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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Dear Elisabeta (if I may),

For the most part my very recent postings of images on medieval-religion draw on postings I made on the same list several years ago. The last year in which I did this extensively was 2010. In 2011 and especially in 2012 I posted a few additions and updates. Looking in the list's archives just now I found this in a posting on Gennadius of Constantinople from 2012 <http://tinyurl.com/q529w9j>:
"Gennadius (at far right, after St. Metrophanes and St. Methodius Pataron) as depicted in a portrait bust in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1313 and 1318; conservation work in 1968) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. George at Staro Nagoričane in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/85p8tna "

Unfortunately, that link no longer works (it was to a file in an album at eikonografos.com that has since been taken down). A smaller view of that image is available here (Methodius is second from the right in the row of hierarchs in the calote of the apse [third from the right if you start with Eustathius of Antioch in the arch soffit]): 
http://www.orthodoxy-icons.com/uploads/posts/2011-03/1301590034_old-nagorichno-080.jpg

Less certainly a portrait of Methodius of Olympus (or of Patara) is the portrait noted in a posting on Methodius of Olympus from 2010 (but which I've now disambiguated in a couple of places) <http://tinyurl.com/osls7ec>:
"It is possible that the M. depicted in the upper of the two roundels shown here from the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (1330s) on the triumphal arch of the church of the Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija: 
http://tinyurl.com/2g2etcp
is today's M. and not his homonym the sainted patriarch of Constantinople and opponent of Byzantine second iconoclasm (14. June). Many of these roundels depict bishops of Constantinople and on this particular side of the arch the roundels immediately above M.'s depict two patriarchs who were victims of iconoclast purges. On the other hand, the roundel opposite M.'s depicts St. Ambrose, like M. of Olympus the author of a major patristic work on virginity." 

That said, several of the hierarchs portrayed on that arch have legends that distinguish them from well known homonyms. See the images here:
http://tinyurl.com/yb697xw 
The absence of such further specification in the case of the present image suggests that this a normative bearer of his name. In an Orthodox context that would be Methodius of Constantinople (he of the Triumph of Orthodoxy). From a theological standpoint he is far more universally important than either Methodius of Olympus or Methodius of Constantine-and-Methodius. So the probability here is against this image's representing your saint. Similarly, if I had to guess, I would say that the unspecified Dionysius below this Methodius is D. the Areopagite and not, say, D. of Alexandria. 


Rapid searching Google produced a very few early modern images said to be of Methodius of Olympus (or of Patara):

a) an alas very largely defaced 17th-century image (2d from left) in the church of St. Demetrius in the Patriarchate of Peć:
http://www.srpskoblago.org/Archives/Pec/exhibits/StDemetriosChurch/Altar/Vault/282N1849_l.html

b) an unsourced seventeenth-century image of Methodius being martyred (so probably from a calendar cycle):
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Methodius_of_Olympus.jpg

Best,
John Dillon


On 11/29/14, Elisabeta Negrau <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture The idea of posting images of the saints of the day is great, and very useful especially for art historians, like me! I've searched in the archives images of Saint Methodius of Olympus / Patara (June 20), but I didn't find any. Maybe I missed them, or maybe there aren't any posted. Could you help me with some Byzantine/ post-Byzantine images of St. Methodius? Sorry for anticipating, I know it isn't his time yet!
> 
> 
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> dr. Elisabeta Negrău

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