[My apologies to the list for mistakenly posting to all what should have been
a personal message to Jim Mills. And thanks to Carolyn Schriber for finding
the too-easily-made error in Jim's link.]
Dear Elena,
Thanks for pointing out the beautiful repro of the Ravenna last supper on the
web:
http://www.tulane.edu/lester/text/Early.Christian.Period/Byzantine/Byzantine57.html)
I must have been celebrating a bit more than usual last night, as I'm seeing
*two* fish on the table in this wonderfully composed scene.
Perhaps my vision will clear up as the day progresses.
As to your query:
>Another question, perhaps, more urgent for the moment. Are there any
>instances in the Church Fathers particularly discussing the food served
>on the Last Supper (there should be)? Or, perhaps, any kind of special
>opinions or prescriptions as to what kind of food has to be depicted in
>the images of the Last Supper?
You might try the quick & easy _pons asinororum_ for those of us who find
ourselves Patristically Challenged: the Glossa Ordinaria, which, as Otfried
has kindly pointed out
>...[should] not be consulted in the lacunary text of PL 113-114 [in the
>ideal world, Otfried, but the reprint's not too common, alas], but in >Karl
Froehlich and M. T. Gibson's reprint of the editio princeps of >1480/81, [and]
can indeed provide a very good overview over patristic
>and medieval exegesis.....
(BTW, Otfried, Mark Zear [Zeer? sorry] mentioned to me at Kalamazoo a couple
of years ago that there was a new [first] critical edition of the G.O.
underway, but also noted that it was a *BIG* project, given the vast number of
extant mss. Perhaps you know something of this and it's present status?)
My eiditic memory is not much better than my eyesight today, but I seem
to remember several interesting "romanesque" depictions of the L.S., one of
which (Chartres West??) depitcts Jesus passing a bit of food to Judas(?), who
is alone on the other side of the table.
Of some interest might also be the L.S. at Etampes (contemporary and
stylistically connected with Chartres) which has an abreviated number of
apostles (due to space, presumably) and Jesus passing some object
(food?/fish?) to the apostle on his right (John?). There also appear to
be round, somewhat flat loaves of bread(?) on the table.
Those with reasonably fast connections might take a look at it:
http://www.angelfire.com/de/centrechartraine/images/Etscr3.jpg
(140k, sorry)
For some reason (perhaps the Chartres connection), I'm wanting to see the
figure on Jesus' right who is receiving the whatever from Jesus as being
Judas--though perhaps I'm making out a malicious mustache on the fragmented
face with the same eyes which miraculously multiplied the number of fishes at
Ravenna.
Perhaps someone knows a textual basis for this special "feeding" of Judas
iconography (assuming that it's not entirely my imagination)?
Best to all from here,
Christopher
Christopher Crockett
Would-be future curator of the
Centre des Etudes Chartraines
a home on the Web for Chartres-
related scholarship from all disciplines,
comming sometime in the next millenium
to a web site near you.
And Pres. & CEO of
Christopher's Book Room
P.O. Box 1061
Bloomington, IN 47402
(Corporate motto: "Will sell Books for Food")
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
____________________________________________________________________
More than just email--Get your FREE Netscape WebMail account today at http://home.netscape.com/netcenter/mail
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|