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The Interpretation of a Wall-painting in the Vlacherna Monastery near Arta

Articles

• Αχειμάστου - Ποταμιάνου, Μυρτάλη
• ΑΧΕΙΜΑΣΤΟΥ-ΠΟΤΑΜΙΑΝΟΥ, Μυρτάλη

In the catholicon of the Byzantine monastery ofVlacherna, in the village of the same name just outsideArta, there is a partly-preserved wall-painting of theSticheron of Christmas, one of the earliest knownrepresentations of the subject, in the northernmost ofthe three apses in the west wall of the narthex. Thewall-paintings in the naos of the Vlacherna church aredated to the middle of the thirteenth century and thosein the later narthex to the end of the same century.That the subject of this wall-paintings is indeed theSticheron of Christmas, Τί σοι προσενέγκωμεν, Χριστέ,is beyond doubt: the identification is confirmed bycomparison of its surviving parts with other Palaeologan representations of the scene. Inside the cave heldby the personification of the Earth is the onlyinscription that is still legible, which is taken verbatimfrom the relevant verse of the hymn: Η ΓΗ TO CFIHΛ(ΑΙΟΝ).The earliest known representation of the Sticheron ofChristmas, depicted in accordance with the models ofimperial iconography, is a wall-painting in the Peribleptos Church in Ohrid dated 1296, which is close tothe date of the Vlacherna wall-painting. Later examplesexist in other important monastic churches: the HolyApostles in Thessaloniki and the monasteries of 2icaand Ravanica. The positioning of all these thirteenthand fourteenth-century wall-paintings is similar, in thatthey are all in the narthex or some other appendage tothe main body of the church, and all conspicuouslyplaced in a large lunette over the naos door orelsewhere. For the rarer and perhaps later use of theSticheron in Byzantine icons there is written evidence tobe found in the ekphrasis of Makarios Makris, writtenin the first half of the fifteenth century, which refers toan icon in the Nea Peribleptos Church (the Monasteryof Charsianites), a mid-fourteenth century foundationin Constantinople. Here the desert is described as an oldwoman, just as it is represented in the Vlacherna wallpainting but not in any of the others.In all its iconographie variations the Sticheron is closelyassociated with the Nativity and the Adoration of theMagi. The Nativity scenes in the church at Gradaci andthe Brontocheion at Mystras both contain elementstaken from the Sticheron. Conversely, in the depictionsof the Sticheron, the shepherds at Vlacherna and therocky landscape at 2ica show a clear affinity with theiconography of the Nativity, while the postures of theVirgin and Child at Ravanica recall the Adoration ofthe Magi.In terms of its iconography and compositional scheme,the Vlacherna wall-painting is most closely related tothose in Thessaloniki and Ohrid, especially the former.Its composition, colour scheme and careful attention todetails of form and decoration give it an air offormality, pomp and ceremony that is shared by all therest of the wall-paintings in the church and would havebeen well suited to this important ecclesiasticalmonument of the Comnenos Doukas dynasty whichruled Epiros from its court at Arta.The position of the illustration of the Sticheron in thenarthex of the catholicon of Vlacherna is easilyexplained, since the Christmas hymn is also sung on thepatronal feast-day, the Synaxis of Our Lady ofVlacherna, which falls on 26th December. Nor is itdifficult to explain why the Sticheron, in the northlunette in the west wall of the narthex, is paired with thehistorical scene in the south lunette, a unique pictorialrecord of the procession of the icon of the VirginHodegetria in Constantinople. The connecting linkbetween them is the majesty and glory of the Virgin. TheMother of God was venerated in the solemn processionof her icon, which took place every Tuesday inConstantinople; and she is praised and glorified in theSticheron of Christmas, in the immediate context of thefundamental dogma of the Incarnation and theredemption of mankind through the Nativity. Quitepossibly there was another important reason, too, forpairing the representation of the Sticheron with that ofthe procession of the Hodegetria icon, though this canhardly be confirmed now because of the damaged stateof the painting: it may be that in the devout figures ofthe kings, priests, monks and others at the bottom of thepicture the members of the congregation would haverecognized the princes, church dignitaries and gentry ofArta in historical updating of the scene, which isparalleled in the Sticheron wall-paintings at Zica and inthe Holy Apostles, Thessaloniki.

• Arts
• History and Archaeology

• Arts and religion

• http://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/deltion/article/view/4637
• http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/dchae.997