L’enluminure syriaque à l’époque médiévale : entre tradition byzantine et innovation orientale, xie-xiiie siècle

Abstract

The illuminated Gospel lectionaries produced during the so-called « Syriac Renaissance » (11th-13th century) give evidence of a dynamic artistic dialogue. The painter’s fidelity towards Early Christian and Byzantine iconography reveals the donors’ self-understanding as members of the One Church, as well as the appropriation of a shared late-antique patristic heritage. Various stylistic influences, such as the depictions of architecture, human beings or wildlife, reflect the Islamic visual environment of the Syriac communities and attest close contacts between Syriac and Islamic workshops. The decoration of the manuscripts then invites us to reconsider the relationship between two religious and artistic cultures, too often-and wrongly-considered in terms of confrontation and rivalry. Beyond these iconographic and stylistic considerations, it seems that the Syriac liturgical tradition itself had a certain impact on painters: subtle references to church architecture, chant and gestures unveil the specificity of Syriac book illumination.