Eleusa

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Greek icon of Eleusa from the 16th century

The iconographic type of Eleusa or Eleousa ( Greek : Ἐλεοῦσα , elëúsa , the compassionate, merciful) describes the loving attitude between mother and son, which aims to evoke piety ( Greek : eleos) and the son's mercy towards the believers. This type emerged in Byzantine art in the 9th and 10th centuries and was widespread in medieval art in all European countries in the 11th century.

The Eleusa is a variant of the older Hodegetria ( signpost ), the Mother of God with the Christ child and expresses the intensity of the tender and loving relationship between mother and child. She dispenses with the static, rigid and frontal posture of the Hodegetria, in which there is no room for human feelings, and shows an undeniable feeling of affection and tenderness.

iconography

The Hodegetria from the 15th century

In the Eleusa type, some more or less noticeable changes were introduced: Mary, who holds the child in her left arm (Aristerokratusa; sometimes also on the right; Dexiokratusa), lovingly leans towards the child, often touching the child with her left hand and the cheeks of the child and the mother approach each other until they touch, the two figures caress and kiss, the mother holds in her hands those of the child who expresses his affection by embracing his mother or by raising his right hand in a gesture of blessing and in the one on the left holds the scroll. The child is represented with body movements: he is excited, caresses his mother's cheek with his hand and she tries to calm him down, hold him back, comfort him, etc.

The type exists mainly as a half figure . Other representations reproduce the Madonna as a full figure , standing or sitting. It should be noted that the inscription "Eleousa" is rarely found on icons of this type. Other names, Marian words and names of origin or veneration can be found for this.

With regard to the good that is to be bestowed on the believers, the intimate relationship between the two should become clearly visible and furthermore insists on the humanity of the Son, in contrast to the Hodegetria type, where the emphasis is placed on his divinity . This should make the intimate relationship between the two clearly visible, with Mary's painful gaze into the distance, in anticipation of Christ's suffering . The Eleusa symbolizes the sacrifice of Jesus as the highest sign of God's love for humanity.

history

The Zeyrek Mosque from the east. From left to right: the apse of the Christ Pantocrator Church , the Imperial Chapel and the Church of Theotokos Eleousa .

The name of Eleusa is attested in a relatively late epoch and it seems that from the beginning, two churches of Mary in Constantinople from the 11th and 12th centuries that bore this name are connected. The last was built by the Byzantine Emperor John II Komnenos (1118–1143) shortly after the death of his wife (1134) in the imperial palace north of the Pantokrator Church, today's Zeyrek Mosque .

It is known that the Hodegetria was transferred to Eleusa Church for a solemn ceremony every Friday during the rule of the Komnenes . Pictorial documents of this procession attest to the existence of an icon of this type in the 12th century, at a time when the famous icon of the Blessed Mother was brought to Kiev by Vladimir from Constantinople between 1130 and 1135. Whether it is the original or the was a copy is not known. In any case, the traces of the prototype of Eleusa from Constantinople are lost, the traces of which can only be traced through the numerous replicas (mosaics, frescoes, coins, coats of arms and of course icons) throughout the Christian world.

Well-known examples of the Eleusa are the Fedorovskaya , the Mother of God of Vladimir, the Ukrainian Mother of God of Pochayiv and the Byzantine Notre-Dame de Grace .

  • "Fedorovskaya" icon in the Byzantine style, copy from the early 18th century

  • Mother of God of Vladimir

  • Icon of Our Lady of Pochayiv

  • The Byzantine icon Notre-Dame de Grâce

See also

literature

  • Alfredo Tradigo: Icons and Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church (Guide to Imagery) . Getty Trust Publications, Los Angeles 2008, ISBN 978-0-89236-845-7 , pp. 177 ff . (English, online version (preview) in the Google book search).

Web links

Commons : Eleusa  - collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Eleusa. In: Beyars.com. Retrieved July 30, 2017 .
  • Elëusa. In: Rdklabor.de. Retrieved July 30, 2017 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Il tipo affettuoso dell'Eleousa. In: Latheotokos.it. Retrieved August 6, 2017 (Italian).
  2. ↑ Our Lady of Tenderness. In: Geistundsendung.de. Retrieved August 6, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Il tipo dell'Eleousa. In: Iconedelveneto.it. Retrieved August 6, 2017 (Italian).
  4. ^ Philipp Schweinfurth: History of Russian painting in the Middle Ages . Springer Science Business Media, BV, ISBN 978-94-017-0042-9 , pp. 416 ( online version (preview) in Google Book Search).
  5. ↑ Holy Mary. In: Pfarre-wolfsgraben.at. Retrieved August 9, 2017 (Italian).