Ο Χριστός Παντοκράτωρ : Εικόνα κομνήνειας τέχνης στη μονή του Σινά
Part of : Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας ; Vol.41, 2002, pages 31-40
Issue:
Pages:
31-40
Parallel Title:
Christ Pantocrator : A Comnenian Icon in the Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai
Section Title:
Articles
Abstract:
All that survives of the icon of Christ Pantocrator is the lower left section and a small part of the right (Fig. 1). Tasos Margaritoff was responsible for the conservation of the painting, while another team mounted the work in a wood-pulp frame. Its present dimensions are 88.8 x 65.9 cm. Christ holds an open gospel-book and blesses. The heartshaped decorative motif on the arms of the cross on his "rotating" halo is remarkably similar to that in the interstices between the circles decorating the colonnade of the epistyle of St Eustratios in the monastery of St Catherine on Mt Sinai, while a variation of its covers the ground of the mosaic icon of the Virgin and Child in the same monastery (Fig. 6). The monumental figure of Christ combines the dynamic expression of his presence in the well-known, sixth-century encaustic icon from Sinai, with the self-confidence and stern ethos of the Pantocrator in the full-page miniature in the luxurious large Lectionary (cod. 204) in that monastery, which has been dated around 1000 (Fig. 4) and with which there are comparable details. It seems that the painter of the icon of the Virgin of Kykkos was also influenced by the same miniature for the figure of "Christ in Glory" (Fig. 8). Stylistic and technical analysis leads to a dating of the icon of the Pantocrator to the third quarter of the twelfth century. Some elements, such as the "rotating" halo - a purely Sinaite technique - and the decoration of the arms of the cross that is associated with the epistyle of St Eustratios, which on the basis of technical details must have been made in the monastery, lead to the conclusion that the icon is also the product of a Sinaite workshop and in all probability was the despotic icon of the iconostasis to which the epistyle of St Eustratios belongs. Recent measurements have shown that the length of the two parts of the epistyle coincides with the width of the parekklesion of the Five Saints of Armenia, in the monastery precinct.
Subject:
Subject (LC):
