marked dis- parity in the treatment of each side of the face, which can be seen particularly in the shapes and sizes of the ewo eyes and in the lines of the eyebrows (compare Fig. 3.1). This image of Christ as judge, examining those below, made the whole space of the church into a courtroom, set up for the judgment and hoped-for remission of the suppli- cant’s sins. The saints, and especially the Virgin Mary, played an essential role in inter ceding with Christ on behalf of the worshiper; thus, paradoxically, the more Christ was seen as stern and judgmental, the greater was the appeal to his human bonds with his mother, the channel for divine mercy. We shall sce at Daphni thar the severe image of Clyist in the dome is accompanied by much gentler scenes portraying the early life of his mother, scenes that are full of charm and human sentiment As at Hosios Loukas, the apse of the sanctuary is devoted to an image of the Virgin, of which the upper part is lost (Fig. 5.15). All that is preserved is the throne of the Virgin, and the lower part of the Christ Child, clothed in a gold robe, holding a scroll, and en- throned on his mother’s lap. As at Hosios Loukas, the mosaic at Daphni portrays Christ's two natures. He is shown as an infant, but at the same time the Virgin is given a heavenly honor guard of two archangels, Michael and Gabriel (Fig. 5.16), who are depicted in the niches on either side of the apse. The angels are dressed in imperial costumes, with red pearl-studded boots, and, like Byzantine emperors in their portraits, they stand on plump cushions (compare Color Plate XV and Fig. 7.22). The imperial attributes of the archangels show that they are the leaders of the heavenly hosts. 5. THE CYCLE OF IMAGIS IN THE CHURCH 9 ig. 5.16 Daplni, monastery church, flanking the apse vaule Archangel Gabriel, mosaic, lare cleventh-carly welfth century (courtesy }. Powell) The series of scenes of Christ's life begins with the Annunciation of his birth, which occupies one of the four squinches (Fig, 5.17). This is one of the most famous mosaics in all of Byzantine art, and it could not present a greater contrast to the comfortable domes- tic clutter of a Flemish painting of the same subject, such as the famous Merode altarpiece by the Master of Flemalle. In the Byzantine mosaic at Daphni, the drama is played out against a completely abstract gold ground, which is sumpruous and austere at the same time, There is an apparent simplicity to the composition, but it effectively presents a complex idea. The angel speaks to the maiden across the vcid of the niche, so that the ac tual space created by the architecture of the church becomes part of the composition. The space divides the human from the heavenly being. The angel, still airbome as we see from his feet, comes flying down from heaven to deliver his message. There is a notable differ- ence between the archangel Gabric! as he appears in this mosaic and his demeanor in the sanctuaty (Fig. 5.16), where he acted the role of guard for the Virgin enthroned in heaven. No longer stiff and frontal, the angel here comes rushing earthward, with a run- ring gait and a swirl of drapery over his left arm. The angel’s movement, and the accom- panying play of drapery over his limbs, is reminiscent of such classical works of art as the reliefs of victories from the temple of Athena Nike on the Aksopolis at Athens. Classical elements of this kind had more than an aesthetic value in Byzantine art; they could func- tion as signs of the corporeal, in this case, of the angels ezrthly role in the incarnation. ‘The Virgin, meanwhile, has risen from her throne to hear the angel speak and to give her reply. Her eyes are tured away from her visitor, because, as many Byzantine commen- tators on this scene remarked, she was fearful at the argel’s sudden appearance. We should note the small towel or handkerchief tucked into the belt at the Virgin's waist; this,140 HEAVEN ON EARTH 5. THECYCLE OF IMAGES INTHE CHURCH, 1h yonastery church, naos. The Annunciation to the Virgin, mosaic, late levench-early twelfth sy J Powell) article will appear again, as the Virgin will use it to wipe away her tears in the mosaic of the Crucifixion (Fig. 5.23). Here, as at Hosios Loukas, the beginning of the cycle already anticipates the end. By contrast with the Annunciation, the mosaic of the Nativity at Daphni is full of lively detail (Fig. 5.18). The angels announce the birth to the shepherds on the right, while their flocks drink from a stream. The younger shepherd appears to respond to the news enthusiastically, while the older one pensively strokes his chin, as if he cannot quite believe such a fantastic account, even from an angel. The rays of the star illuminate the child, while the ox and the ass look over the side of the crib. The form of the crib, of stone with an arched decoration at its end, is similar to that of Christ's sarcophagus, as it was shown in Byzantine portrayals of the two Marys weeping beside his tomb. Thus the viewer is reminded again of the forthcoming death of Christ. Similar parallels between Christ's birth and death were heard in the Byzantine liturgy. For example, a hymn that Fig.5.18 Daphni, monastery church, naos. Nativity of Chis, mosaic, late ebovench-early twelfth century. This mo sic seen in situ in Figure 4.22. Compare with Figures 5.6, 731, 734, and 7.48, (courtesy J. Powell) was sung on Good Friday imagined the words of the Virgin’s lament as she mourned het dead son: “I will wind you in a winding cloth, my son, instead of in swaddling clothes, | will place you in a dark tomb, my light, instead of in a crib.” ‘The third of the squinches under the dome portrays the Baptism (Fig. 5.19). As at Ho- sios Loukas (Fig. 5.9), Saint John just touches the head of Christ with the tips of his fin gets, as a sign of the divine status of the naked man before him. Saint John also looks upward as he performs the rite, a posture that one Byzantine commentator attributed to the saint’s desire to avoid the dizziness that would come over him if he looked directly at Christ. ‘The fourth squinch at Daphni portrays the Transfiguration of Christ on the mountain (Fig. 5.20). In the center of the upper part of the niche appears the transfigured Christ, clothed entirely in white and framed by an almond-shaped mandorla of light. He is flanked by two prophets, Moses and Elijah. Down below, on the slopes of the mountain,Fp. 5.19 Dap, eomsstery cure, aos. Baptism of Christ, moss, late eleventh-carly twelfth century. Compere the representation of che Bapsim in Fyre 59. (courtesy. Powell) Fig. 5.20 Daphni, monastery church, naos. Tansfiguration of Christ, mosaic, late eleventh early ewelfth century, (courtesy J. Powell) 5 THECYCLE OF IMAGES IN THE CHURCH 43 we see the three favored disciples who witnessed the Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John. Each one of them is in a different posture, Mesarites, in his description of the mo- saics in the Holy Aposties church at Constantinople, explained what their positions mean. He said that the three disciples are struggling to emeige from the state of sleep into which they had fallen before the event: John, at che center is still slamberings James, on the right, has managed to rise partly from the ground, but is still heavy with steep; while Peter, on the left, the most vehement of the apostles, is able to spring up from the ground and address Christ.'* More than this, however, we may observe that the reactions of the apostles serve to divide the mosaic into zones representative of the divine and the humat The composition of Christ and the two prophets above, set against an abstract gold back- ground, is relatively motionless. The poses of the two prophets mirror each other. But the composition of the three apostles below, set against a flowering terrain, is more indicative of movement, for each is at a different stage of awakening. In medieval thought, motion was a sign of time, because time had been created by God along with the moving crea tures of the creation. Therefore, the three apostles, with theit varied postures, ate a foil for the relatively motionless tableau of Christ, who is hore seen transfigared, which is to say, outside of time. ‘At Daphni the scenes of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ are not presented in the narthex, as at Hosios Loukas, but in the north and south arms of the naos. The se quence opens with Christ’ Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, which is depicted in the north arm (Fig, 5.21). Again, there is a balance of clements signifying the two natures Fig. 5.21 Daphni, monastery church, naos. Christ's Encry into Jerusalem, mastic, late eleventh-early weltth ‘century. (courtesy J. Powell)144 HEAVEN ON EARTH Fig. 5.22 ‘Thesalonike, Hala Sophia, dome. Ascension of Christ, mosaic, ninth ceanury. (Photo Lykides, Thesalonike) of Christ. The mosaic shows Christ riding on a donkey toward the city of Jerusalem, whose inhabitants pour out of the gates to greet him, some bearing palms. The artist is careful to indicate that the people welcoming Christ are of all different ages, from the white-haired old man at the center of the group, to the middle-aged man with full dark hair on the far left, to the beardless youth between them, There are children, too, some strewing their garments at the feet of Christ's mount, others pulling branches from the palm trees. The variety of age groups helps to underline the temporal nature of the event. By contrast, the pose of Christ makes reference to his divine nature and to his eternal rule. In this image, as in virtually all Byzantine versions of the Entry into Jerusalem, Christ does not sit astride the beast; he sits sidesaddle, so that his body is facing us. In Western medieval art, on the other hand, Christ was usually depicted sitting astride the ass, facing forward toward the animal's head. The sidesaddle pose of Christ in the Byzan. tine mosaic has the effect of stopping the motion of the procession; Christ is not only going from left to right, but he is facing us as if he were enthroned. This paradox, of the lowly beast being a throne, of motion and immobility, was often heard in Byzantine church poetry and sermons. The sixth-century poet Romanos, in a kontakion on the feast ‘THE CYCLE OF IMAGUS IN THE CHURCH 145 Fig. 5.23 Daphni, monas ‘of Christ, most, Ite eleventh early ewelfh century. ‘Compare the same seene in Color Plate TVA and Figures, 5.1, 5.2, 6.29, 8.20, 8.29, and 8.39, (couatesy J. Powell) iy che, naos. Crucifixion of the Entry, wrote: “You... are carried on a throne in heaven, but on a foal on earth, Christ the God... now You have mounted a foal, You who possess heaven as your throne.” The same idea was repeated in Byzantine sermors, such as a homily on Christ’. Entry by the emperor Leo VI: “He who has mounted the heaven of heavens is put on a foal; He who is seated upon the cherubim is sitting on the back of a dumb beast."!6 ‘The Byzantine artist responded to these texts with a small but significant detail. He lowered the head of the animal in the mosaic, so that its neck and back created an arc, which became a visual echo of the arc of heaven. Christ is seen sitting on an arc, for ex- ample, in Byzantine images of the Ascension, when he is cartied aloft by angels (Fig. 5.22). Thus the lowly beast of burden became the throne of heaven; it was a visual pun, appropriate for the Byzantines, who loved puns of all kinds. In the same north arm of the church, opposite the Entry into Jerusatem, is the mosaic of the Crucifixion (Fig. 5.23). Like the mosaic in Hosios Loukas (Color Plate IV.A), the composition at Daphni is reduced to its essentials the crucified Christ, the Virgin, and Saint John. The depiction of the Virgin is especially moving as an understated portrayal of grief. Her eyes are narrowed from weeping, as she looks up at the dead body of her son. She holds her handkerchief to her face to catch her teats; this is the same cloth that we saw her wearing earlier, in the mosaic of the Annunciation, At the same time, the Virgin raises her right hand toward her son in a beseeching gesture; the gesture is one of inter- cession. Conceptually, it is directed not only at the suffering Christ on the cross, but also at the fearsome judge in the dome above (Fig. 5.14 and Color Plate V). She is interceding46 HEAVEN ON EARTH Fig. 5.24 Daphni, monastery church, west wall of af ny. Compare # ‘aos. Koinesis (Dormitio View, ose, late cleveoth-early ewelfth urteenth, uty dpi & jon of tho Dormition in Color Plate VE with Christ on behalf of the viewer, supporting her appeals for his mercy with the bond of humanity that is demonstrated by her suffering. The green plants that can be s ing from the base of the cross counterbalance the message of sorrow; they identify the cross as the tree of life, a sign of hope and renewal. The final mosaic in the cycle of Christological scenes at Daphni is the feast known as the Koimesis, Greek for the Dormition (fallin eep) of the Virgin (Fig. 5.24). The church itself is now dedicated to this festival. This mosaic is placed at the west end of the naos, over the western door, which was the usual place for the Dortmition in Byzantine churches. The scene portrays the last episode in the life of the Virgin, and also the last ap. pearance of Christ on earth. According to the apocryphal account, when the Virgin was about to die in Jerusalem, the apostles were miraculously transported on clouds from the lands where they had been evangelizing so that they could assemble at her bedside. Then, at the appointed hour, Christ appeared rogether with his angels, and transported Mary's soul to heaven. At Daphni the central part of the mosaic is missing, but we can see the apostles gathered at each end of the Virgin's deathbed, with Saint Peter by her head and Saint Paul at her feet. The central portion of the composition has to be supplied by an- other mosaic, such as the early fourteenth-century work on the west wall of the naos of the Chora monastery church (Kariye Camii) in Constantinople (Color Plate VI). Here wwe see how Christ comes framed by his angels in a mandorla of light. He takes the soul of the Virgin into his arms, in order to transport it up to heaven. It is noteworthy that the Virgin's soul is in the form of a little swaddled baby, so that the image is, in effect, an echo of the one in the apse at Daphni, namely the mosaic of the Virgin holding her son (Fig. 5.15). een grow: 5 TH CYCLLE OF IMAGES IN THE CHURCH of the typical Byzantine church there were mirror ir ern apse the mother held her infant son, c soul of his mother. Both ima mmilarity was a closing of th or Leo VI sun poems, which he devoted to an icon of the Dormition. Addressing the Virgin, he wrote “Beca you are held in the b ina xl on the western wall the son held the inf ratic id thei: earthly existence. The Byzantine emper es were demon: of Christ’s of the in nn in one of his i up this idea © you held God when is of f of the intimacy of the Virgin’s bord with C tiveness of her intercession The role of the Vi mosaics at D ras invested with flesh (..e., when Christ was a baby), D2 3od when you are divested of fesh (ivc., a8 2 sou rist, and thus of the The wo s were double pre , ystery of the incarnation is also portrayed in a series of phni that depict her early life. Each of these mosaics corresponds to a scene hist; that is, th ne Virgin's birth, a Nativity of the Virgin, and her Presentation in the temple. Byzantine Lomilists, when they preached nthe feast days of the Virgin, explained that her early life paralleled that of he kind of foreshadowing and confirmation of the it at prophecies for gin were first d Annunciation of on as a rist, much as Old ‘Testa: ihadowed the New Testament. The scenes of the infancy of the Vir- ibed in apocryphal Gospels composed in Egypt during the Early amation of C Fig. 5.25 Daphhni, monastery church, narthex. Annunciation to Stint Anne and Saint Joachim, mosaic, late eleventh early raelfth cencuy. (courtesy J. Powel148 HEAVEN ON EARTH north ara, ‘of oaos, Nativity of che Virgin, mosaic, late cleventh-early weltth century. (courtesy J, Powell) Christian era, but the stories were illustrated with increasing frequency in Byzantine art, especially from the twelfth century onward. At Daphni the first episode of the Virgin's life, the Annunciation to her mother, Saint Anne, is shown in the narthex (Fig. 5.25). At the center of the mosaic, Saint Anne is seen going out to a colored marble fountain ro fetch water. She was barren, and wanted a child. While she was at the fountain, she looked up and saw the sparrows in their nests in the laurel trees. She started to complain: if the birds in their nests could have offspring, why could not she? Her laments were heard, both by an angel in heaven, and by a servant girl, who is glimpsed hiding behind the curtain in the doorway of the house on the left. On the right, the scene shifts to the wilderness, where Saint Anne's husband, Saint Joachim, is sitting and fasting for forty days and forty nights, so that his wife can conceive a child, Finally, an angel comes to tell hhim that his prayers have been granted. Here, then, we have the Annunciation in re- verse; the angel comes not to the woman but to the man. The telling of this story is quite different from the mosaic of the Annunciation to the Virgin in the same church (Fig. 5.17). In the Annunciation to Saint Anne, the artist et- phasizes those features that bring the events down to earth: the picturesque details of the fountain, the birds in the tree, the servant girl behind the curtain. But the Annunciation tothe Virgin takes place against an abstract gold ground. The difference in treatment cor- responded to Byzantine conceptions of the two events. Homilists preached that the greater mitacle was preceded by the lesser; the emperor Leo VI said that the birth of Christ was “above nature,” while that of the Virgin was only “above hope.” Thus the mosaic in the narthex (Fig. 5.25), seen by the visitor upon entering, low down in the building, with its details of daily life, is a preparation for the greater mystery that is to be seen within, high up under the dome, shorn of earthly trappings, silhouetted against gold (Fig, 5.17). 3 THECYCLE OF IMAGES IN THE CHURCH 149 Fig. 5.27 Daphni, monastery church, south aron of inaos, The three Magi before Christ cleventh-carly twelfth century. (courtesy J. Powel The next episode is the birth of the Virgin, which is presented not in the narthex, but in the main church, on the eastern wall of the northern cress-arm (Fig. 5.26). In this po- sition, it is presented as a pendant toa matching scene from the life of Christ, namely the visit of the three Magi, which is shown in the corresponding position on the eastern wall of the southern cross-arm (Fig. 5.27). Conceptually, the two scenes are mirrors of each other. Both are presented with royal pomp, and both concer the presentation of gifts to a newborn child. In the birth of the Viegin (Fig. 5.26), the mother, Saint Anne, is sitting upon a magnificently decorated couch covered with a purple cloth that has been embroi- dered with gold, while ewo women approach with presents for the child; the sumptuous furnishings and the women bringing gifts echo the cererronies that accompanied the birth of an imperial child at che Byzantine court. A servant standing behind Saint Anne holds a fan to cool her, and below her the infant Vizgin is, like Christ, given her first bath. In the pendant mosaic of the Adoration of the Magi (Fig. 5.27) we see the Virgin holding the infant Christ on her lap, while the three Magi are led forward with cheir gifts by an angel. Here, too, there is a reversal of the sexes: the two infants, female and male, and the bringers of gifts, female and male. The patter of parallels is continued in the next scene from the infancy of the Virgin, which is shown in the narthex. Here is portrayed the Presentation of the Virgin, who was brought into the temple at the age of threc by her parents, so that she could live there until it was time for her betrothal to Joseph (Fig. 5.28). The Virgin and her parents are accompanied on the right by a whole crowd of the daughters of the Hebrews, carrying lamps. On the left, the Virgin is received at the holy of holies by the priest Zacharias. The temple itself is outfitted like a Christian church, with furnishings of colored marbles: a sanctuary screen, a ciborium over the altar, and a stepped bema behind, complete with a150 HEAVEN ON Fig. 5.28 Daphnt, monastery church, narthex. Presentation of the mosaic, late eleventh. early twelfth century. (couttesy J. Powell) bishop's throne on which the Virgin sits. Once again, the sex roles are carefully reversed vis-a-vis the life of Christ. In Christ’s Presentation, he is offered to Symeon by his mother (compare Fig. 5.8); in the Virgin’s Presentation, she is offered by her father, Joachim (Fig. 5,28). The mosaic also illustrates the legend according to which the Virgin was fed by an angel while she lived in the temple. Byzantine homilists saw the angelic feeding of Mary asa reference to the future advent of Gabriel at the Annunciation, and the food itself as an image of the Eucharist, We have seen, then, that the mosaics at Hosios Loukas and Daphni, separated by not more than a century in time, present different aspects of Byzanrine church art. While the underlying tradition of the images and of their arrangement remained constant, there were also striking variations that corresponded to the differing demands that Byzantine viewers placed upon their religious art, whether for their physical or their spiritual well being, In the case of Hosios Loukas, the cycle of Christological scenes was associated wi images evoking the ascetic virtues of a monastic saint who was the center of a healing cult; at Daphni, on the other hand, appeal was made to the intercessory powers of the Vir- gin through mosaics depicting her infancy and death. Using the most intractable of media, tiny tesserae of glass, terra-cotta, and stone, the Byzantine artists produced works 5 THE CYCLE OF IMAGIS IN THE CHURCH is ir Chaise Note: G. Vasnei, Le Vie de pit seuleor 2, “On the Vietory of th ter, Kontala of Romanos, Byzantine Mele 70), 230-231 19; trims. in C. Mango, The Are of the Byzantine Empire, 312-1453 (Toronto, 1986), 175. See Chapter 8 on other places, products, and ms of healing and the pilgrimage associate with eating sites. Nicholas Mesarites, De: the Holy Aposiles at Constantino n of the Chu XI, XIV. §, and trans. C. Downey, Transactions of the American Philo sophical Sociery, as. 47, pt. 6 (Philadelphia, 1957), 869-871 6, Homilies XVI, 2; ans. Mango, Artof the Bygan- sine Empire, 187, 7. On the Hoty Shire XXVIE, 66; Parologiae cursus Si A.W. Care and L. J. Morraceo, A By (Austin, 1990. y managed to express the central para P Mine (Paris, 1857-66) Koger, tons (Pass, 1969) utier, Rese des Hitles Dyzansines 49 (1991), 12-14 0. Me 870-871 13, eth in Ronae FOrione 5 (1913), 342. 14. Mesittes, Descrvion XVI, 3-5; trans, Downey, 872.813, 15. “On the ery into Jerusalem's ta Konuakia of Romanos, 159-162. 16. PG 107, col. 62C. FT. PG 107, col. 1644. 18. PG 107, col. IB-4A. ices, Description XIV, 3-5; trans. Downey |OGESTIONS FoR FurrHER Ravine imine Masterpiece Recoveral: The Thiwenth-Centery Murals of Lysi, Cyprus ©. L. Connor, Art and Miracles in Madicual Byzanuium: The Crype at Hosios Loukas and les Frescves (Princeton, 1991) C.L. Connor and W. R. Connor, The Life and Miracles of Saint Luke of Steins (Brookline Mass, 1994), (©. Demus, Byamtine Moaic Decoration: Aspects of Monumental Ave in Byzantium (London, L948; rept, New Rochelle, 1976), E, Dies and O. Desuss, Byzantine Mosaics in Greece, Hosias Lucas and Daphni (Cambridge, Mass, 1931). A.W. Epstein, Tokli Kise: Tenth-C ME. Prater, “Hades Stabbed by the Cross of Chris \1ery Metropolitan Artin Byzantine Cappadcea (Washingron, D.C., 986) 2° Meropoliun Museum Journal 9 (1974), 153-161 E, Kitzinges, The Mosais of St. Mary's of the Admiral in Palermo (Washington, DIC, 1991), + "Reflections on the Feast Cycle in Bysantine Art,” Cahiers archéologiques 36 (1988), 51-73. Hi. Mag D. Mouriki, barton Oaks Papers 34-35 (1980-81), 7; 124 PAL K. Weitzmann, Byzon rand Elaguence in Byzantium (Princeton, 1981). cylistic Trends in Monarnestal Paivting of Greece During the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries," Du The Mosaics of Nea Moni on Chios (Athens, 1985) 1, Safran, San Pieto at Otranuo: Byzamuine Artin South Taly (Rome, vderwood, The Kase Djzmi,4 vols, (New York, 1966-75) The Classical in Byzantine Art as a Mode of Individual Expres we ManuscrpeHaminaion (Chicago, 1971) 992), 2 in is Studies in Classical andl