Dear All and Sceptical George,
Yesterday I was at the Met, at the reception for the newly refurbished
Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries, and the Byzantine art on exhibit is
more than a scholarly excuse. It is well worth a trip, and so is the
Morgan library, but call first, if you intend to use the manuscript
room, because it only seats about twenty people.
-- Not only is Byzantine art at the Met a feast for the eye, but much
scholarly work still needs to be done (any takers?) For instance, S.
Maria del Patir is labelled 'south Italy' (it is in Rossano, Calabria)
and we read that 'the Greek cross and vine scrolls [from S. Maria del
Patir] reflect a merging of Byzantine and local elements.' the 'local'
elements look Roman/late antique to me, rather close, for instance, to
the sixth century schola cantorum at San Clemente and to Roman codices I
have seen.
Then, there is an ivory described as 'Ivory with Christ Pantokrator'.
But beneath Christ enthroned in heaven, with angels worshipping Him,
there is a very clear inscription, 'oi agioi tessarakonta', 'The 40 Holy
Ones', or 40 saints; and sure enough, I counted 40 young men in the
lower register of the ivory, all with loincloth and looking half-dead,
except for one, handsome looking and muscular fellow, standing upright
in the lower right corner, turned toward Christ above, with his hand in
the gesture of acclamatio. They are, of course, the 40 saints who were
martyred in Cappadocia in 320 A.D., whose feast is celebrated on March
10. They suffered death in the icy waters of a lake, surrounded by Roman
soldiers. One of them reneged and was pulled out of the water, but a
Roman soldier, seeing heavens open with a crown for each martyr, and
that now there was an extra crown, because one of the 40 had defected,
jumped into the water and confessed Christ. Since in the ivory there is
also the model of a church, it would be quite interesting to see the
place of origin of the artifact. And, this was quite serious, George.
Cheers, Luciana
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Luciana Cuppo Csaki
Societas internationalis pro Vivario
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.geocities.com/athens/aegean/9891/
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