Από το θρησκευτικό πίνακα στη λατρευτική εικόνα : Μία περίπτωση από την Ήπειρο
Part of : Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας ; Vol.38, 1999, pages 351-364
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351-364
Parallel Title:
From Religious Panel to the Cult Icon : A Case from Epirus
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Articles
Abstract:
In the ex-monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin at Dramesioi, near Ioannina, an entirely western religious panel ofPolish origin (ca 1500 A.D.) has been preserved, now in TheByzantine Museum of Ioannina. Its subject is a typical SacraConversazione with the secret betrothal of St. Catherine ofAlexandria, decorated in the lower part with an ex-votorepresentation of a (family?) group and a Communionchalice with the Host (Fig. 1).The panel must have arrived at Dramesioi before 1698 A.D.(inscription on the additional frame); hereafter it has beenvenerated as an icon of the Virgin ofLambovo, a type widelyspread in Epirus (Northern and Southern) and in Corfu(Fig· 5).The way in which this icon has been transformed isinteresting. On the one hand, the secret betrothal, anoriginally western theme, had already been introduced bythat time into the post-Byzantine painting (Figs 2 and 3);furthermore, St. Catherine herself was venerated in Epirusas elsewhere in the Orthodox world, especially because ofthe homonymous dependancy of the Sinai Monastery inIoannina. The crowned Virgin on the other hand, also atypical western subject, was identified with one of similarpre-existent post-Byzantine variations (Figs 4 and 6), thatof the Virgin of Lambovo. What remained unaltered, i.e.non-assimilated, it was obviously the Chalice with the Host,perhaps because it recalled the strong doctrinal controversies over the Sacrament of the Holy Communion (Transsubstantiatio).To establish the place where the gradual assimilation tookplace, one has to take in consideration the role played bythe Epirot merchants from the late 16th century onwards inPoland, a region playing a substantial part in the constant,acute theological controversies between Eastern and Western Churches.Be that as it may, the transformation of this western panelinto an Orthodox icon remained an isolated phenomenonfor Epirus, where, contrary to the adjacent Ionian Islandsunder Venice, the religious painting remained attached toOrthodox tradition.
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