Sung, Written and Painted. The Ἀκάθιστος ὕμνος and Intermedial Compositional Processes in Later Byzantium (original) (raw)
Conference Programme, Göttingen, 2-3 June 2022 It is planned as a hybrid event, which all of you are warmly invited to join. Abstract: Painted cycles based on the Akathistos represent one of the great novelties of late Byzantine art, translating a by then already ancient piece of liturgical music into the world of visual art. However, even though the Akathistos Hymn to the Virgin Mary has been studied quite extensively, the relationship between its text, music, and illustrations has not yet been fully explored. Building on the Akathistos Hymn, the planned conference will examine late Byzantine intermedial compositional processes. Painted cycles based on the Akathistos should be studied as a product of the interaction between hymnography, psalmody, and visual art - not just as a mere visualisation of a text. Illuminated and notated manuscript copies of the hymn ought to be examined as evidence for varied liturgical and devotional practices. Icons and murals that illustrate the Akathistos need to be seen as constituent elements of sacred space. At the same time, the broader social and religious context(s) for the hymn’s use during the late Byzantine period need to be considered. Methodologically, the conference will have as its focus the concept of intermediality, that is, the interface between various media of cultural expression. The organisers hope that it will contribute towards bridging the methodological gaps that separates various scholarly approaches to the study of medieval culture. To join the conference online just contact us: jon.cubasdiaz@uni-goettingen.de
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The Reception of the Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine Poetry
International Conference: "The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image", New Europe College, Institute for Advanced Study, Bucharest, 13-15 October 2022
Scripta & e-Scripta, 2017
The research paper presents an unpublished inscription in Greek language from the narthex of the Kremikovtsi Monastery St George near Sofia – an epigram of the famous Byzantine poet Theodoros Prodromos, who lived at the court of the Komnenian Dynasty in the twelfth century. Being part of the scene Flight into Egypt and – more precisely, – being written in the scroll of a female figure – a personification of the city, no parallel of this inscription has been attested so far in post-Byzantine art. The only other scroll like this has been discovered in the church of the Seslavtsi Monastery St Nicholas near Sofia, but the text there is probably just a decorative detail. A complete study of the preserved part of the damaged inscription is conducted, together with a discussion about its linguistic and literary specifics in the context of the high Byzantine poetry and the Biblical exegesis. The aim is to outline and to describe the raison d’être of this religious epigram (ἱερὸν ἐπίγραμμα) as an expressive instrument for direct communication with the audience through its main stylistic feature – the dialogue between the Saviour and the layman, between the divine and the human nature of Christ. The poetical form chosen by Theodoros Prodromos immediately draws the viewers’ attention and it compels them to reflect upon the scene. Theodoros Prodromos’ epigram in the Kremikovtsi Monastery offers an exceptional and significant proof that the connection of Balkan art to the achievements of the Christian culture of the former Byzantine empire was still alive in the fifteenth century.
Journal of Visual Theology / Визуальная теология, 2020
This paper focuses on topics relevant to the visual interpretation of poetic verbal texts in their source culture as well as the target culture for which they were translated. The research was realized on fresco and icon cycles that illustrate the poetic text of the Akathistos Hymn. The Greek original text of the hymn is examined in contrast to its Slavonic translation through a parallel comparative analysis of their iconographic interpretations in Russian and Cretan religious art. Seeing as they have never been comparatively studied before, this analysis provides fertile ground for interesting discoveries and research. The Cretan tradition is studied through two complete Akathistos fresco cycles (from the church in the village of Roustica and the cathedral of Valsamonero Monastery), four incomplete Akathistos fresco cycles from the 14 th-early 15 th century, and the margin scenes on the icon of Panagia Galactotrofousa (1748) by G. Kastrofilakas. The Russian tradition is studied through a fresco cycle from the Ferapontov monastery (approx. 1500) by Dionisius, and the margin scenes on six Russian icons representing different icono-graphic schools of the 16 th-early 17 th century. The differences between these two icono-graphic traditions in regard to the text's interpretation are divided into two categories: a) those related to the differences between the original text and its Slavonic translation; and b) those related to the different connotations of the original text and its Slavonic translation in the source and target cultures. Typical examples of both categories are presented. As far as the first category is concerned, we discuss whether the variations of the cycle structure in the Russian tradition were caused by the absence of the alphabet acrostic in the Slavonic translation. The second category is studied both through examples of different fragments of the same poetic text illustrated by painters and through different symbolic verbal image interpretations by means of visual art in both traditions. The results of the comparative analysis demonstrate that Cretan painters were more creative in the visual interpretation of the poetic text's symbolic background due to the fact that they interpreted the original text of the hymn in the context of the culture in which it was created. This provides numerous verbal and non-verbal connotations for each verbal sign of the text. On the other hand, the Russian iconographic tradition did not have this direct contact with the text due to the translation process it had gone through, as well as due to the semiotic gap between the source and the target culture. This is why it failed to display an equally as large number of symbolic interpretations. However, it did discover and emphasize other messages and connotations of the same poetic text which became more important in the context of that other culture. Therefore, the comparative study of religious art traditions helps us understand the various ways a single text that has close ties to the semiotic features of different cultures can be perceived and interpreted in said cultures.
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The Music of Angels in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art
Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture, 2018
Many Byzantine writers who offered metaphorical interpretations of the liturgy believed that angels and humans shared the space of the church, together filling it with psalmody. 1 This belief was reified primarily in the Late and Post-Byzantine periods, in personal and communal icons, in liturgical objects employed in the service, and in monumental paintings that decorated the interiors of churches. 2 Even some church soundscapes were designed to help human hymns sound angelic. 3 To date, however, there is no single survey of Orthodox scenes of angels' song. 4 The absence is striking because music-making angels in contemporaneous Western art have been the subject of 1 The Historia Monachorum (c. 410) attested this longstanding belief: "The church assembly should resemble the choirs of angels, imitating the celestial armies by endlessly singing hymns and praises of God" (PL 16, 724). Also: J.
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