On the historical realities of Constantinople in Byzantine iconography of the Akathistos of the Virgin

Abstract

The historical and topographical realities of Constantinople, its numerous sieges from the Golden Horn, as well as religious processions and venerated icons of the Virgin influenced the iconography of the Akathistos Hymn to the Holy Theotokos. The local of some narrative episodes as if moves from the Holy Land to the capital of the Byzantine Empire in relation with the reproduction of the realities of Constantinople, which invade the context of the Hymn to the Holy Theotokos and its iconographic interpretation. However, if processions with icons and the sieges of the Byzantine capital in the iconography of Akathistos are relatively well investigated in the scientific literature, then the reflection of the architecture and topography of the Blachernae shrine is known far less. Our article is devoted just to this topic. In many iconographic cycles of the Akathistos to the Holy Theotokos (in monumental paintings, icons and manuscripts) architectural backgrounds may correlate with the complex of the Blachernae shrine and the fortifications of Constantinople. The whole series of medieval manuscripts and icons contains images of the Blachernae churches of various degrees of authenticity. Researchers also proposed modern reconstructions of the Blachernae shrine based on medieval images and written sources. These materials help our iconographic analysis.