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Funerary Representations in the Middle and Late Byzantine Periods

Articles

• Papamastorakìs, Titos
• ΠΑΠΑΜΑΣΤΟΡΑΚΗΣ, Τίτος

«Δύναται ο κτίζων τάφον και στήλην έπιθεϊναι ή έτερον ;oν βούλεται κόσμον». This excerpt from the Basilika, as well as other related laws of Justinian's legislation, reveal an unbroken continuity in the conception of funerary monuments and their decoration from Antiquity well into the middle years of the Byzantine Age, a conception that, as study of the texts indicates, continued unchanged until the Empire fell. The establishment of funerary monuments in specially arranged areas of chapels or narthexes during the Middle and Late Byzantine periods is associated directly with the social status of their founders, their special relationship with the ecclesiastical foundations housing such monuments and with the management of these foundations. The visitor to the great monasteries-mausolea at Constantinople before the Fall would have found himself in places reminiscent of a pinakotheke, with portraits of the most distinguished members of the higher echelons of Byzantine society, deceased aristocrats and dignitaries of the state. These pictures, in diverse techniques, ranged above the graves and portraying the figures as they were in life, dressed in garments appropriate to their rank and title, alone or together with members of their immediate family milieu, will have given the impression of a large company of actors on the imperial stage. Epigrams complemented and completed the decoration of the funerary monument, reconstituting the personalities of the dead in word too. The epigram may be in the form of an address by the deceased him/herself or some member of his/her family, while in some cases the monument itself speaks, revealing the person concealed inside it. As a rule the funerary representations of the Middle and Late Byzantine periods are in one of the following artistic genres: wall-paintings, panel icons and marble reliefs. Of the extant funerary wall-paintings a large group comprises those representations in which the person commemorated is depicted in direct association with the Virgin and Child, who intermediates between the deceased and Christ. A second group of funerary wall-paintings are those in which the reference point is the figure of Christ enthroned on the left, to which the deceased is being led by the Virgin. In those cases in which the concept of the patron is introduced in the schema, this is achieved in a manner that emphasizes the expensive gift offered in expectation of a place in Heavenly Jerusalem. Indeed the Virgin or the homonymous saint intercedes with Christ, who expresses his acceptance by bestowing his blessing. A third group includes the funerary representations in which the deceased is depicted in his two personae: as a layman and a monk. The propensity of Byzantine aristocrats to don the monachal habit in their later years, having already enjoyed all the pleasures and honours of temporal society, in order to facilitate their entry to Paradise, is well known. The known examples of the above three groups date from the Late Byzantine period, but the funerary epigrams reveal the existence of similar monuments from the Middle Byzantine period. From the iconography of the funerary representations it is deduced that certain surviving panel icons, such as the relief marble icon in the Byzantine Museum, were placed above sepulchral monuments. Study of the funerary representations and epigrams confirms that despite their avowed Christian faith in the coming Judgement, Byzantine aristocrats were devoted to the earthly life and its values. Their placement in specially arranged spaces within ecclesiastical foundations, avoiding the equalizing effect of incorporation in a cemetery, associated them with groups of distinguished monuments. Their depictions on funerary monuments either made on their instructions when alive or by their family after death, were intended to preserve for eternity the image of their physical aspect, gender and age, as well as the insignia of their social status and economic standing. By the same token, the accompanying epigrams included elements such as name, events, sentiments, personal and social relations, corresponding activities, good qualities and virtues, always according to the scale of values of the dominant ideology of the day. Death comes to all, but the privilege of remembrance for posterity through inscribed words and images was the right of specific social classes in Byzantium. Modelled upon the ideal of Byzantine society, Heavenly Jerusalem is a class-structured kingdom not big enough to accommodate all. However, the founding of a church, a generous bequest, an illustrious name, if necessary disguise in a monk's habit, could provide the key to Paradise.

• History and Archaeology
• Arts

• Arts and religion

• http://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/deltion/article/view/4762
• http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/dchae.1174