Οι ψηφιδωτές εικόνες του Οικουμενικού Πατριαρχείου και οι αναθέτες τους
Part of : Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας ; Vol.35, 1994, pages 249-258
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249-258
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The Mosaic Icons of the Oecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople and their Donors
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Abstract:
The Patriarchate of Constantinople still possesses twofairly large portable mosaic icons, one representing theVirgin Pammakaristos and the other Saint John the Baptist. Both are said to have come from the Pammakaristos monastery (Fethiye Camii). It is not unreasonable toassume that the icons originally belonged to the sameset; they have a great deal in common. G. A. Soteriou,who published the icons, first dated them to the secondhalf of the 11th century. Other scholars, without presenting detailed stylistic analysis, have proposed variousdates ranging from the 11th to the 14th century.In the present study, I attempt to show that the iconsbelong to the period immediately after the end of theLatin occupation of Constantinople (1204-1261), morespecifically the years 1270-1290. The first argument involves the original gilded gesso haloes of the Virgin andChild, now clumsily restored to resemble mosaic. Theuse of such haloes appears to have been imported fromthe West during the period of Latin occupation. Thisdate is based on stylistic affinities with the monumentsof the first "Palaeologan Style", that of the reign ofMichael VIII (1258-1282). There exists one even moreimportant argument for this date: the connection of theprotostrator Michael Glabas Tarchaneiotes {ca 1235-1304) and his wife with the Pammakaristos monastery,which may have begun as early as ca 1263. They restoredthe church, which appears to have suffered some damageduring Latin rule. The poet Manuel Philes appears tohave been an habitué of the Glabas household and sometwenty poems were commissioned by the protostratorand his wife. One poem deals with a mosaic image ofSaint John the Baptist and two others are addressed tothe Virgin Mary. I propose that Philes, when writingthese epigrammes, had in mind precisely these two icons,now in the Oecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.Moreover, the kneeling donor at Saint John's feet couldwell represent Michael Glabas, who considered SaintJohn the Baptist his patron.
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