Iconographic Program Research Articles

Карлики в древнеиндийской религиозной иконографии. Уровни интерпретации

The images of dwarfish beings inhabit ancient Indian temples in great abundance. One has only to look carefully to start noticing them everywhere: in mythological scenes and decorative friezes, in prabhamandala around the object of veneration and as bhadrakaras — original atlantes, supporting architectural elements; on walls, pillars and ceilings, in the interiors and on the facades of temples. This pan-Indian image is common in iconographic program of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, the three major religions of ancient India. Despite similar appearance, the figures of dwarfs may be interpreted in completely different ways, as different characters.The meaning depends on the location in the iconographic program, their attributes, weapons, posture, gestures, and encirclement. They are demonic creatures and guardians, fearful and worshipful at the same time. They arecajoled and addressed with specific requests concerning different needs: well-being, harvest, as well as granting children. However, only one value is determined by the iconography of temple dwarfs images, their semantics is much more complicated as religious images tend to have more than one meaning and can be understood onmany levels, corresponding to different research perspectives. The figures of dwarfs play a minor but important role in the ancient Indian religious iconography.

The Materials of Nikolai Okunev’s Expedition of 1917 on the Wall Paintings of Parkhali

The paper presents a reconstruction of the iconographic program of the 10th century. Georgian murals in the church of St. John the Baptist in Parkhali (Tao-Klardjeti, nowadays Eastern Turkey). The wall paintings have been white-washed for many decades. Before that, in summer of 1917, they were examined and photographed by the expedition headed by Nikolai Okunev (1885–1949). The photographs are now kept in the archive of the Institute of History of Material Culture in St. Petersburg, they are here published for the first time.The partially damaged wall paintings were mainly preserved in the apse. There was an image of Christ in Majesty in the conch. Then followed a row of apostles with the Virgin probably flanked by archangels in the middle, and another row of prophets. In the next two tiers there were some Gospel scenes. The authors identified Annunciation, Meeting of the Virgin with St. Elizabeth, Nativity, Presentation in the Temple, Baptism, Transfiguration,and the Raising of Lazarus, as well as some scenes from the Passion cycle: the Last Supper, Crucifixion,Deposition from the Cross. The images of the lowest tier so far remain unidentified. In the altar window there was a half-figure in a medallion representing the Holy Zion. It was flanked by two compositions, probably Moses receiving the Law and Melchisedec before the altar. It has been suggested by other scholars that the wall paintings in Parkhali were similar to those in a neighboring Otkhta Eklesia dating to the same period. The authors make more detailed comparisons between these two ensembles and discuss them in a wider historical and artistic context.

The Drama of the Visual Editing of Pierre Gringore’s Chasteau de Labour

In this study of the relationship between text and image in sixteenth-century editions of Pierre Gringore’s Chasteau de Labour, I consider his editors (printers and publishers) as theatre directors and their orchestration of the pictorial enactment of the author’s written text as performances. Editors such as Philippe Pigouchet and Simon Vostre faithfully put the Chasteau de Labour on display in their deployment of an iconographical program comprised of newly fashioned woodcuts and borrowed metal-cuts. Maintaining a balance between authorial and editorial invention, their editions doubtless appealed to both a literate and less literate audience. Others, such as Jean Trepperel and his successors, frequently generated text-image disparities in their less appropriate and even incongruous staging of illustrations through repeated use of limited copies of previous woodcuts, thus undermining the visual reception of the work. Later printers, such as Alain Lotrian and Claude Nourry, more dedicated to an accurate execution of the author’s moralistic narrative and its allegorized scenario, gave more effective editorial presentations through new complete sets of images modelled after the originals.

La tombe du cardinal Hugues Aycelin († 1297) à Clermont. Le manifeste d’une famille au faîte de son ascension

This paper is dedicated to the little studied tomb of Cardinal Hugues Aycelin, still located in the former Dominican Church in Clermont. First, the author suggests a restitution to its original state based on early modern sources not taken into account by earlier studies. The sumptuousness of materials, the complexity of the iconographical programme (especially the depiction of funerary rituals) and the heraldic programme, as well, are unusual for the tomb of a prelate. They remind us more of tombs of lay princes of the Capetian sphere, while anticipating some monuments of the Avignon court. The tomb can be dated between 1307 and 1311 by several iconographical elements, and the patron can be identified as the Cardinal’s brother, Archbishop Gilles Aycelin. The tomb he imagined for his brother was, first and foremost, a commemorative monument symbolizing the dazzling rise of their family.

Restoration project of the mural paintings of the Dragomirna Monastery Church

"The main Church of the Dragomirna Monastery has its nave and altar decorated mural paintings which date back to as early as the early 17th century. These were created in the affresco technique, with areas completed in mezzo fresco, and extensive gilded surfaces. There is a wide diversity of stone-carved elements– flowers, ribs, torsade embossing, sculpted and painted shields, which cannot be found in any previous mediaeval churches in Moldavia. These elements complete the iconographic programme of the painting, which spans over 22 registers, differentiating and defining the uniqueness of Dragomirna. A series of degradations due to infiltration, which occurred over time in the upper part of the nave and the base of the bell tower, led to the architectural restoration of the Church in the ‘60s. The mural painting is first restored 400 years after its creation. The complex works were possible through the implementation of a project funded by the European Union between November 10th 2010 and February 15th 2012.The ample restauration and conservation process of the 900 square meters of mural painting highlighted its amazing original appearance and its artistic elements influenced by the techniques and chromatics of miniature painting. The interventions have been carried out in accordance with the international standards of conservation and involved a team of 50 specialists. The project ‘Dragomirna Church’s 17th Century Frescoes,Suceava, ROMÂNIA’ has been among the winners of the 2014 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards in the ‘Conservation’ category. The project has received the Grand Prix and the Public Choice Award. "

Cortese's Ideal Cardinal? Praising Art, Spendour and Magnificence in Bernardino de Carvajal's Roman Residence

This article offers a close analysis of three neo-Latin poems from a larger cycle of verse dedicated in 1511 to the Spanish cardinal Bernardino de Carvajal (1456-1523) by the Italian humanist Giambattista Cantalicio (1445-1515). Reviewing the poet's flattering descriptions of lavish banquets, the daily routine of the cardinal's court and a tapestry cycle which once adorned Carvajal's residence, it further analyses the contemporary aesthetics which underlie Cantalicio's praise of the cardinal's lost palace in Rome. In the process, the article also reviews the social dynamic which prompted the display of magnificence as well as the problematic issues raised by the flagrant display of such splendour within an ecclesiastical context. Exploring social practice, artworks and intellectual treatises, the article outlines the process by which the concept of magnificence, which forms the basis of Cantalicio's praise of the cardinal, was rehabilitated in the decades preceding the Reformation. Placing the poet's encomium not only in the light of Giovanni Pontano's so-called social treatises and Paolo Cortese's De cardinalatu (1510), but also within the context of the contemporary iconographic programme at Carvajal's titular church of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, the article embeds these neo-Latin poems within the wider social, historical and cultural context of Renaissance Rome.

A Cantacusine foundation between the act of secularization and contemporary restoration - The Doamnei Church in Bucharest

Neglected through the 18th-19th centuries by the priors of the Cotroceni Monastery, dispossessed of its riches and income, the Doamnei Church slowly entered a downward spiral of degradation and devastating events. In 1868, in an era when the Church suffered the effects of secularization and Occidental renewal, the foundation of Lady Mary suffered radical reparation. The essential gesture, that produced the change and the damaging simplification of the iconographical discourse was the partial hammer[1]ing of the 17th century painting, and its covering with a new layer of painting, after the taste and mentality that has defined the second half of the 19th century. The information acquired from the analisys of archive photographies, corroborated with in situ observations, allowed for the reconstruction of the dramatic journey that the old painting of the Doamnei Church was to suffer, from the destructive act of hiding it under a new pictorial décor to the moment of its rediscovery and bringing to light.The recent reconstitution, of an archaeological type, of the iconographical ensemble from 1683 lead to a new lecture of the manner in which the works of painters Constantinos and John developed. The interruption of the iconographical programme of the Doamnei Church and their leaving the site generates questions and hypotheses regarding the evolution of the reign of Șerban Cantacuzino.

Sztuka w służbie „geografii zbawienia” — uwagi o projekcie i początkach budowy kalwarii plenerowej w Szarogrodzie na Podolu

The article focuses on the artistic concepts of the outdoor pilgrimage centre in Sharhorod in the broad context of the Franciscan passion tradition and the history as well as the culture of Sharhorod, which is undoubtedly a unique place. The aim of the article is to present the iconographic program of the Calvary in Sharhorod, including its integral link with the old concepts of passion centres and historical and cultural realities of the picturesque town, which never ceases to fascinate travellers and artists. A multifaceted analysis used in the study is the result of a number of methods relevant for interdisciplinary research. In addition to the interview and participant observation, which was possible due to author’s involvement in the projects for many years, the author used the analytical and comparative methods as well as the analytical and descriptive methods, the tools of which allowed the researcher to capture the essential components of traditional and contemporary Calvary centres. The article presents the rich history of Sharhorod with emphasis on recent events, especially the circumstances of the Calvary creation and the first manifestations of organized worship of the Passion. The author analysed both an overall picture of the Cavalry—a large garden of prayer and pilgrimage routes—as well as architecture and artistic vision of the internal design of individual chapels. The results of the analysis can be used in pastoral and educational work. They can also become the basis for the iconographic interpretation of the pilgrimage centre, which through an impact on the region participates in the reconstruction and creation of the Christian culture after the severe devastation caused by Communism

Decoding a Hindu Temple: Royalty and Religion in the Iconographic Program of the Virupaksha Temple, Pattadakal By CathleenCummings. Woodland Hills, CA: SASA Books, 2014. Pp. xviii + 685; b&w photographs, maps, appendices, and glossary. Paper, $48.50.

Decoding a Hindu Temple: Royalty and Religion in the Iconographic Program of the Virupaksha Temple, Pattadakal By CathleenCummings. Woodland Hills, CA: SASA Books, 2014. Pp. xviii + 685; b&w photographs, maps, appendices, and glossary. Paper, $48.50.

Proposal for a reading of byzantine paintings inside the Cathedral of Genoa

This article is dedicated to the analysis of the early Fourteenth Century byzantine cycle in the Saint Lawrence Cathedral in Genoa: in particular its purpose is to illustrate the iconographic program realized on the counter facade. The questions this article explains are: what is the relationship between painted images and spatial context, which means first the wall on which was carried out, and second the space of the Cathedral; what are the complex meanings of the iconographic themes of the Last Judgement and the Deesis , also in connection to the local devotional culture; and finally, considering the relation patron – subject of the cycle – artist, what are the connections between the Latin devotional needs of patrons and also of the public to which the cycle was intended, and the eastern compositional and expressive repertories of the Byzantine painters.

La Compagnia del Nodo, o di Santo Spirito, e la committenza di Niccolò Orsini nella chiesa di Santa Maria Jacobi a Nola (1354-1359)

In the Angevin Kingdom of Naples, in the early fourteenth century the Orsini family initiated an urban enrichment in the Campanian city of Nola, that lasted for the entire century. This renovatio urbis focused on the representation of Orsini identity and authority in a variety of settings: during the 1354-1359, Count Niccolo, in fact, promoted the decoration of the conventual female church of Santa Maria Jacobi ordinis sanctae Clarae, making use of both secular and sacred themes, inspired by the medieval bestiaries, the courtly literature (the Lay of Aristotle), the Ovid's Metamorphoses and the st. Augustine's De Musica. The elaborate iconographic program, with its ties to the monarchical order of the Knot - or the Holy Spirit -, shows the role attributed to the nobility as champion of virtue and defensor of the Divine Order upon earth.

Carvings angels in the decorative program of iconostasis: Symbolic concept

The article deals to the reconstruction of the meaning of sculptures of angels in the symbolic program of Ukrainian iconostases of the 17–18th centuries. It was found that although the carved angels were not part of the iconographic program of the iconostasis, however, have been an important part of its symbolic significance. Statues of angels continued the Byzantine practice of placing of images of the cherubs on the altar barrier and medieval iconostasis, replacing planar images of celestial beings. Carved angels in the iconostases 17–18th centuries retained its ancient sense to point to the altar, as the Holy of Holies of the temple. At the same time of their introduction into the structure of the iconostasis is emphasizing the idea of the liturgical ministry of angels and their role to be of the divine glory. Angels in the decoration of the iconostasis were an additional element that facilitates understanding of the iconographic program, emphasizing the liturgical and eschatological aspects of its symbolic concept.

El Inca abraza a la Predicación: el juego de la sortija y la conquista espiritual en la fiesta barroca en honor de Santa María de Guadalupe en Potosí, 1601

Based on the theatrical quality of the juego de la sortija (game of the ring) held in the Imperial Villa of Potosi in 1601, this paper studies this tournament as part of the festival in honor of Saint Mary of Guadalupe from Caceres. After addressing the relevance of discussing both this celebration and its colonial account, I explain the general characteristics of the festival as well as of the juego de la sortija. I also review the phenomenon of invencion as the combination of a notion championed by the knight participating in the tournament and the iconographic program that he develops to support such concept. Finally, out of the four invenciones represented at this early seventeenth-century juego de la sortija, I choose to analyze the fourth in order to determine how characters and entities of ancestral religious signifi cance were portrayed to further the cause of Christian conversion of Andean indigenous peoples.

La <em>Emblemata</em> de Alciato y el programa iconográfico de la capilla mayor de Santa Baia de Banga (O Carballiño, Ourense)

The Church of Santa Baia de Banga, O Carballino (Ourense) stands out due to the decoration of the vault of the presbytery: it displays emblems drawn from Alciato’s Emblemata that were moralized from a Christian point of view, thus defi ning a sacred discourse in keeping with its location. This paper aims to reconstruct the “lost piece of evidence” of its iconographic programme; in order to do so, I will employ the clues that the mastermind himself left to ease its interpretation and that correspond to the Bible verses of the four prophets also depicted in the vault: Jeremiah, Isaiah, Micah, and Nahum. These verses recall a key message of the Christian catechesis: those living in sin are to be inevitably punished, although they may be saved thanks to the Mercy of God if they repent and find the way back to him. On the contrary, if they persist in their attitude, they are to suffer the eternal damnation.

A Divina Pastora e as heroínas do Antigo Testamento

The Church of Our Lady Divine Shepherdess is located in Divina Pastora, Sergipe, Brazil. This Shrine shows a specific iconographic program that is related to Virgin Mary as a Shepherdess. It is developed in four ceilings of the church such as presbytery, nave, narthex and sacristy. In the nave ceiling, it is organized taking into account the ancestry, memories, gender and sacred history that are seen as four important female personalities from Old Testament.

The Hunt and the Otherworld: A Breton Reading of the Massleberg Stora Skee Rock Art Panel (Bohuslän, Southern Sweden)

Taking its starting point from the current trend towards using Indo-European comparative material for elucidating Scandinavian Bronze Age rock art sites, this article develops an interpretation of the overall iconographic program of the Massleberg Stora Skee rock art panel in Bohuslän, southern Sweden. It focuses on the hunting scene which forms one of the centerpieces of the site and poses the question of how this hunting scene relates to the remaining iconographic elements of the panel, especially the ships and footprints, and to the water flowing over the rock. Using analogies drawn from Old French “Breton lays,” medieval Irish and Welsh literature, and the archaeology of the Hallstatt period (the Strettweg cult wagon), it is possible to develop an interpretation which connects the hunt with the communication between the human world and an “Otherworld” and to show how such an interpretation can tie in with the other iconographic as well as natural elements of the site. On this basis, the article concludes with a general discussion of the use of typological analogies versus the application of concepts of Indo-European heritage for the analysis of Scandinavian rock art and discusses the wider applicability of the “Otherworld” term as an analytical concept.

Medieval Liturgical Vestments Depicted in the Iconographic Programs of Southern Transylvanian Churches (14th to 16th centuries)

Abstract This work sets out to list and describe the liturgical vestments present in panel and mural paintings of churches located in southern Transylvania. The surviving body of such vestments on display in the ”Brukenthal” National Museum of Sibiu and that of the Black Church of Brașov not only confirms their use in religious services, but also the fact that they served as models for Transylvanian ecclesiastical painting. Of Western derivation, this type of vestment reflects a way of thinking and stands testament to social status or to the different hierarchies within the church. It is, at the same time, an indication of the development of this kind of craft, produced by specialized workshops.

The Ethnic Pluralism of the Nineteenth Century in Transylvania according to the Ecclesiastical Painting of the Grecu Brothers

Abstract Despite the development of the iconographic programs, the frescoes painted by the Grecu brothers remind us not only of the large ensembles beyond the Carpathians in Walachia and Moldova but also other Transylvanian decorations. These frescoes express not only the spirit of the time or the mentality of the community to which they belonged, but they also represented an opportunity to show the painters’ originality and personality, their need for personal affirmation and artistic individuality, connected to a new sensitivity of a given historical context. The representation of the inhabiting nations in Transylvania in the Passion’s Cycle highlights the disadvantaged status of the Romanian people who were oppressed by the privileged nations: by the Habsburg military force, the inequitable judgement of Saxons and the torments inflicted by Hungarians through their policies. All of these recreate mutatis mutandis the dramatic setting in which Christ was crucified.

The Painting of Knowledge in Thirteenth-Century Rome

AbstractThe recent discovery of a thirteenth-century mural cycle in the cardinal’s residence at SS. Quattro Coronati in Rome invites a reconsideration of the relationship between art and knowledge in medieval Italy. Covering the walls and vaults of a large hall, the frescoes constitute a large-scale pictorial “encyclopedia” that comprises allegorical representations of thematic groups associated with secular knowledge. This is a largely uncharted category of monumental art in thirteenth-century Rome. My article situates the paintings in their complex historical circumstances marked by the increased cultivation of science at the papal court and the broader cultural phenomenon of late medieval encyclopedism. I offer an analysis of the frescoes, focusing on the ways in which individual groups of images reinforce the larger themes of the iconographic program. The unknown painters at SS. Quattro Coronati brought together diverse bodies of knowledge and, through pictorial strategies of framing and spatial desig...

Scenes of the "Sourches of Divine Wisdom" within the Iconographical Program of the Church of the Savior in the Monastery of Euphrosynia, Polotsk (Belarus)

<p><em>Μεταξύ των τοιχογραφιών που ανακαλύφθηκαν πρόσφατα στο ναό της Μεταμορφώσεως του Σωτήρος στη μονή της Ευφροσύνης στο Polοtsk της Λευκορωσίας, απεικονίζονται δύο σκηνές της μετάδοσης της Θείας Σοφίας σε αγίους ιεράρχες. Οι τοιχογραφίες που απεικονίζουν τον άγιο Ιωάννη τον Χρυσόστομο και τον άγιο Γρηγόριο τον Ναζιανζηνό ή Θεολόγο είναι τα παλαιότερα σωζόμενα παραδείγματα του θέματος στη μνημειακή βυζαντινή τέχνη. Οι συνθέσεις με τα πολλαπλά μηνύματα συμβολισμών, εκτός του ότι αποτελούν μέρος ενός πολυπρόσωπου εικονογραφικού προγράμματος με απεικονίσεις μοναχών, συμβολίζουν επίσης τις πηγές της αιώνιας ζωής, κάτι που συνάδει με την κύρια χρήση της εκκλησίας ως ταφικού παρεκκλησίου της πριγκίπισσας Ευφροσύνης και της οικογέ- νειάς της στα μέσα του 12ου αιώνα (περί το 1161).</em></p>