385-398

The Illustration of the Miraculous Arrival of the Icon of the Panagia Portaitissa at Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos

Articles

• Παζαράς, Θεοχάρης Ν.
• ΠΑΖΑΡΑΣ, Θεοχάρης Ν.

Among the icons in the repository in Iviron Monastery onMount Athos is one (Cat. No. 247) which illustrates, in greatdetail, the legend of how, during the period of Iconoclasm,the monastery's household icon of the Panagia Portaïtissawas flung into the sea by a pious widow of Nicaea and yearslater miraculously appeared off the coast at Iviron Monastery. It was brought ashore by a hermit of Iviron namedGabriel, and eventually housed in a chapel built speciallyfor it near the monastery gate - hence the name, "the Virginof the Gate" (Portaïtissa).The icon's interest lies in the fact that the various incidentsin the legend are placed in their historical and geographicalcontext. The Aegean is there, with its islands and the coastof Asia Minor and Greece; the principal place-names andthe wider areas are noted, with emphasis being given toNicaea and Nicomedia and to Mount Athos - the startingpoint and termination of the story - to underscore theirimportance and to draw the viewer's attention to them. Inthe middle of the Aegean is a miniature version of the iconof the Portaïtissa, floating upright on the waves.The painter has obviously based his outline of the coast onone or more, probably Ptolemaic, maps, though he subordinates the accuracy of his rendering to the needs of hissubject. Indeed, he places the focal point in the north, andnot, as is more usual, in the south, evidently out of a desireto emphasise the standpoint from which he himself isobserving the world. The ships that cover the sea and theconventional depiction of castles and cities also attest theinfluence of cartography, for such details, and many otherstoo, supplement the decoration of printed maps from themid-sixteenth to at least the mid-eighteenth century. Similar details are also seen, of course, on engravings in general,when their subjects are cities or harbours.As regards the miniature representation of the PanagiaHodegetria in the centre of the composition, which issupposed to represent the Portaïtissa afloat, it is rendered ina rather linear manner, with bright unnuanced colours. Thestylistic features of this tiny image suggest that the iconunder discussion may be dated to around the middle of theeighteenth century.Although this is the work of a folk painter, it is nonethelessimportant in that it integrates the incidents of a religioustheme in a specific geographical area. From this point of view,it is a unicum and reveals the influence of secular painting on Orthodox iconography in the period of Ottoman rule.

• Arts
• History and Archaeology

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• http://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/deltion/article/view/4807
• http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/dchae.1225