Η εικονογραφημένη Κοσμογέννηση του Γ. Χούμνου στη μονή Σινά : Εικονογραφικά και αισθητικά προβλήματα
Part of : Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας ; Vol.40, 2001, pages 103-114
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103-114
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The Illuminated Kosmogenesis by Georgios Choumnos at Sinai : Questions of Iconography and Aesthetics
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Articles
Abstract:
The Kosmogenesis, a poem by the Cretan Georgios Choumnos, written in Candia after 1493, has been preserved infour manuscripts of which only two are illuminated: cod.London Brit. Lib. Add. M. 40724 and Sinai 1187. The latter,produced probably at Sinai in the late sixteenth century,presents a better textual version of the poem and surpassesartistically its related London codex. The short study hereconstitutes the first presentation of the richly illustrated butunpublished Sinai manuscript. Of the 367 miniatures itcontains, placed in the text, only eight are discussed.Problems of iconography centre on the continuity or not ofthe tradition of early Bible illustration and of the ByzantineOctateuchs in the centuries after the Fall of Constantinople.The discussion shows that, with the exception of illustrationsfound in different media and widely disseminated, e.g.Moses and the Burning Bush (Fig. 10), the miniatures relateto the 'contemporary' world rather than to an earlier tradition(cf. for example, the Ark of Noah as a cargo boat, Fig. 3). Theaesthetic analysis reveals an imaginative, inventive artist influenced by Venetian taste, who understands the poetic valueof the text and attempts to express it in his pictorial creations.These conclusions may apply to book illumination after theFall. In general the aesthetic expression is renewed and theold, medieval tradition of copying manuscripts stemmingfrom an archetype is no longer valid. The role of the manuscript has changed. Eventually the illuminated codex becomes the printed book with woodcuts or engravings, whichobeys new aesthetic laws.
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