Christ and Abbas Menas
The icon Christ and Abbas Menas , also known as Jesus and his friend , or Icon of Friendship , is a Coptic icon from the 8th century AD from Bawit (near Asyut ); the original is now in the Louvre with the signature E 11565 .
The icon is 57 cm × 57 cm (2 cm wide) and was painted on sycamore wood.
Discovery
The Egyptologist Jean Clédat researched the ruins of the Apollon Monastery in Bawit in 1900. Among the finds was this remarkably well-preserved icon; the exact location was not documented. Originally, the icon was probably intended to be placed in a niche in the wall; there are numerous comparable icons of saints that adorned wall niches in Egyptian monastery chapels. The rounded folds of the robes are typical of Coptic painting , while the white light effects on the clothing and especially the richly decorated Gospel book in the hand of Christ show Byzantine influence.
It is the oldest known Coptic icon. It is considered a masterpiece of Coptic art in the Louvre because of its elegant and dignified presentation.
description
Depicted are Jesus Christ with a cross nimbus and Abbot Menas, head of the Bawit Monastery, with a halo , i.e. already deceased and venerated as a holy protector. Both face the observer strictly frontally. A sunset and a landscape with indicated vegetation can be seen in the background. Christ is dressed in a tunic and a cloak, he is holding the book of the Gospels in his left hand, and he has placed his right hand on Abbas Menas' right shoulder. This gesture symbolizes protection (ancient patron-client relationship ), at the same time Christ recognizes the abbot as his representative for the monastic community. The grizzled Abbas Menas has a scroll in his left hand, perhaps the rule of the monastery, while his right hand is raised in the gesture of blessing that Christ himself performs in the Pantocrator type.
As with all icons, those represented are identified by inscriptions. With Christ on the right edge of the picture is stehtΩant, a late antique spelling of ΣΩΤΗΡ (SOTER), “Redeemer”, as well as the Christ monogram in the center of the picture . With Abbot Menas it says - unusually twice, namely both in the light, heavenly and in the dark, earthly realm - ΑΠΑ ΜΗΝΑ ΠΡΟΕΙCΤΟC (APA MENA PROEISTOS), "Father Menas, guardian".
reception
The icon of friendship ( l'icône de l'amitié ) became known through Brother Roger , the founder of Taizé . He saw the gesture of embracing as an expression of the friendship that Jesus Christ offered to every person ( Jn 15.15 LUT ). A copy of the icon is in the Taizé Reconciliation Church . Many visitors to Taizé brought copies of this icon back to their home communities, so that it became an element of everyday Christian culture.
Web links
- Meurice Cédric: Christ and Abbot Mena (Musée du Louvre)
literature
- Réunion des musées nationaux: Louvre, the collections . Mame Imprimeurs, Tours, 1994, ISBN 2-7118-3009-8 , p. 141.
- Brother Jean-Marc: Icons (Booklets from Taizé, 16)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Meurice Cédric: Christ and Abbot Mena. Retrieved March 23, 2018 .
- ^ Louvre, the collections . S. 141 .
- ^ Kurt Weitzmann: Age of Spirituality. Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century: Catalog of the Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 19, 1977, Through February 12, 1978 . New York 1979, p. 552 : "Abbot Menas (who should not be confused with the martyr St. Menas) is only slightly smaller than Christ ... Menas seems to have been a common name ..."
- ^ Hans Belting: Image and cult: a history of the image before the age of art . 6th edition. CH Beck, Munich 2004, p. 111 .
- ↑ Kirsten Voss
- ^ Frère Jean-Marc: Icons . S. 18-19 .
- ↑ Icons in worship. Retrieved March 24, 2018 .