medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: John Dillon <[log in to unmask]>
>>
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.]
> It's the former. The man's inscription identifies him as Joachim.
proving, once again, that Literacy is a most definite Boon to any Aspiring
young Iconographer.
>> a quite unusual theme, at least in the West.
> For what it's worth, this touristic site on Kurbinovo says that
breast-feeding in general is very rare in Byzantine art:
> http://tinyurl.com/5tgtrfe
be that as it may, i would say that the main advantage of that site is in its
shot of the exterior of the "church"
http://abg.mk/fair/images/stories/about-macedonia/st.george_chuch1.jpg
how *tiny* the famous place "Kurbinovo" is!
what a precious survival.
> A partial view of the entire composition is here (lower register):
> http://tinyurl.com/cmxgggu
> The saints to the viewer's left of Joachim and Anne are Constantine and
Helen; to the left of them one can make out a bit of St. Panteleimon (the part
of the panel that's not shown in that view has the Holy Unmercenaries [Agioi
Anargyroi] Cosmas, Damian, and Panteleimon plus a bit of at least one more
saint further to the left <http://tinyurl.com/6tkwoyx>).
that sounds suspiciously like Iconography [Yawn], to me.
>....Kastoria. That church has a depiction of Nicholas in its second layer of
painting (ca. 1180):
http://tinyurl.com/7fhuv57
>One might wish to compare the treatment of the head here with the "Dynamic
Style" examples from Gorno Nerezi and Kurbinovo to which Christopher Crockett
has been drawing our attention.
Incessantly & Tediously.
Kastoria is in that group, dated (on purely stylistic grounds) by Demus and
Kitzinger [see below] to the mid-12th c. --and thus one of the earliest
surviving examples of the style.
i took the opportunity to re-read (after a few decades) on of the very few
articles i've ever been able to find on the Dynamic Style:
Ernst Kitzinger, “Byzantium and the West in the Second Half of the Twelfth
Century: Problems of Stylistic Relationships,” Gesta, IX, (Papers on the
Renaissance of the Twelfth Century Read at the Symposium Held in the Museum of
Art, Rhode Island School of Design, May 14 and 15, 1969), 1970, pp. 49-56.
available on JSTOR:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/766654
(i can supply a copy to anyone who needs one, btw)
typically (for Kitzinger), the article is informative, incisive, and
stimulating.
he offers a (very brief) sketch of the history of the style --which he himself
seems to have baptized-- its essential elements
"characterized by intense agitation, rapid movements, complicated patterns of
undulating, swirling and cascading draperies, and dramatic use of highlights
and shadows. It has the makings of a kind of Byzantine baroque and, indeed,
has at times been referred to as such. But there is also a decidedly mannerist
aspect to it-an excess of slenderness in human proportions, of twists and
contortions in attitudes, and of vermicular forms in fold patterns."
and, most interesting, ends up with an excursion into the "West" (note the
name of the conference at which this paper was read in 1969), comparing the
marvelous portal of Senlis cathedral
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/senlis/tympwhole.jpg
especially the right scene on the lintel
http://www.fsu.edu/~arh/STUDY/MED/3/87.1894.jpg
where he finds "forces of dynamic integration were at work [which are] closely
akin to those which we found in our Byzantine frescoes and mosaics."
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MMyI6vdyiPI/TkPGsMnI8lI/AAAAAAAADDo/eu4i8O0kk8Q/s1600/NEREZI%252C%2BMACEDONIA.%2B1164.jpg
http://wapedia.mobi/thumb/25d7510/en/fixed/470/347/Meister_von_Nerezi_001.jpg?format=jpg
perhaps most intriguing, he says, "I am not proposing that the sculptor of the
Senlis tympanum and lintel was under direct Byzantine influence. But...it does
seem to me important to be aware of a simultaneous and related development in
the Byzantine sphere. In other words, here again I would operate, at least
provisionally, with the concept of parallelism."
which brings up the Fundamental Question (not answered by K., alas):
Where does this curious phenomenon which we call "style" *come from*?
c
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