Death of Theotokos

www.brill.
nl/rart
RELIGION
and the ARTS
Images of Hope:
Representations of the Death of the Virgin,
East and West
1
Elizabeth Walsh, R.S.C.J.
University of San Diego
Abstract
Christianity has existed for nearly two thousand years, yet its divergent forms and rituals
almost belie its existence. Perhaps the best image to express its reality is the cross, but that too
has many interpretations. Is there any image that can be said to represent all that Christianity
intends? Te Death of the Virgin, which was frst represented in art in the tenth century, is an
image which includes all of the basic elements of the Christian faith: incarnation, death, and
resurrection. Te story of this icon spans much of Christian history as the icon evolved
through legend, liturgy, art, and theology. It is an imaginative rendition of centuries of specu-
lation, study, discussion, prayer, and devotion. Although Christian unity is more of a desire
than a reality, this image transcends the divisions and separation which have marred the reli-
gion and stands as a sign of hope and unity. In order to understand the icon, it seems necessary
to trace the process of its signifcation. Icons of Marys death occur in eastern and western art;
thus, they represent a call to be mindful of the essential unity of the Christian faith. Tis
article will focus especially on the categories of legend, liturgy, and art.
Keywords
Death of the Virgin, dormition, icons, Virgin Mary, Byzantine art, Jephonias
C
hristianity has existed for nearly two thousand years, yet its divergent
forms and rituals almost belie its existence. Perhaps the best image to
express its reality is the cross, but that too has many interpretations. Is there
1)
Earlier versions of this article have been presented at the Medieval Association of the Pacifc
conference in San Diego, 2002, at Mapping the Catholic Cultural Landscape in Houston,
2002, and at the Medieval Academy conference in Minneapolis, 2003. I would like to express
my gratitude to colleagues who have read this manuscript and ofered helpful criticism,
Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007 DOI: 10.1163/156852907X172412
Religion and the Arts 11 (2007) 144
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 1 3/5/07 6:22:49 PM
2 E. Walsh / Religion and the Arts 11 (2007) 144
any image that can be said to represent all that Christianity intends? Te
death, or Dormition, of the Virgin, which was frst represented in art in the late
ninth century, is an image that includes all of the basic elements of the Chris-
tian faith: incarnation, death, and resurrection. Te story of this icon spans
much of Christian history as the icon evolved through legend, liturgy, art,
and theology. It is an imaginative rendition of centuries of speculation, study,
discussion, prayer, and devotion. Although Christian unity is more of a desire
than a reality, this image transcends the separation and divisions that have
marred the religion and stands as a sign of hope and unity. In order to under-
stand the icon, it seems necessary to trace the process of its signifcation.
Icons of Marys death occur in Eastern and Western art; thus, they represent
a call to be mindful of the essential unity of the Christian faith.
2
In the early Christian centuries the religion gradually began to defne itself
as certain beliefs were disputed, studied, clarifed, defned, and codifed. One
of the central beliefs concerned the nature of Mary, the mother of Jesus of
Nazareth. Tat she was the Teotokos, the one who gave birth to God, was
afrmed defnitively at the Council of Ephesus in 431 CE. Afer this, devo-
tion to Mary spread rapidly and grew through the mystical life of the church.
Tis devotion led to speculation about her life, her death, and her heavenly
existence, speculation that found expression in apocryphal legends, liturgical
celebrations, and theological thought and controversy. Te death of Mary,
which is not recorded in the Gospels or in any canonical historical account,
became a special focus of interest and began to be celebrated as a feast in the
ffh century. As theological understanding of her death developed, it was
associated with the belief that she had been conceived without sin, and so
these two doctrines became the subject of intense theological debate through-
out the medieval and Renaissance periods, especially in the West. Te theol-
ogy of Mary came to embody the central confict between Christians and
Jews, and this, too, was refected in legend and art. Te glorifcation of Mary
that developed in the early centuries and reached a peak in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries is recorded not only in liturgical celebration and theo-
logical treatises but also in art. Cathedrals, sculptures, icons, paintings, musi-
cal antiphons, and chants depicting the diferent aspects of Marys life
dominate the artistic culture of the Middle Ages, in the East and in the West.
encouragement, and suggestions: Irina Yazikova, Brian Daley, S.J., Joseph McGowan, Peter
Kanelos, Frances Gimber, R.S.C.J., and Derrick Cartwright.
2)
Te icon is rendered by Koimesis (Transition) in Greek, Transitus in Latin, Uspeniye (Sleep-
ing) in Russian, and Dormition in English.
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E. Walsh / Religion and the Arts 11 (2007) 144 3
Tis study will focus on artistic representations of her death as executed in
Russia from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries with a comparative
focus on Italy in the thirteenth century. In order to understand the develop-
ment of this iconic representation, some attention should be given to the
historical context in which the art fourished, to the apocryphal legends that
explain the iconography of the art, to the homiletic tradition, and to the
growing animosity between Christians and Jews that accounts for one ele-
ment in the iconography and appears in some but not all icons. Te story of
Marys death was frst expressed in legend, a ftting place to begin.
I Apocryphal Legends
In the period before the Islamic conquest of the Middle East, the story of
Marys death spread throughout the Christian world, as surviving manu-
scripts in multiple languages attest. Even before Pope Pius XII asked scholars
to engage in research in preparation for the defnition of the dogma of the
Assumption, several studies on this topic had already appeared, and many
more have been published in the last ffy years.
3
Tese demonstrate the com-
plexity of the topic, as there were many variants of the legend, which proba-
bly began in the Byzantine world and was taken thence to Syria, Egypt,
Ethiopia, Georgia, Arabia, and as far west as Ireland. A recent study by Ste-
phen J. Shoemaker has brought some order and clarity to these traditions,
and I will follow his outline of the recension history here.
Rather than basing his study on the theological interests concerning the
question of Marys Assumption into heaven, as have many of the scholars
primarily interested in the theology hidden in these early narratives, Shoe-
maker bases his study on the basis of their literary history and relationships
(Ancient 4). He has concluded that there are a number of textual families
(Ancient 32). Among these are two major groupings of texts, a sub-group,
and a number of atypical narratives. Te two major groupings are distin-
guished by the inclusion of a specifc motif. Te largest of the textual families
includes the texts that refer to the Palm of the Tree of Life, and the second
major group includes Bethlehem as a site where some of the events of the
narrative occur. Te iconography of the Dormition refects these two tradi-
tions. Some of the images produced in the West portray the angel giving
3)
Especially notable are studies by Wenger, Jugie, and van Esbroeck (Aux origines).
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Mary a palm. Eastern icons represent a censer and some form of candles. It
will be illuminating to present a sketch of these two textual families as
described by Shoemaker (Ancient 3257).
Te palm tradition frst appears in some Syriac fragments dated late ffh
and early sixth centuries. Te only complete version of this narrative is found
in an Ethiopic translation, known as the Liber Requiei. Fragments of this nar-
rative have also survived in Georgian and Coptic texts, and a sixth-century
Greek version also survives. Tis tradition was also known in the West and is
found in several Latin versions and also in an Irish narrative. One of the most
well known of the Latin versions was the Transitus attributed to Pseudo-
Melito of Sardis, dated to the ffh century. Some scholars, including Mon-
tague Rhodes James, believe that the earliest Dormition narrative was in
Syriac. Shoemaker seems to favor the theory that the tradition of Marys
death was frst written in Greek, basing his opinion on linguistic evidence:
It is almost certain that these traditions were frst written down in Greek,
although Syriac cannot be completely ruled out. Te transmission of
these traditions in diferent versions and languages presents a substantial
number of variants that are best explained by a Greek original lying
behind the various extant versions. (Ancient 3839)
Te earliest version of the Bethlehem tradition is found in early Syriac manu-
scripts and also in Ethiopic and Arabic. Known as the Six Books, this version
of the tradition appeared in the late ffh to early sixth century, the same time
as the Palm narratives. It seems that the most important version of the Beth-
lehem group is the Greek Dormition narrative attributed to St. John the
Teologian.
4
Tis medieval best-seller . . . is extant in over 100 Greek man-
uscripts, as well as in Georgian, Arabic, Latin and Church Slavonic versions
(Shoemaker, Ancient 51). Tis seems to be the version known to the Russian
icon painters.
In 1993, J. K. Elliott published a revision of the work of Montague Rhodes
James, which was frst published in 1924. Te apocryphal legends of the
Assumption are included in an appendix (691723). He includes a summary
and translation of the standard texts in Coptic, Greek, Latin, and Syriac.
Texts related to the Syriac (Arabic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Georgian) are
4)
John the Teologian is given diferent titles in diferent traditions. John the Teologian,
also John the Divine in the Orthodox tradition, is John the apostle and John the evangelist in
the West. Te author of this narrative is also referred to as Pseudo-John.
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included in the bibliographical section but not translated. Elliotts transla-
tion of the discourse of John the Divine is based upon the Greek edition of
Konstantin von Tischendorf, Apocalypses Apocryphae (95112). Since this
version seems to parallel more closely the iconography found in the Russian
icons, I will present a summary of that narrative here.
5
Mary is living in Bethlehem, and it is her custom to visit the sepulcher of
her son to burn incense there and to pray. Angered by this the Jews ask the
chief priests to prohibit people from visiting the sepulcher. Mary, however,
continues to resort there, since the guards see no one. One day the angel
Gabriel comes to her with the news that she will soon leave the world and
join her son. Mary returns to Bethlehem and asks the three virgins who min-
ister to her to bring her a censer so that she might pray. In her prayer she asks
that John and the other apostles be sent to her so that she might see them.
Her prayer is answered immediately, as John appears, sent by the Holy Spirit
on a cloud from Ephesus. She tells him to pray and put on incense. As they
praise God and converse with each other, Mary tells John that the Jews have
sworn that when my end comes they will burn my body. John answers that
her holy body will not undergo corruption. Shortly thereafer the apostles
arrive, having been brought on clouds from many places, and those apostles
who have already died are temporarily restored to life so that they can also
be present. Each of the apostles then relates the story of his cloud-journey
(par. 8).
All join in prayer, and a series of marvels occurs. Against the background
of a great sound of thunder, hosts of angels surround the house, and many
people in Bethlehem are cured of various illnesses. Te Jews learn of these
marvels and decide to attack Mary and the apostles. At this point Mary and
the apostles are transported on a cloud to Jerusalem (pars. 3132). Tere the
Holy Spirit tells the apostles that on the Lords day he shall come from
heaven for the glory and honour of the departure of the holy and glorious
virgin who bore him (par. 37). And so it happens that the Lord comes with
a multitude of angels. Some words are spoken between mother and Son, and
he says, Behold, henceforth shall your precious body be translated to para-
dise, and your holy soul shall be in the heavens (par. 39). She asks for his
blessing, and the Lord spread[s] out his unstained right hand and blesse[s]
her (par. 40). She also asks him to grant help to anyone who calls on her or
utters her name. She repeats this prayer again before her death, and the Lord
5)
Transcriptions from the Russian manuscripts are included in Porfryevs compilation of
apocryphal legends of the New Testament (89, 90; 27079; 28195).
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promises that those who turn to her will fnd mercy and consolation and
succour and confdence (par. 43). She then blesses the apostles, and the
Lord receive[s] her holy and spotless soul into his own hands (par. 44).
Te apostles then place her body on a bed and carry it from the house. At
this point, the Hebrew Jephonias comes to attack the bed, and immediately
an angel strikes his hands from of his shoulders with a sword of fre and
leaves them hanging in the air beside the bed (par. 46). Tis brings the Jews
to recognize Christ; Jephonias is healed and glorifes God (par. 47). Te
apostles then lay the body of Mary in a tomb in Gethsemane. Te sepulcher
gives forth a fragrant odor and for three days the voices of angels are heard
praising God. Afer three days there is silence; John writes, We all perceived
that her spotless and precious body was translated into paradise (par. 48).
Te apostles then see a crowd of biblical saintsElizabeth, Anna (Marys
mother), Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Davidsinging Alleluia. Tey see a
host of saints worshipping the precious body of the mother of the Lord,
and they see the place where her body has been translated bathed in brilliant
light, fragrance, and song (par. 49). Witnessing all of this, the apostles praise
and glorify God (Elliott 7018).
Te legend of the apostle Tomas is from the apocryphal narrative attrib-
uted to Joseph of Arimathea. According to this version of the story, the apos-
tles are transported on clouds to witness the Virgins death. Tomas, however,
is delayed because he was saying Mass in India. He is then taken in a cloud to
the Mount of Olives where he sees Mary being taken to heaven. Tomas asks
for her blessing, and she responds by giving him her sash. Tomas then joins
the apostles who, thinking that his tardiness was a punishment from God for
his disbelief, rebuke him for his failure to witness the death. Tomas then
tells them that the body is no longer in the tomb. As the apostles do not
believe him, they go to the tomb and fnd that Tomas is correct. He shows
them the sash given him by Mary, and they all rejoice in her Assumption.
According to Montague Rhodes James, this is probably a thirteenth-century
fabrication.
6
For further elaboration of some of the motifs that appear consistently in
the iconography of the Virgins death, it will be helpful to turn to the work of
Antoine Wenger, noted above. Te early Greek traditions of the Dormition
were represented in two diferent narratives: the homily of John the Teolo-
gian, or Pseudo-John, and the narrative of John of Tessalonica. As has been
6)
See also James 21618; Porfryev 8990; Smirnova 286; and Lazarev 148.
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noted, the former was the most popular. In his research on the Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin in the early Byzantine tradition, Wenger discovered
two manuscripts, one Greek and the other Latin, which he believes represent
the missing link between the lost Greek original and John of Tessalonica
and the other Latin narratives that diverge from John. Te Greek text, which
he refers to as R, is found in an eleventh-century manuscript in the Vatican
Library, Gr. 1982; the Latin text is taken from the ninth-century Codex
Augiensis CCXXIX in Karlsruhe. Te Greek manuscript, R, is attributed to
Saint John, Teologian and Evangelist. Wenger believes that the lost Greek
version was the source of manuscript R and of the homily of John of Tessa-
lonica. Te narrative of Pseudo-John describes Mary as asking for a censer
and incense whenever she is in or about to be in prayer; the narrative of John
of Tessalonica describes Mary as receiving a palm from an angel. Wenger
collated the Greek version found in manuscript R with seventeen versions of
the narrative of John of Tessalonica and found that there is concordance
between them in many particulars. In the latter part of his study he presents
the Greek text with a French translation with references to the manuscripts
of John of Tessalonica in the notes. His Greek version of Pseudo-John
includes some amplifcation of the symbolism of the palm and of the lamp,
which will be presented below.
I would like to dwell more, however, on the signifcance of the palm and
the lamp, and ofer some further explanation of the Jephonias motif.
7
Te
palm given by the angel to Mary is described as having been given to the
angel by the one who planted paradise. She is told to give it to the apostles so
they will carry it and sing hymns before her. When Mary asks why there is
not one palm for each apostle, the angel tells her not to be anxious, that the
palm will perform many miracles, and that it will be a sign of discernment to
all the people in Jerusalem. It will be revealed to those who believe and hid-
den from unbelievers (pars. 23).
When Mary goes to the Mount of Olives carrying the palm, the mountain
trembles and the trees bow, adoring the palm in her hand (par. 4). When she
returns to her home, the house trembles because of the glory of the palm. She
places it in a shroud (pars. 89). When John arrives, she asks him to take the
palm but he refuses fearing this may cause dissension among the other apos-
tles (par. 21). Afer Marys death the palm is placed on her funeral bed
(par. 37). When Jephonias attempts to upset this bed, he touches the palm
7)
Te full translation of this narrative is in Wenger 21241.
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and his hands are cut of to the elbows (par. 39). Afer he confesses Christ
and is cured, Peter gives him a leaf from the palm, which later heals the Jews
who had been struck blind (par. 44). Te palm, then, is a very signifcant
motif in the narrative. It is a divine plant that witnesses to the holiness of
Mary and to the power of God.
Te palm is not a motif in the Russian icons, but the candles and lamps
are. When Mary calls her relatives and friends and asks them to stay with her
until the time of her death, she asks that each of them take a new lamp
(Wenger explains this as one newly flled with oil) and that they not let the
lamps be extinguished during these three days (par. 13). Te lamps are men-
tioned again when she speaks to the apostles. Peter remarks on the impor-
tance of the earthly lamps and extends the symbolism of these lamps by
commenting on the celestial lamps to be carried by the virgins, whose wicks
symbolize the spiritual person, and fnally on the light of Marys lamp, which
has flled the universe and will not be extinguished until the end of the world
(par. 31).
8
Another motif to be dealt with here is the episode of the Jews hostility
toward Mary. In an article on the social, political, and religious tensions
between Jews and Christians in late antiquity, which seem to be refected
especially in the Dormition narratives, Stephen Shoemaker discusses an anti-
Jewish legend embedded in almost all of the early narratives of the Virgins
Dormition.
9
Te most recurrent story is that of Jephonias who attempts to
attack the Virgins body as the apostles are carrying it to the tomb.
It is Shoemakers contention that such stories, although not historically
accurate in themselves, do refect the animosity and confict that existed
between Jews and Christians in the early Christian centuries, especially in
the East. Te earliest Dormition stories laid important foundations for [the]
anti-Jewish aspect of medieval Marian piety (Let Us Go 776). Tese nar-
ratives frst appeared around the year 500, when they almost simultaneously
appear in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine (Let Us Go 777). Tere was intense
disagreement between Jews and Christians on the subject of Marys virgin -
ity. Jewish teachers rejected the Christian claim that Christ was born of a
8)
In the Russian version of John of Tessalonica, Peter says that the light of their candles will
illumine the whole world and will not be extinguished (Porfryev 288).
9)
Let Us Go 775823. Of the over sixty narratives of the Virgins Dormition surviving
from before the tenth century, only one omits the canonical anti-Jewish scenes, which invade
even the Dormitions iconography (776).
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virgin: Tis claim was persistently challenged by the Jews throughout late
antiquity and the Middle Ages, who insisted that Christ was a bastard and
Mary hardly a virgin, but a woman of somewhat questionable morals who
had conceived out of wedlock (Let Us Go 790).
II Christian-Jewish Confict
To the Jewish mind, it was not only inconceivable but blasphemous even to
fantasize that the infnite and transcendent God could take fesh, become
incarnate, and be born of a human mother. Belief in the incarnation is the
central claim of Christians, and it is understandable that Jewish scholars
would fnd this unacceptable. Te God of Israel as presented in the Hebrew
scriptures is the creator, the ruler, the lawgiver who governs the universe. He
is referred to as ha-elohim (the deity), and as adonai (my lord and master).
He also has a proper name, only the consonants of which are known: yod, he,
waw, he. Tis Tetragrammaton is an oblique way of naming God, and the
pronunciation is not known (Samuelson 1516).
10
When it was spoken, the
name was Yahve. But so holy and awesome was He that His name itself had
force and power, and it was unbecoming and even sinful for man to pro-
nounce it . . . Only the High Priest might pronounce it, and only on one day
in the year, that on the Day of Atonement (Sandmel, Judaism 168). Te idea
that Jesus of Nazareth is God was and is a stumbling block to the Jews. As
Samuel Sandmel asserts so clearly:
When we Jews have understood Christian explanations, and when we
have not, we have consistently rejected the Christian claims about Jesus.
We have not believed that Jesus was the Messiah; we have not believed
that the Logos became incarnate as Jesus; we have not believed that Jesus
was, or is, the very Godness of God.
11
(We Jews 44)
In the same context, he comments on the fact that, although at present
Christians are open to receive expressions of Jewish attitudes, such was not
10)
Te terms elohim and adonai are both plural forms and seem, according to many scholars,
to represent a royal plurality.
11)
In another book, Sandmel further discusses the leap from the historical Jesus to the divine
Jesus as an interpretation of his life by New Testament writers eager to spread a fervent faith
( Jewish Understanding 3234). Te quest of both Christians and Jews to create an identity, an
orthodoxy that would diferentiate each from the other, is discussed by Boyardin.
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the case in the early Christian centuries [when] these expressions were
received with extreme hostility. Indeed, Christians were so convinced that
no one could be saved without baptism, that the more fanatical felt it was
their duty to convert all men and women, even through force. In such a
situation, confict was inevitable. Why was the confict so extreme? As
Christians gained dominance, why were the Jews made a subject and per-
secuted people?
Te history of the Jewish people under the Roman Empire, both in Pales-
tine and in the Diaspora of the early years of the Christian era, is extremely
complex. At some times and in some places, Jewish customs were sanctioned
and protected; at other times Jews were harassed and persecuted. Peter
Schfer, basing his arguments on attitudes toward Jews expressed in the writ-
ings of such fgures as Cicero, Juvenal, and Tacitus, concludes that the
Romans admired, feared, and hated the Jews. Teir religious practices and
customs set them apart from the Greco-Roman culture that was seen as nor-
mative to the civilized world. Tey were seen as exclusive and thus misan-
thropic toward others, yet they attracted converts. Te deeply felt threat
that the Jewish superstition might succeed in fnally destroying the cultural
and religious values of Roman society is the very essence of Roman hostility
against Jews (Shfer 180211, 210).
12
It was especially the church, however, that Elisabeth Revel-Neher believes
constituted one of the basic elements underlying the creation of the image
of the Jew (18).
13
One of the most provocative assertions, which caused a
surge of hostility toward Jews on the part of Christians, was the charge that
Jews were guilty of the murder of Christ. Tis accusation was frst voiced (as
far as we know) by the second-century convert, apologist, and martyr Justin
(c. 100165) in his Dialogue with Trypho. Anti-Jewish attitudes were
increased by the invectives of some of the fathers of the church (Gregory of
Nyssa and John Chrysostom are especially notable) and by the decrees of
church councils further prohibiting and restricting relationships between
Christians and Jews. Te rhetoric of anti-Jewish polemic was at times
extremely ofensive accusing the Jews of gluttony, lust, avarice, murder, and
every other vice (Revel-Neher 2027).
12)
See also Revel-Neher 111.
13)
Te development of anti-Semitism, the roots of which can only be touched on here, is a very
complex issue about which innumerable books and articles have been written. Te reader is
referred to Revel-Neher 50, n. 18, for a listing of some of the most notable studies on the issue.
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Tese early centuries of the Christian era, up to and including the twelfh
century, were troubled years for the Christian church as well. Years of perse-
cution were followed by years of controversy over the beliefs of the new reli-
gion. Te passionate and angry rhetoric toward Jews clearly reveals insecurity,
uncertainty, and fear. In order to construct some semblance of a coherent
identity, the outsider had to be created. In an article on Palestine in the early
Byzantine period, Gedaliahu G. Stroumsa explains the construction of the
outsider as resulting from the new emphasis on religious truth that devel-
oped afer the establishment of Christianity as the state religion in 380. Te
new centrality of truth in religious matters, coupled with religion as a prime
factor of identity, radically transformed the status of religious outsiders.
Tose who refused to accept Christianity were held fully responsible.
According to this conception there was no, or almost no, neutral outsider. It
is this attitude which explains the tendency to demonize the outsider, in par-
ticular the heretic and the Jew, which has been so widespread in Christian
history (Stroumsa 2223).
Tis attitude naturally found its way into art, as seen in Ruth Mellinkofs
study of portrayals of outcasts in the art of northern Europe (1: 130; 2: 32).
14

Unfortunately the attitudes of empire and church were internalized in the
popular imagination, and a tragic history has ensued.
It is particularly ironic that Mary became a fulcrum for anti-Jewish atti-
tudes. An ordinary Jewish woman, she was so closely associated with the
mystery of the Incarnation that Marian devotion, especially in the medieval
period, ofen included a negative portrayal of her own people. Te Jephonias
motif of the Dormition legends must have been among the frst of the mir-
acle stories of the Virgin.
15
Elisabeth Revel-Neher asserts that the Jephonias episode appears in (Byz-
antine) art around the ninth and tenth centuries in Cappadocia (81).
16
Afer
discussing several representations of the motif in early Byzantine art, she
14)
Te Death of the Virgin is represented in an image from the Taymouth Hours, England,
c. 132535. A fgure with a bulbous nose is clutching the covering of Marys bier as the apos-
tles carry it to burial.
15)
Frank presents a detailed account of such legends.
16)
Annemarie Weyl Carr places this representation at Yilanli Kilise in the Peristrema Valley
of Cappadocia in the eleventh century. She also speculates that the inclusion of the Jephonias
motif in images of the Koimesis may have been infuenced by an outburst of anti-Semitism
resulting from the First Crusade, which took place in 1096. She bases her theory on frescoes
in the Mavriotissa Monastery near Kastoria (Macedonia) dating from the late eleventh to
early twelfh centuries (Carr, Frescoes).
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notes that the images only depict one aspect of the story: the audacious act
of Jephonias and his punishment. His conversion and healing are not
included. Tus, the image is a negative one. However, she points out that
Jephonias is not depicted in a grotesque or exaggerated form. Although
the identity of the character is sometimes recalled by his pleated hood,
no physical deformation, no accentuation of features . . . reminds one
that this character . . . was in any way diferent from the mass which sur-
rounded him. Nothing suggests that he was hateful because he was hid-
eous, deformed or satanic . . . Tere is no intention, in short, of moralizing
in excess of the representation of an action which was reproved and
immediately punished.
17
(Revel-Neher 8283)
Revel-Neher points out that the covered head was a distinguishing feature of
Jewish identity in post-iconoclastic Byzantine art (72).
18
Tis feature is seen
as well in the icons discussed in this study. In these icons, the fgure of Jepho-
nias appears in the late thirteenth-century Dormition sequence of Duccio di
Buoninsegna and in two Russian icons, one of the late ffeenth and one of
the late seventeenth century. In the Duccio sequence the group of Jews
appearing at the end of the funeral procession are identifed by their white
hoods. Te Dormition mosaic in the apse of Santa Maria Maggiore depicts a
fgure kneeling before the bier who wears a white hood and is clothed in a red
tunic. Tis would seem to represent the converted Jephonias. In the ffeenth-
century Russian icon (fg. 3) Jephonias wears a hood that covers his head and
ears. Te icon written by Simon Ushakov (fg. 4) portrays Jephonias with-
17)
In his study of God-denying fools and the medieval Religion of Love, Kolve discusses
many manuscript illustrations of the fool, many of which portray this person as a caricature of
the Jew with his hooked nose. Kolve is currently working on a book that will include lectures
given in Toronto and Cambridge, England: Te Fool and his Hunger, Typologies of the
Psalter Fool, Te Fool as Killer of Christ, and Te Feast of Fools Revisited (10, n. 13).
18)
For a detailed discussion of Jewish costume and insignia as represented in Byzantine art, see
Revel-Neher 5083. In his study of the image of the Jew in medieval art, Blumenkranz notes
that the First Crusade marks a turning point in the life and representation of the Jew in the
West. He asserts that the identifcation of Jews by certain physical characteristics and by speci -
fc elements of apparel is not seen until afer the First Crusade. He notes the le nez courb
(the hooked nose) appearing in an English document of c. 1271 and a French chronicle later
than 1321 (19, 28, 32). See also Mellinkof, who in the frst volume of her study discusses the
various ways in which artists portrayed Jews as distinct and diferent from the rest of the soci-
ety. She mentions especially clothing, colors, headgear, physical distortions and deformities.
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 12 3/5/07 6:22:53 PM
out a head covering. It seems that the earliest appearance of the motif in Rus-
sia is to be found in the series of icons on the bronze doors of the Cathedral
of the Nativity of the Virgin in Suzdal, executed probably in the early thir-
teenth century (Wratislaw-Mitrovic and Okunev 151).
19
Historians seem to agree that the appearance of Jephonias in the Moscow
Kremlin and in other icons executed in the late ffeenth century is related
to the so-called Heresy of the Judaizers, which caused considerable turmoil
in Russia in the late ffeenth century. Smirnova states: Te representation
of this scene, common in Russian painting of the late 15th century and
16th century, most likely derives from the efort to combat heretic disproval
of Orthodox dicta (285).
Tis refers to the group known as Judaizers who began spreading doc-
trines perceived to be a threat to the Christian faith. Te movement was
related to the arrival in Novgorod of a man named Zechariah, or Skharia,
who was thought by some to be a Jew. Afer his arrival in 1470, heretical ideas
developed; a number of people began to accept only the Old Testament
and to reject the authority of the New Testament, including the divinity of
Christ. When two priests from Novgorod were transferred to Moscow, these
ideas spread to the court and became popular. Te heretics were eventually
condemned at a church council in 1504, afer which the Judaizers were
suppressed and their leaders burned at the stake.
20
It is important to note that
the heretics were called Judaizers because of their allegiance to the Old Tes-
tament, but there were probably no Jews actually involved in the movement.
John D. Klier asserts that the major opponents of the heresy were the
Archbishop of Novgorod, Gennadii, and a monk of Volokolamsk, Iosif,
whose attack on the heresy, Te Enlightener (Prosvetitel ), is one of the chief
sources about it. Gennadii and Iosif claimed that Skharia was a Jew and that
his teaching began to draw people from the faith. Te followers were not
called Judaizers, however, for nearly two hundred years. When these teach-
ings spread to Moscow and even became popular at the court, the orthodox
opposition intensifed. Klier believes that the fact that the heretical ideas
were accepted at the court reveals the religious and political insecurities of
19)
More recent studies demonstrate an earlier appearance of this motif in Cappadocia, but
the article is probably correct in fnding this to be the frst in Eastern Europe.
20)
Riasanovsky 1.11314. Riasanovsky identifes Skharia as a Jew, but other historians omit him
from their discussion of the heretical movement. Catherine Evtuhov asserts that the heresy origi-
nated among the clergy (112); Geofrey Hosking states that the name Judaizers was given by those
who opposed the new ideas, something that makes the name somewhat questionable (101).
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the state. Tis also accounts for the vehemence of the opposition and the
claim that the threat to the faith came from the Jews. Te image of Jews, be
they merchants or missionaries, crystallized into a personifcation as deadly
enemies of the faith (Klier 342). Tis intense hostility is clearly expressed in
the violence of the angels attack on Jephonias: the scene in these icons is
a visual symbol of an attack on the church, which was also identifed with
the state.
Iosif of Volokolamsk, or St. Joseph of Volotsk (b. 1439), may have been
responsible not only for the prosecution of the so-called heretics but for the
promulgation of this attack through the image of Jephonias in representa-
tions of the Dormition. Joseph was a highly learned and infuential monk
who established several churches dedicated to the Dormition. He was also a
patron of the icon-painter Dionysius to whom some of these icons are attrib-
uted. Te prototype of the motif is thought to be the icon of the Dormition
in the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin (Nersessjan 16).
Te Kremlin Dormition was built on the order of the Grand Prince of Mus-
covy Ivan III between 1475 and 1470 or 1480. Te original frescoes were
painted under the direction of Dionysius. Te icon in the Dormition Cathe-
dral in Dmitrov, executed at the end of the ffeenth century, is also attrib-
uted to Dionysius. (Dmitrov is situated on the Moscow canal, about 40 miles
north of Moscow. Te icon is now in the Andrey Ryblev Museum in
Moscow).
Te frescoes in the Cathedral of the Dormition in the monastery of Volo-
kolamsk, founded by Joseph in 1479, were painted by fve artists, one of
whom was Dionysius. Te cathedral was completed in 1485 or 1486.
Included in this study (fg. 3) is the Dormition icon from the monastery of
St. Cyril of Belozersk. Tis monastery, founded by St. Cyril in the early
ffeenth century, had become, afer his death, a major economic and cul-
tural center of the Muscovite state (Soloveva 324). It was also a refuge and
retreat for some members of the family of the Grand Prince Ivan III, who
ruled Muscovy from 14621505, during which time the heresy spread and
infuenced the court. In 1496 the original wooden church at Belozersk was
replaced by a stone structure whose iconostasis included two Dormition
icons, one from the original church and a new one. Te latter included the
Jephonias motif, as will be discussed below. Tese historical convergences
suggest that the appearance of the Jephonias motif in Russian icons was
infuenced by Joseph of Volokolamsk.
In some recent studies the fgure of Jephonias has been related to several
biblical texts through which he would be understood as the enemy who
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aims to harm Mary. In this perspective Jephoniass attempt to overturn
Marys bier is seen as an allusion to the attempt of Oziah against the Ark of
the Covenant in 2 Kings 6:68 (van Esbroeck, Te Virgin 66).
21

III Liturgical Celebration
In the course of time, legend was made concrete in the celebration of a feast
in honor of the death of the Teotokos. In the second half of the sixth century,
the Emperor Justin II enlarged and redecorated the churches in Constanti-
nople in which the two major relics of the Virgin were kept. Tis led to
increased public devotion to the Virgin. Two feasts in particular were cele-
brated: those of the Annunciation and of her death. Te latter became even
more important in the liturgical cycle; it was celebrated on the ffeenth of
August, following the church in Jerusalem (Cormack 168). In Constantino-
ple the celebration began at dawn with a procession from the Church of
St. Euphemia to Blachernai, an area in the northwestern corner of the city
where a basilica of the Virgin Mary is said to have been built c. 450 by the
Empress Pulcheria.
22
Te feast was made ofcial in the eastern half of the
empire in the year 600.
23
One element of the liturgical celebration was
the homily or discourse given by a prelate to explain the nature of the feast
and to stir the devotion of the faithful.
Tese homilies drew upon the apocryphal legends of her death, upon cur-
rent theological thought, and upon the mystical life of the speakers. Tey are
beautifully wrought literary expressions of faith and devotion. St. Andrew of
Crete (c. 660740) and St. John of Damascus (c. 675749 or 753) both
delivered a trilogy of homilies on the vigil of the feast of the Dormition.
21)
See also Saadya.
22)
Dormition and Blachernae in the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. Kahzdan et al.
23)
Te feast was celebrated in the Roman church about ffy years later. In the Western church,
according to Gofen, Te name of the feast was changed in the eighth century to the title
Assumptio Sanctae Mariae, as in the Sacramentary addressed by Hadrian I (77295) to
Charlemagne sometime between 784 and 791. Tis change of title from the Byzantine Dor-
mitio to the Roman Assumptio also signifed a change in doctrine. Te focus of the feast in
the Western church became Marys Assumption rather than her death. Although belief in
Marys Assumption into heaven, body and soul, was fnally embraced by the church in the
mid-fourteenth century (Gofen 9192), the doctrine was proclaimed a dogma of faith in
the Western church only in the mid-twentieth century by a bull of Pius XII, Munifcentissimus
Deus, which was promulgated on November 1, 1950.
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Teir orations draw on scriptural passages, especially from the Canticle of
Canticles, to describe Mary as the beloved of the Lord. Tey are flled with
image upon image, metaphor upon metaphor to express her attributes.
Brian Daley has translated twelve of these dating from the seventh to the
ninth centuries. Included in Daleys work are the narrative of John of Tes-
salonica, two homilies of Germanus of Constantinople, three by St. Andrew
of Crete, and the trilogy given by St. John of Damascus. Tese trilogies were
delivered at all-night vigils in preparation for the feast (Daley 16, 21). All of
the homilists included in this book agree on two points: that Mary actually
died and that her body did not undergo corruption but was taken to heaven
afer being buried. What is especially distinctive about these homilies is the
emotional power of the rhetoric and the profound mystical presence they
describe. In his third homily, St. Andrew of Crete creates a hymn that he
imagines being sung at the time of her passing by all of the saints and angelic
hosts. Tese singers praise Mary in the words of the Canticle: Who is this
who comes up from the desert like a column of smoke, breathing myrrh and
incense made from all the merchants powders? (Cant. 3:6). Andrew draws
together the entire communion of saints in exhorting the congregation:
Come, let us lead on the sacred funeral procession for the Virgins body;
let us sing a song in her memory, and let us crown her, who gave rise to
this celebration, with all the honors in our power. And that this may
more splendidly come to pass, let the whole festal company of heaven
and earth join with us today, and complete for me the funeral hymn,
which I can only fashion in words like these. (Daley 14546)
As Brian Daley comments: Te efect of the whole trilogy, in fact, is above
all to suggest that participation in the liturgical feast of the Dormition, with
its rich array of Biblical texts, its singing, its use of icons and its Eucharistic
conclusion, is itself an opportunity for the faithful to share more deeply in
the saving gif of life that Marys transferral to heavenly glory so powerfully
reveals (18). He believes that the homilies of John of Damascus were deliv-
ered in the church built on the site in Gethsemane where her tomb was
thought to have been (Daley 239, n. 3).
In the third homily St. John points to the tomb as more precious than the
tabernacle of old, for it contained the radiant, living lampstand, the table spread
with lifeholding not the showbread but the bread of heaven, not earthly fre
but the immaterial fre of God. He goes on to describe Mary as the vessel of
purest gold . . . the living table of stone . . . and the golden censer, which gave
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birth to the divine coal, spreading his fragrance through all creation (qtd. in
Daley 234). Tus Mary herself is the altar and the liturgical vessels of Christian
ritual. Tis conception is made visible especially in the iconography of the East-
ern Church, as we will see in the icons described below.
Two fourteenth-century Orthodox teachers afrm the same truths about
the death and Assumption of the Teotokos. In a homily on the feast of the
Dormition, St. Gregory Palamas (12961359) echoes St. Andrew of Crete
in mentioning the gathering of saints and angels at her passing. Te com-
memoration of the feast not only recalls the wondrous deeds of the Mother
of God, but also adds thereto the strange gathering at her all-sacred burial
of all the sacred apostles conveyed from every nation, the God-revealing
hymns of these God-possessed ones, and the solicitous presence of the angels,
and their choir, and liturgy round about her, going on before, following
afer. Further, he describes the presence of Christ as portrayed in the icons,
into Whose hands she rendered her divinely-minded spirit, through which
and with which its companion, her body, was translated into the domain of
celestial and endless life (Palamas). He then explains how ftting it is that
her body should be translated to heaven as well as her soul. He does, however,
state that her body was buried before being taken up straightway from the
tomb, implying that her body did not remain three days in the tomb. He
praises Mary as exalted above all created beings and extols her role as the one
who dispenses grace on all those who honor her.
Nicholas Cabasilas (born c. 1322) wrote one of the most exalted of the
Dormition homilies. Elle seule est le guide de toute me et de tout esprit
vers la vrit de Dieu (64).
24
He goes on to say that she is the essence of the
sanctity of men (67). He does not go into many details about her death but
does say that it was necessary that her body should be separated from her soul
(74), that her body was entombed, though only for a brief period of time,
before heaven inherited this new earth, this spiritual body (77). And like
his predecessors, St. Nicholas likens Mary to the altar: If the altar, which is
like the charter and the image of the graces of the Virgin, is the Holy of
Holies, what title can one use to describe her in truth? In fact the altar is that
much more inferior to the Virgin as shadow and image are to the truth: an
infnite distance (69).
25
Legend and homily were soon to be refected in art.
24)
She alone is the guide of every soul and of every spirit toward the truth of God (my
translation).
25)
Tis faith tradition is still very much alive in the Russian Orthodox Church. Te Journal
of the Moscow Patriarchate has included several contemporary homilies that attest to the
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 17 3/5/07 6:22:55 PM
IV Byzantine Art
Te defeat of the iconoclasts in the mid-ninth century brought about an
increase in devotion to the Virgin, and consideration of her death became a
strong afrmation of her humanity. According to Annemarie Weyl Carr, the
representation of Marys death is a late-comer among the festival icons,
entering the repertoire of Byzantine images only in the late ninth century
and fnding a place in the canonical core of festival scenes later still, in the
eleventh century (Popular Imagery 114). Te question of Christs mortal-
ity was a central issue in the Iconoclastic heresy (723843 CE). If Christ
truly had a mortal, human body, then the divine could be imaged. Te Koi-
mesis became the fnal, irrefutable proof of that mortality (Carr, Popular
Imagery 115). Its emergence in the late ninth century and subsequent popu-
larity would seem to signify its importance as a theological assertion.
Te earliest extant icons of the Koimesis date from the tenth century. Tey
are small ivory devotional objects. Although the iconography is based upon
the apocryphal legends of the Virgins death, the composition of these min-
iatures is drawn from Greek images of lament. Te icons are countercultural,
however, as mourning was at that time considered to be the responsibility of
women who expressed the grief of the family or community in emotional
and dramatic rituals (Carr, Popular Imagery 115). In the representations of
Marys death, the mourners are men, and their grieving is subdued and
restrained. In the exhibit of Byzantine art that took place at the Metropoli-
tan Museum of Art in 1997, Te Glory of Byzantium, three such objects were
displayed (cats. 95, 101, 102).
26
Te frst two are of ivory, and the third is a
steatite, of soapstone. With minor variations, the scene represented on each
is similar: the Virgin lies on her bed, the apostles on either side of the bed
and Christ behind the bed holding her soul. One or two angels above pre-
pare to receive her soul. Peter, Paul, and John hold positions that they will
retain, for the most part, throughout the evolution of the icon. Peter stands
veneration with which the feast of the Dormition is celebrated in Russia today. Tey express a
frm faith in her death and her assumption into heaven. Tey also fnd in her the source of
grace for all of the faithful.
26)
Te frst, dated mid-tenth century from Constantinople, is now in the Houston Art Museum;
the second, from late tenth-century Constantinople, is in the Metropolitan, and the third, late
tenth century from Modena, is in Vienna. Of the frst, the commentary reads, Te style of
compositionbased on ancient Greek scenes of mourningand the beauty of the forms
responds to the vogue for classical learning in mid-tenth century Constantinople (150).
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at the head of the bed, swinging a censer; Paul is at the foot of the bed touch-
ing Marys feet while John, behind the bed, leans over near her head.
Te placing of the icon of the Koimesis in churches also emphasized the
centrality of Mary in the narrative of the Incarnation. Te scene of her death
was painted on the wall above the west door of churches. Since there was
usually an image of Mary at the eastern end as well, in the apse, this meant
that the ceremonies and the faithful therein were encompassed by her
presence.
27
Te infuence of Byzantine art was widespread. One of the most far fung as
well as one of the richest and most productive centers developed in medieval
Russia. It was one of the earliest rulers of Kiev, St. Vladimir (c. 9801015),
who adopted Christianity as the religion of his people. Until this time, although
the Christian religion had some presence in Kiev, the majority of the people
were pagan (Riasanovsky 1.3032). Te ofcial adoption of Christianity had a
profound infuence on the development of Kievan culture. It strengthened the
relationship between Russia and Byzantium and brought Byzantine models
and forms to Russia. Tese are seen especially in the realms of church architec-
ture and art (Riasanovsky 1.5556).
V Dormition Icons in Russia
As Christianity developed and spread in the lands of medieval Russia, icon
painting became a studied and treasured art, so much so that the Russian
icon is one of the great achievements of medieval art. Centers of icon paint-
ing developed in the various principalities, and diferent schools evolved in
Novgorod, Pskov, Tver, and Moscow, to name a few. Many icons of the Dor-
mition have been preserved in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. I would like
to turn to a discussion and analysis of four of these, which date from the
thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries and were created in diferent parts of
the country.
27)
Cormack describes two frescoes of the Koimesis, both from Cyprus. Te frst is in the
Church of Asinou, dated 1105 or 1106. Tis is a large wallpainting on the western wall of the
church, above the door. Te second is found in a church in the mountains above Asinou, dated
1192. Te placing of an image of Mary in the apse of the church and also at the other end of
the church, in the nave, signifes her central role in the narrative of salvation. Te liturgical
services took place in a space between two images of the Mother of God, representing her
timeless presence in Christian life (17074).
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Te iconography of these images is drawn from the legends of the Virgins
death. Taken together these icons enable us to trace the evolution of the icon.
Trough them we can also note the artistic development that took place
especially with regard to composition, color, and artistic ornamentation.
Although the basic pattern in all of these icons is uniform, each artist was
able to express something of his own creativity and vision. Mary lies on her
bed, the grieving apostles at either end of her body. Behind the bed in the
center of the icon and dominating the whole is Christ holding the soul of his
mother in his arms. Peter stands by the Virgins head swinging a censer or
thurible. Paul is at the opposite end of the bed leaning over Marys feet. John
is on the other side of the Virgins head, hunched over near her and looking
into her face. Te other apostles look on. Tis is the basic statement of the
icon. Other motifs are the apostles on clouds preparing to accompany her
soul to heaven (fgs. 1 and 4); an orb in the upper plane representing heaven
(fgs. 1 and 3); Mary, alof, bestowing her sash on the belated Tomas
(fg. 3); the intense grief of the apostles (fgs. 2 and 3 especially); the presence
of bishops (all fgs.); buildings on either side of the image (fgs. 2, 3, and 4);
grieving women peering from the buildings or present among the mourners
(fgs. 3 and 4); and Jephonias and the angel (fgs. 3 and 4). Peter incens -
ing the deathbed and some form of candle before or behind appear in all,
and angels appear in most of the icons in various positions and postures.
Some artistic development will be discussed in the following descriptions of
the icons.
28
Te frst fgure presents an icon from the Church of the Dormition in the
Dessiatine Monastery of Novgorod, executed in the early thirteenth century.
Two moments in the mystery of the Virgins passing are brought together in
28)
Icons of the Dormition present a unique iconography. Te image of Christ holding His
mothers soul depicted as a baby is an inversion of the Mother and Child icons that abound in
both Greek and Russian traditions. Icons of the Nativity portray the swaddled child lying in a
manger (sometimes resembling a sarcophagus), and the Virgin reclining below him looking in
the opposite direction. Icons of the Ascension represent the ascending Christ in the upper
plane of the image. Clothed in gold, he is seated against a circular mandorla carried by two
angels. Below, the Virgin stands in the center of the apostles and several angels. Te apostles
look toward the risen Lord, some gesturing with their arms. Although some elements may
vary, the iconography is very stable in eastern Christian art (Evans 181, 186, plates 101 and
106). Icons of the Dormition that portray Marys assumption also depict her against a circular
mandorla or medallion accompanied by angels. Tis element is similar to the portrayal of the
ascending Christ.
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Figure 1. Church of the Dormition, Dessiatine Monastery of Novgorod, early thirteenth
century. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, printed with permission.
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 21 3/5/07 6:22:57 PM
this icon: the moment of her sleeping, or death, and the moment of her
Assumption into heaven. Te frst is presented in the lower half of the paint-
ing, as has been described above. Tree bishops are also present, two on the
lef and one on the right. Tese are traditionally thought to be Hierotheus of
Athens, Dionysius the Areopagite (lef) and James (right). Two candlesticks
stand behind the bed on either side of Christ. Two angels hover on a line
with Christs head. Tey are preparing to receive Marys soul and hold cloths
in their hands. Tey form part of the upper plane of the icon.
Here the apostles are portrayed once more, this time as part of the assem-
bly welcoming and accompanying Mary to her heavenly abode. Te compo-
sition is beautifully balanced with six apostles on either side as each group is
beckoned by two more angels. Each apostle is situated on a cloud shaped like
a shell with upturned edges. Teir garments seem windswept as though to
indicate the swifness of their fight.
Te fgure of Christ extends into the upper portion of the image, uniting
earth and heaven. Directly above him at the very top center of the painting is
a semicircle representative of the sky. Tere, two angels carry the soul of Mary
into the starry world beyond.
Te sleeping Mary is dressed in a dark red or purple-red maphorion over
a dark blue tunic. She is similarly clothed in most of the Russian icons of her
death. Tese colors are deeply symbolic. Tey evoke the idea of blood and of
sacrifce, but also the idea of divine love in all its power and spiritual richness
(Kaucisvili and Iovana 39). Her shoes are a bright red or vermilion. Her soul
is clothed in white swaddling bands signifying her birth into a new life. Te
apostles are clothed in various hues, both those fying on the clouds and those
grieving around Marys bed; Peter, however, is traditionally clothed in a yel-
low or ochre cloak over a blue tunic, and Paul wears a purple-red cloak over a
blue tunic. Diferent shades of brown predominate with touches of blue,
rose, and yellow. Te background of the upper half of the icon is gold, which
is particularly luminous in the central area beneath the semicircle of the sky
and surrounding the fgure of Christ.
29
29)
In his commentary on this icon, Lazarev discusses the work in its relationship to Byzantine
icons of the same type. Contrary to Byzantine exemplars, the fgures here are fat and volume-
less. Lazarev also notes that the fgures on the right are portrayed more in the Greek style, their
faces in the later Comnenian style, whereas those on the lef are sofer and more imper-
sonal. Te various stylistic elements suggest that this is the work of Novgorodian masters in
whose hands Byzantine forms began to undergo more substantial alterations (3536).
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Figure 2. Dormition side of bilateral icon of Donskoi Mother of God. Executed for Dormition
Cathedral in Kolomna, c. 1392. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, printed with permission.
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 23 3/5/07 6:22:59 PM
One of the simplest and most elegant exemplars of the Dormition can be
seen in Fig. 2: the Dormition side of the bilateral icon of the Donskoi Mother
of God. Te icon was executed for the Dormition Cathedral in Kolomna, a
city on the Moscow River about seventy miles southeast of Moscow (Anton-
ova and Mneva 255). Te decoration of the cathedral took place in 1392, and
so the icon is dated about that time. Igor Grabar attributes the icon to Teo-
phanes the Greek or to the Master of the circle of Teophanes, and this attribu-
tion is noted in the Tretyakov Gallery. Evelina Smirnova, however, agrees with
V. Lazarev that the icon exhibits characteristics of the Novgorodian style. Te
faces, with their pinched-up features and slightly narrowed eyes, fail to convey
that forceful, dynamic spirituality characteristic of the frescoes of Teophanes
the Greek and the icons in the Deesis tier of the Kremlin Cathedral of the
Annunciation (Smirnova 263). Lazarev believes that it was executed by a Rus-
sian disciple of Teophanes the Greek, one who had his own powerful indi-
viduality and who was probably from Novgorod (51). Whoever the painter
was, he was certainly infuenced by the Dynamic or Expressive trend in Byzan-
tine icon painting.
30
In this portrayal a monumental Christ commands the cen-
tral place in the icon. His fgure towers over the bed of his mother, his halo
reaching the peak of the mandorla and touching the red wings of an angel
directly above. He is completely clothed in a very rich chiton of gold. He holds
Marys soul upright in his hands. She is held slightly apart, not nestled against
his breast as in other portrayals. Her small fgure is wrapped in white swaddling
bands. As he looks down at her body, she looks up toward his face.
Te grieving apostles stand at either end of her bed, six on each end. Teir
faces and gestures portray their profound sorrow at the passing of Mary. Te
iconography follows the traditional pattern, but some slight alterations empha-
size their feelings. Smirnova identifes the fgures as Peter, James, Tomas (in the
background), Matthew, Bartholomew, and John (on the viewers lef) and Paul,
Andrew, Mark, Luke, Simon, and Philip (on the right) (263). Peter and Paul
occupy their traditional places. Peter, however, while incensing with his right
hand, uses his lef hand to wipe tears from his face with his mantle. Paul holds
his hands outstretched on either side of Marys feet while he looks at her with a
deep sense of loss. Johns face, barely visible above the bed, expresses his deep
distress. On the lef side, Philip holds his head in his hand, two of the apostles
turn their heads toward each other, and Andrew too holds his hand to his head
in dismay. Before Marys bed a burning candle is placed, as before an altar.
30)
Te representation of grief in this icon, as seen in the gestures of the apostles, is very similar
to the grief portrayed on the bronze doors of the Nativity Cathedral in Suzdal, mentioned above.
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 24 3/5/07 6:23:00 PM
Te predominant colors in this icon are diferent shades of red (or red-
dish-brown), gold, and blues.
31
Mary is clothed in a deep red maphorion over
a dark blue tunic. Te drapes below her bed are also deep red. Christ in gold
stands before a dark blue mandorla; Peter wears a gold mantle over a blue
tunic. One of the buildings is a lighter reddish brown, and the wings above
Christ are bright red.
Tis icon is distinguished by the purity and simplicity of the lines and the
intense concentration of the composition. In another study, V. Lazarev
asserts that, although the central elements of the icon follow the traditional
mode, in other ways, the scene is completely original:
No Byzantine or Serbian master was able to inject into the scene such
profound and sincere emotion as the Donskoi artist succeeded in doing.
His apostles are very ordinary people. Moved and saddened, they have
come to ofer their last tribute (duty) to their mother. Each one, without
any afectation, without any hint of a pose, expresses his feeling in his
face and his gestures . . . Tey look thoughtfully into the face of Mary as
though trying to fx her features in their memory, understanding per-
fectly well that they are seeing her for the last time. Teir psychological
condition is rendered truthfully by the artist who has represented here
what he probably observed in contemporary village services for the dead.
All of his apostles are pure peasant types in whom there is no sign of
Byzantine aristocracy. Te apostles heads are magnifcent fragments of
the paintings and witness to the subtle power of observation possessed
by the old Russian master.
32
(65)
Figure 3 depicts an icon from the iconostasis of the Dormition Cathedral in
the monastery of St. Cyril of Belozersk, as has been discussed above. Te
monastery was completed in 1497, and the icon is dated somewhat earlier.
Kirillov is now a town in the Vologda region northeast of Moscow. Its main
attraction is the monastery, which with its churches and buildings is now a
museum. Te icon is in the Tretyakov Gallery. In composition and form this
icon is very similar to the patronal icon of the Cathedral of the Dormition in
the Moscow Kremlin and to another icon from Dmitrov.
31)
Te catalog of the Tretyakov Gallery describes these as dark blue and brown as well as light
vermilion, ocher, and white lead (the browns are reddish-brown or brownish-red; vermilion is
bright red to reddish-orange) (1: 25557, n. 216).
32)
Tis excerpt is a free rendering of Lazarevs text.
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 25 3/5/07 6:23:01 PM
Figure 3. From iconostasis of Dormition Cathedral, monastery of St. Cyril of Belozersk, late
thirteenth century. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, printed with permission.
Te composition of the icon from the monastery of St. Cyril creates a
beautiful oval that extends from the mandorla, in which Christ appears, to
the Virgins bed. Te mandorla is exquisite, composed of four layers of
difering color. Te frst is a backdrop for the golden rays from Christs body;
the second reveals an arcade of angel fgures. Te third and fourth enclose the
fgures and emphasize the centrality of Christ. Te artist has created beauti-
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 26 3/5/07 6:23:01 PM
fully rhythmic lines formed by the heads of the angels gazing on Christ and
below them, the heads of the apostles gazing on and leaning toward the fgure
of Mary on her bed. Te composition is carefully balanced but asymmetrical.
On the lef are four apostles, Peter incensing the couch. On the right are
eight apostles, Paul opposite Peter as seven others surround him, two having
their faces very close to the bed. Teir faces express sorrow and intense grief.
Behind the apostles stand two bishops on the lef and one on the right. Weep-
ing women appear as well on each side. In the upper plane of the icon, a more
symmetrical arrangement of apostles, each on a cloud, surrounds a circular
medallion in which Mary is seated on a throne. She leans toward Tomas,
ofering him her sash. Two angels on either side of the medallion are ready to
carry her to heaven. Directly above Mary is a semicircular sphere where
angels cluster to welcome Mary to the world beyond.
Below, two candles are placed behind the bed. Before the bed appear
Jephonias and the angel who has just struck the high priest with his sword,
cutting of his hands, which still cling to the bed. Jephonias holds his arms
toward the angel as though asking for mercy. He is distinguished from the
other fgures by his hooded cap, which is dark. Te background of the upper
portion of the icon is a light yellow or ocher against which the reddish
brown wings of the angels accompanying the clouds stand out distinctly. Te
clothing of the apostles is dark blue, green, brown, rose. Christ is in deep
ocher, almost gold, and golden rays emanate from his body. Te mandorla is
a dark greenish-blue. Peters mantle is dark ocher, and Paul is clothed in
bright rose.
Figure 4 presents an icon painted by the state icon painter Simon Ushakov
in 1663. It was originally executed for the iconostasis of the Florisheva-
Uspenskaya Lavra in the Vladimir region. (Te lavra, dedicated to the Dor-
mition of the Mother of God, was situated on the Florishevaya Mountain.)
Te composition draws all of the traditional fgures together within an orb of
olive green. Above the bishops are the heads of four angels, two on each side
of Christ. Te angels haloes and wings are colored into the orb, but each face
is a luminous white. In the center of the orb, against an ocher mandorla,
Christ stands holding his mothers soul in his hands. Above the peak of the
mandorla, against the top of the orb, three bright red angels, their wings
spread beyond the orb, hover over the scene. In the foreground, before the
bed of the Virgin, the fgures of an angel and Jephonias relive their dramatic
encounter. Two buildings rise behind the orb.
Te scene is striking for its precise and clear composition and for the pre-
dominance of reds and ocher coloring. Te circularity of the scene brings
together in a rhythmic unity all of the components of the mystery of Marys
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 27 3/5/07 6:23:02 PM
death. Tis harmony is intensifed by the colors. Varying shades of redcoral,
rose, vermilion, purplish-redare seen in the three hovering angels, the
clothing of several women and one bishop, the clothing of Paul and two
other apostles, as well as that of the striking angel and Jephonias. In this icon,
the high priests head is bare. Shades of ocher are seen in the haloes, the nar-
row mandorla which sets Christ apart, and the darker shade of his attire, as
Figure 4. Simon Ushakov. Originally executed for iconostasis of Florisheva-Uspenskaya Lavra,
1663. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, printed with permission.
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 28 3/5/07 6:23:03 PM
well as in the brownish-ocher of Peters mantle, the light bed covering on
which Mary lies, and the buildings and background in the upper plane of the
icon. Te olive green of the orb in the background and the foor in the fore-
ground subdues the brightness of the scene and also unifes the elements. At
the very top of the icon, outside the scene of Marys death, is a semicircle of
greenish-blue with stars and two panels of red, which may signify the open
doors of heaven. Te composition is simple, drawing the major motifs of
Marys death into a unifed and harmonious whole. Te concentration of the
fgures representing diferent eras in the story of salvation seems to empha-
size the timeless nature of this moment.
VI Representations of the Dormition in the West
Te intense devotion to Mary expressed in the writings of St. Bernard of
Clairvaux and Dante Alighieri is refected in every aspect of the art of West-
ern Europe. Te imagination of the Christian West has been formed espe-
cially by images of the Annunciation, the birth of Christ, the Madonna and
Child. Scenes of the Virgins death, however, can also be found, and these
were very central in the development of Mariology. Representations of the
Dormition date, for the most part, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth cen-
turies, but some images exist from earlier periods as well.
33
At this point, I
would like to present a more detailed description of the thirteenth-century
Roman mosaics and the panel paintings of Duccio.
Santa Maria in Trastevere is thought to be the frst church in Rome dedi-
cated to the Virgin. It was built by Pope Julius I (33752) in the fourth
century. Te mosaics in the apse are ascribed to the late thirteenth century.
In the semi-dome of the apse Christ and His mother are enthroned beneath
the hand of God and on either side fanked by various saints. Below are six
mosaics representing the life of Mary, executed by Pietro Cavallini c. 1291.
Although the design of the whole is quite diferent, these follow the pattern
in the Byzantine iconostasis. One of these mosaics depicts her in death; she
is lying on a couch, surrounded by the apostles and clothed in a deep blue
33)
Te earliest that I am aware of is carved on an ivory hinge from the Cathedral Chapter of
St. Gall, dated c. 900. An illustration of this image can be found in Ebertshauser et al. Te
motif of Marys death was fairly popular in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In the
ffeenth century, as more attention was given to the theology of the Assumption, the repre-
sentation shifed from that of her death to that of her rising into heaven.
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 29 3/5/07 6:23:04 PM
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 30 3/5/07 6:23:05 PM
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RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 31 3/5/07 6:23:12 PM
mantle. Behind her deathbed Christ, in a red mandorla, appears holding her
soul and bordered by two angels.
Te Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is one of the four patriarchal basili-
cas. It was frst erected by the successor of Pope Julius, Pope Liberius (352
66), and underwent several restorations and additions in the Middle Ages.
Te apse and transepts were added by Pope Nicholas IV, Girolamo da Ascoli
(128892); this frst Franciscan pope commissioned the Franciscan friar
Jacopo Torriti to design and execute the mosaics in the apse. Te mosaics
were completed in 1295, three years before the death of the pope. In the
lower lef corner of the mosaic, Torriti signed his work and gave an inscrip-
tion, now lost, that acknowledged the commission of Nicholas and gave the
date of the completion of the work, computed to be 1295. His signature,
however, is still visible, and reads: Giacomo Torriti, painter, did this work in
mosaic. Te large mosaic that flls the dome of the apse depicts Christ and
his mother enthroned together. Tey are seated in a circular medallion with
nine angels on each side. Christ is in the act of crowning his mother; in his
lef hand he holds an open book on the pages of which is written a passage
echoing the Canticle of Canticles: Veni electa mea et ponam te Tronum
meum.
34
Below the medallion between the two groups of angels are the
words, Maria Virgo assumpta est ad ethereum thalamum in quo Rex Regum
stellato sedet solio. Exaltata est Sancta Dei Genitrix super Chorus Angelo-
rum ad Celestia Regna (Santa Maria 2324).
35
On the lower plane of the medallion, saints and contemporary fgures are
portrayed on either side. On the lef are depicted Saints Francis of Assisi,
Paul, Peter, and kneeling, Pope Nicholas IV; on the right, Saints John the
Baptist, John the Evangelist, Anthony of Padua and kneeling closer to Christ,
Cardinal Giacomo Colonna, who paid for the mosaic. Along the base of the
apse Torriti has placed scenes from the life of Mary: the Annunciation, the
Nativity, the Dormition, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Presentation of
Jesus in the Temple. Te Dormition is given a central place just below the
scene of the coronation. Te theology symbolized in the juxtaposition of the
death of the Virgin with her glorifcation is made especially clear in Torritis
giving such a central place to the mosaic of the Dormition.
34)
Come, my chosen one, and I will place you on my throne (my translation).
35)
Te Virgin Mary has been assumed into heaven where the King of Kings is seated on a
star-encrusted throne. Te Holy Mother of God is exalted by the choir of angels in the heav-
enly kingdom (my translation). Tese quotations are taken from Santa Maria Maggiore
Basilica Patriarcale 2324.
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 32 3/5/07 6:23:14 PM
Te next fgure, 5b, depicts Marys death. Te iconography is similar to
that found in Byzantine exemplars. Mary lies on her deathbed while Christ
holds her soul in the shape of a little child. He holds her with both hands as
she leans on his breast. Te shaping of her fgure and the way in which he
holds her is very similar to the shaping of the infant Jesus in the arms of his
mother in the Greek icon of Our Lady of Tenderness, (the Virgin Eleousa),
one of the earliest and most well-known icons of Mary. Te arc in which
Christ stands is surrounded by angels, and two more angels hover and lean
toward the sleeping Mary. Te apostles appear on each side of her bed,
Peter incensing the scene and Paul at her feet. Above the apostles are depicted
fgures representing the heavenly court. Tese include King David, with a
crown on his head. Behind the apostles on the right appear four grieving
women.
Torriti has added some additional features as well: the two small Francis-
can fgures and the lay person with his head covered with a cap of the type
ofen noted in the painting and sculpture of the thirteenth century (ber-
retto di tipo ben noto nella pittura e nelle scultura duecentesca) kneeling
below the catafalque of the Virgin (Tosti-Croce 149).
36
Clothed in a white
hood and a red tunic, this fgure bears a striking resemblance to that of
the legendary Jephonias and may be intended to represent him afer his
conversion.
Te next seven fgures represent the images created by Duccio di Buonin-
segna (12601319). In the Museo dellOpera del Duomo in Siena there is a
room devoted to the painters Maest. Te room displays not only the
magnifcent painting of the Virgin and Child surrounded by saints, but the
other panel paintings which are thought to have once been a part of the cen-
tral painting. Six of these smaller paintings represent the death of the Virgin.
Some art historians believe that there was once a seventh, placed in the cen-
ter of the series, which depicted the Assumption and above which was the
Coronation, which is now in Budapest. Tis would bring Duccios work in
line with the twelfh and thirteenth-century mosaics discussed above. We
can only deal, however, with the extant six now on display in the Museo
dellOpera. Tey are based primarily on the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de
Voragine which was based on the Transitus of Pseudo-Melito of Sardis and
represents the palm tradition of Dormition texts (see above). Te series
consists of the angels annunciation to Mary that her death is imminent, her
36)
Te history of the basilica and details of the mosaic are also taken from Tosti-Croce (149).
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 33 3/5/07 6:23:15 PM
farewell to the apostle John, her farewell to all of the apostles, her death, her
funeral, and her burial.
Te frst panel (fg. 6) is, in many ways, a replica of traditional Annuncia-
tion scenes. An unnamed angel appears to Mary, reverently genufecting to
her and holding toward her a branch of palm fowering into seven golden rays,
each of which ends in a star. According to Te Golden Legend, the angel greets
Mary, and says, See, lady, I have brought you a palm branch from paradise,
and you are to have it carried before your bier. Later in the passage, the palm
is described as shining very brightly: the stem was green like any other branch,
but the leaves gleamed like the morning star (Voragine 2: 78).
Tis palm branch appears in all of these scenes relating Marys death. In all
of the paintings Mary is dressed in a red tunic covered by a dark blue mantle.
In the second scene (fg. 7) the Virgin takes leave of John while the other
apostles are gathered outside witnessing a warm handshake between Peter
and Paul. Mary and John, each leaning toward the other, create an arc of
warmth and tenderness. In the third scene (fg. 8) the apostles surround the
deathbed of Mary where she is lying, partially raised, and looking toward
them. John, situated near the right side of the Virgin, holds the palm branch.
Te standing fgure of Paul before an arched doorway balances the seated
fgures around Mary. Her death scene (fgs. 9a and b) is based upon tradi-
tional Byzantine models. As Mary lies in the sleep of death, she is surrounded
by the apostles and a multitude of angels. In the center of the painting, Christ
stands holding her soul. In the forefront Peter and John kneel. Te tiered
rows of haloed fgures resemble a tableau of the heavenly court. Te funeral
scene (fg. 10) represents the apostles, led by John holding the palm, carrying
the catafalque outside the walls of the city to burial. Towards the back of the
procession, several townspeople appear, one with his arms raised, his hands
touching the bier. Tese fgures are clothed diferently from the apostles,
wearing hooded white caps, red or orange mantles over brown tunics, and
boots. In the Golden Legend they are not identifed as Jews, but the one
touching the bier is called the chief priest. Here, his hands are not cut of by
an avenging angel, but they are withered. Te others present are struck blind
by angels. Te priest is healed when he proclaims faith in Christ, and the oth-
ers who believe are healed through the touch of the palm.
37
Te fnal scene
(fg. 11), that of the burial, reveals the deep love of the mourning apostles.
37)
Tis version of the legend states that when the townspeople hear the singing as the apostles
carry Marys body to burial, their curiosity is aroused and they come out to investigate. One of
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 34 3/5/07 6:23:15 PM
Figure 6. Duccio di Buoninsegna. Annunciation of Death. Museo dellOpera del Duomo,
Siena. Printed with permission from La Scala, Firenze.
them assesses the situation, and they all cry out: Come on, let us kill all those disciples and
burn the body that bore the seducer! Ten the chief priest, moved with anger, also condemns
the tabernacle of the man who disturbed us and our people so much. He attempts to upset
the bier, and at that point his hands are withered (Voragine 81).
38)
Tis commentary on Duccio is based on that of Jannella 7378, as well as my own study of
the paintings.
Alone in a valley surrounded by rocky clifs and trees, they gently lower the
body of the Virgin into the tomb. Teir faces express their sorrow and grief.
Te composition of this painting is superb, as the eye of the viewer follows
those of the apostles toward the central fgure of the Virgin. Te sides of the
clifs slant toward the burial scene, reinforcing the centrality of the tomb.
38
Duccios representation of these scenes from the death of the Virgin relates
the drama of her passing. Te sequence takes place in time and involves a
distinct series of moments. She realizes that her death is near; she wants to
bid goodbye to those who followed her son, who have known, loved, and
protected her, and whom she has guided through her presence and prayer.
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 35 3/5/07 6:23:15 PM
Figure 7. Duccio di Buoninsegna. Taking Leave of John. Museo dellOpera del
Duomo, Siena. Printed with permission from La Scala, Firenze.
Figure 8. Duccio di Buoninsegna. Taking Leave of the Apostles. Museo dellOpera
del Duomo, Siena. Printed with permission from La Scala, Firenze.
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 36 3/5/07 6:23:16 PM
Figure 9a. Duccio di Buoninsegna. Death of the Virgin. Museo dellOpera del Duomo, Siena.
Printed with permission from La Scala, Firenze.
VII Conclusion
I hope to have shown something in the foregoing of the interpenetration of
Eastern and Western cultures in the representation of the death of the Vir-
gin. Icons of her death seem to have originated in the East, but these images
soon traveled to the West. Te mosaics of the mysteries of Marys life in the
apse of the Roman churches of Santa Maria in Trastevere and Santa Maria
Maggiore follow the pattern of icons in the Byzantine iconostasis. Duccios
panel paintings break the iconography down into its several components,
creating a meditation in time of the events that led up to and followed Marys
death. Russian icons draw the elements of the narrative into one timeless
moment of death and assumption.
Te Jephonias episode arose in Cappadocia in the tenth or eleventh cen-
tury, possibly as a result of the First Crusade. It seems fairly certain that the
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 37 3/5/07 6:23:18 PM
Figure 9b. Duccio di Buoninsegna. Detail from fg. 9a. Museo dellOpera del Duomo, Siena.
appearance of the motif in Russian icons appeared only in the later ffeenth
century, again in relationship to a historical movement that brought about
antagonism toward Jews. Tis motif does occur in Byzantine and Russian
art, but it does not appear in every icon of the Koimesis or the Uspeniye. Te
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 38 3/5/07 6:23:20 PM
Figure 10. Duccio di Buoninsegna. Funeral Rites. Museo dellOpera del Duomo, Siena.
Jephonias image seems to be somewhat rare in Western depictions of the
Dormition, perhaps because the focus of the feast in the West was increas-
ingly on Marys Assumption rather than her death. Another factor that
diferentiates Eastern and Western models is that of individuality. Because
icons were considered to be of divine inspiration in the East, there were strict
specifcations concerning their composition. Some evolution did appear, as
we have seen, but the fgures of Christ, Mary, and the apostles vary little from
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 39 3/5/07 6:23:20 PM
one artist to another. In the West, artists seem to have been allowed the free-
dom to innovate. Duccio, for example, expands the narrative from one image
to six. He separates the Jephonias encounter from the death scene and por-
trays the funeral procession. Greater freedom is seen in the paintings of
Giottos workshop, Paolo Veneziano, Gherardo Starnina, Domenico Ghir-
landaio, Filippino Lippi, Titian, and others.
39
Tere is no reference to Jepho-
nias in any of their paintings.
Paul Evdokimov lays out the distinction between Eastern and Western
artistic representations of religious subjects very clearly. He locates the begin-
Figure 11. Duccio di Buoninsegna. Burial. Museo dellOpera del Duomo, Siena. Printed
with permission from La Scala, Firenze.
39)
Tis freedom is seen especially in the construction of the scene and in the development of
the assumption motif. Examples of this can be seen in Fra Angelicos portrayal of Peter prepar-
ing to read the prayers for the dead and Petrus Christus presenting the apostles as about to
anoint Mary with the sacrament of the Last Rites. Fra Angelicos reliquary of the Dormition
and Assumption of the Virgin is in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; Petrus
Christus painting is in the Timken Museum of Art, San Diego. See Upton, and Cantor and
Palladino.
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 40 3/5/07 6:23:21 PM
ning of the divergence in the late eighth century when inaccurate Latin trans-
lations of Greek texts misrepresented the teachings of the Seventh
Ecumenical Council, and claims that it had authorized the worship of
images. Images were further demoted at the Council of Frankfurt (794) and
the Synod of Paris (824), which stated that images only serve an ornamental
purpose and are irrelevant to Christian worship. Even so, Western art con-
tinued to refect the spirituality of the East into the eleventh and twelfh
centuries. With the introduction of depth perspective and chiaroscuro,
however, the mysterious and irrational reality of the world was lost. Tis is
seen in the work of artists such as Giotto, Masaccio, Duccio, and Cimabue.
(Evdokimov excepts Fra Angelico and Simone Martini). He describes this
divergence as a move towards independence: Art that breaks with the can-
ons of iconography fnds its independence (Evdokimov 16769).
40
Eastern reverence for the icon is based upon a theology of presence: Te
icon is a sacrament for the Christian East; more precisely, it is the vehicle of a
personal presence. Te icon, in its two-dimensional simplicity, excludes all
materialization and mediates to the viewer the presence and spiritual power
of the person(s) represented (Evdokimov 17879). It is meant to be a sym-
bolic representation of a spiritual reality. Te spiritual reality made visible in
icons of the Dormition that portray a high priest attempting to overturn
Marys bier is the hostility of those who would attack and destroy the church.
Te angel of God is its protector.
What does the viewer contemplate, then, in the icon of the Virgins death?
Te icon is an image of incarnation, mortality, and a transcendent realm to
which humans have access. According to Judeo-Christian religion, the Incar-
nation began with the call to Abraham, a call that brought forth three of the
worlds great religions. Te icon speaks of mortality, which includes the
whole of human history with its failed empires, fallen dreams, and fallibility.
Mortality includes the if only of history that is so ofen driven by misun-
derstanding and mistakes. Te image also speaks of another realm, which can
be understood in many ways. On the literal level, it refers to the Christian
heaven, but it may also be a metaphor for a world where people live together
in harmony and peace. Tis is an image of transcendence and hope.
40)
Dantes admiration of the realistic sculptures along the Terrace of Pride would seem to
indicate that Western artists would not have agreed that the spiritual dimension was necessar-
ily diminished by the restoration of perspective (Purg. 10).
RART 11,1_f2_1-44.indd 41 3/5/07 6:23:22 PM
Works Cited
Antonova, V. I., and N. E. Mneva. Katalog drevnerusskoy zhivopisi. Vol. 1. Catalogue of the
Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1963.
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