211-222

Observations on a Sinai Tetraptych of the Late Comnenian Period

Articles

• Άσπρα-Βαρδαβάκη, Μαρία
• ΑΣΠΡΑ-ΒΑΡΔΑΒΑΚΗ, Μαίρη

The tetraptych (Figs 1-4) is not unknown to research. The leaves with the Last Judgement and the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple were published, as independent of one another, by the Soterious, while K. Weitzmann's subsequent discovery of the two other leaves, with the Birth of the Virgin and the Dodecaorton, helped him to complete it. From the iconographie and stylistic study of the work it becomes clear that this was painted on Sinai and is the product of an inept copying of other Sinai icons, such as the tetraptych with Dodecaorton (Figs 5-8). Its art is quite crude, with certain deviations from Comnenian art: squat figures, tortured faces, poor drawing which has been affected even more by later interventions. Unity of style can be seen mainly in the representation of the Last Judgement, in which the figures are executed with finesse and more green has been used in the modelling. In contrast, the workmanship on the other leaves is more in the vein of folk art, with broad faces - sometimes more sometimes less - as in the scene of the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, in which the head of Anne is disproportionately large in relation to the countenances of the other figures. In general, the figures in the scenes on the end leaves are very close to those of the "conservative" painter on the architrave of "the three painters" (Fig. 11), which has been dated to the late twelfth or the early thirteenth century. The tetraptych can be dated around 1200 on the basis also of the presence of the ornament on the back of the two arched leaves. This ornament exists also on the icon with the Comnenian Annunciation, the dating of which to the late twelfth century is generally accepted, on that of the Ladder of John Climax and on the tetraptych with Dodecaorton (Fig. 12), works which can also be assigned to the late twelfth century. However, even if this ornament is associated with a particular workshop this does not necessarily imply that the identity of the painter is the same, given that the tetraptych is not of the quality of a Constantinopolitan creation but is a local copy of Sinai works of superior quality, made by a conservative painter.

• History and Archaeology
• Arts

• Αρχαιολογία

• http://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/deltion/article/view/4226
• http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/dchae.381