Poganowo icon

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Front of the Poganowo icon: Mother of God Kataphyge with St. John, Thessaloniki, last quarter of the 14th century

The Poganowo Icon is a double-sided Byzantine icon that was probably painted in Thessaloniki in the last quarter of the 14th century . The large-format icon with the dimensions 93 × 61 cm served as a procession icon. The obverse depicts Mary Kataphyge and John the Evangelist , and the reverse depicts the vision of the Chebar River , with which the Book of Ezekiel begins. Due to the rare combination of motifs, the history of origin and the artistic quality, it is one of the most important preserved works of the so-called Palaiological Renaissance . The identity of the founder of the icon painted on a gold background continues to be debated, but it was presumably the Byzantine empress Helena Dragaš .

The icon was in the Poganovo Monastery until 1919 and after the Zaribrod region (today Dimitrovgrad , see Former Bulgarian Western Territories ) was handed over to Yugoslavia, it was brought to the National Museum (today the Institute of Archeology with the Museum of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) in Sofia .

origin

The Poganovo Monastery

Due to the inscription in God Christ trusting Basilissa on the large-format bilateral icon, which is intended as a processional icon, which is found between the figures of St. Maria Kataphyge (the rare epithet denotes asylum seekers) and John, is a founder whose identity is still being discussed, to accept. A high social rank is unmistakably clear due to the quality of the work and the inscription as ruler (empress?) Of the founder. It is widely assumed that the icon was intended for the church mausoleum of the aristocrat. Three medallions on the west facade of the Poganovo monastery with the monograms Konstantin, Helena and St. John were common names of the local aristocracy between 1373 and 1395. As a result, there is no clear assignment and there is still no consensus on the ultimate identity of the founder the icon as well as the monastery itself. Empress Helena Dragaš, the wife of Manuel II Palaiologos and daughter of Konstantin Dragaš (also Konstantin Dejan), a regional ruler in the areas of today's western Bulgaria, eastern Macedonia and south-eastern Serbia, is assumed to be the most common . Jelena (Helena in Serbian), the wife of King Jovan Uglješa , is also possible as a further alleged donor . The fate of Jelenas and her husband, as well as their search for asylum after the Battle of Mariza in 1371, could explain the choice of scenes for the Last Judgment and the redemption.

For a long time Constantinople was assumed to be the origin of the icon , but this contradicts the alleged decline of the Constantinople art center in the second half of the 14th century. It is more obvious to assume either a place of origin in Thessaloniki or one of the monasteries of Athos , since the iconography corresponds to the mosaic of the 5th century in the apse of the church Hosios David in the Latomos monastery in Thessaloniki, as well as stylistic similarities to the frescoes in the Pantocrator monastery on Mount Athos. The style, color and scheme of the representation of Mary and John corresponds to the crucifixion scene of a Thessalonians icon of the crucifixion from the first half of the 14th century.

presentation

Back of the Poganowo icon: Vision of Ezekiel, Thessaloniki, last quarter of the 14th century

The icon shows, in a combination that is extremely unusual in Byzantine art, on the front the Virgin and the Evangelist John, which can be derived from a crucifixion, and on the back the vision of Ezekiel .

The stylistic quality and color harmony of the execution, which is particularly valuable due to the gold background, as well as the plasticity and three-dimensionality in the interplay of the landscape representation and the figures are to be regarded as outstanding for late Byzantine art. The exaggeratedly voluminous figures are typical of the Palaiological style, but the harmony is preserved.

Web links

literature

  • Gerhard Ecker: Bulgaria. Art monuments from four millennia from the Thracians to the present. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-7701-1168-0 .
  • Maria Vassilaki: Two-Sided Icon with the Virgin Kataphyge and the Vision of Ezekiel. In: Helen C. Evans (Ed.): Byzantium Faith and Power (1261-1557). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2004, ISBN 1-588-39208-2 , pp. 198-199 (with the older literature).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Maria Vassilaki: Two-Sided Icon with the Virgin Kataphyge and the Vision of Ezekiel. In: Helen C. Evans (Ed.): Byzantium Faith and Power (1261-1557). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2004, pp. 198-199.
  2. ^ Annemarie Weyl Carr: Images: Expressions of Faith and Power. In: Helen C. Evans (Ed.): Byzantium. Faith and Power (1261-1557). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2004, pp. 146-147.
  3. Weyl Carr 2004, pp. 146-147; Vassilaki 2004, p. 199.
  4. Vassilaki 2004, p. 198.
  5. Weyl Carr 2004, p. 144.
  6. Vassilaki 2004, p. 199.
  7. Vassilaki 2004, p. 199.
  8. Maria Vassilaki 2004, p. 199.
  9. Elka Bakalowa : Sur la peinture Bulgare de la seconde moitie du XIVe siècle (1331-1393). In: L'ecole de la Morava et son Temps. Faculte de Philosophie, Belgrade 1972, pp. 61–75.
  10. Svetozar Radojcic: Vizantijsko slikarstvo od 1400 do 1453. In: L'ecole de la Morava et son Temps. Faculte de Philosophie, Belgrade 1972, pp. 1-19; Slobodan Ćurčić : Religious settings of the late byzantine sphere. In: Helen C. Evans (Ed.): Byzantium. Faith and Power (1261-1557). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2004, pp. 65-77.
  11. Kalliope-Phaidra Kalafati: Two-Sided Icon with the Virgin Holding the Christ Child and the Crucifixion. In: Helen C. Evans (Ed.): Byzantium. Faith and Power (1261-1557). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2004, pp. 182-183.
  12. Weyl Carr 2004, p. 144; Bakalowa 1972, p. 74.
  13. Helen C. Evans (Ed.): Byzantium. Faith and Power (1261-1557). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2004, p. 9.