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A portable icon of Christ Pantocrator in the byzantine museum of Kastoria

Articles

• Τσιγαρίδας, Ευθύμιος
• ΤΣΙΓΑΡΙΔΑΣ, Ευθύμιος Ν.

Three icons of Christ Pantocrator, from the second half ofthe fourteenth century, are known from churches in theKastoria, two of which are now kept in the town's ByzantineMuseum.The first, dated to the third quarter of the fourteenth century, comes from the church of St Nicholas Kyritzis and is published. The second, dated around 1400, is on the iconostasis of the church of the Virgin Phaneromeni, and only aphotograph of it has been published. The third, which isdiscussed here and whose exact provenance is not known, isexhibited in the Kastoria Byzantine Museum.The icon (inv. no. 161/72, dimensions 105 x 61 cm) (Fig 1)depicts Christ to the hips, turned slightly to the right andwith his gaze directed at the beholder, in the type of thePantocrator. Either side of his shoulders, on the silverground, is a medallion with double incised outline. Inscribedwithin the medallions, in miniature scale and in bust, are theVirgin, left, and St John the Baptist, right (Figs 2-3), in poseand gesture of intercession. Both figures incline towards thevertical axis of the icon and extend their hands towardsChrist, suggesting the idea of a Three-figure Deesis (Trimorphon).The iconographie type of Christ in bust, with the open, inscribed Gospel book, is encountered in portable icons fromthe twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It enjoyed wide diffusion from the fourteenth century and occurs with considerable frequency in portable icons from the middle of theτεχνική σχέση της εικόνας της Καστοριάς με έργα τουδεύτερου μισού του 14ου αιώνα, όπως είναι η εικόνατου Χριστού από τη Μεγάλη Δέηση στη μονή Βατοπαιδίου, η εικόνα του Χριστού «Σοφία Θεού» στο ΜουσείοΒυζαντινού Πολιτισμού, η εικόνα του Χριστού Παντοκράτορος από τον Άγιο Νικόλαο τον Κυρίτζη της Καστοριάς, συνηγορούν στην ένταξη της εικόνας σε καλλιτεχνικό εργαστήριο της Καστοριάς και σε χρονολόγησητης στο τελευταίο τέταρτο του αιώνα και ενδεχομένωςστο τέλος του Μου ή στις αρχές του 15ου αιώνα.century. This iconographie type is also reproduced in PostByzantine times, in a series of portable icons from thesixteenth century, to confine myself selectively to this period.The miniature rendering of the Virgin and St John in intercession towards Christ, in the Kastoria icon, is a synoptic representation of the Three-figure Deesis. The iconography ofthe figures follows the type of icons of St Nicholas, in whichChrist and the Virgin are depicted in miniature at the levelof the saint's head. This iconographie combination with ChristPantocrator, which is unusual, is observed in a limited numberof icons, mainly of Post-Byzantine date.Our artistic appraisal of the Kastoria icon is that it is the product of a splendid, local workshop active in the second halfof the fourteenth century, remodelling paramount Constantinopolitan works, such as the icon of Christ Pantocratorin Mytilene and that from the Pantokrator monastery on MtAthos, now in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.However, the Kastoria icon's particularly close relationshipin prosopography and style with works of the second half ofthe fourteenth century, such as the icon of Christ of the GreatDeesis in the Vatopedi monastery, the icon of Christ 'Wisdomof God' in the Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki,the icon of Christ Pantocrator from St Nicholas Kyritzis,Kastoria, advocate the inclusion of this icon in the Kastoriaworkshop and its dating to the last quarter of the fourteenthcentury, possibly even the turn of the fourteenth to thefifteenth century.

• Arts
• History and Archaeology

• Arts and religion

• http://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/deltion/article/view/4230
• http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/dchae.433