medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Christopher Crockett <[log in to unmask]>
> Kurbinovo, if i remember rightly, is also classed among the works of the
"Dynamic Style" of the second half of the 12th c. --perhaps the latest of the
surviving exemplars (which surely included many lost ones, extending
throughout the Empire, including the capital).
poking around the numerous .jpgs on the orthodoxy-icons.com site, i came
across these two, which show the scale of the place
http://www.orthodoxy-icons.com/ornaments/369-kurbinovo-the-church-of-st-george-1191-part-ii.html
http://www.orthodoxy-icons.com/ornaments/369-kurbinovo-the-church-of-st-george-1191-part-ii.html
i never realized that it was so tiny --certainly the frescoes are "monumental"
in effect (if not in size).
there is also this remarkable detail from the Dormition scene
http://www.orthodoxy-icons.com/uploads/posts/2011-04/1304065064_kurbinovo0045.jpg
*look* at the "dynamic" drapery pattern(s) there.
and the expressive heads of the Apostles
http://www.orthodoxy-icons.com/uploads/posts/2011-04/1304065059_kurbinovo0047.jpg
and of a standing Christ
http://www.orthodoxy-icons.com/uploads/posts/2011-04/1304065130_kurbinovo0090.jpg
or the Virgin of the Nativity
http://www.orthodoxy-icons.com/uploads/posts/2011-04/1304065185_kurbinovo0095.jpg
or John the Baptist
http://www.orthodoxy-icons.com/uploads/posts/2011-04/1304065161_kurbinovo0101.jpg
or this wonderful, cadaverous head of Lazarus
http://www.orthodoxy-icons.com/uploads/posts/2011-04/1304065253_kurbinovo0106.jpg
sometimes the "dynamic" drapery seems to go somewhat "Over the Top," loose
something of their Clarity and descend into something which might be called
"mannerism"
http://www.orthodoxy-icons.com/uploads/posts/2011-04/1304065150_kurbinovo0082.jpg
http://www.orthodoxy-icons.com/uploads/posts/2011-04/1304065101_kurbinovo0087.jpg
[Angel from the Baptism scene]
http://www.orthodoxy-icons.com/uploads/posts/2011-04/1304065216_kurbinovo0103.jpg
a sign, perhaps, that the style is getting a bit Long in the Tooth (to use a
technical term), after at least 3 full generations of life.
not to get all Iconographical, but this standing figure, nursing an infant
http://www.orthodoxy-icons.com/uploads/posts/2011-04/1304065225_kurbinovo0114.jpg
i first thought was the *Standing* Virgin --a very unusual iconography.
but, looking closer at the woman's face, and at the lack of a cruciform halo
for the infant
http://www.orthodoxy-icons.com/uploads/posts/2011-04/1304065174_kurbinovo0113.jpg
it seems to be St. Anne and the Virgin --or St. Elisabeth & John the B.? [i
can't make out the accompanying inscription, which might be dispositive.]
a quite unusual theme, at least in the West.
c
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