ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: PAINTED MESSAGES OF SALVATION: MONUMENTAL PROGRAMS OF THE SUBSIDIARY SPACES OF LATE BYZANTINE MONASTIC CHURCHES IN MACEDONIA Rossitza Borissova Roussanova, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation directed by: Professor Anthony Colantuono Department of Art History and Archaeology Professor Henry Maguire Department of History of Art Johns Hopkins University This dissertation studies the decorative programs of the ancillary spaces of seven Late Byzantine monastic churches in Macedonia. I suggest that the subsidiary spaces are sites where sacred and secular mixed, and where the faithful prepared for their participation in a higher reality revealed through the Eucharistic liturgy in the church naos. Their monumental programs reflect their liminality and accommodate variety of liminal conditions and transitory points in human life, such as monastic tonsures and penance. Two chapters investigate the representations of Christ?s Healing Miracles. I argue that the proliferation of painted Healing Miracles reflects the religious atmosphere of the Palaeologan period when they became a sign for the righteousness of Byzantine Orthodoxy. In monastic context the painted sick reminded the monks of their spiritual infirmity, and stimulated their penance. The importance of bodily healings I relate to Hesychast teaching according to which the body was a main instrument of salvation. In keeping with the emphasis on the benevolent nature of Christ, the image of the Last Judgment was supplanted by expanded eschatological imagery discussed in chapter four. Indirectly, through Lessons and Parables, Christ was given judicial characteristics which coincide with his complex image as a healer and a judge in edifying literature. In the last chapter on the frescoes in the narthex of the Peribleptos church in Ohrid, I emphasize the importance of the prophets and their visions as models for monastic contemplation. The architectural metaphors of the imagery I interpret not only in relation to the pious undertaking of the donor, but also to the meditations of the monks. PAINTED MESSAGES OF SALVATION: MONUMENTAL PROGRAMS OF THE SUBSIDIARY SPACES OF LATE BYZANTINE MONASTIC CHURCHES IN MACEDONIA by Rossitza Borissova Roussanova Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2005 Advisory Committee: Professor Anthony Colantuono, Co-Chair Professor Henry Maguire, Co-Chair, Johns Hopkins University Professor Anne Derbes, Hood College Professor Emeritus George Majeska Professor Sally Promey ? Copyright by Rossitza Borissova Roussanova 2005 ii For my teacher Annemarie Weyl Carr iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many institutions and people contributed to the successful completion of this dissertation. My work was supported with teaching and museum assistantships by the Department of Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland. The Alison Frantz Fellowship at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens allowed an uninterrupted year of travel and research in Greece. The completion of my degree was made possible by the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan where I was privileged to teach in the last year of my doctoral studies. To Professor Sharon Gerstel I owe my topic, and I thank her for it. I am grateful to Professor Anthony Colantuono who in the most critical moment came to my rescue and advised my work. I am indebted to Professor Sally Promey, Professor Anne Derbes and Professor George Majeska for encouraging my approach to Late Byzantine art. I am especially grateful to my adviser Professor Henry Maguire who taught me that it is important to construct before deconstructing. I thank him for his perceptiveness and support for my work when he did not have to do it. I thank Chad Matthew Schroeder who patiently proofread the whole dissertation and helped me with the complexities of the English language and with the translations from Byzantine Greek. I am wholly indebted to my teacher, Professor Annemarie Weyl Carr, without whose contagious enthusiasm and generosity, I would never have become a Byzantinist or an Art Historian. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations v List of Abbreviations xii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: A Prolegomenon to the Study of Subsidiary Spaces in Byzantine Churches 12 Chapter 2: Christ?s Healing Miracles in the Subsidiary Spaces of Late Byzantine Monastic Churches in Macedonia 53 Chapter 3: The Painted Miracles of Christ and Their Monastic Audience 104 Chapter 4: Eschatological Imagery from the Ministry in the Subsidiary Spaces of Late Byzantine Monastic Churches in Macedonia 149 Chapter 5: Monumental Representations of the Heavenly Ladder in St. George at Omorphokklesia and in the Vatopedi Catholicon on Mount Athos 180 Chapter 6: Sheltering the Divine: Old Testament Imagery in the Narthex of the Virgin Peribleptos in Ohrid 205 Conclusion 265 Illustrations 272 Bibliography 358 v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1 Exterior View from the West of the Church of the Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. 272 Fig. 2 Exterior View from the West of the Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 272 Fig. 3 The Obedient Thief at the Moment of His Confession. Vatican Library, Cod. Gr. 394, fol. 21v. 273 Fig. 4 Confession. Mount Sinai, Cod. Gr. 418, fol. 189v. 273 Fig. 5 Ground Plan of the Protaton Church, Mount Athos. 274 Fig. 6 Drawing of West Wall of Southwest Chapel, Protaton Church, Mount Athos. 275 Fig. 7 Drawing of East Wall of Southwest Chapel, Protaton Church, Mount Athos. 276 Fig. 8 Christ and the Samaritan Woman. Southwest Chapel, Protaton Church, Mount Athos. 276 Fig. 9 Plan of the Narthex of the Church of St. George, Omorphokklesia. 277 Fig. 10 Healing of the Demoniacs. Narthex, Church of St. George, Omorphokklesia. 278 Fig. 11 Expulsion of the Merchants. Narthex, Church of St. George, Omorphokklesia. 278 Fig. 12 Healing of the Ten Lepers. Narthex, Church of St. George, Omorphokklesia. 279 Fig. 13 Healing of the Man Born Blind. Narthex, Church of St. George, Omorphokklesia. 279 Fig. 14 Ground Plan of the Church of the Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. 280 Fig. 15 Calling of Matthew. Narthex, Church of the Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. 281 Fig. 16 Calling of Matthew. Naos, Church of the Ascension, De?ani. 281 Fig. 17 A Fragmentary Scene. Narthex, Church of the Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. 282 vi Fig. 18 Christ, Philip and Nathanael. Narthex, Church of the Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. 283 Fig. 19 Christ talking to His Disciples. London, British Library, Add. 39 627, fol. 39r. 283 Fig. 20 Christ, Philip and Nathanael. Naos, Church of the Ascension, De?ani. 284 Fig. 21 Healing of the Two Blind Men. Narthex, Church of the Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. 285 Fig. 22 Healing of the Woman with an Issue of Blood. South Bay, Esonarthex, Chora Church, Constantinople. 285 Fig. 23 Healing of the Blind and Dumb. Naos, Church of the Ascension, De?ani. 286 Fig. 24 Ground Plan of the Church of Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 287 Fig. 25 View of the South Ambulatory, Church of Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 288 Fig. 26 Healing of the Woman with the Curved Back. South Ambulatory, Church of Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 289 Fig. 27 Healing of the Man with Dropsy. South Ambulatory, Church of Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 289 Fig. 28 Healing of the Demoniac. South Ambulatory, Church of Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 290 Fig. 29 Healing of the Two Maimed. South Ambulatory, Church of Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 290 Fig. 30 Healing of the Paralytic. South Ambulatory, Church of Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 291 Fig. 31 Christ and the Samaritan Woman. South Ambulatory, Church of Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 292 Fig. 32 Wedding at Cana. South Ambulatory, Church of Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 292 Fig. 33 Ground Plan of the Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 293 Fig. 34 Plan of the Narthex of the Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 294 vii Fig. 35 Massacre of the Innocents, Narthex, Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 295 Fig. 36 Temptation of Christ. Narthex, Church of Profites Elias. Thessalonike. 296 Fig. 37 Temptation of Christ. Exonarthex, Chora Church, Constantinople. 296 Fig. 38 Healing of the Demoniac at Capernaum. Narthex, Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 297 Fig. 39 Healing of the Leper at Nazareth. Narthex, Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 297 Fig. 40 Healing of the Centurion?s Servant (?).Narthex, Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 298 Fig. 41 Healing of the Centurion?s Servant. Paris, Bibiolth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 74, fol. 120v. 298 Fig. 42 Raising of the Widow?s Son at Nain. Narthex, Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 299 Fig. 43 Healing of Peter?s Mother-in-Law. Narthex, Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 299 Fig. 44 Healing of the Multitude. Narthex, Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 300 Fig. 45 A Hymnographer (John of Damascus?) and Scenes from the Ministry of Christ. Parecclesion of St. Euthymios, Thessalonike. 300 Fig. 46 Healing of the Multitude. Esonarthex, Chora Church, Constantinople. 301 Fig. 47 Healing of the Multitude. Florence, Laurentiana, VI. 23, fol. 64v. 301 Fig. 48 Healing of the Gadarene Demoniacs. Narthex, Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 302 Fig. 49 Healing of the Archon?s Demoniac Son. Narthex, Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 303 Fig. 50 Healing of the Archon?s Demoniac Son. Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 74, fol. 34r. 303 Fig. 51 Christ Blessing Little Children. Narthex, Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 304 viii Fig. 52 Healing of the Ten Lepers. Narthex, Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 304 Fig. 53 Healing of the Man with a Withered Hand. Narthex, Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 305 Fig. 54 Episodes from the Life of St. Gerasimus. South Ambulatory, Church of Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 306 Fig. 55 West Wall of the Church of the Virgin, Gra?anica. 307 Fig. 56 Archangel Gabriel. Naos, Church of Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 308 Fig. 57 View of the Altar Apse with Painted Ministry. Church of the Ascension, De?ani. 309 Fig. 58 Matthew Presenting His Gospel to Christ. Mount Sinai, Cod. Gr. 152, fol. 16v. 310 Fig. 59 Christ and the Adulterous Woman. The Virgin Church, Gra?anica. 311 Fig. 60 Christ Soter. Church of Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 312 Fig. 61 View of South Bay of Esonarthex. Chora Church, Constantinople. 313 Fig. 62 Christ the Land of the Living. Esonarthex, Chora Church, Constantinople. 314 Fig. 63 Gregory of Nazianzen Distributing Food to the Poor. Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 543, fol. 310v. 315 Fig. 64 Christ Giving Food (Money) to the Poor. Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 1128, fol. 77v. 315 Fig. 65 Drawing of the North Wall with the Virgin and Child Distributing Food to the Poor and The Healing of the Paralytic and the Healing of the Born Blind. Exonarthex, Church of the Holy Trinity, Sopo?ani. 316 Fig. 66 Icon from the Vlatadon Monastery, Thessalonike. 317 Fig. 67 Heavenly Powers with Banners Inscribed with the Epinikios Hymn. Narthex, Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 318 Fig. 68 Drawing of the West Wall of the Northwest Chapel, Protaton Church, Mount Athos. 319 ix Fig. 69 Young Christ Among the Doctors. Northwest Chapel, Protaton Church, Mount Athos. 320 Fig. 70 Young Christ Among the Doctors. Church at Sopo?ani. 320 Fig. 71 Parable of the Withered Fig Tree. Narthex, Church of St. George, Omorphokklesia. 321 Fig. 72 Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Narthex, Church of St. George, Omorphokklesia. 321 Fig. 73 Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Naos, Church of the Ascension, De?ani. 322 Fig. 74 Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Narthex, Church of Archangel Michael, Lesnovo. 322 Fig. 75 Drawing of Temptation of Christ. Norwest Chapel, Church of Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. 323 Fig. 76 Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Northwest Chapel, Church of Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. 324 Fig. 77 Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Florence, Laurentiana Library, Cod. VI. 23, fol. 51r. 324 Fig. 78 Christ Teaching at the Synagogue at Nazareth. Northwest Chapel, Church of Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. 325 Fig. 79 Drawing of Teaching Scene (?).Northwest Chapel, Church of Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. 325 Fig. 80 Ladder of Divine Ascent. Lavra Monastery, Mount Athos, Cod. L 73, fol. 228v. 326 Fig. 81 Ladder of Divine Ascent. Stauronikita Monastery, Mount Athos, Cod. 50, fol. 1 v. 326 Fig. 82 Ladder of Divine Ascent. Narthex, Vatopedi Catholicon, Mount Athos. 327 Fig. 83 Ladder of Divine Ascent. Narthex, Church of St. George, Omorphokklesia. 328 Fig. 84 Ladder of Divine Ascent. Trapeza, Lavra Monastery, Mount Athos. 329 Fig. 85 Plan of the Narthex of the Vatopedi Catholicon. Mount Athos. 330 x Fig. 86 Anastasis. Narthex, Vatopedi Catholicon, Mount Athos. 331 Fig. 87 St. Andrew of Crete. Narthex, Church of St. George, Omorphokklesia. 332 Fig. 88 Ladder of Divine Ascent. Princeton University Library, Cod. Garrett MS 16, fol. 194r. 333 Fig. 89 Last Supper. Narthex, Vatopedi Catholicon, Mount Athos. 334 Fig. 90 Gluttony. Ladder of Divine Ascent. Sinai Monastery, Cod. Gr. 418, fol. 135r. 335 Fig. 91 Gluttony. Ladder of Divine Ascent. Vatican Library, Cod. Gr. 394, fol. 74r. 336 Fig. 92 Gluttony. Ladder of Divine Ascent. Stauronikita Monastery, Cod. Gr. 50, fol. 103v. 336 Fig. 93 Ladder of Divine Ascent. Princeton University Library, Cod. Garrett MS 16, fol. 4r. 337 Fig. 94 Plan of the Narthex of the Church of the Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 338 Fig. 95 Christ Angel with Prophets. Domical Vault, Narthex, Church of the Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 339 Fig. 96 Prophet Habakkuk. Narthex, Church of the Virgin Peribelptos, Ohrid. 340 Fig. 97 Prophet Ezekiel. Narthex, Church of the Virgin Peribelptos, Ohrid. 340 Fig. 98 Frontispiece to the Second Easter Homily. Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 543, fol. 27v. 341 Fig. 99 Personification of Truth. Narthex, Church of the Virgin Levi?ka, Prizren. 342 Fig. 100 Youthful Christ in the Last Judgment. Church of the Ascension, De?ani. 343 Fig. 101 Vatican Sakkos. Vatican Treasury, Vatican City. 343 Fig. 102 Poganovo icon. Crypt of Alexander Nevsky, Sofia. 344 Fig. 103 Prophetic Vision. Apse Mosaic, Church of Hosios David, Thessalonike. 344 Fig. 104 Nativity Hymn. East Wall, Narthex, Church of Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 345 xi Fig. 105 Moses and Aaron in the Tabernacle. East Wall, Narthex, Church of Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 346 Fig. 106 Moses and Aaron in the Tabernacle. Protaton Church, Mount Athos. 346 Fig. 107 Drawing of Ezekiel?s Vision of the Closed Door and Isaiah Being Fed the Live Coal. East Wall, Narthex, Church of Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 347 Fig. 108 Aaron and His Sons. Ambulatory, Church of the Virgin Pammakaristos, Constantinople. 348 Fig. 109 Nations Worshiping Christ. Illustration to Psalm 86:9. Walters Art Museum, W. 333, fol. 52r. 348 Fig. 110 Vision of Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel. Moscow, National Historical Museum, Cod. 2752, fol. 129r. 349 Fig. 111 Exterior View of the Cathedral Church of Hagia Sophia, Ohrid. 350 Fig. 112 ?Sophia Built Herself a House.? South Wall, Narthex, Church of Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 350 Fig. 113 ?Sophia Built Herself a House.? Naos, Church of the Virgin, Gra?anica. 351 Fig. 114 Illustration to Psalm 45: 5-6. Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library, St. Petersburg, MS F 6, fol. 63r. 351 Fig. 115 Bed of Solomon. West Wall, Narthex, Church of Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 352 Fig. 116 Annunciation to the Virgin. Portable Icon, Mount Sinai. 353 Fig. 117 Moses Before the Burning Bush and Moses Receiving the Tablets with the Law. West Wall, Church of the Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 354 Fig. 118 Penitent Monks. Vatican Library, Cod. Gr. 1754, fol. 10v. 354 Fig. 119 Jacob?s Dream of the Heavenly Ladder and Jacob Wrestling with the Angel. West Wall, Church of the Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 355 Fig. 120 Jacob?s Vision of the Heavenly Ladder. Protaton Church, Mount Athos. 355 Fig. 121 The Dream of the King Nebuchadnezzar. North Wall, Narthex, Church of Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 356 Fig. 122 The ?Bejeweled? Naos of Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 357 xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Periodicals and Series: AB Analecta Bollandiana AD Archaiologikon deltion ArtH Art History ArtB Art Bulletin BCH Bulletin de correspondence hell?nique BF Byzantinische Forschungen BIB B?lgarska istoricheska biblioteka BMGS Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies BNJ Byzantinisch-neugriechische Jahrb?cher BS Balkan Studies BSCA Byzantine Studies Conference Abstracts CA Cahiers arch?ologiques CH Church History CorRav Corso di cultura sull?arte Ravennate e Bizantina DChAE Deltion t? s christianik? s archaiologik? s hetaireias DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers ?B ?tudes byzantines ECR Eastern Churches Review EEBS Epet? ris hetaireias byzantin? n spoud? n GOTR Greek Orthodox Theological Review HZ Hilandarski zbornik JECS Journal of Early Christian Studies J?B Jahrbuch der ?sterreichischen Byzantinistik JWAG The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery JWCI Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes LCL Loebs Classical Library OCP Orientalia Christiana Periodica PG Patrologiae cursus completus, Series graeca, ed. J.-P. Migne PPS Pravoslavnii palestinskii sbornik R?B Revue des ?tudes byzantines R?GC Revue des ?tudes g?orgiennes et caucasiennes SCH Studies in Church History SP Studia Patristica SVTQ St. Vladimir?s Theological Quarterly VV Vizantiiskii vremennik ZK Zeitschrift f?r Kunstgeschichte ZLU Zbornik za likovne umetnosti ZRVI Zbornik radova vizantolo?kog instituta xiii Books: L?art byzantin du XIII e si?cle L?art byzantin du XIII e si?cle. Symposium de Sopo?ani 1965. Ed. Voislav Djuri?. Belgrade, 1967. L?art byzantin au d?but du XIV e si?cle L?art byzantin au d?but du XIV e si?cle Symposium de Gra?anica 1973. Ed. Sreten Petkovi?. Belgrade, 1978. L?art de Thessalonique L?art de Thessalonique et des pays balkaniques et les courants spirituels au XIV e si?cle. Ed. Dinko Davidov. Belgrade 1987. The Kariye Djami The Kariye Djami. 4 Vols. Ed. Paul Underwood. Princeton, 1966-1975. The Twilight of Byzantium The Twilight of Byzantium. Aspects of Cultural and Religious History in the Late Byzantine Empire. Eds. Slobodan ?ur?i? and Doula Mouriki. Princeton, 1991. Zidno slikarsvto manastira De?ana Zidno slikarsvto manastira De?ana. Gra?a i studije. Ed. Voislav Djuri?. Belgrade, 1995. 1 INTRODUCTION In this dissertation I study a selection of representations placed in the ancillary spaces of seven late thirteenth- and fourteenth-century monastic churches in Northern Greece and the Republic of Macedonia. 1 In the chapters that follow I will demonstrate how the decorative programs of these spaces reflect their function within the church as sites for preparation and adjustment, and places of penance, prayer, and meditation. These programs were commissioned by high Byzantine secular and ecclesiastical officials, and were executed by groups of itinerant artists trained, most likely, in Thessalonike, the second most important city in the Byzantine empire. Their distinct voluminous style and sophisticated iconographic compositions earned them considerable fame among Byzantine and Serbian aristocracy and clergy. Byzantine ekphraseis of ecclesiastical structures describe how upon entering the church the viewer was transported into a different realm, he was granted a glimpse of the divine and a participation in a reality elevated above mundane concerns. 2 In these learned descriptions the Byzantine church is represented as a meditative device, its columns dance and everything within it grows and moves, stimulating the mind and stirring the imagination. 3 It was exactly this movement that led the eye, as well as the soul, to soaring heights, not only physical but also spiritual. 1 The church of the Protaton and the Vatopedi on Mount Athos, Peribleptos church in Ohrid, St. George at Omorphokklesia, Nicholas Orphanos, Holy Apostles and Profites Elias. The last three monuments are located in Thessalonike. 2 For a more recent treatment of Byzantine church ekphraseis, see Ruth Webb, ?The Aesthetics of Sacred Space: Narrative, Metaphor, and Motion in Ekphraseis of Church Buildings,? DOP 53 (1999), 59-74. 3 Webb, ?The Aesthetics of Sacred Space,? 69; Mary Carruthers, The Craft of Thought. Meditation, Rhetoric, and the Making of Images, 400-1200 (Cambridge, 1998), 257-76. Some scholars considered the dance of columns a literary clich?, see Cyril Mango, Art of the Byzantine Empire 312-1453. Sources and 2 Frequently, Byzantine authors admitted the limitations of their rhetorical abilities because capturing the mysterious beauty of the Orthodox churches was difficult. The language of these architectural descriptions fluctuates?in the twelfth century, the learned Nicholas Messarites switched from classical to Gospel citations when he embarked on the description of the interior of the Holy Apostles church in Constantinople. 4 Thus the secular is separated from the holy not only by architectural but also by linguistic barriers. Byzantines seem to have been captivated by the church naos, and the spaces that preceded it are seldom mentioned, though these spaces too amazed the viewer. In the twelfth century Michael the Deacon wrote of the dazzling effect of the golden mosaics in the narthex of the Constantinopolitan cathedral of Hagia Sophia, and noted its effect on the perception of the whole building, not simply of the vestibule, as otherworldly and transcending material nature. 5 The proximity to the church building ennobled its surroundings?gardens built around churches, for example, were identified with Eden. 6 The authors of church ekphrasies did not discuss in detail the vestibules, ambulatories, side chapels or atria, and preferred to concentrate on the naos and sanctuary. In the sixth century Paul Silentiarius described at some length the western extensions of the newly built Constantinopolitan cathedral, and he admitted that he had neglected the ?center of the church, the most renowned space.? 7 The atrium of the church Documents (Toronto, Buffalo, London, 1972, repr. 1997), 195 n. 62. See also Nicoletta Isar, ??Xor?w of Light:? Vision of the Sacred in Paulus the Silentiary?s poem Descriptio S. Sophiae,? BF 28 (2004), 215-42. 4 Webb, ?The Aesthetics of Sacred Space,? 68. 5 Ibid., 69; Cyril Mango and John Parker, ?A Twelfth-Century Description of St. Sophia,? DOP 14 (1960), 237. 6 Mango, Art of the Byzantine Empire, 195. 7 Ibid., 82. 3 of the Pharos Virgin inspired the curiosity of the ninth-century Patriarch Photios (858- 867, 878-886), but it was the interior that fully captivated his imagination and pen. 8 Michael the Deacon related valuable information about the architectural relationship between the esonarthex and the exonarthex of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople: ?But that structure before the nave (the inner narthex), loftier than those which are before it (the outer narthex)?? 9 However, unlike the more detailed description of the nave and the sanctuary, Michael?s discussion of the esonarthex is ?couched in generalities.? 10 The exteriors of Byzantine churches allow an important observation: an obvious hierarchy develops from the treatment of the different spaces; the naos is usually most prominent with its raised dome, while the subsidiary spaces cascade below in a gradual embrace of the nave (Figs. 1, 2). The church interiors convey a similar feeling: the naos is better lit, while the narthex and the ambulatories are much dimmer; they are sites for adjustment of the senses. 11 A church?s focal point, the sanctuary, is framed by a series of openings, and is visible only if one stands on the east-west axis of the building; any lateral view is partially obscured by walls, corners, and projecting pilasters which envelope the naos in a protective cocoon. Clearly, the Byzantines treated the fabric of the church building as a series of elevations that allowed the different amount of lighting inside to articulate spaces for different experiences. The architectural treatment of the church?s subsidiary spaces seems to define them as secondary. But were they? In this 8 Ibid., 185-86. 9 Mango and Parker, ?Twelfth-Century Description,? 237. 10 Ibid., 243. 11 Darkness is thought as especially conducive to contemplation, see Carruthers, Craft of Thought, 215-16. 4 dissertation I will argue that their architectural prominence and sophisticated painted programs reveal their enhanced status within the church building. Discussions of the architectural features and decorative programs of porticoes and nartheces are rare, and for this reason even more valuable. The Vita Basilii, which records the life of the founder of the Macedonian dynasty Basil I (867-886), describes the open portico of the most celebrated Nea Ekklesia: As you go out of the northern door of the church, you encounter a long barrel- vaulted portico whose ceiling is adorned with painting representing the feats and struggles of the martyrs, thereby both pleasing and rousing the spirit to a divine and blessed love, for the prowess of the martyrs draws the soul toward that love. 12 This is one of the earlier references to the decorative program of a church ambulatory. The author, the emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenetos (913-959), provides valuable information by identifying the function of the paintings in the portico?they not only beautify the space, but also serve the spiritual needs of the audience. Since antiquity, physical movement within a colonnaded space was considered conducive to movements of the soul. Romans and early Christians used the side isles of villas and churches as places of fruitful meditations and mental inventions. 13 The ancillary spaces of Byzantine churches were dimmer and required greater concentration in order to navigate and were thereby especially conducive to individual prayers and ascetic exercises. While texts provide little information regarding the use of the subsidiary spaces of Byzantine churches, the abundance of images, both painted and in mosaic, carefully chosen and positioned in nartheces and ambulatories, inform our understanding of the 12 Mango, Art of the Byzantine Empire, 195; Leslie Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium. Image as Exegesis in the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus (Cambridge, 1999), 257. 13 Mary Carruthers, The Book of Memory. A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture (Cambridge, 1990, repr. 1996), 93, 125, 139; Eadem, The Craft of Thought, 177, 179, 259. 5 significance of these spaces. The images chosen to adorn the subsidiary spaces of the church do not seem to follow specific rules, unlike the more rigid program of the naos and the sanctuary. Representations from the life of Christ relating his Passion and post- Resurrection appearances as well as narratives concerned with the life of the Virgin appear in the nartheces of the three well-known Middle Byzantine mosaic churches of Hosios Loukas (ca. 1011), Nea Mone (ca. 1045), and Daphni (ca. 1100). 14 Images inspired by the Old Testament are rarely represented in the subsidiary spaces of Middle Byzantine churches, yet Abraham?s Philoxenia and the Three Hebrews in the Fiery Furnace were painted in the narthex of the twelfth-century church of the Holy Anargyroi in Kastoria. 15 The life of the saint (or saints) to whom the church is dedicated frequently occupies a subsidiary space; thus the life of St. Panteleimon is painted in the narthex of the homonymous church at Nerezi (1164), of St. Nicholas in the narthex of Nicholas tou Kasnitzi, and of Saints Cosmas and Damian in the side aisle of the Holy Anargyroi, both in Kastoria and dated to the twelfth century. 16 Donor portraits commemorating the building and decoration of churches are also commonly placed in the narthex, although there are a number of exceptions, where ktetors appear in the nave and even in the sanctuary. But, as both Branislav Todi? and Svetlana Tomekovi? have noted, it was the 14 Nano Chatzidakis, Hosios Loukas (Athens, 1997), figs. 19-24; Doula Mouriki, The Mosaics of Nea Moni on Chios, 2 Vols. (Athens, 1985), 2: figs. 3-4; Svetlana Tomekovi? ?Contribution ? l??tude du programme du narthex des ?glises monastiques (XI e -premi?re moiti? du XIII e s.),? Byzantion 58 (1988), 141. 15 Stylianos Pelekanidis and Manolis Chatzidakis, Kastoria (Athens, 1985), 24-25. Abraham?s Philoxenia appears also in the narthex of the Cappadocian church Karanlik Kilise, whose paintings seem to reflect the artistic tendencies of the Byzantine capital, see Marcell Restle, Byzantine Wall Paintings in Asia Minor, 3 Vols. (New York, 1967), 2: G?reme chapel 23 (Karanlik Klise), plan. 16 Ida Sinkevi?, The Church of St. Panteleimon at Nerezi. Architecture, Programme, Patronage (Wiesbaden, 2000), 68-71; Pelekanidis and Chatzidakis, Kastoria, 24-25, 52. 6 Last Judgment that was most frequently represented in the nartheces of Middle Byzantine churches, especially of those in the provinces and in neighboring Serbia. 17 These Middle Byzantine decorative schemes remained in use later, but supplementary themes were added, such as the Ecumenical Councils, Old Testament visions, the Menologion and the Akathistos Hymn, the Ladder of Divine Ascent, and Christ?s Ministry. 18 The representations of the Last Judgment are restricted mostly to cathedral churches; it is painted, for example, in the narthex of the late thirteenth-century cathedral of St. Demetrios in Mystra (late thirteenth century) and in the Virgin Levi?ka in Prizren (ca. 1300). Of the monuments studied in this dissertation the Last Judgment is painted only in the exonarthex of the church of St. George at Omorphokklesia (ca. 1300), but it is important to account for its relationship with the Mavriotissa monastery in Kastoria, which also has the Last Judgment in the narthex. The threatening representations of Christ?s Second Coming were replaced by lengthy cycles that represent him as benevolent and compassionate. The image of Jesus as a judge was not overlooked, but was constructed more subtly through visualization of his teaching and parables. A noteworthy feature of the programs of Late Byzantine subsidiary spaces is the 17 On the representations of the Last Judgment in the narthex, see Karin Skawran, The Development of Middle Byzantine Fresco Painting in Greece (Pretoria, 1982), 50-52, 174-75; Branislav Todi?, ?L?influence de la liturgie sur la decoration peinte du narthex de Sopo?ani,? in Drevneruskoe iskusstvo. Rus?. Vizantia. Balkany XIII veka, ed. Olga Etingoff (St. Petersburg, 1997), 49; Svetlana Tomekovi?, ?Le Jugement dernier in?dit de l??glise d?Ag?tria (Magne),? J?B 32/5 (1982), 469-79; Eadem, ?Contribution ? l??tude du programme du narthex,? 140-41. On the iconography of the Last Judgment, see N. V. Pokroskii, Strashnii sud v pamiatnikakh vizantiiskogo i russkogo iskusstvo (Odessa, 1887). 18 Todi?, ?L?influence de la liturgie sur la decoration peinte du narthex,? 49. The tendency of enriching the monumental cycles of the life of the Virgin and the life of Christ and of elaborating their iconography characterizes the art of the Palaeologan era. Scholars have noted the Late Byzantine interest in representations inspired by liturgical poetry (Akathistos Hymn, Nativity Sticheron, Canon of the Soul and portraits of hymnographers) and didactic literature (Ladder of Divine Ascent, Life of St. Gerasimus). See Suzy Dufrenne, ?L?enrichissement du programme iconographique dans les ?glises byzantines du XIII e si?cle,? in L?art byzantin du XIII e si?cle, 35-46; Eadem, ?Probl?mes iconographiques dans la peinture murale byzantine du d?but du XIV e si?cle,? in L?art byzantin au d?but du XIV e siecle, 29-38. 7 sophisticated metaphors conveyed though iconographic choices and spatial relations. Each program does not have only one but many multilayered messages and these are intentionally difficult to decode. Imitatio Dei, stimulated by these decorative programs and being the ultimate purpose of monastic existence, was not an easy undertaking after all. Another salient characteristic of the painted programs of the nartheces of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century monastic churches is the exchange of pictorial themes between the sanctuary and the narthex. When Andreas Xyngopoulos studied the paintings in the church of the Holy Apostles in Thessalonike, he noted that the two icons frescoed at the door of the esonarthex recall the arrangement of the icons in front of the sanctuary. 19 The Old Testament composition of ?Sophia Built Herself a House? is seen in the narthex of the Virgin Peribleptos church in Ohrid, and in the sanctuary of the Annunciation church in Gra?anica. 20 In the eleventh century Jacob?s Dream of the Heavenly Ladder was painted in the sanctuary of the Ohrid cathedral of Hagia Sophia, while at the end of the thirteenth century it was incorporated into the narthex program of the Peribleptos church. A triumphal composition with wheels and cherubim holding banners with the angelic hymn ?Holy, holy, holy,? sung during the Eucharistic liturgy, is painted in the narthex of the fourteenth-century Thessalonikan church of Profites Elias framing the main entrance into the nave. A similar composition, but with angels, once appeared in the sanctuary of the now destroyed ninth-century church of the Dormition in Nicaea. The episode of Prophet Isaiah being fed a live coal was given eucharistic 19 Andreas Xyngopoulos, ?Les fresques de l??glise des Saints-Ap?tres ? Thessalonique,? in Art et Soci?t? ? Byzance sous les Pal?ologues (Venice, 1971), 87. 20 Petar Milkovi?-Pepek, Deloto na zografite Mihailo i Eutihii (Skopije, 1967), 82; see also chapter 6. 8 interpretation in both literary and visual sources, but in the Peribleptos church in Ohrid, it appears in the narthex. Furthermore some of the euchologia, the Byzantine service books indicate that the part of the rite of monastic ordination could take place either in the narthex or at the eastern end of the naos, in the diakonikon. A number of Byzantine penitentiaries, the so-called kanonaria, mention the sanctuary, and some monastic foundation documents indicate the narthex, as a location for confessions. This literary and visual evidence indicates that the church vestibule and the church apse were perceived as liminal spaces where transformations of various natures occurred. 21 The common elements in the painted programs of sanctuaries and ancillary spaces elevate the status of the latter within the hierarchy of the church building. The enrichment of church decorative programs in the Late Byzantine period was not simply a product of the relationship between artists and patrons with refined tastes, but also of a sophisticated cultural and theological environment, in which Thessalonike and Mount Athos played an especially important role. The mystical ideas of the early monastic fathers was revived in the fourteenth century and became the hallmark of the Late Byzantine church life and Orthodox theology. In scholarly literature this spiritual school is referred to as Hesychasm whose premise is that God reveals himself in an immediate communion to men through a ?monological? prayer, known also as the prayer of the mind (noer? proseux?), or Jesus? Prayer, in which the name of God is 21 The transformational nature of the decoration of the sanctuary barrier has been noted by Sharon Gerstel in an unpublished paper delivered at the 2003 Dumbarton Oaks Symposium. For similar cross fertilization between the decorative programs of the narthex and the refectory, see Tomekovi?, ?Contribution ? l??tude du programme du narthex,? 153-54; Gojko Suboti?, Ohridska slikarska ?kola XV veka (Belgrade, 1980), 113; John Yiannias, ?The Wall Paintings in the Trapeza of the Great Lavra? (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1971), 192-99, 274. 9 continuously invoked. 22 The performance of this prayer required certain physical postures and thus literally involved the body and the soul. 23 This religious disposition emphasized a more filial relationship between God and humanity intensified after the eleventh century by ascetics such as Symeon the New Theologian and Niketas Stethatos. Middle and Late Byzantine mystics emphasized how God of the New Testament could become an object of personal experience. 24 Fourteenth-century Hesychasm postulated that salvation was possible only through participation in the mysteries of the Church. Individual asceticism was considered within the frame of the larger Orthodox community. 25 In monastic circles, Hesychasts emphasized not only the importance of prayer, penance, and confession as prerequisites for spiritual catharsis, but also of ministering to the needy. There are a handful of studies that discuss this transformational and cathartic effect of the monumental programs of the vestibules and ambulatories of Byzantine monastic churches. Gordana Babi? has written the only book-length study on the decoration and function of side chapels of Early Christian and Middle Byzantine monuments. 26 Svetlana Tomekovi? has offered a rare summary treatment and an examination of the function of the images in the nartheces of Middle Byzantine monastic 22 John Meyendorff, ?Spiritual Trends in Byzantium in the Late Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Century,? in Kariye Djami, 4: 96-97. 23 Kallistos Ware, ?The Jesus Prayer in St. Gregory of Sinai,? ECR 4/1 (1972), 3-22; Idem, ?Praying with the Body: The Hesychast Method and non-Christian Parallels,? Sobornost 14/2 (1992), 6-35. 24 Demetrios Constantelos, Poverty, Society and Philanthropy in the Late Medieval Greek World (New Rochelle, NY, 1992), 46. 25 Meyendorff, ?Spiritual Trends in Byzantium,? 98-100. 26 Gordana Babi?, Les Chapelles annexes des ?glises byzantines: Fonction litugique et programmes iconographiques (Paris, 1969). 10 churches. 27 The analysis of isolated images within individual monuments is much more common than the studies which attempt to synthesize literary, architectural, archaeological, and visual evidence pertaining to the same space of a group of churches. Furthermore, while scholars have been mostly preoccupied with Middle Byzantine churches, fewer studies treat the monuments of the Last Byzantine period (1261-1453). It is only recently that the importance of Palaeologan art was spectacularly acknowledged in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. 28 Recognition of the artistic achievements of the final days of the Byzantine era is only at the beginning of what should be a long-term area of research. The study of the monumental programs of late thirteenth-, fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Byzantine churches is thus a daunting task. The examination of the paintings in the nartheces and ambulatories of Palaeologan monunemts is even more difficult because, as mentioned above, there are only a handful of studies that offer a model for approaching these multifunctional spaces. The proliferation of subsidiary spaces and the enrichment of their decorative programs, especially in monastic context, indicate that they should not be treated as spaces of secondary significance. The study of the paintings in the nartheces and ambulatories of the seven Macedonian churches in this dissertation offers insight into their function and possible answers for their increasing importance within the architectural fabric of the church. In the chapters that follow I will demonstrate how the decorative programs of the nartheces and ambulatories of Late Byzantine churches highlight the significance of the personal contact with God, thus paralleling contemporary spiritual trends. I will show that 27 Tomekovi?, ?Contribution ? l??tude du programme du narthex,? 140-54. 28 Helen Evans, ed., Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557) (New York, 2004). 11 Hesychasm was a creative force that did not hinder but rather inspired the artistic developments of the Palaeologan era. 29 The images in the ancillary spaces of monastic churches encouraged compunction, instilled fear, or roused the philanthropic spirit of the brethren. They provided a backdrop for physical and spiritual transformations. Infrequently, laity may have been present in these places in order to participate in funeral and commemorative services, and in catechetical instructions. These are liminal spaces that simultaneously connected and separated the church and its faithful from the external, secular world. 29 For a recent treatment of the Hesychasm as a motivating artistic force see the articles by Dragoljub Dragojlovi?, Vojislav Kora?, and Antonie E. Tachios in L?art de Thessalonique. 12 CHAPTER 1 A PROLEGOMENON TO THE STUDY OF SUBSIDIARY SPACES IN BYZANTINE CHURCHES When a twentieth-century pilgrim visited Mount Athos and tried to participate ardently in the Pentecost service at the Lavra monastery, he was challenged by an elderly monk who insisted that because he was not Orthodox he should wait for the end of the Liturgy in the narthex. 1 In the written account of his pilgrimage Graham Speake noted that the isolation of the non-Orthodox from the liturgy in the narthex was meant to indicate the elected status of the Orthodox monks. 2 Did Byzantine monks share similar opinion? Were the narthex and various other ancillary spaces designated for the non-elect and the spiritually contaminated members of the monastic community? The purpose of this chapter is to recreate the function of subsidiary spaces of Byzantine churches through reviewing evidence in ecclesiastical and secular literature. Archaeological excavations and individual architectural features can also shed light on how subsidiary spaces relate to the rest of the church building. I will focus on the importance of these spaces in monastic contexts and concentrate on their use for penitential and contemplative purposes?functions often mentioned, but only briefly considered in scholarly literature. Of particular interest is the literary evidence from Middle and Late Byzantine sources which talk about the penitential use of the narthex and the visionary experiences that occurred at the entrance of the church building. 1 Graham Speake, Mount Athos. Renewal in Paradise (New Haven and London, 2002), 259. 2 Ibid., 247. 13 Finally, I will briefly discuss images of penance and the subject matter associated with this practice. The church narthex has often been described as a multifunctional space that was meant to accommodate a large number of services and, I would suggest in particular, private devotions and various penitential practices. The importance of the ancillary spaces of the Palaeologan churches is evident in their relatively large size; for example, the two ambulatories and the narthex of the fourteenth-century church of Nicholas Orphanos in Thessalonike individually equal the area of its naos (Fig. 24). The narthex provided access to the nave of the church, creating, in a sense, a liminal zone, which was designated for several services that facilitated rites of human passage?baptisms, burials, and commemorations of the dead. 3 In the fourteenth century the narthex of monastic churches functionally replaced the commemorative lateral chapel, which once flanked it. 4 In the narthex morning and evening hourly services were held, and the rites of the Lesser and Great Blessing of Waters were performed. 5 The tonsuring of new monks would also 3 Branislav Vulovi?, Ravanica. Nejno mesto i nejna uloga u sakralnoj architecture Pomoravlia (Belgrade, 1966), 67-76; Slobodan ?ur?i?, ?The Twin-domed Narthex in Palaeologan Architecture,? ZRVI 13 (1971), 333-44; Idem, ?Medieval Royal Tombs in the Balkans: An Aspect of the ?East or West? Question,? GOTR 29/2 (1984), 183; Natalia Teteriatnikov, ?Burial Places in Cappadocian Churches,? GOTR 29/2 (1984), 143-48; Florence Bache, ?La fonction fun?raire du narthex dans les ?glises byzantines du XII e au XIV e si?cle,? Histoire de l?art 7 (1989), 25-33; Natalia Teteriatnikov, The Liturgical Planning of Byzantine Churches in Cappadocia (Rome, 1996), 167-73;Bratislav Panteli?, The Architecture of De?ani and the Role of Archbishop Danilo II (Weisbaden, 2002), 48-73. 4 In Serbia a new liturgical typikon for monastic establishments was introduced in 1319 by the Archbishop Nikodim, in which he prescribed that the commemorative services for dead monks were to be performed in the narthex (?ur?i?, ?The Twin-domed Narthex,? 342-44). Chapels to the west remained in use in the Athonite monasteries of the Great Lavra, Iveron and Vatopedi housing commemorative services for deceased monks (Vasilii Grigorovi?-Barskii, Vtoroe poseshchenie sviatoii Afonskoii Goroii [St. Petersburg, 1887], 13). For the use of lateral chapels for commemorative services for deceased monks and founders, see Babi?, Les chapelles annexes des ?glises byzantines, 40-58, 162-73; Panteli?, Architecture of De?ani, 72. 5 G. Millet, ?Recherches au Mont Athos,? BCH 29 (1905), 109-18; Th?ano Chatzidakis-Bacharas, Les peintures murales de Hosios Loukas: les chapelles occidentales (Athens, 1982), 82-102, 113-18; Sinkevi?, The Church of St. Panteleimon at Nerezi, 17-19. 14 have begun there. 6 Some service books describe how the candidate prostrated himself in front of the abbot in the narthex, and afterwards he was led, unclothed and barefoot, into the naos for the conclusion of his initiation into monastic life. 7 One thirteenth-century euchologion, Sinai, Cod. 971, mentions that the cutting of the hair of a new monk occurs outside of the church (in the narthex?), while in Moscow, Sinod. Lib. Cod. 343 the narthex, or even the diakonikon, are indicated as places of the rite. 8 The use of the narthex in this case is easily comprehensible in view of the symbolic associations between monastic profession, baptism, penance and funeral. 9 Obviously the same architectural and decorated backdrop was considered appropriate for more than one service. Thus penitents and non-tonsured monks were relegated, if only theoretically, to the narthex during the celebration of the Eucharistic liturgy. As a place for the performance of the rite of Hagiasmos, but also as a place for spiritual preparation and cleansing, the narthex, and in some cases the exonarthex, 6 Edward Malone, ?The Monk and Martyr. The Monk as the Successor of the Martyr?( Ph.D. Dissertation, Catholic University of America, 1950), 137; Micha?l Wawryk, Initiatio Monastica in Liturgia Byzantina (Rome, 1968), Appendix, 3, 6; Roman Chohj, Theodore the Studite. The Ordering of Holiness (Oxford, 2002), 180. 7 N. Pal?mov, Postrizhenie v monashestvo. Chiny postrizhenia v monashestvo v Grecheskoii tserkvi (Kiev, 1914), 254-55. 8 Ibid., 257-58. Ka? e?y?vw paralamb?nousin a?t?n o? ?delfo? e?w t? diakonik?n ? e?w t?n n?ryhka ka? koure?ousin a?t?n...To? d? e?agg?liou legoum?nou f?rousin o? monaxo? t?n ?pokary?nta ?delf?n m?son t?w basilik?w p?lhw, ka? ?stam?vou a?to?, ?pidido?si khr?n. for?n t? sun?yh ?m?tia, ?p?zvstow d?, ?nup?detow ka? ?sk?pastow. (And the brothers bring him straight into the diakonikon or in the narthex and cut his hair. While the Gospel is being said the monks bring the candidate to the royal doors [the doors between the narthex and the naos] in Ibid., 260, Appendix, 39.) Fourteenth- or fifteenth-century euchologion (Ibid., 262, Appendix, 62) describes how the monk about to be tonsured goes to the narthex, at the doors of the naos, barefoot and wearing only his chiton. Some euchologia indicate that the clothes one wore were taken off in the narthex. (Mount Athos, Vatopedi, Cod. 133, XIV th century, in Ibid., 303). 9 Malone, ?The Monk and Martyr,? 121-25, 132-36; Chohj, Theodore the Studite, 235-37. For the association between tonsure and death, see Malone, ?The Monk and Martyr,? 136; David Balfour, ?Extended Notions of Martyrdom in the Byzantine Ascetic Tradition,? Sobornost 5/1 (1983), 23; Elena Velkovska, ?Funeral Rites according to the Byzantine Liturgical Sources,? DOP 55 (2001), 36. 15 contained the font for holy water. 10 As a result, in the fourteenth-century Serbian translation of the liturgical typikon of St. Sabas the narthex is referred to by the term koupalnica (from the Greek loutr?n, literally place for bathing), describing it as a space containing the font with holy water, and probably as a place of both physical and spiritual cleansing. 11 In monastic typika associated with the Evergetian tradition there were four rites that took place in the narthex: the diaklysmos (collation, or light meal of bread and wine), the apodeipnon (the office of compline after supper), burials, and the ceremony of the ?Washing of the Feet? on Great Thursday. 12 The collation would have taken place usually before the procession to the trapeza, and, as Gail Nicholl has concluded on the basis of various monastic sources, this was a common feature of monastic life since the eleventh century. 13 The narthex, or sometimes the western part of the church if there were no narthex, has been defined also as a female space. 14 Sharon Gerstel has suggested that it was the 10 Demetrios Pallas, ?H? phiale tou christianikou Parthenonos,? BNJ 10 (1934), 185-98; Slobodan ?ur?i?, ?The Original Baptismal Font of Gra?anica and Its Iconographic Setting,? Zbornik Narodnog Muzeja 9 (1979), 313-30; Sharon Gerstel, ?Ritual Swimming and the Feast of the Epiphany,? BSCA 21 (1995), 78; Olivera Kandi?, ?Fonts for the Blessing of the Waters in Serbian Medieval Churches,? Zograf 27 (1998- 1999), 61-77. Bratislav Panteli? (Architecture of De?ani, 74-76) suggested that the appearance in the fourteenth century of a number of baptismal fonts in a cluster of churches built in Serbian territories might have been due to the symbolic appropriation of the architectural arrangement of the church of the Virgin at Studenica. 11 G. A. Sotiriou, ?Loutrones kai hagiasmata en Attiki,? BNJ 13 (1937), 297-304; Panteli?, Architecture of De?ani, 64. 12 Gail Nicholl, ?A Contribution to the Archaeological Interpretation of Typika: the Case of the Narthex,? in Work and Worship at the Theotokos Evergetis, eds. Margaret Mullet and Anthony Kirby, (Belfast, 1997), 287. 13 Ibid., 289-92. 14 Leo Allatios, The Newer Temples of the Greeks, trans. Anthony Cutler (University Park and London, 1969), 7, 20. On the place of women during services, see Teteriatnikov, Liturgical Planning in 16 women?s importance in burial services, which usually took place in the narthex, that associated this part of the church with them. 15 The narthex of some churches might also have accommodated pilgrims and even beggars who would spend the night there. 16 St. Alexios Homo Dei, for example, spent seventeen years in the narthex of a church dedicated to the Mother of God in Edessa and only after the Virgin intervened a deacon took him inside the nave. 17 An important western extension of Byzantine churches is the space that precedes the narthex: the exonarthex. In some sources it was specified as a place for burials and for preparations of the body for the funeral. 18 For example, Irene Doukaina in the twelfth- century typikon of the Kecharitomene monastery designated the exonarthex for burials. It has also been suggested that the exonarthex of the church at Mile?eva, added ca. 1236, was intended as a final resting place and commemorative chapel for the first Serbian Cappadocia, 125-27; Robert Taft, ?Women at Church in Byzantium: Where, When, and Why?? DOP 52 (1998), 27-87. 15 Sharon E. J. Gerstel, ?Painted Sources for Female Piety,? DOP 52 (1998), 98-102. In his discussion on the place of women in Byzantine churches, Robert Taft (?Women at Church,? 55, 70) has suggested that in the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople ?the women?s narthex? was placed at the northeast side of the building instead of at the west. Taft?s observation is especially interesting since it identifies a different part of the church, not necessarily placed to the west of the building, as the narthex. This is undoubtedly an indication that the Byzantines conceived of the different spaces that enveloped the church as functionally identical. I thank Professor Lioba Theis for discussing with me this aspect of Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture. See also Evangelia Hadjitryphonos, ?Perist?on or Ambulatory in the Byzantine Church Architecture,? Saop?tenia 34 (2002), 140. 16 Richard P. H. Greenfield, ed. and trans., The Life of Lazaros of Mt. Galesion: An Eleventh-Century Pillar Saint (Washington, DC, 2000), 84 n. 47. 17 Jordan Ivanov, Starob?lgarski razkazi (Sofia, 1935), 192. Elka Bakalova (Stenopisite na ts?rkvata pri selo Berende [Sofia, 1976], 61, fig. 14b) has suggested that Alexios? portrait was painted at the entrance of the fourteenth-century church at Berende, Bulgaria for the same reason, echoing the story from his vita. He is also painted in the narthex of the thirteenth-century Ascension church at Mile?eva. See Svetlana Tomekovi?, ?Les saints ermites et moines dans le d?cor du narthex de Mile?eva,? in Mile?eva u istorii srpskog naroda, ed. Voislav Djuri? (Belgrade, 1987), 53, 56, 58, fig. 22. 18 John Thomas and Angela C. Hero, eds., Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents. 5 Vols. (Washington, DC, 2000), 2: 699. 17 Archbishop Sava, who died in 1235. 19 But the exonarthex had other uses too: in the Kecharitomene monastery the apodeipnon, the office of compline after supper during which the nuns were expected to genuflect was carried out in the exonarthex. 20 The penitential character of the space is revealed in the rite that followed: the nuns would fall on their faces to the ground and address the abbess with a prayer of confession. 21 The growing functional importance of the narthex from the eleventh century onward, especially in monastic contexts, is supported by the archaeological and architectural evidence. 22 Many new monastic churches were built with nartheces, or nartheces were added to existing structures. 23 Interest in adding subsidiary spaces to the monastic catholica was initiated by the reform movement started in the eleventh century by Paul Evergetinos. 24 The founders of Middle and Late Byzantine monasteries imitated him and advocated the coenobitic form of monasticism. They emphasized the importance of ecclesiastical duties over manual work and more monks were assigned to various liturgical functions. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, for example, the patriarch Athanasios (1289-1293, 1303-1311) wrote a Rule in which he, following his 19 ?ur?i?, ?Medieval Royal Tombs,? 178. 20 Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 2: 688. 21 Ibid. 22 In some cases the existence of a spacious narthex, especially in Serbia, was justified with the needs of cathedral churches to accommodate large number of people and various rites related to coronations and royal burials. See Vulovi?, Ravanica, 73-74. 23 Nicholl, ?Archaeological Interpretation of Typika,? 297-300. 24 John P. Thomas, Private Religious Foundations in the Byzantine Empire (Washington, DC, 1987), 186- 213; Idem, ?Documentary Evidence from the Byzantine Monastic Typika for the History of the Evergetine Reform Movement,? in The Theotokos Evergetis and Eleventh-Century Monasticism, eds. Margaret Mullet and Anthony Kirby, (Belfast, 1994), 246-73; Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 2: 441-53, esp. 444, 447. 18 predecessors, emphasized the coenobitic lifestyle and strict performance of the liturgy and the canonical hours. 25 Thus one could speculate that the narthex since the Middle Byzantine period grew more important because it was considered the main place of communal gatherings and a starting point of liturgical processions in and out of the church. In the increased communalization and ?liturgisation? of monastic daily life it was the church building and not the individual cell that accommodated the ?minor? hourly rites. 26 Perhaps for similar reasons in the Middle Byzantine period Cypriot monastic churches had nartheces attached to the church. 27 Concurrently exonartheces were also built or added and often took the form of open porches. These were used for variety of functions excluded from the communal space of the narthex. 28 There is also literary and visual evidence which attests to the use of the western extensions of the church for non- 25 Timothy S. Miller and John Thomas, ?The Monastic Rule of Patriarch Athanasios I. An Edition, Translation and Commentary,? OCP 62 (1996), 353-71; Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 4: 1495-1504. 26 Dirk Krausm?ller, ?Private vs Communal: Niketas Stethatos?s Hypotyposis for Stoudios, and Patterns of Worship in Eleventh-Century Monasteries,? in Work and Worship at the Theotokos Evergetis, eds. Margaret Mullet and Anthony Kirby (Belfast, 1997), 324 and n. 57. It is interesting to note that the recreation of a church interior in a separate and distinct part of the monastic cell, called by Niketas synaxis, was suggested as the appropriate place for performance of private prayers in a cell. 27 Athanase Papageorgiou, ?The Narthex of the Churches of the Middle Byzantine Period in Cyprus,? in Rayonnement grec. Homages ? Charles Belvoye (Bruxelles, 1982), 437-48. The influence of the Evergetian tradition is evident in the surviving Cypriot monastic documents, the Rule of Neilos for the Monastery of the Mother of God of Machairas, and the Testamentary Rule of Neophytos for the hermitage of the Holy Cross near Ctyma, see Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 3: 1107-75, 4: 1338-73. 28 For exonartheces added during the Middle Byzantine period, see A. H. S. Megaw, ?The Original Form of the Theotokos Church of Constantine Lips,? DOP 18 (1964), 279-98; Laskarina Bouras, ?Ho exonarthikas tou katholikou tou Hosiou Louka Fokidos,? DChAE 4 (1972), 13-28; Charalambos Bouras, H? Nea Mon? t? s Chio. Historia kai architektonik? (Athens, 1981), 110-14, 151-52; Robert Ousterhout, ?Some Notes on the Construction of Christos Ho Pantepoptes (Eski Imaret Camii) in Istanbul,? DChAE 16 (1991-92), 47- 56; Nicholl, ?Archaeological Interpretation of Typika,? 300-301. For Palaeologan examples of added exonartheces, see Stephan Boiadzhiev, ?L??glise des Quarante Martyrs ? T?rnovo,? ?tudes balkaniques 7/3 (1971), 143-58; ?ur?i?, ?The Twin-domed Narthex,? 333-35; Idem, ?Medieval Royal Tombs,? 184; Panteli?, Architecture of De?ani, 7, 59-61. 19 liturgical functions such as gatherings of church synods. 29 In the eighteenth century the Russian traveler Vasilii Barskii testified to the communal gatherings taking place in the Athonite nartheces. 30 Thus it seems very difficult to establish if the Byzantines understood the churches? western extensions as functionally distinct spaces. The function of ambulatories, which characterize the ecclesiastical architecture of the Palaeologan period, though they are not a Palaeologan innovation, is much more debated and uncertain. 31 It is quite possible that these too were conceived as functional extensions of the narthex. 32 Archaeological evidence from some Late Byzantine churches attests to numerous burials in the spaces that envelop newly constructed buildings or that were added to already standing, earlier churches such as the Constantinopolitan Chora, Virgin Pammakaristos, and the church of the Lips monastery. 33 The monuments in northern Greece, such as the Thessalonikan churches of St. Panteleimon, St. Catherine, Holy Apostles and the Vlatadon catholicon, as well as the Parigoritissa church in Arta, had their subsidiary spaces in most cases built contemporaneously with the main 29 Vladimir Petkovi?, ??i?a. Architectura,? Starinar 1 (1906), 179-87; Panteli?, Architecture of De?ani, 60- 61. Representations of the church synods could appear in the narthex as well as in the exonarthex, see Voislav Djuri?, ?Istorijiske kompozicije u srpskom slikarstvu srednega veka i nigovi kni?evne paralele,? ZRVI 10 (1967), 131-48. Bratislav Panteli? (Architecture of De?ani, 60-61, n. 180) has cautioned that the paintings of the Ecumenical councils in the exonarthex of De?ani, for example, do not indicate that these would have taken physical place there. 30 Barskii, Vtoroe poseshchenie, 85, 96. 31 The ?ambulatory type? church was not a Palaeologan creation and went as far back as the sixth century, see Hans Belting et al., The Mosaics and Frescoes of St. Mary Pammakaristos (Fethiye Camii) at Istanbul, (Washington, DC, 1978), 4 n. 5. 32 See above n. 15. 33 Theodore Macridy, ?The Monastery of Lips (Fenary Isa Camii) at Istanbul,? DOP 18 (1964), 269-72; Cyril Mango and Ernest J. W. Hawkins, ?Additional Notes,? DOP 18 (1964), 301-303; Belting et al., St. Mary Pammakaristos at Istanbul; Robert Ousterhout, The Architecture of Kariye Camii in Istanbul, (Washington, DC, 1987), 54-61, 67, 72-78; Panteli?, Architecture of De?ani, 66-67. 20 building. 34 The eastern ends of these additions were conceived as separate units serving as commemorative chapels or as skeuophylakia (treasuries). Even today the south ambulatory wings of the church of St. Panteleimon in Thessaloniki and St. George at Omorphoklessia are used as storage areas. The painted decoration of the north ambulatory of the church of St. George, a partially preserved donor composition, and scenes from the martyrdom of the patron saint, define a separate place for commemorative services or even some sort of a private chapel for the personal reflections of the ktetors. Panayotis Vocotopoulos and Bratislav Panteli? have argued that the subsidiary spaces of churches in Greater Macedonia, unlike Constantinopolitan examples, were not designated as funerary spaces and thus stood in sharp contrast to the ones in the capital. 35 For a long time it was thought that the absence of tombs in the ambulatories and the nartheces in Thessalonikan churches was related to the character of the patronage in the city, since most of the churches built in the fourteenth century were subsidized by local members of the church, who unlike their aristocratic counterparts, had no extended families in need of special burial grounds. 36 However, systematic excavations conducted between 1959 and 1960 revealed fifteen burials in the ambulatories and the narthex of the 34 Similar development is observed in the fourteenth-century Serbian churches where ancillary spaces were built concurrently with the churches. See Panteli?, Architecture of De?ani, 50-51. 35 Panayotis Vocotopoulos, ?Church Architecture in Thessalonike in the Fourteenth Century. Remarks on the Typology,? in L?Art de Thessalonique, 111; Panteli?, Architecture of De?ani, 57. 36 Vocotopoulos, ?Church Architecture in Thessalonike,? 111. For the character of the patronage in Thessalonike, see Marcus L. Rautman, ?Aspects of Monastic Patronage in Palaeologan Macedonia,? in Twilight of Byzantium, 53-74; Robert S. Nelson, ?Tales of Two Cities: the Patronage of Early Palaeologan Art and Architecture in Constantinople and Thessalonike,? in Ho Manouel Panselinos kai h? epoch? tou, ed. Lenos Mavromatis (Athens, 1999), 127-45. 21 fourteenth-century church of Nicholas Orphanos. 37 Furthermore, Paul Velenis has suggested that the church of the Holy Apostles might have been intended to house the tomb of its ktetors, the patriarch Niphon and the hegoumenos Paul. 38 Burials dated to the Palaeologan period were uncovered in other Thessalonikan churches, among which the church of the Transfiguration, Hagia Sophia, St. Panteleimon, Taxiarches, Panagia ton Chalkeon, 39 and the Vlatadon monastery. 40 It is worth noting that in Thessalonike, in stark contrast with Constantinople and Mystra, tombs were not necessarily associated with portraits of the deceased. To what degree the choice of subject matter was influenced by the humility of those who could afford a burial so close to the sacred remains only very speculative. Cyril Mango and Bratislav Panteli? tried to provide alternative interpretations of the function of the subsidiary spaces in Late Byzantine churches in northern Greece. While the former associated it with unspecified monastic ritual, 41 the latter related it to the processional character of the rites in the cathedral church of Thessalonike, Hagia Sophia, whose ambulatory plan he felt was adopted in later churches. 42 Perhaps as 37 Andreas Xyngopoulos, ?Neotere ereune eis ton Agion Nikolaon Orphanon Thessalonik? s,? Makedonika 6 (1964-65), 95-96. 38 Paul G. Velenis, ?Hoi Hagioi Apostoloi Thessalonik? s kai h? schol? t? s Konstantinoupolis,? J?B 32/4 (1982), 461. 39 Sharon E. J. Gerstel, ?Civic and Monastic Influences on Church Decoration in Late Byzantine Thessalonike,? DOP 57 (2003), 227. 40 Despina Makropoulou, ?Apo to histerobyzantino nekrotapheio t? s mon? s Blatadon,? H? Thessalonik? 1 (1985), 255-309, esp. 289-98. 41 Cyril Mango, Byzantine Architecture, (New York, 1985), 156. Similar opinion expressed Marcus Rautman (?Ignatius of Smolensk and the Late Byzantine Monasteries of Thessalonike,? R?B 49 [1991], 156-57) in his brief discussion of the architecture of the church of the Profites Elias in Thessalonike. 42 Panteli?, Architecture of De?ani, 58. 22 Panteli? has suggested, autonomous devotional chapels were constructed by means of iconography, movable shrines and portable icons, providing a separate space for celebration of saints? cults and individual prayers. 43 The ancillary spaces were defined architecturally and were visually distinguished on the exterior from the rest of the church building. For example, the lack of formal integration between the naos and the ?-shaped ambulatory that envelops the church of the Holy Apostles in Thessalonike was considered evidence for two phases of construction. 44 Dendrochronological analysis, however, has recently proved that all parts of the church were built simultaneously. 45 Marcus Rautman and Robert Ousterhout maintain that the lack of formal integration among different parts of the church should not be taken as evidence of separate building phases. Architecturally the church building was conceived as separate functional elements which were clearly highlighted and visually distinct on the exterior. 46 Ousterhout noted a similar lack of formal coherence in a number of Middle and Late Byzantine churches, such as the twelfth-century Fatih Camii at Enez, and the fourteenth-century churches of St. Panteleimon in Thessalonike and Kariye Djami in Istanbul. 47 A similar architectural feature can be observed in the catholicon of the 43 Ibid., 58-59. Marcus Rautman expressed similar opinion (?The Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki: A Study in Early Palaeologan Architecture,? [Ph.D. Dissertation, Indiana University, 1984], 143) regarding the south ambulatory of the fourteenth-century church of the Holy Apostles in Thessalonike. Rautman suggested that the marked shift of the fresco program from monastic to exclusively military saints in this lateral space might be an indication for its different function, and maybe patronage. 44 Slobodan ?ur?i?, Gra?anica. King Milutin?s Church and Its Place in Late Byzantine Architecture (University Park and London, 1979), 71-74. 45 P. I. Kuniholm and Cecil L. Striker, ?Dendrochronology and the Architectural History of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessalonike,? Architectura 2 (1990), 1-26. 46 Rautman, ?The Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki,? 261-69; Robert Ousterhout, Master Builders of Byzantium (Princeton, 1999), 114. 47 Ousterhout, Architecture of Kariye Camii, 103-105; Idem, Master Builders, 114-15. 23 Chilandar monastery built between 1303 and 1313. Paul Mylonas has noted that although similar, the exterior masonry of the liti does not exactly follow the masonry of the naos, though both were built simultaneously. 48 In his discussion of the function of the twin-domed nartheces in the Palaeologan period, Slobodan ?ur?i? suggested that the two domes rising above the church?s vestibule articulated and emphasized the function of the west end of the building. 49 I would like to suggest that in the narthex the dome and a distinct decorative program could define the space as an improvised chapel for personal reflections or penitence. The south bay of Chora?s esonarthex is one such example: its extensive healing cycle and towering Deesis, crowned by a dome, it certainly constituted a separate functional unit. 50 LITERARY SOURCES Long before Mircea Eliade formulated his concepts of liminality in his discussions of the Sacred and Profane, 51 the Byzantines attempted to articulate how the sacred space of their church buildings related to the outside world. The terminology used in Byzantine sources, however, makes it challenging to determine the exact relationship of the narthex to the rest of the church building. The author of the well-known tenth-century Life of St. Andrew the Fool clearly distinguished the narthex from the rest of the church building. In 48 Paul M. Mylonas, ?Remarques architecturales sur le catholicon de Chilandar. La formation graduelle du catholicon ? absides laterales ou choeurs et ? liti, au Mont Athos,? HZ 6 (1986), 29-35, 36-38. 49 ?ur?i?, ?The Twin-domed Narthex,? 50. 50 Ousterhout, Architecture of Kariye Camii, 69-70. Similarly, although there is no physical partition between the ambulatory and the cruciform nave of the catholicon of the monastery at De?ani, it is the iconographic program that distinguishes the primary from the secondary space of the building. See Panteli?, Architecture of De?ani, 53. 51 Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane. The Nature of Religion (New York and Evanston, 1959), 61- 62. 24 an episode in which Andrew and his disciple Epiphanios meet at the church of the Theotokos they sat down ?in a hidden corner of the narthex? (?n ?pokr?f? t?p? to? n?ryhkow) so that the saint could instruct his sainted follower without being disturbed. 52 Here the word ?narthex? designates a space distinct from what the text identifies as the naos (t? na?) of the most blessed Virgin. 53 A similar distinction was later made when Epiphanios waited in the narthex of the church of St. Akakios because it was too early for service and the building was closed (?Hn d? ?ra ?bd?mh ka? a? p?lai to? nao? ?p?rxon ?sfalism?nai. ?En d? t? n?ryhki prosedre?vn d?krisi yermo?w ?ntib?lei). 54 In the twelfth century Theodore Balsamon discussed the place for menstruating women in the church, stating that ??we see such (menstruating) women in gynaecea and especially in monasteries standing freely in the vestibules (e?w to?w pron?ouw).? 55 Balsamon felt uncomfortable because he was told that in this case the women were not thought of as attending church (m? ?kklhsi?zein). He, however, considered the vestibules (o? pr?naoi) not to be ?for common use,? and proceeded to explain that it ?is a place for second penance (pr?naow t?pow deut?raw ?st? metano?aw), called that of the hearers,? and that men excluded by penance from attending church were not permitted to stand in it; ?they must do their weeping outside of it.? 56 What emerges from 52 Lennart Ryd?n, The Life of St. Andrew the Fool, 2 Vols. (Uppsala, 1995), 1: 120. 53 Ibid., 118. 54 Ibid., 248. 55 Taft, ?Women at Church,? 50. 56 Ibid. 25 Balsamon?s discussion is that there was uncertainty, both in ecclesiastical and lay circles, as to what degree the narthex belonged to the sacred precinct of the church. Balsamon?s response was most likely intended to clarify the meaning of the pronaos within the church building as a place which could not be contaminated by physically and spiritually unclean members. Only the hearers, the people at the last stage of their penance, were allowed in the narthex because they were only one step away from their readmission to Communion. In his discussion of Basil the Great?s penitential instructions Balsamon once again insisted that the place for the penitents to weep for their sins is outside of the narthex of the church (?jv to? n?ryhkow t?w ?kklhs?aw). 57 In this case the narthex is considered an inextricable part of the sacred precinct of the church, its space sanctified by its association with the naos but at the same time clearly separated from it, accommodating members of the community about to be readmitted. In the fifteenth-century mystagogical works of the archbishop of Thessalonike, Symeon, the narthex was associated with the earth and the rest of the church building with heaven. Concerning the midnight office he wrote that it started with the priest giving blessing ?mprosyen to? nao? e?w t?n n?ryhka, ?w ?to ?mprosten to? o?rano? e?w t?n g?n [in the narthex before the church, as on earth before heaven]. 58 It is clear from the Greek that Symeon, like the tenth-century author of the Life of St. Andrew the Fool, considered the narthex as a distinct place in the church building, not only literally 57 G. A. Ralles and M. Potles, Syntagma t? n thei? n kai hier? n kanon? n, 6 Vols. (Athens, 1852-59), 4: 405. 58 Symeon of Thessalonike, Treatise on Prayer. An Explanation of the Services Conducted in the Orthodox Church, trans. H. L. N. Simmons (Brookline, 1984), 23; Idem, Ta Apanta (Thessalonike, 2001), 246. The symbolic association of the narthex and earth continued in Symeon?s discussion (Treatise on Prayer, 26) of Matins: ?Thus, when the midnight office is ended, the doors of the nave open like the heavens and we enter as from the earth (that is from the narthex).? 26 but also symbolically segregated from the naos. 59 He further differentiated between the earthbound church vestibule and its paradisiacal and heavenly naos when discussing one of the services that took place in the narthex: T? n? ?lyvmen ?me?w loip?n ?jv to? ye?ou nao? t?n ?kptvsin to? parade?sou di? t?w parab?sevw to? ?Ad?m shma?nei ka? ?ti m?w ?kle?syh di? a?t?w ? par?deisow ka? ? o?ran?w...A?t? d? ? ?kes?a to? ?er?vw ?mprosyen t?n yur?n to? nao? shma?nei t? ?ti ?kdusvpe? ka? parakale? t?n Ye?n e?w t? n? m?w ?noixy? ? ?Ed?m ka? ? o?ran?w... That we come outside the holy nave signifies the expulsion from paradise because of the transgression of Adam, and that through this, paradise and heaven were closed to us?The petition of the priest before the doors of the nave signifies that he implores and beseeches God to open to us Eden and heaven? 60 The holiness of the naos and the somewhat less sacred and more profane space of the narthex were contrasted, and the relationship between the two as parts of single building further complicated. Somewhat less clear is the evidence from a fifteenth-century manuscript which describes the procedures for asylum in Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The criminal seeking protection in the cathedral church of the Byzantine capital would have been sent to ask forgiveness from the faithful who enter through the beautiful doors and would have been placed, according to the text, ?p? to? ?jv m?rouw. 61 The description suggests that the criminal would have been standing in the esonarthex of the church. The expression ?p? to? ?jv m?rouw or ?from the outer place? can be understood in one of two ways: either that the place is outside of the church building, and thus the narthex is not 59 The feeling that the narthex stood outside of the church building and did not belong to its sacred space is further strengthened by the fact that the church as a whole was also referred to as a naos. 60 Symeon of Thessalonike, Treatise on Prayer, 65-66; Idem, Ta Apanta, 274. 61 A. Pavlov, ?Crecheskaia zapis o tserkovnom sude nad ubiitsami pribegauishtimi pod zashtitu tserkvi,? VV 4 (1897), 158. 27 conceived of as part of it, or this place is simply outside of the beautiful doors, that is still in the narthex but not necessarily outside of the church. Nicephoros Blemmydes in his Life of St. Paul of Latros describing the transitional character of the narthex used the expression ?n xr? to? nao? or ?the skin of the temple.? 62 In the seventeenth century Leo Allatios explained the meaning of this curious expression: ?in the same way that the skin sticks to the living body, and is not flesh, so the narthex is attached to the temple and yet is not the temple. 63 To make it even more difficult to decipher the spatial, and also symbolic relation between the narthex and the rest of the church building Isaak Komnenos in his 1152 typikon for the monastery of the Virgin Kosmosoteira desired that his tomb be placed in the ?left side of the narthex,? which has opened endless discussion about where his body actually was interred as there are no surviving visible signs of a narthex. 64 Robert Ousterhout has interpreted the elongated entry bay as the narthex of the church and proposed that Isaac?s tomb was inserted in its northwest corner, which was architecturally and functionally defined by a dome. 65 He suggested that a parapet in the form of a low bronze railing or curtains would have separated this improvised narthex from the rest of 62 Iacobi Sirmondi, ?Vita S. Pauli iunioris in monte Latro,? AB 11 (1892), 165; Allatios, Newer Temples, 8. 63 Allatios, Newer Temples, 8. 64 Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 2: 838. Robert Ousterhout (Master Builders, 122) detected in old photographs a light construction which could have been an outer ambulatory but not a ?proper narthex.? 65 Ousterhout, Architecture of Kariye Camii, 26; Idem, Master Builders, 123-25. Nancy ?ev?enko (?The Tomb of Isaak Comnenos at Pherrai,? GOTR 29/2 [1984], 138) expressed a different opinion. She thought that a special extension, a parekvole, no longer extant, was built as a separate burial chamber and was attached to the wall of the church. On the basis of his study of the function of the narthex in the Evergetian typika, to which Isaak?s own document can be added, Gail Nicholl (?Archaeological Interpretation of Typika,? 304) suggested that a separate narthex might have existed. 28 the church. 66 Similar difficulties provides the foundation document of the Cypriot Neophytos, who specifically instructed that excommunication be written in the narthex of the catholicon of the monastery. 67 However, not a trace of a narthex survives at the site of Neophytos? monastery. What he intended thus remains a puzzle. VISIONS AT THE DOOR Literary references that attest to visionary experiences in the entrance and the vestibule of the church are of special importance. They help to define the Byzantine narthex as a liminal space, a threshold which connected two worlds, namely the profane world of everyday life and the sacred, heavenly world of the church building. It is possible that pilgrims might have spent the night in the narthex. The Vita of the tenth-century Thessalonikan saint Theodora contains a curious passage about nuns sleeping in the narthex between services. 68 Sometimes the one who was sleeping was not located in the narthex but was having a dream about being in it. This would have been the case with dreams meaningfully associated with the building that was dreamt, or with its inhabitants. 69 A well-known vision at the church door was the apocalyptic vision that St. Andrew the Fool had at the southwest entrance of the Constantinopolitan cathedral of 66 Ousterhout, Architecture of Kariye Camii, 26; Idem, Master Builders, 123-25. 67 Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 4: 1356. 68 Alice-Mary Talbot, Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints? Lives in English Translation (Washington, DC, 1996), 199 n. 203. 69 Ibid., 209. The painter of the icon of St. Theodora of Thessalonike, in his dream he was ?instructed? how to paint her icon. 29 Hagia Sophia during celebrations of Easter. 70 At the end of the liturgy the saint looked at the faces of the people who were exiting the church and was able to see ?of what disposition each person was? and their rewards and punishments in the future life. In his edifying collection of ascetic stories John Moschos related how an Egyptian elder Christopher the Roman often went to pray in a cave chapel. After performing his customary prostrations at each step, just before entering the cave he once fell into a trance. 71 The vision entirely transformed Christopher?s life because it led him to depart for Mount Sinai where he spent the last fifty years of his life. The Vita of St. Elisabeth the Wonderworker recounts an episode from her life in which she returned to her native Herakleia and had a vision of St. Glykeria in the narthex of the church of St. Romanos. 72 The eleventh-century author of the Life of St. Lazaros of Mount Galesion told a story of a monk who during orthros was standing in the narthex in front of the church door (?ndon to? n?ryhkow pr? t?w p?lhw t?w ?kklhs?aw) until he fell asleep. He had a dream of a splendidly dressed man accompanied by two eunuchs distributing money to the brothers singing inside the church. 73 He received an obol, after everybody else got a golden nomisma. The monk woke up and immediately related his dream to St. Lazaros. 74 The 70 Ryd?n, The Life of St. Andrew the Fool, 363-75. 71 John Moschos, The Spiritual Meadow, trans. John Wortley (Kalamazoo, 1994), 84. 72 This vision was induced by an earlier vision. The saint was overwhelmed with ?trembling and amazement? and as a result dropped to the ground in the narthex of the church. See Talbot, Holy Women of Byzantium, 132-33. 73 Acta Sanctorum Novembris 3 (Brussels, 1910), 555; Greenfield, The Life of Lazaros of Mt. Galesion, 246-48. 74 Greenfield, The Life of Lazaros of Mt. Galesion, 248. 30 saint explained the dream as a warning for the lazy members of the community who received a smaller amount since they did not join the Psalmody performed in the naos. 75 Visions that occurred before the entrance of the sacred precinct of the church carried a profound meaning. These usually were life-altering experiences which in a sense reflect the function of the Byzantine church narthex not only as a mediating point between the unsanctified outer world and the sacredness of the church nave, but also as a place for transformational experiences, on a personal and a communal level. It is hardly coincidental that sinners would sometimes be confronted by fearful visions that prevented them from entering the church until they confessed and repented sincerely. For example, the governor of Palestine G?b?mer was prevented from entering into the church of the Anastasis in Jerusalem by a dreadful ram, charging straight at him. Only after a sincere confession could G?b?mer enter the building. 76 As a transitional place within the church building the narthex accommodated transitional states of body and mind. PENITENCE IN THE ANCILLARY SPACES OF BYZANTINE CHURCHES The penitential nature of the subsidiary spaces in Byzantine churches has rarely been discussed which is why I will discuss the literary evidence concerning the presence of marginalized and sinful members of the church in the western extensions of the church building. For a better understanding of the function of the Byzantine narthex I provide a brief outline of the Orthodox attitudes to penitence and confession and the metaphorical 75 Ibid. The Greek text makes the same kind of distinction between the narthex and the naos of the church as discussed above. The narthex here is again described as being outside of the church, i.e. the nave. 76 Moschos, Spiritual Meadow, 40. 31 imagery of healing, baptism and bathing that Orthodox authors used in their discussions of penance. According to Orthodox theology Christ himself commissioned the church to remit sins (John 20:19-23) because initially it was only in God?s power to remit and to retain sins (Luke 5:17-26, 7:36-50, Matt. 9:2-8). From that moment the great mediating role of the Church and its prelates was recognized in the process of spiritual cleansing and reconciliation with God. In the course of this reconciliation it was, and still is, very important for one to openly acknowledge his sins in confession, which is, an exterior manifestation of repentance. 77 Furthermore, unlike in the Jewish tradition, the precedents recorded in the New Testament implied that not only penitential acts, but also the acts of forgiveness were concrete and had their own exterior manifestations. 78 In the ecclesiastical tradition that followed the penitent would actually hear a prayer of forgiveness uttered by the minister and thus the connection was twofold and reciprocal. Confession was originally a public act, but after the fourth century it gradually became a private ritual, which was followed by a prayer of absolution pronounced by a minister. 79 In Byzantium the sacramental absolution may have been only a formal requirement, but moral and ascetical treatises regularly stressed the need of confession as a main expression of repentance, both internal and external. 80 Since the first Christian centuries the church was not only a spiritual community, but also provided specific 77 For the pre-Christian precedents of confession and how it was required from the Jews, see Casimir Kucharek, The Sacramental Mysteries. A Byzantine Approach (Allendale, 1976), 194-95. 78 Ibid. 79 For a review of Early Christian penitential discipline, see John H. Erickson, ?Penitential Discipline in the Orthodox Canonical Tradition,? SVTQ 21/4 (1977), 191-97. 80 A. Almazov, Tainaia izpoved v pravoslavnoii vostochnoii tserkvi, 3 Vols. (Odessa, 1894, repr. Moscow, 1995), 1: 34-38. 32 architectural context and backdrop for penance. 81 Byzantine canon law and various patristic commentators discussed the place of the penitent in church and their limited participation in the liturgical service. The ecclesiastics often felt that they needed to ?navigate? the morals of the Christians placed under their care. 82 Even the concept of oikonomia, literally meaning ?management,? at some point took a different significance. Among secular and ecclesiastical circles it acquired medicinal connotations and defined an imitation of the divine mercy by the clergy, who by metaphorically acting as doctors, were reforming and healing the sinful members of the church. 83 Since Early Christian times penance was conceived of as an act of profound transformation comparable to baptism. It was defined as another baptism, and its waters replaced by the water imagery of the flowing tears of sincere repentance. Especially important in the Orthodox East was the formulation of St. Gregory Nazianzen who wrote that the penitential tears were the fifth baptism ?taking on the appearance of mourning and sadness, in imitation of Manasseh and the Ninevites.? 84 The main purpose of penance was purification and cleansing, and thus it is not surprising that references to water and Baptism were often used to describe the usually tearful repentance. The fiftieth Psalm, the penitential psalm par excellence, frequently 81 John Chrysostom, On Repentance and Almsgiving, trans. Gus G. Christo, (Washington, DC, 1998), 16, 30; Erickson, ?Penitential Discipline,? 194. It should be noted however that since the Middle Byzantine period very often unordained monks would listen to the confessions of people and would give spiritual counsel not necessary in a church. See H. D?rries, ?The Place of Confession in Ancient Monasticism,? SP 5 (1962), 284-311; Joost van Rossum, ?Priesthood and Confession in St. Symeon the New Theologian,? SVTQ 20 (1976), 226-28; John Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology. Historic Trends and Doctrinal Themes (New York, 1979), 195-96. 82 John. H. Erickson, ?Oikonomia in Byzantine Canon Law,? in Law, Church and Society. Essays in Honor of Stephan Kuttner, eds. Kenneth Pennington and Robert Somerville (University Park, 1977), 225-36. 83 Ibid., 230. 84 Aloys H. Dirksen, The New Testament Concept of Metanoia (Washington, DC, 1932), 32-59; Ir?n?e Hausherr, Penthos in the Christian East, trans. Anselm Hufstader, (Kalamazoo, 1982). 33 invoked in Byzantine penitential rites, contains the water imagery of the spiritual cleansing. In it David asked God to cleanse him from sin and to wash him to become whiter than snow. 85 The author of the popular monastic romance Barlaam and Joasaph also compared tearful penance to Baptism: ?by means of painful repentance, hot tears, toils and sweats?a purifying and pardoning of our offences?For the font of tears is also called baptism? 86 John Climacus, in his popular manual for monastic excellence, called repentance ?the renewal of baptism? and suggested that it is a rebirth, and ?a contract with God for a second life.? 87 In his description of the visit in the ?prison of penitents,? St. John insisted on the actually painful physical experience in the process of overcoming one?s sinfulness. 88 The idea that the suffering of the body could only benefit the soul was expressed over and over again by Byzantine ecclesiastics. Thus in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century Theoleptos of Philadelpheia exhorted one of his spiritual children, the nun Eulogia, to: ?train yourself at all times?gradually reducing the opulence of your lifestyle in order to diminish the strength of the flesh and to fortify the soul. The defeat of the flesh wins victory for the soul, and the reasonable affliction of the body can bring 85 Indeed images of washing accompany the text of the fiftieth psalm. For example in the ninth-century marginal Psalter, Mount Athos, Pantokrator, Cod. 61 (Suzy Dufenne, L?illustration des psauters grecs du Moyen Age [Paris, 1966], pl. 8) and in the eleventh-century Theodore Psalter, London, British Library, Add. 19. 352 (Sirarpie der Nersessian, L?illustration des psauters grecs du Moyen Age [Paris, 1970], pl. 8) the text was illustrated with the Washing of the Feet (John 13:2-16). The image in reverse acquired penitential significance. 86 John Damascene, Barlaam and Joasaph, LCL, 159. 87 John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, trans. Colm Luibheid and Normal Russell (New York, Ramsey, Toronto, 1983), 121. 88 Ibid., 122-28. 34 joy to burst forth for the spirit. Afflict your flesh with the labors of good works? 89 Theoleptos? contemporary St. Gregory of Sinai wrote that if those who are striving for spiritual perfection ?have repudiated that severity of bodily toil, they remain devoid of purity.? 90 The language applied to the act of confession is of special interest; in most of the monastic writings it is more therapeutic than juridical. For example, in the ninth century St. Theodore the Studite defined penance in medicinal terms; according to him penance was meant to restore the beauty of the soul, as well as the health of the body. 91 This observation is valid also for the two very influential works associated with the Evergetis monastery, its Typikon and the Synagoge composed by the founder Paul. In these the spiritual father was described more as a physician and less as a judge who brings and sets ?for each the appropriate healing.? 92 In the fourteenth century similar medical language was applied to confession by Theodora Synadene, the author of the typikon of the Convent of the Mother of God Bebaia Elpis in Constantinople. Drawing on the Evergetian tradition she recommended daily confession calling it ?salvific,? ?truly powerful,? and a ?truly effective drug? that completely purifies and grants perfect health for the soul. 93 It may be coincidental but it is noteworthy that the spiritual father of the 89 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, The Monastic Discourses, trans. and ed. Robert E. Sinkewicz (Toronto, 1992), 82. 90 The Philokalia, trans. and eds. G. E. H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard and Kallistos Ware, 4 Vols. (London, 1995), 4: 273. 91 Chohj, Theodore the Studite, 178. 92 Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 2: 476-78; Kallistos Ware, ?Prayer and Sacraments in the Synagoge,? in The Theotokos Evergetis and Eleventh-Century Monasticism, eds. Margaret Mullet and Anthony Kirby (Belfast, 1994), 342. 93 Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 4: 1553-54. 35 nuns at the Lips Convent resided in ?the small rooms assigned for this purpose in the hospital.? 94 Thus the image of the father confessor as a medical doctor is continually defined. The Orthodox service books, especially the euchologia and kanonaria are an invaluable source for the practices and rites of penitence and confession. 95 In his study of the rites of confession A. Almazov noted the wide variety of prayers, readings from the Bible (mostly from the New Testament), and instructions associated with the act of confession. This variety of prayers and readings indicates that penance was not included among the sacraments of the Byzantine church for a long time. 96 Documents containing instructions for confession do not specify where it should take place. In one twelfth-century manuscript in the library at Munich Cod. 498, the place is only vaguely defined: it could be either ?in front of the holy sanctuary,? (?mprosten to? ?g?ou yusiasthr?ou), or ?if not in the church in a clean, quiet and undisturbed place? (e? d? m? ?stin ?kkles?a, e?w kayar?n ?goun ?suxon ka? ?nakexvrhm?non t?pon). 97 Other service books with penitential instructions provide similar information. 98 It is interesting to note that one tenth-century Georgian service book, Tiflis, Georg. 96, instructs that the confession be held either in the church or in the cell of 94 Ibid., 3: 1269. 95 Unlike the euchologia, which contain prayers for various services, the kanonaria are conceived of as penitentiaries or books containing instructions and prayers pertaining to penitential practices and in Byzantine times were wrongly attributed to the sixth-century Constantinopolitan patriarch John Nesteutes (12 Apr. 582-2 Sept. 595). See Miguel Arranz, ?Les pri?res p?nitentielles de la tradition Byzantine,? OCP 57 (1991), 91-92. 96 Almazov, Tainaia izpoved, 1: 79-201. 97 N. Souvorov, ?Veroiatnii sostav drevneishego izpovednago i pokaiinnago ustava v vostochnoii tserkvi,? VV 8 (1901), 398. 98 Almazov, Tainaia izpoved, 3: 2, 64, 74, 80, 103; Arranz, ?Les pri?res p?nitentielles,? 69. 36 the father confessor. 99 In the fifteenth century Symeon of Thessalonike recommended that confession take place e?w t?pon semn?n ka? ?er?n ka? xvrist?n ka? xvr?w yor?bou (in a place, modest and holy and private and without noise). 100 It is difficult to interpret where this modest, sacred, and private place would have been located, but one could speculate that this could have been a designated space in a church building. Byzantine monastic foundation documents provide extensive information about penitential practices but are not very specific about the places designated for their performance. The author of the typikon of the monastery of Theotokos Evergetis, Paul Evergetinos, placed a great emphasis on confession. The monks who refused to confess were not allowed Holy Communion and were threatened with excommunication and expulsion from the monastery. 101 Paul prescribed daily confession after orthros and after compline directed by the superior and priests and deacons authorized by him. 102 The place for confession was not identified. It is referred to as ??d?azonti?t?p?,?or a ?private place.? 103 This somewhat uncertain designation is reminiscent of the quiet and undisturbed spaces referred to in the kanonaria, but does not exclude the possibility that the superior would have listened to confessions in some part of the narthex or in a side 99 Arranz, ?Les pri?res p?nitentielles,? 69. The Life of St. Cosmas of Zographou (Ivan Duj?ev, ?La Vie de Kozma de Zographou,? HZ 2 [1971], 66) also indicates that confession and spiritual instruction might be held in the father?s cell. 100 Symeon Thessalonikes, Ta Apanta, 210. 101 Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 2: 477. Going without confession was considered a specific monastic sin as it is in an eighteenth-century kanonarion in the library of the University of Athens, gr. 66 (Almazov, Tainaia izpoved, 1: 169 n. 151.). According to this document the monk was to be punished if he did not confess for over forty days. 102 Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 2: 476. 103 Paul Gautier, ?Le typikon de la Th?otokos Everg?tis,? R?B 40 (1982), 28; Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 2: 476. 37 chapel of the church building, especially in view of the fact that confessions would have followed rites performed in the narthex such as orthros. In his Synagoge Paul provided some evidence that confessions happened in front of the church. 104 Unfortunately he was citing from the much earlier Gerontikon and thus it is not very clear whether the monks in the Evergetis monastery would have been following similar practice. Closely following the Evergetian tradition the author of the twelfth-century typikon of the monastery of the Mother of God Kosmosoteira, the Sebastokrator Isaac Komnenos prescribed daily confessions as part of the sacramental life of his establishment. Similarly he did not specify the place where confessions took place. 105 However, the narthex is indicated as the place for confessions in the late thirteenth- century typikon of Theodora Palaeologina for the Constantinopolitan Convent of Lips and in the related typikon for the Convent of SS Kosmas and Damian also written by Theodora. Her wish was ?from early morning he [the spiritual father] should sit in the part of the narthex of one of the churches to receive the confessions of each nun,? 106 or that ?he meets with the nuns in the narthex? in order to listen to their confessions at the monastery of Kosmas and Damian. 107 A specific location for confessions was designated in the fifteenth century in Neilos Damilas? Testament and typikon for the Convent of the Virgin Pantanassa at Baionaia on Crete. Neilos recommended that ?as he [the spiritual father] sits in the narthex of the church, or inside the convent, if the weather is cold, each 104 Paul Evergetinos, Evergetinos: A Complete Text, trans. and ed. Bishop Chrysostomos, 4 Vols. (Etna, 1988-91), 2/1: 47. 105 Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 2: 808-810. 106 Ibid., 3: 1269. 107 Ibid., 4: 1292. 38 of you should confess to him your thoughts with piety and fear of God.? 108 It is noteworthy that the typika indicate the narthex was a place for confessions primarily in female convents. Most likely the temptations that might have arisen from the closer contact between a spiritual father and a nun in the more private space of a cell were intentionally checked by the authors of the foundation documents, who prescribed penance in the more public space of the church vestibule. There is some indirect evidence that the western extension of churches for male monastic communities might also have accommodated specific penitential rites. The narthex of the catholicon of the monastery of the Holy Cross near Ktima in Cyprus might have been used for confessions or other kinds of penitential exercises. The Testamentary Rule, written by the founder of the hermitage Neophytos dated to 1214, indicates that excommunication was written in the narthex during Neophytos? lifetime in order to aid the brothers in their conduct. ?Do not forget,? instructs the founder, ?the excommunication which I have inscribed in the narthex of the church that does not permit him who has fallen into sin to dwell here, unless he quickly rises through confession and sincere repentance.? 109 As mentioned above, the problem is that there is not trace of a narthex at the site of Neophytos? monastery. Although not associated with monastic experience this prescription recalls an incident from the Life of St. Andrew the Fool in which the saint is described as counseling his disciple Epiphanios in the narthex of the church of the Theotokos. 110 108 Ibid., 4: 1473. 109 Neophytos insisted that the excommunication was read every Sunday after the catechetical instructions (Ibid., 4: 1356). 110 Ryd?n, The Life of St Andrew the Fool, 120. 39 According to the Early Christian rule of St. Gregory the Wonderworker the penitents were assigned to different parts of the church building depending on how graveness of their sins. Thus ?mourners? had to stay outside the door of the church, the ?hearers? were assigned to the narthex, while the ?prostrators? stood within the door, on the threshold between the church?s vestibule and the nave. 111 Theodore Studite in the ninth century insisted that the monks in penance should stand in the narthex after the liturgy of the catechumens. 112 In his Rule for the monastery of St. John Stoudios, Theodore indicated that confession would have been held during matins when ?the superior leaves the choir?and taking his seat receives the brothers who come forward to confession and ministers for each one of them.? 113 Additional information is provided by the Vita of St. Athanasios the Athonite, in which the author indicated that the saint would receive confessions sitting apart in a chapel during orthros. 114 Later in the eleventh century, Nikon of the Black Mountain in his Taktikon explained the need for the penitents to leave the church with the catechumens, who were not only in the habit of being present during the whole liturgy but they also participated in the Eucharist. 115 According to the above mentioned twelfth-century kanonarion, Munich, Cod. 498, those who were in penance had to leave the naos of the church before the Great Entrance when the prayer for dismissing the catechumens was pronounced. During the rest of the liturgy they had 111 Erickson, ?Penitential Discipline,? 194. 112 Theodore (PG 99: 1733) prescribed fifty prostrations for every monk who was in penance and did not leave the Eucharistic Liturgy before the Great Entrance. 113 Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 1: 107. It is not clear in which part of the church would have been placed the seat of the superior. 114 Kallistos Ware, ?St. Athanasios the Athonite: Traditionalist of Innovator?? in Mount Athos and Byzantine Monasticism, eds. Anthony Breyer and Mary Cunnigham (Newcastle, 1996, repr. Aldershot and Brookfield, 1998), 11. 115 Souvorov, ?Veroiatnii sostav ispovednago i pokaiinago ustava,? VV 9 (1902), 392. 40 to stand in the narthex (ka? per? m?n t?w leiturg?aw ?p? to?w kathxoum?nouw ?j?rxesyai to? nao? ka? ?stasyai e?w t?n n?ryhka). 116 The practice of confining penitents to the area of the narthex and the entrances of the church can be found in the fifteenth-century writings of the Thessalonikan archbishop Symeon. He identified the narthex as a place not only for the catechumens but also for the sinners, separating the ones who were worthy of the participation in the Holy Mysteries from the ones that were not. 117 Symeon?s discussion provides important evidence for Late Byzantine perceptions of the narthex as a place intended to accommodate temporarily marginalized members of the church. He distinguished it as a space associated with earth and the present world, where sinners would be confined, so that they could stay outside of the paradisiacal naos-haven. 118 The seventeenth-century learned account of Leo Allatios further informs us about the penitential nature of the narthex. Allatios cited Niketas Choniates? description of the narthex as a place where monks would prostrate themselves and expose their necks to be trodden upon. 119 He also acknowledged that ?some writers see the narthex as outside the church not because it is a 116 Ibid., 407. 117 Symeon Thessalonikes, Ta Apanta, 154-55. 118 Ibid. 119 Allatios, Newer Temples, 7. Allatios?s account resembles a passage from the Pandektes of Nikon of the Black Mountain (Souvorov, ?Veroiatnii sostav izpovednago i pokaiinago ustava,? 395). He related the story of a sinful bishop who, during celebration of the Liturgy, publicly confessed and prostrated himself in front of the door so that the members of the congregation could step on him. When the last person left the church there came a voice from above to acknowledge the sincere penance and forgiveness of the sinful priest. 41 separate place, but because it is separate from the church, properly speaking, where the priests have their place.? 120 There is also interesting information regarding the place for penance and absolution in the Athonite folklore told in the eighteenth-century account of the travels of the Russian monk Ipolit Vishenskii. He recorded a story about a miraculous icon of the Virgin placed in the narthex of the Vatopedi catholicon. The deacon in charge of the lighting of the lamps in the church stabbed the icon and blood issued from the wound. The criminal confessed to the spiritual father (it is not clear whether the confession took place in the narthex), and in search of spiritual relief and forgiveness from the Virgin ?he stood in front of the church praying day and night, never entering inside.? 121 After three years of penance while standing at the doors in supplication the sinful deacon heard a voice of forgiveness coming from the icon and he entered in the narthex, and prayed in front of the icon he had insulted. 122 Thus while his penitence took place in front of the church his absolution happened in the narthex in front of the icon. Evidence for the penitential character of the narthex can also be found in secular literature, but it is important to note that most of it concerns the cathedral church of Constantinople, Hagia Sophia, and should thus be used with more caution. Of special importance are the accounts of several Russian travelers who visited Constantinople in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Ignatios of Smolensk, for example, talks about an icon of the Virgin ?from which a voice went out to Mary of Egypt forbidding her 120 Allatios, Newer Temples, 7. 121 S. P. Rozanov, ed., ?Puteshestvie ieromonakha Ippolita Vishenskago v Ierusalim, na Sinai i Afon (1707- 1709),? PPS 61 (1914), 109. 122 Ibid., 110. 42 entrance into the Holy Church in Jerusalem,? placed in the narthex of Hagia Sophia. 123 The icon must have been installed near the ?beautiful? or the ?imperial? door, thus not only recreating its original placement at the door of the church where Mary converted, but also its penitential function. The testimony of Ignatios is supported by two other Russian pilgrims, Alexander and Zosima, 124 as well as by Symeon of Thessalonike. 125 The penitential function of the narthex of the Constantinopolitan cathedral is reinforced by the presence of an icon of Christ referred to as the Confessor Savior mentioned by both Alexander and Zosima the Deacon. 126 The latter paid homage to ?the image of our Lord Jesus Christ before which people confess their sins when thy cannot confess them before a father confessor because of shame.? 127 Russian travelers saw in the church of the Holy Apostles a miraculous icon of Christ, to which was ascribed a miracle with a man who was forgiven on his bed and to which a lecherous monk had prayed for forgiveness. 128 The Russian pilgrims described 123 George Majeska, Russian Travelers to Constantinople in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (Washington, DC, 1984), 92, 206. Of interest here is the involvement of icons in the rite of confession. Most of the surviving documents, do not attest to such use and yet there exists, some evidence that icons might have been used. Almazov (Tainaia izpoved, 3: 132) published a fifteenth-century Slavonic euchologion, Sofia, National Library, Cod. 838, which records that at the beginning of the rite the one who confesses should fall in front of the image of Christ saying ?Lord, cleanse me the sinner, and have mercy on me.? The author of the Life of St. Mary of Egypt (Talbot, Holy Women of Byzantium, 86; Donna Kristoff, ?A View of Repentance in Monastic Liturgical Literature,? SVTQ 28/4 [1984], 285) noted that Mary was aided in her spiritual healing by the remembrance of the icon of the Virgin. Of the surviving visual evidence it is worth noting a twelfth-century miniature in a manuscript of John Climacus?s Heavenly Ladder, Sinai, Cod. Gr. 418, fol. 79r (John R. Martin, The Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus [Princeton, 1954], fig. 185). In the margins, adjacent to the headpiece of the homily on penitence, three monks are represented in adoration of a towering figure of Virgin Orans. The golden background and the oversized image of Mary suggest that it may have been conceived of as a visualization of an icon. 124 Majeska, Russian Travelers, 160-61, 182-83, 206. 125 Jean Darrouz?s, ?Sainte Sophie de Thesalonique d?apr?s un rituel,? R?B 34 (1976), 47. 126 Majeska, Russian Travelers, 160-61, 182-83, 206. 127 Ibid., 182-83, 206. 43 two separate incidents, but these most likely rephrased a single story, namely the episode told by Zosima. According to him a sinful, and as a result, sick monk was forgiven by an icon of Christ residing in the church. 129 Despite the fact that the church of the Holy Apostles was never a healing shrine, its Byzantine audience may have located the miracle in the narthex or some subsidiary space of the building as the sinner was pardoned on his bed, which may mean that he may was brought (even in imaginary circumstances) on it, and was left in an ancillary space, porch, aisle or narthex. 130 Some ecclesiastical juridical documents also yield important evidence for confessions and the place associated with their performance. 131 These documents are related to the ecclesiastical court of the ekklesiekdikoi held at the cathedral church of Constantinople, Hagia Sophia. Evidence from the Middle Byzantine period attests to the use of one of the church?s vestibules for the sessions of the tribunal. 132 According to several Late Byzantine texts a murderer who sought refuge in Hagia Sophia would have been placed in front of the church door and for fifteen days asked forgiveness from those 128 Ibid., 94-95, 184-85, 305-306. 129 Ibid., 306. These documents pertain not to the sacrament of confession but to the confession of sinful act in front of a ecclesiastical court. The two acts are however very similar as they are associated with the acknowledgment of sin followed by an ecclesiastical sanction. 130 There is sufficient evidence that the practice of incubation, known since antiquity, continued well into the Late Byzantine period. See Theoktistos the Stoudite, Faith Healing in Late Byzantium: the Posthumous Miracles of the Patriarch Athanasios I of Constantinople by Theoktistos the Stoudite, trans. Alice-Mary Talbot (Brookline, 1983), 18-19 n. 30, 78-80; Alice-Mary Talbot, ?Healing Shrines in Late Byzantine Constantinople,? in The ?Constantinople and Its Legacy? Lecture Series. The Hellenic Canadian Association of Constantinople 1997 (Toronto, 2000), 4, 7-9 (repr. in Eadem, Women and Religious Life in Byzantium [Aldershote, 2001]). 131 One should be aware however that this evidence again concerns the cathedral church of Constantinople Hagia Sophia. A relevant precedent is recorded in the Life of St. John the Almsgiver (Elizabeth Dawes and Norman H. Baynes, Three Byzantine Saints [Crestwood, 1977], 212-13). When he was a patriarch of Alexandria he would bestow justice every Wednesday and Friday sitting in front of the cathedral church together with ?a few virtuous men.? 132 John Cotsonis, ?The Virgin and Justinian on Seals of the Ekklesiekdikoi of Hagia Sophia,? DOP 56 (2002), 46-47. 44 who were entering and exiting the church, openly verbalizing his sin; 133 later he would take off his clothes and his hands would be bound. After a number of prostrations, he would confess and the court?s decision would have been presented to the criminal in the form of a semeioma. 134 The confession was central to the right of asylum in the church and on its basis the judges prescribed the epitimia. 135 Interesting terminology is used by Byzantine authors to indicate where the court of the ekdikoi was held. When describing events that occurred in May 1181 Niketas Choniates wrote that the seat of the ekdikoi was located in the prosk?nion to? ne?, referring to the vestibule of Hagia Sophia. 136 Choniates associated with asylum the place which he called anastathmos (t?n ?n?staymon) where ?murderers ask for forgiveness of those entering and leaving the building, openly stating their sin.? 137 Ruth Macrides has noted that this place must have been in the narthex, or the exonarthex, near the entrance of the church and suggested that penitential practices, and even public penances, were associated with the western part of 133 The penitent sinner would have found himself in the presence of the icon of the Virgin who forbade Mary of Egypt to enter the church and induced her repentance. The criminal thus could identify himself with the sainted and forgiven Mary. 134 Pavlov, ?Grecheskaia zapis o tserkovnom sude nad ubiitsami,? 158; Ruth J. Macrides, ?Poetic Justice in the Patriarchate. Murder and Cannibalism in the Provinces,? in Cupido Legum, eds. L. Burgmann, M. T. F?gen and A. Schmink (Frankfurt, 1985), 137-68 (repr. in Eadem, Kinship and Justice in Byzantium 11 th - 15 th Centuries ([Aldershot, 1999]); Eadem, ?Killing, Asylum, and the Law in Byzantium,? Speculum 63 (1988), 514-15 (repr in ibid.); Cotsonis, ?The Virgin and Justinian,? 54. 135 Ruth J. Macrides, ?Justice under Manuel I Komnenos: Four Novels on Court Business and Murder,? Fontes Minores 6 (1984), 200-201 (repr. in Eadem, Kinship and Justice in Byzantium 11 th -15 th Centuries [Aldershot, 1999]). 136 Niketas Choniates, Historia, ed. J. van Dieten (Berlin, 1975), 238; Idem, O City of Byzantium. Annals of Niketas Choniates, trans. H. Magoulias (Detroit, 1984), 134. 137 Choniates, Historia, 342. Public penance may have been continued in the Middle Byzantine period despite some scholar?s suggestions that it had died out by the seventh century. For evidence see the writings of the chartophylax Nichephoros of the late eleventh century in Paul Gautier, ?Le Chartophylax Nic?phore,? R?B 27 (1969), 192. 45 the cathedral church of Constantinople. 138 It is worth noting that the terminology regarding punishment as used in the documents pertaining to the court of the ekdikoi is therapeutic; unlike the civic courts of law, the church was applying healing remedies through the penances that were assigned to the criminal, and any penitent in general. 139 IMAGES OF CONFESSION AND PENANCE IN BYZANTINE ART Public admission of guilt before a church, or in its narthex, certainly resonated with Byzantine monks. In his widely circulated Ladder of Divine Ascent John Climacus related the story of a thief and his acceptance into a monastery. 140 Induced by the abbot of the monastery the robber was presented on Sunday during the Divine Service after the reading of the Gospel (indicating the end of the first part of the Eucharistic Liturgy, when the prayer for the dismissal of the unbaptized catechumens would have followed) as a criminal, with his hands tied behind his back, dressed in hair shirt with his head sprinkled with ashes. Like Mary of Egypt he was stopped at the entrance of the church not by a voice coming from an icon but by the priest celebrating in the sanctuary. The thief fell on his face in fear and made a tearful confession of his sins in front of the rest of the monks. After this his desire to become a monk was fulfilled and he was ?given the habit and numbered among the brethren.? This episode illustrates the fourth chapter in a late eleventh-century manuscript Vatican Cod. Gr. 394. In the episode of the confession the thief is represented standing in front of a church building, with his hands bound on his 138 Macrides, ?Killing, Asylum, and the Law,? 514-15 n. 28. 139 Ibid., 509 n. 3, 526 n. 85. 140 John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, 93-95. 46 back, a group of three monks behind him, and presumably the abbot standing in front of him gesturing with his right hand in blessing (Fig. 3). There exist only a few images which can be associated securely with penance and confession for it seems that Byzantines did not develop specific iconography for it. 141 It is only natural that one could find most of the images of penance in manuscripts associated with monastic use, especially the large corpus of illustrated books of Climacus? Spiritual Ladder. For example, the eleventh-century Vatican Cod. Gr. 498, fols. 41v-49v contains a series of miniatures that illustrate the visit of the author in the ?prison of the penitents.? 142 A variety of postures and attitudes were used; monks were sometimes represented as standing with hands raised in supplication (fol. 42r, upper portion, fols. 42v, 46v), or with their hands tied behind their back, as though they were criminals (fol. 42r, lower portion); some are kneeling (fols. 42v, 43, 44r, 45r), while others are in prostration with faces to the ground (42v). These were painted in order to represent the self-inflicted suffering of a group of pious monks. A later manuscript Vatican Cod. Gr. 1754 dated to the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, similarly provides a wide repertoire of penitential poses containing the earliest cycle of illustrations of the Penitential Cannon of the Holy Criminals. 143 Although it may be difficult to distinguish visually penance from more general supplication, one cannot help but wonder if the Byzantine artists, by using the same visual language to suggest at once prayer, humbleness, adoration and recognition of one?s 141 ?lias Antonopoulos, ?M?tanoia: la personne, le sentiment et le geste,? DChAE 23 (2002), 11-30. 142 Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, 122-28; Martin, Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder, 60-63, figs. 83-96. 143 Ibid., 128-49, figs. 246-77. 47 sinfulness, did not intend to imply an inextricable relation between all these stages of Byzantine religious experience. This ambiguity in the body language is seen in the Byzantine representations of Metanoia, the personification of Penance, who is usually represented with her head on her hand. Henry Maguire has pointed out that this gesture does not mean only regret for former deeds, but also indicates morning for dead people, pensiveness or concentration, and even physical tiredness. 144 One should note that the act of prostration was linguistically related to the idea of penitence. The verb metano?v, to change one?s mind or to repent, was used to indicate also the actual bow or prostration made as a sign of repentance. 145 Similarly the noun met?noia meant not only repentance but also the prostration associated with the act of repenting. 146 One representation, presumably of confession, is found in the twelfth-century manuscript of Climacus?s Spiritual Ladder, Sinai, Cod. Gr. 418, fol. 189v (Fig. 4). The painter visualized the story of a sinful monk who repented by representing the elder sitting and placing his hand on the shoulders of a man prostrated at his feet. The image closely resembles the act of confession as described in some sources: the confessor is encouraged to comfort the one confessing by placing his hands on the neck of the penitent (who is presumably kneeling). 147 Byzantine iconography of confession was not 144 Henry Maguire, ?The Depiction of Sorrow in Middle Byzantine Art,? DOP 31 (1977), 132-52, esp. 146- 47. 145 G. W. H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford, 1961), 855. 146 Ibid., 855-57; Dirksen, The New Testament Concept of Metanoia. The act of prostration or proskynesis in the Byzantine world carried many more implications. For the multiple meanings of the word, see Lampe, Patristic Lexicon, 1176-77; Hugh M. Riley, Christian Initiation. A Comparative Study of the Interpretation of the Baptismal Liturgy in the Mystagogical Writings of Cyril of Jerusalem, John Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Ambrose of Milan (Washington, DC, 1974), 64-68, 70-74. For the proskynesis in Byzantine art, see Ioannis Spatharakis, ?The Proskynesis in Byzantine Art,? Bulletin Antieke Beschaving 49 (1974), 190-205; Anthony Cutler, Transfigurations (University Park and London, 1975), 53-110. 48 in any general way fixed. For example in the eleventh-century Psalter, Vatican Cod. Gr. 752, fol. 51r, a verse of the sixteenth Psalm was illustrated, as the additional inscription testifies, with the sons of Korah making their confession to St. Sylvester. Unlike the Ladder miniature, which is probably closest to reality, here a group of young people with hands outstretched in supplication approaches Sylvester who is standing in front of some sort of building, swinging a censer in his right hand and holding a book in his left. 148 One of the most commonly illustrated and famous biblical examples of penance is the Rebuke of David by the prophet Nathan. 149 The story is based on the narrative of the twelfth chapter in the second book of Kings in which David was rebuked by Nathan and was forgiven after sincere penance. The image of David in penance, usually represented prostrated at the feet of the prophet, became the image of penitence par excellence. In manuscripts the Rebuke of David was used to illuminate the fiftieth Psalm, which is one of the most important penitential psalms. 150 David?s penance, however, was rarely painted in churches. One of its earliest examples is in the prothesis of the thirteenth- century patriarchal church of the Holy Apostles in Pe?, where it is incorporated into a grand visionary program of the Ancient of Days. 151 Here David, like Daniel, becomes a 147 Almazov, Tainaia izpoved 3: 2, 103; Paul Evergetinos, Evergetinos, 1/2: 136, 139, 141. 148 Ernest T. De Wald, The Illustrations of the Manuscripts of the Septuagint. Psalms and Odes. Part 2: Vaticanus Graecus 752 (Princeton, 1942), pl. XXI. 149 Antonopoulos, ?M?tanoia,? 11-17. For its importance as a penitential image par excellence, see John Chrysostom, On Repentance and Almsgiving, 18-21. 150 See for example, the illustrations in the eleventh-century Theodore Psalter, London, Add. 19.352, fol. 63v (see Der Nersessian, L?illustration des psauters grecs, pl. 34) or in the later Psalter from ?decorative style? Athens, Benaki Museum 34.3, fol. 57v (Annemarie W. Carr, Byzantine Illumination, 1150-1250: The Study of a Provincial Tradition [Chicago and London, 1987], 4F9). For other examples in manuscripts, see Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium, 352-56. 49 visionary, and his participation in the apparition is not direct but is conditioned by his penitential state. The scene is also painted in the narthex of the Virgin church at Studenica monastery dated to the early thirteenth century. 152 In the fourteenth century the image of penitent David was incorporated in the composition that adorns the gallery above the narthex of the cathedral church of Hagia Sophia in Ohrid. 153 The portraits of eight monks, emaciated and in perpetual prayer, appear immediately below the representation of David?s penance, highlighting the penitential function of the space. The image appears once again in the post Byzantine paintings in the narthex of the catholicon of the Govora monastery in present-day Romania. 154 The image of St. Mary of Egypt, another paradigmatic penitential figure, was often painted in the narthex of Late Byzantine churches, recalling the story in her Vita, and serving as an example of penance and conversion to anyone who was trying to approach the church without being spiritually clean. In the course of the fourteenth century the interest in her life grew significantly, as attested in the writings of Manuel Philes and later of the emperor Manuel Palaeologos. 155 Mary?s Vita is the subject of an exquisite fourteenth-century icon from the collection of the Chilandar monastery; judging 151 Janko Radovanovi?, ?Ikonografia fresaka protezisa tsrkve Sveti Apostoli u Pe?,? ZLU 4 (1968), 25-64, esp. 43-46; Ellen C. Schwartz, ?The Original Fresco Decoration in the Church of the Holy Apostles in the Patriarchate of Pe?,? (Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University, 1978), 128-35. 152 Zaga Gavrilovi?, Studies in Byzantine and Serbian Medieval Art (London, 2001), 94, fig. 3. 153 Svetozar Radoj?i?, ?Freska Pokajanja Davidovog u Ohridskoj Svetoj Sofii,? Starinar 9-10 (1958-59), 133-36; Tsvetan Grozdanov, Ohridsko zidno slikarstvo XIV veka (Belgrage, 1980), 69, 75, fig. 14. 154 I. D. Stefanescu, La peinture religieuse en Valachie et Transilvanie depuis les origines jusqu?au XIX e si?cle (Paris, 1930), fig. 47. 155 Manuel Philes, Carmina, ed. E. Miller, 2 Vols. (Paris, 1857, repr. Amsterdam, 1967), 1: 36, 438-39, 2: 235-36, 373-75; Svetozar Radoi?i?, ?Una Poetentium. Marija Egipatska u srpskoj umetnosti XIV veka,? Zbornik Narodnog Muzeja 4 (1964), 262. 50 from its small measurements (25 x 29.5 cm) it was intended for private worship. 156 Mary and the priest Zosimas often appeared in the western parts of churches indicating this as a place for sinners, and for those in a process of spiritual healing. The couple occupies the western part of the nave of the metropolitan church of Hagios Demetrios in Mystra, and was painted on the two sides of the entrance leading from the narthex into the nave of the catholicon of the Pantanassa Monastery, also located in Mystra. 157 The communion of Mary was also painted in the narthex of the church at Lesnovo and on the south pier of the door leading from the narthex to the naos of the Hodegetria church at Pe?. 158 Above the door, in the lunette, a half figure of the Virgin appears with her hands outstretched in prayer. The association with the icon that stopped Mary at the door is unmistakable and inevitably evokes the penitential character of the space. The Rebuke of David and the Communion of St. Mary of Egypt were among the themes that adorned the nartheces of Late Byzantine churches. Their penitential associations visually confirm the penitential character of the spaces they occupy. At the same time literary evidence of visions and dreams in the vestibule or at the door of the church designate the narthex as a place for transitional and transformational experiences, in a sense mirroring its own position within the building as a communicating point between the sacred and the profane. Later in this dissertation I will show that the somewhat more debatable spaces of the ambulatories could be interpreted in a similar way. Their painted programs will be my guides. 156 Radoi?i?, ?Una Poetentium,? 255-62, figs. 1-2. 157 Suzy Dufrenne, Les programmes iconographiques des ?glises byzantines de Mistra (Paris, 1970), 7, 38. Representations of Mary and Zosimas appear also close to sanctuaries and thus carry eucharistic connotations. See Gerstel, Beholding the Sacred Mysteries, 57, 123 n. 49. 158 Radoi?i?, ?Una Poetentium,? 262-65. 51 During the Palaeologan period the church naos was enveloped with, or even shielded by large subsidiary spaces, which were meant to accommodate a great variety of rites of passage that marked transitional points in human life. Before entering the nave of the catholicon, the monks of the twelfth-century Pantokrator monastery in Constantinople were instructed to bow in reverence before the royal doors, the threshold between the narthex and the naos. 159 This sacralization of the nave was paralleled in a smaller scale in the architectural and decorative treatment of the sanctuary. As Sharon Gerstel has recently shown, at some point in the Late Byzantine period the templon screen that separated the sanctuary from the nave was completely closed off and the view inside blocked with monumental icons; specific images were painted on the eastern side of the screen for the sole view of the priest. 160 While subsidiary church spaces provided access to the more holy naos, at the same time they were literally opened to the outside world. The south ambulatory of the Holy Apostles church in Thessalonike was not initially blocked off with a solid wall. The same is true for the two ambulatories added some time in the late thirteenth to early fourteenth century to the core of the twelfth-century church of St. George at Omorphokklesia. The painted decorative programs of the ancillary spaces vary, but I will show that they contain one underlying theme, the theme of transformation and profound change?from illness to health, from falling down to climbing up, from damnation to salvation?mirroring the position of the spaces within the church. In the chapters that follow I will demonstrate how the monumental paintings in the nartheces and ambulatories of seven monastic churches in Byzantine Macedonia 159 Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 2: 740. 160 Sharon Gerstel, ?The Late Byzantine Sanctuary Screen: Form, Program, Reception,? paper delivered at the Byzantine Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, May 2003. I thank Professor Gerstel for providing me with a copy of her text prior to its publication. 52 facilitated rites of passage associated with monastic life, and were appropriate backdrops for penitential exercises and contemplative practices. The discussion of these ?subsidiary? programs will provide insight into the function and meaning of the subsidiary church spaces. 53 CHAPTER 2 CHRIST?S HEALING MIRACLES IN THE SUBSIDIARY SPACES OF LATE BYZANTINE MONASTIC CHURCHES IN MACEDONIA At the beginning of the fourteenth century the intellectual life in Byzantium was marked by a resurgence of hagiographic literature and miracle collections. 1 Alice-Mary Talbot has suggested that this revival should be related to the restoration of Constantinople and its churches and monasteries after 1261 to their Orthodox audience. A group of miracula was composed during the reign of the emperor Andronicus II (1282-1328). According to these accounts, a multitude of sick people found relief in several old shrines, including the churches of the Theotokos t? s Peg? s, 2 the Kosmidion and St. Theodosia, 3 and the newly erected church of the Soter where the body of the sainted Constantinopolitan patriarch Athanasios I (1289-1293, 1303-1311) was buried. 4 This interest in the miraculous, and especially in miraculous healings, was closely associated with the restored Orthodoxy, and especially with the religious politics of Andronicus II who rejected the Union with the Catholic West sought and supported by his father Michael 1 Alice-Mary Talbot, ?Old Wine in New Bottles: The Rewriting of Saints? Lives in the Palaeologan Period,? in Twilight of Byzantium, 15-26 (repr in Eadem, Women and Religious Life in Byzantium (Aldershot, 2001)); Eadem, ?Healing Shrines in Constantinople,? 1-24. For Late Byzantine saints see, for example, Angeliki Laiou-Thomadakis, ?Saints and Society in the Late Byzantine Empire,? in Charanis Studies: Essays in Honor of Peter Charanis, ed. A. Laiou-Thomadakis (New Brunswick, 1980), 84-114; Ruth Macrides, ?Saints and Sainthood in the Early Palaiologan Period,? in The Byzantine Saint, ed. S. Hackel (London, 1981), 67-87. 2 A. Pamperis, Peri sustase? s tou sevasmiou oikou t? s en K? nstantinoupolei Z? odohou P? g? s kai t? n en aut? uperphu? s telesthent? n thaumat? n (Leipzig, 1802); Alice-Mary Talbot, ?Epigrams of Manuel Philes on the Theotokos tes Peges and Its Art,? DOP 48 (1994), 135-65. 3 Talbot, ?Healing Shrines in Constantinople,? 7-13, 16-17; Eadem, ?Pilgrimage to Healing Shrines: The Evidence of Miracle Accounts,? DOP 56 (2002), 165-67. 4 Theoktistos the Stoudite, Faith Healing in Byzantium. 54 VIII (1259-1282). 5 After the Latin occupation and the Lyon Union the Byzantines and the Orthodox Church were in need of cure. In the first half of the fourteenth century healing miracles became a testimony to the orthodoxy of the Byzantine church and government, and of the truthfulness of their faith. Increased interest in healing miracles is paralleled in the monumental programs of a number of churches in Byzantium and Serbia. Over twenty buildings used by monastic and lay worshipers, decorated between the late thirteenth and fourteenth century, contain long narratives of the miraculous interventions of Christ. Scholars have noted the enrichment of the monumental programs of Palaeologan churches, 6 but the proliferation of Christ?s Miracles has not been explained. Perhaps only the Early Christian period witnessed a similar interest in the images of Christ?s Ministry, when different social and religious circumstances called for the visualization of the miracles in order to confirm Jesus? frequently challenged divinity. 7 The monuments studied in this chapter are clustered in a close geographic proximity in Macedonia. These churches constitute a coherent group because they were painted by the same group of locally trained artists and were commissioned by Byzantine aristocrats and high church officials. This chapter describes the placement and discusses the iconography of Christ?s Miracles in five monastic churches painted between the end 5 Talbot, ?Healing Shrines in Constantinople,? 23-24. 6 Dufrenne, ?L?enrichissement du programme iconographique,? 35-46; Tania Velmans, ?La peinture murale byzantine d?inspiration constantinopolitaine du milieu du XIV e si?cle (1330-1370). Son rayonnement en Georgie,? in De?ani i vizantijska umetnost sredinom XIV veka ed. Voislav Djuri? (Belgrade, 1989), 75-95, esp. 76-78. 7 Thomas F. Mathews, The Clash of Gods. A Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art (Princeton, 1993), 59; Leslie Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium. Image as Exegesis in the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus (Cambridge, 1999), 262-79; Maria Evangelatou, ?Virtuous Soul, Healthy Body: The Holistic Concept of Health in Byzantine Representations of Christ?s Healing Miracles,? forthcoming in the proceedings of the conference Holistic Healing in Byzantium: Epistemologies and Methodologies, Harvard University, May 7 th -8 th , 2004. I thank Dr. Evangelatou for sharing her text prior to publication. 55 of the thirteenth and the second half of the fourteenth century. Some of the images are identified and treated here for the first time. Monumental programs demonstrate two main approaches to the Ministry cycles: they are either incorporated within the narrative of Christ?s life in the nave, or are painted separately in ancillary spaces. 8 In some cases when represented in the naos, the Miracles are clustered in the west ends of the side aisles, as in the Metropolis church at Mystra and in Bogorodica Levi?ka at Prizren. 9 They may also occupy the west wall of the nave, as in the Virgin church at Gra?anica. They too may define improvised chapels at the western end of the naos, as in the Virgin Peribleptos in Ohrid. In St. Catherine in Thessalonike and in the church of St. Nikita near ?u?er, St. Prochoros of P?inja near Vranje, as well as in the monastic churches of Chilandar, Staro Nagori?ino, De?ani and Lesnovo, the Miracles and Parables of Christ are not especially prominent. In these churches they were incorporated in the expanded monumental cycles of Jesus? life that wrap around the naos. In the small chapel of St. Euthymios in Thessalonike, the Ministry took on a greater significance because it was intended to parallel, and thus glorify the ministry of the chapel?s patron saint. 10 The Miracles and Parables of Christ constitute the main decoration of the nartheces and ambulatories of a number of urban catholica and of only one church on Mount Athos. 8 The program of the refectory of the monastery of the Dormition at Apolonia in central Albania also contains several scenes from the Ministry of Christ dated to the fourteenth century, see John J. Yiannias, ?The Palaeologan Refectory Program at Apolonia,? in Twilight of Byzantium, 161-74. 9 Some of the images of the Ministry of Christ in Bogorodica Levi?ka date to the thirteenth century. They cannot be seen in situ anymore because they were removed to the Archaeological Museum in Belgrade. 10 Thalia Gouma-Peterson, ?Christ as Ministrant and the Priest as the Ministrant of Christ in a Palaeologan Program of 1303,? DOP 32 (1978), 199-216. 56 With the exception of the two cathedral churches at Mystra and Prizren, all the other churches belong to monastic communities, which I argue is significant. 11 Medical saints are rarely associated with representations of the Ministry of Christ. Usually portraits of exemplary monks or scenes with ascetic overtones are painted in close proximity. This adds a significant dimension to the interpretation of these miraculous interventions as metaphors for spiritual as well as physical healing. Of the seven churches at the core of this chapter five contain Ministry cycles painted in their subsidiary spaces. 12 In the one painted first, the church of the Protaton on Mount Athos, these scenes were represented in an architecturally segregated space at the southwest corner of the naos. The auxiliary spaces of three churches in Thessaloniki?the church of Nicholas Orphanos, Holy Apostles and Profites Elias?were also decorated with scenes of Christ?s Ministry. Miracles and Parables appear in the exonarthex of St. George at Omorphokklesia near Kastoria as well. THE PAINTED PROGRAMS This section considers individual monuments in a roughly chronological order starting with the Protaton. It focuses on descriptions and iconographic analysis of individual scenes. Whereas the discussion concentrates on monuments located in close geographic proximity, I bring in comparisons from Constantinople, Mystra, and Serbia. I take into account the Ministry cycle of the Peribleptos church in Ohrid as well. However, I do not 11 Sharon Gerstel (?Civic and Monastic Influences,? 228) has recently suggested that the chapel of St. Euthymios might have functioned as a monastic oratory within the church of St. Demetrios. 12 On the eastern wall of the narthex of the catholicon of the Vlatadon monastery is preserved a depiction of the Healing of the Man Born Blind. Maybe an extensive Ministry cycle, like the one seen in the nearly contemporary church of Profites Elias, once decorated the narthex of the church. The poor state of preservation prevents me from discussing the decoration of this narthex. 57 include discussions of individual scenes for the paintings of the church, and especially of the Miracles, because they have not been well published. PROTATON The church of the Protaton on Mount Athos painted ca. 1300 contains one of the earlier monumental programs with extensive Ministry cycle. 13 The scenes are represented in the north and south chapels, which are separated from the naos architecturally, programmatically, and functionally (Fig. 5). Individual images are framed with a thick red line and are thus given an autonomous, iconic appearance and meaning. The narrative does not follow any specific Gospel text and it was the familiarity of the audience with the subject matter that would have eased the reading of the program. Several of the Ministry episodes decorate the southwest compartment but most of the scenes are clustered on the west wall (Fig. 6). In the Healing of the Man Born Blind (John 9:1-8), Christ is represented approaching from the left. He gestures with his right hand toward the bending figure of the blind man clothed in a short light-colored tunic with a pouch strapped over his right shoulder. 14 The actual moment of his healing through washing in the Siloam pool was not depicted. Similar abbreviated treatment of the scene is seen in the chapel of St. Euthymios, in the church of the Virgin Peribleptos in Ohrid, and in the exonarthex of the Kariye Djami. 15 13 Demetres Kalomoirakes, ?Hermeneutikes paratereseis sto eikonographiko programma tou Protatou,? DChAE 15 (1989-1990), 197-220; Idem, ?Pr? tato h? ereuna, to mn? meio kai hoi patr? nes tou,? Kl? ronomia 22 (1990), 73-104; Voislav J. Djuri?, ?Les conceptions hagioritiques dans la peinture du Pr?taton,? HZ 8 (1991), 37-89. 14 This specific detail indicates that the artist followed the text of the Gospel of John, which states that the blind man was a beggar. The pouch is for alms. 15 Gouma-Peterson, ?Christ in a Palaeologan Program,? 209 n. 32. 58 To the right of this scene is the Healing of the Paralytic. It is not clear which Gospel account was illustrated, the Healing at Bethesda (John 5:2-15) 16 or at Capernaum (Matt. 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12, Luke 5:18-26). 17 The two miracles might have been confused, but it is very likely that they were purposefully conflated. 18 The representation in the Protaton is not specific because of the omission of the five porticoes and of the angel stirring the waters. In Late Byzantine monuments, including the Protaton, The Healing of the Paralytic at Bethesda is frequently grouped with the Cure of the Man Born Blind. 19 Usually Christ approaches from the left, and the paralytic is represented healed carrying his bed in fulfillment of Jesus? command: ?Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.? Below the two healings of the Born Blind and the Paralytic appears a teaching scene. Christ is represented as an adult standing under a ciborium instructing a group of Jews. Christ is painted frontal, he holds an opened and inscribed book in his left hand, and his right hand is raised in a gesture of speech. The scene of Christ preaching in the Synagogue appears frequently in churches only from the late thirteenth century. The inscription at the top of the scene is very brief and merely states that Christ is teaching the Jews. There are two possibilities?the preaching in the Synagogue in Nazareth (Matt. 16 The five porticoes indicate the site of the sheep pool in Bethesda; they are specifically mentioned in John?s text. Sometimes the addition of the angel stirring the waters (John 5:4) contributed for the differentiation of the Miracles in Capernaum and Bethesda. 17 Sometimes the Healing of the Man with Palsy in Capernaum was visualized closely following the account in the Gospel of Luke 5:18-26 with a group of men lowering the bed the Paralytic through the roof of the house, see Paul Underwood, ?Some Problems in Programs and Iconography of Ministry Cycles,? in Kariye Djami, 4: figs. 32, 33. In the fourteenth-century mosaics in the exonarthex of the Chora the inscription taken directly from the Gospel of Mark 2:5, ?Son, thy sins are forgiven,? further contributes for the identification of the miracle. See Ibid., 1: 132-33; 2: 253. 18 John Chrysostom, Commentary on Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist, trans. Sister Thomas Aquinas Goggin (Washington, DC, 1957), 360. 19 Underwood, ?Problems and Iconography of Ministry Cycles,? 257-62; Melita Emmanouel, Hoi toichographies tou Hag. D? m? triou sto Makruch? ri kai t? s Koim? se? s t? s Theotokou ston Oxulitho t? s Euboias (Athens, 1991), 184. 59 4:23, Mark 1:21, Luke 4:16-22) or in the Temple in Jerusalem at the feast of the Tabernacles (John 7:14-36). The figure of the standing Christ is frequently associated with the preaching in Nazareth as in surviving examples in the Peribleptos church in Ohrid, in St. Euthymios, and in the Holy Apostles in Thessalonike. 20 In the representations of the Mid-Pentecost Christ is usually seated and flanked by Jewish doctors; the iconography of the scene directly refers to the teaching of the twelve-year old Jesus (Luke 2:43-48). 21 In the Protaton church the chosen iconography might refer to the preaching in Nazareth, but it is very likely that the teaching takes place in Solomon?s Temple. This identification is strengthened by the neighboring scene of the Expulsion of the Merchants. The two episodes of the Teaching and the Purging of the Temple are represented in a narrative succession in St. Euthymios. 22 In the church at Gra?anica Christ teaching in the Temple in Jerusalem is painted above the Expulsion of the Merchants on the west wall of the naos. 23 Next to the teaching scene is the large composition of the Expulsion of the Merchants described in all four Gospels (Matt. 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46, John 2:13-16). In the synoptic Gospels it follows the Entry into Jerusalem at the opening of Christ?s Passion, 24 while in the Gospel of John it is placed after the Marriage feast at 20 Gouma-Peterson, ?Christ in a Palaeologan Program,? 202-203, n. 13, figs. 5, 7. 21 Christopher Walter, ?Mid-Pentecost,? ECR 2 (1970), 231-33; Gordana Babi?, ?O Prepolovlieniu praznika,? Zograf 7 (1976), 23-27; Christopher Walter, ?The Earliest Representation of Mid-Pentecost,? Zograf 8 (1977), 15-16. 22 Gouma-Peterson, ?Christ in a Palaeologan Program,? figs. 8, 12. 23 Branislav ?ivkovi?, Gra?anica (Belgrade, 1989), unnumbered plate. The artist in Gra?anica employed for the preaching scene the iconography of the image of the young Christ among the Doctors and typical for the Mid-Pentecost, with the figure of Jesus sitting in the middle of an arching bench, and Jews flanking him on both sides. The place of the preaching is thus associated with the Temple of Solomon. 60 Cana at the opening of Christ?s Ministry. 25 In the Protaton, Christ is represented on the left, moving in the direction of a group of people, holding in his right hand the scourge (John 2:15) and pushing with his left hand one of the money changers. 26 Behind Christ is painted a large ciborium, which usually stands for the interior of the Temple, with its curtains drawn and wrapped around the columns. 27 An altar table with a book on it is also visible. The ciborium is partially obscured by the voluminous figure of Christ, a pictorial device which can be related to the words of Christ that the Temple was his ?house?of prayer,? or with the passage from John in which Jesus? body was compared to a temple (John 2:21). Spilled money as well as banking tables and stools are also visible. In front of the group of fleeing Jews a number of sacrificial animals, bulls and sheep, are represented. On the background a walled city is painted, a reference to Jerusalem, dominated by a centralized domed building. The Meeting of Christ with the Samaritan Woman (John 4:5-27) is represented on the east wall of the chamber, in the lunette above the entrance into the naos (Figs. 7, 8). The scene is given prominence not only because of its position over the entrance, but also 24 Perhaps the text by John was given greater importance because it was read in the first Friday after Easter, thus associating it with the Passion. In the church of St. Nikita near ?u?er the Expulsion of the Merchants occupies the central portion of the north wall immediately below some of the main Passion events?the Ascent of the Cross, the Deposition and the Entombment. See Gabriel Millet and A. Frolow, La peinture du Moyen ?ge en Yougoslavie, 3 Vols. (Paris, 1954-69), 3: pl. 37. 25 Perhaps the Byzantines gave preference to John?s account when they were looking at the representations of the Expulsion of the Merchants. John Chrysostom (Homilies on St. John, 225) for example, interpreted the Gospel texts as references to two Cleansings of the Temple at different moments of Christ?s life, once at the beginning of his Ministry and once at the beginning of his Passion. 26 Gouma-Peterson, ?Christ in a Palaeologan Program,? 204 n. 18. 27 A ciborium with curtains drawn and wrapped around its columns was painted in the scene of the Expulsion in the Chilandar Monastery (Miodrag Markovi?, ?The Original Paintings of the Monastery?s Main Church,? in Hilandar Monastery, ed. Gojko Suboti? [Belgrade, 1998], 225). Although a common feature, the ciborium does not appear in the church of St. Clement in Ohrid (Gouma-Peterson, ?Christ in a Palaeologan Program,? fig. 14). 61 because it was not incorporated within the Ministry program on the west wall. The iconography is traditional; Christ is painted seated, holding a scroll in his left hand and gesturing with his right. A marble revetted cruciform well is painted between the protagonists. 28 The Samaritan woman, with a water jug in her left hand, is standing on the background of a walled city. She wears a simple dress and a cape clasped in front. Her long hair, uncovered, is arranged on the back. The image conjures up a variety of messages about Christ as the living water, about obedience, and especially about conversion, which is the anticipated outcome of the meeting. The Healing of the Man Born Blind has a similar meaning because John relates the proselytizing effect of the miracle on the man?s neighbors. 29 The Protaton is the only church on Mount Athos with fourteenth-century representations of the Miracles in architecturally segregated spaces. Only the images in the southwest chapel form a coherent Ministry cycle. The image of the Young Christ teaching in the Temple is incorporated into the program of the northwest chapel, and the Healing of the Man with the Withered Hand is the only Miracle painted in the naos. 30 Such a break within the Ministry cycle is not unusual. In the church of the Virgin Peribleptos in Ohrid (1295) the Miracles of Christ are divided between two improvised chambers to the west of the naos. Here, the teaching scenes occupy the southwest chapel 28 The importance that was given to the appearance of the well is understandable in view of the fact that this was Jacob?s well as the Evangelist testified (John 4:5-6). By the time the painting was executed the well was one of the objects venerated in the Constantinopolitan cathedral of Hagia Sophia. See Majeska, Russian Travelers to Constantinople, 224. 29 The importance given to the Healing of the Man Born Blind in the church of St. Catherine in Thessalonike is especially notable. It occupies almost the whole west wall of the naos and is enriched with additional narrative details and long inscriptions. It is possible that the artist and the patron intended a special proselytizing effect on the audience. 30 Gabriel Millet, Monuments de l?Athos (Paris, 1927), fig. 51. 62 and the healings the northwest. 31 Stylistic and iconographic similarities between the two monuments have long been acknowledged, and it is very likely that the earlier program influenced the arrangement of the paintings in the later. 32 The Miracles are similarly separated between the exonarthex and the esonarthex of the Chora church in Constantinople. We can only guess if any functional considerations governed the choice of subject matter in the north and south chapels in Peribleptos. It seems that the model provided by the Protaton and St. Clement was abandoned, and in the rest of the monuments discussed in this study the Ministry occupies a single space, narthex, or ambulatory wing. ST. GEORGE The church of St. George is located in the small village of Omorphokklesia, in close proximity to the town of Kastoria. 33 Aside from the dedicatory inscription above the entrance in the exonarthex, 34 there is no other surviving documentation concerning the church. No systematic archaeological excavations have been conducted and no publication of its paintings exists. The masonry of the church indicates that it was built in 31 Milkovi?-Pepek, Deloto na zografite, 49, figs. 1-2. 32 Greek and Serbian scholars have long been discussing which of the two programs is earlier. The debate has taken a nationalistic twist and I will not attempt to take a side. For a summary of the Greek opinions see, Kalomoirakes, ?Pr? tato,? 78-85, 101-104. For the Serbian viewpoint, see Branislav Todi?, ?Protaton et la peinture serbe des premi?res d?cennies du XIV e si?cle,? in L?Art de Thessalonique, 21-31. 33 The church is mentioned for the first time as a stavropedion of the monastery of the Virgin Mavriotissa in Kastoria. See D. M. Nicol, ?Two Churches of Western Macedonia,? BZ 49/1 (1956), 96. 34 N. I. Giannopoulos, ?Ho en Galiste (para ten Kastorian) byzantiakos naos kai to en auto xylinon anaglyphon tou Hag. Georgiou,? BNJ 4 (1923), 94; Nicol, ?Two Churches in Western Macedonia,? 98-99; E. G. Stikas, ?Une eglise des Paleologues aux environs de Castoria,? BZ 51/1 (1958) 105-108; N. K. Moutsopoulos, ?To xylino anaglypho tou Hagiou Georgiou ston hom? nymo nao t? s Omorphokkl? sias kai horismenes alles xyloglyptes eikones t? s perioches,? Kl? ronomia 25 (1993), 34-36; Eugenia Drakopoulo, He pol? t? s Kastorias t? byzantin? kai metabyzantin? epoch? (12os-16os ai.). Historia-Techn? -Epigraphes (Athens, 1997), 85-87. 63 the twelfth century. In the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century a relatively small exonarthex (3.10m x 5.40m) with a belfry in front, and two ambulatory wings were added to the already existing structure. 35 The new additions received elaborate decoration. The chronology, however, is not very clear and the frescoes have been dated roughly between 1295 and 1317. 36 A later date, in the middle of the fourteenth century, has been proposed for the paintings preserved in the ambulatories. 37 Some scholars have pointed out that the paintings in the narthex bear stylistic resemblance to those of the Protaton, and especially to those in the monastic church of the Panagia Olympiotissa in Thessaly. 38 The resemblances however end here, and it seems that the choice of subject matter and arrangement was influenced by local decorative ensembles. With its added spaces and monumental decoration the church can be related to the architectural and artistic developments of the Late Byzantine period. Even the subject matter of the Ministry of Christ in the exonarthex is seen in a number of early Palaeologan churches (Fig. 9). As in other churches, the scenes were chosen to shape an individualized monumental statement, rather than to follow specific Gospel narrative. 35 Nicol, ?Two Churches of Western Macedonia,? 96-99; Stikas, ?Une eglise des Paleologues,? 100-112. 36 In the esonarthex of the church are preserved thirteenth-century paintings. See, for example, Melina Paisidou, ?H? anthr? pomorph? Hagia Triada ston Hagio Ge? rgio t? s Omorphokkl? sias Kastorias,? Dekato eudomo symposio byzantin? s kai metabyzantin? s archaeologias kai techn? s (Athens, 1997), 53-54. 37 Eadem, ?H? kt? torik? parastat? ston Hagio Ge? rgio Omorphokkl? sias Kastorias kai to z? t? ma t? s chronolog? s? s t? n ex? terik? n toichographi? n tou naou,? Eikosto pr? to symposio byzantin? s kai metabyzantin? s archaeologias kai techn? s (Athens, 2001), 72-73. 38 Stikas, ?Une ?glise des Pal?ologues,? 100-112; Doula Mouriki, ?Stylistic Trends in Monumental Painting in Greece at the Beginning of the Fourteenth Century,? in L?art byzantin au d?but du XIV e si?cle, 15; Gerstel, ?Civic and Monastic Influences on Church Decoration,? 232. 64 Besides representations from the Ministry the program incorporates the Last Judgment on the east wall and a rare visualization of the Ladder of Divine Ascent on the north wall. 39 The decoration of the south and the west walls is broken into two distinct zones; the upper zone is occupied by narrative representations and the lower is painted with individual sainted portraits. Each scene is separated from the next by a thick red line. No identifying inscriptions are visible. The program evolves from left to right with the figures of Christ invariably placed in the left half of the compositions and those of the sick in the right. The paintings demonstrate a consistent lack of interest in elaborate architectural backgrounds and of specific topographical definitions. The figures are voluminous and take up most of the picture plane directly engaging the viewer. On the north wall two scenes survive, a badly damaged representation of the Healing of the Two Demoniacs (Matt. 8:28-34, Mark 5:2-17, Luke 8:27-38) and the Expulsion of the Merchants from the Temple (Matt. 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46, John 2:13-16) (Figs. 10, 11). The Miracle with the Demoniacs is only partially preserved. The meeting between the possessed and Christ is in the center of the composition. At present only the thin legs of the demoniacs and the lower portions of their half-naked bodies draped in off-white loincloths are visible. Behind them two sarcophagi are represented, the demoniacs? habitats. The sea of Galilee is to the left. In the far background are painted the swine shepherds and the city of Gerasa. The artist followed Matthew?s text which is the singular source for the number of demoniacs. 39 This association of Christ?s Healing Miracles and the Last Judgment is not very common but is seen in the late thirteenth century church of the Dormition on Euboea. The narthex of this church is painted with the common ?triad? of the Healing of the Born Blind, the Paralytic, and the Samaritan Woman. These Ministry scenes were associated with the Hospitality of Abraham and the Last Judgment. See Emmanouel, Toichographies t? s Koim? seos t? s Theotokou, 135-46. 65 The expulsion of the demons is followed by the Expulsion of the Merchants. The representation follows the traditional iconography seen in the Protaton church. As is common, Christ is painted to the left energetically moving in the direction of the crowd of sellers and buyers. As in the Protaton, Jesus? body obscures the ciborium, which in Omorphokklesia has a conical roof. No curtains appear to be draped around its slender columns. An intriguing feature, which does not occur in any of the contemporary visualizations of the event, is the prominent figure of Peter painted immediately behind Jesus. Peter?s presence is especially surprising because the four Gospel accounts consistently mention that Christ went into the Temple alone. The moneychangers flee in distress to the right, and overturned tables as well as few sacrificial animals crowd the foreground. An overturned three-legged round stool is prominently displayed at the center of the composition; this particular detail is not seen in any of the fourteenth- century renditions of the Expulsion. Unlike most of the examples painted in Macedonian churches in the fourteenth century, the composition is symmetrical, equal space being allotted to Christ, the ciborium and Peter on the left side, and to the crowd of sellers and worshipers on the right. On the west wall appear two rare monumental representations of the Cursing of the Fig Tree (Matt. 21:18-22, Mark 11:12-13, 20-26) and of the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matt. 25:1-13), which I will discuss in the next chapter, followed by the Healing of the Ten Lepers (Luke 17:11-19) and of the Man Born Blind (Figs. 12, 13). Of the representation of the Healing of the Ten Lepers only the group of the apostles behind Christ survived almost intact. About two thirds of Jesus? figure is preserved and several pairs of bare feet that move in his direction have remained from the lepers. Their healing 66 was painted in the naos of the catholicon of the Chilandar monastery and in the naos of St. Catherine in Thessalonike. 40 These representations can be helpful in reconstructing the appearance of the scene in Omorphokklesia; Christ and a group of apostles are represented to the left on a mountainous backdrop. The ten lepers balance the composition to the right. A walled city is painted behind them. The scene that concludes the Ministry program is the Healing of the Man Born Blind (Fig. 13). As is common, the blind man is represented twice. In the first episode he is supporting himself on a stick while Christ to the left is anointing his eyes with the miraculous mud. In the second episode placed in the lower right corner the man washes his face in the cruciform well of Siloam. The blind man bends intensely, as if to immerse his whole body in the salvific waters. The paintings in the church of St. George follow an agenda of their own; here the benevolent nature of Christ?s ministry is juxtaposed with eschatological images. Trained in the visual and stylistic idioms of the Macedonian school, the artist(s) at Omorphokklesia emphasized Jesus? characteristics not only as a merciful savior but also as a formidable judge. The representation of the Last Judgment is in stark contrast with the rest of the monastic programs featured here. Possible influence of local pictorial tradition should not be excluded. Perhaps the paintings in the narthex of the Mavriotisa monastic church in Kastoria provided a model for the program of the exonarthex of St. George. 41 This eschatological aspect of the program I consider in a separate chapter. 40 Euthymios Tsigaridas, Toichographies t? s periodou t? n Palaiolog? n se naous t? s Makedonias (Thessalonike, 1999), figs. 4-5. 41 The thirteenth-century representation of the Holy Trinity in the esonarthex of St. George was associated with a similar image in the Koumpelidiki in Kastoria and with late thirteenth-century local concerns with the Bogomil heresy, see Paisidou, ?H? anthr? pomorph? Hagia Triada,? 54; Chrysanthe Mauropoulou- 67 HOLY APOSTLES Although extensively published, the frescoes in the exonarthex of the church of the Holy Apostles have not been fully identified (Fig. 14). Christine Stephan in her study has mentioned that representations of Christ?s Public works would have adorned the outer narthex but she did not identify the surviving fragments. 42 The church, once a catholicon of a monastery dedicated to the Virgin, was built and decorated in the first quarter of the fourteenth century. 43 Its mosaics and frescoes often related to a Constantinopolitan artistic school may have been simultaneously executed following a common practice of combining the two media. 44 The exonarthex of the church of the Holy Apostles was once painted with an extensive Ministry cycle, of which three scenes are almost fully preserved. Despite their limited number, these images deserve special mention as they demonstrate a unique choice of subject matter. At least two representations of the calling of the apostles appear, one on the east wall above the arched openings into the esonarthex, and one on the south wall. A rare image of the Healing of the Two Blind (Matt. 9:27-31) is painted in the upper portion of the west wall. A separate cycle with eschatological meaning is Tsiume, Hoi toichographies tou 13ou ai? na st? n Koumpelidik? t? s Kastorias (Thessalonike, 1973), 85-89, figs. 48-50. 42 Christine Stephan, Ein byzantinisches Bildensemble. Die Mosaiken und Fresken der Apostelkirche zu Thessaloniki (Baden-Baden, 1986), 237, 240. 43 Andreas Xyngopoulos, He ps? phidot? diakosm? sis tou naou t? n Hagi? n Apostol? n Thessalonik? s (Thessalonike, 1953); Idem, ?Les fresques de l??glise des Sts. Ap?tres ? Thessalonique,? in Art et Soci?t? sous les Pal?ologues (Venice, 1971), 85-89; Nikos Nikonanos, Hoi Hagioi Apostoloi Thessalonik? s (Thessalonike, 1986); Stephan, Apostelkirche. On the dating of the church, see the most recent article by Athanassios Semoglou, ?Le portrait de Saint Lazare de Gal?siote aux Saints-Ap?tres de Thessalonique: Un noveau t?moignage sur la datation des paintures murales de l??glise,? Byzantina 21 (2000), 617-28, with references to earlier literature. 44 The combination of two media is not exceptional and is not necessarily associated with impoverishment and lack of funding. For example, the Constantinopolitan monastic churches of the Chora and of the Virgin Pammakaristos were similarly adorned with mosaics and frescoes. 68 represented in the west end of the north ambulatory. The space is architecturally articulated by means of a dome and bears a distinct decoration which I will consider in the next chapter. One of the surviving representations depicts the calling of Matthew (Matt. 9:9, Mark 2:14, Luke 5:27-28) (Fig. 15). To the left of the composition a male figure dressed as a Jew is sitting at a rectangular table. Its shape is most commonly associated with scenes of banking and money lending, and not with dining. 45 An inkpot with a writing pen in it is placed on the table. Christ approaches energetically and gestures in direction of the seated person. A group of apostles follows Christ. The image resembles in its composition the Calling of Matthew in De?ani where the basic elements of Christ with the group of apostles to the left with the rectangular table and Matthew to the right are also present (Fig. 16). The image in the narthex of the Holy Apostle is also similar to the representation in the tenth-century copy of the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, Paris Cod. Gr. 510, where Matthew is seated at the table busying himself with a handful of money while Christ approaches towards him to the left. 46 The image in the Holy Apostles does not follow the common iconography with Matthew standing and ready to follow Christ, as seen, for example, in Gra?anica and De?ani. 47 The artist chose to represent the first moment of the encounter keeping closely to the text of the Gospels where Matthew is ?sitting at the receipt of custom.? 48 45 The shape of the table is juxtaposed with a semicircular table on which are dining the high priests from the cycle dedicated to the Virgin in the esonarthex. The dining table is visible through the arched opening above which the scene of the Calling of Matthew is painted. This juxtaposition seems intentional and might have governed the placement of the two scenes. For similar juxtaposition of table shapes see fig. 89. 46 Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium, fig. 16. 47 ?ivkovi?, Gra?anica, unnumbered plate. 69 A scene either of healing or dining follows and only the scant remains of a figure reclining on a draped couch have survived (Fig. 17). Two possibilities are likely: the Raising of Jairus? daughter, which is one of the first miracles that occur after the calling of Levy and is mentioned only in the Gospel of Matthew (9:23-26), or the feast in the publican?s house, which in all three Gospels follows immediately after Matthew?s conversion (Matt. 9:10-13, Mark 2:15-17, Luke 5:29-32). In this last case it is Christ that might have been represented reclining on a dining couch. On the south wall of the exonarthex a second image appears which can be associated with scenes of apostolic vocations or to conversions (Fig. 18). Christ is painted to the left sitting on a backless throne. He gestures in the direction of the two figures to the right. Fanciful architecture supported by a pair of marble columns and draped with a red cloth is painted behind. A bearded apostle approaches first, followed by a youthful figure who points to his mouth with his index finger. The inscription is very fragmentary and cannot be read. The scene might be a representation of the conversion of Nathanael which is described only in the Gospel of John (1:43-51). 49 In other visualizations of the episode Christ is not represented seated; he is standing to the left while the Philip and Nathanael 48 In the Florentine Gospel book (Tania Velmans, Le T?tra?vangile de la Laurentienne Florence, Laur. VI.23 [Paris, 1971], fig. 28) no table is visible, Matthew is represented to the right seated on a high-backed chair, while Christ approaches gesturing in his direction. The sedentary character of the banking profession was similarly emphasized in the representation of the Expulsion of the Merchants in the narthex of Omorphokklesia. In general, moneylenders are often represented sitting at their tables as seen, for example, in the illustrations of Gregory?s Homily to Julian the tax collector. See George Galavaris, The Illustrations of the Liturgical Homilies of Gregory Nazianzenus (Princeton, 1969), 42-46, figs. 9, 147, 245, 361, 383, 413, 460. 49 Despite the fact that Nathanael was not an apostle he looks like one with his antique garments. Whereas the artist who worked on the tenth-century Paris Gregory differentiated the garments of the apostles from those of Nathaniel (Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium, fig. 16), in most cases he is painted wearing the traditional Roman garb of the rest of Jesus? followers. 70 approach from the right. 50 Jesus is often represented seated in teaching scenes as in the illustration of Matthew 12:46-50 in the fourteenth-century Bulgarian Tetraevangelion, fol. 39r. In its formal arrangement the image resembles the one in the Holy Apostles; on the backdrop of an imaginary building Christ is sitting on a backless chair gesturing in direction of two apostles in front of him (Fig. 19). The image is further augmented with figures of Jews to the right and of Christ?s relatives, to the left. In general, the portrait type of Philip in the Holy Apostles with his dark hair and short dark beard can be compared to the apostle?s fourteenth-century representations in the above-mentioned Bulgarian Gospels and in the church of the Ascension in De?ani (Fig. 20). 51 The portrait in the Holy Apostles also conforms to the description in the later, seventeenth-century Painter?s Manual where Philip is described as ?a young man with an incipient beard.? 52 The calling of Matthew and the conversion of Nathanael were painted on the same folio in the tenth-century copy of the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, Paris, Cod. Gr. 510. The two episodes, and a scene of a baptism, constitute the frontispiece to Gregory?s funeral oration to his father. 53 Gregory?s father belonged to the sect of the Hypsistarii and was converted to Christianity later in his life. It might be, as Sirarpie Der Nersessian has suggested, that the two vocations, which on the page precede the 50 Velmans, Le T?tra?vangile de la Laurentienne, fig. 270; Bogdan Filov, Les miniatures de l??vangile du roi Jean Alexandre ? Londres (Sofia, 1934), fig. 286. 51 Filov, Les miniatures de l??vangile du roi Jean Alexandre, fig. 286. 52 Dionysius of Fourna, Painter?s Manual, trans. Paul Hetherigton (Retonodo Beach, CA, 1989), 53. 53 Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium, fig. 16. 71 baptismal scene, were intended to demonstrate that Gregory?s father was like Matthew and Nathanael called by God. 54 In the upper portion of the wall to the southwest and above window level a rare scene of the Healing of the Two Blind Men is painted (Fig. 21). A group of Jews and Apostles is represented in the right half of the composition. The blind men are painted to the left. They are dressed in simple tunics and wear hats like those of the two maimed in the church of Nicholas Orphanos (Fig. 29), and of the blind and the dumb in De?ani (Fig. 23). The figure of Christ is in the middle, towering over the seated sick men. Jesus turns in their direction while energetically moving to the right. Perhaps the figure is borrowed from the representations of the Healing of the Woman with the Issue of Blood, where Christ turns to acknowledge the woman?s touch as well as her faith (Fig. 22). By using similar visual language the artist drew attention to a common theme in the two miracles?healing through faith. The iconography of the scene is ambiguous and might represent one of the cures of the several doublets of afflicted people, a subject which is discussed at length below. In the south bay of Chora?s exonarthex the Healing of the Two Blind appears as well; it, however, differs from the representation in the Holy Apostles as the two men are standing supporting themselves on walking sticks. 55 No other contemporary fourteenth- century rendition is comparable to the image in the Holy Apostles where the two men are represented without any means of support, either crutches or walking sticks. The 54 Sirarpie Der Nersessian, ?The Illustrations of the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus Paris, Gr. 510. A Study of the Connection between Text and Images,? DOP 16 (1962), 197-98; Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium, 127-31. According to the oration (Gregory of Nazianzen, Select Orations of Saint Gregory of Nazianzen, eds. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace [Ann Arbor, MI, 1955], 258) Gregory?s father had a series of dreams that contributed to his conversion. 55 Underwood, Kariye Djami, 2: 260-61. 72 placement of the scene above the window is significant. As the monk looked upon the Miracle the sunlight from the window would pour into his eyes reminding him of the newfound sight of those healed by Christ. The rest of the Ministry cycle in the exonarthex does not survive. Of the scenes that do survive, the two conversion scenes are especially notable. The calling of Matthew and the Conversion of Nathaniel appear infrequently in church decoration. They are included only in the vastly expanded program of the Ascension church at De?ani. Nathaniel?s conversion is represented in the narthex of the church of SS Cosmas and Damian in Kastoria, but it was never published and thus I am unable to discuss it. 56 In scholarly literature the pictorial context was noted, which seems to anticipate the iconographic developments of the Palaeologan period by emphasizing moments of catharsis and conversion?Nathaniel is represented on the narthex north wall together with the Three Hebrews in the Fiery Furnace and a rare image of the Adulteress. 57 It is likely that the two episodes of the Calling of Matthew and Nathaniel held special importance for the ktetors of the church of the Holy Apostles. For the monks they would have been a constant reminder of their personal vocations. NICHOLAS ORPHANOS The paintings in the monastic church of St. Nicholas Orphanos in Thessalonike date to the first quarter of the fourteenth century. 58 No documentation concerning the church 56 Pelekanidis and Chatzidakis, Kastoria, 24-25. 57 Ibid. 58 Andreas Xyngopoulos, Hoi toichographies tou Agiou Nikolaou Orphanou Thessalonik? s (Athens, 1964); Tania Velmans, ?Les fresques de Saint Nicholas Orphanos ? Salonique et les rapports entre la peinture d?ic?nes et la decoration monumentale au XIV e si?cle,? CA 16 (1966), 144-76; Chrysante Mavropoulou- 73 exists prior to 1648 when it was identified as a metochion of the Vlatadon monastery. 59 The building?s unknown patron has been identified as a member of the influential Thessalonikan family of the Orphanoi, and perhaps even the Serbian king Milutin. 60 The church is a basilica with a spacious ambulatory enveloping a rather small naos (5m x 3m) (Fig. 24). The north wall and part of the south ambulatory wall were rebuilt, and their original decoration has been completely lost. A number of burials were found beneath the floor of the narthex and the ambulatories. Most of them were of women, which led to the suggestion that the church may have belonged to a convent. 61 The naos contains a fully preserved monumental program that relates the Infancy and the Passion of Christ. The paintings in the two ambulatory wings and the narthex are fragmentary. The Akathistos hymn decorates the south wall of the north ambulatory and the narthex is painted with scenes from the life of the patron saint Nicholas and with the Menologion. The south ambulatory is decorated with an extensive Ministry cycle that unfolds in two registers (Fig. 25). Below these representations, rather than individual sainted figures as in the south ambulatory, there is an image of Moses before the Burning Bush and several rare episodes from the life of St. Gerasimus. In contrast to the Protaton and Omorphokklesia, the viewer in Nicholas Orphanos need not move around to see the Tsioumi, The Church of St. Nicholas Orphanos (Thessalonike, 1986); Anna Tsitouridou, Ho z? graphikos diakosmos tou Hagiou Nikolaou Orphanou st? Thessalonik? . Symbol? st? melet? t? s Palaiologeias z? graphik? s kata ton pr? imo 14 ai? na (Thessalonike, 1986); Karin Kirchhainer, Die Bildausstattung der Nikolauskirche in Thessaloniki: Untersuchungen zu Struktur und Programm der Malereien (Weimar, 2001). 59 Mavropoulou-Tsioumi, The Church of St. Nicholas Orphanos, 8. 60 Andreas Xyngopoulos, ?L??glise de Saint Nicolas Orphanos et les constructions du Kral Miloutine ? Thessalonique,? BS 6 (1965), 181-85; Idem, ?Ne? terai ereunai eis ton Hagion Nikolaon Orphanon,? 90-98; Sotiros Kissas, ?Srpski srednovekovni spomenici u Solunu,? Zograf 11 (1980), 34-47; Mavropoulou- Tsioumi, The Church of St. Nicholas Orphanos, 7-8; Branislav Todi?, Serbian Medieval Painting. The Art of King Milutin (Belgrade, 1999), 347-50. 61 Xyngopoulos, ?Ne? terai ereunai,? 98. 74 Ministry program because he is literally confronted by the miraculous cures painted all on the same wall. As in the church of St. George at Omorphokklesia, the events are condensed to the basic protagonists; no crowds of onlookers and no fanciful architectural elements distract the eye from the main subject. The surviving inscriptions show a similar tendency towards concision. They are not verbatim citations from the Gospels, but are short summaries of the essence of the pictures. These inscriptions stand in stark contrast to the long citations incorporated within the illustrations of the Akathistos in the north ambulatory, which lead the audience through the pictorial narrative of the hymn. In order to comprehend the messages of the monumental program in the south ambulatory, the worshiping monk was expected to draw upon his personal knowledge of iconography and scripture. 62 Moving from west to east the first scene in the upper register is the Healing of the Woman with the Curved Back (Luke 13:10-17) (Fig. 26). The upper left corner of the image, which contained Christ and his disciples, is destroyed, and only the body of Christ and scant remains of an apostle behind him are preserved. Jesus is represented approaching from the left gesturing with his right hand in the direction of the woman. She supports herself with a cane and her bent figure takes up the right half of the composition. The scene that follows is the Healing of the Man with Dropsy (Luke 14:1-6) (Fig. 27). Although Luke relates that the Miracle happened indoors, here there is no indication of an architectural interior. The composition is symmetrical, with a significant void in the 62 Long citations were incorporated within the Miracle cycle in the church of St. Catherine, as well as in the Ministry painted in the narthex of the catholicon of the Prodromos Monastery near Serres. See Andreas Xyngopoulos, Hai toichographiai tou katholikou tes Mones Prodromou para tas Serres (Thessalonike, 1973), 31-50. 75 middle. 63 Christ and a group of apostles are represented to the left, and the sick man and his friends appear on the right. As in the depiction of the Bent Woman, Christ here reaches towards the inflicted man with his right hand. The Dropsical Man is painted half- naked wearing a white loincloth, his body and feet swollen from his disease. He supports himself on a pair of crutches and is aided by his friends. 64 Not only were the Healing of the Woman with the Curved Back and of the Dropsical Man told in a narrative sequence in the Gospel of Luke, but they were also performed during Sabbath, the sacred day for the Jews. For this reason, the two scenes are frequently represented in close proximity underscoring the message of Christ?s unlimited compassion. The Cure of the Demoniac (Mark 5:2-17, Luke 8:27-38) appears to the right of the Healing of the Man with Dropsy (Fig. 28) and is only partially preserved. The scene follows the account of Mark and Luke, which is unusual. Other contemporary representations in Omorphokklesia (Fig. 10) and Profites Elias (Fig. 48) adhere to Matthew?s account (Matt. 8:28-34), which relates the cure of two demoniacs and not just one. 65 Only Christ?s feet and his left hand holding a scroll remain. The demoniac occupies the center of the composition. He wears only a white loincloth and is chained and additionally restrained by two male figures. 66 As in Omorphokklesia the sea of 63 Tsitouridou, Ho z? graphikos diakosmos tou Hagiou Nikolaou Orphanou, 130. 64 In most of the contemporary early fourteenth-examples the man supports himself with only one crutch. See Gouma-Peterson, ?Christ in a Palaeologan Program,? 26 n. 22. 65 It is very likely that the choice of Luke?s narrative over that of Matthew is intentional. The other two representations, of the Bent Woman and the Dropsical Man are also recounted in Luke. Such narrative cohesion would have been especially helpful to the audience. 66 The iconography of the Miracle with the demoniac chained is rare and is seen in two fourteenth-century monuments in Macedonia, in the Ascension church at De?ani (Vladimir Petkovi? and D. Bo?kovi?, Monastir De?ani [Belgrade, 1941], pl. CCXXVII ) and in the catholicon of the monastery of John the Baptist near Serres (Xyngopoulos, Hai toichographiai tou katholikou tes Mones Prodromou, fig. 44). 76 Galilee is painted behind the figures. The demoniac is depicted immediately before the moment of his cure, still bound by his chains. The last scene in the upper register is the Healing of the Two Maimed (Fig. 29). The brief inscription reads: O X[RI%TO]% IOMENO% TOU% DUO KULOU% (Christ Heals the Two Crippled Men). The Gospels do not record any specific cures of two crippled men and thus a textual source for the image is difficult to pinpoint. Only Matthew (15:30) mentions that the maimed men were among the multitude that Jesus cured at the Sea of Galilee. In Nicholas Orphanos, Christ is represented in the middle, approaching and blessing with his right hand two crouching figures to the right. On the left a group of apostles follows Jesus. The maimed in the foreground has dropped one of his crutches and gestures in supplication toward Christ, while the crippled man behind him tries to lift himself off the ground. The figure of the maimed man with the crutches finds an exact parallel in a rare representation of the healing of the multitude in the church at De?ani. 67 Here a scene identified as the Healing of the Blind and the Dumb closely resembles the healing of the two maimed in Nicholas Orphanos (Fig. 23). An inscription indicates that a similar representation was painted on the north wall of the naos of the church of St. Catherine, but its poor state of preservation does not allow further observations. 68 Only one healing miracle is preserved in the middle register of the wall. Immediately below the Healing of the Woman with the Curved Back, the Healing of the 67 Petkovi? and Bo?kovi?, De?ani, pl. CCXXIII; Tsitouridou, Ho z? graphikos diakosmos tou Hagiou Nikolaou Orphanou, 135; Silvia Pasi, ?La scena della guarigione di diverse malattie nella pittura monumentale tardo-bizantina,? CorRav 42 (1995), 691. 68 For similar images, see Xyngopoulos, Hagios Nikolaos Orphanos, 16-17; Underwood, Kariye Djami, 1: 142-44, 2: 260-61; Underwood, ?Problems in Programs and Iconography of Ministry Cycles,? 299; Tsitouridou, Ho z? graphikos diakosmos tou Hagiou Nikolaou Orphanou, 135-36; Draga Pani? and Gordana Babi?, Bogorodica Levi?ka (Belgrade, 1988), 120, drawing 3. 77 Paralytic is represented (Fig. 30). The portion of the scene with the figure of Christ is completely destroyed. From the composition remains the paralytic who carries his bed on his back. A group of Jews gesture in amazement turning their heads in the direction of the main protagonists. The laconic inscription reads [O X(RI%TO)% I]OMENO% TON PARALUTON (Christ Healing the Paralytic), and the lack of architectural details do not allow further identification. There is no way of establishing with certainty the location of the miracle and the identity of the sick man. The images that follow, however, of Christ and the Samaritan Woman and the Wedding at Cana, are concerned with water, suggesting that the site of the healing might be the sheep pool at Bethesda. The representation of the Paralytic concludes the healing cycle. While it is difficult to discern a narrative in the arrangement of the curative miracles, one cannot help but notice that in the scenes in the upper register the sick are still supporting themselves on crutches and canes and are not yet cured, and in the only image below the afflicted man is already healed, and lifts up his mattress upon Christ?s command hearing that his sins are forgiven. The health of the body is no longer of concern, and the emphasis is placed upon the health of the soul. After the long cycle that demonstrates Christ?s curative powers the scene of the Meeting with the Samaritan woman follows (Fig. 31). As in the Protaton, the image is given a greater prominence framing the arcade that opens into the naos. The scene is divided within the physical space because of spatial restrictions. Christ is represented seated to the left and the Samaritan woman is standing to the right. The two protagonists communicate through the real space, their separation signaling their different origins, Jewish and Samaritan (John 4:9). John attests that Christ was alone when he sat at the 78 well to rest, and yet, behind Jesus? figure is visible a group of disciples, with Peter prominently placed at the foreground. Their presence is thus an indication of the moment when the apostles returned and marveled at Christ talking to the foreign woman. The Samaritan is painted standing in front of a round well ready to draw water with her jug; she energetically steps forward with her foot on the base of the spring. 69 The woman wears a long dress with a golden hem and neckline; her hair is loose under a purple veil tied in a knot on top of her head. The veil is similarly hemmed with gold and is additionally decorated with long white fringes. The water imagery associated with the meeting of Christ and the Samaritan provides a transition to the depiction of the Miracle at Cana. The bridal symbolism associated with the Samaritan in some Byzantine writings further relates it to the marriage feast painted on the left. 70 The Marriage at Cana (John 2:1-11), which in the Scripture is placed at the beginning of Jesus? divine manifestations on earth, concludes the Ministry cycle in Nicholas Orphanos (Fig. 32). 71 On the left side of the table Christ is represented reclining on a couch. He turns toward Mary painted in a pose of supplication; a similar, but larger, figure of the Virgin Paraklesis is seen in the arched opening that connects the north ambulatory with the naos. The table is laid with cross-shaped cakes and bowls. The bride and the groom sit to the left of Christ both dressed in royal 69 This was most likely the shape of the Holy Well venerated in Hagia Sophia for one of the Russian pilgrims who saw it ca. 1200 testified that it was a ?piece of marble hollowed like a pot? (Majeska, Russian Travelers to Constantinople, 224). 70 St. Gregory Palamas equated the Samaritan woman with the bride from the Song of Songs, PG 151: 260C; Gregory Palamas, Besedy, trans. Archbishop Amvrosii, 3 Vols. (Moscow, 1994), 1: 203-204. 71 One can speak about beginning and end of the cycle only if the scenes are considered from left to right and top to bottom. There is no indication, however, that the artist intended such reading of the program in the south ambulatory, and it is for convenience that the present approach was adopted. This approach relies on the inclination of the eye accustomed to reading texts. 79 garments. 72 Opposite of Christ an elderly figure raises a cup to indicate that the wine had finished. There are no traces of the miracle of turning water into wine but it may have been represented. Frequently Byzantine artists separated the event into two distinct moments, of the feast and of the miracle. 73 The spatial association of the Marriage and the Miracle of the Wine with the apse is not unusual. The Marriage and the Miracle were painted on the south and east walls in close proximity to the altar apse in the church of St. Catherine in Thessalonike. In Byzantine exegesis the transformational nature of the Miracle was associated with healings and spiritual change, and in these terms the incorporation of the episode into an extensive healing cycle is not unusual. 74 PROFITES ELIAS The church of Profites Elias dates to the second half of the fourteenth century and has been identified with the catholicon of the Nea Mone dedicated to the Virgin and founded by Makarios Choumnos. 75 Its dedication to Prophet Elias is recent and is associated with 72 This image is discussed in detail by Maria Parani, ?Byzantine Bridal Costume,? in Dorima. A Tribute to the A. G. Leventis Foundation on the Occasion of Its 20 th Anniversary (Nicosia, 2000), 185, 204-205, 208, 210. 73 See for example the image in the tenth-century Old Tokali Kilise in Annabel W. Epstein, Tokali Kilise: Tenth-Century Metropolitan Art in Byzantine Cappadocia (Washington, DC, 1986), figs. 27, 28. A similar treatment of the Marriage at Cana as two separate episodes is seen in a twelfth-century icon from Mount Sinai (Georgios Soteriou and Maria Soteriou, Eikones t? s Mon? s Sina, 2 Vols. [Athens, 1956-1955], 1: fig. 125). In the mid-fourteenth-century church at De?ani (Petkovi? and Bo?kovi?, De?ani, pl. CCXX) the feast is separated on the wall, and the miracle on the neighboring pilaster. In the church of St. Catherine the feast is similarly divided in two distinct episodes with the feast in the apse and the miracle with the water in immediate proximity on the south wall. 74 John Chrysostom, Commentary on Saint John, 219-21. 75 V. Laurent, ?Le m?tropolite de Thessalonique Gabriel (1397-1416/19) et le couvent de la Nea Mone,? Hellenika 13 (1954), 241-55; Idem, ?Une nouvelle fondation de Choumnos: la N?a Moni de Thessalonique,? R?B 13 (1955), 109-127; G. Theocharides, ?Dyo nea eggrapha aphor? nta eis t? n Nean Mon? n tes Thessalonik? s,? Makedonika 4 (1955-60), 315-51, esp. 343-51. Recently Thanasis Papazotos (?The Identification of the Church of ?Profitis Elias? in Thessaloniki,? DOP 45 [1991], 121-27) identified Profites Elias with the catholicon of the monastery of Christ Akapniou. Archaeological excavations around 80 the building?s Turkish name. 76 The architectural plan of the building indicates its monastic character. The church is a representative of the so-called Athonite type, with a basic cross-in-square plan with lateral apses, choroi, and an enlarged narthex, or liti (Fig. 33). 77 A porch frames the vestibule to the west, and continues to the north and south providing access into the liti and to two side chapels. Two additional chambers are found between the lateral apses and the altar apse to the east. 78 A built-in bench runs along the exterior wall of the narthex, which is decorated with four niches, two on each side of the entrance. It is likely that these niches indicated seats for monks of importance, functioning as improvised high-backed thrones. 79 The narthex of the church is quite large; four columns support the nine groin vaults and two domes crown the western half of the liti. 80 In the interior two domical vaults to the east add to the symmetrical appearance of the ceiling. the church conducted between 1989 and 1992 revealed the remains of two earlier ecclesiastical structures. See Kyriake Eleutheriadou, ?Naos Prof? t? ? lia,? AD 47 (1992), 421-24. 76 Papazotos, ?Identification of the church of ?Profitis Elias?,? 121. 77 For the Athonite church type, see, for example, Mylonas, ?Remarques architecturales sur le catholicon de Chilandar,? 7-45; Idem, ?Zametki ob arkhitecture Afona,? in Drevnerusskoe iskusstvo. Balkany (St. Petersburg, 1995), 7-81. 78 These two chapels are accessible only from the sanctuary. 79 The niches were decorated with monumental icons. To the left are painted St. Anna and the infant Mary, and the Virgin and Child, while to the right a fragmentary image most likely of Christ, is preserved. This division of the exterior space where left is associated with female and right with male is echoed inside the liti in the contemporary arrangement of its space with an icon of the Virgin to the left and an icon of Christ to the right. For thrones placed outside of the catholicon of monastic churches on Mount Athos and in Serbia, see Vojislav Kora?, ?Le tr?ne ext?rieur de l?higoum?ne dans le katholicon de Vatop?di. Les parall?les dans l?architecture Serbe,? in The Monastery of Vatopedi. History and Art, ed. Paris Gounaridis (Athens, 1999), 143-54. 80 ?ur?i?, ?The Twin-domed Narthex,?333-44. 81 The paintings in the liti of Profites Elias are dated on stylistic grounds to the second half of the fourteenth century. 81 Most of the narrative images decorate the ceiling and the upper portion of the narthex?s walls (Fig. 34). The painted vaults accommodate two distinct scenes separated by thick red lines as is common in Byzantine monumental decoration. In comparison with the painted Ministry cycles discussed above where the artists emphasized the interaction between the main protagonists, the images in Profites Elias have elaborate architectural backdrops and natural settings. In so far as this is the first attempt to systematically consider the decorative program of the liti, I offer a thorough description of each scene, and suggest possible interpretations. The liti is painted with one of the most extensive monumental programs of the Ministry of Christ in Thessalonike. The Infancy of Christ is placed at the beginning of the cycle. Of this only the gruesome scene of the Massacre of the Innocents survives on the narthex?s east wall. A single scene of the Temptation (Matt. 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13) is painted on the vault to the left of the Massacre, and an extensive Ministry cycle ensues. On the vault with the Temptation is painted the Healing of the Demoniac at Capernaum (Mark 1:21-28), to the south the cycle continues with the Raising of the Widow?s Son (Luke 7:11-16) and the Healing of Peter?s Mother-in-Law (Matt. 8:14-15; Mark 1:29-31; Luke 4:38-39), followed by the Healing of the Multitude in the lunette and the Healing of the Two Gadarene Demoniacs (Matt. 8:28-34; Mark 5:2-17; Luke 8:26- 37) on the easternmost corner of the south wall. In the central bay, only two images survive and they are difficult to identify. To the north Christ is represented healing a man clad in white loincloth, perhaps the leper mentioned in Matthew 8:1-4, Mark 1:40-44, and 81 Chrysanthe Mavropoulou-Tsioumi, ?Hoi toichographies tes Mones Blatadon, teleutaia analampe t? s Byzantin? s zographik? s st? Thessalonik? ,? He Thessalonik? 1 (1985), 231-53, esp. 237. 82 Luke 5:12-14. Opposite, in the south half of the vault, Christ appears conversing with a man dressed as a Byzantine high official. The unusual iconography and the undecipherable inscription do not allow firm identification; thus this can be either the episode of the Healing of the Nobleman?s Son (John 4:46-53) or the Healing of the Centurion?s servant (Luke 7:11-16). Other scenes in the vaults include the Healing of the Ten Lepers, the Cure of the Archon?s Lunatic Son (Matt. 17:14-21, Mark 9:14-29, Luke 9:37-42), The Blessing of Little Children (Matt. 19:13-15, Mark 10:13-16, Luke 18:15- 17) and, on the west wall, the Healing of the Man with the Withered Hand (Matt. 12:9- 13, Mark 3:1-5, Luke 6:6-10). The image of the Massacre of the Innocents is given particular prominence; it occupies the lunette above the north entrance and continues on the vault above (Fig. 35). Its unusual iconography and violent content were associated with the uprising of the Zealots in 1345, and its quick and brutal suppression lamented in the writings of Demetrios Kydones. 82 The composition incorporates two moments of the narrative, to the left Herod is represented giving orders, while most of the picture plane is taken by the Massacre. The episode extends into the vault. Herod is portrayed seated on a backless throne, dressed in full imperial regalia addressing three soldiers. At the center an elderly soldier is represented looking up and holding on the tip of his spear the limp body of a dead child literally ?slashing? the composition into two distinct halves. A youthful soldier has just pierced the baby of a woman who raises her right hand in despair. Another baby, still in swaddling clothes, is decapitated and its mother kneels and tears her own hair. In the upper right corner of the composition two other women are represented lamenting 82 Eadem, ?He mn? meiak? z? graphik? st? Thessalonik? sto deutero miso tou 14ou ai? na,? in Euphrosynon. Aphieroma ston Manol? Chatzidak? , ed. Evangela Kypraiou, 2 Vols. (Athens, 1992), 2: 663; Gerstel, ?Civic and Monastic Influences,? 227-28. 83 over their children?s death. Despite the lack of identifying inscriptions one recognizes to the far right a figure reminiscent of Rachel crouching and ground and pulling her hair (Matt. 2:18). In the vault the image is similarly separated in two distinct zones. To the left above the seated figure of Herod is seen a ciborium with an altar table, which might have been associated with yet another sacrifice often related to the pictorial narratives of the Massacre?the murder of Zacharias. 83 In the right half of the composition in the vault on a mountainous background is painted a woman gesturing in despair toward a soldier with a drawn sword ready to stab the baby in his left hand. The Massacre appears frequently in Byzantine painting and especially in manuscript illuminations. In the fourteenth century this moment of Christ?s infancy obtained greater importance in the monumental decoration of monastic churches. In the church of the Chora and in the Hodegetria church at Mystra the episode was given greater importance, where unusually large spaces were allotted for the scene. 84 The image also appears in the catholicon of the Serbian Markov monastery, where the Old Testament figure of Rachel mourning over her dead children was given special importance. 85 Contemporary social and political implications might have enriched not only the meaning of the scene, but also the response to its violent content. Robert Nelson interpreted the especially brutal representation of the Massacre in the narthex of the Chora church in 83 The hand with a drawn sword rising above the ciborium can be taken as an indication that the Zacharias episode was once incorporated within the Infancy narrative. The fragmentary state of preservation does not allow certain identification. In the Hodegetria church at Mystra the story of Zacharias occupies special place in one of the improvised chapels to the south in the galleries above the narthex. See Dufrenne, Programmes iconographiques de Mystra, pl. 18, and drawing 5. 84 Gabriel Millet, Monuments byzantins de Mystra, (Paris, 1910), 93; Dufrenne, Programmes iconographiques de Mystra, pl. 18; Underwood, Kariye Djami, 1: 98-104; Jacqueline Lafontaine-Dosogne, ?Iconography of the Cycle of the Infancy of Christ,? in Kariye Djami, 4: 228-35. 85 Lafontaine-Dosogne, ?The Cycle of the Infancy of Christ,? fig. 61. 84 relation to Byzantine losses in Asia Minor to the Turks. According to Nelson, the donor, Theodore Metochites, would have been especially attuned to the messages of the image because of the devastation that his native Nicaea suffered at the hands of the foreign invaders. 86 Herod epitomizes bad government and unjust kingship further elaborating the political messages of the Chora Massacre mosaics. The audiences for the Massacre in Profites Elias may have seen similar social and political relationships to the recent situation on the Balkans. The Temptation of Christ follows the representation of the Massacre of the Innocents (Fig. 36). In the early-fourteenth-century mosaics in the Constantinopolitan Chora the episodes of the Infancy of Christ, including the Massacre, were placed in the same space in the exonarthex, suggesting a clear transition from the Infancy to the Ministry. 87 It is very likely that the liti of Profites Elias once contained a more elaborate Infancy cycle, but even if it did not, the Temptation follows naturally within the general narrative of Christ?s life. Christ is represented on the left standing on a rocky landscape and turning slightly to the right. In the middle a youthful and dark semi-nude figure in a loincloth with spread wings gestures toward a second figure of Christ at the right corner of the scene. Jesus is represented here standing on a platform of a religious structure, presumably the temple at Jerusalem, as indicated by the ciborium and the altar placed right behind his figure. The image bears a lengthy inscription taken from the Gospels of Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4, ?It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of 86 Robert S. Nelson, ?Taxation with Representation. Visual Narrative and the Political Field of the Kariye Camii,? ArtH 22/1 (1999), 74-75. 87 Underwood, Kariye Djami, 1: 114-17, 2: 216, 222-27; Idem, ?Programs and Iconography of Ministry Cycles,? 277-80. 85 the mouth of God.? 88 The scene represents a moment from the Temptations when Christ was challenged by the Devil to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. A similar duplication of the figure of Christ in relation to the same episode can be seen in Chora, where an additional inscription from the Gospel of Matthew 4:5 indicates the beginning of the narrative (Fig. 37). 89 The inscription seen in Profites Elias, however, is associated with a different moment from the Temptations when Christ was challenged to prove his divinity by changing stones into bread. The inscription is an appeal for spiritual rather than physical nourishment, and was intended to echo the penitential and cathartic spirit of the Christ?s Temptation and perhaps of Lent when the monks had to similarly battle temptations and refrain from food. 90 In the Gospel of Matthew the Temptation of the Bread precedes the Temple Temptation, while in the Gospel of Luke it is followed by the Temptation of the Kingdoms. Due to the fragmentary state of the paintings? preservation, it is hard to determine whether more scenes from the Temptation would have been painted in the adjacent vaults of the Thessalonikan church. It is likely that the artist intended to summarize the Temptation into one scene by painting the last event as outlined in the Gospel of Luke, while inscribing the scene with the words that relate the devil?s first challenge. In a similar way, the mosaicists of the Chora did not follow strictly the 88 The image seems to have been inscribed even more extensively. Traces of letters are visible between the figure of Christ to the left and the episode with the Temptation of the Temple to the right. I was not able to decipher it. 89 Underwood, Kariye Djami, 1: 115. 90 The readings of the Lenten Triodion (Lenten Triodion, 193, 208) draw a direct parallel between the Lenten fast and Christ?s fasting in the desert. Theoleptos of Philadelphia (Monastic Discourses, 255) interpreted the fast as an effective weapon against the temptations of the devil. Jesus? fasting in the desert he considered exemplary. 86 succession of events described in the two Gospels. 91 It was the image of the Temptation that was given greater importance rather than the faithfulness to the narrative sequence of the Gospels. 92 A fragmentary inscription visible only in its second half indicates that a Healing of a Demoniac occupies the western half of the vault in which the Temptation is represented (Fig. 38). But which demoniac is depicted? Christ is painted to the right of the scene in front of a massive centralized building. He is standing before the temple?s closed doors and a group of apostles is visible behind him. Christ holds a scroll in his left hand and gestures in benediction downwards, probably in direction of somebody (not visible, at present) on the ground. A walled city with a similar prominent centralized building occupies the left half of the composition and a group of Jews, standing in front of it, watch the miracle. This scene is most likely the Healing of the Demoniac in the Synagogue at Capernaum (Luke 4:33-37). The image is spatially associated with the Temptation of Christ and this association is particularly helpful for the identification of its subject matter. As mentioned above the representation of the Temptation in Profites Elias is almost exclusively concerned with the Temple Temptation. The prominent religious structure behind Christ, perhaps the synagogue at Capernaum, is positioned in such a way as to correspond on the other side of the vault with the ciborium, which stands for Solomon?s temple. Its centralized shape is reminiscent of the medieval visualizations of the Temple of Solomon, which were loosely based on the standing domed octagon of the 91 Underwood, ?Programs and Iconography of Ministry Cycles,? 277-78. 92 For comparisons between the temptation of Christ and monastic temptations see, for example, Saint Basil, Ascetical Works, trans. Sister M. Monica Wagner (Washington, DC, 1972), 150. 87 Dome of the Rock. 93 According to Luke?s account, before Christ went to Capernaum he was chased out of Nazareth and was threatened with being thrown off the hill where the city was located (Luke 4:29). Because of the spatial associations between the Healing of the Demoniac and the two Temptations, it is possible that the Byzantine viewer would have thought of the Nazareth episode, which precedes the healing at Capernaum. The duplicated figure of the black devil in the Temptation further aids the identification of the scene, for when exorcised the demoniacs commonly release through their mouth small black demons. The devil in the Temptation is only tangentially associated with the demon emerging from the demoniac?s mouth. In Profites Elias the iconography of the Healing of the Demoniac at Capernaum is unusual, if not unique. In the late thirteenth-century representation in the metropolitan church of St. Demetrios at Mystra, Christ is standing to the left with a group of apostles behind him, and with the demoniac at his feet in a pose reminiscent of the figure of Jordan in the Baptism. 94 A small demon issues from his mouth while a group of Jews watches to the right. 95 Unlike the representation in Profites Elias, the event unfolds in an interior space as attested by Luke. 93 Byzantine churches were similarly represented as centralized domed structures. See, for example, the representation of the city of Constantinople, dominated by a domed building in the middle (Hagia Sophia?) in the twelfth-century epitalamium Vatican Gr. 1851, fols. 2r and 5v (Ioannis Spatharakes, The Portrait in Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts [Leiden, 1976], figs. 160, 169). In Medieval art centralized domed structures stand either for a Christian church or a Jewish synagogue. See Richard Krautheimer, ?Introduction to an ?Iconography of Mediaeval Architecture?,? JWCI 5 (1942), 1-33; Daniel Weiss, ?Hec est domus domini firmiter edificata: the Image of the Temple in Crusader Art,? Jewish Art 23/24 (1997- 1998), 210-17. 94 On the demonization of the personification of Jordan in the Late Byzantine representations of Baptism consult the forthcoming work by Annemarie Carr on the fourteenth-century frescoes in the Cypriot church at Asinou. 95 Millet, Monuments bizantins de Mystra, pl. 76. 88 The Healing of the Leper at Nazareth is painted on the neighboring vault in the central bay at the springing of the arch (Fig. 39). Christ is represented to the left, on the backdrop of a walled city. He is followed by a group of disciples. Before Christ stands a man clad in a loincloth with a group of Jews behind him. The hands of the inflicted man are painted in front of the body clasped in a gesture of supplication. The Gospel texts relate how the leper implored Christ to heal him, and in representations of the episode he often assumes a pose of supplication. Similar iconography is seen in the late fourteenth- century monastic church at Ravanica, with the walled city background, the loin-clothed leper, the Jewish audience to the right, and Jesus with apostles to the left. 96 The composition in Profites Elias resembles the miniature in the fourteenth- century Bulgarian Tetraevangelion of Tzar Ivan Alexander, where the leper is represented wearing short dress with his hands covered and outstretched in direction of Christ. A group of Jews behind him is also painted. 97 Two groups of people, with Christ and the leper at the center, and a walled city at the background, illustrate the passage of the Gospel of Mark in the ca. 1300 Gospel book, Mount Athos, Iveron Monastery, Cod. Gr. 5, fol. 142r and in the mid thirteenth-century bilingual Gospels, Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 54, fol. 115v. 98 The figures are arranged in two compact groups in the fragmentary preserved mosaic of the healing of the leper in the early fourteenth- century decoration of the outer narthex of the Chora church. For unknown reasons the 96 Marina Belovi?, Ravanica. Istoria i slikarstvo (Belgrade, 1999), fig. 31. 97 Filov, Les miniatures de l??vangile du roi Jean Alexandre, fig. 29. Similar iconography is seen in the early eleventh-century prototype of the Bulgarian Gospel book, Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 74, fol. 14r (Henri Omont, ?vangiles avec peintures byzantines du XI e si?cle, 2 Vols. [Paris, 1908], 2: 14). 98 S. M. Pelekanidis et al., The Treasures of Mount Athos. Illuminated Manuscripts, 2 Vols. (Athens, 1975), 2: fig. 21. 89 mosaicists at Chora represented the healing of the leper twice and the iconography of the two images varies. 99 A curious scene, perhaps another healing miracle, appears in the central bay of the liti opposite the representation of the Healing of the Leper (Fig. 40). On the backdrop of a massive crenellated wall, Christ is represented frontal, towering above the rest of the participants in the scene. He holds a scroll in his left hand and blesses with his right. To his left is painted a bearded man clad in a sumptuous aristocratic costume. He wears a pointed hat decorated on top with gold and with a rim that projects forward. The hat resembles the skiadion, which during the Palaeologan period was worn by members of the court and by the emperor. 100 The man is dressed in a long purple caftan with a vertical opening down the front embellished with gold embroidered bands; similar bands appear on the left sleeve and on the cuff. Above the caftan he wears a blue mantle, or perhaps a chlamys, trimmed with gold and with a gold tablion which bears foliate decoration. In his left hand he holds another attribute of the Byzantine aristocratic costume, a white handkerchief. 101 At first glance the costume can be taken to reflect Late Byzantine elite fashion. However, it is uncommon to see contemporary figures inserted in painted Gospel narratives. 102 A more careful examination reveals that the combination of the caftan with the mantle does not match the prescriptions for Palaeologan aristocratic dress; the clothing appears to be somewhat archaic and intended to identify the man as a figure of 99 Underwood, Kariye Djami, 1: 124, 148, 2: 246-47, 274-75. 100 Maria Parani, Reconstructing the Reality of Images: Byzantine Material Culture and Religious Iconography (11 th -15 th Centuries) (Leiden and Boston, 2003), 70. 101 Ibid., 66. 102 Ibid., 93. 90 authority from an earlier time period. 103 To the right of this figure the youthful face of a boy is visible; he also wears a similarly richly decorated costume with gold-trimmed neckline. A youth dressed in white, with a long curly hair emerges, behind the left shoulder of the aristocrat. The scene is in close proximity to other Ministry episodes and perhaps visualizes another healing miracle. The presence of the richly dressed aristocrat suggests two possibilities, the Healing of the Servant of the Centurion (Matt. 8:5-13, Luke 7:1-10) or of the Nobleman?s Son (John 4:47-53), both of which occurred in Capernaum. The centurion does not always wear military garb, he is often dressed with the long and gold hemmed tunic of a well-to-do Byzantine noble. He appears as a civilian in a miniature in the eleventh-century Laurentiana Frieze Gospels, fol. 14v; 104 in another eleventh-century book, Paris, gr. 74, fol. 120v, he even wears a diadem (Fig. 41). He wears similar clothing in the fourteenth-century Bulgarian Tetraevangelion, fol. 157r. 105 In the visualization of the Healing of the Nobleman?s Son in the Gospel book at Laurentiana, fol. 176r, the noble man resembles the centurion; he is represented wearing the same long tunic. 106 In Paris 74, fol. 175r the scene with the nobleman looks very much like the Healing of the Centurion?s servant. Here the figure of an enthroned Christ is flanked on 103 I thank Dr. Maria Parani for discussing with me the peculiarities of the costume in the painting in Profites Elias. Dr. Parani assured me that the tunic could be worn above the caftan, but that the later should have been much more sumptuously decorated with double-headed eagles if the costume faithfully reflected fourteenth-century fashions. 104 Velmans, Le T?tra?vangile de la Laurentienne, fig. 21. 105 As the story was told twice the miracle was similarly illustrated twice. In Paris 74 (Omont, ?vangiles avec peintures Byzantines, 1: 15, 2: 107) and London Add. 39 627 (Filov, Les miniatures de l??vangile du roi Jean Alexandre, pls. 14, 77) the centurion is represented wearing military garb in Matthew?s Gospel, while in Luke?s account he is dressed as a well-to-do civilian. In the Florentine Gospels (Velmans, Le T?tra?vangile de la Laurentienne, fig. 21) the centurion appears dressed as an aristocrat in the miniatures of Matthew?s account. 106 Velmans, Le T?tra?vangile de la Laurentienne, fig. 276. 91 the left by three apostles. From the right the aristocrat approaches dressed in a long tunic. 107 The costumes of the centurion and the nobleman are generic and do not incorporate specific items associated with contemporary fashion. The frontality of Christ is another intriguing feature of the image, because in most of the representations of healings he usually turns in the direction of the afflicted and personally interacts with them. Frontal figures of Christ are commonly associated with images of teaching such as the Mission of the Apostles with Christ amidst a group of disciples symmetrically lined on his both sides. Unusual iconography may have been used because Christ was not directly involved either in the Healing of the Centurion?s Servant or in the Healing of the Nobleman?s Son. Jesus healed both from a distance, thereby giving a lesson in faith. As mentioned above, there are examples in which Christ sits on a throne and converses with the father of the sick boy. By using one of the ultimate signs of royalty, the throne, the miniaturist of the eleventh-century Parisian Gospels emphasized the nobility of Christ to contrast it with the nobility of the man who pleaded for the cure of his child. A similar effect was achieved in Profites Elias where the frontal Christ towers above the rest of the figures. The iconography adds to the healing miracle additional meaning of a lesson thus accentuating the moralizing tone of the episode. Only through sincere faith and fervent supplication (such as those of the centurion or the nobleman) can one be released from inflictions of the body and the soul. The inscription indicates that the scene painted in the neighboring vault is the Raising of the Widow?s Son at Nain (O X[RISTO]S EGEIRVNTON UION THS XHRAS EK NEKRVN [Christ Raising the Son of the Widow from the Dead]), which 107 Omont, ?vangiles avec peintures Byzantines, 2: 151. 92 occurred immediately after the Healing of the Centurion?s Servant (Fig. 42). The scene is divided in two distinct halves faithfully following Luke?s narrative. Christ is depicted on the left with a group of apostles. A prominent cityscape is included in the right half of the composition; on its background appear the figures of the widow and the bier with her dead son, as in keeping with the text, the meeting occurred at the gates of the city (Luke 7:12). Whether additional attending figures were incorporated behind the bier is hard to determine because the image is partially obscured by one of the wooden beams and by dirt. The representation concerns Christ?s compassion and anticipates one of his most frequently illustrated miracles?the Raising of Lazarus. The Raising of the Widow?s Son is paired on the same vault with the Healing of Peter?s Mother-in-Law (Fig. 43). The episode evolves in an interior space as indicated by the sumptuous cloth draped above fanciful architecture. Christ approaches from the right; his figure corresponds to the Christ from the resurrection scene. The two images are further associated through the positioning of the reclining figure of Peter?s mother-in-law to the left in order to parallel the widow?s son on his funeral bier. She is lying on a bed covered with a blanket and raises her right hand in supplication. Behind the bed and between the figure of Christ and the sick woman is seen the elderly figure of Peter. Christ grasps the woman?s left arm in a gesture of deliverance and salvation, commonly associated with the plucking of Adam from Hades in the representations of the Anastasis. Jesus? gesture, which is the ultimate resurrection gesture, becomes the connective tissue between the two different miracles: one of healing and another of reviving. In the Gospels the stories are not told in chronological sequence, but in the Hermeneia the Healing of Peter?s Mother-in-Law follows immediately after the Raising of the Widow?s 93 Son at Nain. 108 The placement of the two miracles in close proximity would have confirmed for the Byzantine viewer Jesus? impartiality towards the two sexes, 109 while the monk would have been assured, and thus stimulated in his ascetic exercises, of Christ?s limitless and unabiding compassion. The representation of the Healing of the Multitude follows to the right of the Healing of Peter?s Mother-in-Law (Fig. 44). It was given prominence by virtue of its placement in the lunette of the south arched opening into the nave. Two elderly figures in the vault immediately above the Healing of the Multitude hold unfurled scrolls and with their elongated bodies frame the lunette composition. Their identity is uncertain, for by the fourteenth century not only prophets, but also a number of important hymnographers were depicted with scrolls inscribed with their texts in order to ?comment? on relevant scenes. The placement of these two figures meaningfully associates them with the Healing. They both lean in the direction of the Healing, and gesture with their right hands while holding unnaturally straight scrolls in their left. While portraits of hymnographers are associated with the prominent Ministry cycle in the parecclesion of St. Euthymios in Thessalonike (Fig. 45) 110 and Omorphokklesia, there are no examples of prophets related to Ministry scenes, although they are often associated with other narrative representations. The identification of the two figures as prophets is secured by their antique garbs since hymnographers are often 108 Dionysius of Fourna, Painter?s Manual, 33-34. 109 The literary and visual juxtapositions of the Healing of the Centurion?s Son and of the Canaanite Woman?s Daughter were interpreted in similar fashion by Underwood, ?Programs and Iconography of Ministry Cycles,? 267-68. 110 Half-length portraits of sainted composers occupy the soffits of the church?s north arcade. Among them Thalia Gouma-Peterson (?The frescoes of the Parecclesion of St. Euthymios in Thessalonica: an Iconographic and Stylistic Analysis,? [Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1964], 190-92) identified St. John of Damascus, Cosmas the Poet and Theophanes. 94 represented dressed as monks. It is very likely that one of the figures is Isaiah, for in the Gospel of Matthew (8:17), his prophesy of Jesus? curative powers (Isaiah 53:4) was associated with the Healing of the Multitude performed immediately after the Cure of Peter?s Mother-in-Law. The Healing of the Multitude in Profites Elias is even more peculiar because of its unusual iconography. It is based on passages from the Gospels of Matthew 8:16-17, Mark 1:32-34, and Luke 4:40-41. The event evolves in an interior space, the seated Christ, slightly off center, is given special importance. His figure is enveloped by a prominent architectural frame with decorated pilasters on both sides creating an impression that he sits on a high-back throne. Christ is given regal qualities judging from the soft red cushion on the seat and the footstool. A group of apostles seated behind Christ add to the solemnity of his figure. The sick people crowd the right half of the composition. There are very few representations of the Healing of the Multitude, and there is no standard iconography. Only three others were painted in the fourteenth century; the earliest one is in the Metropolitan church of St. Demetrios in Mystra, followed by the mosaic in the esonarthex in the Chora (Fig. 46) and the mural in the naos of the Ascension church in De?ani. 111 In the three fourteenth-century representations there is a small group of disciples behind Christ. He usually stands and gestures in the direction of a group of sick people. The images are asymmetrical?frequently a greater space is allotted to the sick. Jesus? figure does not occupy the center of the compositions. It is hard to determine the exact textual source for the images in the Chora church and in De?ani. It has been recognized, however, that the source for the scene in the church of St. 111 Petkovi? and Bo?kovi?, De?ani, CCXXIII. 95 Demetrios in Mystra is the Gospel of Luke (4:40-41). 112 Similarly to the image in the liti of Profites Elias, the Healing of the Multitude follows the Healing of Peter?s Mother-in- Law, and the identification is further aided by the accompanying inscriptions from Luke. 113 Although the passage does not contain information that the miracle happened inside, an interior space is indicated by the draped architecture in the background. Mark, whose text contains more details about this particular miracle, mentions that Christ performed the healings while in Peter?s house (1:32-34): That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon- possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons? This text provides a clue for the interpretation of the narrative in the south half of the narthex of Profites Elias. No demoniacs are noticeable in the Healing of the Multitude, but the Healing of the Gadarene Demoniacs is represented in close proximity on the neighboring south wall. The arched opening into the naos would have associated those who were standing in the liti with those who were gathering at the door of Peter?s house. The artist of the late eleventh- or early twelfth-century Gospel book, Florence, Laurentiana, VI.23 followed Mark?s narrative faithfully and represented Christ in a manner similar to the one seen in Profites Elias, seated within an architectural structure with two apostles (one of them Peter) behind him and a group of sick people in front (Fig. 47). The manuscript illustrations of the episode in Luke differ: Christ is standing and no sign of enveloping interior space is discernable. The composition in the narthex of Profites Elias can be interpreted not only as a healing but also as a teaching scene. Its 112 Pasi, ?La scena della guarigione di diverse malattie,? 685-98, esp. 694. 113 Dufrenne, Programmes iconographiques de Mystra, pl. 7, fig. 10. 96 symmetrical arrangement with the apostles seated behind Christ on the right and the large group of sick people on the left, furthers this impression and recalls images of instruction. The rest of the program consists of a large number of healing miracles. Only a few scenes can be securely identified, but one cannot help but notice the emphasis on exorcism as at least three representations of demoniacs are discernable. As mentioned above on the south wall of the liti in close proximity to the Healing of the Multitude is a fragmentary preserved image of the Healing of the Gadarene Demoniacs (Fig. 48). Only the lower portion of the painting survived; stone sarcophagi are inhabited by thin-legged figures with upper bodies almost completely destroyed or covered by brownish dirt. To the right the sea of Galilee is represented. Comparable iconography is seen in earlier paintings in the church of St. George at Omorphokklesia (Fig. 10). In Profites Elias no traces of the figures of Christ and/or the apostles who accompanied him have survived. In the west half of the liti, at the springing of the vault, the healing of the Archon?s Demoniac Son is represented (Fig. 49). A group of apostles, initially asked to heal the epileptic, is painted to the left. Only part of the figure of Christ is preserved; he is represented with his arm raised addressing the disciples. Stretched on the ground at his feet across the width of the composition the lunatic child is painted barelegged, and dressed in a short white tunic. The iconography of the scene is reminiscent of the illustration of Matthew?s text in the eleventh-century Paris Cod Gr. 74, fol. 34v and in the Bulgarian, London Add. 39 627 where the lunatic child is stretched on the ground at the feet of Christ (Fig. 50). The boy is prostrate on the ground also in the early fourteenth- century Constantinopolitan Gospel book, Iveron 5, fol. 177v. 114 The scene is incorporated also in the decorative program of the Serbian Ascension church at De?ani where the child 114 Pelekanidis et al, Treasures of Mount Athos, 2: fig. 25. 97 is sitting on the ground with his head thrown back. 115 It is more common to see the demoniac child bent over, with his face obscured by wildly disheveled hair. 116 Continuing with the theme of children to the north is painted the episode of Christ Blessing Little Children (Fig. 51). Jesus is represented to the right with his right hand extended in direction of a small child before him. At least two youthful faces are visible in the lower portion of the representation, while the towering figure of an adult, either an apostle or a parent, balances the composition to the left. In the Gospels the two stories are not told in chronological sequence, and they do not appear in close proximity in Dionysius? Hermeneia. The episode with the healing of the Archon?s son was traditionally interpreted as a lesson in faith 117 while the episode with the blessing of the children was considered a lesson in humility, 118 which in monastic context took on a special significance: And when you put to death the thoughts of pleasureful satisfaction which seeks to kill the soul that becomes like a little child and lives in Christ, you will hear this too: ?Unless you turn and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.? 119 Returning to a child-like state of innocence was one of the main goals of ascetical exercises of the devout monks. 115 Petkovi? and Bo?kovi?, De?ani, pl. CCXXII. 116 See, for example, the illustrations in the eleventh-century Laurentiana Gospels in Velmans, Le T?tra?vangile de la Laurentienne, figs. 78, 157, 216. 117 Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, trans. by Robert P. Smith (Astoria, NY, 1983), 229-31. 118 Ibid., 483-85. 119 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 269. Isaac of Nineveh (Mystic Treatises by Isaac of Nineveh, trans. A. J. Wensinck [Amsterdam, 1923], 352-53) wrote: ?When thou liest before God in prayer?with a childlike mind approach onto God and walk before Him, that thou mayest be worthy of the paternal care which fathers entertain in behalf of their young children?For the Lord guards the child. Thou must not only apply this and believe it in the case of children, but also in the case of those who?leave their knowledge?and become children by their own will. Then they learn wisdom?? 98 In the eastern segment of the groin vault in the fourth bay a fragmentary image of the Healing of the Ten Lepers is preserved (Fig. 52). Its upper portion is destroyed but in the lower half enough has remained to secure the identification. Recognizable by his long blue chimation Christ approaches to the left. The lepers are painted to the right. They wear short tunics, their legs are exposed and marked by the disease. The last clearly identifiable scene, albeit in a fragmentary state of preservation, is painted on one of the pilasters of the west wall of the liti (Fig. 53). To the right amidst a group of Jews is represented the Man with the Withered Hand, dressed in a plain short tunic. He shows his lifeless hand to Christ whose figure looms above the rest of the participants to the left. The image differs from the early fourteenth century representations in Chora and in the Protaton where the group of Jews is omitted. In the mid-fourteenth-century painting in De?ani the Jewish group was added behind the afflicted. 120 Among the Macedonian monuments considered in this chapter the church of the Profites Elias stands in a category of its own. Its architecture does not follow the preferred cross-in-square ambulatory plan of most of the fourteenth-century Thessalonikan churches. 121 Its Athonite inspiration indicates closer connections with the monastic republic. 122 However, the decorative program of the liti is not Athonite, as it served the needs of a monastic community in an urban setting. Thessalonikan monuments, such as those discussed above, must have provided the model for the 120 Petkovi? and Bo?kovi?, De?ani, pl. CCVIII. 121 Rautman, ?Monastic Patronage in Macedonia,? 73-74. 122 Some scholars have speculated that Nea Moni was a metochion of the Lavra monastery. See Laurent, ?Une nouvelle fondation monastique des Choumnos,? 125-26; Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 4: 1434. On architectural similarities and monastic affiliation in the Medieval West, see Carruthers, The Craft of Thought, 255-57. 99 program. In Profites Elias the traditionally non-narrative Ministry cycles were reinterpreted. The emphasis here is on narrative sequence, the story starts with the Infancy of Christ in the north and east walls, and continues north to south on the ceiling and the walls of the liti. The audience is provided with visual clues that ease the identification of the scenes and the transition from one to another. For example, the duplicated black figure of the devil in Christ?s Temptation facilitates the transition to the Healing of the Demoniac at Capernaum. The compositions of the Raising of the Widow?s Son and the Healing of Peter?s Mother-in-Law are reversed in order to juxtapose the figures of Christ and those who suffer. In the Raising scene Christ is on the left, in the Healing he is on the right. The bier of the dead child and the bed of the sick woman are similarly aligned. Christ grasps the wrist of Peter?s Mother-in-Law in the ultimate gesture of Resurrection inviting associations with the Miracle in the opposite half of the vault. The Gospel of Mark (1:32-34) is the source for the Healing of the Multitude. The text emphasizes the healing of a number of demoniacs, but they are not seen in the image. To compensate for this significant omission the artist painted the Healing of the Two Gadarene Demoniacs in close proximity on the neighboring wall. In this fragmentary program two groups of people are prominently visible, those of demoniacs and children. Of the eleven identifiable scenes, four are associated with possession by demons, and four with children. This stress on exorcism and innocence is defined by the function of the narthex as a site of spiritual cleansing where one is freed from sin in order to return to a child-like state of innocence and simplicity. 100 Within the monumental program of the liti the Massacre of the Innocents and the Healing of the Multitude are given special prominence. 123 The artist used a common rhetorical technique of synkrisis, or comparison, by placing the two scenes in corresponding positions and incorporating certain iconographic elements that make clear that the Massacre and the Healing were intended to function as a pair. 124 The two scenes occupy the lunettes of the north and south entrances into the naos. Both are related to multitudes, one of the children saved by sacrifice and one of the afflicted saved by grace. The violence is however supplanted with benevolence. The seated figure of Herod in the left half of the Massacre is echoed by the seated Christ in the left half of the Healing of the Multitude. However, different symbols of royal authority were employed. Herod is dressed as an emperor, while Christ is seated on an improvised throne; the two also have a specific entourage?Herod is surrounded by soldiers, and Christ by apostles. The chaotic and disorderly composition of the Massacre is juxtaposed with the symmetrical and ordered composition of the Healing. The violent action and exaggerated movements are balanced with the peaceful picture of Christ enthroned amidst his disciples and before the afflicted people. Herod kills innocents and Christ saves sinners. The viewer is offered a glimpse into two different worlds of violence and compassion. Herod?s kingship is juxtaposed with Christ?s. Jesus is a benevolent and charitable king, not formidable and judgmental. By comparison with Herod?s violent and irrational acts, Christ?s mercy appears greater. 123 I thank Professor Annemarie Carr for drawing my attention to the possible associations between these two representations. 124 On synkrisis in Byzantine art, see Henry Maguire, ?The Art of Comparing in Byzantium,? ArtB 70 (1988), 88-103. 101 CONCLUSION Macedonian Ministry programs are generic only at first sight. In the five cycles described in this chapter the artists and the patrons emphasized different themes and used the available space in different ways. With the exception of Profites Elias the scenes in the other four monuments are not in any narrative order. The episodes selected in the Protaton and the Peribleptos church in Ohrid were painted most frequently in the later programs. However they are placed in ambulatories or nartheces and not in the west end of the naos as in these two earlier churches. The program of the narthex of St. George creates a different environment for the monks?they are not only comforted, they are also threatened. In the Holy Apostles Christ similarly appears as a judge and benefactor, but here the eschatological imagery is segregated from the Ministry in the exonarthex and is placed in the west corner of the north ambulatory. Here the scene of the Teaching in the Nazareth Synagogue is incorporated within an eschatological context and not in a Healing cycle as in the Protaton. Nicholas Orphanos presents an individual approach to the Ministry, which occupies a single wall of the south ambulatory. In the liti of Profites Elias a considerable number of Miracles, which do not occur in any of the fourteenth- century Thessalonikan churches was incorporated. Clearly the artist took advantage of the available large space and perhaps took into account the presence of a lay audience within the liti. A special awareness of the architectural shell is demonstrated in the decoration of the two nartheces of the Holy Apostles where the programs seem spatially coordinated. The placement of the Calling of Matthew above the arch in order to reveal the Three 102 Priests in the esonarthex is surely deliberate. In chapter 5 I will discuss the meaning of similar juxtaposition of table shapes in the exonarthex of the Vatopedi catholicon. One common feature of the earlier Healing programs in the Protaton, Omorphokklesia, Nicholas Orphanos, and the Holy Apostles is the generalized iconography of the scenes. This abbreviated mode of narration is especially appropriate for accommodating a wider audience. The details that individualize the Healings were omitted allowing a wider range of meanings and associations. 125 Amidst a multitude of sick who openly exhibit their inflictions the monks may have felt sick themselves. By bending and kneeling in prayer and supplication the viewers would have strengthened the mimetic relationship between images and reality. 126 Here I should like to open a parenthesis and briefly discuss the iconography of Gerasimus? life in the south ambulatory of Nicholas Orphanos which differs from that of the Healing Miracles (Fig. 54). While the latter show a tendency toward brevity and concision, the life of St. Gerasimus is painted with considerable detail; the story evolves in two registers and unlike the Miracles it is not interrupted and broken down into individual panels. Whereas the painted Healings of Christ allowed a wider range of associations, Gerasimus?s story is specific and to the point?it addresses a monastic audience by visually articulating the main virtues of monastic life. The images address both the abbot who should be caring 125 Henry Maguire, ?Two Modes of Narration in Byzantine Art,? in Byzantine East, Latin West. Art Historical Studies in Honor of Kurt Weitzmann, eds. Christopher Moss and Katherine Kiefer (Princeton, 1995), 385-91, esp. 390-91; Idem, The Icons of Their Bodies. Saints and Their Images in Byzantium (Princeton, 1996), 146-94. 126 We cannot be sure what the reasons are that led to the change of the treatment of the Miracles in Profites Elias. The more detailed treatment of the Miracles is seen already in the earlier Thessalonikan church of St. Catherine where the images contain long citations from the Gospels. The same is true for the Healing cycle in the narthex of catholicon of St. John Prodromos near Serres. It is likely that in St. Catherine the Ministry episodes had to ?compete? with the expanded cycle of the Twelve Feasts painted in the naos together with the Ministry. 103 and benevolent like Gerasimus, and the monk who should be submissive and obedient like the lion. In Profites Elias the sheer number of Healings that once covered the upper portion of the walls and the vaults of the liti would have reaffirmed the hope for relief, both physical and spiritual. 127 Jesus? Healing Miracles were painted almost exclusively in the urban catholica in Constantinople, Thessalonike, and Mystra. The Protaton, the most ?secular? monument in the monastic republic being the cathedral church, is the only monument on Mount Athos whose ancillary spaces contain representations of the Ministry. Perhaps the reasons for the interest in the Ministry in the city should be sought in the relationship between the monasteries and their urban environments. I will consider this relationship in the following chapter in which I treat the monastic interpretations of the healings performed by Jesus. The Ministry of Christ captivated the interest of the painters who worked in monuments commissioned by Serbian kings and high officials. It is possible to identify a Serbian preference for placing of the Ministry episodes within expanded cycles of the Life of Christ in the naos. Within the larger number of images one of the main features of the painted Healing Ministry as a visual stimulus of spiritual metamorphosis was dissolved. While this approach to the Ministry seems to be particularly Serbian, the reasons for which the Serbian donors and painters appropriated it would, for now, remain speculative. The messages generated by the Miracles represented in the subsidiary spaces of Byzantine monastic churches will be considered in the next chapter. 127 Maguire, Icons of Their Bodies, 192. 104 CHAPTER 3 THE PAINTED MIRACLES OF CHRIST AND THEIR MONASTIC AUDIENCE The inextricable relationship between body and soul, between sickness and sin, restoration of physical health and spiritual absolution is the subject of this investigation into the meanings of the painted healing miracles. In this chapter I offer several interpretations of the Late Byzantine miracle cycles presented in the last chapter. I relate the proliferation of these scenes to Orthodox theology and religious practices in general, and to contemporary, fourteenth-century theological concerns and social circumstances in particular. Rather than considering individual programs I discuss themes that emerge from the clustering of Christ?s healing ministry in the subsidiary spaces of monastic churches. I argue that the Ministry scenes in the nartheces, ambulatories, and side chapels were intended to facilitate penance and private contemplation. Additionally, the images provided a suitable backdrop for a variety of services, hourly liturgies, confessions, the rite of the blessing of the waters and tonsures of monks. I suggest an additional dimension of the visualization of Christ?s Healings as an advertisement of charitable work among the sick and the poor. The proliferation of Ministry cycles in the Late Byzantine monumental decoration did not occur ex nihilo; 1 there is a long pictorial tradition which emphasized the miraculous powers and the divine nature of Christ. Representations of the Miracles of Christ are frequently seen in Early Christian art, extolling the magical abilities of Jesus, and reaffirming his divinity. For their apotropaic and prophylactic significance they were 1 Svetlana Tomekovi?, ?Les miracles du Christ dans la peinture murale byzantine et g?orgienne (XII e si?cle ? d?but de XIII e ),? R?GC 6/7 (1990-1991), 185-204. 105 even woven into garments. 2 Their appearance in the subsidiary spaces of Late Byzantine churches may have had a similar protective function to ward off spiritual sickness. In the Middle Byzantine period a long cycle of the Ministry was painted in the two Cappadocian Old and the New Tokali Kilise as part of an extensive narrative in the naos. 3 The greater prominence of the Miracles in manuscript illumination and church painting during the Komnenian era resulted from the contemporary Christological debates regarding the nature of the Eucharistic sacrifice and Christ?s presence in it. In two Gospel books produced in the twelfth century, Chicago, University Library, MS 965 and Athens, National Library 93, the representations of Christ?s Ministry were framed as individual icons inviting personal devotions and direct involvement at the points of Christ?s interventions. 4 The miniatures of a Constantinopolitan Tetraevangelion, Mount Athos, Iveron, Cod. 5 dated to ca. 1300 similarly attest to the importance of the painted Miracles in the beginning of the Palaeologan period. In this book a number of Ministry scenes illustrate points in the text in accordance with the readings of the Pentekostarion, a service book used between Easter and Pentecost. 5 The importance of representations of Jesus? Ministry for monastic communities is attested as early as the twelfth century when the above-mentioned Tetraevangelion, 2 Henry Maguire, ?Garments Pleasing to God: The Significance of Domestic Textile Designs in the Early Byzantine Period,? DOP 44 (1990), 220. 3 Epstein, Tokali Kilise. 4 In general, since the twelfth century the cycles of some books were treated as a sequence of separate framed icons, which set them apart from the long narrative illustrations of the so-called Frieze Gospels. See Anna Marava-Chatzinicolaou and Christina Toufexi-Paschou, Catalogue of the Illuminated Byzantine Manuscripts of the National Library of Greece, 2 Vols. (Athens, 1978), 1: 224-43; Carr, Byzantine Illumination, 146-47, 218-20. 5 Underwood, ?Programs and Iconography of Ministry Cycles,? 261. 106 Athens 93, was illuminated on Mount Athos 6 and the lower portions of the church of the Mirozh monastery at Pskov (1156) was painted with a long Ministry cycle of fourteen scenes. 7 In a discussion of the paintings in the parecclesion of the monastery of St. John the Theologan on the island of Patmos, Doula Mouriki suggested that the lengthy Ministry cycle would have aided the monks in their daily struggles for virtuous life. Mouriki interpreted the images as constant proof for Christ?s redeeming powers as the physician of the body and the soul. 8 The monastic church of Hagia Sophia in Trebizond, built and decorated in the second half of the thirteenth century, also contains a lengthy Ministry cycle painted in the narthex. 9 The clustering of Miracle scenes within this church?s vestibule anticipates iconographic developments of the late thirteenth and fourteenth century when the subsidiary spaces of several monastic churches in Constantinople, Mystra, and Byzantine Macedonia were painted with similar imagery. In the Miracles painted in the subsidiary spaces of the Byzantine churches, Christ reveals his divinity in a different way from contemporary Serbian churches. These are not what Annemarie Carr defined as ?ascendant? theophanies as, for example, on the west wall of the Serbian monastic church of the Virgin at Gra?anica (1321) (Fig. 55). 10 Here the Ministry scenes are painted above a grand composition of the Virgin?s Koimesis. The paintings in Gra?anica reaffirm the dual nature of Christ as both human and divine. In 6 Marava-Chatzinicolaou and Toufexi-Paschou, Illuminated Byzantine Manuscripts, 1: 241. 7 Underwood, ?Programs and Iconography of Ministry Cycles,? 268-71. 8 Doula Mouriki, ?Hoi toichographies tou parekkl? siou t? s mon? s Hagiou I? annou tou Theologou st? n Patmo. To eikonographiko programma, h? archik? aphier? s? tou parekkl? siou kai ho chor? gos,? DChAE 14 (1987-88), 231. 9 David Talbot Rice, ed., The Church of Hagia Sophia at Trebizond (Edinburgh, 1968), 128-46. 10 Written communication with Professor Annemarie Weyl Carr, December 1, 2004. 107 Byzantine churches the energy of God functions within and in relation to flesh. The theophanic nature of the Miracles is not directed upwards, but downwards towards earth and humanity. When painted in separate chambers?side chapels, ambulatory wings or nartheces?the Miracles acquired individualized and moralizing meaning signaling not that God became man, but that God became man. In these spaces the familial relationship between God and men is emphasized in order to stimulate monastic practices of penance and contemplation. The bodily healings performed by Christ have a long history as metaphors for spiritual healings, and since the twelfth century they were inseparable part of monastic decorative programs of both manuscripts and buildings. At least two features of the Late Byzantine monasticism invite elaboration on these metaphors. The late thirteenth and early fourteenth century was the time of intensification and expansion of monastic practice and the images offer an expression of this heightened monastic self-awareness and self-absorption. The Hesychast spirituality worked with the body as its instrument. 11 The importance of the human body as the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit was emphasized already by St. Paul in his epistles: ?Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit? (1 Cor. 6:19), and ?We are the house of God? (Heb. 3:6). In general, Byzantine monastic edifying literature demonstrates a dualistic approach to the body: on one hand, as a creation of God and receptacle of the soul it is good, but on another it is bad, blemished by the fall leading the spirit into temptation. According to John Climacus the aim of every monk was twofold, ?to sanctify the body and to enlighten the mind.? 12 In the 11 John Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas, trans. George Lawrence (London, 1964), 142-46, 149- 50; Ware, ?Praying with the Body,? 6-35; Evangelatou, ?Virtuous Soul, Healthy Body,? n. 47. 12 Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, 74. 108 fourteenth century the rise of Hesychasm and its specific method of prayer, which actively involved the body, as well as the mind, may very well account for the prominence given to the bodily conditions of the painted sick. Like John Climacus, Gregory Palamas wrote that ?there is nothing bad in the body, since the body is not evil in itself.? 13 The body is especially important in the penitential exercises of the soul. John Cantacuzenus wrote that: When somebody is among the living he could do whatever he wishes, good and bad, but after his death and his departure from this world he would not be able to do anything for his salvation. And how could this be possible when the doors of action are closed by death. So, confess not in Hell but in the present life. The body, once dead cannot rise before the Last Judgment. And the soul that might have sinned in different ways cannot correct itself unless it has its body. 14 Cantacuzenus, like most of his contemporaries, insisted on the active participation of the body in the act of spiritual cleansing through confession. Penitential poses, such as kneeling and prostration, can be effective in involving the body in the rejuvenation of the soul. In the fourteenth century Late Byzantine Hesychasts were accused of Messalianism according to which the material cosmos, including the human body, was created by the devil. 15 The painted healing miracles of Christ may have been seen as a demonstration of the Orthodox position, for if the body was innately evil, why would Jesus recurrently heal its various sicknesses. Among the most striking features of subsidiary miracle programs is the theme of the human body and the concern for rendering its afflictions by exaggerating its physical deformities. The authors of the fourteenth-century miracula similarly emphasized the 13 Gregory Palamas, The Triads, ed. John Meyendorff, trans. Nicholas Gendle (New York, 1983), 41. 14 John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom. Dialog s Iudeem i drugie sochineniia, trans. G. M. Prokhorov (St. Petersburg, 1997,) 287. 15 John Meyendorff, St. Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality (Crestwood, NY, 1997), 85-86; Gregory Palamas, The Triads, 124 n. 4. 109 physical condition of the sick who visited the healing shrines in Constantinople. Alice- Mary Talbot has noted that the approach of the Palaeologan writers differs from that of their predecessors in describing the symptoms and the course of diseases by discussing them in detail. 16 Bent, swollen and unable to lift themselves, supporting their sick bodies on crutches, canes or lying helplessly in bed, the sick people expose their illnesses without shame. One is reminded of Nicholas Cabasilas? appeal for spiritual cleansing through confession: Of the many things which impede our salvation the greatest of all is that when we commit any transgression we do not at once turn back to God to ask forgiveness. Because we feel shame and fear we think that he is angry and ill tempered towards us?But the loving kindness of God utterly banishes this thought from the soul?We are not ashamed of our wound in order that we may discover the means of healing. 17 It is noteworthy that in the new pictorial style initiated at the end of the thirteenth century by Manuel Panselinos the figures in narrative scenes and individual portraits are especially sturdy, voluminous and healthy looking, with large oval faces and pink cheeks (Fig. 56). This is not the place to discuss the merits of this style, but it is worth asking whether the viewer did not see in these robust figures bursting with health the ultimate spiritual exemplars. In the eyes of an audience indoctrinated in the Hesychast teaching with its emphasis on the body, the sleek physical appearance and apparent health of the painted saints was an extension of their spiritual perfection and uncorrupted souls. The sick in the Bible were rarely inflicted with illnesses because of sinful behavior, 18 but Christian exegetes often interpreted sickness as a ?punishment for sin.? 19 16 Talbot, ?Healing Shrines,? 17-19. 17 Nicholas Cabasilas, The Life in Christ, trans. Carmino J. deCatanzaro (Crestwood, NY, 1974), 168. 110 This statement derives from the general understanding that it was the Original Sin that brought suffering to humanity. Thus anybody, by virtue of his corrupted human nature, might contract a disease. In no way, however, was the individual freed from the responsibility for his sins and the possible consequences of a physical infirmity. For example, in Constantinople a story circulated about a monk who fell into lechery and became ill. 20 In search of relief he went to the church of the Holy Apostles and after sincere confession in front of a miraculous icon he was forgiven, and his health was restored. When the monk sinned for a second time he was again punished with a physical disease. Paul Evergetinos in his voluminous collection of edifying stories retold a story originally in the Gerontikon about an aristocrat ?who had committed a great many sins and had in every way polluted his body.? 21 Some of the prayers in the Orthodox penitentiaries, the so-called kanonaria, contain elements of the prayers pronounced over sick people, demonstrating that the Byzantines were drawing a direct correlation between the sickness of the body and the sickness of the soul. 22 Similarly, the prayers for relief from physical sufferings contain pleas for cleansing from sin. 23 The painted Healing Miracles would have aided the monks in likening themselves to the poor and the sick healed by Christ. On the one hand, at least in theory, the monks 18 Georges Filias, Les prieres pour les malades et sur l?huile de l?onction dans l?Euchologe Barberini Grec 336 (Codex Vaticanus Barberinianus Graecus 336) (Athens, 1997), 123-26; Jean-Claude Larchet, The Theology of Illness, trans. John and Michael Breck (New York, 2002), 17-39. 19 Saint Basil, Ascetical Works, 334. 20 Majeska, Russian Travelers, 94-95, 184-85, 305-306. 21 Paul Evergetinos, Evergetinos, 1/2: 67. 22 Almazov, Tainaia izpoved, 1: 101. 23 Filias, Prieres pour les malades, 128-30. 111 were poor, 24 and on the other they were inherently sinful and by extension sick. The representations of the Ministry, and especially of the Healing Miracles, in spaces that were used for penitential practices and individual prayers, would have facilitated penance and contemplation, visually demonstrating the benevolence and philanthropy of Christ to anyone who approached him in sincere prayer and with faith. The need for obtaining spiritual purity was a major concern for the Late Byzantine ecclesiastical writers who saw a considerable moral decline within the contemporary society. 25 True repentance was thought of as the most appropriate remedy for the sick and sinful empire. In a 1338 address to the inhabitants of Nicaea, Patriarch John IV Aprenos (1334- 1347) compared the church to a hospital for the soul: To?w ?p? ?mart?aw ?postr?fousin ? to? yeo? ?kklhs?a, t? koin?n t?n cux?n ?atre?on, t?w ?aut?w svthr?ouw ?pano?gousa p?law ka? ?k?st? t? pr?sfora f?rmaka ?pitiye?sa p?si t? pr?w svthr?an o?konome?. 26 To those returning from sin, the Holy Church, the common clinic of souls, opens her doors of salvation and provides the appropriate medicine looking after the salvation of all. By emphasizing the philanthropia of God and his Church the Patriarch John asked those who converted to Islam to return to their Christian community. In this document the image of healing is used in a metaphorical manner. The Church is turned into a hospital and the priest into a doctor. The sin of apostasy was considered a sickness for which the benevolent Church offers the only right cure. The metaphor became a reality when in the 24 The monks were initiated barely clothed and barefoot which was interpreted as symbol of their poverty and their detachment from the world. See, for example, Symeon Thessalonikes, Ta Apanta, 215-16. 25 See, for examples, the letters of patriarch Athanasios I (Correspondence of Athanasios I, 176-77, 271-70, 436) who continuously insisted on the moral degradation of the contemporary society and the need of healing through repentance. 26 F. Mikloschich and J. M?ller, eds., Acta et diplomata graeca medii aevi, 6 Vols. (Vienna, 1860-1890), 1: 183; Constantelos, Poverty, Society and Philanthropy, 40. 112 first quarter of the fourteenth century (1322) the population of the town of Brysis, east of Adrianopolis, expected their new bishop, Matthew of Ephesus, to perform not only spiritual, but physical healings as well. 27 Timothy Miller has explained the situation with the lack of medical facilities in the town. Clearly, the citizens of Brysis thought that the one who relieves the suffering of the soul should be able to do the same for the body. 28 Literary sources insist on the transformational character of the Ministry from sickness to health and from doubt to firm belief. The author of the popular monastic romance of Barlaam and Joasaph wrote that Christ by performing miracles intended to renew ?our outworn nature,? and to ?teach the way of virtue, turning men from destruction and guiding their feet toward life eternal.? 29 In three Byzantine churches, Agios Stratigos in the Mani (late twelfth century) and in two Serbian monuments, the Virgin Levi?ka in Prizren (late thirteenth or early fourteenth century) and the Ascension church in De?ani (mid fourteenth century), Ministry episodes are painted in the eastern, and most sacred end of the church, in the spaces associated with the celebrations of the Eucharistic liturgy (Fig. 57). 30 The transformational character of the liturgical sacrifices was thus equated to the changes affected by Christ through his miraculous interventions. Theological texts usually emphasize the transformational character of the Ministry events, for those who were cured were rejuvenated not only physically, but also 27 Timothy S. Miller, The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire, 2 nd ed. (Baltimore and London, 1985, repr. 1997), 194. See also Demetrios Constantelos, ?Physician-Priests in the Medieval Greek Church,? GOTR 12/2 (1966-1967), 141-53. 28 Maria Evangelatou, ?Virtuous Soul, Healthy Body.? 29 John Damascene, Barlaam and Joasaph, LCL, 93. 30 Pani? and Babi?, Bogorodica Levi?ka, 120-21; Nikolaos Drandakes, Byzantines toichographies t? s Mesa Man? s (Athens, 1995), figs. 25-28. 113 spiritually. 31 The Ministry episodes had a moralizing effect on their audience by inducing a penitential mood and behavior, for ?by the evidence of his (Christ?s) miracles?he removed the obstacles caused by sin.? 32 The painted miracles illustrate the healing of the body and through it the cure of the soul, revealing the inextricable relation between physical and spiritual health. In a monastic context the painted Miracles mirrored the transformations that monks would undergo during the rite of monastic tonsure. Of the ritual?s main symbolic associations those of Baptism, penance and death are especially important. 33 Healing from sin is a major consequence of one?s entrance into monastic life. In his musings of his personal monastic vocation Symeon the New Theologian compared it to the Healing of the Blind Man: The blind man who cries out and says, ?Son of David, have mercy upon me? is the man who prays with his body without as yet possessing spiritual knowledge. But the blind man of old, when he had received his sight and saw the Lord, no longer confessed that he was Son of David, but Son of God, and so worshipped him. 34 And every night ?like the blind man he (Symeon) asked for mercy and that he might spiritually receive his sight.? 35 Symeon compared the release from sin through the rite of monastic profession to a healing from blindness that led to gaining of new, spiritual vision: 31 Nicholas Cabasilas, A Commentary of the Divine Liturgy (London, 1966), 28; PG 151: 377C-380B, Gregory Palamas, Besedy, 2: 50-51, 3: 216-17. 32 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 341. 33 Pal?mov, Postrizhenie v monashestvo, 48-49, 53, 241. 34 Symeon the New Theologian, The Discourses, 244. 35 Ibid., 245. 114 While he (Symeon?s spiritual father, Symeon the Studite) with much trouble led me to the fountains and the wells, he drew me in my blindness after him by the hand of faith? 36 The cleansing from sin through receiving of the monastic habit was emphasized also in the Life of the fourteenth-century Bulgarian Hesychast St. Theodosios of T?rnovo and in the writings of the fifteenth-century archbishop of Thessalonike, Symeon. 37 The so-called Great or First Confession made in front of the abbot of the monastery was required of everyone before entering into the monastic profession. 38 The placement of the Healing Ministry in the subsidiary spaces of the church, with their conversional character and metaphorical associations with Baptism, would have enhanced the transformational character of the rite of monastic profession. 39 References to some of the Ministry episodes are incorporated in a clearly penitential work, the Great Canon by St. Andrew of Crete. St. Andrew?s approach to the healing miracles does not differ dramatically from the later interpretations of Late Byzantine theologians such as Theoleptos and Gregory Palamas. He uses references to various healings to aid the transformation of the sinful soul: 36 Ibid., 370-71. The spiritual father grasps the hand of the novice in the ultimate gesture of resurrection and rejuvenation. This gesture is specifically indicated in some schematologia and euchologia where the abbot or the ecclesiarch take the novice by the hand and leads him from the narthex into the naos for the conclusion of the initiation rite: Ka? lab?n a?t?n ? ?go?menow t?w deji?w xeir?w e?s?gei a?t?n ?n t? ?kklhs?&, ?mprosyen t? ?g?? yusiasthr?? (Wawryk, Initiatio monastica, Appendix, 4). 37 Ivan Duj?ev, Stara b?lgarska knizhnina, 2 Vols. (Sofia, 1940), 2: 216; Symeon Thessalonikes, Ta Apanta, 216. Of interest is the order in which Symeon talked about various church services; the rite of monastic tonsure follows immediately after his discussion of confession. The idea is first found in the Life of St. Anthony (Edward Malone, ?The Monk and the Martyr,? 140). 38 Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 2: 478, 810, 3:900, 1139; Symeon Thessalonikes, Ta Apanta, 216. 39 For the Baptismal symbolism of monastic vocation, see Pa?lmov, Postrizhenie v monashestvo, 54-56, 80, 85-86, 188, 192, 194; Malone, ?The Monk and the Martyr,? 122-42; Blagoii Chifliianov, Liturgika (Sofia, 1996), 339-42. 115 Imitate, my soul, the woman bent earthward; come and fall down at the feet of Jesus, that he may straighten you to walk upright in the footsteps of the Lord. Though Thou art a deep well, O Lord, pour on me streams from the Thy immaculate wounds, that like the Samaritan woman I may drink and thirst no more; for from Thee gush rivers from life. May my tears be for me a Siloam, O Sovereign Lord, that I may wash the eyes of my soul and mentally see Thee Who are that light? 40 The cleansing of the soul achieved through penance is thus mirrored, in a metaphorical manner, by the images of the sick undergoing profound physical and spiritual transformation, and of the Samaritan Woman becoming a faithful follower of Christ. Indeed, some scholars have noted the influence of Lenten readings in the clustering of Ministry episodes. 41 In edifying monastic literature illness is considered beneficial for the soul. 42 Often the reasons for one?s sickness are not indicated, as the reasons did not truly matter. One always had to bear in mind that illness was of utmost spiritual significance, it was a test and a lesson for those who wished to excel spiritually. 43 Illness was a form of suffering that allowed a closer imitation of the suffering of Christ. It was one of the many ways to discipline the body so that the soul could reach greater spiritual heights. 44 The body of the nun Romilla, for example, was paralyzed but she became ?more proficient in piety.? 45 40 Andrew of Crete, The Great Canon: A Poem of St. Andrew of Crete, trans. Derwas J. Chitty (London, 1957), 39. 41 Pani? and Babi?, Bogorodica Levi?ka, 53; Tsigaridas, Toichographies t? s periodou t? n Palaiolog? n, 15; Yiannias, ?The Palaeologan Refectory Program at Apolonia,? 173-74. 42 Susan Ashbrook Harvey, ?Physicians and Ascetics in John of Ephesus: An Expedient Alliance,? DOP 38 (1984), 87-93; Peregrine Horden, ?The Death of Ascetics: Sickness and Monasticism in the Early Byzantine Middle East,? SCH 22 (1985), 41-52. 43 Horden, ?The Death of Ascetics,? 45. 44 The benefits of physical pain for the cleansing of the body and by extension of the soul was discussed by John Chrysostom (On Repentance and Almsgiving, 102): ?Sin gave birth to pain; pain destroys sin?pain which is born by sin, kills sin when it is supplied by repentance.? 116 John Climacus referred to sickness as conducive to penance and compunction, and as a remedy for the soul: I saw sick men comforted by the power of God or by the workings of compunction, and because they were comforted they kept the pain at bay and even arrived at a disposition where they had no wish to recover from their illness?I saw men freed from their soul?s passion by grave sickness, as though it was some kind of penance, and I could only praise the God who cleans clay with clay. 46 Gregory of Sinai spoke of bodily toils and hardship as necessary for the fruitfulness of any spiritual exercise. 47 What are the principles which underlie the organization of the Miraculous programs of Late Byzantine nartheces and ambulatories? It has long been suggested that the Pentekostarion, a service book with selected readings for the period between Easter and Pentecost, influenced the choice of subject matter as well as the frequency with which some of the images appear. Scholars have suggested that the Healing of the Born Blind, of the Paralytic, and the Meeting with the Samaritan are usually represented together to reflect the Post Resurrection liturgical cycle. 48 The main theme of the Pentekostarion canons dedicated to the Blind Man, the Paralytic, and the Samaritan Woman is Christ?s salvific death and resurrection, but when specific references to the three events were made, the spiritual, rather than the physical benefits were 45 Paul Evergetinos, Evergetinos, 1/1: 95. 46 John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, 233. 47 Philokalia, 4: 272-74. 48 Dufrenne, Programmes iconographiques des ?glises de Mystra, 58; Underwood, ?Programs and Iconography of Ministry Cycles,? 257-62; Gouma-Peterson, ?Christ in a Palaeologan Program,? 213-13; Todi?, Serbian Medieval Painting, 126-30. 117 emphasized. 49 These are the three Ministry episodes that appear most frequently, but they are not necessarily associated. Only in the Protaton do they appear in the same space, 50 and no trace of them survives in the most extensive program in the liti of Profites Elias. In Omorphokklesia only the Healing of the Blind appears. The three might have been clustered in Nicholas Orphanos, but perhaps due to incidents of preservation only the Paralytic and the Samaritan Woman survive. In the Peribleptos church in Ohrid the two Healings appear in the northwest chapel in the naos whereas the Samaritan is painted in the southwest amidst other Teaching scenes. In the chapel of St. Euthymius in Thessalonike the Healing of the Bent Woman and the Dropsical Man bracket the Healing of the Paralytic. Here the Sabbath theme of the three events is highlighted. What then made the visualizations of Paralytic, of the Born Blind, and of the Samaritan Woman so desirable? It might be that the Byzantines suffered mostly from blindness and paralysis. It might be that the sites of Bethesda and of the Siloam pool were especially popular pilgrimage centers and the representations of the two Miracles conjured up associations with the site as well as with the events that occurred there. The fact that the three episodes were celebrated in a liturgical sequence in the fourth (Paralytic), fifth (Samaritan Woman), and sixth (Born Blind) Sundays after Easter might have eased their interpretation and made the connections between them clearer. Perhaps they were grouped because all three occur near water. Bathing in the Byzantine monastery was restricted by various prescriptions and nothing remained for the monks but to contemplate their spiritual baths. 51 Water has sanitizing and in some cases even 49 P. V. Paschou, Apanta ta hymnographica tou Matthaiou Vlastar? (Athens, 1980), 66-78, 106-33. 50 In the naos of St. Catherine in Thessalonike these three Ministry episodes appear in a narrative sequence. 118 therapeutic properties and is associated with one of the most important conversion rites. Scholars have pointed out the Baptismal symbolism of this liturgical triad. 52 Voislav Djuri? considered it a suitable backdrop for the Rite of the Blessing of the Water which might have taken place in the Protaton?s southwest chapel. 53 The appearance of the three scenes in this space may reflect a more traditional use of the southwest part of the church in general, for the rite of the Blessing of Waters and/or for the font where the holy water was kept. 54 The southwest chapel of the catholicon of Hosios Loukas was clearly intended for such use, as indicated by its paintings and their accompanying inscriptions. 55 The southwest portion of the narthex of Hagia Sophia in Trebizond contains representations of the Baptism of Christ, and of two of the water Miracles, the Healing of the Man Born Blind and the Healing of the Paralytic. 56 It might be that the so-called 51 In the Byzantine typika bathing was often prescribed for on the eve before the Great Lent or Easter, in a sense matching the spiritual cleansing that the monks would have to undergo or underwent during this most penitential period of the church year. Some typika explicitly forbid bathing during Lent. See Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 2: 491, 748, 3: 965, 1276, 4: 1601. 52 Underwood, ?Programs and Iconography of Ministry Cycles,? 258-59; Gouma-Peterson, ?Christ in a Palaeologan Program,? 212; Emmanouel, Hoi toichographies tou Hag. D? m? triou sto Makruch? ri kai t? s Koim? se? s t? s Theotokou, 185; Karin Kirchhainer, ?Die Bildausstattung des s?dlichen Annex der Nikolauskirche in Thessaloniki??berlegungen zum Verh?ltnis von Bildauswahl und Funktion eines Seitenraumes,? in Byzantinische Malerei. Bildprogramme-Ikonographie-Stil, ed. Guntram Koch (Wiesbaden, 2000), 150-53, 157-61. 53 Djuri?, ?Conceptions hagioritiques dans la peinture du Pr?taton,? 89. 54 Ida Sinkevi?, ?Western Chapels in Middle Byzantine Churches: Meaning and Significance? Starinar 52 (2002), 85-87. Most of the fonts for holy water in the Serbian churches are similarly placed in the southwest corner of the narthex. See Kandi?, ?Fonts for the Blessing of the Waters in Serbian Medieval Churches,? 61-77; Gavrilovi?, Studies in Byzantine and Serbian Medieval Art, 162. 55 Chatzidakis-Bacharas, Les peintures murales de Hosios Loukas, 27-35, 83-103, 113-18. 56 Talbot Rice, The Church of Hagia Sophia, fig. 91. On the south wall of the narthex was painted the casting of the devil from the daughter of the Canaanite woman, which also can be given Baptismal significance for one of the most important parts of the rite is the triple renunciation of Satan. 119 ?little baptistery? in the southwest vestibule of the Constantinopolitan cathedral of Hagia Sophia, provided the model for the similar use of the space in other church buildings. 57 I would like to elaborate on Djuri??s suggestion about the significance of the Ministry scenes in the southwest chapel of the Protaton, and add that these images were an appropriate backdrop for penitential exercises and individual prayers and contemplations. The baptismal symbolism of these representations further aids such an interpretation. 58 Baptism purges sins and diseases, and penance was considered another baptism. Penitential tears were frequently compared to the waters of baptism. 59 Tearful compunction is a simile for the transforming waters of Christian Baptism. Through its painted program the church building becomes the locus for spiritual transformation and through it for salvation. The homilies of Theoleptos and St. Gregory delivered on the Sunday of the Blind Man and of the Paralytic consider physical afflictions in an allegorical manner. Theoleptos spoke of the pool at Bethesda as an image of penance and of its five porticoes as the five means of repentance: ?abstention from evil deeds, practice of good works, 57 Russian travelers described a fountain placed on the right hand-side as one enters the church. This fountain is thought to be the baptistery of Hagia Sophia, which was an octagon edifice that once stood near the south wall of the church (Majeska, Russian Travelers, 202). The baptistery of the cathedral church of Hagia Sofia in Kiev was similarly placed in the southwest portion of the church (Irma F. Totskaia, ?Kreshchalnia Sofii Kievskoii,? in Drevnerusskoe iskusstvo. Vizantia, Rus, Zapadnaia Evropa: Iskusstvo i kul?tura [St. Petersburg, 2002], 115-23). I should like to note that there is no rule of representing the three water-related Ministry episodes in the southwest. For example, most of the ?water? imagery in the narthex of the Hodegetria church at Mystra is placed in the northwest portion of the narthex, while images associated with Jerusalem and the Temple are painted on the southwest walls (Dufrenne, Programmes iconographiques de Mystra, pl. 13). 58 For Late Byzantine interpretations of Baptism, see Cabasilas, The Life in Christ, 51; Meyendorff, Study of Gregory Palamas, 152, 159-62; John L. Boojamra, The Church and Social Reform. The Policies of the Patriarch Athanasios of Constantinople (New York, 1993), 75-77. In her forthcoming study of the fourteenth-century paintings in the church at Asinou, Annemarie Carr has suggested that in Palaeologan cycles the representations of Baptism and of John the Baptist took on more moralizing and redemptive character. 59 See chapter 1. 120 remembrance of one?s sins, confession, and perpetual sorrow.? 60 The paralytic?s infirmity is interpreted as a physical manifestation of a more significant spiritual affliction. 61 John Cantacuzenus wrote of the Miracle at Bethesda as a sign for the redemption of the whole world. 62 Gregory Palamas interpreted the healing of the Paralytic at Capernaum as a profound transformation of the body that reflects the cleansing of the soul from sin. 63 Like Theoleptos, St. Gregory emphasized the spiritual means of salvation, penance and confession. 64 The Healing of the Blind Man at the pool in Siloam was also interpreted as a metaphor for curing spiritual blindness. 65 On a metaphoric level the Miracle would have carried a special significance for the Late Byzantine Hesychasts whose ultimate goal was the vision of the Divine Light. In Byzantine exegesis the health of one?s spiritual vision is possible only through penance and confession. In this context I should like to note the significance of the placement of the Healing of the Two Blind above the windows in the exonarthex of the Holy Apostles. Here it is clear that the cure from blindness means illumination, both physical and spiritual. 60 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 319. 61 Ibid., 323. This interpretation is not unique to the Late Byzantine interpretations. A similar approach was taken by John Chrysostom in his lengthy homilies on the Healing of the Paralytic (Homilies on St. John, 351-72). 62 John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 84-85. In accordance with the polemical nature of the treatise Cantacuzenus wrote that before Christ only one person could be healed, the person who would be placed in the pool at the moment when the angel was stirring the waters. 63 PG 151: 112-24, 364-76; Gregory Palamas, Besedy, 1: 95-104, 2: 39-47. 64 PG 151: 120B-D, 365C-D, 369A-B, 372C-376A; Gregory Palamas, Besedy, 1: 101, 2: 40, 42, 44-46. 65 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 339-45; PG 151: 376-88; Gregory Palamas, Besedy, 2: 49-56; John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 86-87. Gregory Palamas talks about healing of blindness in general. 121 A direct visual parallel between physical cure and spiritual enlightenment is seen on fol. 16v. of the 1346 Constantinopolitan Tetraevangelion, Monastery of St. Catherine, Sinai, Cod. Gr. 152. Matthew is depicted presenting his Gospel to Christ (Fig. 58). 66 The evangelist is represented in a peculiar pose, his body urgently leaning toward Jesus, his hands outstretched with a jewel-bound book. The figure of Christ towers above the author?s bent body, receiving the book with his left hand and blessing in the direction of Matthew?s eyes with his right. The arrangement of the figures is borrowed from the most common representations of the Healing of the Born Blind where the afflicted man is represented in a pose similar to that of Matthew and where Christ usually raises his hand in direction of the man?s unseeing eyes. Spiritual enlightenment is thus the final and ultimate result of Jesus? intervention; the final product of Matthew?s effort, his Gospel, becomes the means of his own and the reader?s spiritual illumination. 67 Gregory Palamas, for example, compared the cure from blindness to the understanding that Christ gave to his disciples for the Scriptures. Like the blind men the Apostles spread the word of Jesus? glory: ...di?noije kat? t? gegramm?non t?n no?n t?n a?to? mayht?n to? suni?nai t?w Graf?w. O? d? ?jely?ntew, ?k?rujan a?t?n pantaxo? t?w g?w, ?w ka? per? t?n ?nablec?ntvn n?n tufl?n ? e?anggelist?w fhsin, ?ti <'Ejely?ntew dief?misan a?t?n ?n ?l? t? g? ?ke?n?> 68 As it is written, he (Christ) opened the minds of his disciples for the understanding of the Scriptures. And they (the disciples) went out and announced 66 The other three Evangelist portraits follow iconography similar to Matthew?s portrait. See Evans, ed. Byzantium, 345 (Matthew); Ioannis Spatharakis, Corpus of Dated Illuminated Greek Manuscripts to the Year 1453, 2 Vols. (Leiden, 1981), 2: fig. 460 (John). 67 All four Evangelists appear in similar poses, as if blind, but ?cured? by Christ as they present their finished books. In this way the four Gospels can be considered the means of the ultimate illumination. Another interesting message that emerges from these portraits is that spiritual seeing is possible only after a concerted effort similar to that of the Evangelists when they composed their books. 68 PG 151: 381B-C; Gregory Palamas, Besedy, 2: 53. 122 him around the world, like the blind that were cured, of whom the Evangelist says: ?But they went out and spread the news about him all over the region.? (Matt. 9:31) The Healing of the Woman with the Curved Back and of the Man with Dropsy were also painted frequently. 69 One of the reasons for their popularity in the Palaeologan Ministry programs might be their occurrence on the Sabbath. In the Gospel of Luke and in the Macedonian programs the two Healings were represented in close proximity reinforcing the Sabbath connection. In the Gospel accounts the confrontation between Christ and the Jews is as important as the act of actual healing. Through his actions on a day designated by the Jewish law for rest, Jesus performed acts of unsurpassing mercy turning the Sabbath into a day for rejuvenation. Perhaps for this reason Philotheus Kokkinos discussed the Healing of the Bent Woman as a primary example of Jesus? benevolence and charity. 70 According to Theoleptos the Sabbath miracles not only revealed Jesus? divine powers but also served as metaphors for the spiritual Sabbath allotted by God ?for the healing of the soul.? 71 He considered the Sabbath in eschatological terms and defined it as the last day of the week when Christ performed most of his healings. People should improve in the present life in order not to endure punishment in the future. Just as this day (the seventh day) puts bodily toils to sleep and awakens the true guardians of the Law to spiritual ways and hymns? 72 69 The prominence of the Healing of the Man with Dropsy requires additional attention especially in view of the fact that the Miracle per se is covered only by one verse in the Gospel of Luke (14:4). However it is given greater significance in Palaeologan painted programs; it occurs in eight early to mid fourteenth century monumental cycles. The Healing is very prominent, for example, in the Hodegetria church in Mystra where it occupies the whole upper portion of the North wall of the narthex as a visual pendant to the Twelve Year Old Christ among the Jewish Doctors on the South wall. 70 A discussion of this passage follows below. 71 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 175-81. 123 Theologians discussed not only Christ?s actions but also the conditions of the sick. Theoleptos, for example, interpreted the cure of the Bent Woman in metaphorical fashion. He described her as being ?attached to the desires of the flesh and engrossed in earthly pleasures?and so by divine warrant her body was bended over for punishment. 73 He analyzed the infirmity of her body as an expression of the invisible sickness of her soul; her healing was thus twofold, physical and spiritual. 74 At least one image demonstrates a similar allegorical approach to the miracle. A parallel between sinfulness and physical infirmity can be seen in the representation of Christ and the Adulterous Woman in the Virgin church in Gra?anica (Fig. 59). The artist must have used as a model the image of the bent woman for the adulteress is painted in a similar pose; only the cane is missing (Fig. 26). The physical illness of the Woman with the Curved Back thus equals the sin of the Adulteress. CHRIST SOTER AND THE PAINTED MINISTRY IN NICHOLAS ORPHANOS In the arched opening that connects the naos and the south ambulatory wing a full-length Christ, labeled O SVTHR [Savior] is painted (Fig. 60). He blesses with his right hand 72 Ibid., 169. 73 Ibid. In the fifth century St. Cyril of Alexandria (Commentary on the Gospel of Saint Luke, 390-91) dwelled on the reasons for the sickness of the woman, but unlike Theoleptos insisted on the more general law about the fallen nature of man and the involvement of Satan in human affairs. He wrote that God allowed the woman?s illness ?either for her own sins, or rather by the operation of a universal and general law.? The miracle he interpreted as yet another opportunity to extol Christ?s great compassion for humanity. 74 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 171. The infirmity of the woman was a subject of two lengthy homilies of the Constantinopolitan Patriarch, Philotheos Kokkinos, Logoi kai homilies (Thessalonike, 1981), 201-33. 124 and holds in his left an opened book inscribed with the words from Matthew 11:28: ?Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.? As if to authenticate the text the artist chose to represent Matthew in the intrado of the arch, right above the image of Christ. The Virgin, inscribed Paraklesis, is painted also full-length in an analogous position on the wall of the arched opening into the north ambulatory wing. She is represented in a pose of supplication with an unfurled scroll in her left hand inscribed with words of a prayer addressed to her son. 75 Mother and Son are thus in a dialogue across the physical space of the church?s naos. Mary pleads on behalf of humanity and Christ replies with the words inscribed in his open book. 76 Such separation across the real space of the church is not unusual and has been effectively employed in the visualizations of the Annunciation to indicate the meeting of two different realms of the earthly and the divine. In the late twelfth-century church of Panagia tou Arakou at Lagoudera, Cyprus archangel Gabriel is painted on one of the dome?s eastern pendetives, and the Virgin is on the other; their communication occurs in the actual space of the church naos. 77 Such association of a monumental icon with Ministry episodes is not unique. In Byzantium icons often performed healing miracles. The artist of a twelfth-century icon in 75 For the fragmentary inscription, see Tsitouridou, Ho z? graphikos diakosmos tou Hagiou Nikolaou Orphanou, 76. For the inscription on the scroll of the Virgin Paraklesis, see Eftalia Constantinides, The Wall Paintings of the Panagia Olympiotissa at Elasson in Northern Thessaly, 2 Vols. (Athens, 1992), 1: 213 n. 458. 76 Virgin Paraklesis and Christ Soter were painted in two contemporary monuments, on the sanctuary barrier of the church of the Panagia Olympiotissa at Elasson and in the narthex of the church of St. George at Staro Nagori?ino. For a discussion of the image of Christ and the Virgin engaged in a dialogue across the real space of the church, see Millet and Frolow, La peinture du Moyen ?ge en Yougoslavie, 3: pl. 113, figs. 1-3; Tsitouridou, Ho z? graphikos diakosmos tou Hagiou Nikolaou Orphanou, 76-80; Constantinides, Wall Paintings of the Panagia Olympiotissa, 213-15, pls. 60-63; Ivan Djordjevi? and Miodgrag Markovi?, ?On the Dialogue Relationship between the Virgin and Christ in East Christian Art. Apropos of the Discovery of the Figures of the Virgin Mediatrix and Christ in the Naos of Lesnovo,? Zograf 28 (2000-2001), 13-47. 77 Andreas Stilianou and Judith Stilianou, The Painted Churches of Cyprus (London, 1985), 161-62, fig. 87. 125 the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai meaningfully associated five miracle- working images of the Virgin with an exceptionally long Ministry cycle of twenty one individually framed scenes. 78 One of the earlier monumental examples can be seen in the early thirteenth-century decoration of the Prizren cathedral of Bogorodica Levi?ka. Here, an icon of the Virgin and Child is painted on one of the piers in the church?s south isle; its association with the Miracles depicted in close proximity reminds of the above- mentioned twelfth-century icon. The Virgin is named Eleousa and the Child is identified as ?Our Provider.? The monumental icon is associated with a depiction of the Wedding at Cana, and both the Virgin and the Child turn in the direction of the miracle. The association of the icon with the Ministry narrative in the Prizren cathedral was intended to convey specific messages about charity and benevolence. 79 In a manner very similar to the decoration of the south ambulatory of Nicholas Orphanos a full-length representation of Christ Chalkites is incorporated amidst a large number of Christ?s miraculous cures in the south bay of the Chora esonarthex (Fig. 61). The healing qualities of the Chalkites are recorded in various sources and thus its association with a Ministry cycle is hardly surprising. 80 78 Soteriou and Soteriou, Eikones t? s Mon? s Sina, 1: fig. 125, 2: 146-47; Annemarie W. Carr, ?Icons and the Objects of Pilgrimage in Middle Byzantine Constantinople,? DOP 56 (2002), 77-81; Nicolette S. Trahoulia, ?The Truth in Painting: A Refutation of Heresy in a Sinai Icon,? J?B 52 (2002), 271-85. In fact the association of healing miracles with icons was made as early as the ninth century in the illustration of Ps. 67:31 in the Chludov Psalter (Marfa Shchepkina, Miniatiury Khludovskoii Psaltyri, [Moscow, 1977], 65). As Maria Evangelatou has pointed out in her forthcoming article ?Virtuous Soul, Healthy Body? an icon was incorporated within the scene of the healing of the demoniac in order to strengthen the iconophile position of the Psalter?s decorative program. 79 Babi? and Pani?, Bogorodica Levi?ka, pl. LI. 80 Natalia Teteriatnikov, ?The Place of the Nun Melania (the Lady of the Mongols) in the Deesis Program of the Inner Narthex of Chora, Constantinople,? CA 43 (1995), 163-80. 126 In what ways is the Soter integrated in the program of the south ambulatory? In this chapter I argue that the inscription on the book, the name Soter and the full-length figure of Christ enrich the meaning of the Ministry in the south ambulatory. Jesus looks in the direction of the Miracles suggesting to the viewer that his portrait engages with the events that unfold on the north wall. The passage inscribed on the opened book of the Soter was frequently discussed in Byzantine exegetical literature. St. Basil, for example, interpreted it as an invitation to cast off the burden of riches and to embrace the monastic life by ridding oneself of sin through penance and confession. 81 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia explained the verse as an indication that Christ is ?the well spring of virtues and rest for ascetics.? 82 The words inscribed on the book of the Soter in Nicholas Orphanos seem to have had a special appeal to monastic audiences, for they appear also on a sixteen-century icon with the Ladder of John Climacus, inscribed on the book of Christ who is painted awaiting at the top the successful spiritual aspirants. 83 It is noteworthy that the reading of the eleventh chapter of Matthew?s Gospel was incorporated into the rite of monastic tonsure as indicated in several Byzantine Euchologia and in the text of the rite as it is performed today. 84 The title Soter and its association with the full-length representation of Christ in Nicholas Orphanos is of considerable interest and deserves closer examination. In 81 Saint Basil, Ascetical Works, 15. 82 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 175. 83 Treasures of Mount Athos (Thessalonike, 1997), 144-45. 84 Wawryk, Initiatio monastica, Appendix, 32; N. F. Robinson, Monasticism in the Orthodox Churches (Milwaukee, WI, 1916), 89. 127 general, full-length images of Christ blessing with one hand and holding a book in the other were not necessarily labeled Soter. Since the late eleventh century this kind of iconography was used for a number of named images of Jesus such as Antiphonetes, or Philantropos. 85 Visual evidence suggests that representations of Christ obtained epithets directly pertaining to his benevolent qualities. 86 Most of the named figures of Christ were represented on seals associated with monasteries reflecting a special kind of monastic rather than lay piety. 87 Moreover, Jesus? almost identical iconography implies that the subject of the images were not so much miraculous icons, but rather different aspects of Christ especially important in monastic circles. The full-length named images of Jesus could carry a variety of meanings for their Byzantine audience. In these representations Christ reveals himself completely; it was his humanity, and thus his benevolent qualities that were emphasized. Secondary to these images would have been Jesus? incomprehensible divinity frequently associated with his bust representations which appeared most often in church domes and on coins. 88 If one 85 At that time full-length representations of Christ Pantokrator appeared, his benevolent qualities were further extolled in literature. See Jane T. Matthews, ?The Pantocrator: Title and Image,? (Ph.D. Dissertation, Institute of Fine Arts, 1976), 140. 86 The only topographic name of Christ associated with a similar full-length figure is Chalkites. For the images of Christ Chalkites, see Paul A. Underwood, ?The Deisis Mosaic in the Kahrie Cami at Istanbul,? in Late Classical and Medieval Studies in Honor of Albert Mathias Friend, Jr., ed. Kurt Weitzmann (Princeton, 1955), 254-60; Cyril Mango, The Brazen House: A Study of the Vestibule of the Imperial Palace of Constantinople (Copenhagen, 1959); George Majeska, ?The Image of the Chalke Savior in Saint Sophia,? Byzantinoslavica 32 (1971), 284-95; Natalia Teteriatnikov, ?The Place of the Nun Melania,? 163- 80, esp. 168, 170; John Haldon and Bryan Ward-Perkins, ?Evidence from Rome for the Image of Christ of the Chalke Gate in Constantinople,? BMGS 23 (1999), 286-96. 87 Anthony Cutler (?The Dumbarton Oaks Psalter and New Testament. The Iconography of the Moscow Leaf,? DOP 37 [1983], 44) proposed that in Constantinople aristocratic families would have endowed monasteries in order to associate themselves with famous images of Christ, and that what we see on seals, portable icons, and wall painting reflects the iconography of these famous, but lost, images. 88 The bust and the enthroned Christ dominate the obverse of Byzantine coinage since the seventh century (J. D. Breckenridge, The Numismatic Iconography of Justinian II (685-695, 705-711 A.D.) [New York, 1959], 46-62; Philip Grierson, Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in 128 looks at the paintings of the south ambulatory in Nicholas Orphanos when entering from the narthex, the viewer notices that the image of Christ Soter and the one of Christ from the scene with the Samaritan Woman face each other. According to the Gospel narrative Jesus sat at the well in order to rest as he was tired because of his humanity. Gregory Palamas, for example, dwelt on this point of Christ?s humanity in a homily delivered on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman. 89 In Nicholas Orphanos the visual juxtaposition of the figure of Christ sitting at the well and of the Soter further underscores one of the main themes of the paintings in the south ambulatory of Jesus? benevolence and his familial relationship to humankind and its common needs. At the same time it emphasized Christ?s human qualities in the icon of the Soter. In the New Testament the word Soter is not very common. It appears at the end of John?s account of the Meeting with the Samaritan woman (4:42). In the Acts of the Apostles (5:31, 13:23) the word is used in the context of ideas of redemption through forgiveness of sins. In later, post-Apostolic times the Whittemore Collection 3 Vols. [Washington, DC, 1966], 3/1: 146-60, 164-69). The meaning of these representations has been unraveled for us by the Byzantines themselves. Homilies and church descriptions suggest that it was Christ?s unchallenged kingship and incomprehensible divinity that the dome images were aiming to express (Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 186, 202-203, 232). It is only natural, that on coins a bust figure or enthroned Christ on the obverse with the representation of the emperor on the reverse re-enforced ideas about rulership and authority. Even when Christ appeared full length on imperial coinage, in scenes of symbolic coronation, it was only in order to confirm the privileged position of the emperor as a mediator in the court of his celestial sovereign. The named representations of Christ appeared at the time of the living and inspirited images, and could be assigned similar qualities. See, for example, Hans Belting, Likeness and Presence. A History of the Image before the Era of Art, trans. Edmund Jephcott (Chicago and London, 1994), 261-96; John Cotsonis, ?The Virgin with the ?Tongues of Fire? on Byzantine Lead Seals,? DOP 48 (1994), 221-27, esp. 226-27; Bissera V. Pentcheva, ?Rhetorical Images of the Virgin. The Icon of the ?Usual Miracle? at Blachernai,? RES 38 (2000), 34-55, esp. 41-43. One of the first most important ?enlivened? images was the icon of Christ Antiphonites which was in possession of the empress Zoe (Michael Psellus, Fourteen Byzantine Rulers, trans. E. R. A. Sewter [Baltimore, 1966], 188-89). The obverse of a unique golden histamenon (Grierson, Catalogue of Byzantine Coins, 3/1: 162-64; 3/2: 727, 729, pl. LVIII.1) from the reign of Zoe (1041) contains a representation of a three quarter (not bust) Christ labeled Antiphonites. 89 Gregory Palamas, Besedy, 1: 198. In earlier interpretations of the meeting with the Samaritan woman it was the encounter with Christ?s divinity that was emphasized. See, for example, Romanos, Kontakia of Romanos, Byzantine Melodist, trans. Marjorie Carpenter, 2 Vols. (Columbia, 1970), 1: 85-96. 129 the word denoted salvation and deliverance. 90 It has been noted that it is in stories of healings that the verb s?zv [I save] occurs more frequently. Gerhard Friedrich pointed out that the use of s?zv in the context of cures indicates that the healing transcended the physical world, because not only the body but the soul as well was affected. 91 The earliest representations of Christ Soter are on two late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century seals of the hegoumenos of the Xenophon monastery on Mount Athos. 92 Despite the fact that the earliest images of Christ Soter came out of a monastic milieu there is literary evidence that at least the name might have had an imperial, Constantinopolitan background. Among the acts of the Xenophon monastery is a will of the abbot Paul dated to 1092 which mentions that the emperor Alexios Komnenos gave the monastery a book (a menologion ?) adorned with a precious cover with an image of Christ Soter. 93 Be that as it may, the representations of Christ Soter are consistently associated with monasteries, and more specifically with monasteries in Northern Greece and Macedonia. The earliest panel painting of Christ as Soter dates to the 1260s; the icon is from the Serbian Chilandar monastery and was once mounted on the iconostasis of the catholicon. 94 In the church of Panagia Olympiotissa at Elassona, Christ Soter is given greater prominence on the south pier of the sanctuary, 95 while in the small early 90 Gerhard Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, trans. and ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, 10 Vols. (Grand Rapids, MI, 1964-1976), 7: 1003-1021. 91 Ibid., 7: 990. 92 V. Laurent, Le corpus des sceaux de l?empire byzantin: L??glise (Paris, 1965), 150-51, no. 1226; G Zacos, Byzantine Lead Seals, 2 Vols. (Berne, 1984), 2: 364, no. 784, pl. 77: 784. 93 Denise Papachryssanthou, Actes de X?nophon (Paris, 1969), 72. 94 Sreten Petkovi?, Eikones hieras mon? s Chilandariou (Mount Athos, 1997), 24, 67-68. 95 Constantinides, The Wall Paintings of the Panagia Olympiotissa, 214, figs. 61, 63. 130 fourteenth-century church of Omorphe Ekklesia near Athens, decorated by artists from the Macedonian school, the image of Christ Soter was represented on the south pier of the north side chapel. 96 As in the catholicon of the Olympiotissa Christ Soter occupies a place of honor on the south pier of the sanctuary in the late thirteenth-century church of St. John the Kaneo in Ohrid. 97 In the church of St. George at Staro Nagori?ino a full- length Christ Soter is painted in the narthex and is given greater prominence as the icon is placed next to the church?s patron saint. 98 Variations of the title occur in a fourteenth- century depiction of Christ in the patriarchal church at Pe?, 99 as well as on two fourteenth-century portable icons, one from the church of the Virgin Peribleptos in Ohrid, 100 and another from the monastic church in Zrze, near the town of Prilep. 101 The image of Christ Soter continues to appear in Northern Macedonia in the course of the fifteenth century. A variation of the iconography, but not of the title, is preserved in the church of St. Andrew in Kastoria where Christ Soter is represented in the lower register of the naos? north wall enthroned and aged with an open book inscribed with the words from the beginning of the Gospel of John. 102 The image here assumed more 96 Agape Vasilake-Karakatsane, Hoi toichographies t? s Omorph? s Ekkl? sias st? n Ath? na (Athens, 1971), 97-98, pl. 39b. Here the icon is singled out; it is not in dialog with the Virgin, who appears represented with the Child in close proximity. 97 Petar Milkovi?-Pepek, ?Tsrkvata Sv. Jovan Bogoslov-Kaneo vo Ohrid,? Kulturno Nasledstvo 3/4 (1967), 81, fig. 2. 98 Branislav Todi?, Staro Nagori?ino (Belgrade, 1993), figs. 8, 10. 99 This is a full-length representation of Christ labeled ?Savior of the World.? See Voislav Djuri? et al., Pe?ka patriar?ia (Belgrade, 1990), fig. 135. 100 The title of Christ as a Savior of the Soul appears on the icon?s silver revetment. This panel is paired with a riveted icon of the Virgin and Child, which identifies the Virgin as the Savior of the Soul. See Kosta Balabanov, Ikonite vo Makedonia (Skopie, 1995), 80-83, 191-92, 193-94. 101 On this icon Christ is identified as ?Savior and Giver of Life.? See Ibid., 146-47, 209; Kurt Weitzmann, Manolis Chatzidakis and Svetozar Radoi?i?, Icons (New York, 1980), 179. 131 eschatological dimensions. 103 A sixteenth-century portable icon in the art gallery at Skopie is painted with a three quarter image of Christ Soter with an open book inscribed with the words from the Gospel of Matthew as seen in the church of Nicholas Orphanos. 104 The wide distribution of full-length representations of Christ Soter in Northern Macedonia and on Mount Athos indicates a particular devotion to the Soter in this part of the Byzantine empire, fostered, perhaps, by Athonite monks. 105 In fact, in most cases the dedication of churches to Christ Soter can be associated with monastic, and more specifically athonite, influence. For example in the above-mentioned document of the Xenophon monastery there is evidence of a dependency dedicated to Christ Soter. 106 More importantly, in the fourteenth century, the patriarch Athanasios, who had strong relations with Mount Athos, dedicated a Constantinopolitan monastery to Christ Soter. 107 The church became famous among the locals for the numerous posthumous healing miracles performed by the sainted patriarch. 108 Athanasios? successor, Niphon I, dedicated a church to Christ Soter in his native town of Veroia. 109 102 Stylianos Pelekanidis, Kastoria. Byzantinai toichographiai. Pinakes (Thessalonike, 1953), 164. 103 Similar more eschatological meaning takes the representation of Christ Soter in the fifteenth-century decoration of the bell tower chapel of the church of Hagia Sophia at Trebizond (Gabriel Millet and David Talbot Rice, Byzantine Painting at Trebizond [London, 1936], 78, pl. V). Christ Soter is incorporated in a Deesis composition with the Virgin and John the Baptist painted in the chapel?s apse. This is the only image of the Soter outside of Macedonia, where no painters from the area seem to have been involved in the decoration of the chapel. 104 Weitzmann et al., Icons, 209. This particular example of Christ Soter allows speculations that the image we are encountering all over Northern Macedonia might be copying a famous portable icon. 105 Laurent, Le corpus des sceaux de l?empire byzantin, 150. 106 Papachryssanthou, Actes de X?nophon, 73. 107 R. Janin, La g?ographie eccl?siastique de l?empire byzantin. Le si?ge de Constantinople et le patriarchat oecum?nique (Paris, 1969), 10-11. 108 Theoktistos the Studite, Faith Healing in Late Byzantium. 132 The above-mentioned examples help to contextualize the image of the Soter in Nicholas Orphanos within the pictorial and devotional tradition of the region and of the time period under consideration. The placement of the icon in close proximity to a number of healing miracles in the south ambulatory gives it an unexplored dimension. The image of the Soter alludes to the benevolent nature of Christ underscoring the penitential character of the Ministry program. The icon has a transitional position, for it is linking the Miracles with the emaciated winged figure of John the Baptist, on the south wall of the naos. John is represented holding in his left hand a scroll inscribed with the words from the Gospel of John 1:29: ?Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.? 110 Here the Baptist is referring to Christ not only as a sacrificial victim, but also as a Savior, or Soter, who relieves from the burden of sickness, and by extension of sin. In this context the relation between Christ Soter and the Samaritan Woman, whose sole figure occupies a portion of the north wall of the ambulatory wing, is of special interest. By the tenth century a separate cult of the Samaritan Woman was established and she became known by the name of St. Photeine. 111 Her feast days were variously celebrated on February 25 and August 20. As her name implies, the saint being herself illuminated, became the one who illuminates, literally and symbolically. Her relics, venerated in Constantinople, were famous for curing various eye afflictions. 112 109 Stylianos Pelekanidis, Kallierges holes Thettalias aristos zographos (Athens, 1973), 12. 110 Tsitouridou, Ho z? graphikos diakosmos tou Hagiou Nikolaou Orphanou, 80-81, fig. 16. 111 Alice-Mary Talbot and Alexander Kazhdan, ?The Byzantine Cult of St. Photeine,? BF 21 (1994), 103- 112 (repr. in Alice-Mary Talbot, Women and Religious Life in Byzantium [Aldershot, , 2001]). 112 Alice-Mary Talbot, ?The Posthumous Miracles of St. Photenine,? AB 112 (1994), 85-104 (repr. in Eadem, Women and Religious Life in Byzantium [Aldershot, 2001]). 133 Photeine was also considered a model for spiritual enlightenment. Her portrait, for example, is painted in close proximity to the representation of the Baptism in the narthex of the twelfth-century church of St. Nicholas tou Kasnitzi at Kastoria, emphasizing the illuminating and transformational experience of Christian Baptism. 113 In the church of St. Nicholas Orphanos the image of the Samaritan woman is positioned in such a way as to invoke specific associations with the image of Christ Soter, as well as with the full-length representation of St. Victor placed in the arched opening across the image of the Samaritan woman. He is painted as an old man, holding in his right hand a martyr?s cross; he is clad as an aristocrat in a red chiton and a green himation. 114 The identity of the saint is difficult to determine for in the calendar of the Orthodox church there is more than one Saint Victor. 115 The Life of Photeine relates that she had two sons, one of whom was named Victor, and who served as a military commander in Italy during the reign of Nero. When he was given an assignment to start persecuting the local Christians he refused and suffered martyrdom. 116 In the course of his prolonged tortures the saint had a vision of Christ who addressed him with the words inscribed in the open book of the Soter in Nicholas Orphanos: ?Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I 113 Tatiana Malmquist, Byzantine 12 th Century Frescoes in Kastoria. Agioi Anargyroi and Agios Nikolaos tou Kasnitzi (Uppsala, 1979), 25-26. 114 St. Victor is usually represented with other two saints, all celebrated on November 11, St. Menas and St. Vicentios. In Nicholas Orphanos St. Menas is also represented within the same arched opening whereas St. Vicentios is omitted from the church?s decorative program. SS Menas, Victor and Vicentios appear together in the Chora church in Constantinople (Underwood, Kariye Djami, 1: 156, 2: pls. 302a, b, 303), as well as in the church of the Panagia Olympiotissa in Elassona (Constantinides, Wall Paintings of the Panagia Olympiotissa, 236-38, pls. 96, 97, 177). In general, the iconography of St. Victor was unstable: he could be represented as a beardless youth as in Panagia Olympiotissa, as a young man with small mustache as seen in Chora, or as an elderly man as in Nicholas Orphanos. 115 Tsitouridou, Ho zographikos diakosmos tou Hagiou Nikolaou Orphanou, 193, n. 18. 116 K. T. Radchenko, ?Apokriphicheskoe zhitie Samarianki po Prologam Belgradskoii Narodnoii Biblioteki,? Izvestia otdelenia russkago iazyka i slovesnosti imperatorskoii akademii nauk 11 (1906), 91- 108. 134 will give you rest.? 117 Perhaps another Victor was represented, the one who was similarly tortured in Italy and who, in church painting, is usually coupled with Menas. However, the representations of the Samaritan woman and of St. Victor in Nicholas Orphanos were positioned in a way which enables the two figures to communicate through open space. It is doubtless that the monks familiar with Photeine?s Vita would have associated the two figures. This particular visual connection would have further elaborated on the proselytizing and transformational message of the image of the Samaritan woman. In the fourteenth century her meeting with Christ at the well was interpreted as an allegory for the conversion through penance, and more specifically through confession: He (Christ) sought to receive water from the woman and he gave water to her. Thus he seeks also from you the water of confession and repentance and he grants you the water of forgiveness. You give him rest by means of your good intentions and he grants you rest by means of the gifts of his Holy Spirit. For scripture says, ?Come all you who labor and are heavily burdened and I will give you rest. 118 While I am not trying to imply that the author of the program of the south ambulatory of St. Nicholas was familiar with Theoleptos? edifying instructions, both the text and the painting reflect a shared understanding of the episode of the meeting of Christ and the Samaritan woman as a metaphor for illuminating transformation through penitential exercises. The interpretations of Christ?s Healing Ministry offered up to this point consider only a restricted monastic audience. These interpretations would have been sufficient if the Miracles were most evident in ascetic centers and if the spaces that they occupy were intended for monastic eyes only. One conspicuous feature of the Late Byzantine Ministry programs is that with one exception, the Protaton, they appear in urban catholica and not 117 Ibid., 100. 118 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 335. 135 in monastic centers, such as Mount Athos. 119 The spaces in which the Miracles appear, on the threshold between exterior and interior, might have been accessible to lay people and could have been contact zones not only between the world inside and outside but also between laity and monks. The typikon of the monastery of Nea Mone in Thessalonike suggests area of interactions with lay people inside the monastic enclosure. This document has an immense value because the church, Profites Elias, and its paintings, all survive and testify for possible relations between pictures and lay audience. 120 Makarios Choumnos, the founder of the Nea Mone and author of its typikon (composed ca. 1374), strongly encouraged the monks to attend to those who came to them: Receive with graciousness and much kindness all who love us on account of the Lord and who come to us in piety for the sake of their salvation and improvement?Do not in any way avoid looking at and talking to these people, but if they need something from you, to the best of your ability do not neglect them for the sake of the [divine] commandment, but put yourselves completely at their service. 121 It is very likely that catechetical or liturgical services were offered for the secular community. 122 Is it possible that monks and lay people met in the spacious liti of the catholicon? The painted miracles of Christ would have been an appropriate backdrop for moralizing instructions; one cannot help but think about the people seated at the feet of 119 Here I am not taking into account the program of the Chilandar catholicon where the Miracles are incorporated in the program of the naos, in a manner seen in most Serbian churches built during the reign of king Milutin and later. 120 Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 4: 1433-55. 121 Ibid., 4: 1444. 122 Ibid., 4: 1437. I did not find other references to catechetical and liturgical services offered by monasteries to members of secular communities. Rarely is there evidence for schools associated with monasteries. In Bebaia Elpis, for example (Ibid., 4: 1564), there were special instructions for girls who wanted to become nuns. 136 Christ in the representation of the Healing of the Multitude in the lunette over the south entrance into the naos. The narthex, which connects the church building to the outside world, and where Christ meets human needs and fulfills human prayers, would have been the place to minister to the spiritual needs of a secular community. Furthermore, the typikon of the Nea Mone indicates that the monastery supported also some specific philanthropic institutions such as a hospice and perhaps a guesthouse. 123 This openness is surprising because a considerable number of monastic documents forbids the presence of outsiders within the monasteries. Even more surprising is that Makarios, a defender of the Hesychast cause, insisted that his monks relate to the secular world; their contemplative lives seem not to have been affected by this relationship. As has long been recognized, ministering was not in contradiction with the Late Byzantine mysticism; rather it was a significant aspect in the life of the church in the Palaeologan period. In these terms the collective message of the extensive Miracle cycles reminded the monks of their obligations to care for the sick and to attend to the poor in imitation of Christ. If, indeed, charitable works declined considerably during the Palaeologan period, what better reminder to minister to the poor and the sick than the visualizations of the Jesus? own Ministry? THE MINISTRY OF CHRIST AND MONASTIC PHILANTHROPY In this section I attempt to explain the Ministry imagery as an admonition or advertisement to imitate Christ in ministering to those in need. Thalia Gouma-Peterson has suggested that the extensive Ministry cycle of Christ and St. Euthymios in the parecclesion of St. Euthymios in Thessalonike was intended to parallel the priest?s 123 Ibid., 4: 1450. 137 ministry in the world in direct correspondence with the reform concerns of Athanasios I and Theoleptos of Philadelphia. 124 If, as Sharon Gerstel has suggested, the parecclesion was intended as a monastic oratory, 125 one can expand on Gouma-Peterson?s conclusions and speculate that the two ministry cycles were meant, if not to parallel, at least to encourage monastic philanthropia. In this section I argue that this approach can be applied to the rest of the Ministry cycles painted in the city and its vicinity. In order to reach some conclusions one should inquire into how monastic communities related to the world beyond their enclosures. The active economic presence of monasteries in the lives of big cities has long been recognized, and this is especially true of the relationship between the Athonite communities and Thessalonike. 126 The concrete evidence of charity is hard to find, leading to a range of speculations and conclusions. Oreste Tafrali, for example, suggested that the Athonite monasteries would have been doing charitable work in Thessalonike, but cited no specific evidence to support his contention. 127 Timothy Miller indicated that in the Palaeologan period hospitals disappeared from the list of important buildings in the city as the rich and powerful ceased to support them. 128 124 Thalia-Gouma-Peterson, ?Christ in a Palaeologan Program,? 212-16. 125 Gerstel, ?Civic and Monastic Influences,? 228. 126 See, for example, M. A. Poliakovskaia, ?Gorodskie vladenia provintzial?nykh monastyreii v pozdnoii Vizantii,? VV 24 (1964), 202-8; Anthony Bryer, ?The Late Byzantine Monastery in Town and Countryside,? SCH 16 (1979), 219-41, esp. 227-31; Angeliki Laiou, ?Economic Activities of Vatopedi in the Fourteenth Century,? in The Monastery of Vatopedi. History and Art, ed. Paris Gounaridis (Athens, 1999), 55-72; Christophore Giros, ?Pr?sence athonite ? Thessalonique, XIII e -XV e si?cles,? DOP 57 (2003), 265-78. 127 Oreste Tafrali, Thessalonique au quatorzi?me si?cle (Paris, 1913), 94-95. Tafrali does speak about charitable institutions maintained by the Thessalonikan church but it is not clear whether any of these institutions were supported by Athonite monks. 128 Miller, The Birth of the Hospital, 196-97. 138 Some scholars have completely discounted charity as a burden on monastic incomes. 129 Others, noting the Late Byzantine rejuvenation of early Christian mysticism, indicated a decline in philanthropic activities. 130 Sources, such as the Dialogue between the Rich and the Poor written ca. 1343 by Alexios Makrembolites, only confirm the overall impression of a general disinterestness in charity. Makrembolites? poor lamented their fate as the rich were no longer ?prone to charity? and did not maintain charitable institutions, such as hostels, hospitals, orphanages, and almshouses. 131 In view of the fact that the image of Christ ministering to the sick and the poor is the ultimate example of charity it is worth exploring further the issue of Late Byzantine ecclesiastic ele? mosyn? in general, 132 and of monastic in particular. Indeed, some Late Byzantine authors emphasized not the polemical character of the Ministry but its philanthropic nature. For example, the fourteenth-century patriarch of Constantinople Philotheos Kokkinos (1354-1355, 1364-1376) commented on the Healing of the Woman with the Curved Back pointing out the unsurpassable mercy of Christ who performed the miracle on a Sabbath and was criticized by the chief Jewish priest. Philotheos went on to describe a hospital where the sick would be treated in a similar fashion, generously and without prejudice. 133 Gregory Palamas interpreted another of Christ?s Miracles as an 129 Bryer, ?The Late Byzantine Monastery,? 227. 130 Miller, The Birth of the Hospital, 136-40. 131 Ihor ?ev?enko, ?Alexios Makrembolites and His ?Dialogue between the Rich and the Poor,?? ZRVI 65 (1960), 224-25. 132 Demetrios J. Constantelos, ?Mysticism and Social Involvement in the Later Byzantine Church: Theoleptos of Philadelphia?a Case Study,? ?B 6 (1979), 83-94; John L. Boojamra, ?Social Thought and Reforms of Athanasios of Constantinople (1289-1293; 1303-1309),? Byzantion 55 (1985), 350-82; Constantelos, Poverty, Society and Philanthropy, 39-52, 69-92, 103-114; Boojamra, The Church and Social Reform, 105-24; Angela C. Hero, ?Theoleptos of Philadelphia (ca. 1250-1322): From Solitary to Activist,? in Twilight of Byzantium, 27-38. 139 expression of active charity. In a homily on the Raising of the Son of the Widow at Nain St. Gregory insisted not only on Jesus? good will, but also on the action taken to relieve the woman?s suffering: ?All? ?r?te, p?w ? K?riow splagxnisye?w ?p? t? x?r& penyo?s? t?n u??n, o? paramuyiko?w m?non pr?w a?t?n ?xr?sato l?goiw, ?ll? ka? di? ?rgvn a?t?n ?yer?peusen. O?tv ka? ?me?w poi?men pr?w d?namin, ka? m? l?g? m?n? sumpaye?w ?men to?w kak?w p?sxousin, ?ll? ka? di? ?rgvn t? pr?w a?to?w sumpay?w ?pide?jvmen. 134 But see how God pitied the widow who was mourning her dead son and used not only words of consolation, but also actions to help her. Let us do the same according to our strength; let us express our compassion for those who suffer evil not only in words, but in actions as well. Mercy, according to Gregory Palamas, would be noted and rewarded by God. If one performs works of charity, Christ would respond in a reciprocally benevolent way. Such active forms of charity were promoted in the beginning of the fourteenth century when Constantine Akropolites, a prominent official in the court of Andronicus II, wrote a short treatise addressed to the superior of the Constantinopolitan monastery of the Resurrection. In the treatise Akropolites reminded the abbot of the obligations of the monks to maintain the katagoge of the monastery which housed a number of sick people. 135 Constantine interpreted the care for the sick as a variation of one of the most valued monastic virtues?charity?for Christ ?made visiting the sick not the least part of 133 Miller, Birth of the Hospital, xvii; Philotheos Kokkinos, Logoi kai homilies, 221-22. 134 PG 151: 533A; Gregory Palamas, Besedy, 3: 52. 135 George T. Dennis and Timothy S. Miller, ?Constantine Akropolites: The Obligation of Monks to Care for the Sick,? OCP 56 (1990), 413-29. This document does not provide the name of the monastery but it is very likely that it was the Anastasis monastery restored some time at the end of the thirteenth beginning of the fourteenth century by Constantine Akropolites. See Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 4: 1374. 140 his teaching.? 136 Those who did not follow Jesus? instruction to attend to the sick would be on his left side at the Last Judgment. 137 As George Dennis and Timothy Miller have pointed out, this treatise illustrates the inherent problem in Byzantine monasticism of praxis and theoria, of the active involvement of monks in works for the benefit of others, and of contemplation and hesychia, which meant complete severing of the relationships with the outside world. 138 Also in the beginning of the fourteenth century the Contantinopolitan patriarch Athanasios I wrote to the emperor Andronicus II: ?philanthropy and mercy toward the needy are not a mere matter of choice, but rather a necessity and indispensable obligation? 139 In Athanasios? view ecclesiastical and monastic involvement in philanthropic works was equally important. The patriarch offered a balanced view of the monastic state based on the formulations of St. Basil and St. Pachomius about the monastic coenobium. On one hand monks and nuns had to sever fully their relations with family and friends, and practice poverty and humility. On the other, this in no way exempted monasteries from practicing charity. For example, in a letter to an abbot of a Constantinopolitan monastery Athanasios noted that the monks should care for the growing number of poor in the capital. 140 136 Dennis and Miller, ?Constantine Akropolites,? 417. 137 Ibid. 138 Miller, Birth of the Hospital, 118-40. 139 Athanasios, Patriarch of Constantinople, Correpondence of Athanasios I, 255. 140 John L. Boojamra, ?Social Thought and Reforms of Athanasios,? 342; Idem, The Church and Social Reform, 74-75. If not directly involved monks and nuns had to subsidize hospitals attached to their monasteries. See, for example, the twelfth-century typikon of the Kosmosoteira monastery and the late thirteenth-century typikon of the Lips monastery. In both cases the hospitals were built outside of the monastic precincts (Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 2: 830, 3: 1265). The best-known 141 Reflections of Athanasios? social concerns can be found in the art of Palaeologan Constantinople. Robert Nelson has suggested that some of the images in the Chora are tied to contemporary political and social circumstances, and I would like to elaborate on this interpretation. In the exonarthex above the entrance to the inner vestibule is seen a half-length representation of Christ identified with an inscription as H XVRA TVN ZVNTVN [The Land of the Living] (Fig. 62). Jesus? portrait is prominently framed by the wine jars of the Miracle at Cana and the bread baskets from the Feeding of the Multitude. These images mark the main East-West axis of the church and thus have Eucharistic connotations. 141 Robert Nelson associated this seeming abundance with the life-style for which the patron Theodore Metochites longed: The promised land of the living in the vault above is portrayed as prosperous and well provisioned with food, unlike the city outside that had recently endured famine and which was filled with refugees?The glistening images of the entry bay depict a paradise that is heavenly but also earthly, as well as an aristocratic life of abundance and security. 142 But can these images of satisfied hunger and thirst tell us something about monastic charity? Their prominent association with the door might be taken as an hospital is that of the Pantokrator monastery. Its typikon provides information about chapels attached to the hospital and the priests appointed to serve in them. Unfortunately there is no indication how these chapels would have been decorated (Miller, Birth of the Hospital, 12-21; Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 2: 734-35, 757-68). One might wonder why the instructions of Theoleptos to the nuns of the Constantinopolitan monastery of the Philathropos Soter do not contain encouraging remarks about philanthropy especially if one takes into account Theoleptos? preaching of and personal involvement in such activities. The reason might be sought in the fact that convents practiced charity of the most benign kind?usually distribution of food at the door?and were, in general, discouraged from direct contacts with the lay world. See, for example, Alice-Mary Talbot?s introduction to her translation of the early fourteenth- century typikon of Bebaia Elpis monastery in Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 4: 1521. 141 Robert Ousterhout, ?The Virgin of the Chora: An Image and Its Context,? in The Sacred image East and West, eds. Robert Ousterhout and Leslie Brubaker (Urbana and Chicago, 1995), 98-99. 142 Nelson, ?Taxation with Representation,? 67-68. 142 advertisement for and encouragement of one of the most important and most common forms of monastic charity?the distribution of food at the gate of the monastery. 143 Aided by the writings of Theodore Metochites one discovers that he was as concerned for his personal calm and safety as he was for the provisioning with food and comfort of those in need. In a letter written on the occasion of the death of the abbot Lucas he reminded the monks: Show the customary liberality and compassion toward the needy outsiders? numerous to be sure?by using the monastery?s resources and distributing to them the necessary food?this practice should continue no less vigorously now, in these times of hardship of all of you, than it did in the past. 144 Metochites? letter further elaborates on the point of monastic ele? mosyne and recalls Akropolites? admonition to care for the sick. The letter relates important information about the particular dedication of the Chora monks to those who are ill. Mentioned are special provisions for the care of the sick and the monks are encouraged to be involved directly. The documents that pertain to monastic churches which are still standing with their decoration preserved are so few, that it is worth citing a considerable portion of Metochites? letter in an attempt to relate its messages to the surviving mosaics in the Chora catholicon: Show compassion toward the sick and be ready to extend all possible help to them through means which, as you well know, have been available in the monastery for that purpose for a long time, from the very beginning, and with which I was very much concerned. This assistance should extend both to those who are inside the 143 For this most common form of monastic charity see the prescriptions for distribution of food in the monastic typika in Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 5: 1874-75. 144 Ihor ?ev?enko, ?Theodore Metochites, the Chora, and the Intellectual Trends of His Time,? in Kariye Djami, 4: 75. The need for satisfying the hunger of the multitude of Constantinopolitan poor is reflected in several legends, which started circulating after the death of Patriarch Athanasios. One of these stories relates how with six modia of wheat fed two thousand poor; clearly the intended comparison was between the feeding miracles of Christ and Athanasios? charitable work, see Constantelos, Poverty, Society and Philanthropy, 74-75. 143 monastery, live together with you, and are sharing your way of live and to outsiders, whoever they may be?attend to the visiting of the sick and thereby attend to Christ, who makes visiting them His own concern and applies it to himself, along with His other commands concerning love for our fellow man. Abstain altogether from all excuses and references to overwhelming necessity, especially nowadays; in all fairness, you should attend to the sick as much as to anything else. 145 This long passage further elucidates the Miracle narratives that occupy the two Chora nartheces?the monks in imitation of Christ should minister to the poor and the sick. In the documents from the Palaeologan period such personal investment in the faith, and especially in the health of the needy outside of the monastic enclosure, is rarely found. There is, however, evidence of two monks who identified themselves as physicians. 146 In recreating the philanthropic concerns of Late Byzantine monks it is worth exploring whether the images can be of any help. Can one argue that the Byzantines saw in the representations of the Ministry of Christ visual admonition to serve the poor and the sick? George Galavaris, for example, has noted that the representation of the distributing alms to the poor in the late eleventh- or early twelfth-century manuscript of the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzen, Mount Athos, Vatopedi, Cod. Gr. 107, fol. 248v was directly influenced by the image of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. It is obvious that the Byzantines used the images of Christ?s Ministry as iconographic models for visualizations of charitable works. In the fourteenth-century copy of Gregory?s homilies, Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 543, fol. 310v his fifteenth oration Per? filoptvx?aw [On the Love of the Poor] is illustrated with an image of Gregory dressed as a monk, standing at the entrance of a building (a church? a monastery gate?) 145 ?ev?enko, ?Theodore Metochites,? 75. 146 Miller, Birth of the Hospital, 139. 144 distributing alms to a group of poor, some of whom appear also to be sick (Fig. 63). 147 In view of the fact that in most of the miniatures in this manuscript Gregory is represented as a bishop, and not as a monk, one might wonder whether the painter was not trying to emphasize the correlation between charity and monasticism. 148 The fourteenth-century Constantinopolitan manuscript of the monastic romance of Barlaam and Joasaph, Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 1128, contains several rare images that illustrate the works of Charity. On fols. 61v and 62v, a young male figure, ? fil?xristow [the one who loves Christ], dressed in a long plain tunic gives water to the thirsty, attends to the sick and visits those in prison. 149 The title given to the charitable man indicates that one cannot be Jesus? friend, and by extension benefit from his mercy, if one does not provide comfort for the deprived. On fol. 77v of the same manuscript Christ himself is represented ministering to the poor (Fig. 64). A group of people approaches Jesus painted with his right hand outstretched holding a large golden disc (money?, bread?). His mantle floats unnaturally as if to provide cover for the barely clothed figures of the needy. The artist of this fourteenth-century manuscript placed special emphasis on charity unseen in earlier illustrated Byzantine romances of Barlaam and Joasaph. 150 Was he trying to encourage the philanthropy of the book readers? The 147 PG 35: 857. Gregory delivered the oration 373 when he was a bishop of the small village of Sasima. Similar association between charity and monasticism is seen in the headpiece of the fifteenth homily in the twelfth-century, Paris, Bibiolth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 550, fol. 251r (Galavaris, Gregory Nazianzenus, fig. 426). Here, beneath the central image of Gregory with the poor is represented a monk distributing alms. 148 The portrait of Gregory as a monk is not unique, in several manuscripts he does appear wearing monastic clothing. See, for example, the author portrait in the twelfth-century Sinai, Cod. 339, fol. 4v. in Galavaris, Gregory Nazianzenus, fig. 377. 149 Sirarpie der Nersessian, L?Illustration du roman de Barlaam et Joasaph (Paris, 1937), figs. 248-50. 150 In the late eleventh- early twelfth-century manuscript of the romance, Mount Athos, Iveron monastery, Cod. 463 the texts about charity were not illustrated. 145 miniature illustrates the passage where Barlaam spoke of almsgiving in an eschatological context as a remedy for sin. 151 By visualizing this text the artist gave special importance to charitable works in times when they needed to be especially stimulated and their benefits additionally extolled. Although not Byzantine, the exonarthex of the catholicon of the Sopo?ani monastery, built and painted during the reign of the Serbian king Stephan Du?an (1331- 1355), 152 demonstrates how the Ministry of Christ can be visually incorporated within a program which shows concerns for philanthropy and charitable works. 153 Here one sees a rare image of an enthroned Virgin and child distributing food to the poor (Fig. 65). 154 This unusual representation is incorporated within a complex theological program with the Ministry ?triad? of the Healing of the Paralytic and of the Born Blind and the Samaritan Woman at the Well. The program is completed with a representation of the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:16-21) who built storage facilities for his abundant crop not realizing that his death was imminent. Curiously, in the painting the newly built barns took the shape of sarcophagi. Indifference to one?s riches and providing for the 151 John Damascene, Barlaam and Joasaph, LCL, 213, 215. 152 Bratislav Panteli?, ?The Architecture of De?ani and the Role of Archbishop Danilo II,? (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1994), 221 n. 344. 153 Voislav Djuri?, Sopo?ani (Belgrade, 1963), 88-92, esp. 90. Djuri? noted the charitable dimensions of the exonarthex program and associated it with a passage from the Life of St. Sava who spoke about expiating of sins through charity and giving to the needy. 154 Two similar images are preserved in cathedral churches in medieval Serbia. The earlier thirteenth- century one can be seen in the south ambulatory of Bogorodica Levi?ka in Prizren. Here a monumental icon of the Virgin supporting with one hand the child named ?Our Provider? and holding a basket in the other is meaningfully associated with a representation of the Marriage at Cana. This visual association charitable rather than Eucharistic (Nade?da Davidovi?, ?Predstava Bogorodice s Hristom ?Krmiteljem? u Bogorodice Levi?koj u Prizrenu,? Starine Kosova i Metohije 1 [1961], 85-94; Pani? and Babi?, Bogorodica Levi?ka, fig. LI). The other image, which is iconographically closer to the one in Sopo?ani, can be seen over the burial site of the archbishop Danilo II in the church of the Virgin Hodegetria in Pe? (Djuri? et al., Pe?ka patriar?ia, figs. 68, 103). While not associated with Healing Miracles a number of sainted doctors appear below. Here giving equals healing. 146 needy is the way to salvation and this is what we see in the Sopo?ani exonarthex. In this context the interventions of Christ in the individual lives of the two sick men and the Samaritan woman are an encouragement for the monks to minister to those who are in need to facilitate their survival in the present and salvation in the future. The visualizations of the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins in Omorphokklesia and Holy Apostles furthers the charitable message of these two Ministry programs. The associations of the Parable with active mercy I will discuss in the next chapter where I take into account the eschatological dimensions of the Parable as well. Such a long excursus into the relationship between painted Ministry and philanthropy is warranted given the lack of extensive documentation regarding Thessalonikan monasteries. In view of the evidence presented, written as well as painted, it is hard to imagine that in Thessalonike the Miracles of Christ would not have been interpreted as advertisement for the need to minister to the needy. It is during the most penitential period of Lent that Gregory Palamas encouraged giving to the poor. 155 Appeals to charity are frequent in the Lenten Triodion as well. Ministering strengthens the relationships of the monks not only to the outside world, but also to Christ who promised rewards for those feeding the hungry, quenching the thirsty and clothing the naked. CONCLUSION In this chapter I considered the painted Miracles of Christ and their significance to the Byzantine monks as faith strengthening, inducing penance and illustrating transformation. In late Byzantium the Miracles of Christ had lost some of their polemical 155 PG 151: 48A-64A. 147 characteristics regarding Jesus? nature. That Christ was the Son of God was not in doubt any longer. The demonstration of his divine powers through the healings was intended to illustrate instead his benevolence, compassion and filial relationship with humanity. Late Byzantine theologians emphasized the moralizing effect of Jesus? Healings, and drew comparisons between the biblical sick and the moral decline of the contemporary audience. They insisted on the possibility of healing through penance and prayer. The narrative scenes are usually concise and brief. This lack of visual details and of long inscriptions only aided the audience by allowing more interpretative possibilities and which could be applied in a variety of situations. The multiple and open interpretations of these images demonstrate that they should not be related to singular rites that occur in the subsidiary spaces of the church, such as Baptism, Blessing of Waters, ordinations and tonsures, or confessions. The images are flexible and multilayered and offer as many interpretative possibilities as the spaces are multifunctional. The overarching theme, however, is about transformation, transition from one state into another, from sickness to health, from vice to virtue. A person is transformed from laity to a monk, from a pagan to a Christian. The importance of the Miracles in Late Byzantium demonstrated that God was on the side of the Orthodox. In a letter to the emperor Andronicus II the Constantinopolitan Patriarch Athanasios I described the true Orthodox Church as having ?God in Her midst as Supreme Healer? (...ka? ?xei ?n ?aut? yerapeu?menon t?n Ye?n). 156 In the case of the literary miracula the sentiment might have been overtly anti-Latin; the schismatics within the church, the Arsenites, for example, also required miraculous healing, as well 156 Athanasios, Patriarch of Constantinople, Correspondence of Athanasios I, 262-63. 148 as those who turned to the Islam of their new rulers, the Turks. The role of the painted miracles is, I believe, simply pro-Orthodox; Christ is literally present in the midst of the church building inducing those who are inside to prayers and charitable actions. Miracles may have been used as a front-line of imagery for the Orthodox lay person glimpsing the heaven on earth of monastic philanthropy, whether it was dispensed in the form of sacraments like Baptism or in the form of medicine and food. 149 CHAPTER 4 ESCHATOLOGICAL IMAGES FROM THE MINISTRY IN THE SUBSIDIARY SPACES OF LATE BYZANTINE MONASTIC CHURCHES IN MACEDONIA On a small icon (24 x 21 cm) from the Vlatadon monastery painted in the second half of the fourteenth century and perhaps intended for private reflections, Christ is portrayed as a formidable judge and a compassionate healer (Fig. 66). 1 The icon is two tiered, in the upper level a half-length Christ blessing and with a closed book in his left hand is flanked by two angels, their hands outstretched and covered in anticipation of a direct contact with the divine. In the lower level, a Virgin of the Hodegetria type is painted between an adoring angel on her right and St. John the Baptist on her left. The later holds an unfurled scroll inscribed with his prophecy of Jesus? future sacrifice: ?Behold the Lamb of God who takes away [the sins of the world].? Of interest are the inscriptions that accompany the representation of Christ above. He is identified as the ?King of Heavens? (?O basile?w t?n o?ran?n) as well as ?The One curing every infirmity? (?I[hso?]w X[rist?]w ? ?| ? | me |n [ow] |[p?] | san | n?| son ) taken from the third verse of hundred and second Psalm. 2 Jesus? eternal kingship is thus associated with his infinite mercy, one of the cardinal virtues of the Byzantine emperor. The royal connotations of the image of Christ are further emphasized by two more inscriptions: in the upper left corner appears, ?Holy, holy, holy Lord of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory, 1 Evans, Byzantium, 160-61; Anastasia Tourta, ?Eikones apo to skeuophylakio t? s Hieras Mon? s Blatad? n,? in Christianik? Thessalonik? apo t? s epoch? s t? n Komn? n? n mehri kai t? s al? se? s t? s Thessalonik? s ypo t? n Oth? man? n (1430) (11os-15os m. H.) (Thessalonike, 1992), 176-78; Andreas Xyngopoulos, ?Une ic?ne byzantine ? Thessalonique,? CA 3 (1948), 114-28. 2 This inscription is taken from the third verse of Psalm 102. It is read during Orthros (Xyngopoulos, ?Une ic?ne byzantine ? Thessalonique,? 120). 150 hosanna in the highest? (?Agiow, ?Agiow, ?Agiow, K?riow Zaba | ?y, pl?rhw [? o?ran?w ka? ?] |g? t(?w) | d?ji [w] | sou | ?Vsan? ?n t(o?w) | ?c?stiw), while the inscription in the upper right reads, ?Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest? (E?loghm?now ? ?rx?|men(ow) ?n ?n?[m]ati | Kur?ou. ?V]sa [nn? ? ?n] t?w [?c?stow]). As Anastasia Tourta has noted the icon is an allegory of the Incarnation, Passion, and Heavenly glory of Christ. 3 Its eschatological significance with its ties to monumental imagery in the church apse, 4 is balanced by the Psalm verse which implies the merciful Healing ministry of a formidable Christ. It is noteworthy that in some of the Marginal Psalters Psalm 102:3 was illustrated with an image of Healing of the Multitude. 5 Such an approach to the image of Christ as a judge and a benevolent doctor can also be seen in several of the Palaeologan monumental programs studied here. For example, in the central groin vault of the liti of Profites Elias, an image of Jesus on the tympanum (destroyed at present) was surrounded by Heavenly powers supporting banners inscribed with the Epinikios hymn AGIOS AGIOS AGIOS sung during the Eucharist, and inscribed on the Vlatadon icon (Fig. 67). This triumphal composition frames the entrance into the naos; placed at the building?s main liturgical axis it shares the space of the ceiling with a number of Healing Miracles. As in the portable icon, but on a grand scale, Christ is portrayed as a victorious king and a benevolent savior. 3 Tourta, ?Eikones apo to skeuophylakio t? s Hieras Mon? s Blatad? n,? 177. 4 Ibid., 176 n. 6; Xyngopoulos, ?Une ic?ne byzantine ? Thessalonique,? 121-24. 5 Der Nersessian, L?illustration des psauters grecs, fig. 219; Dufrenne, L?illustration des psauters grecs, pl. 22. 151 The purpose of this chapter is to explore a different dimension of Christ?s Ministry, one that highlights his qualities as a judge in the representations of his teaching, lessons, and parables. Late Byzantine programs emphasize not only the role of action but also the role of words in the transformations affected by Jesus? Ministry. Teaching scenes, as well as lessons and parables, occupy a prominent place in several programs where Christ is portrayed not only as a benevolent healer but also as a formidable judge. In the Protaton and in the Holy Apostles teaching and parables are painted in architecturally articulated units, while in Omorphokklesia and Profites Elias they occupy the same space as the Healings. I discuss the role of these images in the programs of subsidiary spaces and the monastic response to their eschatological content. In the previous chapter I examined Christ?s benevolence as one of the main themes of the decoration of the nartheces and ambulatories. The moralizing tone of these programs supplanted the threatening Last Judgment frequently painted in the nartheces of Middle Byzantine churches. The image of Christ as the formidable judge from the Second Coming, however, was not completely abandoned. Several Ministry episodes with explicit eschatological significance were represented among Healing Miracles and Conversions. Especially notable are the representations of the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins and the Lesson of the Withered Fig Tree. The Last Judgment in Omorphokklesia and the dome decoration of the west bay of the north ambulatory in Holy Apostles further emphasize the eschatological dimensions of these subsidiary programs. In the northwest chapel of the Protaton the image of the Twelve-Year Old Christ among the Jewish Doctors is also given judicial and royal furthered by the 152 neighboring images. I first investigate how this program relates to the rest of the Ministry painted in the southwest chamber. THE PROGRAM OF THE NORTHWEST CHAPEL IN THE PROTATON CHURCH In the northwest chapel of the Protaton the image of the Twelve-year Old Christ Teaching in the Temple is the only scene of Jesus? public life (Figs. 68, 69). In the narthex of the Hodegetria church at Mystra, for example, the representation of the young Christ in the temple is incorporated in an uninterrupted Ministry cycle. Voislav Djuri? ascribed to the representation a specific monastic meaning: the monks severed their relationships with their families and the world imitated the young Christ who similarly left behind his parents. 6 It is likely that the monastic audience in the Protaton would have interpreted the scene in this manner, but it is interesting that the parents of Christ were omitted. The artist reinterpreted the scene depicting Christ not simply as a child and a human progeny, but also as a formidable savior. The scroll usually held by the boy is replaced here by a book inscribed with a passage from the John 7:2: m? kr?nete kat? ?cin, ?ll? t?n dika?an kr?sin kr?nete [Do not judge by appearances but judge according to proper reason]. The passage refers to another important teaching episode on the Feast of Tabernacles when Christ was already an adult and had performed a number of miracles. This text is also related to the prophesy of Isaiah (11:2-4), part of which was read by Christ in the Synagogue at Nazareth; this moment was considered by Luke the beginning of the Ministry (4:14-30): The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him?the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the 6 Djuri?, ?Les conceptions hagioritiques,? 52. 153 Lord?and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy. The second portion of the prophecy clearly associated with John?s text was interpreted in light of Jesus? Second Coming. Thus the young Christ in the northwest chapel of the Protaton is depicted as a judge, while in the southwest chapel he is a compassionate savior of the body and the soul. In the art of the Orthodox East similar emphasis on the royal and judicial qualities of the Young Christ Teaching in the Synagogue was made earlier. In a Georgian synaxarion in the Library of the Academy of Tbilisi, Cod. A-648, fol. 45v an image of the young Christ among the Jewish doctors illustrates the passage from 7:14-30. Jesus sits on a sphere, a reference to the world and an element that further emphasizes his qualities as a king and a judge and closely ties the image to John?s text. 7 In the Protaton the judicial qualities of Christ?s figure are further highlighted by the representation of the Three Hebrews in the Fiery Furnace. Here an angel protects under his spread wings the three youths hurled by Nebuchadnezzar into a furnace for their refusal to sacrifice to idols. The image of the child below was intentionally associated with the children above. The central positioning of the young Christ in the teaching scene associates him also with the protective angel hovering in the middle of the composition above. The angelic characteristics of the youthful Christ are further strengthened by the representation of the angel and St. Pachomius immediately below. 7 Babi?, ?O Prepolovlieniu praznika,? 23, fig. 1; D. I. Pallas, ?Ho Christos h? s h? Theia Sophia. H? eikonographik? peripeteia mias theologik? s ennoias,? DChAE 15 (1989-1990), 132, fig. 18. 154 As in the Peribleptos the young Christ in the Protaton is an epitome of the Wisdom of God. 8 One of the important dimensions of the episode of his teaching in the Temple is his gaining wisdom during and after his preaching at Passover: ?Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers,? and ?Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men? (Luke 2:47, 52). Similar association between the teaching young Jesus and the Holy Wisdom is made in the thirteenth-century painting of the episode in the church of the Holy Trinity in Sopo?ani. Here behind the figure of the seated Christ a building is shown supported by seven pillars, an illusion to Proverbs 9:1, ?Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars? (Fig. 70). 9 In Byzantine exegesis the angel who saved the three Hebrews was considered a prefiguration of Jesus? salvific mission and even an apparition of Christ himself as the Angel of the Great Counsel (Isaiah 9:5): The mind, whistling the tune of prayer in the midst of the heart, has in its company the Angel of Great Counsel, Jesus Christ, who illuminates the discursive intellect with the light of his divinity and refreshes the soul with the dew of love for him. 10 In this text the image of the Three Hebrews is given a metaphorical interpretation. The children are models of ascetic behavior; they are an image of the soul, cleansed with fasting and prayer. This justifies the frequent mention of their exemplary behavior in the Lenten Triodion: What quenched the fire? What stopped the mouths of the wild beasts? It was fasting that delivered the Children from the furnace, and Daniel the Prophet from the jaws of the lion. Brethren, let us also fast like them. 11 8 Kalomoirak? s, ?Hermeneutikes paratereseis sto eikonographiko programma tou Protatou,? 208. 9 Pallas, ?Ho Christos h? s h? Theia Sophia,? 136-37. 10 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 255. 155 And, And girded with holiness, the Children, lovers of the true faith, quenched the power of the fire as they cried aloud: O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord! 12 Angels would not appear randomly. In Byzantine imagination angels were invisible and only showed themselves to worthy people. 13 Their appearance in paintings would be that much more meaningful to a monastic audience whose ultimate goal was to become angel-like. Spiritual purity was a prerequisite for seeing the angelic orders. Fasting contributed to one?s physical association to angels and led to visionary experiences and to encounters with members of the heavenly orders. Other kinds of ascetic exercises such as sleep deprivation could also contribute to such encounters. Thus the salvation of the Hebrew Youths was possible not only because of their perseverance but also because of their purification through fasting. In the program of the Protaton?s northwest chapel the importance of angelic apparitions is additionally highlighted by the representation of St. Pachomius and the Angel in the third and lowest register of the wall. Two main themes associate this image with the episode of the Three Hebrews, the angels and the spiritual worth of the people to whom the angels appeared. It was because of his asceticism that St. Pachomius, the founder of Egyptian monasticism, had an encounter with an angel. In the two versions of his Vita it is placed at the beginning of his monastic vocation and the foundation of the 11 Lenten Triodion, 210. 12 Ibid., 308. 13 Maguire, The Icons of the Their Bodies, 70; Glenn Peers, ?Representing Angels: Cult and Theology in Byzantine Art,? (Ph.D. Dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, 1995), 234-38; Manuel Philes, Carmina, 1: 460. 156 first cenobitic monastery in Thebes, Egypt. In the earlier Life Pachomius sees the angel after a number of sleepless nights, when keeping a vigil. This episode does not appear in the later Life; instead Pachmoius sees two angels and a youthful Christ who instructs him how to be an exemplary abbot. 14 In the Palaeologan period representations of Pachomius and the angel appear frequently. 15 In the context of the Late Byzantine monastic revival and interest in early monastic fathers this is hardly surprising. In these representations the angel dressed as a monk points to his koukoulion while Pachomius stands on one side in supplication. The inscriptions which accompany the images vary, but usually extol the virtues of monasticism as the ultimate way to salvation. Despite the fragmentary state of the Protaton image Voislav Djuri? suggested that the inscription on the angel?s scroll contains the rules of Pachomius? monastery, while D. Kalomoirakes suspected that it must have reflected the dialogue between Pachomius and the angel: ?n to?t? t? sx?mati svy?setai p?sa s?rj brote?a ? Pax?mie [Pachomius, in this habit shall be saved all mortal flesh], which was commonly inscribed on the angel?s scroll. 16 The salvation of the flesh through prayer and ascetic exercises is the main theme of the representations of Pachomius and the Angel and the Three Hebrew Children in the Fiery Furnace. Furthermore, in Byzantine exegesis the episode with the Jewish Youths in the Furnace was interpreted as a prefiguration of the Incarnation. 17 The incarnated Word of God, the young Christ seated amidst the Jewish doctors, legitimizes the innate 14 Armand Veilleux, Pachomian Koinonia, 3 Vols. (Kalamazoo, 1980), 1: 311-12; 2: 38-41. 15 Gerstel, ?Civic and Monastic Influences,? 233-34. 16 Djuri?, ?Les conceptions hagioritiques,? 53; Kalomoirak? s, ?Parat? r? seis sto eikonographiko programma tou Pr? tato,? 208. On the content of the inscription, see Constantinides, Panagia Olympiotissa, 219-20; Tsitouridou, Ho z? graphikos diakosmos tou Hagiou Nikolaou Orphanou, 205-206. 17 John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 216. 157 goodness of the flesh, which is relieved from illness in the southwest chamber. The representation of Pachomius with the Angel appears in the southwest corner in the naos of the related to the Protaton church of the Virgin Peribleptos in Ohrid where a number of healing miracles are also painted. 18 Here the salvation of the flesh through the acceptance of the monastic garb is paralleled with the healings affected by Christ. The representations in the northwest chapel of the Protaton conjure up messages about spiritual salvation as well. The book that the young Christ supports is inscribed with an appeal to dispense right judgment based not on appearances. The salvation of the flesh is possible only through spiritual interventions, prayer, contemplation, and fostering of monastic virtues. In the Protaton the images in the northwest chapel are associated with those in the southwest. The inscription from John is excerpted from a longer speech of Jesus in which he speaks of healings: Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? (John 7:23) The incorporation of the portrait of the sainted protomartyr Stephen on the same wall additionally associates the two programs. Not only is Stephen compared to angels (Acts 6:15), furthering the angelic references in the Protaton program, but he is also appointed among the first deacons (Acts 6:5), whose primary obligation was serving the needy. In representations of the Heavenly Liturgy angels were similarly depicted as deacons reflecting their common role as mediators between Heaven and Earth. 19 18 Milkovi?-Pepek, Deloto na zografite, plan II. 19 See, for example, Gerstel, Beholding the Sacred Mysteries, figs. 39-40, 42, 51. 158 Stephen?s youthful appearance and plain antique garb obviously associate him with the Christ Child Preaching in the Temple reminding the audience that this is the beginning of Jesus?s ministry. 20 In the teaching of the Hesychasts, Stephen?s vision (Acts 7:55-56) was considered exemplary, and his image thus obtained special meaning for the meditations of the Late Byzantine monastic audience: 21 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ?Look,? he said, ?I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.? During his final minutes he saw Christ standing (?st?ta) at the right side of God, not sitting, which is taken to indicate not only Jesus? royal status but also his active involvement in human affairs. While the association between Stephen and Christ Child serves as a transition to the program of the southwest chapel, concerned with the Public Life of Christ, it also emphasizes the regal qualities of the Son of Man, for nobody else was given the place of honor in the Heavenly Kingdom. ESCHATOLOGICAL IMAGERY IN THE NARTHEX OF ST. GEORGE In the narthex of the church of St. George three episodes of the Ministry of Christ convey a distinct eschatological message. The Expulsion of the Merchants occupies the western half of the south wall (Fig. 11); on the west wall it is followed by two rare monumental representations of the Lesson of the Withered Fig Tree and the Parable of the Wise and 20 Stephen is represented as a deacon, but he frequently appears in the antique clothing of the rest of the Apostles. See Dragan Vojvodovi?, ?Prilog poznavanjiu ikonografije i culta Sv. Stefana u Vizantiji i Srbiji,? in Zidno slikarstvo manastira De?ana, 537-65. For images of Stephen where he is represented as an exemplar of asceticism, see Gavrilovi?, Studies in Byzantine and Serbian Medieval Art, 160-61. 21 On the importance of Stephen?s vision in late Byzantine theology, see Meyendorff, Study of Gregory Palamas, 172, 200. 159 the Foolish Virgins (Figs. 71, 72). Three healing miracles balance the decorative program of the narthex. The Expulsion of the Merchants from the Temple was represented frequently in Late Byzantine churches, and of the four Gospel accounts that recount it, painters seem to have given preference to John?s story, which places it at the beginning of the Ministry. 22 The scene is concerned primarily with cleansing and adds to the transformational symbolism of the healing miracles; the Temple is purged of the merchants who have contaminated it spiritually, and in a similar manner, the sick are relieved from the burden of the diseases that plagued their bodies. Theoleptos of Philadelpheia spoke of the Expulsion as a metaphor for the purification of the soul: Through prayer Christ will come to dwell within me and through fasting he will tarry within me, driving from me every wicked thought, word and deed, just as he drove the buyers and sellers from the Temple? 23 In John?s narrative the Expulsion of the Merchants follows the Miracle at Cana and Christian exegetes interpreted it as the first public manifestation of Christ?s authority to judge and chastise. 24 The iconography of the scene in Omorphokklesia follows established models: Christ waves the scourge on the left, while the Jews with a number of sacrificial animals, bulls, sheep, and doves are pictured on the right. In the foreground tables and spilled money are depicted. An interesting detail of the composition in Omorphokklesia not seen in contemporary visualizations of the episode is the overturned three-legged stool prominently displayed at the center between the figure of Christ and 22 St. John Chrysostom (Homilies on the Gospel of Saint Matthew [Peabody, MA, 1994], 409; Homilies on Saint John, 225) suggested that Christ chased the merchants out of the premises of the Temple twice, once at the beginning of his Ministry and once immediately before his Passion. 23 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 249-51. 24 John Chrysostom, Homilies on St. John, 33: 225-31. 160 the fleeing Jews. This unusual iconographic detail refers directly to John?s text in which Christ found the moneychangers sitting, and highlights an important aspect of the banking profession, its sedentary and inactive character. 25 This element ties the image of the Expulsion meaningfully to the Lesson of the Fig Tree and the Parable of the Ten Virgins thereby creating a collective message about the true worship and the active ways of obtaining virtue. The Cursing of the Fig Tree is one of the rare depictions of the moment when Christ gave his disciples a lesson in faith after his Entry into Jerusalem. 26 The association of the Cursing with events from Christ?s Healing Ministry has earlier Byzantine precedents in the ninth-century copy of the homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, Paris, Cod. Gr. 510, fol. 310v. Here the representation of the fig tree is on the same page as the Healing of the Man with the Withered Hand, of the Two Blind Men at Jericho, and of the Woman with a Curved Back. 27 While the Cursing of the Fig Tree is chronologically related to the Expulsion of the Merchants, since it either immediately precedes or follows it, there is probably a deeper reason for associating the two scenes. In Byzantine exegesis the withered tree was compared to the ?barren and harsh synagogue of the Jews.? 28 The iconography of the scene in Omorphokklesia does not follow the more traditional representations in which a group of apostles follows Christ who stands in front 25 Another example of the Expulsion that prominently displays an overturned chair can be seen in the late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century Hamilton Psalter, Berlin, Staatlische Museum, Kupferstichkabinett, 78.4.9, fol. 134. 26 The Gospel of Luke contains two references to a barren fig tree, 13:6-9, 21:29-36. These, however, are not directly associated with the fig tree in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, but they might have been brought to mind when looking at the painting in Omorphokklesia. 27 Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium, 270-73, fig. 31. 28 Photios, Patriarch of Constantinople, The Homilies of Photios, Patriarch of Constantinople, trans. and ed. Cyril Mango (Washington, DC, 1958), 127-28. 161 of a verdant tree at the actual moment of the cursing. 29 Here Christ is represented to the right followed by a group of apostles. Before him on a hill rises an oversized barren tree with its roots prominently displayed, in direct reference to the passage from Mark 11:20: ?And in the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.? This iconographic element indicates that the moment represented is that of the lesson and not of the cursing. Two apostles emerge from behind the hill on which the fig tree grows. The austere background with bare hills and rocks adds to the feeling of infertility. 30 The prominent mountainous landscape must be referring to Christ?s words: If you have faith, and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if you shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. Even more unusual is the representation of the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. This is probably one of the earliest occurrences of the scene in monumental painting. The parable was most frequently depicted in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Serbian churches. 31 In Omorphokklesia the narrative composition seen in the Middle Byzantine Frieze Gospels and in the church of the Holy Apostles in Thessalonike was abandoned and reduced to the conclusion when the Foolish Virgins tried to enter the closed bridal chamber. The composition is associated with the physical entrance of the church and is placed above the dedicatory inscription. The image is separated in two distinct zones, a dark one to the left inhabited by the Foolish Virgins and a larger and a 29 Velmans, Le T?tra?vangile de la Laurentienne, figs. 94, 164; Filov, Les miniatures de l??vangile du roi Jean Alexandre, pls. 28, 56. 30 The withered tree and the hill on which it grew rarely appear in Christian art but can be seen in the thirteenth-century Armenian Glajor Gospel book, where similarly the moment of the lesson rather than of the cursing was visualized. See Thomas F. Mathews and Avedis K. Sanjian, Armenian Gospel Iconography. The Tradition of the Glajor Gospel (Washington, DC, 1991), 126, fig. 255. 31 Vladimir Petkovi?, ?Parabola o deset devoijka u staroij srpskoij umetnosti,? Ra?ka. Umetni?ka smotra 1 (1929), 23-27. 162 brighter segment with Jesus and the Wise Virgins. Christ stands at the center of the composition; he wears a golden garment and is enveloped by a luminous mandorla articulated in light blue with beams of light that project in the direction of the Wise Virgins. The clothing of Christ clearly differs from the garments he wears in the other scenes in St. George?s narthex program. Its luminous qualities associate his figure with the representations of the Anastasis and some of Jesus? post-Resurrection appearances where the artists indicated his transformed nature by changing the traditional blue and red colors of his attire to either white or gold. A prominent door guarded by two angels at the top was no doubt intentionally associated with the actual door below. The representation of the Last Judgment on the opposite wall would have further underscored the eschatological message of this rare image. As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter the Lesson of the Withered Fig Tree is rarely represented in Byzantine art. There are no earlier monumental programs in which it was given such importance as in the narthex in Omorphokklesia. The withered tree with its prominently displayed roots can be interpreted as an image of the fruitless and insincere worship of the Jews. The placement of the Expulsion of the Merchants from the Jewish Temple in close proximity not only demonstrates faithfulness to the Gospel narratives but also confirms this interpretation. The fig tree is inextricably associated with sin, for after the Original Sin Adam and Eve covered their shame with aprons made out of its leaves (Gen. 3:7). At Omorphokklesia the tree lacks its verdant crown, and the audience lacks the means to cover their sinful nature. Reading the image would have been conducive to baring one?s soul in confession as one of the ways of obtaining virtue. 163 The representation of the withered fig tree would have conjured up multiple Biblical references to trees in general. 32 It inevitably brings to mind the parable of the barren fig tree told in the Gospel of Luke 13:7-9. Cyril of Alexandria, for example, interpreted the tree as a figure of the Jewish synagogue and its fruitless ways of worshiping God. 33 According to the Gospel text the barren tree should give way to a new one, which St. Cyril associated with the ?multitude of Gentiles who took possession of the inheritance of the Israelites.? 34 In his treatise ?Concerning Baptism,? St. Basil employed various Biblical references to fruitful trees as metaphors for the correct ways of life and worship. 35 He further clarified the meaning of barren trees with the words of John the Baptist: ?Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance? (Matt. 3:8), and ??every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire? (Matt. 3:10). 36 St. Basil associated barren trees with the inappropriate ways in which the five Foolish Virgins carried out the commands of God. 37 In his second kontakion on the Ten Virgins Romanos interpreted the withered fig tree as an image of the negligent soul epitomized by the Foolish Virgins: 32 In an anonymous twelfth-century treatise concerning the planting and care of a symbolic paradisiacal garden every plant was associated with a single ascetic virtue. The fruitful fig tree was symbolic of gentleness ?and restraint of anger.? The author, probably a monk, wrote that the infertile tree is an indication of an unproductive virtue not to be considered by God in his final judgment. See Margaret H. Thomson, ed. and trans., The Symbolic Garden. Reflections Drawn from a Garden of Virtues. A XII th century Greek Manuscript (North York, 1989), 42-46. 33 Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on St. Luke, 388. 34 Ibid. 35 St. Basil, Ascetical Works, 418. 36 Ibid., 418-19. 37 Ibid., 419-20. 164 How much sorrow the voice causes To the careless soul and to All sinners, of whom I am chief For it roots us out As the fig tree of old That did not produce its fruit. 38 In the lines that follow Romanos encouraged the sinner to confess and render account of all his deeds. 39 The penitential mood of the kontakion and the images that it conjures coincide with the essentially penitential tone of the Parable of the Ten Virgins and the Lesson of the Withered Tree in the narthex of St. George. Pictures and text reflect a common understanding of the grand theme of salvation. The Lesson of the Barren Tree and its multiple associations with different Biblical trees further relate to the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins because of their common eschatological meaning. The warning of John the Baptist about the tree that will be cut down unless it produces good fruit was intended to instill fear in the face of the upcoming judgment. 40 The Parable of the Fruitless Fig Tree, which inevitably would have been evoked by the image of the withered tree in Omorphokklesia, was often related to the parable of the Budding Fig Tree told in Matthew 24:33. The author of the Apocalypse of Peter brought these two fig tree parables together assuming that their common theme would inevitably bring to mind their common imagery. He offered a singular interpretation of the two parables associating them with the end of days and the second coming of Christ. 41 Similarly John Chrysostom commented on the parable as a sign for 38 Romanos, Kontakia of Romanos, 2: 172. 39 Ibid. 40 John Chrysostom, Homilies on St. Matthew, 70. 41 Richard Bauckham, ?The Two Fig Tree Parables in the Apocalypse of Peter,? Journal of Biblical Literature 104/2 (1985), 278-87. 165 the Last Judgment. 42 In Matthew the Parable of the Budding Fig Tree is followed by the Parable of the Ten Virgins, the two episodes clearly tied by their eschatological message. At Omorphokklesia the artist meaningfully associated the two images by dividing the space of the Parable of the Virgins into two distinct zones, a darker one inhabited by the Foolish Virgins, which is in a sense the continuation of the dark blue background of the Lesson of the Withered Tree, and a light one, symbolically illuminated by Christ?s mandorla and the lit candles of the Wise Virgins. This second luminous group of Jesus with the five maidens is essentially an image of enlightenment, which would have carried a special significance for its Late Byzantine audience familiar with the Hesychast teachings. 43 This division of the image into two zones, lighter and darker, corresponds to representations of Paradise and Hell in the Last Judgment. Luminosity is associated with the paradisiacal garden which is usually painted on a white background, whereas the dark colors are reserved for the different compartments of Hell, described as a ?dark and gloomy land, a land of eternal darkness? (Job 10: 21-22). 44 It is during the Late Byzantine period that the Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins was painted most frequently in Orthodox churches. The artists usually chose to represent the final moment of the parable when Christ had already summoned the Wise Virgins and separated them from the Foolish ones. The image in Omorphokklesia differs from the contemporary representations of the parable in the Virgin church at Gra?anica as 42 John Chrysostom, Homilies on St. Matthew, 462-69. 43 In Early Christian writings the image of the Wise Virgins was associated with Baptism, the ultimate spiritual illumination, and some scholars have interpreted it in similar terms. See Smilka Gabeli?, Manastir Lesnovo: istorija i slikarstvo (Belgrade, 1998), 207; Gavrilovi?, Studies in Byzantine and Serbian Medieval Art, 69. 44 See, for example, the representation of the Last Judgment in the Chora parecclesion in Underwood, Kariye Djami, 3: 336, 338, 394, 396, 398. 166 well as from the slightly later image in the church of the Ascension in De?ani. In the church of the Virgin at Gra?anica the parable is painted in the naos. Christ in a mandorla and the Wise Virgins are represented behind a walled city, while the Foolish Virgins are standing in the composition?s lower register in front of a pair of shut door. 45 Quite similar is the image in De?ani; here only Jesus? mandorla was omitted (Fig. 73). In the mid- fourteenth-century church of the Archangel Michael at Lesnovo the Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins is painted on the west wall of the narthex, and like Omorphokklesia, it is placed immediately above the entrance (Fig. 74). The composition is similarly symmetrical, the Foolish Virgins stand in front of a pair of closed doors. Christ, at the center, is enveloped by a luminous mandorla, and, on his right, the Wise Virgins are admitted into some sort of a paradisiacal garden. The image derives from representations of the Last Judgment, as does the image in St. George and was similarly incorporated in an eschatological context. In Lesnovo an image of Christ identified as the Terrible Judge is painted on the east pier opposite the Parable of the Ten Virgins. 46 Both the Gospel text and early Christian exegesis related this nuptial story to the Last Judgment; in the East, however, the visual association of these two episodes, although made as early as the sixth century in the Rosano Gospels, begins to appear more frequently in the thirteenth century. First some illustrated Gospel books demonstrate the relation between the parable and the image of the Second Coming. 47 The miniaturists of three Armenian Tetraevangelia dated to the thirteenth century either included the parable 45 ?ivkovi?, Gra?anica, unnumbered plate. 46 Gabeli?, Lesnovo, 156, 208. 47 The eleventh century Frieze Gospels (Velmans, Le T?tra?vangile de la Laurentienne, fig. 107), including the fourteenth century copy of the Bulgarian king Ivan Alexander (Filov, Les miniatures de l?evangile du roi Jean Alexandre, pl. 30), show greater interest in following the narrative. 167 within the representations of the Last Judgment or incorporated within it elements that recall the Second Coming. In a Gospel Book at the Walters Art Museum, W. 539, fol. 109v dated to 1262, the Foolish Virgins, identified by an inscription, are painted in the left margin of a full-page illustration of the Last Judgment. 48 They are not admitted on the right and good side of Christ, as one of the apostles turns in order to shut the door before them. In another Armenian thirteenth-century book at the Freer Gallery, 32.18, the visualization of the parable incorporated a trumpeting angel as an allusion to the eschatological symbolism of the episode. 49 The late thirteenth-century Tetraevangelion Paris Cod. Gr. 54 contains a representation of the parable closely comparable to the image at Omorphokklesia. Its symmetrical composition with the virgins on both sides of Christ in a mandorla and flanked by angels was inspired by depictions of the Last Judgment and is closer iconographically to the images in Omorphokklesia and Lesnovo. 50 The painted program of the narthex of the church of Sr. George presents the only monumental example in which the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins is directly linked to the image of the Last Judgment. Prominent association with the actual door of the church adds further meaning to the painted parable. It brings to mind one of Romanos? kontakia dedicated to the Wise and Foolish Virgins in which the Second Coming is considered immediate and at the door of earthly time. The exhortation ?open? 48 Sirarpie der Nersessian, Armenian Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery, 2 Vols. (Baltimore, 1973), 1: 20, fig. 80. 49 Eadem, Armenian Manuscripts in the Freer Gallery of Art (Washington, DC, 1963), 40, fig. 95. 50 Kathleen Maxwell, ?A Palaeologan Illustration of the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins,? BSCA 14 (1988), 23-24. 168 placed at the end of each strophe is a constant reminder of the imminence of the end of days. 51 An additional meaning to the parable is given by its placement above the dedicatory inscription. 52 In Byzantine exegesis the Wise Virgins were often considered a paradigm of charity. John Chrysostom and Romanos spoke of almsgiving as one of the main virtues that should accompany virginity. 53 This interpretation retained its importance in the Late Byzantine period, as attested in the writings of Theoleptos of Philadelpheia. 54 Gregory Palamas and Philotheos Kokkinos similarly identified the Wise Virgins as exemplars of active charity. 55 Palamas discussed the parable in a homily about the second coming of Christ, charity, and benevolence, while Philotheos incorporated it in a homily on the beatitudes, and related it to the fifth beatitude, ?Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy? (Matt. 5:7). Patriarch Athanasios I used the example of the Wise Virgins to rouse the emperor to mercy, reminding him that acts of charity will grant him eternal life. 56 Aware of this dimension of the parable the artist at Omorphokklesia placed it above the dedication, drawing a connection to the charitable activity of the donors, the three Netzades brothers. It is important to note that only the Wise Virgins are placed strategically above the inscription thereby strengthening the 51 Romanos, Kontakia of Romanos, 2: 169-79. 52 For an interpretation of the parable when painted in close proximity to donor portraits, see Gabeli?, Lesnovo, 207-208; Gavrilovi?, Studies in Byzantine and Serbian Medieval Art, 69; Milan Radujko, ?Program ?ivopisa oko ?kralevskog? prestola,? in Zidno slikarstvo Manastira De?ani, 305. 53 John Chrysostom, On Repentance and Almsgiving, 28-42; Idem, Homilies on St. Matthew, 469-74; Romanos, Kontakia of Romanos, 2: 151-65. 54 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 307. 55 PG 151: 53-56, Gregory Palamas, Besedy, 1: 50-51; Philotheos Kokkinos, Logoi kai homilies, 174. 56 Athanasios, Patriarch of Constantinople, Correspondence of Athanasios I, 98-99. 169 associations of their good deeds and enlightenment with those of the ktetors. 57 The charity of the donors is paralleled by the charity of Christ revealed in the Healing Miracles which occupy the rest of the narthex. In miniature and monumental decoration painters of the late period emphasized the eschatological meaning of the parable by abandoning the traditional narrative representations and employing for the parable?s visualizations iconographic elements of the Last Judgment, such as strong symmetry and hierarchy. Furthermore, its incorporation within spaces that contain depictions of the Last Judgment, as in Omorphokklesia and in the thirteenth-century Armenian Tetraevangelion at the Walters Museum, W. 539, or subtle allusions to it, as in Lesnovo, demonstrates interest in conveying the parable?s eschatological content. In edifying literature this theme was even further elaborated. With its messages of vigilance and preparedness the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins was particularly appropriate for a monastic audience. It is important that the surviving Late Byzantine representations discussed above were all represented in churches used by monastic communities. In literary sources the image of the wise virgins was frequently evoked in descriptions of the ascetic lives of various saints. In the fourteenth-century Vita of St. Paraskeve by the Bulgarian patriarch Euthymios the contemplation of the Last Judgment and the saint?s preparations for the future meeting with the Bridegroom were related to the episode of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. In her eagerness to meet Christ in the eschatological bridal chamber the saint was compared to the Wise Virgins. 58 Their image 57 The donor inscription is placed immediately below the luminous zone of the parable in order to avoid visual associations with the dark zone of the foolish virgins. 58 S. Kiselkov, ?Zhitie na Sv. Paraskeva ot Patriarch Evtimii,? BIB 3/1 (1930), 206-207. 170 was evoked in a description of a prophetic dream of St. Philoteia about her approaching death; in it, the saint was summoned by a heavenly voice to join the Wise Virgins in Heaven. 59 In monastic circles the parable was used to emphasize the importance of vigilance and preparedness for sudden death as well as for the Last Judgment: ?let us be watchful?appealed Theoleptos of Philadelpheia?while we have life and let us serve God by repentance, confessions of sins, almsgiving and by assembling for prayer in the divine churches, so that, like the wise virgins, we may be found to follow the Lord?Those who bear in their souls the oil of confession of sins and of repentance become co-heirs with Christ and enter into his Kingdom? 60 This approach to the parable, and more specifically to the image of the Wise Virgins as exemplars of vigilance and fruitful virtue is not unique to Theoleptos, and is seen in earlier monastic writings, for example in the fourth-century ascetical works of St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Makarios of Egypt, as well as in the eleventh-century Discourses of Symeon the New Theologian. 61 The parable is in fact invoked in Tuesday Orthros rites performed during Lent, the time when everyone should try actively to obtain virtue through penance and confession. In the readings of the Lenten Triodion the ?vigilance of the soul? and the ?oil of compassion? were specifically related to the messages of the parable. 62 Its various elements were interpreted in a metaphorical fashion. The lamps were compared to the Wise Virgin?s hearts, their oil to the Holy Spirit 59 Idem, ?Mitropolit Ioasaph Bdinski i Slovoto mu za Sv. Philoteia,? BIB 4/1 (1931), 198-99. 60 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 307. St Basil (Ascetical Works, 73-74) interpreted the parable in a similar way emphasizing the importance of vigilance. 61 Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Ascetical Works, trans. Virginia Woods Callahan (Washington, DC, 1967), 154- 55; Philokalia, 3: 293-94; Symeon the New Theologian, The Discourses, trans. C. J. deCatanzaro (New York, Ramsey, Toronto, 1980), 90-91. 62 Lenten Triodion, 696. 171 present in their virtuous deeds. In Byzantine ascetic literature penance was compared to a lit lamp; every relaxation of the flesh endangered its flame and could extinguish it. 63 In Byzantine art this essentially bridal episode does not contain any bridal references. No common traits can be found between the representations of the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins and the Marriage at Cana, which is the best known Gospel marriage. It is the allegorical meaning of the episode that the artists were trying to capture. The youthful maidens do not in any way resemble the bride at Cana, who is often crowned, wearing contemporary clothing and jewelry. Their slender figures and classicizing unadorned appearance is much more reminiscent of representations of female personifications, similar to those that populate the pages of the fourteenth-century manuscript of Climacus? Heavenly Ladder in the Stauronikita Monastery, Cod. 50. 64 The incorporation of the Lesson of the Withered Fig Tree and the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins in the monumental program of the narthex of Omorphokklesia enhances its eschatological dimensions. The Expulsion of the Merchants is associated with the Fig Tree and the Parable of the Virgins underlying the importance of fruitful and virtuous worship. Jesus chased the Jews out of the Temple as they followed the Law insincerely, cursed the tree for it did not bear fruit, and shut the doors before the Foolish Virgins on account of their laxity. ESCHATOLOGICAL IMAGERY IN THE HOLY APOSTLES The west end of the north ambulatory of the church of the Holy Apostles is architecturally and visually defined. It is crowned by a dome and its frescoes differ from 63 Hausherr, Penthos, 89-90. 64 Martin, Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder, figs. 133-71. 172 the narrative in the rest of the ambulatory dedicated to John the Baptist. Such improvised chapels were articulated in the esonarthex of the Constantinopolitan Chora and in the naos of the Peribleptos church in Ohrid. The program of the chapel is associated with the imagery in the exonarthex of the Ministry of Christ and tangentially with the cycle dedicated to John the Baptist. The events from the life of the Forerunner pave the way to the Ministry of Christ which begins on the neighboring walls below the dome. In the apex of the cupola a half-length figure of an elderly Christ, the Ancient of Days, is painted holding a scroll in his left hand and not a book, as it is most common. 65 In the dome?s lower segments Jesus? human ancestors are depicted. The conspicuous lack of inscriptions is especially notable when compared to the mosaics in the dome over the naos. Here, the figure of Christ is encircled by an inscription from Psalm 101, and each of the prophets in the segments holds an inscribed scroll. 66 Cherubs and Seraphs are painted between the ancestral figures and Christ. On the lunette above the windows of the north wall the Temptation is depicted. The images in the pendentives are somewhat damaged, but still identifiable are two representations of the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins and the Preaching at the Synagogue at Nazareth. Another difficult to identify teaching scene was also painted. 67 In the south bay of the Chora esonarthex similar association was made between an image of a mature Christ Pantokrator and a number of Ministry episodes. 68 65 For late Byzantine dome images of Christ with a book, see Titos Papamastorak? s, Ho diakosmos tou troullou t? n na? n t? s Palaiologeias periodou st? Balkanik? Herson? sou kai t? n Kypro (Athens, 2001), 65- 66. 66 Ibid., 7-8; Stephan, Apostelkirche, 40-47; Andreas Xyngopoulos, He ps? phid? t? diakosm? sis tou naou t? n Agi? n Apostol? n en Thessalonik? (Thessalonike, 1953), 34-47, pls. 1-10. 67 Stephan, Apostelkirche, 239. 68 Underwood, Kariye Djami, 2: 43. 173 Of interest is the decoration of the dome. The figure of Christ in its apex enclosed in a medallion signifying his divinity rather than his humanity. 69 The source for the representation is Daniel?s description of the Ancient of Days (7:9-10, 13-14). In the Byzantine exegetical tradition the mention of the ?one like son of man? (Dan. 7:13) was invariably interpreted as a reference to Christ. 70 The image is complex and the Byzantines thought that it simultaneously referred to the Incarnation and the Last Judgment. 71 The eschatological significance of the image of the Ancient of Days in the Palaeologan period is highlighted in a 1297 Gospel book Cambridge University Library, Ms. Dd. 9.69 with an appended Apocalypse ca. 1350. The beginning of John?s Revelation (fol. 139 r) is illustrated with the image of an elderly Christ, identified as the Ancient of Days. He is enveloped by a glory of alternating blue colors, from which the symbols of the four evangelists emerge. 72 In the Holy Apostles it is difficult to see the image of Christ in the apex of the dome, and it is doubtful if the dim light of burning candles would have been enough to illuminate it effectively. This seemingly purposeful invisibility of Christ relates to his unknown and incomprehensible divinity as well as to his appearance in the Second Coming. John Cantacuzenus, for example, referring to the writings of the prophets distinguished the figure of Christ in his First and in his Second Coming in this way: 69 See chapter 3. 70 Gretchen K. McKay, ?The Eastern Christian Tradition of Daniel?s Vision of the Ancient of Days,? JECS 7/1 (1999), 139-61. For the images of Christ the Ancient of Days in the domes of Byzantine churches, see Nikolaos Gkioles, Ho byzantinos troullos kai to eikonographiko tou programma (mesa 6ou ai.-1204) (Athens, 1990), 72, 181, 186. 71 McKay, ?Daniel?s Vision of the Ancient of Days.? 72 Evans, ed., Byzantium, 263, fig. 9.7. It is even more intriguing that this image was painted before the Apocalypse was added and was not intended to illustrate it. This fact is especially important for the understanding of the image of the Ancient of Days in the Palaeologan period as having emphatic eschatological messages. See David Buckton, ed., Byzantium. Treasures of Byzantine Art and Culture (London, 1994), 195. 174 ?[The first time] He would come gentle and he would not judge the world; rather he would teach, enlighten and guide into the correct path?The second time he would come as a God and a Formidable Judge; then the Heavens, i.e. all angels, and the Earth, i.e. all people, will be astonished at the sight of his face. 73 Jesus? dim image in the northwest dome of the Holy Apostles would become fully visible only in the unknown hour of the Last Judgment. Christ?s divinity and kingship are further highlighted by the images of the Heavenly powers. Such creatures appear in the central domes of several Palaeologan buildings such as the Paregoretissa church in Arta and the Peribleptos church at Mystra. 74 Since the Middle Byzantine period domes were decorated with images of angels frequently reenacting the Heavenly Liturgy. 75 In the Holy Apostles Christ is represented as a heavenly king as the Cherubim and the Seraphim are commonly associated with prophetic visions of God amidst heavenly hosts, no doubt recalling the eschatological vision of Daniel, which is the literary inspiration of the painting in the summit of the dome. 76 In liturgical interpretations since the Middle Byzantine period these celestial beings were symbolically associated with the Incarnation. They are frequently incorporated in the apsidal and dome compositions of the Majestas Domini. 77 In the Holy Apostles Jesus? human ancestors further highlight his taking on human flesh and his filial 73 John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 90. 74 Papamastorak? s, Ho diakosmos tou troullou t? n na? n t? s Palaiologeias periodou, 6, 12-13; figs. 6-12; 41-46. The central domes of the churches at Studenica and Jo?anica contain representations of the ancestors of Christ below the prophets, see ibid., 249. The ancestors are painted in close proximity to the domes of the church of the Holy Trinity at Sopo?ani and the Peribleptos church at Ohrid. See ibid., 250. 75 Ibid., 116-23, 137-65. 76 Isaiah 6:3, Ezekiel 1:6-12, 23; Papamastorak? s, Ho diakosmos tou troullou t? n na? n t? s Palaiologeias periodou, 124-28. 77 Gkioles, Ho byzantinos troullos, 58-59, 144; Catherine Jolivet-L?vy, Les ?glises byzantines de Cappadoce. Le programme iconographique de l?abside et de ses abords (Paris, 1991), 337-40; Warren T. Woodfin, ?Terrible Things to Speak of and to Behold: An Ekphrasis of the Studios Apse Mosaic and Its Significance,? BSCA 25 (1999), 31-32. 175 relationship with humanity, the main theme of the Palaeologan Ministry cycles. Furthermore, Christ is represented holding a scroll, his common attribute in scenes of Healings and Teachings. The royal characteristics of Christ are similarly emphasized in the rest of the narrative representations on the pendentives and the neighboring walls. The Temptation is depicted on the tympanum of the north wall immediately below the dome (Fig. 75). It was intended to tie the program under the cupola to the events from the life of John the Baptist also painted in the north ambulatory. The Forerunner bearing witness to the Messiah and the Temptation of Christ occupy the same vault in the exonarthex of the Chora church. 78 In the Holy Apostles the Temptation consisted of two episodes, at present difficult to identify. 79 To the left Christ converses with a small black demon, perhaps about the stones, as Christine Stephan has suggested. 80 In the later paintings in the liti of the Profites Elias two of the Temptations appear, and Jesus and a small black demon are represented discussing the Temple Temptation (Fig. 36). While it is possible that the Temptation of the Kingdoms appears to the right of the Temple Temptation, the inscription in Profites Elias relates the Temptation of the Stones. Perhaps the immediate model for the painters of the liti was the representation in the Holy Apostles. It is very likely that in the Holy Apostles, the Temptation of the Stones is to the right and the Temple Temptation is to the left judging from the partially preserved structure in the corner. Both in Profites Elias and in the earlier Chora mosaics Christ is 78 Underwood, Kariye Djami, 2: 216. 79 Stephen, Apostelkirche, 235-37. 80 Ibid., 236. 176 represented on top of a tall building, which was intended to symbolize one of the towers that overlooked the courtyard of Solomon?s Temple (Figs. 36, 37). 81 How is the Temptation integrated in the program of the northwest chapel? Its messages about withstanding the devil?s advances would have resonated deeply within a monastic audience. Christ is the exemplary ascetic. The Temptations however are a test not only for the Son of Man as in the Temptation of the Bread but also for the Son of God. On two occasions Christ identifies himself as ?the Lord your God? (Matt. 4:7; Luke 4:12) in response to the Devil?s invitation to throw himself from the highest point of the Temple. Christ is both human and divine, he is a humble man and an exalted lord. The rest of the program demonstrates a similar dual approach to Jesus? figure. Two of the pendentives to the north contain a rare representation of the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Fig. 76). The virgins are represented sleeping seated with the candles or lamps leaning on their shoulders. To the right, behind a massive door, traces of trees and bushes are visible indicating the garden of Paradise. The incorporation of the sleeping virgins is unusual in monumental representations and closely resembles the illumination of the parable in the Frieze Gospels. In the eleventh century Laurentiana Tetraevangelion, fol. 51r the virgins are sleeping grouped in the left half of the composition (Fig. 77). The second part of the narrative with the virgins in a paradisiacal garden appears in fourteenth-century monumental painting in the narthex of St. Michael?s church at Lesnovo (Fig. 74). The parable conveys ideas about vigilance and preparedness for the Last Judgment. In Omorphokklesia this relationship is explicit, while in the Holy Apostles it is not. The emphasis on the narrative element of the parable is striking and perhaps derives from a manuscript model such as the Florence Gospels. The meaning of 81 Underwood, Karyie Djami, 2: 224. 177 the parable is determined by its close proximity to the Temptation in the lunette of the north wall. In monastic circles vigilance, epitomized by the Wise Virgins, was fostered and cultivated to counter the allurements of the devil. With prayers and psalm singings the monks tried to avoid sleep, and were always on their guard imitating the Wise Virgins. The devil?s assaults during the night were especially dangerous and for this reason monks carefully cultivated the virtue of wakefulness. The group of sleeping virgins and the peculiar way in which the Parable is associated with the Temptation is indeed intended for a monastic audience. The prayer for the office of Small Vespers known as ka? d?w ?m?n, d?spota, pr?w ?pnon ?pio?sin [Give to us, Lord, wakefulness against sleep] contains a plea for ?a wakeful mind, chaste thoughts, a vigilant heart and a light sleep free of all satanic fantasy.? 82 Furthermore, the spatial relationship between the two images reaffirms how Christ overcame the ultimate Temptations with an exemplary watchfulness and perseverance. The depiction of the Wise and Foolish Virgins frequently associated with mercy and charity is also an introduction to the charitable and merciful Ministry works of Christ in the exonarthex. 83 The parable inevitably evokes the image of Christ the Judge as its end offers a undeniable reference to the unknown day and hour of the Second Coming (Matt. 25:13). Christ preaching in the synagogue at Nazareth on a Sabbath (Luke 4:16-22) is also included in the decoration of the northwest chapel (Fig. 78). Like the Temptation this episode is described at the beginning of the Ministry. Christ is represented standing and reading from a book inscribed with the words from Luke 4:18: Pne?ma kur?ou ?p? ?m? 82 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 129 n. 47. 83 See above the discussion of the representation of the parable in Omorphokklesia. 178 o? e?neken ?xris?n me e?aggel?sasyai ptvxo?w ?p?stalken me [The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor]. The text announces the coming of the Messiah and the beginning of his Public works among the poor and the sick. Christ read only the first part of Isaiah?s prophecy (Isaiah 61:1-2) because his mission among the humans was ?to proclaim the year of the Lord?s favor.? An audience familiar with the book of Isaiah would have known the continuation of the prophecy which refers to the ?day of vengeance? and thus to the Second and last coming in which Christ will be a judge. The episode at Nazareth highlights simultaneously Jesus? familial relationship with humanity and his future advent as a king and a judge. Another Teaching (?) scene is painted in the southeast pendentive (Fig. 79). Preserved is only half of the seated figure of Christ turned in three quarter view in direction toward a standing figure to the right. Only the middle portion of this figure?s red garment is preserved. The arrangement of the protagonists recall the Meeting with the Samaritan Woman at the Well who is frequently painted wearing a long red dress. If indeed the Samaritan Woman is represented the idea of Christ?s teaching would have been completely shaped. In the Nazareth synagogue Christ is surrounded by male Jews, whereas in the episode with the Samaritan he spoke to a woman of different background. In a sense the Nazareth episode suggests the beginning of the Ministry among the Jews, and the conversion of the Samaritan testifies for Jesus? public works among the gentiles. Men and women, those who are Jews and those who are not, are equally affected by the coming of the Messiah. 179 CONCLUSION In the Protaton, Omorphokklesia and the Holy Apostles several episodes from the Ministry were selected and grouped together in order to paint not a benevolent, but a fearsome Christ. It is noteworthy that instead of the Last Judgment so common in Middle Byzantine church decoration, patrons and artists chose to expand the painted programs with scenes that subtly affirm the royal and judicial qualities of Christ. This tendency toward sophistication of the painted Gospel narratives is one of the essential features of Palaeologan art. The monastic audience of these representations would have been reminded of John Climacus?s words about an effective way of praying: If you ever found yourself having to appear before a human judge, you may use that as an example of how to conduct yourself in prayer. Perhaps you have never stood before a judge nor witnessed a cross-examination. In that case, take your cue from the way patients appeal to surgeons prior to an operation or a cautery. 84 84 Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, 275. 180 CHAPTER 5 MONUMENTAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE HEAVENLY LADDER IN ST. GEORGE AT OMORPHOKKLESIA AND IN THE VATOPEDI CATHOLICON ON MOUNT ATHOS The monk John wrote an edifying book instructing the monks in virtuous life in the monastery of the Virgin on Sinai in the seventh century. 1 He divided it into thirty chapters, a number recalling the thirty unknown years in the life of Christ. John employed the image of the ladder as a metaphorical device and organizing principle of the text. 2 The book begins with a discussion about the break with the world, followed by instructions about the practice of virtues and the struggles against the passions and ends with observations on the transition from active to contemplative life and on the nature of the spiritual union with God. John compared advancement of spiritual perfection to the climbing of a ladder on top of which Christ awaits the successful aspirants. Surviving manuscripts and printed copies of John?s work attest for its popularity in the Orthodox world. 3 John became known as John Climacus, or of the Ladder, and his work as The 1 John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent (New York, Ramsey, Toronto, 1982). 2 For the ladder as an important mediating devise, see M. Boskovits, ?Un?opera probabile di Giovanni di Bartolomeo Cristiani e l?iconografia della ?preparazione alla Crocifissione?,? Acta historiae atrium 15 (1965), 69-94; Arthur B. Cook, Zeus: A Study of Ancient Religion, 3 Vols. (Cambridge, 1914-40), 2:121- 40; Walter Cahn, ?Ascending and Descending from Heaven: Ladder Themes in Early Medieval Art,? in Santi e demoni nell?alto Medioevo Occidentale (secoli V-XI), ed. Alesandra Anselmi (Spoleto, 1989), 702- 703; Anne Derbes, ?Images East and West: The Ascent of the Cross,? in The Sacred Image East and West, eds. Robert Ousterhout and Leslie Brubaker (Urbana and Chicago, 1995), 110-31; Christian Heck, L??chelle c?leste dans l?art du moyen ?ge. Une image de la qu?te du ciel (Paris, 1997), 19-28. 3 For the Slavic translations, see Dimitrie Bogdanovi?, Iovan Lestvi?nik u vizantijskoij i staroij srpskoij kni?evnosti (Belgrade, 1968), 203-208; Muriel Heppel, ?The Lestvica Tradition in Moldavia: A Comparative Study of the Manuscript Tradition and the Visual Arts,? ?B 8, 11-12 (1981, 1984-85), 131-41. John?s edifying book was translated in the West in the fourteenth century. See B. Altner, ?Die Kentnisse der Griechischen in den Missionorden des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts,? Zeitschrift f?r Kirchengeschichte 53 (1934), 482-85; Martin, Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder, 6-7. 181 Ladder of Divine Ascent or The Heavenly Ladder. 4 The text provided the literary basis not only for manuscript illumination but also for the monumental paintings that will be considered in this chapter. 5 Several Palaeologan representations of the Ladder of the Virtues survive and these demonstrate remarkable iconographic variety. For example, in the three Late Byzantine illustrated manuscripts on Mount Athos the images of the Heavenly Ladder are all different (Figs. 80, 81). 6 It is hardly surprising then that the monumental representations of the ladder, painted before and after 1453, vary considerably. All of them, however, appeared on the walls of monastic churches presupposing monks as their audience. The surviving examples demonstrate that the Ladder of Virtues was always painted in subsidiary spaces of Orthodox churches. 7 The image appears in the narthex, as 4 John Duffy (?Embellishing the Steps: Elements of Presentation and Style in the Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus,? DOP 53 [1999], 5-6.) has recently suggested that the book might have been initially called The Spiritual Tablets establishing strong Mosaic connotations. This is hardly surprising given that the residence of John, the Sinai monastery, was in close proximity to the place where Moses spoke to God. The Sinai and Mosaic associations of the Heavenly Ladder were carried on visually in a sixteenth-century double-sided icon in the Pantokrator Monastery on Mount Athos in Treasures of Mount Athos (Thessalonike, 1997), 144- 45. 5 For the manuscript illustrations, see Martin, Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder; Kathleen Corrigan, ?Constantine?s Problems: The Making of the Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus, Vat. Gr. 394,? Word and Image 12/1 (1996), 61-93. 6 The three manuscripts are Laura, Cod. ?, Stauronikita, Cod. 50 and Vatopedi, Cod. 368. See Martin, Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder, 166-69, figs. 8, 133-71, 21. 7 The earliest recorded monumental representation of the Spiritual Ladder dated to 1211 can be seen in the south wall of the hermitage of the Ascension at Myriali. Despite the fact that this is an image especially appropriate for a hermitage (its monastic character is emphasized by the two sainted monks which flank the ladder on both sides), I will not consider it in detail, for not only is it geographically removed from the monuments I am discussing, but it is also temporally separated from their intellectual milieu. Moreover the image differs significantly from the later Palaeologan representations; here the steps of the ladder are appropriately labeled with the names of the various virtues and the general appearance of the composition seems to follow the iconography of the ladder seen in some eleventh-century manuscripts. See Nikolaos V. Drandakis, ?To askitirio t? s Analipsis sto Myriali tou Taigetou,? in Thymiama st? mnim? t? s Laskarinas Boura, 2 Vols. (Athens, 1994), 1: 83-89, esp. 84-85; 2: 42/6. 182 in the two Palaeologan examples in the Vatopedi (Fig. 82) 8 and Omorphokklesia (Fig. 83), 9 in the refectories of three Athonite trapezas, of the Great Lavra (Fig. 84), Dionysiou, and Chilandar, 10 and on the church exterior as in several post-1453 examples in present-day Moldavia. 11 This chapter?s purpose is to discuss the variety of messages that the images of the Heavenly Ladder generated for their Late Byzantine monastic audience. As a visual epitome of Climacus? text, the representation of the Spiritual Ladder conjured up a variety of penitential messages. Here I examine their iconographic peculiarities and spatial relationships with the rest of the paintings, which added to rather than shaped their meaning; within the narthex programs of Omorphokklesia and Vatopedi the images of the Heavenly Ladder seem to have functioned as separate visual entities. At the end of my discussion I show how the visionary aspect of the images adds to the interpretation of the church narthex as a space designated for ascetic exercises and spiritual preparation. The 8 Euthymios Tsigaridas, ?The Mosaics and the Byzantine Wall Paintings,? in The Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopaidi. Tradition, History, Art, 2 Vols. (Mount Athos, 1998), 1: 262-63. 9 Gerstel, ?Civic and Monastic Influences on Church Decoration,? 234. 10 John James Yiannias, ?The Wall Paintings in the Trapeza of the Great Lavra on Mount Athos: A Study in Eastern Orthodox Refectory Art,? (Ph.D. Dissertation: University of Pittsburgh, 1971), 150-53; Idem, ?The Refectory Paintings of Mount Athos: An Interpretation,? in The Byzantine Tradition after the Fall of Constantinople, ed. John J. Yiannias (Charlottesville and London, 1991), 274, 276. 11 The Ladder of John Climacus appears on the south exterior wall of the catholicon of the R??ca Monastery and is dated to 1552. It is represented on the same wall with the Last Judgment and with scenes from the lives of St. Anthony the Great and St. Pachomius. The Ladder is painted also on the north exterior wall of the church of the Sucevi? a monastery in the sixteenth century (1595). This is the largest representation of the theme seen in any church in Moldavia. It shares the same wall with thirteen scenes from the Genesis and from the life of St. Pachomius. It has been suggested that the images seen in Modavia were directly inspired by the representations on Mount Athos. A third example could be seen in the narthex of the church of St. Elias. See Paul Henry, Les Eglises de la Moldavie du Nord, des origines ? la fin du XVI e si?cle, 2 Vols. (Paris, 1930), 1: 277; Muriel Heppel, ?The Lestvica Tradition in Moldavia,? 138-41; Alan O? den, Revelations of Byzantium. The Monasteries and Painted Churches of Northern Moldavia (Ia?i, Oxford, Palm Beach, Portland, 2002), 86-86, 192, 218. For other post-Byzantine representations of the Spiritual Ladder on the Balkans, see Georgi Gerov, Stenopisite na Rozhenskia manastir (Sofia, 1993), 62-66, 70. 183 appearance of symbolic ladders, the Ladder of Jacob?s vision, and the Heavenly Ladder of John in the subsidiary spaces of Byzantine churches is not coincidental and contributes to our understanding of these transitional spaces. 12 The paintings of the Spiritual Ladder in Vatopedi and Omorphokklesia are the only known Palaeologan examples. Although iconographically different, the two representations attest to the popularity of John Climacus? manual for spiritual perfection among Late Byzantine monks. From the over ninety manuscripts of Climacus? text dated between the tenth and nineteenth centuries and catalogued in the monastic libraries on Mount Athos, more than forty books were produced between the thirteenth and fifteenth century, the fourteenth century marking the peak in the interest in the text. 13 In the library of the Vatopedi monastery thirty one manuscripts of the Ladder of Divine Ascent were catalogued, six of which date to the thirteenth and twelve to the fourteenth century, the number demonstrating the greater demand for the books in the Late Byzantine period. 14 At least one fourteenth-century manuscript was even copied in the Vatopedi monastery. 15 Furthermore, the image of a ladder as an important metaphor indicating the gradual spiritual movement of the monk upwards and closer to God appears in the writings of some Late Byzantine Hesychasts conceived independently of Climacus? image. For example, St. Gregory of Sinai spoke of a ladder of five rungs?renunciation, 12 The associations of the Heavenly Ladder with the Ladder of Jacob?s vision were made both on literary and visual level in the Climacus? manuscripts. See John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, trans. Lazarus Moore (London, 1959), 42-43; Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent (New York, 1982), 152; Martin, Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder, 7, 108-110, 190, figs. 23, 233-34. 13 S. P. Lambros, Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts on Mount Athos, 2 Vols. (Cambridge, 1895, 1900). 14 Sophronios Eustratiades, Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts in the Library of the Monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos (Cambridge, MA, 1924), 31, 59, 69-72. 15 The manuscript is in the library of the Xyropotamou monastery. See Lambros, Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts, 1: 216, cat. no. 2555. 184 submission, obedience, humility, and love for God?leading to perfection. 16 Nikiphoros the Monk, an Athonite Hesychast who lived in the second half of the thirteenth century, in his instructions for prayer asserted that everyone has within a spiritual ladder leading to the kingdom of God. Its accessibility, as well as its visibility are contingent upon the spiritual preparedness of every monk: ?cleanse yourself from sin and there you will find the steps by which to ascend. 17 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia compared the celebration of the Church festivals to climbing a ladder: ? dr?mow a?to? e?w t?n ?nv for?n g?netai [this road is with its entire course directed upward]. 18 It is interesting that the Palaeologan period marks a heightened interest in imaging monumental ladders; the ladder of Jacob?s vision and of Christ Ascending the Cross were represented frequently in Late Byzantine churches. The Ladder of Divine Ascent was painted on the north wall of the exonarthex of the church of St. George (Fig. 83). The representation occupies the whole wall, breaking the decorative pattern applied to the west and the south walls, which were divided in two distinct zones with narrative Gospel scenes above and individual sainted figures below (Fig. 9). The image is fragmentary, but one can speculate about its appearance on the basis of extant manuscript illustrations and monumental representations. Only the upper portion of the ladder placed in an oblique angle is still visible. Above it and slightly to the left in a light blue heavenly segment a group of saved kneeling with hands outstretched in supplication is painted. The group of supplicating figures ties the image in St. George to 16 Philokalia, 4: 241-42. 17 Ibid, 4: 202. 18 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 346-47. 185 illustrations of Climacus? manuscripts, 19 and also to monumental images of the Last Judgment, which is one of the main iconographic sources for the Spiritual Ladder. 20 In the parecclesion of Kariye Djami six groups of elect were incorporated in the scene of the Second Coming, almost all of them in proskynesis, supported by clouds and turning in prayer to Christ. 21 In Omorphokklesia at the top of the ladder Christ is plucking one of the monks who made it successfully to the end of the spiritual trial, further underlying the eschatological nature of the composition. 22 His clothing is painted in brighter colors as he entered into the realm of Christ; his cloak is spread out in dramatic motion creating a sense that he had obtained wings. It may indicate that he had obtained the perfect angelic state of monastic existence. To the right, one of the spiritual aspirants is represented falling off the ladder head first, 23 and another one is already in the wide-open jaws of a unusually oversized dragon. Besides recalling the tortures of the Last Judgment and various encounters with evil, the dragon was metaphorically associated with the passions of the body and the soul. 24 In general dragons were not very prominent in the 19 Martin, Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder, fig. 67. 20 Ibid., 15-16, 150. 21 Underwood, Kariye Djami, 3: 384a, b, 385a, b.; Sirarpie der Nersessian, ?Program and Iconography of the Frescoes of the Parecclesion,? in Kariye Djami, 4: 327. 22 This gesture is associated not only with the Anastasis, but also with some healing miracles, such as the Healing of Peter?s Mother-in-Law, whose limp hand Christ usually holds. However, not one of the miracles in which Christ is holding the wrist of a sick or dead individual, were represented in Omorphokklesia. The significance of the gesture was not emphasized as the case is in the Vatopedi. For earlier literary evidence of the eschatological nature of Ladder imagery, see H. Musurillo, ed., The Acts of the Christian Martyrs (Oxford, 1972), 111; Heck, L??chelle c?leste, 48; J. Quasten, ?A Coptic Counterpart to a Vision in the Acts of Perpetua and Felicitas,? Byzantion 15 (1940-41), 6-9; Brent D. Shaw, ?The Passion of Perpetua,? Past and Present 139 (1993), 3-45. 23 For a similar figure in manuscript illumination, see Martin, Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder, figs. 66, 133, 238. 24 For Byzantine dragon representations, see Laskarina Bouras, ?Dragon Representations on Byzantine Phialae and Their Conduits,? Gesta 16/2 (1977), 65-68. It is interesting to note that in a French bestiary, 186 representations of the Heavenly Ladder, 25 and it seems that in Omorphokklesia the artist intentionally painted it especially fearsome in order to frighten the monastic viewer into salvation. 26 Byzantines were aware of the cathartic and conversional role of dreadful images such as the Last Judgment, traces of which still remain on the east wall of the narthex in Omorphokklesia. The combined message of the Last Judgment and the frightful dragon rising beneath the Spiritual Ladder would have steered any wandering mind onto the correct path. 27 To the left of the ladder, just beneath the saved, an angel stretches his arms in direction of the saved and of Christ. His left hand intrudes into the heavenly segment emphasizing his mediating qualities. In the lower portion of the representation a badly damaged portrait of a monk is preserved and is identified by an inscription as John Vatican, Ms. Reg. Lat. 258, fol. 39v, a dragon is associated with the word mundum (the world) thus implying that the dragon is the devil who waits to capture those involved with the things from this world (Debra Hassig, Medieval Bestiaries: Text, Image, Ideology [Cambridge, 1995], 131, fig. 132.). The dragon is important in the apocalyptic visions of John the Theologian where the devil is the great dragon thrown on earth by archangel Michael (Rev. 12:9). Byzantine examples of the association between dragons and evil are found in the Life of St. Andrew the Fool; an avaricious monk was described as being in ?the teeth of the dragon.? The author (Ryd?n, The Life of St. Andrew the Fool, 1: 153, 155, 199, 220-21) also mentions the ?four dragons of sin? the antitheses of the four cardinal virtues. On the dragon as a symbol of evil, see Hassig, Medieval Bestiaries, 50, 51, 131-32, 160, 165-66, 248, n. 33; Thomas M. Provatakes, Ho diavolos eis t? n Byzantin? n techn? n: symbol? eis t? n ereunan t? s orthodoxou zographik? s kai glyptik? s (Thessalonike, 1980). For the beastly nature of human passions, see Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, 255; Ryd?n, The Life of St. Andrew the Fool, 1: 153, 155, 199, 220-21; John Moschos, The Spiritual Meadow, trans. John Wortley (Kalamazoo, MI, 1992), 84; Philokalia 4: 101, 119-20, 225. 25 Martin, Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder, 15 n. 3. 26 For the role of frightful images in monastic meditations, see Carruthers, The Craft of Thought, 266. For the didactic character of the encounters between ascetics and ferocious animals, see for example, Paul Evergetinos, Evergetinos, 1/3: 45 (about St. Theodora who after enduring a night before a monastic gate among ferocious animals became a nun); F. Halkin, ?La Vie de saint Niphon, ermite au Mont Athos (XIV e s.),? AB 58 (1940), 18 (about a pupil of St. Niphon who went fishing without the saint?s permission and encountered a shark). 27 Paul Evergetions, Evergetinos, 1/1:9-10. The representation of the Last Judgment was proven effective even in converting pagans. For example, Theophanes Continuatus testified for the fearful effect of an image of the Last Judgment painted in one of the residences of the Bulgarian prince Boris. The frightful sight of the Second Coming persuaded Boris to convert to Christianity. See Mango, Art of the Byzantine Empire, 190-91. 187 Climacus. An extensive Ministry cycle, a Last Judgment, and a group of important sainted monks create the visual context for the image of the Spiritual Ladder. The other Late Byzantine monumental representation of Climacus? Ladder was painted in 1312 in the exonarthex of the catholicon of the Vatopedi, the second most important monastery on Mount Athos (Fig. 82). 28 Similar to Omorphokklesia, the Heavenly Ladder was represented on the north wall of the exonarthex, but in this case it prominently frames the entrance to the parecclesion of St. Demetrios. An extensive cycle of the Passion of Christ creates a different visual context for the image of the Ladder (Fig. 85). Fourteen scenes form a long narrative of the last days of Christ. 29 On the north wall are pictured the Last Supper and the events related to the Washing of the Apostles? Feet, the Prayer on the Mount of Olives, the Betrayal and the Leading of Christ to the Praetorium continue on the east wall. The south wall is divided into three registers; in the uppermost is the Flagellation, the preparation for the Crucifixion, the Deposition and the Lamentation; in the middle register the Women at the Tomb and the Resurrection are painted. The Incredulity of Thomas and the Mission of the Apostles conclude the cycle in 28 For the inscription that specifies the date of the paintings, see G. Millet, J. Pargoire and L. Petit, Recuel des inscriptions chr?tiennes de l?Athos (Paris, 1904), 48-49. Peter Burridge (?The Development of Monastic Architecture on Mount Athos with Special Reference to the Monasteries of Pantocrator and Chilandari? [Ph.D. Dissertation, University of York, 1976], 193) has suggested that the reconstruction and redecoration of the monastery church may have occurred after the Catalan invasion in the beginning of the fourteenth century. Since the style of the paintings corroborates with the early fourteenth-century date the scholars have not contested the dating. See Euthymios Tsigaridas, ?Hoi toichographies tou katholikou tes mones Vatopediou,? in Byzantio kai Serbia kata ton XIV aiona (Athens, 1996), 401-25; Idem, ?The Mosaics and the Byzantine Wall Paintings,? 220-84. 29 In general, representations of Passion scenes in the narthex are not unusual. In the eleventh-century the narthex of the catholicon of Hosios Loukas was adorned with mosaics of the Washing of the Feet, the Crucifixion, the Anastasis and Doubting Thomas. And even more extensive Passion cycle could be seen in the narthex of Nea Mone on Chios (1045), among which the Raising of Lazarus, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Washing of the Feet, the Prayer at the Mount of Olives and the Betrayal. Scenes from the Passion could be seen also in the nartheces of some twelfth- and thirteenth-century Byzantine and Serbian churches, Daphni, Studenica, Mile?eva and Sopo?ani among others. See Tomekovi?, ?Contribution ? l??tude du programme du narthex,? 14; Todi?, ?L?Influence de la liturgie sur la decoration peinte du narthex,? 50. 188 the lower register. On the lunette of the entrance to the exonarthex the Anapeson is represented. The lengthy Passion cycle not only creates clear association with the Lenten period, and especially with the week immediately before Easter, but also defines the interpretation of the monumental program of the exonarthex. The representation of the Ladder of Divine Ascent in Vatopedi is incorporated within a program with strong penitential overtones. The composition is identified on top with an inscription H CUXOSVTHRIOS ?KAI OURANODROMOS [the salvation of the soul and the road to heaven]. 30 The inscription is placed right above the physical door implying that the passage through the narthex is an inseparable part of the spiritual ascent. Another inscription, barely visible and placed between the figure of Christ and the last ring of the ladder reads H AGAPH [Love]. It must be in direct reference to the thirtieth and last chapter of Climacus? work entitled ?On Faith, Hope and Charity.? 31 The ladder stretches to the ceiling metaphorically connecting the earth to heaven; it is densely populated by monks eagerly climbing with their clothes dramatically flowing. A group of angels flutter to the right encouraging their ascent. The struggle is especially dramatic as the monks exhibit a variety of almost impossible body postures with limbs intertwined with the individual steps of the ladder. Spiritual perfection was pictured as a collective effort both of the body and the soul. 32 The hesychia frequently associated with stillness 30 The Ladder of John has been associated with the road to heaven in an eleventh-century Psalter, Vatican, Cod. Gr. 1927, fol. 218r (de Wald, The Illustrations of the Manuscripts of the Septuagint, pl. L). Here the celestial ladder, identified as ? kl?maj, illustrates the beginning of Ps. 118: ?blessed are the undefiled in the way.? 31 Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, 286-90. 32 Gregory Palamas, The Triads, 41-55; Ioannis D. Polemis, Theophanes of Nicaea: His Life and Works (Vienna, 1996), 102; Kallistos Ware, ?Introduction,? in John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent (New York, Ramsey, Toronto, 1982), 28-30. 189 and lack of body movement has not yet been achieved. The restlessness of the body reflects the actual restlessness of the intellect. 33 On the top of the ladder an angel opens a door from which Christ emerges framed in a blue heavenly segment. The representation of a door, which is unique among the ladder compositions, further ties the spiritual ascent to the physical door emphasizing the importance of the movement forward and the passage from one realm into another. Christ is painted leaning and grasping the hand of the monk who successfully accomplished the spiritual climb. The association with the salvific gesture of Christ plucking Adam from Hades is unmistakable and evokes ideas of resurrection and deliverance. 34 The incorporation of the representation of the Anastasis in the Vatopedi exonarthex would have eased and reinforced this visual association (Fig. 86). To the left a group of black demons distracts and harasses the monks pulling their garments dragging them away from the ladder. Some have succeeded, and individual monks are falling headlong into the mouth of a dragon painted at the bottom of the ladder. As indicated by the lack of any formal separation, the image of the monks ascending the ladder is curiously associated with a representation of a secular banquet. A group of aristocrats is represented to the left enjoying music, conversation, and an abundant table with silver bowls, knifes, and embroidered napkins. Their high social status is indicated not only by their richly decorated garments, but also by their hats, which during the Palaeologan period became the most distinct feature of the Byzantine 33 Fourteenth-century Hesychasts cited most frequently the twenty-seventh chapter of Climacus? Ladder of Divine Ascent ?On Stillness,? see Ware, ?Introduction?, 67. 34 For the iconography of the Anastasis, see Anna Kartsonis, Anastasis: the Making of an Image (Princeton, 1986); Martin, Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder, 16. In the edifying writings of Paul Evergetinos (Evergetinos, 1/2: 160) this gesture was associated with forgiveness. Paul told the story of a monk who sinned and confessed to Abba Lot. The act of forgiveness is described as a resurrection for the Abba gave the repentant monk his hand and raised him up. 190 aristocratic costume. 35 Facial features and some details in dress indicate the different ethnic origin of some of the participants in the feast. 36 The striking difference between the two worlds was achieved by showing the monks moving up agitatedly and the aristocrats sitting in relaxed poses at the table. 37 The use of color is also especially effective: the black, gray, brown and light pink hues of the monks? clothing and of the angels? attire were juxtaposed with the brilliance and color exuberance of the banqueters? garments. The link between the two scenes of the monastic spiritual ascent and of the secular banquet is provided by a curious couple of an elderly monk lured to the table by a demon. The flying gray hair of the demon was purposefully associated with the fuzzy gray hat of one of the Mongolian banqueters. The two worlds, of spiritual struggle and physical indulgence, seem dependent and inseparable; they were treated as the two parts of a larger whole. The spiritual world seems to intrude into the secular one and vice versa. This visual juxtaposition can be interpreted within the context of the teaching of Late Byzantine Hesychasts who stressed the importance of obtaining spiritual perfection within the existing world, and the visible, social life of the church, which in the fourteenth century acquired a new moral authority as the state was decaying. 38 While the Heavenly Ladder in Vatopedi was directly tied to Lent and to the cathartic spirit of this period, in Omorphokklesia it was incorporated within the metaphorical context of Christ?s parables and Healing Miracles. Only the full-length 35 Parani, Reconstructing the Reality of Images, 69 n. 69. 36 Ibid., 91-92. 37 Gerstel, ?Civic and Monastic Influences on Church Decoration,? 234. 38 Nicholas Cabasilas, The Life in Christ, 173-74; Constantelos, ?Mysticism and Social Involvement,? 83- 94; Meyendorff, ?Spiritual Trends in the Late Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Century,? 97-99. 191 figure of St. Andrew of Crete painted in close proximity and the representation of the Last Judgment associate it with the Lenten experiences thus enhancing its penitential and cathartic meaning. 39 The appearance of the Ladder within such visual context is not surprising, for readings from Climacus? text were incorporated in the Lenten celebrations. 40 Furthermore, from the thirteenth century onward the memory of St. John of the Ladder is celebrated during the fourth Sunday of Lent. 41 While these more general observations regarding the role of the text and its author in the Byzantine liturgical tradition help to contextualize the two Late Byzantine representations of the Heavenly Ladder, it is necessary to consider some individual features separately in order to understand the specific messages of the two monumental programs. Despite the fact that the two Ladders are stylistically related their different visual context and remarkable iconographic variations suggest that there were special demands of different monastic audiences, and perhaps of patrons. 42 The emphasis on Lent in the decoration of the Vatopedi exonarthex and the more elusive metaphoric context of parables and healings of the body and the soul in Omorphokklesia require additional attention. As mentioned, one of the peculiar features of the representation of the Spiritual Ladder in Omorphokklesia is its association with the full-length portrait of St. Andrew, an eight-century archbishop of Crete, who was a prolific hymnographer and a monk (Fig. 87). St. Andrew is painted in the lower register of the west wall in close proximity to the 39 The Sunday of Last Judgment is part of the pre-Lenten celebrations, see Lenten Triodion, 150-67. 40 See, for example, the liturgical typikon of the Evergetis monastery in Aleksei Dmitrievskii, Opisanie liturgicheskikh rukopisei, 3 Vols. (Kiev, 1895), 1: 524, 526, 529. 41 Gabriel Bertoni?re, The Sundays of Lent in the Triodion: The Sundays without Commemoration (Rome, 1997), 92; Lenten Triodion, 353-67. 42 For the style of the paintings in the exonarthex of Omorphokklesia see chapter 2, n. 38. 192 Spiritual Ladder on the north wall. This is one of the few monumental portraits of the saint to survive. Here he is rendered as a monk with a disheveled white hair and a long white beard, with his right hand in a gesture of speech and with an unfurled inscribed scroll in his left hand. 43 His portrait bears close resemblance to the images of another homonymous saint, the apostle Andrew, but an inscription specifies his identity as Andrew of Crete. 44 Portraits of Andrew of Crete are rare, and it seems that its incorporation among sainted monks and poets, like in Omorphokklesia, is even rarer, if not unique. He was not represented often in his homeland, Crete, and seldom appears in churches on the Balkans. 45 Moreover St. Andrew was most often painted among the concelebrated bishops in the sanctuary, and is almost never represented among the saints in the nartheces of Byzantine churches. 46 Both manuscript illumination 47 and 43 Unfortunately the text on the scroll cannot be transcribed because of the thick layer of dirt that had accumulated. 44 Andrew of Crete is represented in two ways, with disheveled hair and long curly beard, as seen in Omorphokklesia, and with straight hair and beard as seen in the apse of the 1225 church of St. Anne at Nefs Amari on Crete (Ioannis Spatharakis, Dated Byzantine Wall Paintings of Crete [Leiden, 2001], figs. 1- 2). Dionysius of Fourna (The Painter?s Manual, 54, 61)was not very specific regarding the portrait of St. Andrew who was supposed to be painted as ?an old man with a white beard.? 45 The image of St. Andrew can be seen in several Cretan churches, the above-mentioned thirteenth-century church of St. Anna and the fourteenth-century church of St. Onouphrious in the Amari province (Spatharakis, Dated Byzantine Wall Paintings, 7, 79, figs. 1-2). In both cases Andrew is painted in the apse. A portrait of Andrew as a concelebrating bishop is preserved also in the early fourteenth-century church of the Panagia in Saitoures (Ioannis Spatharakis, Byzantine Wall Paintings of Crete. Rethymnon Province [London, 1999], 1: 228-29, 273, 328, pl. 28b). Andrew was also one of the bishops attending the liturgy in the apses of the Chilandar monastery on Mount Athos and in the church of St. Nikita near Skopie decorated at the beginning of the fourteenth century. His association with the celebration of the Eucharist is confirmed once again in the fourteenth-century church of St. John the Theologian at Zemen in Bulgaria (Liliana Mavrodinova, Zemenskata ts?rkva [Sofia, 1980], 45), and in the late fifteenth-century church of the Holy Cross of Agiasmati, near Platanistasa on Cyprus (Stilianou and Stilianou, The Painted Churches of Cyprus, 217). It is worth noting that in this Cypriot church Andrew appears represented also as a poet in so far as in the bema were also incorporated the images of Cosmas Melodos and John of Damascus. 46 Only in the narthex of the church of the Virgin at Studenica was the image of Andrew incorporated, and as in the Cypriot church of the Holy Cross, he was portrayed together with other holy melodes: John of Damascus, Joseph the Hymnographer, Cosmas of Maioumas, Theodore and Theophan Grapti and Neilon the Younger. The narthex of the church was restored in the sixteenth century (1568), but it has been argued 193 monumental painting emphasize his authority as a bishop rather than as a hymnographer or a monk. In Omorphokklesia St. Andrew is represented not as a bishop, nor even as a poet; he is portrayed as an exemplary monk. The individual saints who appear in the lower register constitute a group of Byzantine monastic authorities, fictional and real: Barlaam and Joasaph, Stephan the Younger, Theodore the Studite, and Poimen. The incorporation of the portrait of St. Andrew among these sainted monks and in close proximity of the Heavenly Ladder might relate to the fact that he was the author of the Great penitential canon, which played a significant role in monastic cathartic experiences during the most penitential period in the church year, Lent. 48 Parts of the Canon were read at Compline on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of the first week of Lent, while during the fifth week it was performed entirely. 49 Furthermore in his penitential Canon Andrew incorporated the image of Jacob?s ladder, the ultimate prototype of the monastic ladder of virtues, and interpreted it as a way for spiritual cleansing and renewal: The ladder of old which the great Patriarch saw, my soul, is a model of mounting by action and ascent by knowledge?For without labors, my soul, neither action nor contemplation will achieve success. 50 that the painters preserved the original early thirteenth-century layout (1208-1209) of the narthex?s decorative program. See Gavrilovi?, Studies in Byzantine and Serbian Medieval Art, 94. 47 For the portraits of St. Andrew in manuscripts, see Nancy ?ev?enko, The Illustrations of the Metaphrastian Menologion (Chicago, 1990), 78, 2D8-2D9. 48 Andrew of Crete, The Great Canon: A Poem of St. Andrew of Crete, trans. Derwas J. Chitty (London, 1957); Kristoff, ?A View of Repentance,? 266-73. 49 Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent (New York, 1969), 11, 87-88. 50 Andrew of Crete, The Great Canon, 8-9. 194 Dionysius of Fourna suggested that when represented as a hymnographer St. Andrew should hold a scroll inscribed with a text taken from the Lenten Triodion further associating the portrait with the penitential spirit of Lent. 51 As mentioned above with its prevalent penitential tone the Ladder of Divine Ascent was intimately associated with the Lenten period. It is noteworthy that some of the extant manuscripts of the Heavenly Ladder contain another penitential text, the Canon of the Holy Criminals, which follows the traditional form established by Andrew of Crete. 52 In his fundamental work on the life and work of John Climacus, D. Bogdanovi? has suggested that the criminal?s canon might have been read during Lent together with the Spiritual Ladder. 53 The association with St. Andrew of Crete strengthens the edifying message of the painting of the Heavenly Ladder in the narthex of St. George and conjures up associations with the cathartic spirit of Lent. One should bear in mind, however, that the portrait belongs to a group of venerable monks rather than of hymnographers, and its correlation with the image of the Ladder is due also to their shared monastic content. The link between Lent and the Spiritual Ladder is more clearly articulated in the narthex of the Vatopedi catholicon. Its painted program recalls the events of the last week of the life of Christ, and that the representation of the Heavenly Ladder and the secular feast further intensified the meaning of the program. The ascending monk aspiring for spiritual perfection can be identified with the final preparations of Christ for his salvific 51 The text suggested by Dionysius (Painter?s Manual, 61) is: ?A help and a shelter came into me.? 52 The chief copy of this canon, which was transcribed and translated by John Martin (Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder, 128-45, 148, figs. 246-77, 293) is the late twelfth- early thirteenth-century Climacus manuscript Vatican Cod. Gr. 1754. Some post-Byzantine copies of the canon contain representations of the heavenly ladder. For the relation of the Heavenly Ladder and the penitential canon of the holy criminals and for manuscripts that contain both of them, see also Bogdanovi?, Iovan Lestvi?nik, 173-74 n 176. 53 Bogdanovi?, Iovan Lestvi?nik, 174. 195 Death and Resurrection. Theoleptos of Philadelpheia interpreted the monastic renunciation of the world on the Spiritual Ladder as taking up the cross and walking in the steps of the Crucified: St. John, who raises those who are wiling from the earth to the heights by means of his ladder, says, ?I have not fasted, I have not kept vigils, I have not slept on the ground, but ?I humbled myself, and the Lord hastens to rescue me?.? For neither does the vertical beam of wood maintain the form of the cross without the crossbeam, nor do the virtues preserve the ascetic without humility. Thus exalted above earthly things and above affection for them by the virtues (for this constitutes the upright beam), you stand very much in need of the crossbeam of humility to complete the cross which illumines you and which you have chosen to bear. 54 Spiritual aspirations and the movement of the soul upwards were further compared by Theoleptos to the mounting of the Cross, and the symbolic crucifixion of the soul he defined as lifting up from earthly things. 55 The death of the monk to the world is frequently associated with the death of Christ on the cross. 56 In Vatopedi the climbing of the ladder, which is symbolically summarizing the separation of the monks from their earthly concerns, is visually equated to Christ?s own suffering. An interesting point of comparison is provided by a full-page illustration in the eleventh-century Climacus manuscript at Princeton, Garrett MS 16, where a cross is visually related with the Heavenly Ladder (Fig. 88). On fol. 194r the concluding miniature with a group of monks hastily approaching the Ladder is painted, while others are already laboring on it. John Climacus is represented to the left with an unfurled scroll inscribed with the opening words of his exhortation: ?naba?nete, ?naba?nete, ?nab?seiw pro[y?mvw] [climb, 54 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 161. For earlier associations between the cross and another Ladder of Jacob?s vision, see Cahn, ?Ascending and Descending from Heaven,? 721-24; Robert Milburn, Early Christian Art and Architecture (Aldershot, 1988), 4. 55 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 137, 153, 159. 56 Gal. 5:24; Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 137, 153, 159; Philokalia 4: 153, 253. 196 climb, climb eagerly]. A golden cross placed on a stepped base, is painted between the figure of John and the Ladder creating the impression that John is encouraging his audience to ascend both the cross and the ladder at the same time. In the narthex of the Vatopedi catholicon the visualization of the spiritual ascent might have induced associations with the Passion cycle, while one of its peculiar features, the secular banquet, further relates the image to the cathartic spirit of Lent. The relationship is not immediately obvious and some preliminary remarks about the feast?s negative connotations will reveal its intended meaning within the program of the Vatopedi exonarthex. The artist conveyed the negative message of the feast in several ways. One of the feasting figures is precariously perched at the corner is about to slip into the physical space, and similarly to the unfortunate monks, to become a victim of the dragon below. The indulgence of the flesh with food and garrulous entertainment literally weighs the gourmands down, becoming the reason for their physical and spiritual fall. One is reminded of the words of St. Gregory of Sinai: Through it (the stomach) we fall and through it?when it is well disciplined?we rise again. 57 Moreover, the sight lines were specifically manipulated in order to reveal the banquet under the arch above which the Last Supper appears (Fig. 89). Here Judas is identified by his outstretched hand and it is notable that almost all members of the secular feast are represented repeating his gesture with arms extended in direction of the plates. The painter of the twelfth-century Sinai, Cod. Gr. 418, fol. 135r meaningfully associated betrayal with gluttony (Fig. 90). He illustrated the relevant chapter with a frontispiece, 57 Philokalia, 4: 280. 197 which contains a representation of a monk sitting at a table laid with silverware and food. The monk drinks from a cup. Two more figures are represented participating in this feast. A crowing rooster perched on a column and extracted from the images of Peter?s betrayal 58 is represented in the margins announcing the betrayal committed by the feasting monk echoing the text of the Spiritual Ladder: Be sure to laugh at the demon who, when supper is over, says that in the future you should eat later, for you may be sure that at the ninth hour he will change the arrangements made on the previous day. 59 The text of John Climacus is especially revealing for the peculiar representation in the Vatopedi exonarthex. Gluttony is rendered among the greatest vices; this is hardly coincidental since the Original sin was committed through the act of eating. 60 An interesting comparison to the image in Vatopedi is provided by the illuminations in two manuscripts, the eleventh-century Vatican, Cod. Gr. 394, fol. 74r and the fourteenth- century Mount Athos, Stauronikita, Cod. Gr. 50, fol. 103v (Figs. 91, 92). In these the personification of Gluttony is represented eating (an apple?) and wearing an imperial crown and richly hemmed garment. Since Gluttony?s status among the passions was often described with royal terminology, she was painted wearing imperial regalia. 61 In the two manuscripts abundant food is rendered a privilege and failing of the rich. Furthermore, gluttony is a common theme of Byzantine satire and gluttons are often placed in the worst parts of the underworld. 62 The lively poses of the aristocrats participating at the Vatopedi 58 Martin, Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder, 93. 59 Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, 167; Martin, Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder, 93. 60 Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, 165-70. 61 Ibid., 140-45; Philokalia, 4: 280. 62 Timarion, trans. and ed. Barry Baldwin (Detroit, 1984), 19-20, 110 n. 138. 198 banquet suggest that they are engaged in a conversation and recall a passage from the eleventh step of the Ladder of Divine Ascent, in which John condemns garrulity as a vice stemming from gluttony: ?which is why many who keep a hard check on the stomach can more easily restrain the blathering tongue. 63 The Lenten Triodion contains appropriate for the season texts, which juxtapose the feasting of the rich and the exemplary spiritual asceticism of the poor Lazarus: Rejecting the pleasures of the rich man, come and let us fast with Lazarus, that we too may be comforted in the bosom of Abraham. 64 In his monastic regulations Nikon of the Black Mountain insisted that eating and drinking should not be associated with ecclesiastical feasts. As appropriate ways of celebration he recommended the ?rebirth of the mind and cleansing of the soul.? 65 Spiritual aspirations were thus opposed to the pleasures of food and wine. It is puzzling why the artist chose to represent the secular feast in the Vatopedi. The historic background might provide answer to this problem. It could be that association between the Spiritual Ladder and the secular banquet took specific meaning for the monks who lived and prayed in Vatopedi, which was one of the richest monasteries on Mount Athos. It is noteworthy that in the course of the fourteenth century Vatopedi was generously endowed by Byzantine, Bulgarian, and Serbian rulers. 66 The monastery profited from trade and trade privileges granted by the Constantinopolitan 63 Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, 159. 64 Lenten Triodion, 214. 65 Thomas and Hero, Byzantine Monastic Documents, 1: 400. 66 Jacques Lefort, ?La fortune fonci?re de Vatop?di hors de l?Athos avant la fin du XIII e si?cle,? in The Monastery of Vatopedi. History and Art, ed. Paris Gounaridis (Athens, 1999), 43-54. 199 emperors, and from financial operations that engaged the most prominent aristocrats and ecclesiastics in the area. 67 Moreover, it seems that most of the monks were of aristocratic descent for, as Nikolaos Oikonomides has demonstrated, the monastery began its life as an establishment of noblemen. 68 Furthermore, in his recent prosopographic study of Byzantine, Georgian, and Slavic aristocrats on Mount Athos, Cyril Pavlikianov concluded that in the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the noble inhabitants of the Vatopedi monastery originated from the middle and high ranking aristocrats, and not from ecclesiastical circles as, for example, in the Great Lavra. 69 Thus the peculiar association between the secular feast and the Spiritual Ladder must have carried special meaning for the monastic audience of the Vatopedi. 70 In view of the evidence presented, it is reasonable to suggest that the awareness of the riches and pleasures of the world required special visual admonition to protect the monks from the worldly indulgences to which they were accustomed and could afford even in the monastery. 67 Laiou, ?Economic Activities of Vatopedi,? 58-70. 68 Nikolaos Oikonomides, ?Byzantine Vatopaidi: A Monastery of the High Aristocracy,? in The Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopaidi. Tradition-History-Art, 2 Vols. (Mount Athos, 1998), 1: 44-53. 69 Cyril Pavlikianov, The Medieval Aristocracy on Mount Athos. The Philological and Documentary Evidence for the Activity of Byzantine, Georgian and Slav Aristocrats and Eminent Churchmen in the Monasteries on Mount Athos from the 10 th to the 15 th Century (Sofia, 2001), 89-100, 134-51, 191. The secular character of the monastery is noted also by a twentieth-century pilgrim (Speake, Mount Athos, 255): ?Vatopaidi maintains a policy of openness which some have mistaken for worldliness. No monastery is more welcoming to its visitors regardless of whether they are Orthodox.? 70 It is mostly in Late Byzantine art that one sees secular figures incorporated in religious painting. With the enrichment of the monumental art with scenes inspired by liturgical poetry and the art of book illumination, individual ecclesiastical and lay figures crept into church painting. See Voislav Djuri?, ?Portreti v izobrazheniakh Rozhdenstvenskikh stikhir,? in Vizantia, iuzhnie slaviane i Drevniaia Rus. Zapadnaia Evropa. Iskusstvo i kul?tura (Moscow, 1973), 244-55; Tania Velmans, La peinture murale Byzantine ? la fin du Moyen ?ge (Paris, 1978), 59-97. One twelfth-century manuscript Sinai, Cod. Gr. 418, fol. 15v (Martin, Heavenly Ladder, fig. 179) contains a representation of three men in contemporary clothing of high officials hurriedly approaching the ladder. The visual intrusion of the three secular figures was likely indicating their intention to become monks. 200 Despite the fact that the two Palaeologan monumental ladders vary in subject matter and share different visual contexts, one may conclude that regardless of the differences, the monumental representations of Climacus? Heavenly Ladder in St. George and in Vatopedi were intended to instruct the monastic viewers in virtuous life and never ending striving for spiritual perfection. Stemming from a monastic edifying text, the visualizations of the Heavenly Ladder are clearly intended for monastic audiences and stand out within the two monumental programs as independent and self-contained visual entities. Occupying the spaces of the entire north walls the two compositions indicate a break into the decorative pattern employed in the two nartheces with narrative Gospel scenes above and individual sainted portraits below. In Vatopedi the importance of the Heavenly Ladder is further emphasized by its prominent association with the physical door that leads from the exonarthex to the parecclesion of St. Demetrios. Intentional visual incorporation within the rest of the program is hard to discern if one disregards the play of sight lines that reveals direct link between the secular banquet and the Last Supper. In Omorphokklesia and in the Vatopedi the relationship of the Heavenly Ladder with the rest of the images is somewhat strained and one could speculate that it is the Ladder that is shaping the specific monastic interpretation of the paintings and not vice versa. Some individual features of the two narthex programs, however, underscore the edifying effect of the monumental representations of the Ladder. The moralizing tone of the painting of the Ladder in Omorphokklesia is further elaborated on through its association with the images of Christ?s parables and Healing Miracles, and especially through its spatial relation with the rare portrait of St. Andrew of Crete as an exemplary monk. Its inherently eschatological spirit was especially underlined by the representation 201 of the Last Judgment. The poor state of preservation of the two compositions makes difficult any further speculations about their relationship. The lack of documents pertaining to the monastery at Omorphokklesia and its inhabitants makes it even harder to suggest specific social interpretation for the Heavenly Ladder. The case of the Vatopedi is somewhat different. The rich monastic community, with its considerable number of nobles, was in need of a special visual lesson about the dangers arising from the monks? aristocratic upbringing and the large material fortune of the monastery. Thus the Spiritual ladder and the banquet were associated purposefully to become a powerful visual admonition against the lures of the secular world. The rest of the monumental program, with its underlining Lenten tone, when eating was severely restricted and the cleansing of the soul through spiritual exercises encouraged, further underscores the moralistic tone of the Ladder and the paradoxical nature of the abundant feast. As Sharon Gerstel has pointed out, 71 when looking at the painting in the Vatopedi, one is reminded of an excerpt from a letter of the early fourteenth-century patriarch of Constantinople Athanasios I to the emperor Andronicus II: We should not recline and feast in the enclosures of sacred churches as if they were ?places for drinking bouts,? but should lift up our hands and thoughts to God? 72 Feasting in churches has been recorded since early Christian times, 73 and one wonders if some of the noble brethren of the Vatopedi community participated at some point of their lives in similar gatherings. Like the painting, the text of the letter similarly juxtaposes 71 Gerstel, ?Civic and Monastic Influences on Church Decoration,? 234 n. 61. 72 Athanasios, Patriarch of Constantinople, The Correspondence of Athanasios I, 101, 356-57. 73 Ibid., 356-57. 202 spiritual ascent and bodily delights reflecting a common understanding of the negative effects of worldly pleasures on the soul. What do we learn about the spaces in which these Spiritual Ladders were painted? The significance of the Spiritual Ladder within the architectural and spatial context of the church narthex has been suggested in a later, eighteenth-century source, the Painter?s Manual composed by the Athonite monk Dionysius. 74 Not only was Dionysius an artist, but he must have been familiar with one of the two images under consideration in this chapter, the Ladder in the Vatopedi exonarthex, for it is known that in 1721 he was involved in the decoration of the parecclesion of St. Demetrios to the north of the Vatopedi catholicon. 75 In his work Dionysius suggested that the monastic Ladder of the virtues was painted as if outside of the monastery gates, in a sense equating the actual space where the image appeared to the exterior of the monastic enclosure. 76 The beginning of any spiritual aspiration is thus placed literally at the physical beginning of the monastery paralleling the movement of the soul upwards, towards and closer to God, with a movement in space from outside to inside. Paintings of the Heavenly Ladder in the narthex appear to be particularly appropriate as this is not only the space through which one enters the church, but this is also the space in which part of the rite of initiation of new monks is performed, marking their death to the world and the beginning of their new life as members of the monastic community. 74 Dionysius of Fourna, The Painter?s Manual, 11, 82. 75 Ibid., 11. 76 Ibid., 82. In general, Dionysius did not recommend any particular space, narthex or refectory, for the representation of the Ladder of the virtues. He placed it into a group of subjects that pertain to monastic perfection. One wonders whether the appearance of the Ladder on the exterior of two post-Byzantine churches in Moldavia reflects Dionysius? prescriptions. The concern for space might have also influenced the choice of the exterior walls. 203 The monumental representations of the Ladder are in a sense a paradox, visualizations of an invisible pathway to God, visions achieved through the ascetic exercises and prayers performed in the narthex. Manuel Philes, for example, placed the image of the Ladder at the end of the spiritual trials that he described in a lengthy poem dedicated to Climacus? work. 77 The last four verses entitled E?w t?n ?nodon t?w ?er?w kl?makow, ?On the ascent of the Holy Ladder,? read: ?do? kl?maj, ?nyrvpe, ka? ba?ne pr?sv, ka? g?yen ?rye?w m? straf?w bl?cai m?thn ?pe? se Xrist?w ? brabe?w t?n baym?dvn kale? di'a?to? ka? prote?nei t? st?fh. 78 Look at the ladder, o man, and go up Lift yourself from the ground and do not turn and look with your eyes Because Christ, the judge of the rungs Calls you through the ladder and offers the crown. Here Christ is identified as a judge who awaits the victorious monk. The ladder is the means of communication between the earthly and heavenly realm. Similarly the eleventh- century Princeton Climax, Garrett MS 16, has a full-page illustration of the Ladder at its end (Fig. 88). The miniature complements the representation of the Ladder at the beginning of the book where it illustrates the table of contents (Fig. 93). However, as John Martin has observed, the messages of the two representations are quite different. While in the first image there is a feeling of expectation as the ascent has not yet started, and the group of monks gather around St. John, in the second representation the group has dissolved, some of the monks are represented rushing toward the ladder and others have started the ascent, creating a sense of fulfillment and realization. 79 Building on the 77 Manuel Philes, Carmina, 1: 380-88. 78 Ibid., 388. 204 literary and visual interpretations of the John Climacus? edifying book, the monumental representations of the Heavenly Ladder functioned in similar ways, not only epitomizing the text of this popular manual for monastic behavior, but also providing the means into a different realm. 79 Martin, Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder, 45. 205 CHAPTER 6 SHELTERING THE DIVINE: OLD TESTAMENT IMAGERY IN THE NARTHEX OF THE CHURCH OF THE VIRGIN PERIBLEPTOS IN OHRID The placement of prophetic visions in the subsidiary spaces of Palaeologan churches has a long tradition. The Last Judgment, a visionary image, commonly occupies the western extensions of a number of Middle Byzantine monuments in Northern Greece and Serbia reminding the viewers that the imminence of the day when Christ will appear, not mild and benevolent, but formidable and unforgiving. The representations of this day are literally represented at the door, and by means of its placement they constantly remind to stand on one?s guard, to be vigilant and continuously repentant. The appearance of Old Testament scenes in the subsidiary spaces of a number of Late Byzantine churches warrants special attention. The subsidiary spaces of the Kariye Djami in Constantinople, Holy Apostles, Nicholas Orphanos and the Vlatadon in Thessalonike, St. George in Omorphokklesia, the Protaton and Chilandar on Mount Athos, all contain typological imagery inspired by the narrative of the Old Testament. A number of Serbian churches patronized by king Milutin and his successors demonstrate a similar interest in visualizing the Old Testament. One might ask whether there were specific reasons for patrons and artists to address their audience with such sophisticated typological imagery. How did this imagery reflect the function of nartheces and ambulatories as sites of spiritual preparation and transformation? Should current social and religious problems be taken into consideration to explain the proliferation of Old Testament imagery? 206 This chapter answers these questions by analyzing the narthex program of the church of the Virgin Peribleptos in Ohrid, which is the earliest coherent ensemble of Old Testament imagery (Fig. 94). The church was built and decorated by 1295, as the donor inscription attests, by Progon Zgur, a high Byzantine official of Albanian descent, who was related to the Byzantine emperor Andronicus II. 1 The extensive Old Testament imagery in the narthex has been continuously interpreted in relation to the Virgin and her role in the Incarnation. Building on previous studies I argue that the program of the church narthex emphasizes the importance of sheltering the divine within material and spiritual temples. The iconography and placement of the paintings provided the monastic audience with exemplars of spiritual perfection. To elucidate the reactions of the monastic viewer I employ a wide range of edifying monastic literature and liturgical texts. I suggest that the rise of Hesychasm with its emphasis on prayer and contemplation are instrumental for the understanding of the painted messages in the Peribleptos narthex. The program highlights contemporary theological problems, such as the hypostatic equality and unity of the Trinity, and has an underlying moralistic tone that extols righteousness and ritual purity as essential prerequisites for direct communication with the divine. IMAGES ON THE CEILING A full-length representation of Christ Angel occupies the apex of the domical vault (Fig. 95). He is youthful and wears a light colored antique garment. His hair is long, neatly tucked behind his shoulders and framed by a cruciform halo. In his left hand he holds a 1 Milkovi?-Pepek, Deloto na zografite, 44-48; Tsvetan Grozdanov, Studii za ohridskiot ?ivopis (Skopie, 1990), 84-101. 207 cross and an unfurled and inscribed scroll. His right hand he raises in benediction. The wounds from the Crucifixion are visible on his feet and hands. A circular glory supported by four angels envelopes Jesus? winged figure. A youthful Habakkuk and an elderly Ezekiel occupy the two pendentives to the west (Figs. 96, 97). They similarly hold scrolls and point in awe towards Christ. The scroll of Christ is inscribed with the beginning sentence of Gregory of Nazaianzen?s Second Homily on Easter: SHMERON SVTHRIA TV KOSMV OSOS TE ORATOS KAI OSOS AORATOS [Today salvation is come to the world, to that which is visible, and to that which is invisible]. 2 In the vault above Jesus? circular glory appears another inscription from Gregory?s homily: EPI THS FULAKHS MOU STHSOMAI FHSIN O YAUMASIOS ABBAKOUM [I will stand upon my watch, said the venerable Habakkuk]. On Habakkuk?s scroll are inscribed not the words of his book, but of Gregory?s sermon: KAI ESTIN KAI APESKOPEUSA KAI IDOU ANHR APIBEBIKVS EPI TVN NEFELVN KAI OUTOS UCHLOS SFODRA [And I have taken my stand, and behold a man riding on the clouds and he is exceedingly tall]. The scroll of Ezekiel is inscribed with a line from his book (Ezek. 1:4): KAI IDOU PNEUMA EJAIRON HRXETO APO BORRA, KAI NEFELH MEGALH EN AUTV [I looked and I saw a wind storm coming out of the north, and a big cloud in it]. The importance given to the text of Gregory?s homily might be due to the fact that the homonymous church of the Virgin 2 Some scholars (Andr? Grabar, ?Sur les sources des peintures byzantins des XIII e et XIV e si?cle,? CA 12 [1961], 378; Milkovi?-Pepek, Deloto na zografite, 81) have associated the words on Jesus? scroll with the beginning of the Easter Cannon of St. John of Damascus. Sirarpie Der Nersessian (?Note sur quelques images se rattachant au theme du Christ-Ange,? CA 13 [1962], 215) identified these words with the beginning of St. Gregory?s Second Easter Homily. 208 Peribleptos in Constantinople had the relics of the saint, and in the Palaeologan period they were intensely venerated. 3 The patron Progon Zgur was thus strengthening his associations with the Byzantine capital and one of its most famous monasteries frequented in the Palaeologan period by the imperial court. The messages of the central composition of Christ Angel with angels and prophets are multifaceted and are related simultaneously to the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Last Judgment. Christ is here the eternal Logos and the Wisdom of God, the incarnated Emmanuel and the formidable judge of the Second Coming. The iconographic sources of the Peribleptos composition should be sought in both manuscript illumination and monumental painting. Several of its elements can be traced back to the Komnenian period?the youthful Christ in majesty is a prominent theme of twelfth- century Gospel frontispieces. 4 The association of the youthful Christ with angels is highlighted in two Middle Byzantine copies of Gregory?s homilies and in two late eleventh-century churches in Cappadocia emphasizing his role as a mediator between Heaven and Earth. 5 At the same time he is conceived of as a messianic figure and an awesome Savior who will rule at the end of time. 6 The frontispiece of Gregory?s Second Easter homily in a fourteenth-century lavishly decorated manuscript, Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 543, closely 3 Majeska, Russian Travelers, 276-83. 4 Annemarie W. Carr, ?Gospel Frontispieces from the Comnenian Period,? Gesta 21/1 (1982), 3-20, esp. 7- 16. 5 On the relationship between angels and Christ Emmanuel in the Middle Byzantine period, see Galavaris, Gregory Nazianzenus, figs. 181, 379; Der Nersessian, ?Note sur quelques images,? 212-14; Restle, Byzantine Wall Painting in Asia Minor, 2: figs. 195, 220; Rossitza B. Roussanova, ?Images of Christ in Karanlik Kilise? (M.A. Thesis, Southern Methodist University, 1999), 16-29. 6 Carr, ?Gospel Frontispieces,? 10. 209 resembles the representation in the Peribleptos (Fig. 98). Here a youthful winged Christ is represented amidst angels with his right hand raised and holding a unfurled scroll in his left. A circular glory, with rays emanating from it, envelops the angelic group. St. Gregory to the left and Habakkuk to the right frame the vision. As in the Peribleptos they both stand on top of mountainous landscapes; one?s physical elevation frequently guarantees a glimpse of the divine. The meaning of this composition is furthered by the representation in the lower portion of the frontispiece. Here an angel, a substitute for Christ, is chaining Hades in the Underworld and trampling over his doors in a manner very similar to the representations of the Anastasis. The angelic wings replaced the commonly floating garments at the moment when Jesus plucks Adam out of his coffin. A number of dead people are represented already risen from their coffins. 7 The miniature does not exactly conform to Gregory?s text; it illustrates the content and the rejuvenating spirit of Easter. The relationship between Christ Angel in Peribleptos and in Paris 543 is striking, and reveals a common vision of Jesus? salvific mission through his Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. The marks from his violent death indicate the corporal reality of his presence and exalt human flesh; assumed by the winged Christ it is liberated from the limits of earthly existence and is given elevated status. In Byzantine thought angels are incorporeal and invisible; the image of Christ Angel with the marks of the Crucifixion is thus a paradox. 8 It is the ultimate exaltation of the body, which here attained angelic status. It is also this image that to a great degree determines the messages 7 Galavaris, Gregory Nazianzenus, 77-78, 125. 8 On crucified angels see Mango, Art of the Byzantine Empire, 175. 210 of the frescoed program of the narthex of the accommodation and circumscribing of the spiritual and the divine within the material world. The image of Christ Angel is intimately associated with the image of the Christ Emmanuel and thus with the Incarnation. The central placement of the Nativity Hymn in the east wall program of the Peribleptos narthex exalts the mystery of God?s donning human flesh. The painters of the stylistically related church of Bogorodica Levi?ka in Prizren similarly associated Christ Emmanuel with the Incarnation. In the exonarthex, a youthful Christ encircled by a luminous glory is painted in grisaille as an attribute of the winged personification of Truth (Fig. 99). The source of this image is a line from the hymns sung right before the Nativity sticheron. 9 Close parallels to the representation of the Christ Angel in the Peribleptos church that reveal how the Orthodox audience perceived the image of youthful Christ are found in Palaeologan painting and embroidery. 10 To mention only two examples, in De?ani and on the so-called Vatican sakkos, Christ Emmanuel appears at the center of the expanded composition of the Last Judgment and is thus given royal and judicial qualities (Figs. 100, 101). 11 The representation of Christ identified as [t]? ?n Lat?mou ya?ma [of the miracle at Latomos] on the double-sided fourteenth-century icon from Poganovo further elucidates the meaning of the Peribleptos Christ Angel and suggests possible local 9 Pani? and Babi?, Bogorodica Levi?ka, 74, 138-39. 10 Grabar, ?Sur les sources des peintures byzantins,? 378-80; Liuben Prashkov, Hreliovata kula: istoria architectura zhivopis (Sofia, 1973), 23-40; Patrick Lecaque, ?The Monastery of Rila during the XIV th Century and the Wall Paintings of the Tower of Hreljo,? Macedonian Studies 5/3-4 (1988), 3-49, esp. 14- 19; Gabeli?, Lesnovo, 190-91, fig. 97. 11 Alexandra Temerinski, ?Tsiklus Stra?nog Suda,? in Zidno slikarstvo manastira De?ana, 191-211, esp. 193; Evans, ed., Byzantium, 300-301. 211 sources for the image (Fig. 102). On this icon the figure of Christ is associated with the Crucifixion and the Resurrection as well as with the Second Coming. 12 This image was a copy and a reinterpretation of the early Christian mosaic in the Thessalonikan church of Hosios David (Fig. 103). 13 It is very likely that the image of the angel-like Christ in the narthex of the Peribleptos is similarly inspired by the Thessalonikan representation, which was a model for other monumental images in the Middle and Late Byzantine period as well. 14 As in the Peribleptos, the hands and feet of the Christ on the Poganovo icon bear the marks of the Crucifixion; 15 his right hand is similarly raised in benediction and in his left hand he has a scroll inscribed with a line from the book of Isaiah (25:9): ?Behold our God in whom we hope and rejoice in our salvation, he will give rest to this house.? He sits on a rainbow and is surrounded by a circular glory of alternating blue hues with the symbols of the Evangelists emerging from it. On a mountainous landscape in the lower portion of the icon Ezekiel and Habakkuk appear. The latter supports an open book on his lap, its inscription borrowed from Ezekiel (3:1): ?You son of a man! Eat this scroll.? The compositions of a youthful Christ amidst angels, evangelist symbols, and prophets focus on the glorified figure of Christ Emmanuel, the eternal Logos and 12 Gordana Babi?, ?Sur l?ic?ne de Poganovo et la vasilissa H?l?ne,? in L?art de Thessalonique, 63-66; Evans, ed., Byzantium, 198-99 (with additional bibliography); Bissera V. Pentcheva, ?Imagined Images: Visions of Salvation and Intercession in a Double-Sided Icon from Poganovo,? DOP 54 (2000), 141-45. 13 On this mosaic, see Euthymios Tsigaridas, Latomou Monastery (The Church of Hosios David) (Thessalonike, 1988), 36-50. 14 Elka Bakalova, Bachkovskata kostnitsa (Sofia, 1977), 64-72, figs. 34-37. An unpublished image in the exonarthex of the church of St. George at Omorphokklesia also contains a fragmentary image inspired by the mosaic of Hosios David. 15 Further association with the Crucifixion is provided by the figures of the Virgin and the evangelist John on the opposite side of the panel, see Andr? Grabar, ?A propos d?une ic?ne byzantine du XIV e si?cle au Mus?e de Sofia,? CA 10 (1959), 300; Pentcheva, ?Double-Sided Icon from Poganovo,? 141-42. 212 incarnated Wisdom of God. The large number of Late Byzantine images concerned with visualizing the glory of the pre-eternal Word and associating it with the earthly life of the Savior leave open the question of the sources for the representation of Christ Angel in the narthex of the Peribleptos church. Indeed there is no one source and no one particular message intended. Through visual clues and inscriptions the image is tied to Gregory?s Easter homily and to the celebrations of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. This is the prophetic image of the Angel of the Great Counsel identified by Isaiah (9:6): ?[the Angel] announced to the people the eternal council of the Father?[he announced] the mystery of his divine Incarnation and his unspoken and supernatural Resurrection.? 16 At the end of the thirteenth century Manuel Philes incorporated in his works a short poem by Christopher of Mitylene which associated the image of the Angel of the Great Council with the Annunciation: ?Hggeilen u??n ?ggelow t? pary?n?, Patr?w meg?sthw boul?w ?ggelon m?gan. 17 The Angel announced to the Virgin the Son of the Father, the Angel of the Great Counsel. The association of the young Christ with the Angel of the Great Counsel implies Isaiah?s presence and links it to the purification of Isaiah painted in the upper portion of Ezekiel?s vision of the Closed Door. In fact, the reading from Isaiah 9:6 is included in the vespers for the month of December in anticipation of Christ?s birth?the main theme of the Peribleptos program. Ezekiel, who does not commonly appear in the illustrations of Gregory?s Second Easter homily, and Isaiah?s suggested presence evoke the mosaic in 16 John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 221. 17 Manuel Philes, Carmina, 1: 3. 213 the apse of Hosios David in Thessalonike, which might have informed the iconographic solutions of the two painters who worked in the Peribleptos. 18 Later post-1295 examples demonstrate a continuous association of a glorified Christ Emmanuel, of which Christ Angel is, I believe, a variation, with messianic themes and expectations. The idea is already present in Gregory?s Second Easter homily and in the visions of Ezekiel or Isaiah, which, since the Middle Byzantine period, inspired the images of the youthful Christ in majesty. Habakkuk?s prophecy was given importance in the celebrations of Lent. It is meaningfully reinterpreted in the Lenten Triodion, in the texts of the Sunday Matins in the third Lenten week, where the prophet is identified as the angel who announces the Resurrection of Christ: The inspired prophet Habakkuk now stands with us in holy vigil. He is like a shining angel who cries with a piercing voice: Today is salvation come to the world for Christ is risen as all powerful! 19 This text from the Lenten celebrations demonstrates how Habakkuk would have been interpreted by a monastic audience. He is vigilant, a quintessential monastic virtue, and is assimilated with angels, the ultimate goal of monastic existence. 20 An unpublished image in the ceiling not only has an eschatological meaning but also relates to the overall message about the importance of material manifestations of the divine. The Hand of God holding the souls of the righteous is depicted on one of the ribbed vaults in the southeast corner. This is a representation of God?s right hand with a 18 The main study on Michael and Euthicius is by Milkovi?-Pepek, Deloto na zografite. For a summary of the literature on the two painters see Grozdanov, Studii za ohridskiot ?ivopis, 84-101. 19 Lenten Triodion, 340. 20 For Habakkuk and monastic vigilance see, Theoleptos of Philedelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 123. 214 number of babies in it wrapped in white swaddling clothes, a symbol of their innocence. The image is inspired by a verse of Solomon?s Book of Wisdom (3:1): ?But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and the tortures of death shall not touch them.? As will become clear below Solomon?s texts received special treatment in the narthex of the Peribleptos; there passages of three of his works?the Proverbs, the Wisdom, and the Song of Songs?were visualized. Did the patron seek a special relation to Solomon?s refined taste, building activities, and wise judgment? Solomon?s importance seems to have been on the rise in the Early Palaeologan period?in the paintings of the parecclesion of the Constantinopolitan Chora and of the south ambulatory of the Holy Apostles in Thessalonike the imagery related to Solomon?s Temple is especially prominent. 21 The representation of the Hand of God with the souls of the righteous symbolizes salvation. Naturally, this is the right hand, the one that defines God?s better and more benevolent side. 22 To those who live virtuously it promises eternal bliss. 23 The spatial and iconographic setting of the image in Peribleptos is of special importance. It is part of the ceiling?s decoration which, as discussed above, has clear eschatological connotations. Indeed, it is in such eschatological context that the Hand of God appears most frequently, as in the Chora parecclesion, in the church of the Annunciation in Gra?anica, and St. 21 Der Nersessian, ?Program and Iconography of Parecclesion,? 338-43; Underwood, Kariye Djami 3: 453- 60; Henry Maguire, Art and Eloquence in Byzantium (Princeton, 1981), 58-59; Stephan, Apostelkirche, 122-27, figs. 79-83. My discussion of the possible meaning of these images follows below. 22 See, for example, John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 145-46; Michael Psellus, Bogoslovskie sochinenia, trans. Archimandrite Amvrosii (St. Petersburg, 1998), 303. 23 For this reason the image appears in a funerary context above the arcosolium in the narthex of the Virgin church at Studenica and in the illustration of the death of Tzar Ivan Alexander in the Bulgarian Chronicle of Manases (ca. 1245). See Janko Radovanovi?, ?Ikonografska istra?ivania Minheskog srpskog Psaltira,? ZLU 14 (1978), 118. 215 Nikola Bolni?ki in Ohrid. 24 In Byzantine exegesis the righteous in the Hand of God are associated with light which characterizes also the image of Christ Angel. 25 The uniformly appearing souls are one of the two anonymous multitudes in the Peribleptos narthex; the other consists of the youths that guard Solomon?s bed painted on the west wall. 26 The Hand of God with the souls is depicted in the southeast corner above the Temple vision of Ezekiel and the House of Sophia. Perhaps the inspiration for this spatial association is Psalm 23, 27 in which the worshiper expresses the desire not merely to go to the temple, but to spend his whole life in it: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. In these verses the temple is a refuge, a site to satiate one?s needs. In the Peribleptos the table set by the Sophia provides the necessary nourishment while Ezekiel?s temple provides the shelter. However, not everyone was allowed to seek refuge and to remain in the Temple, only those who are righteous find rest in it. 28 The rest of the images in the 24 Der Nersesian, ?Program and Iconography of Parecclesion,? 331; Grozdanov, Ohridsko zidno slikarstvo, 44. 25 John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 150. 26 The souls are usually painted awake and alert like the guards in Solomon?s bridal chamber, Stephan, Apostelkirche, fig. 27. 27 Psalm 23 in the Serbian Psalter, fol. 33 r. is illustrated with the Hand of God placed above a lush garden, see Radovanovi?, ?Ikonografska istra?ivania,? 116-23; Hans Belting et al., Der Serbische Psalter. Faksimile-Augsgabe des Cod. Slav. 4 der bayerischen Staatsbibliothek M?nchen, 2 Vols. (Wiesbaden, 1978), 1: 199-200, 2: 33. The representation of the Hand of God with the souls of the righteous is painted in a similar paradisiacal context in the church at Manasija above Chirst Anapeson. See Der Nersessian, ?Program and Iconography of Parecclesion,? 332, fig. 10. 28 Jon D. Levenson, ?The Jerusalem Temple in Devotional and Visionary Experience,? in Jewish Spirituality. From the Bible through the Middle Ages, ed. Arthur Green (New York, 1986), 39-46. In Christian exegesis the souls of the righteous were identified with those thirsty and hungry in the fourth beatitude ?blessed as those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled? (Matt. 5:6). See, for example, Philotheos Kokkinos, Logoi kai homilies, 170. 216 narthex suggest ways to obtain spiritual perfection in order to find rest in the right Hand of God. IMAGES ON THE EAST WALL Three scenes are painted on the east wall of the narthex. The main theme of the representations is the adoration of the divine through its material, visible manifestations. A place of prominence is given to the representation of the Nativity Hymn in the lunette above the entrance into the naos (Fig. 104). While here the divine is worshiped in its most tangible and comprehensive human form, in the images to the left and to the right its presence is only implied, because it inhabits a number of inanimate objects. 29 To the left of the visualization of the Nativity Hymn Moses and Aaron in the Tabernacle are painted and to the right three priests officiate before the Closed Door described in the vision of the Prophet Ezekiel. The image of the Tabernacle in the Peribleptos is one of the earliest monumental visualizations of the subject (Fig. 105). Moses and Aaron are represented within the confines of an embroidered tent. They are dressed as Jewish high priests; Moses has an incense burner in his right hand, while Aaron swings a censer with his left. Between the two of them a table is represented covered with a cloth adorned in the middle with a medallion of the Virgin. On top of the table a jeweled box, the Ark of the Covenant, is depicted as well as the vase with the manna; Mary?s portrait is again seen on it. To the right, next to Aaron, a large lamp stand rises, the Virgin is depicted at its the base. Two cherubim fill the upper portion of the Tabernacle. In the contemporary image of the 29 On the iconography of the Nativity Hymn, see Djuri?, ?Portrety v izobrazheniakh,? 244-55; M. A Orlova, ?O formirovanii ikonografii Rozhdestvenskoii stikhiry ?Chto ti prinesem, Khriste??? in Drevnerusskoe iskusstvo. Balkany. Rus (St. Petersburg, 1995), 127-41. 217 Tabernacle in the Protaton Church on Mount Athos the Ark of the Covenant is conspicuously omitted (Fig. 106). Its presence in Peribleptos further highlights the importance of the material accommodations for God. The representation is based on the fortieth book of Exodus, which contains God?s instructions for the installation and the sanctification of the Tabernacle, and on the eighth, ninth, and tenth books of Leviticus, which relate the consecration of Aaron and his sons in the priesthood. The subject became especially popular in the art of the Palaeologan period. 30 It is traditionally discussed as one of the Old Testament prefigurations of the Virgin, and the medallion images of Mary incorporated on the various elements of the Tabernacle, confirm such an interpretative possibility. The Tabernacle was included in the prothesis in De?ani in a lengthy cycle dedicated to the life of Mary. 31 In liturgical poetry the Virgin is identified with the implements in the Holy of Holies. 32 Another reason for the proliferation of representations of the Tabernacle might be the heightened interest in the priestly aspect of Christ during the Palaeologan period. 33 The meanings of the Tabernacle within the Peribleptos are defined by the placement of the image in the narthex, by one of the predominant themes of the painted program about constructing a sanctuary for the divine, and by the spiritual needs of a monastic audience. The Tabernacle is inevitably associated with any church building, being the first sanctuary constructed with God?s direct intervention and accommodating a 30 N. Beljajev, ?Le ?Tabernacle du t?moignage? dans la peinture balkanique du XIV e si?cle,? in L?art byzantin chez les Slaves, Les Balkans (Paris, 1930), 315-24. 31 Mirjana Gligorijevi?-Maksimovi?, ?Skinija u De?anima?poreklo i razvoj ikonografske teme,? in De?ani i vizantijska umetnost sredinom XIV veka, ed. Voislav Djuri? (Belgrade, 1989), 317, fig. 1. 32 Ibid., 323; Gabeli?, Lesnovo, 175-76; John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 104-105. 33 Dragan Vojvodovi?, ?O likovima starozaventih prvosve?tenika u vizantijskom zidnom slikarstvu s kraja XIII veka,? ZRVI 37 (1998), 121-53, esp. 134-39. 218 divinely sanctioned ritual. In the Old Testament it was God?s dwelling on earth, and the visible manifestation of the relationship between God and his chosen people. 34 It captured and ensured the constant presence of YHWH. This presence was, however, contingent upon the correct observance of commandments, moral and ritual. God reveals himself in the Tabernacle, but only to those worthy of the vision. 35 This theme of moral exclusivity is implied in the vault paintings, and more specifically in the representation of the Hand of God?only the righteous find rest in it. In Byzantine exegetical literature the Tabernacle was interpreted as a prefiguration of the Church and its salvific mysteries. In several fourteenth-century monuments it occurs in the apse as a backdrop to the Eucharist celebrated there. 36 Images with eucharistic overtones in the narthex are, however, not unusual. In fact, at least one other theme in the Peribleptos narthex?Sophia Built Herself a House?was represented in the altar apse of another church. Such imagery only confirms my contention that the narthex, like the apse, was a site of profound transformation. The Tabernacle is evoked in the rites for consecration of an Orthodox church, and, as it will become clear below, church ktetors tried to fashion themselves as imitators of Moses. 37 The Tabernacle was also considered a reflection of the heavenly structure shown to Moses on Mount Sinai. It had spiritual dimensions; Gregory of Nyssa, for 34 Levenson, ?Jerusalem Temple,? 34-39. 35 Ibid., 35. 36 Gligorijevi?-Maksimovi?, ?Skinija u De?anima,? 331. See also Branislav Todi?, ?Tradition et innovations dans le programme et l?iconographie des fresques de De?ani,? in De?ani i vizantijska umetnost sredinom XIV veka, ed. Voislav Djuri? (Belgrade, 1989), 260-61. 37 Andrew Palmer and Lyn Rodley, ?The Inauguration Anthem of Hagia Sophia in Edessa: A New Edition and Translation with Historical and Architectural Notes and a Comparison with a Contemporary Constantinopolitan Kontakion,? BMGS 12 (1988), 142; Stefano Parenti and Elena Velkovska, L?Eucologio Barberini Gr. 336 (Rome, 1995), 162; Symeon Thessalonikes, Ta apanta, 133. 219 example, discussed it as a mystical apparition understood only by those who ?have the Spirit.? 38 Gregory is the first theologian to identify the Tabernacle with Christ ?who in his own nature was not made in hands, yet capable of being made when it became necessary for this tabernacle to be erected among us.? 39 This exegesis of Moses? Tabernacle as a symbol for the Incarnation was carried over in the Palaeologan period: ?as the Tabernacle was built by Moses?in the Holy Spirit, so much more was the Church of Christ built and founded by divine grace?typifying his most holy body, formed in the Virgin? 40 Gregory Palamas interpreted the Mosaic tabernacle as a site of divine presence and a symbol of the Incarnation: ?the hypostasized power of God would one day permit itself to be lodged in a tabernacle, and that the superessential and formless Word would attach itself to a form and to an essence. 41 In Late Byzantine exegesis Moses? Tabernacle, Christ?s body, and the Church are equated. In the representation of Moses? tabernacle the idea of Christ?s Conception, so prevalent in the narthex program of the Peribleptos, is expressed through specific iconographic details. The round vase with an image of the Virgin implies the presence of Christ within her?she is the container and he its divine contents. The Virgin was compared to the candlestick, and its light to the material manifestation of the Holy Spirit. 42 Images of the Virgin overshadowed by small globules of fire signify the 38 Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses, trans. Abraham J. Majherbe and Everett Ferguson (New York, Ramsey, Toronto, 1978), 98. 39 Ibid., 98, 180 n. 221. 40 Symeon of Thessalonike, Treatise on Prayer, 83. 41 Cited in Meyendorff, Gregory Palamas, 195. 42 Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses, 100. 220 Annunciation. 43 In the Peribletos image Mary at the base of the seven-branched candlestick is literally overshadowed by the lit candles above, and thus symbolically by the Spirit. In monastic spirituality the earthy Tabernacle was only pointing to the mystical one; it was considered a contemplative device that led to higher knowledge. 44 Only those who in the present life attained divine wisdom could enter the symbolic tabernacle set by Christ himself. 45 The painted Tabernacle thus triggered a number of multilayered associations?it prefigured the Church and the Incarnation, it was the place of divine presence and a site of divine revelations, in front of which only righteous people were allowed. Through specific iconographic details it recalls the Annunciation and the Conception, for as the Tabernacle was filled with divine presence, so was the Virgin pregnant with Christ. Moses? and Aaron?s ritual actions associate the image with the priests in Ezekiel?s Temple vision painted on the same wall; they also represent an important aspect of the relationship between humanity and God?it can be maintained only through certain prescribed observances. In a similar fashion through prayer and penance the monastic audience would prepare to unite with the divine, as the Virgin did in the Annunciation. Meditations on the Tabernacle lead to visions of a transcendent spiritual realm. Ezekiel?s vision of the Closed Door (Ezek. 44:1-4) is painted in the south end of the east wall (Fig. 107). The composition derives from a longer description of the New 43 Cotsonis, ?The Virgin with the ?Tongues of Fire?,? 221-27. 44 For the contemplative function of the tabernacle in monastic culture, see Carruthers, Craft of Thought, 246-54. 45 Philokalia, 4: 220. 221 Temple of Zion revealed to the prophet (Ezek. 40-48), and promised to the chosen people. In Byzantine exegesis the Temple and the material sacrifices offered at its altar stood for the spiritual offerings of the New Dispensation; in those interpretations the Christians replace the Jews as chosen people. 46 In Peribleptos we see a combination of Ezekiel?s vision of the Closed Door and of the priests presenting offerings at the altar of the New Temple (Ezek. 43:27). In the left half of the composition four figures appear. Three of them are commonly, and perhaps mistakenly, identified as Aaron and His Sons. They wear the robes of Jewish high priests. 47 They support small incense boxes with the left hands and swing censers with their right. Incense is given a place of prominence, perhaps because in Christian exegesis incense was a common simile for prayer. The figure of the Prophet Ezekiel is in the corner; he raises his right hand in a gesture of speech and with his left hand holds a scroll inscribed with the words of his vision (Ezek. 44:2) H [PULH AU]TH KE[KLEIS]MENH ESTA[I], OUK ANOIXYHSETAI, KA[I]?[This gate is to remain shut. It must not be opened]. A basilica appears to the right. Two marble columns flank a closed door in the middle of which a medallion with the Virgin is painted. To the far right a cherubim is represented, and to the left, behind the priests, another winged creature is seen. The appearance of these creatures is inspired by Isaiah?s vision of the enthroned Lord surrounded by the Heavenly powers (Isaiah 6:2). In the upper portion of 46 Der Nersessian, ?Program and Iconography of Parecclesion,? 348; Gudrun Engberg, ??Aaron and His Sons??A Prefiguration of the Virgin,? DOP 21 (1967), 281-82. 47 The three priests have been misidentified as Aaron and his sons by Paul Underwood in his discussion of the representation of the vision of Ezekiel in the Chora parecclesion which has three priests officiating in front of an altar, with the closed door completely omitted. Underwood (Kariye Djami, 1:236-37) thought that the painting was inspired by Exodus 29 and Leviticus 9, both of which deal with the priestly duties of Aaron and his progeny. Gudrun Engberg (?Aaron and His Sons,? 281) reconsidered the partial inscription and discovered that this was in fact a citation from Ezekiel 43:27 ?At the end of these days, from the eight day on, the priests are to present your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar.? 222 the composition Isaiah himself is represented being fed by a seraphim a live coal (Isaiah 6:6-7). A badly damaged identifying inscription reads: PROFH[THS...] TON YEION A[NYRAKA...] [prophet?of the holy coal]. Byzantine theologians and modern art historians have continuously associated the image of the Closed Door with the Virgin and the miraculous conception of Christ. A line from the Second Canon for Christmas Orthros states that God has ?newly appeared from the closed gate.? 48 In a long excursus intended to convince a Jew that the Old Testament prefigures the New, John Cantacuzenus associated Ezekiel?s Closed Door with Mary and her role in the Incarnation. 49 In fourteenth-century art Ezekiel frequently appears in a Marian context holding a scroll inscribed with the vision of the door, as in the dome of the Peribleptos church at Mystra; in some cases the door was painted next to him, as in the church of St. George in Staro Nagori?ino and in the Cypriot church at Assinou. 50 Marian dimensions were also assigned to the episode with Isaiah being fed the live coal; according to various interpretations the tongs prefigured the Virgin and the coal Christ. 51 In scholarly literature the Marian interpretations of the monumental representations of the Closed Door overshadowed any other metaphorical associations and interpretative possibilities. In the Peribleptos painting the Virgin is not that prominent, and some of its iconographic peculiarities could not be explained in relation to 48 The Festal Menaion, trans. Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware, 283. 49 John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 205-206. For other examples of associations of Mary with Ezekiel?s Closed Door, see Sophronios Eustratiades, H? Theotokos en t? hymnographia (Paris, 1930), s.v. p?lh; Gordana Babi?, ?L?image symbolique de la ?Porte Ferm?e? a Saint-Cl?ment d?Ochrid,? in Synthronon. Art et Arch?ologie de la fin de l?Antiquit? et du Moyen ?ge (Paris, 1968), 147-51. 50 Babi?, ?L?image symbolique,? fig. 2; Doula Mouriki, ?Hai biblikai proeikoniseis t? s Panagias eis ton troullon t? s Peribleptou tou Mystra,? AD 25 (1970), 232-33, fig. 84. 51 Eustratiades, Theotokos, s.v. lab?w; Der Nersessian, ?Program and Iconography of Parecclesion,? 347. 223 her. Several unusual details of the image warrant additional attention?the number and actions of the priests, the type of the building chosen to represent the Temple of the vision, and the curious incorporation of Isaiah?s purification. Three Jewish priests appear in the later fresco of the Closed Door in the ambulatory of the Virgin Pammakaristos in Constantinople (Fig. 108) and in the south ambulatory of the Holy Apostles in Thessalonike. 52 In the Chora parecclesion the priests are depicted officiating in front of an altar, while Mary and the closed door are completely omitted. 53 The number of the priests depicted is significant because the text of Ezekiel?s prophecy does not mention anything about how many they were. Perhaps the number three was intended to recall Aaron and his two sons, but it is quite possible that the three Magi were also intentionally evoked. Indeed, Paul Underwood and Gudrun Engeberg have noted that the group of the three priests in the Chora is arranged in a way as to evoke the Magi offering their gifts to the child Christ. 54 The same is true for the officiating priests in the Pammakaristos frescoes. Three is a significant number in Peribleptos narthex: three servants attend to the Wisdom on the south wall and a three- headed personification of the Trinity, and three armed guards appear in the bed chamber of king Nebuchadnezzar on the north wall. The vision of Isaiah before his purification with the live coal was considered a reflection of the Trinitarian mystery. 55 The three Magi, as well as three shepherds, pay homage to the enthroned Virgin and Child in the 52 Stephan, Apostelkirche, 138-41, fig. 88. Here the textile cover of the altar bears an image of the Virgin. 53 Underwood, Kariye Djami, 1: 235-36, 3:466-68. 54 Ibid., 1: 236; Engberg, ?Aaron and His Sons,? 281. 55 ?But what else did Isaiah see if not a reflection of the mysterious Trinity?? (John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 173). See also, Symeon of Thessalonike, Treatise of Prayer, 35 (on the angelic hymn ?Holy, holy, holy?). 224 representation of the Nativity Hymn, painted on the same east wall, to the left of Ezekiel?s vision. Visual evidence from the late thirteenth and fourteenth century demonstrates that the three Magi provided examples for correct worship. Thus, in the early fourteenth- century marginal Psalter at the Walters Museum, W.333, fol. 52r Psalm 86:9 ?All nations whom thou has made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify your name? is illustrated with a symmetrical composition of Christ in the middle and blessing and representatives of the different peoples bent in adoration that recalls the Magi (Fig. 109). 56 The representation of Ezekiel?s vision purposefully evokes the neighboring imagery; the three priests are likened to the three Magi in the Nativity Hymn, and they perform actions, such as those carried out by Moses and Aaron in the Tabernacle. The building of the Tabernacle assured the presence of the divine amidst the chosen people, while the rebuilding of Ezekiel?s Temple was a promise that this presence would return once again. The restoration of the Temple was, however, possible only after a period of contrition. 57 It required atonement and spiritual purification, for God withdrew his support and let the Jews fall into Babylonian captivity because of their innumerable sins. The incorporation of Isaiah strengthens the penitential character of the painting, for the prophet was enabled to speak of the mysteries he saw only after he was cleansed from his 56 On this Psalter, see Anthony Cutler, ?The Marginal Psalter in the Walters Art Gallery. A Reconsideration,? JWAG 35 (1977), 36-61; Evans, ed. Byzantium, 274-76 (with additional bibliography). Similar illustrations appear in the related late fourteenth-century Kiev marginal Psalter, St. Petersburg, Public Library, OLDP F6, fols. 29r, 119r (Kievskaia Psaltyr 1397 goda [Moscow, 1978]). In earlier Middle Byzantine illustrations to this psalm the nations are arranged in ways that do not recall the Magi, see Dufrenne, L?Illustation des psauters grecs, pl. 18; Der Nersessian, L?Illustation des psauters grecs, fig. 189. 57 Carruthers, The Craft of Thought, 232, 241-43. 225 sinfulness. This essentially Eucharistic image functioned as an archetype of the Communion. 58 While the narthex was clearly not the place to receive Communion it was the place to prepare for it by obtaining dispensation. The inclusion of Isaiah?s purification within the representation of Ezekiel?s eschatological Temple requires further explanation. The visions of both Ezekiel and Isaiah were interpreted in relation to the Virgin and her role in the Incarnation. Thus the two prophets appear in close proximity in the scene of Mary?s Dormition in the church of St. George at Staro Nagori?ino. 59 Here, Ezekiel?s is represented with the Closed Door and Isaiah is with the tongs with the coal; the tongs here took the curious shape of a liturgical spoon pointing to the inherent Eucharistic significance of the image. The depiction of Isaiah being fed a live coal commonly accompanies the vision but is marginal in comparison. In Peribleptos however it fits a decorative pattern where two prophets share the same vision; thus the Angel Christ painted in the domical vault is seen simultaneously by Habakkuk and Ezekiel. Such ?double? visions occur also in two fourteenth-century manuscripts, the Bulgarian Tomich Psalter fol. 129r and the Serbian Munich Psalter, fol. 98v (Fig. 110). 60 In these manuscripts the vision of the two prophets fills a whole page illustrating Psalm 77. Isaiah and Ezekiel are represented reclining, the typical postures of meditation. Ultimately, the idea of dual participation in a similar vision goes back to the 58 Jacqueline Lafontaine-Dosogne, ?Th?ophanies-visions auxquelles participent les proph?tes dans l?art byzantin apr?s la restauration des images,? in Synthronon. Art et arch?ologie de la fin de l?Antiquit? et du Moyen ?ge (Paris, 1968), 135-43; Jolivet-L?vy, Les ?glises byzantines de Cappadoce, 337-40; Brubaker, Vision and Meaning, 281-84. It is hardly coincidental that the elements of the Eucharist were compared to the live coal, as their primary function was to sanctify and purify those who partake, see Germanos of Constantinople, On the Divine Liturgy, trans. Paul Meyendorff (Crestwood, N.Y., 1984), 97. 59 Todi?, Staro Nagori?ino, fig. 26. 60 Axinia Djurova, Tomichov Psaltir, 2 Vols. (Sofia, 1990), 1: 102-103; Hans Belting et al., Der Serbische Psalter, 2: 120. 226 Early Christian apse mosaic in the church of Hosios David in Thessalonike, which may have been known to the painters Michael and Eutichius. In the Peribletos narthex, the inclusion of Isaiah ties the image of Ezekiel?s vision of the Closed Door to the paintings in the ceiling and its main theme of Jesus? glory. Isaiah was one of the prophets granted a vision of God?s heavenly glory (Isaiah 6:1-4) immediately before the purification with the live coal, and at the very beginning of the prophet?s commission. The cleansing of Isaiah allowed him to act as a mediator and to deliver to the people God?s message about the coming of the Messiah. In the Palaeologan period this seems to have been one of the preferred representations of the prophet. It appears, for example, in the south ambulatory of the church of the Holy Apostles in Thessalonike without the representation of his formidable vision. 61 In the Peribleptos painting Isaiah?s body hovers above and beyond the enclosure of Ezekiel?s temple. Was the artist suggesting that the prophet is inside the temple? The verse that precedes the moment of the purification relates that the hymn sung by the heavenly powers caused ?the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke? (6:4). When Isaiah experienced his vision the imagery that adorned the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple literally came to life for God was continually present in it. 62 Seeing the arrangement of the Holy of Holies and the vision of higher reality blended. The medieval mind would have easily made an intellectual leap converting the doors of Ezekiel?s temple into the doors of the temple where Isaiah saw the heavenly apparition. The smoke from the censors swung by the three priests would have recalled the smoke that filled the temple in Isaiah?s vision. The purification of the temple they were performing and the purification of Isaiah are parallel actions; the 61 Stephan, Apostelkirche, 127-29, figs. 84 and 84a. 62 Levenson, ?Jerusalem Temple,? 54-55. 227 purging of an individual and the sanctification of a building are assimilated. The human body is a dwelling place of the divine as the temple is a house of God. The depiction of the Closed Door invites a number of architectural associations. The building chosen to represent the Temple is of a basilical type, therefore not intended to recall a centralized domed church such as the Peribleptos. In the context of the narthex?s program the Temple of Ezekiel?s vision is closely associated with the classicizing building painted on the south wall behind the seated figure of Sophia. The identical building type serves thus as a connective tissue between the two representations. The viewer familiar with Ezekiel?s prophecy would have also remembered that immediately after the description of the priests officiating at the altar the image of the prince feasting in the gateway of the Temple follows: ?The prince himself is the only one who may sit inside the gateway to eat in the presence of the Lord? (Ezek. 44:3). This is essentially the image on the south wall, with Sophia enthroned at a table placed in front of a building of a type similar to the eschatological Temple of Ezekiel. 63 The image of Ezekiel?s eschatological Temple on Zion on the east wall and of Sophia?s house on the south are further associated. Frequently in Byzantine manuscript 63 The representation of Ezekiel?s vision of the Closed Door in the narthex of the Serbian church of Archangel Michael at Lesnovo (1349) is especially noteworthy for it demonstrates a conscious effort to interpret the vision as Christological, rather than as Marian (Gabeli?, Lesnovo, pl. XLVIII, fig. 98). Some of the pictorial associations are reminiscent of those made in the narthex of the Virgin Peribleptos between the vision and the image of the Sophia. As Smilka Gabeli? (Ibid., 174, 178) has noted, the representation is unique?it features Christ seated at a table with a single piece of bread on it reminiscent of the eucharistic bread. The prophet appears in the right half of the composition. A basilica with a closed door is painted behind him. The image of the Virgin is outlined on the pediment of the building. The identifying Slavonic inscription emphasizes the consumption of food. The representation is clearly based not only on the prophecy of the door, but also on the Christological exegesis of Ezekiel 44:3 of the prince feasting in the gateway of the Temple. Indeed, the site of this painting, above the door and in the narthex, further confirms the relationship between text, image, and architecture. Below this representation appear other typical table and altar implements?a bowl, a vase and a candlestick?drawing the viewer?s attention to banqueting, both real and mystical. 228 illumination Zion is represented as a basilica. 64 Scholars have suggested that these representations evoked one of most prominent medieval buildings in Jerusalem, the basilica on Mount Zion, the material manifestation of the triumph of Christianity over Judaism. 65 In the fourteenth century the basilica was still identified with Zion if one is to judge from the representations in the 1397 Kiev Psalter. On fol. 120r Psalm 86:5: ?Of Zion it will be said, this one and that one were born there,? is illustrated with David praying in front of a basilica with its pediment adorned with an image of the Virgin of the Nikopoia type. 66 The Orthodox audience in the Peribleptos narthex may have perceived topographical and symbolic references to Jerusalem?s sacred geography. It may also have evoked another, local basilica of considerable importance, the cathedral church of Hagia Sophia (Fig. 111). Indeed, Branislav Todi? has recently suggested that the program of the Peribleptos church contains visual references to the foundation and importance of the Ohrid archbishopric. 67 Could it be that Ohrid and her Church were considered the seat of God?s Wisdom? In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century Ohrid?s importance within the Greek Orthodox ecclesiastical hierarchy grew significantly. With the restoration of Constantinople to the Byzantines in 1261, the emperor Michael Palaeologos renewed the 64 Der Nersesian, L?Illustration des psauters grecs, figs. 126, 191, 210; Kathleen Corrigan, Visual Polemics in the Ninth-Century Byzantine Psalters (Cambridge, 1992), 98-99;. 65 Der Nersessian, L?Illustration des psautiers grecs, 66, 85-86; Corrigan, Visual Polemics, 52, 97-101; F. Bourbon and E. Lavagno, The Holy Land. Guide to the Archaeological Sites and Historical Monuments (Vercelli, 2004), 69. In the Bible, Zion is traditionally referred to in royal terms, and identified as God?s dwelling place, see Bruce Metzger and Michael Coogan, eds. The Oxford Companion to the Bible (New York and Oxford, 1993), 830. 66 This image illustrates Ps. 86:5. Kievskaia Psaltyr?, fol. 120r (G. Vzdornov, Izsledovanie o Kievskoii Psaltyri [Moscow, 1978], 130). I was not able to consult the related earlier Walters Psalter because its miniatures have not been fully published. 67 Branislav Todi?, ?Freske u Bogorodici Perivlepti i poreklo Ohridske Arhiepiskopije,? ZRVI 39 (2001- 2002), 147-63. 229 privileges of the Ohrid archbishop, who followed in honor immediately after the patriarchs. The geographic location of the bishopric was especially critical; sandwiched between Byzantium and her ambitious neighbors, Bulgaria and Serbia, it was considered a stronghold of Byzantine orthodoxy and political propaganda. 68 For the court in Constantinople, Ohrid and her Church had symbolic significance as well, for since the twelfth century its diocese was identified with Justiniana Prima, which was founded by the quintessential Byzantine ruler Justinian. 69 The importance of the archbishop of Ohrid is attested in his mediating role during the conflict between Andronicus II and his grandson; in 1327 the emperor sent the bishop Gregory on a diplomatic mission to negotiate with his rival the young Andronicus III. 70 The Constantinopolitan emperors and their relatives endowed a number of church buildings in the city, demonstrating their interest not only in the prosperity of Ohrid?s archbishopric but also in its unfailing support for the Constantinopolitan cause. 71 Perhaps the clergy and the nobility living in Ohrid indeed felt that the Wisdom dwelled among them, settled in the midst of their city in the cathedral church of Hagia Sophia. ?SOPHIA BUILT HERSELF A HOUSE? ON THE SOUTH WALL On the south wall of the narthex the singular image of the Holy Wisdom appears seated at a table in front of a basilica, her house (Fig. 112). Sophia is given royal qualities; she is 68 Ivan Snegarov, Istoria na Ohridskata arhiespikopia, 2 Vols. (Sofia, 1924), 1: 157-61; Grozdanov, Ohridsko zidno slikarsto, 10-13. 69 R. Lubinkovi?, ?Traditsije Prime Justinijane u titulaturi ohridskih ashiepiskopa,? Starinar 17 (1967), 61- 70; Todi?, ?Freske u Bogorici Perivlepti,? 153-61. 70 Snegarov, Ohridskata arhiespiskopia, 160; Grozdanov, Ohridsko zidno slikarstvo, 11. 71 Ibid. 230 represented enthroned with her feet resting on a footstool in the left half of the composition. She is winged and is enveloped by a luminous glory. Her androgynous features and cruciform halo associate her with the youthful Christ Angel in the ceiling; despite the controversies and confusions over the identity of God?s Wisdom, this image is clearly associated with Christ. 72 Her head and halo are additionally circumscribed in a rhomboid glory, which frequently appears in representations of the Transfiguration, and was intended to intensify the significance of light emanating from Christ. 73 Sophia gestures in the direction of an opened and inscribed book placed on a table painted in the foreground of the composition. The table is laid with a bowl and a pitcher. In the right half of the composition a group of female servants is represented. They are similarly youthful, with facial features hardly distinguishable from those of Sophia. Like her, and like many other personifications, they have a simple unadorned appearance and wear classicizing clothing. The one closer to the table is slightly bent, ready to place a circular piece on it, perhaps bread. The other two form a symmetrical composition; they are a mirror image of each other with their heads slightly inclined and their left and right hand respectively raised in the air. The only exception is that the one on the farther right raises a vase, while the other simply points above. Perhaps they were intended to recall the Trinity and to relate to the image of the three-headed personification that appears in Nebuchadnezzar?s dream. In fact, the two episodes appear in the same space in the 72 John Meyendorff, ?L?iconographie de la sagese divine dans la tradition byzantine,? CA 10 (1959), 259- 62; Sergei Averintsev, ?K uiasneniiu smysla nadpisi nad konkhoii tsentral?noii apsidy Sofii Kievskoii,? in Drevnerusskoe iskusstvo. Khudozhestvennaia kul?tura domongol?skoii Rusi (Moscow, 1972), 25-45; Pallas, ?Ho Christos h? s h? Theia Sophia,? 136-38. 73 Voislav Djuri?, ?Les miniatures du manuscript Parisianus Graecus 1242 et le H?sychasme,? in L?art de Thessalonique, 89-94, esp. 92-93; Konstantinos D. Kalokyres, ?H? theologia tou ph? tos kai h? Palaiologeia z? graphik? ,? in Christianik? Thessalonik? Palaiologeios epoch? (Thessalonike, 1989), 343-54; Constantine P. Charalampidis, ?The Representation of the Uncreated Light (Lux Increata) in the Byzantine Iconography of the Transfiguration of Christ,? Arte Medievale 3/1 (2003), 129-37. 231 Ascension church in De?ani and were intended to reinforce each other?s meaning. 74 The Trinitarian symbolism of the image is more clearly articulated in the narthex frescoes of the Chilandar catholicon where a three headed Wisdom sits at one end of the table. 75 Behind the three figures a building is depicted. It is a basilica and has seven columns that support its roof. A tiny and difficult to distinguish image of the Virgin appears on its pediment. A door with a drawn curtain indicates that the entrance to the building is accessible. The importance of the supporting system of this temple-like structure is highlighted by the incidental intrusion of the narthex window and its columnar reinforcement. Of the fourteenth century representations of the Wisdom this is the only one that has such a prominent and clearly distinguishable building behind Sophia. The representation of Sophia seated at a table is based on Solomon?s Proverbs 9:1-3: Wisdom has built her house; she has set up her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts, she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her maids? The opened book on the table of the Peribleptos Sophia is inscribed with a paraphrase of the fifth verse of the Proverbs? ninth chapter: ELYETE, FAGETE TVN EMVN ARTVN, KAI PIETE [Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed]. The relation of these words to the words of Christ pronounced at the Last Supper is unmistakable: ?Take and eat this is my body?Drink from it?This is my blood? (Matt. 26:26-27; Mark 14:23; Luke 22:17-19). Thus Proverbs 9:1-5 is reiterated in the poetic canon by Cosmas of Maiuma sang at Matins on Holy Thursday, when the Last Supper is commemorated: 74 Vesna Milanovi?, ?Starozavetne teme i Loza Jesejeva,? in Zidno slikarstvo manastira De?ana, 213-19. 75 Babi?, ?Ikonografski program ?ivopisa,? 123, fig. 2. 232 The inscrutable Wisdom of God, Cause of all things and bestower of life Built her house out of a pure and ever-Virgin Mother; For Christ our God having assumed a fleshly temple, Was gloriously glorified. The true Wisdom of God, initiating her friends, Prepares for them a table, nourisher of souls, And mixes a cup of immortality for the faithful. Let us approach piously and cry: ?Christ our God was gloriously glorified.? 76 In Peribleptos Cosmas is, in fact, one of the poets that were painted below the image of Sophia. Participating in the banquet set by Sophia is identified as initiation and similar language is used in didactic monastic literature: For those who with the support of the Spirit have entered the fullness of contemplation, a chalice of wine is made ready, and bread from a royal banquet is set before them. 77 For the Byzantines the episode of the Wisdom inviting people to partake of her meal had eucharistic overtones. The inauguration anthem for the Constantinopolitan cathedral church of Hagia Sophia, read every year to commemorate the church?s restoration in the sixth century, wove the image of the Wisdom?s banquet into a poetic metaphor of the Eucharist: And not only does the Heavenly One share a roof with those on earth, but he welcomes them as table [-fellows] and entertains them with the banquet of his flesh, which is set before the faithful by Christ. 78 The Eucharistic significance of the image was made apparent in the church of the Annunciation at Gra?anica where Sophia sitting at her table is painted in the altar apse 76 Cited in John Meyendorff, ?Wisdom?Sophia: Contrasting Approaches to a Complex Theme,? DOP 41 (1987), 393. 77 Philokalia, 4: 171. 78 Palmer and Rodley, ?The Inauguration Anthem of Hagia Sophia in Edessa,? 141. 233 (Fig. 113). 79 The iconography is drastically different from that in the Peribleptos church; Sophia has feminine features and her halo is not cruciform, she is represented frontal, behind her are the seven pillars mentioned in the text, but no sign of any other architectural elements are visible. In the foreground the table is represented laid with a different array of artifacts?unfurled and closed scrolls and writing implements. 80 Only two servants were included, one to the left and one to the right, both bringing in bowls and creating a symmetrical composition similar to Abraham?s Philoxenia, which appears on the opposite wall of the same space. The food offered by Sophia is in the form of words and not of actual food and drink as in the Peribleptos narthex. The eucharistic overtones would not have been lost to the viewer who saw the image of Sophia in the narthex. Even if not spatially associated with the altar, the representation of the Wisdom retained its eucharistic significance; the longest cycle dedicated to Proverbs 9:1-5 is painted, for example, in the west bay of the naos of the Ascension church in De?ani. Here the Sophia is represented distributing bread and wine in a manner recalling the Communion of the Apostles. 81 Furthermore in the Peribleptos narthex the representation of the Sophia was not the only image that had such overtones, as noted above, the purification of Isaiah with the live coal is similarly eucharistic. Such 79 On this image, see Vladimir Petkovi?, ?Freske sa predstavom Premudrosti,? in Zbornik Bogdana Popovi?a (Belgrade, 1929), 319; Svetozar Radoi?i?, Odabrani ?lantsi i studije 1933-1978 (Belgrade, 1982), 226-29. 80 The painter here chose to represent scrolls and not books. Perhaps he intended to create a mimetic relationship between the scrolls on the table of the Sophia and the liturgical scrolls used by the priests below. 81 Milanovi?, ?Starozavetne teme,?, 215, figs. 1, 2; Petkovi?, ?Freske sa predstavom Premudrosti,? fig. 3. It is worth noting that the improvised Communion performed by the Wisdom in De?ani resembles the representation of the angel-Christ harrowing the gates of Hell in the fourteenth-century Gregory manuscript, Paris, God. Gr. 543, fol. 27 v. See fig. 96. 234 images, which invite change and spiritual makeover, are not untypical for the decorative programs of Late Byzantine nartheces intended as sites of transformational experiences. 82 Several iconographic elements of the image of Wisdom in the Peribleptos are worth further consideration. As mentioned above, the prominence of the building in the background could be related to Ohrid?s cathedral church, Hagia Sophia. The use of such prominent architectural imagery in the representations of the Holy Wisdom to recall a specific church is not unique. It can be seen in the 1397 Kiev Psalter where an image of the Sophia illustrates Psalm 45:5-6 (Fig. 114). It is placed immediately below the depiction of the city of Jerusalem, a walled compound with the roof of a basilica visible inside (Zion?). Sophia is represented as an angel, she wears imperial garments; with her hands she supports a church-like building with three domes toped with crosses. Above the building appears an inscription in Slavonic?St. Sophia. 83 Sophia is represented on a purple background and is enframed with thick golden lines meant, perhaps, to signify the walls and the foundations of the building. This image is very likely a reference to the cathedral church of Kiev, which is dedicated to the Holy Wisdom. In fact the fifth verse from the forty-fifth Psalm is inscribed in the conch of the church?s apse; furthermore the essentially orant image of the Sophia resembles the mosaic of the Virgin orans in the apse. 84 82 See Introduction. 83 Perhaps the artist was playing here on a theme not very common in Byzantine Art. The basilical building in the upper portion of the image may have been recognized as an image of the Old Dispensation and of the domed building as the New. Similar treatment of architecture to signify the superiority of the new religion over the old is seen in Western medieval art. See R. Haussherr, ?Templum Salomonis und Ecclesia Christi: Zu einem Bildvergleich der Bible Moralis?e,? ZK 31 (1968), 101-21; Michael Camille, The Gothic Idol. Ideology and Image-making in Medieval Art (Cambridge, 1989), 130, 199, fig. 75. 84 Meyendorff, ?Wisdom?Sophia,? 392; Averintsev, ?K uiasneniiu smysla nadpisi,? 25, 45-49. G. Vzdornov (Izsledovanie o Kievskoii Psaltyri, 64) argued against such an interpretation, but given the place 235 The image of the Holy Wisdom is related to the idea of constructing a sanctuary, whether in a literal or in a metaphorical sense. In the 1320s paintings in the narthex of the Serbian Chilandar monastery on Mount Athos, Sophia is represented above the portrait of the ktetor, king Milutin. Voislav Djuri? noted that this spatial association was intended not only to draw attention to the wisdom of the king, but also to associate him with Solomon as a paradigmatic art patron and temple builder. 85 One of the important features of the narthex program of the Peribleptos is the concern for accommodating the divine, and framing it within tangible and conspicuous forms and shapes, such as buildings, textiles, plants, and human bodies (that of the Virgin and of the monks). The tiny image of the Virgin painted on the pediment of the Sophia?s house above the door is not unique because it is not uncommon to have an image of the Virgin, with or without the Child, painted above the doors of church buildings. Mary is symbolically associated with entrances for she is the door through which Christ entered. In the Peribleptos narthex the viewer cannot miss this association; a majestic enthroned Virgin from the Nativity hymn is positioned above the door leading into the naos. Ezekiel?s vision of the Closed Door reaffirms this relationship. The fact that the door of the Sophia?s house is opened is meaningful. It evokes the Annunciation because it is not unusual to see the annunciate Virgin seated in front of doors in monumental painting and manuscript illumination. 86 of the Psalter?s production, Kiev, and the association of Ps. 45:5-6 with the Kievan cathedral it is hard to imagine that the fourteenth-century viewer would not have associated the illustration in the Psalter with the church of Hagia Sophia. 85 Voislav Djuri?, ?Les portraits de souverains dans le narthex de Chilandar. L?histoire et la signification,? HZ 7 (1989), 105-32, esp. 112-16, fig. 2. 86 A church building with an opened door is painted behind the Virgin after she consented to accept Gabriel?s news in the twelfth-century Vatican, Cod. Gr. 1162, fol. 130v (C. Stornajolo, Miniature della omilie de Giacomo Monaco (Cod. vatic. gr. 1162) e dell? Evangeliario Greco Urbinate (Cod. vatic. gr. 2) (Rome, 1910), pl. 57). 236 The Annunciation sometimes appears painted above an actual door, as in the Karanlik Kilise in Cappadocia and in Hagia Sophia in Trebizond. 87 Readings from the Proverbs and more specifically from Proverbs 9:1-5 were incorporated in the celebrations of the feast of the Annunciation. 88 This brings to the image another meaning?the depiction of Sophia Who Built Her House is a metaphor for the Conception and the Incarnation, one of the main themes of the painted narthex program of the Peribleptos church. The temple/house of the Sophia is simultaneously an image of the Theotokos and of Christ, who, through the Incarnation, made human flesh a dwelling place for the divine. 89 In the liturgical texts for the feast of the Annunciation the Virgin identifies herself as a Temple: The descent of the Holy Spirit has purified my soul and sanctified my body; it has made me a Temple that contains God? 90 Reiterations of Proverbs 9:1-5 are found also in the liturgical hymnography for the pre- celebrations of the Nativity. 91 The idea of nourishment evoked by the representation of the Sophia also deserves additional attention. Food imagery is not unusual in the decoration of nartheces. One need only think of the lavish banquet in the Vatopedi discussed in the previous chapter. The narthex was a place where the monks would receive occasional meal refreshments 87 Restle, Byzantine Wall Paintings, 2: G?reme chapel 23 (Karanlik Kilise), plan; Talbot, The Church of Hagia Sophia, fig. 59B. On the association of the Annunciation with doors, see Glenn Peers, Sacred Shock: Framing Visual Experience in Byzantium (University Park, PA, 2004), 113-14. 88 Milanovi?, ?Starozavetne teme,? 214 n. 3; Festal Menaion, 441. See also Philotheos Kokkinos, Logoi kai homilies, 134. The reading from Ezekiel 43:27-44:4 is also one of the lessons read during the fest of the Annunciation. This liturgical connection further strengthens the relationship between the image of the Closed Door and the Holy Wisdom and her house. 89 Meyendorff, ?Wisdom?Sophia,? 392-93, n. 8. 90 Festal Menaion, 455; see also, Philotheos Kokkinos, Logoi kai homilies, 134. 91 Meyendorff, ?Wisdom?Sophia,? 393. 237 consisting of bread and wine. 92 Sophia?s table may have reminded the monks of the spiritual nourishment obtained through instruction, prayer, and contemplation. Banqueting at the Lord?s table was in medieval literature a sign for living a virtuous life. Thus in the Serbian Life of St. Sava the parable of the royal feast (Luke 14:15-24) is used as an example for relinquishing mundane concerns in order to follow virtuous monastic life. 93 Monastic instructions associate comprehension of sacred words (and why not of images?) with eating: Just as you have to chew food before you can savor its taste, so you have to ruminate in your soul on holy texts before they enrich and gladden the mind: as the Psalmist says, ?How sweet Thy words are in my throat (Ps. 119:103).? 94 Gregory of Sinai similarly equated intellectual comprehension to partaking in food: ?most of us only know and participate through the power of memory in the images and reflections of spiritual wisdom, for we do not yet with full awareness partake of the Logos of God, the true celestial bread. But in the life to come this bread is the sole food of the saints? 95 The image of Sophia at her table would have thus enhanced the communal experience of the Peribleptos monks. IMAGES ON THE WEST WALL To the right of the image of Wisdom, on the west wall, another representation appears further emphasizing the importance of architectural activities, and especially of conception, literal and metaphorical. The Bed of Solomon is of particular interest for several reasons (Fig. 115). It is the only monumental representation of the subject, and it 92 Tomekovi?, ?Contribution ? l??tude du programme du narthex,? 147, 153-54. 93 M. Ba?i?, Stare srpske biografie (Belgrade, 1938), 92; Radoi?i?, Odabrani ?lantsi i studije, 224-25. 94 Philokalia, 4: 184. 95 Ibid., 4: 232. 238 has parallels only in Middle Byzantine manuscript illumination. In Peribleptos it is painted on the west wall on which two other prophetic visions of Moses and Jacob appear. Its textual source, Solomon?s Song of Songs (3:7-8), confirms that the image is indeed a vision, albeit not a theophanic one: Look! It is Solomon?s carriage escorted by sixty warriors the noblest of Israel, all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night. An empty bed covered with a luxurious textile is surrounded by a multitude of young men. They wear short tunics and support spears and not swords, as the text indicates. In the middle of the bedcover a small square patch is painted in gold. It contains a peculiar icon of the Virgin with the Child half covered by her mantle. A badly damaged Greek inscription, inspired by the Canticle of Canticles but not following it identifies the scene: SOLOMON PERIKUKLOUSI NEOI EJHKONTA?ANEPAUSATO [Solomon surrounded by sixty youths?reclines]. Andreas Xyngopoulos noted that the words used in the inscription were borrowed mainly from the works of liturgical poets. 96 Three poets appear on the south wall of the narthex, and Joseph the Hymnographer is painted closest to the representation of Solomon?s bed; it is in one of his troparia that the verb ?nepa?sato occurs. 97 The interpretation of the image is complicated by the lack of other monumental visualizations of the subject. In fact the image of Solomon?s bed appears only in the two copies of the Homilies of James Kokkinobaphos, Rome, Vatican, Cod. Gr. 1162, fol. 64r and Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 1208, fol. 109v. 98 In these two manuscripts 96 Andreas Xyngopoulos, ?Au sujet d?une fresque de l?eglise Saint-Clement a Ochrid,? ZRVI 8 (1963), 302. 97 Ibid. 239 the Bed of Solomon serves as a frontispiece to the homily on the Marriage of the Virgin. It however differs from the image in the Peribleptos, as the couch is not empty but is occupied by the reclining figure of Christ and is guarded by a semi-angelic army with poised spears. 99 In Christian literature Solomon?s nuptial chamber has been associated with the Virgin and the miraculous conception of Christ. 100 In the twelfth century the Kokkinobaphos master associated Christ and the Virgin in nuptial terms. 101 In Peribleptos, the relationship between Christ and the Virgin is further strengthened by the representation of the royal couple of Constantine and Helena immediately below the image of Solomon?s bed. But is the symbolic marriage unity between Mary and Chris the subject of the painting in the Peribleptos? The small icon woven into the bedcover offers additional clues for understanding the image of Solomon?s bed. As the image of the youthful Christ emerges from under the Virgin?s maphorion, it symbolizes the union of the Logos with the flesh of Mary. This is a textile metaphor, it indicates that Jesus? flesh is literally woven by Mary, and as Sirarpie Der Nersessian correctly pointed out, it is the moment of Conception that is captured in this peculiar representation. It can be related to two twelfth-century icons of the Annunciation, one from Sinai and one from Novgorod, where the Virgin, while accepting Gabriel?s words, continues to weave and on her breast 98 Ibid., fig. 3; Sirarpie Der Nersessian, ?Le lit de Salomon,? ibid., fig. 3. 99 In both cases the warriors look like angels but are conspicuously deprived of their wings. Only their long wavy hear adorned with a fillet, as well as the courtly garments they wear indicate that these otherwise indistinguishable figures might be angels. Similar semi-human semi-angelic troops appear in representations of the Virgin?s Presentation (Paris, Cod. Gr. 1208, fol. 86r and Vatican, Cod. Gr. 1162, fol. 64r) and of her life in the Temple ((Paris, Cod. Gr. 1208, fol. 123r and Vatican, Cod. Gr. 1162, fol. 92r). 100 Eustratiades, Theotokos, s.v. kl?nh; Der Nersessian, ?Le lit de Salomon,? 79-80. 101 Der Nersessian, ?Le lit de Salomon,? 79-80. 240 in fine gold and red lines the tiny figure of the unborn Child is imprinted (Fig. 116). 102 On these icons she literally weaves in God?s flesh. 103 The relationship between Solomon?s bed, the Annunciation, and the conception of Christ is further strengthened in the imagery on the royal doors in the church of the Virgin Bolni?ka in Ohrid (second half of fourteenth century). Here Solomon is represented to the right of the Archangel Gabriel with an unfurled scroll inscribed in Greek: ?I, O Virgin, have called you a bed for the king.? 104 In the context of the painted program of the Peribleptos narthex this is yet another material manifestation of God, in this case through textiles. 105 Nuptial imagery played an important role in monastic spirituality. One of the most important mystics of the Orthodox church, St. Gregory of Nyssa, compared the bride of the Canticle of Canticles to the soul longing for union with God. 106 The image of the bridal chamber was an important element of monastic contemplative practices in the West. 107 In the East, St. Gregory Palamas described the various stages of penance as preparations for the union of the soul with Christ the Bridegroom: In addition, the initial stage of grief resembles something that appears to be almost unattainable?a kind of petition of betrothal to God?But the consummation of grief is pure bridal union with the Bridegroom. For this reason 102 Ibid., 80; Belting, Likeness and Presence, 278. 103 For the image of the Virgin weaving the body of Christ, see N. Constas, ?Weaving the Body of God,? JECS 3/2 (1995), 169-94. 104 Xyngopoulos, ?Au sujet d?une fresque,? 303. For the reflection of the symbolic content of the Song of Songs on the representations of the Annunciation, see Ivan Duj?ev, ?A propos des reflets du Cantuque des Cantiques sur l?art et la literature serbe du Moyen ?ge,? Zograf 12 (1981), 5-6; Radoi?i?, Odabrani ?lantsi i studije, 232-33. 105 This is perhaps a stretch but the textile associations might have been particularly important to the aristocratic patron of the program, Progon Zgur, who gave to the church an embroidered epitaphios. See Milkovi?-Pepek, Deloto na zografite, 46. 106 PG 44: 899A-905C. 107 Carruthers, The Craft of Thought, 216, 239-41. 241 St Paul, after describing a married couple?s union in one flesh as a ?great mystery,? added, ?but I say this with respect to Christ and the Church? (Eph. 5:32). As they are one flesh, so those who are with God are one spirit. 108 Niketas Stethatos compared the purified soul to the bride from the Song of Songs led by ?the Bridegroom?into the sanctuary of his hidden mysteries,? where ?He will initiate with wisdom into the contemplation of the inner essences of created things.? 109 At the center of the Biblical description of the bridal chamber is the bed as it is in the painting in the Peribleptos. The poet gave a detailed account of the materials used to make it?Lebanese wood with posts of silver and a base of gold, with a purple cover. In Byzantine exegesis the different elements of the bed were carefully interpreted and its precious materials associated with the purified soul ready to accept Christ. 110 The bed is in this case a simile for spiritual preparedness and alertness. In Peribleptos, the bed is conspicuously empty, perhaps in an anticipation of a symbolic marital union whose ultimate goal is to produce progeny. In monastic circles the fruitfulness of the spiritual effort was frequently compared to conception and birth. The message of the small icon woven into the bed cover thus takes on a new meaning. It stands not only for the future Incarnation but also, as Gregory of Sinai defined it as the spiritual dimension of Conception, for the ?foretaste of the gift of the Holy Spirit? within those aiming at virtuous life. 111 108 Philokalia, 4: 321. 109 Ibid., 4: 120. 110 Michael Psellus, Bogoslovskie sochinenia, 187-89. In the fourteenth-century exegesis of the Song of Songs by Matthew Cantacuzenus (Ibid., 318-19) the different elements of the bed were interpreted as individual prefigurations of the Virgin. See also John Canatcuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 262, where the bed is identified with the Virgin. 111 Philokalia 4: 253; Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 263-69. 242 In the Peribleptos narthex there are other depictions of sleeping people, for example, Jacob and Nebuchadnezzar (Figs. 120, 121). The latter reclines on a similarly luxurious bed with armed guards befitting his royal status. The image however is strikingly different; clearly the bed is not empty and the guards are not the youths of Solomon. They are heavily armed with helmets, body armor and massive swords put down unlike the poised spears of Solomon?s guards. But the guards at Nebuchadnezzar?s bed are harmless as they are sound asleep; their laxity rendered in their relaxed postures is juxtaposed with Solomon?s upright warriors, who emerge as an epitome of vigilance and preparedness. Their anonymous and uniform appearance recalls another image in the narthex?the child-like souls of the saved in the Hand of God. In fact, some interpretations of the passage about the sixty warriors equated them with the saved. 112 It is very likely that the artist(s) purposefully replaced the angelic army in the twelfth century manuscript illumination with a human multitude. This particular feature would have aided the audience in relating to and understanding the picture; while the army in the manuscripts might have reflected their aristocratic patronage and viewers, the army in the Peribleptos directly relates to the monastic audience. It might have served as a reminder to the monks of the unanimity and importance of the community and not of the individual. The text of the Song of Songs relates that the youths were guarding the king?s bedchamber in order to avoid the threats of the approaching night, which, in monastic circles, was the most dreaded time, filled with lurking demons and possibilities for spiritual failure. To be on one?s guard, and wage war against the vices of the night was of primary importance for monks; it was a continuous test of their virtue and of their strongest weapon, prayer. 112 Michael Psellus, Bogoslovskie sochinenia, 185. 243 The theme of virtue and vigilance continues in the two episodes from the Life of Moses painted in the lunette immediately above the door?in the left half Moses stands before the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:1-8) and in the right Moses receives the Tablets with the Ten Commandments (Exodus 31:18 or 34:4-5) (Fig. 117). Moses is represented youthful and with a short beard. His facial features are almost indistinguishable from those of Jacob, whose dream appears in close proximity, in the north portion of the west wall (Fig. 119). Perhaps the artists assimilated Jacob?s and Moses? features in order to emphasize their common visionary experience. Moses is painted in the middle of the composition bent removing his sandals, one of which is prominently displayed in the foreground. To the left the verdant bush is depicted with the Virgin shown in the middle. Her iconographic type is reminiscent of the one featured on the bed cover of Solomon?s bed?the Child is similarly half covered by his mother?s maphorion, only here, the young Christ stretches his left hand toward Moses. From the upper portion of the bush a tiny angel also gestures in Moses? direction. In the right half of the composition Moses is barefoot and standing; his massive figure turns attentively toward the Burning Bush, and with both of his hands he gestures in amazement. His posture recalls that of Habakkuk in the ceiling (Fig. 96). Above and behind the upright Moses, the barren mountainous landscape of Sinai is painted. A third Moses has ascended to its top; he is once again barefoot, his body intently leaning forward and his arms outstretched to accept the stone tablets delivered through a small heavenly segment. The coupling of this episode with the Receiving of the Law is not uncommon. Both are painted, for example, on a pair of early thirteenth-century icons on Mount 244 Sinai. 113 Manuel Philes wrote two poems dedicated to the Burning Bush and the Receiving of the Law, perhaps intended to accompany icons with the same subject matter. 114 At the end of the thirteenth century Early Christian mystical ideas were revived with its emphasis on visions, and especially on visions of the divine light. It is for this reason that the images of Moses proliferated during the Late Byzantine period; a number of churches in Byzantium and Serbia contain representations of individual episodes of the Life of Moses, the painted examples of the Vision of the Burning Bush being especially numerous. How does the representation of Moses relate to the rest of the images on the west wall? Byzantine exegesis provides literary associations between the bed of Solomon (painted to the left) and Moses? vision of the Bush on Mount Horeb. In his commentary on the Song of Songs Matthew Cantacuzenus wrote about the use of silver and gold for the adornment of Solomon?s bed, which he associated with the Conception and the Incarnation: ?the silver signifies His shine, while gold is His fire-like appearance; and he found a dwelling within her without harming her. This is what Moses saw in symbols when the bush on Mount Horeb burnt and was not consumed by the fire. 115 The spatial association between the representation of Solomon?s bridal chamber and Moses? vision of the Burning Bush is intentional. It is the importance of Christ?s 113 Doula Mouriki, ?A Pair of Early Thirteenth-century Moses Icons at Sinai with the Scenes of the Burning Bush and the Receiving of the Law,? DChAE 16 (1991-1992), 171-84. 114 Manuel Philes, Carmina, 1: 266. 115 Michael Psellus, Bogoslovckie sochinenia, 318. 245 Conception that unites the two images. Furthermore, Exodus 3:1-8 is among the readings for the feast of the Annunciation, which is replete with bridal imagery. 116 Moses? vision of the Burning Bush is undoubtedly about the Virgin, but most importantly it is about Moses himself. 117 Gregory of Nyssa was the first to identify the Burning Bush as a prefiguration of the Virgin. 118 The emphasis of Gregory?s work is, however, not on the anticipatory nature of the vision and its relation to the Incarnation, but on Moses? personal experience and the reasons for the miraculous apparition. In the Peribleptos narthex Moses? figure is conceived of as an exemplary ascetic through spatial associations and iconography. 119 His commission by God to deliver the chosen people from slavery, both physical and spiritual, associates him with the representations of Isaiah and Ezekiel, who were charged with similar salvific missions. He removes his shoes right at the door of the actual church, a gesture which indicates that not only the grounds on the picture but of the church building as well are sacred. It also recalls two other purifications incorporated in the decorative program of the narthex?the 116 Der Nerssesian, ?Program and Iconography of the Parecclesion,? 336; Festal Menaion, 441, 455, 458. 117 For the Burning Bush as a prefiguration of the Virgin, see Eustratiades, Theotokos, s.v. b?tow; Mouriki, ?Hai biblikai proeikoniseis t? s Panagias,? 217-18, 221-24; Talbot Rice, The Church of Hagia Sophia, 151, 182-83; Der Nerssesian, ?Program and Iconography of the Parecclesion,? 336-38; Tsitouridou, Ho z? graphikos diakosmos tou Agiou Nikolaou Orphanou, 157-59; Gabeli?, Lesnovo, 174-75. For a new interpretation of Mosaic imagery as didactic and exemplary, see Margarita Kuiumdzhieva, ?Tsik?l?t po istoriata na propok Moisei v galeriata na ts?rkvata ?Rozhdestvo Hristovo? v Arbanasi,? Problemi na izkustvoto 2 (2003), 33-40. I thank Dr. Juliana Boicheva for this reference. 118 Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses, 59. 119 An icon of Moses painted in the second half of the thirteenth century on Mount Sinai reflects the rising interest in Moses as an exemplar of asceticism (Evans, Byzantium, 381). The portrait type on the icon resembles the one in the Peribleptos?Moses has brown hair and short beard?on the Sinai icon, however, he has sunken cheeks like those of most ascetics. He is painted half-length, blessing with the right hand and holding a scroll with the left inscribed with the words: ?The Lord said to [Moses].? Nancy ?ev?enko pointed out that the words on the scroll are intentionally ambiguous and relate to several episodes of Moses? encounters with the divine, stressing his unmediated relation with God. 246 cleansing of Isaiah with the live coal and of Ezekiel?s Temple. Gregory of Nyssa wrote the vision of the Burning Bush was a cathartic experience: That light teaches us what we must do to stand within the rays of the true light: Sandaled feet cannot ascend that height where the light of truth is seen, but the dead and earthly covering of skins, which was placed around our nature at the beginning when we were found naked because of disobedience to the divine will, must be removed from the feet of the soul. 120 Gregory?s interpretation of Moses? sandals as metaphors for sin and as impediments to spiritual ascent is carried over in the literature of the Palaeologan period. Manuel Philes identified the sandals with the passions of the soul: T? t?n pay?n p?dilon ?w Mvs?w l?vn? [The sandals of passion, when Moses removing?]. 121 Nicholas Cabasilas considered the removal of the sandals as an exemplary act of purification. 122 For Symeon of Thessalonike Moses took off his sandals in preparation to encounter God: ?they (the angels) do not show themselves without hymns and prayer, but announce God to us as the cause of our being and exhort us to praise him alone. For this reason the angel who appeared to Moses said: ?Put off your shoes from your feet? in honor of God. 123 Moses? posture is especially noteworthy?intently bent with his head downcast. Similar bodily attitudes are recommended by the Hesychasts for prayer and contemplation. It is essential for Hesychastic contemplative exercises to keep one?s head bent downwards leaning it upon the knees, 124 in a manner that resembles the bent figure of Moses. Representations of monks who have assumed similar a pose while praying are not uncommon in the illustrated copies of Climacus? Heavenly Ladder (Fig. 118). Theoleptos 120 Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses, 59. 121 Manuel Philes, Carmina, 1: 266. 122 Nicholas Cabasilas, Life in Christ, 153-54. 123 Symeon of Thessalonike, Treatise on Prayer, 12. 124 Philokalia 4: 264, 340. 247 of Philadelpheia, for example, advised his monastic audience to imitate Moses when pronouncing Jesus? prayer, the basis of the Late Byzantine Hesychast spirituality. 125 In Byzantine edifying literature and liturgical texts Moses is identified as an exemplar in asceticism and especially in fasting as indicated by a number of references in the Lenten Triodion. In fact, Byzantine texts emphasize that it was through fasting and physical deprivation that he was enabled to see the divine light in the Burning Bush. 126 He was among the preferred Hesychastic models because he had a vision of the divine light without symbolic intermediaries, which was the ultimate goal of Late Byzantine monks. 127 The episode of Moses receiving the Tablets with the Ten Commandments was similarly interpreted as an ascetic feat. The relationship with the Virgin in the right half of the composition is even more strained, for she is not present in the picture in any form. 128 In Byzantine exegesis the Receiving of the Law was interpreted as a symbolic act of perfecting the soul through contemplation. The way to such transcendent knowledge is possible, according to Gregory of Nyssa, only through purity of both soul and body. 129 In order to know God, one should climb a mountain, as Moses did. 130 While on the top of the mountain Moses acquired the two components of religious virtue: ?the things which must be known about God,? and ?by what pursuits the virtuous life is 125 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 279-81. 126 Lenten Triodion, 310; PG 151:148B; Gregory Palamas, Besedy, 1: 122. 127 Meyendorff, Gregory Palamas, 195. 128 In homiletic literature the Virgin is associated with the Tablets of the Law, see Der Nersessian, ?Program and Iconography of Parecclesion,? 338; Stephan, Apostelkirche, 121, 285 n. 49; Bissera Pentcheva, ?Visual Textuality: The Logos as Pregnant Body and Building,? RES 45 (2004), 229, and n. 22. 129 Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses, 92. 130 Ibid., 93. 248 perfected.? 131 In one of his monastic discourses Theoleptos of Philadelpheia wrote that the person who chose to advance toward truth should follow Moses? example and ascend ?the mountain of divine knowledge? in order to hear the ?divine voice? and receive ?the law of the Spirit.? 132 In the Byzantine imagination the tablets that Moses received had a contemplative function, as indicated by the original title of one of the most widely circulated edifying books by John Climacus?instead of The Heavenly Ladder it was called The Spiritual Tablets. 133 The representations from the life of Moses in the Peribletos narthex emphasize the prophet?s salvific mission on behalf of the fallen humanity. In the episode with the Burning Bush God commissioned him to deliver the Jews from physical suffering, the slavery in Egypt, and with the Law he gave him the remedy for spiritual afflictions. Through spatial associations with the other two representations on the west wall of Solomon?s bridal chamber and Jacob?s dream of the Ladder, Moses? ascetic characteristics, such as vigilance and spiritual purity, are further extolled. 134 At the same time the Vision of the Burning Bush and the Receiving of the Law identify Moses as the one responsible for the building of the first elaborate shrine, the Tabernacle. It is hardly coincidental that the donor, Progon Zgur, had the dedicatory inscription painted 131 Ibid., 96. 132 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 113-15. For Gregory Palamas and Moses as an exemplary ascetic, see Meyendorff, Gregory Palamas, 134-35, 200. 133 Duffy, ?Embellishing the Steps,? 5-6. 134 The assimilation of the ascetic experiences of Moses and Jacob is even clearer in the Life of Moses by Gregory of Nyssa. The process of spiritual perfection associated with the ascent of Sinai is referred to as climbing a ladder, and more specifically, the ladder of Jacob?s dream. Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses, 113-14. 249 immediately below the representation of Moses. 135 While it is not unusual for a donor inscription to occur above the exit door of the church, the association with Moses is in no doubt intentional. The notion that the patron of a church is like Moses would not have been foreign to the medieval audience in Ohrid. In the mid- fourteenth century, the archbishop Gregory, who embellished the so-called Gallery of Gregory in the cathedral church of Hagia Sophia, had a dedicatory poem inscribed in the exterior of the added narthex in which he linked himself to Moses, and paralleled his act of munificence to Moses? construction of the Ark of the Covenant. 136 Jacob, who is painted on the west wall, to the north of Moses, was also considered a model for asceticism and an inspiration for donors and architects, both imaginary and real (Fig. 119). It is not unusual for Moses and Jacob to share common pictorial space. The Vision of the Ladder and of the Burning Bush appear on the same northern lunette of the parecclesion of the Kariye Djami and in the domical vault of the south ambulatory of Holy Apostles. 137 This visual pairing of prophetic experiences is, as mentioned above, one of the salient features of the Peribleptos narthex program. Two episodes of Jacob?s life are represented?the Dream of the Heavenly Ladder at Bethel (Gen. 28:1-5) and the Struggle with the Angel at Peniel (Gen. 32:28). On his way to Mesopotamia, fleeing from his brother Esau, Jacob fell asleep and dreamt of a ladder on which angels were ascending and descending. Jacob is painted reclining with his eyes closed. Just behind his head rises a wooden ladder with two angels going up and two going down. The ladder terminates in a light blue heavenly segment, from a similar 135 Milkovi?-Pepek, Deloto na zografite, 44-47. 136 Tsvetan Grozdanov, ?Prilozi prou?vaniju Sv. Sofije ohridske u XIV veku,? ZLU 5 (1969), 40-41. 137 Underwood, Kariye Djami, 3: 437, Stephan, Apostelkirche, 317, plan 2. 250 segment Moses accepts the tablets with the law. Unlike two later representations in the Chora parecclesion, and in the south ambulatory of the Holy Apostles, the image of the Virgin was not incorporated at the end of the ladder. 138 The wrestling with the angel occurred when Jacob was on his way back home to reconcile with his brother. Jacob was allowed to win the fight, and like Moses during his second ascent on Sinai, to see God?s face. In Peribleptos two sturdy figures, the angel to the left and Jacob to the right, intently bent, clasp each other at the waist. In scholarly literature, the vision of Jacob?s Ladder is discussed as a prefiguration of the Virgin, and of the Incarnation, because it was by means of a ladder, i.e. Mary, that Christ united divine to human nature. 139 The representation in Peribleptos subtly anticipates the Incarnation. Like the rest of the themes on the west wall, the vision of the ladder was related to the feast of the Annunciation?the passage from Genesis 28 was read on March 25 and multiple references to the vision are used throughout the celebrations on that day. 140 In the Peribleptos the image of Jacob sleeping, together with Moses removing his sandals, is one the most powerful visualizations of meditation. Indeed Jacob was among the contemplative models for both Orthodox and Catholic monks. 141 In the stylistically related paintings of the Protaton church on Mount Athos Jacob is not represented as a 138 For the Ladder of Jacob as a prefiguration of the Virgin, see John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 206; Underwood, Kariye Djami, 1: 224-25, 3: 437-43; Der Nersessian, ?Program and Iconography of Parecclesion,? 334-36; Babi?, ?Ikonografski program ?ivopisa u pripratama,? 122-23; Gabeli?, Lesnovo, 174, 177; Stephan, Apostelkirche, 135-36, fig. 86; Todi?, Serbian Medieval Painting, 105. 139 John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 206. 140 Festal Menaion, 441, 458-59. 141 For monastic interpretations of Jacob?s vision, see G. Penco, ?Un tema dell?ascesi monastica: la scala di Giaccobe,? Vita monastica 14 (1960), 99-113; P. Miquel, ?Quatre symboles de la vie monastique,? Collectanea cisterciensia 42 (1980), 56-59; Heck, L??chelle c?leste, 91-96. 251 contemplative figure (Fig. 120). Instead of reclining he is painted standing, with the ladder rising at his feet with only two angels ascending on it. The unfurled scroll, which he holds in his left hand, identifies him as a prophet. The emphasis on contemplation in the Peribleptos narthex called for the different iconography of Jacob?s vision. His sleeping at Bethel was not considered a sign of pure relaxation and idleness. It is noteworthy that the pose of the sleeping Jacob differs from that of the sleeping guardians of Nebuchadnezzar painted on the neighboring north wall. This is the pose assumed by positive Biblical characters, such as Jonah and Christ Anapeson, and is associated with fruitful meditation. 142 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, in his monastic instructions, related Jacob?s dream to a passage from the Song of Songs (5:2)??I sleep and my heart wakes??transforming it into an example of vigilance: Both while the body is awake and while it is asleep, vigilance keeps the heart awake and illuminates it, as scripture says, ?I sleep and my heart wakes.? Jacob too bares witness to this; he left his country and lay down on the ground and saw a vision of a ladder?For when the soul exiles itself with from its intimate relationship with the sense faculties and lies down on the goodwill of humility, as on the bed of asceticism, and lays its governing faculty on the faith of Christ, as Jacob lay his head on a rock, the senses of the body sleep because they are not occupied with serving present needs, but the heart is vigilant and keeps the eye of the soul awake. 143 In didactic literature the Ladder of Jacob?s dream is equated to the ladder of virtues, and for this reason it illustrates the beginning of two twelfth-century manuscripts of Climacus? Heavenly Ladder. 144 In Peribleptos Jacob, as well as Moses, offers variety of contemplative stances and models for meditative exercises. 142 Carruthers, Craft of Thought, 173-74, 176-79. 143 Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 127. 144 Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent (London, 1959), 42-43; Martin, Illustrations of the Heavenly Ladder, figs. 23, 233-34. 252 The struggle with the angel is placed against a barren mountainous landscape. Moses ascends a similar mountain to the left and Nebuchadnezzar dreams of one to the right. This kind of landscape was an ideal habitat for monks and appropriate for spiritual struggle, and so enhances the ascetic overtones of the image. Gregory Nazianzenus identified Jacob?s struggle with the angel as a spiritual struggle between divine and human virtue. 145 In the late thirteenth century Gregory of Sinai similarly understood the struggle with the angel metaphorically, as a spiritual rather than physical encounter: The names Jacob and Israel refer respectively to the ascetically active and to the contemplative intellect which through ascetic labor and with God?s help overcomes the passions and through contemplation sees God, so far as is possible. 146 The new name that Jacob received after the encounter, Israel, reflects his closeness to God, as it means ?he who fights or persists in God.? Naturally, it was Jacob?s worth that allowed a direct communication with the divine. The relationship of the episode with the Virgin is indeed strained, as Sirarpie der Nersessian recognized, and there is no need to push the textual evidence in search of such relationship. 147 The image of the struggling Jacob was, however, interpreted as a prefiguration of the Incarnation, which is one of the main themes in the Peribleptos narthex. According to John Cantacuzenus, Jacob wrestled with a human form of God in anticipation of the Incarnation. 148 Cantacuzenus? words echo an earlier exegetical tradition in which the Jacob?s Dream of the Ladder and the Wrestling with the Angel were given Christological, rather than Marian interpretations. 149 145 Gregory Nazianzen, Select Orations, 295. 146 Philokalia 4: 263. 147 Der Nersessian, ?Program and Iconography of the Parecclesion,? 335. 148 John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 142. 253 The architectural significance of the two Jacob episodes is not immediately obvious; no architectural backgrounds stimulate such association. The Genesis text is in this case important, for it relates how after his dream Jacob set up and anointed a stone to commemorate the divine apparition. Most significantly he identified the site as the house of God and a gate to heaven, a convenient comparison perhaps recognized by the most erudite audience as a reference to the church of the Peribleptos. 150 In the medieval West examples exist that related Jacob?s commemorative act to the building and consecration of a church. 151 Patriarch Photios in describing the newly built chapel of the Virgin of the Pharos spoke of its dazzling beauty evoking Jacob?s exclamation: ?How wonderful is this place; this is none other but the house of God.? 152 In Byzantine consecration rites the association is rather strained but the references to Christ as a cornerstone and a foundation of the church may have triggered associations with Jacob?s episode. 153 After all the program of the narthex conveys the distinct message of the need to build a material shelter for the divine. Patriarch Photios, for example, identified the stone set by Jacob with Christ. 154 In the representation on the north wall one such stone broke off from a mountain destroying the golden idols in the dream of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. 149 Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium, 208-210; Gregory Nazianzen, Select Orations, 295. 150 Perhaps the later inclusion of an arcosolium beneath the image of Jacob is meaningful. Jacob pointed to the site of God?s presence and provided the means by which to reach it (the ladder). For the later paintings in the Peribleptos narthex, see Grozdanov, Ohridsko zidno slikarstvo, 153-55, fig. 165. 151 Carolyn M. Carty, ?The Role of Medieval Dream Images in Authenticating Ecclesiastical Construction,? ZK 62/1 (1999), 85-88. 152 Mango, Art of the Byzantine Empire, 186. 153 Symeon of Thessalonike, Ta apanta, 318. 154 Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium, 209. 254 DANIEL AND NEBUCHADNEZZAR ON THE NORTH WALL Nebuchadnezzar?s dream and its interpretation by the prophet Daniel takes up the whole upper portion of the north wall (Dan. 2:1-45) (Fig. 121). Like the representations of Moses and Jacob, the two consecutive episodes are painted without any formal separation; only the window in the middle divides the two parts of the image. To the left, the king is represented reclining in a bedchamber on a luxuriously draped bed. The crown is still on his head, he also wears an imperial caftan embellished with a golden neckline and hem and sleeve bands all decorated with pseudo-kufic writing. Nebuchadnezzar was, after all, an eastern king. A plain sash is wrapped around the king?s waist. Nebuchadnezzar reclines peacefully; his posture recalls that of Jacob and does not in any way distinguish him from other sleeping kings painted elsewhere. 155 Three youthful guards, two at the bed?s foot, perhaps conveniently extracted from the episode of the Women at the Tomb, and one at the head, heavily armed, but seated and relaxed, are also asleep. Only one of them looks up as if he also witnesses the divine apparition that stands at the king?s bed. A female figure draped in plain classicizing dress, like the ones worn by the servants of Sophia on the opposite wall, gently touches the head of the sleeping Nebuchadnezzar. This apparition is somewhat monstrous; it is three-headed, all heads similar and braced by a single halo?an unmistakable reference to the Trinity. She points up towards a mountain on which a bust image of the Virgin is painted. Clearly this is a dream inspired by God, as Daniel himself later pointed to the king (Dan. 2:28). In the right half of the composition Nebuchadnezzar sits before a ciborium on a high-backed throne; this time he is donned in full imperial regalia?besides the crown 155 See, for example, the sleeping Constantine and St. Nicholas in the narthex of Nicholas Orphanos in Tsitouridou, Ho zographikos diakosmos tou Hagio Nikolau tou Orphanou, fig. 66. 255 and the caftan he wears a loros as well. The setting and the manner in which the king is seated recall images of Herod from the Massacre of the Innocents; Nebuchadnezzar is thus cast in a negative light (Fig. 35). He gestures toward Daniel rendered as a youthful figure dressed in short tunic and an ostentatious cloak. He raises his right hand while explaining to the king the meaning of the dream. A number of elderly figures are painted behind Daniel. Between the king and the young prophet a high pedestal is represented with a nude golden figure on top of it?the idol of Nebuchadnezzar?s nightly apparition. A long Greek inscription describing the different components of the statue is frescoed next to it (Dan. 2:31-34). A barely distinguishable medallion, perhaps with an image of the Virgin, is painted on the top of the mountain in the background. The story relates how the king had an inexplicably disturbing dream. Daniel, with God?s help, had the same dream and quickly understood that this was a prophecy about the establishment of God?s kingdom. In Christian exegesis the stone that broke off the mountain without human intervention was identified with Christ and the mountain with the Virgin. The prophecy was thus related to Jesus? Incarnation. 156 A number of poetic references to the mountain and the stone are found throughout the services of the Annunciation. 157 In the church at Staro Nagori?ino Daniel is painted below the Annunciation; the stone with an image of the Emmanuel on it appears right next to his figure. 158 The metaphoric image of the Virgin as a mountain is associated with the 156 Milanovi?, ?Starozavetne teme,? 217. The dream of Nebuchadnezzar is painted in one of the pendentives in the south ambulatory of the Holy Apostles in Thessalonike. The image belongs to a group of Old Testament representations that function as prefigurations of the Incarnation. The image of Christ in the dome?s apex holding a scroll instead of book, and of his ancestors in the dome?s segments, reaffirm the program?s emphasis on the future Incarnation. See Stephan, Apostelkirche, 109-122. 157 Festal Menaion, 443, 458. 256 Annunciation in the late fourteenth century marginal Kiev Psalter. Psalm 78:68 ?but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved? is illustrated with a mountain on top of which a medallion with the Virgin and Child appears. Within a grayish heavenly segment above the medallion is discernable an almost translucent white dove evoking the Conception. 159 The representation of Nebuchadnezzar?s dream generates a number of architectural associations. As noted above the image of Christ as a stone, a cornerstone and a foundation, is a commonplace in the New Testament and in Christian exegesis. John Cantacuzenus, for example, wrote: In so far as no building can stand up without foundations, so the Church cannot stand up if in her foundations is not placed the most precious cornerstone that is Christ himself. 160 The painters of the Ascension church at De?ani recognized the episode?s architectural metaphors and reinforced them by painting it below Sophia who built herself a house. Similarly, in Peribleptos the two images were associated by their placement across each other, and through individual iconographic and thematic elements, such as the emphasis on the Trinity, and the divine wisdom bestowed to Daniel. The prayers for dedication of a church do not contain references to the episode, but in hagiographic literature the dream 158 Svetozar Radoi?i?, ?Epizoda o Bogoroditsi-Gori u Teodosijevom ??ivotu Sv. Save? i njena veza sa slikarstvom XIII i XIV veka,? Prilozi za kni?evnost, jezik, istorijiu i folklor 23/3-4 (1957), 215, fig. 2. See also Mouriki, ?Hai biblikai proeikoniseis t? s Panagias,? 219, fig. 78. 159 Kievskaia Psaltyr, fol. 110v; Vzdornov, Izsledovanie o Kievskoii Psaltyri, 128. Representations of the mountain metaphor occur in earlier marginal Psalters, see Dufrenne, L?Illustation des psauters grecs, 1: pl. 11; Corrigan, Visual Polemics, 37-38. In the Bristol Psalter identifies the mountain as the Virgin and the stone with Christ (Dufrenne, L?Illustation des psauters grecs, 60, pl. 53.; Der Nersessian, L?Illustation des psauters grecs, 2: fig. 136). The Kiev Psalter retained the imagery seen in the Byzantine books (Vzdornov, Izsledovanie o Kievskoii Psaltyri, 123.). Daniel is represented on fol. 88v. He is reclining in a typical sleeping position with an angel on one side of the bed supporting the prophet?s head and pointing to the mountain on top of which is visible a medallion with the Virgin and Child. A heavenly segment is represented above them with a ray of light emanating in the direction of the vision. 160 John Cantacuzenus, Beseda s papskim legatom, 203. 257 of the Babylonian king inspired actual architectural projects. The thirteenth-century Life of St. Sava presents such a literary example. While on Mount Athos the saint had a vision in which he was comforted by the Virgin identified as the Mountain; the episode was presented as a short paraphrase of Daniel?s account of Nebuchadnezzar?s dream. 161 Sava went back to Serbia and together with his brother, king Stephan the First Crowned (1196- 1228), finished the building of the church at ?i?a. When describing the church?s construction, the author of Sava?s Vita used language evocative of Daniel 3:1-2: ?King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold?and set it up on the plain of Dura?He then summoned the satraps?to come to the dedication of the image he had set up.? In this text, Nebuchadnezzar is represented in a positive light, as he is compared to king Stephan; the difference is that while he dedicated an idol, Stephan dedicated a superior Christian church. 162 CONCLUSION Architectural metaphors were commonplace in the meditation practices of both East and West. 163 In the Orthodox east the importance of architectural symbols may have been partially inspired by a linguistic association between the words for house and salvation; in Byzantium one of the words for salvation and dispensation was o?konom?a cognate with the Greek word for house, o?kow. 164 Frequently o?konom?a is used to signify the 161 Radoi?i?, ?Epizoda o Bogoroditsi-Gori,? 212. 162 Ibid., 213. 163 Mary Carruthers, ?The Poet as Master Builder: Composition and Locational Memory in the Middle Ages,? New Literary History 24/2 (1993), 881-904; Eadem, Craft of Thought, 193-96, 221-76. 164 Lampe, Patristic Greek Lexicon, 941-42. See also William Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek- English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Cambridge, 1963), 562. 258 Incarnation, and it is with this meaning that the word was transmitted in Slavic languages where ???????????????? refers not only to home construction, but also to Christ?s salvific mission on earth. In 1 Corinthians 3:9 St. Paul uses the Greek noun for a building, ? o?kodom?, in a metaphorical sense, in order to express the idea that those who have faith are the house of God: yeo? g?r ?smen sunergo?, yeo? ge?rgion, yeo? o?kodom? ?ste [For we are God?s fellow workers, you are God?s field, God?s building]. Especially significant for Christian thought is the architectural symbolism used by St. Paul in Ephesians 2:20-22, where Christ is identified as a cornerstone, the apostles and the prophets as the foundation, and the believers as members of God?s household: ??poikodomhy?nte ?p? t? yemel?? t?n ?post?lvn ka? profht?n, ?ntow ?krogvnia?ou a?to? Xristo? ?Ihso?, ?n ? p?sa o?kodom? sunarmologoum?nh a?jei e?w na?n ?gion ?n kur?? ?n ? ka? ?me?w sunoikodome?sye e?w katoikht?rion yeo? ?n pne?mati. [God?s household] built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lies by his Spirit. Mary Carruthers has noted that St. Paul?s writings became the foundation of the architectural musings of Christian intellectuals in the Medieval West. 165 Similar architectural imagery is used by the Late Byzantine Hesychasts in their edifying instructions. Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, for example, used an abundance of building metaphors in order to describe the perfect monastic life. Essential ascetic characteristics such as ?purity of the heart? and ?sanctification of the body? Theoleptos identified as the ?house of Christ.? 166 The edifice he describes is spiritual and exists only in the soul of the 165 Carruthers, Craft of Thought, 17-18. 259 virtuous monk. He compares the actual act of building to the spiritual progress of the soul upwards. 167 Humility is the roof of the house ?for as the placement of a roof shelters the edifice of the house, so too humility tends and preserves the purity of the virtues.? 168 It is very likely that the viewer gazing at the representation of the Ezekiel?s vision of the Zion temple would have interpreted it as Theoleptos in a metaphorical fashion. It is worth noting how Theoleptos combined nuptial imagery with the image of the spiritual shelter and that of prayer as a fragrant smoke rising toward God. Vigilance is the house of God (o?kow yeo?) and the spouse of prayer. ?I will come into your house with whole burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows, which my lips uttered and my tong spoke in my affliction,? as David says (Ps. 10:7). The soul enters upon the guarding of the mind when all its thoughts are utterly consumed by the fire of divine love, and when these are burnt whole on the altar of vigilance by divine love thick clouds of prayers are borne upward to God. And so the prophet asks that his prayer be directed as incense: ?May my prayer be directed as incense before you? (Ps. 140:2). For as incense prepared from many kinds of fragrant substances gives off a single odor from the mixture, so too, when the soul takes upon itself the impression of the different virtues, it is gathered together into the single thought of love. 169 Spiritual perfection is like a sacred building where rituals of purification, i.e. prayers, are performed. Construction is a simile for the conception of God within one?s soul. But construction is not simply an architectural activity, it is an edifying process compared to the Incarnation and its preliminary stages, hence the abundant Annunciation metaphors in the Peribleptos narthex. The program emphasizes not simply the result of the Conception?the Incarnation?but most importantly the process of becoming worthy of it. Moses and Jacob assumed appropriate contemplative postures demonstrating to the 166 ? kayar?thw t?w kard?aw ka? ? ?giasm?w to? s?matow, ta?t? ?stin ? o?kow to? Xristo? (Theoleptos of Philadelpheia, Monastic Discourses, 212-13). 167 Ibid., 214-15. 168 Ibid. 169 Ibid., 124-27. 260 audience possible ways to communicate with the divine. In a similar fashion the alert youths that surround Solomon?s bed exemplify the essential monastic virtue of vigilance. The abundance of architectural metaphors within the program of the Peribleptos narthex should be addressed in the context of revived rebuilding activities, and more specifically, with the pious renovations and constructions in Constantinople and Thessalonike. Two other early fourteenth-century monuments, the parecclesion in Chora and the south ambulatory in the Holy Apostles, are replete with such imagery. The programs of these two churches incorporate not only the images that occur in the Peribleptos, but they also contain long cycles dedicated to Solomon?s Temple. 170 While these have been interpreted as relevant to Mary, it is very likely that they functioned as reminders of the pious undertakings of the patrons, to restore, build, and decorate churches. Scholars have pointed out the favorable building climate under Andronicus II and the rising number of renovated and newly built churches in the capital and Thessalonike. 171 The references to temple constructions in the imagery elevated the donor?s endeavor to build and endow a church building. While in Constantinople and Thessalonike, Solomon was the preferred prototype, in Ohrid it was Moses, an unusual, but original choice. 172 In the Peribleptos narthex through images and in the cathedral 170 Underwood, Kariye Djami, 1: 228-32, 3: 453-60; Der Nersessian, ?Program and Iconography of Parecclesion,? 338-43; Stephan, Apostelkirche, 122-27, figs. 79-82. We should not forget the importance of Solomon as an archetypal Temple builder in thirteenth-century France. See Daniel Weiss, Art and Crusade in the Age of Saint Louis (Cambridge, 1998), 53-74. 171 Klaus-Peter Matschke, ?Builders and Building in Late Byzantine Constantinople,? in Byzantine Constantinople: Monuments, Topography and Everyday Life, ed. Nevra Necipo?lu (Leiden, Boston, K?ln, 2001), 315-28, esp. 316; Alice-Mary Talbot, ?Building Activity in Constantinople under Andronikos II: the Role of Women Patrons in the Construction and Restoration of Monasteries,? in ibid., 329-43; Gerstel, ?Civic and Monastic Influences;? Elene Kaltsogianne, Sophia Kotzambase and Eliana Paraskeuopoulou, H? Thessalonik? st? byzantin? logotechnia: rh? torika kai hagiologika keimena (Thessalonike, 2002), 39, 55. 172 Djuri?, ?Les portraits de souverains,? 115-16. 261 church of Hagia Sophia through a dedicatory inscription, Moses is identified as an archetypal architect and the Tabernacle as the archetypal temple. But his edifice was possible only because on Mount Sinai Moses had a direct encounter with the divine, and received instructions how to built the Tabernacle. The act of constructing a temple is represented as a spiritual endeavor that required preparation and purification. Thus Moses is not simply the builder of the Ark; he is an ascetic offering a model to the monks how to become builders of their own spiritual Tabernacles. The images in the Peribleptos narthex are replete with Conception metaphors; they are, in a sense, a breeding ground for Christ. The building is literally pregnant with Christ like the Virgin who is frequently addressed as na?w ?mcuxow, the living or the inspirited church. 173 The program was clearly intended to stimulate the monks to begin cultivating Christ within as the Virgin did. The idea of pregnancy is not uncommon in edifying monastic literature; the monk trying to purify his soul through repentance and meditation is described as being pregnant with the Logos. 174 The importance assigned to the material accommodations for the divine, and by extension the importance of the Incarnation and of the body, which similarly provided a shelter for God, should be considered in relation to the rise of Hesychasm and its emphasis on the importance of the body as a vehicle of and an equal participant in the salvation. The vision of the divine light, the ultimate purpose of Late Byzantine Hesychast spirituality, is exemplified by the visionary experiences of Moses, Jacob, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Daniel, and Habakkuk. It is interesting that the painters were not concerned so much with visualizing the theophanies, but with the personal experiences of the visionaries, curved, reclining, struggling, and 173 Webb, ?The Aesthetics of Sacred Space,? 70. 174 Philokalia, 4: 120. 262 protecting their faces; as such they are the ultimate exemplars of asceticism and spiritual purity. Perhaps the luminous image of Christ Angel successfully replaced all other glorious visions granted to the prophets. These Old Testament visionaries are exemplary, for they, in the words of Niketas Stethatos, ?are well advanced in the spiritual path? and are ?beneficially assisted by things visible? through which they ascend to the ?ever- increasing apprehension of things divine.? 175 Assisted by the symbolically charged paintings in the narthex the monks in the Peribleptos were expected to ascend similar spiritual heights. Another noteworthy feature of the program is its Trinitarian symbolism. The number three is important and surely it has to do with the Trinity. Perhaps even the servants of Sophia are female, despite the fact that in the Greek text they are identified as do?loi or male servants, because of the female gender of the Greek word for Trinity, ?gia Tri?da. 176 The program of the narthex thus represents the Orthodox teaching of the equality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 177 Ohrid?s prominent position within the ecclesiastical hierarchy required the city?s decisive stance on important matters of church dogma. The Orthodox Trinitarian doctrine would have been subdued as long as the Lyons union lasted (1274-1282), but it triumphed afterwards under the pious politics of Andronicus II, to whom the ktetor of the Peribleptos church in Ohrid was distantly 175 Ibid., 4: 125. 176 In the church of the Holy Apostles in Thessalonike (Stephan, Apostelkirche, fig. 85), where the Trinitarian symbolism was not sought, the servants are male. Some scholars (Meyendorff, ?Wisdom- Sophia,? 394) suggested that in Ohrid and Gra?anica the three maids in the Sophia composition reflected the Latin translation where they are called famulae. 177 On the polemical nature of the Old Testament imagery, see Ivan Duj?ev, ?L?interpr?tation typologique et les discussions entre h?r?tiques et orthodoxies,? Balcanica 6 (1975), 37-50. 263 related. Indeed, fourteenth-century church art in Ohrid shows continuous concerns with visualizing the Orthodox teaching of the Trinity. 178 The painted program of the Peribleptos narthex reverberates with the promise for deliverance and salvation; it has eschatological dimensions as it points to salvation in the future and to the ways of obtaining it. Ezekiel?s vision occurred when Israel was in Babylonian captivity, as did Daniel?s prophecy. When Moses saw the Burning Bush, God promised him and the Jews deliverance from Egyptian slavery. God made possible the advance of his chosen people to the Promised Land by giving Moses the stone tablets and the vision of the Heavenly Tabernacle. Jacob dreamt of the ladder when fleeing from his wicked brother. The paintings point to a path of salvation prompting comparisons with Old Testament characters. Like the Jews the audience of the pictures would achieve salvation if they followed the moral paradigm set by the worthy Israelite Patriarchs represented in the Peribleptos narthex. Spiritual purity achieved through individual penitential exercises and participation in the communal life of the church is encouraged as a way to salvation. John Boojamra noted the similar use of Old Testament imagery by Patriarch Athanasios I (1289-1293, 1303-1311) when he was addressing the moral decline of the empire and her people. 179 Athanasios believed that the Byzantines were the New Israelites, God?s chosen people. Like Israel, Byzantium?s significance would be similarly diminished if it did not follow God?s laws and prescriptions. 180 Indeed, the Old 178 Grozdanov, Ohridsko zidno slikarstvo, 162-65, 177. Since the eleventh century Ohrid was an outpost of rehellenization and a stronghold of the Orthodox doctrine. The city?s central position in contemporary theological debates is reflected in the eleventh-century paintings of the cathedral church of Hagia Sophia. See, for example, Gerstel, Beholding the Sacred Mysteries, 83-84; Annabel J. Wharton, Art of Empire. Painting and Architecture of the Byzantine Periphery. A Comparative Study of Four Provinces (University Park and London, 1988), 106. 179 Boojamra, Church and Social Reform, 77-82. 264 Testament imagery in the Peribleptos narthex was endowed with a didactic tone echoing the concerns of the Constantinopolitan patriarch. The proliferation of Old Testament imagery in Byzantine and Serbian churches of the fourteenth century should be related to the moralistic concerns of the Orthodox ecclesiastics who gave their Orthodox communities the status of the chosen people to warn them of their moral failures which hindered their salvation. 180 Ibid. 265 CONCLUSION In an erudite novel about Ottoman miniature painting at the end of the sixteenth century, Orhan Pamuk astutely evaluated the appropriation of Western painting techniques by a select group of artists who illustrated a book for the Venetian Doge on behalf of Sultan Murat III (1574-1595): This was intended to be a book recounting and depicting the most valuable, most vital aspects of our realm?since the illustrations were made in the Frankish style using Frankish methods, they would arose the awe of the Venetian Doge and his desire for friendship. 1 At first glance this observation seems irrelevant to the artistic developments and spiritual concerns of the Late Byzantine period discussed in this dissertation. But it is not. The interest of Late Byzantine artists in detailing and clarifying the messages of church programs can be understood only as a reaction to the artistic and historic developments in Western Europe and the Islamic East. At the twilight of her existence the Empire, which for the longest time attracted the jealous eye of Catholic and Muslim outsiders, had to redefine the validity of her Orthodox faith and reestablish her political presence. In an effort to clarify Byzantine religious and political identity, Byzantine artists painted elaborate Gospel narratives, and enriched the traditional Middle Byzantine church scheme with imagery inspired by didactic literature, liturgical hymnography and manuscript illumination. Like the late- sixteenth-century Ottoman painters described by Pamuk, Palaeologan artists created their images by reacting to the trends in Western visual expression which similarly conveyed multilayered metaphoric meanings. Byzantine painters made sure that one way or another the audience would perceive correctly the newly elaborated narratives, and for this reason repeatedly provided it with 1 Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red (New York, 2001), 227. 266 visual cues. Patrons and audience responded to the need for visual clarification through sophisticated, and frequently redundant imagery, and by constructing additional spaces attached to the church naos to accommodate this imagery. Indeed, the enrichment of Late Byzantine painting with new themes and the proliferation of subsidiary spaces, especially in monastic churches, are concomitant phenomena. Such a singular approach to Palaeologan church art does not exhaust other reasons for building ancillary spaces: the accommodation of the rising number of extraliturgical rites and the need to enhance the importance of the naos and the sanctuary associated with the performance of the Eucharistic liturgy. The decorative programs in the subsidiary spaces of Late Byzantine monastic churches in Macedonia are liminal. They should not be disregarded, however, as marginal and thus secondary. This dissertation attempts to highlight the importance of the paintings in the nartheces and ambulatories of Palaeologan monastic monuments. It explores the relationship between paintings, subsidiary spaces in late thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Macedonian monastic churches, and their audiences. The concentration on monuments in a restricted geographical region and on one type of audience allowed closer examination of recurrent themes: the Ministry of Christ, the Heavenly Ladder, and Old Testament visions. The main premise of this study is that the monumental programs of the subsidiary spaces were intended to enhance the spiritual experience of the monks upon entering the church. The function of these images is defined by their placement at the threshold and by the rituals that took place in nartheces and ambulatories. They separated the church from the secular world and provided a backdrop for hourly liturgies, tonsures, funerary 267 and commemorative rites, penance and confessions. These subsidiary painted programs are multilayered as the spaces are multifunctional. The cross-fertilization between the imagery of the sanctuary and the narthex indicate that these spaces had something in common?their liminality. The exchange of pictorial themes furthers our understanding of the ancillary spaces as sites for transformation, whether it is from laity to monk, from spiritual sickness to spiritual health, from vice to virtue. These are places to move around both physically and spiritually, to adjust the senses, and set the mind in a contemplative mode. One of the salient features of the painted programs studied here is the emphasis on the body and the material accommodations for God. The historical context of these programs is revealing for they were commissioned and executed in a period of spiritual revival, which emphasized the importance of the body as an instrument of salvation. Material manifestations of this religious renaissance were the great numbers of renovated and newly constructed churches. The study of the ancillary spaces, of their function and decorative programs has long been overdue. Nartheces and ambulatories are inseparable part of late Byzantine church architecture, much more than in any earlier period. I studied the themes that most frequently appear in the nartheces and ambulatories of Late Byzantine churches? Christ?s Ministry, the Ladder of Divine Ascent and Old Testament visions. I argued that the painted Healing Miracles reflected the religious atmosphere of the Palaeologan period when they were interpreted as a sign of God?s favor and of the righteousness of the Orthodox religion. With the exception of Profites Elias the other four Miracle ensembles were painted in the first quarter of the fourteenth century when the Byzantines were still 268 recovering from the recent Latin occupation and from the union with the Catholics which was abandoned by the emperor Andronicus II. In chapter three I suggest that the fourteenth century the monks would have endowed the painted Miracles with additional meanings?the painted sick would have reminded them of their spiritual infirmity, and at the same time would have stimulated their penance. It is important to note that although infrequently, Byzantine artists appropriated the iconography of sick people in order to reveal spiritual contamination. The imitation of the sick through an open confession assured forgiveness and spiritual healing. I also argue that not only the penitent monk but the spiritual father as well could relate to the painted Healings. In them Christ represents the model for a confessor, he is gentile and affectionate, he does not threaten but comforts, and this is the kind of behavior expected from the father confessor recommended in Byzantine penitential manuals. The Healing Miracles emphasize the benevolence of Christ, a feature which I consider in greater detail in my discussion of the relationship between the frescoed icon of Chris Soter and the miracles painted in the south ambulatory of Nicholas Orphanos. I argue also that the painted Healing Ministry was intended to stimulate monastic philanthropy which seems to have been declining in the Palaeologan period. The importance of bodily healings I relate to Hesychast teaching which considered the body as a main instrument of salvation. In keeping with the Late Byzantine emphasis on the benevolent nature of Christ, the image of the Last Judgment, which dominated the nartheces of Middle Byzantine churches, was supplanted by expanded eschatological programs in Omorphokklesia, Protaton, Holy Apostles, and to a degree in Profites Elias. Indirectly, through Lessons 269 and Parables, which represent a different dimension of his Public Ministry, Christ was given judicial characteristics. In edifying monastic literature the complex image of Jesus as a healer and a judge was evoked in discussions of penance and behavior associated with it. Some of the images I identify and discuss for the first time; among these are the Lesson of the Withered Fig Tree and the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins in St. George at Omorphokklesia. The fifth chapter treats the two Late Byzantine representations of the Heavenly Ladder. Despite the fact that the two images bear some stylistic relationship they are remarkably different in terms of iconography and context. In the Vatopedi the Ladder is associated with an extensive Passion cycle whereas in St. George it is painted in the same space with Healing Miracles and Parables. The representations of prophetic visions in the narthex of the church of Virgin Peribleptos in Ohrid are the subject of the last chapter. Painted in the so-called heavy style, characteristic of the early Palaeologan art, the church epitomizes the artistic trends and the spiritual concerns of the time, but it has not received yet its due consideration. I offer the first treatment of the narthex program as a coherent whole intended to convey a distinct message about the importance of the material manifestations of and accommodations for God. Such Old Testament imagery has frequently been discussed in relation to the Virgin?s role in the Incarnation. Building on this important but overstudied dimension of Late Byzantine prophetic images, I emphasize the importance of the prophets and their visions as models for meditation. The images in the Peribleptos narthex are replete with architectural metaphors which I interpret not only as a reference to the pious undertaking 270 of the donor, but also to the meditations of the monks. Monastic authors frequently employed architectural metaphors in discussions of prayer and contemplation. The idea of Conception is one of the program?s salient themes. Tabernacles, temples, bridal chambers, textiles, plants and ladders are filled with God?s presence. The program of the Peribleptos narthex is imbued with moralizing tone. It invites the viewer to prepare himself for a union with God by cultivating cardinal ascetic virtues. The subsidiary spaces were not built simply to accommodate extraliturgical rites and to aid the spiritual preparations of the monks. They also framed and thus enhanced the importance of the church naos and of the rituals associated with it. The nave is literally ?bejeweled? with ancillary spaces which frequently match it in size (Fig. 122). The placement of the images in these spaces also creates an impression of intentional framing. In the church of the Holy Apostles in Thessalonike two distinct cycles literally wrap around the naos?the Ministry Christ is represented in the north ambulatory and in the exonarthex, while the paintings associated with the life and the prefigurations of the Virgin are placed in the esonarthex and the south ambulatory (Fig. 14). Similar effect is achieved by architecturally articulating different spaces in the church to distinguish separate functional units. Late Byzantine art demonstrates great interest in framing. In the catalogue of the last Byzantine exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum a whole section is dedicated to icon revetments, which ?experienced extraordinary flowering under the Palaeologan dynasty.? 2 Since the twelfth century frames on icons proliferated, whether painted (vita icons) or made from precious metals. Nancy ?ev?enko suggested that these ?decorated? 2 Janic Durand, ?Precious-Metal Icon Revetments,? in Byzantium, ed. Helen Evans, 243. 271 icons [kekosmhm?nae e?k?new] were a type of pious donation and gifts to solicit more effective help. 3 Very frequently, images of the donors would appear within the frames, indicating that these were contact zones where sacred and secular met. Perhaps the subsidiary spaces built around existing churches functioned in a similar way as gifts to the church. In Constantinople, for example, such spaces were added to older Middle Byzantine structures, such as the catholicon of the Lips monastery, Virgin Pamakkaristos and the Chora. The subsidiary spaces were contact zones between exterior and interior, between secular and sacred. They enveloped the naos, and their monumental programs had similar protective function?the Healing Miracles of Christ, for example, have a prophylactic meaning. Since the Early Christian period they were used on clothing for their apotropaic significance to prevent illness and demonic attacks. It is likely that the Miracles had similar protective significance when incorporated in the programs of the church?s ancillary spaces. The proliferation of subsidiary spaces in Late Byzantine church architecture and the richness of their decorative schemes have never been addressed in a single study, and in this dissertation I attempted to liberate them from the common notion that they are marginal and thus of secondary importance in our understanding of the Byzantines. These were spaces for adjustment of the senses, and for transformations. Transitional points between exterior and interior, between secular and sacred, nartheces and ambulatories were the place to prepare for the encounter with a different, higher reality in the church naos. 3 Nancy ?ev?enko, ?Vita Icons and the ?Decorated? Icons of the Komnenian Period,? in Four Icons in the Menil Collection, ed. Bertrand Davezac (Houston, 1992), 56-69, esp. 67. 272 Fig. 1 View of the Exterior West Fa?ade of the Church of the Holy Apostles, Thesssalonike. Fig. 2 View of West Fa?ade of the Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 273 Fig. 3 The Obedient Thief at the Moment of His Confession. Vatican Library, Cod. Gr. 394, fol. 21v. Fig.4 Confession. Mount Sinai, Cod. Gr. 418, fol. 189v. 274 Fig. 5 Ground Plan of the Protaton Church, Mount Athos (shaded area shows the placement of Ministry scenes) 275 Fig. 6 Drawing of West Wall of Southwest Chapel. Protaton, Mount Athos. 276 Fig. 8 Christ and the Samaritan Woman. Southwest Chapel, Protaton, Mount Athos. Fig. 7 Drawing of East Wall of Southwest Chapel. Protaton, Mount Athos. 277 Fig. 9 Plan of the Narthex. St. George, Omorphokklesia. 278 Fig. 10 Healing of the Demoniacs. South Wall, Narthex, St. George, Omorphokklesia. Fig. 11 Expulsion of the Merchants. South Wall, Narthex, St. George, Omorphokkesia. 279 Fig. 12 Healing of Ten Lepers. West Wall, Narthex, St. George, Omorphokklesia. Fig. 13 Healing of the Man Born Blind. West Wall, Narthex, St. George, Omorphokklesia. 280 Fig. 14 Ground Plan of the Church of the Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. (shaded area shows the placement of Ministry scenes) 281 Fig. 16 Calling of Matthew. Naos, Church of the Ascension, De?ani. Fig. 15 Calling of Matthew. East Wall, Exonarthex, Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. 282 Fig. 17 Fragmentary Ministry Scene. East Wall, Exonarthex, Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. 283 Fig. 18 Christ, Philip and Nathanael (?). Exonarthex, South wall, Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. Fig. 19 Christ Talking to His Disciples. London, British Library, Cod. Add. 39627, fol. 39r. 284 Fig. 20 Christ Talking to Philip and Nathanael. Naos, Church of the Ascension, De?ani. 285 Fig. 21 Healing of the Two Blind. West Wall, Exonarthex, Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. Fig. 22 Healing of the Woman with the Issue of Blood. South bay, Esonarthex, Chora church, Constantinople. 286 Fig. 23 Healing of the Blind and Dumb Men. Naos, Church of the Ascension, De?ani. 287 Fig, 24 Ground Plan of the Church of Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike (shaded area shows the placement of Ministry episodes) 288 Fig. 25 View of the South Ambulatory of Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 289 Fig. 26 Healing of the Woman with the Curved Back. South ambulatory, Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. Fig. 27 Healing of the Man with Dropsy. South ambulatory, Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 290 Fig. 28 Healing of the Demoniac. South Ambulatory, Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. Fig. 29 Healing of the Two Maimed. South Ambulatory, Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 291 Fig. 30 Healing of the Paralytic. South Ambulatory, Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 292 Fig. 31 Christ and the Samaritan Woman. South Ambulatory, Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. Fig. 32 Wedding at Cana. South Ambulatory, Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 293 Fig. 33 Ground Plan of the Church of Profites Elias, Thessalonike (shaded area shows the placement of Ministry scenes). 294 Fig. 34 Plan of the Narthex of Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 295 Fig. 35 Massacre of the Innocents. East Wall, Narthex, Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 296 Fig. 36 Temptation of Christ. Vault, Narthex, Profites Elias, Thessalonike. Fig. 37 Temptation of Christ. Exonarthex, Chora Church, Constantinople. 297 Fig. 38 Healing of the Demoniac in Capernaum. Narthex, Profites Elias, Thessalonike. Fig. 39 Healing of the Leper at Nazareth. Narthex, Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 298 Fig. 40 Healing of the Centurion?s Servant. Narthex, Profites Elias, Thessalonike. Fig. 41 Healing of the Centurion?s Servant.Paris, Biblioth?que National, Cod. Gr. 74, fol. 102v. 299 Fig. 42 Raising of the Widow?s Son at Nain. Narthex, Profites Elias, Thessalonike. Fig. 43 Healing of Peter?s Mother-in-Law. Narthex, Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 300 Fig. 44 Healing of the Multitude. Narthex, Profites Elias, Thessalonike. Fig. 45 John of Damascus and Healing of the Paralytic. Parecclesion of St. Euthymios, Thessalonike. 301 Fig. 46 Healing of the Multitude. Esonarthex, Chora Church, Constantinople. Fig. 47 Healing of the Multitude. Florence, Laurentiana VI.23, fol. 64v. 302 Fig. 48 Healing of the Demoniacs. Narthex, Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 303 Fig. 49 Healing of the Archon?s Demoniac Son. Narthex, Profites Elias, Fig. 50 Healing of the Archon?s Demoniac Son. Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 74, fol. 34r. 304 Fig. 51 Christ Blessing Little Children. Narthex, Profites Elias, Thessalonike. Fig. 52 Healing of the Ten Lepers. Narthex, Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 305 Fig. 53 Healing of the Man with the Withered Hand. Narthex, Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 306 Fig. 54 Scenes From the Life of St. Gerasimus. South Ambulatory, Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 307 Fig. 55 Drawing of West Wall of Naos. Church of the Virgin, Gra?anica. 308 Fig. 56 Archangel Gabriel. Naos, Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 309 Fig. 57 View of the Altar Apse of the Church of the Ascension, De?ani. 310 Fig. 58 Matthew Presenting His Gospel to Christ. Mount Sinai, Cod. Gr. 152, fol. 16v. 311 Fig. 59 Christ and the Adulterous Woman. Church of the Virgin, Gra?anica. 312 Fig. 60 Christ Soter. Nicholas Orphanos, Thessalonike. 313 Fig. 61 View toward the South Bay of the Chora Esonarthex, Constantinople. 314 Fig. 62 Christ the Land of the Living. Esonarthex, Chora Church, Constantinople 315 Fig. 64 Christ Distributing Alms to the Poor. Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 1128, fol. 77v. Fig. 63 Gregory Distributing Food to the Poor. Paris, Bibioth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 543, fol. 310v. 316 Fig. 65 Drawing of North Wall with the Virgin and Child Distributing Food to the Poor and Two Healing Miracles. Church of the Holy Trinity, Sopo?ani. 317 Fig. 66 Portable Icon with Christ and Saints. Vlatadon Monastery, Thessalonike. 318 Fig. 67 Heavenly Powers with Banners Inscribed with the Epinikios Hymn. Narthex, Profites Elias, Thessalonike. 319 Fig. 68 Drawing of West Wall, Northwest Chapel. Protaton Church, Mount Athos. 320 Fig. 69 Young Christ Among the Jewish Doctors. Northwest Chapel, Protaton Church, Mount Athos. Fig. 70 Young Christ Among the Jewish Doctors. Naos, Church of the Holy Trinity, Sopo?ani. 321 Fig. 71 Parable of the Withered Fig Tree. West Wall, Narthex, St. George, Omorphokklesia. Fig. 72 Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. West Wall, Narthex, St. George, Omorphokklesia. 322 Fig. 73 Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Naos, Church of the Ascension, De?ani. Fig. 74 Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Narthex, Church of Archangel Michael, Lesnovo. 323 Fig. 75 Temptation of Christ. Northwest Chapel, Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. 324 Fig. 76 Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Northwest Chapel, Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. Fig. 77 Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Florence, Laurentiana, Cod. VI.23, fol. 51r. 325 Fig. 78 Christ Teaching in the Synagogue in Nazareth. Northwest Chapel, Holy Apostles, Thessalonike Fig. 79 Teaching Scene (?). North- west Chapel, Holy Apostles, Thessalonike. 326 Fig. 80 Heavenly Ladder. Lavra Monastery, Mount Athos, Cod. ? 73, fol. 228v. Fig. 81 Heavenly Ladder. Stauronikita Monastery, Mount Athos, Cod. 50, fol. 1v. 327 Fig. 82 Heavenly Ladder. North Wall, Exonarthex, Vatopedi Catholicon, Mount Athos. 328 Fig. 83 Ladder of Divine Ascent. North Wall, Narthex, St. George, Omorphokklesia. 329 Fig. 84 The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Trapeza, Lavra Monastery, Mount Athos. 330 Fig. 85 Plan of the Exonarthex of Vatopedi Catholicon. Mount Athos 331 Fig. 86 Anastasis. Exonarthex, Vatopedi Catholicon, Mount Athos. 332 Fig. 87 St. Andrew of Crete. West Wall, Narthex, St. George, Omorphokklesia. 333 Fig. 88 Heavenly Ladder. Princeton, University Library, Cod. Garrett MS 16, fol. 194r. 334 Fig. 89 Last Supper. Exonarthex, Vatopedi Catholicon, Mount Athos. 335 Fig. 90 Gluttony. Mount Sinai, Cod. Gr. 418, fol. 135r. 336 Fig. 91 Gluttony. Vatican Library, Cod. Gr. 394, fol. 74r. Fig. 92 Gluttony. Stauronikita Monastery, Mount Athos, Cod. 50, fol. 103v. 337 Fig. 93 Heavenly Ladder. Princeton, University Library, Cod. Garrett MS 16, fol. 4r. 338 Fig. 94 Plan of the Narthex of Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 339 Fig. 95 Christ Angel and Prophets. Domical Vault, Narthex Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 340 Fig. 96 Prophet Habakkuk. Pendentives, Narthex, Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. Fig. 97 Prophet Ezekiel. Pendentives, Nar- thex, Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 341 Fig. 98 Frontispiece to the Second Easter Homily. Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, Cod. Gr. 543, fol. 27v. 342 Fig. 99 Personification of Truth. Exonarthex, Virgin Levi?ka, Prizren. 343 Fig. 100 Detail of the Last Judgment. Church of the Ascension, De?ani. Fig. 101 Vatican Sakkos. Vatican Treasury. 344 Fig. 102 Poganovo Icon. Crypt Alexander Nevsky, Sofia. Fig. 103 Prophetic Vision. Apse Mosaic, Hosios David, Thessalonike. 345 Fig. 104 Nativity Hymn. East Wall, Narthex, Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 346 Fig. 105 Moses and Aaron in the Tabernacle. East Wall, Narthex, Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. Fig. 106 Moses and Aaron in the Tabernacle. Protaton Church, Mount Athos. 347 Fig. 107 Ezekiel?s Prophecy of the Closed Door. East Wall, Narthex, Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. . 348 Fig. 108 Aaron and His Sons. Ambulatory, Virgin Pammakaristos, Constantinople. Fig. 109 The Nations Worshiping Christ. Walters Art Museum, W.333, fol. 52r. 349 Fig. 110 Illustration to Psalm 77:7. Vision of Isaiah and Habakkuk. Tomi? Psalter, Moscow, National Historical Museum, no 2752, fol. 129r. 350 Fig. 111 Exterior View of the Cathedral Church of Hagia Sophia, Ohrid. Fig. 112 ?Sophia Built Herself a House.? South Wall, Narthex, Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 351 Fig. 113 ?Sophia Built Herself a House.? Naos, Church of the Virgin, Gra?anica. Fig. 114 Illustration to Psalm 45:6. St. Petersburg, Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library, MS F 6, fol. 63. 352 Fig. 115 Bed of Solomon. East Wall, Narthex, Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 353 Fig. 116 Annunciation. Portable Icon, Mount Sinai. 354 Fig. 117 Moses Before the Burning Bush and Moses Receiving the Tablets with the Law. West Wall, Narthex, Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. Fig. 118 Penitent Monks. Vatican Library, Cod. Gr. 1754, fol. 10v. 355 Fig. 119 Jacob?s Dream of the Heavenly Ladder and Jacob Wrestling wit the Angel. West Wall, Narthex, Virgin Peribleptos, Ohrid. 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