The depiction of a sacred figure near the entrance to a holy place is a customary feature of the medieval artistic tradition. Especially in Byzantium and Eastern Europe, such representations found an ideological background in the written sources, which attributed the duty of celestial protector to the Archangel Michael and considered him to be the commander (archistrategos) of the army of the Lord and the guardian of the Eden. Images of Michael could appear outside the church complex, in the narthex, and just out of the bema. These different arrangements would reflect distinctive aims based on the function of each area and the way the Archangel is depicted. Over the centuries, this celestial protection spread from holy places to urban contexts as for the city of Constantinople. Textual sources (9th century) and visual examples (13th-14th centuries) showed the Archangel as defender of urban gates and evoked a political connotation that cut across specific biblical and historical events. Whereas Michael was the rescuer of both the Old Testament Jerusalem and the medieval Constantinople with concrete actions in written accounts and figurative sequences of war sieges, this role acquired a universal meaning in the images that tied the archistrategos to the Byzantine emperor directly. Public works as the lost statue of Michael VIII Palaiologos (1258-1282) offering the model of the city to the Archangel, originally set in front of the Holy Apostles church, stressed this special relationship, along with the role of Michael as watchman of both sacred and urban thresholds.
At Michael's door: Celestial Protection of Sacred and Urban Thresholds in Byzantine Art and Practice / A. Torno Ginnasi. ((Intervento presentato al convegno Place and Space. Modifications and Adaptations of the Sacred in the Medieval and Early Modern Eras : 8 June tenutosi a Online Symposium nel 2023.
At Michael's door: Celestial Protection of Sacred and Urban Thresholds in Byzantine Art and Practice
A. Torno Ginnasi
2023
Abstract
The depiction of a sacred figure near the entrance to a holy place is a customary feature of the medieval artistic tradition. Especially in Byzantium and Eastern Europe, such representations found an ideological background in the written sources, which attributed the duty of celestial protector to the Archangel Michael and considered him to be the commander (archistrategos) of the army of the Lord and the guardian of the Eden. Images of Michael could appear outside the church complex, in the narthex, and just out of the bema. These different arrangements would reflect distinctive aims based on the function of each area and the way the Archangel is depicted. Over the centuries, this celestial protection spread from holy places to urban contexts as for the city of Constantinople. Textual sources (9th century) and visual examples (13th-14th centuries) showed the Archangel as defender of urban gates and evoked a political connotation that cut across specific biblical and historical events. Whereas Michael was the rescuer of both the Old Testament Jerusalem and the medieval Constantinople with concrete actions in written accounts and figurative sequences of war sieges, this role acquired a universal meaning in the images that tied the archistrategos to the Byzantine emperor directly. Public works as the lost statue of Michael VIII Palaiologos (1258-1282) offering the model of the city to the Archangel, originally set in front of the Holy Apostles church, stressed this special relationship, along with the role of Michael as watchman of both sacred and urban thresholds.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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