Gospel Frontispieces from the Comnenian Period

Author(s): Annemarie Weyl Carr

Source: Gesta, Vol. 21, No. 1 (1982), pp. 3-20
Published by: International Center of Medieval Art
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/766914
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Gospel Frontispieces From the Comnenian Period

ANNEMARIEWEYLCARR
SouthernAtethodistUniversity

Abstract the liturgies of privately sponsored Constantinopolitan

monasteriesof the early Comnenianera.4 Liturgicalin
This article examines the frontispiece illuminations origin but affective and personal in their impact, these
in Gospel Books and New Testaments belonging to images are central to the Comnenianexpansionof devo-
the "Nicaea School" group of Byzantine manuscripts.
It associates them with a broad expansion in the use
tional imagery.Comneniandevotionalimageryalso went
of Gospel frontispieces in the Comnenian period, and beyond the private typikon, however, into areas not in-
investigates their content. Customarily interpreted in herentlyliturgical,as illuminatedmanuscriptsshow.
terms of liturgical and/or prefatory texts, the Com- The illuminatedmanuscript,too, reflectsthe height-
nenian frontispieces are examined here in the context ened impact of private patronage. One sees this most
of contemporary religious imagery and a growing
private and devotional use of the Gospel and New clearlyin the shift in creativeemphasisfrom Lectionaryto
Testament manuscript. This context generated a range Gospel Book. Not only does the number of extensively
of new frontispiece images the Virgin and Child, the illuminatedGospel Books overtakeLectionariesby a wide
Deesis, and diptychs pairing Moses receiving the Law margin, but also the innovativenessof their cycles far
or the Virgin and Child with Christ Emmanuel whose outstripsthat of the Lectionaries,whose cycles continue
iconography cannot be explained in terms of liturgy or
preface. It also modified the content of the Christ in along the same lines initiatedin the mid-eleventhcentury.5
Majesty, which had been used in conjunction with This innovativenessis seen in the manydifferentforms of
prefaces. The article concludes that the frontispiece illustrativecycle that appear,rangingfrom the traditional
was not a static genre tied to particular prefatory quaternityof prefatoryicons seen in the familyof Vatican,
texts, but a flexible medium for the expression of Urbinus Graecus2 through the frieze cycle of Florence,
shifting attitudes toward the Gospel Book and its use.
Laurenziana,Pluteus VI 23 to novel series of selective
cycles with separately-framed scenes like those in Lenin-
grad, Saltykov-ScedrinPublic Library,gr. 105, London,
The century between the accession of Alexios I BritishLibrary,Harley 1810, Kiev, Academyof Sciences
Comnenos and the death of his grandson, Manuel, is of the UkrainianS.S.R., A 25 and Berlin,Staatsbibliothek,
emerging from recent studies as a period of particular GraecusQuarto66.6It is seen, too, in the expandeduse of
iconographiccreativity.Public liturgyand its visual expli- the Gospel frontispiece,which forms the subject of this
cation continuedto generateinnovationas it had earlierin article.
the eleventhcentury:the celebrantbishopsin the apse, the The Comnenianera saw a virtualexplosionin the use
litany of angels in the dome, and the Amnos in the of the full-page Gospel frontispiece.Attention has been
sanctuaryare examples.lBut alongsidethe realmof public drawn to this explosion by the manuscriptsof the so-
ceremonialand even preemptingit in some mediawas an called "Nicaea School" or DecorativeStyle.7This excep-
acceleratedinterest in the creation of images for private tionally big group of artisticallyand palaeographically
devotion. Dozens of little frescoedshrinesin the provinces distinctive books has been lodged largely in the "late
and a rich rosterof privatemonastictypikafrom Constan- Comnenian"quartercenturybetweenthe deathof Manuel
tinople still testify to the century'sextensivesponsorship and 1204. It is rooted in the Comneniantraditionand is
of familychurchesand privatemonasteries.In the capital, continuous with it; but it is largely of provincialmanu-
Pallas has shown that the typika for these foundations facture, and so stands in ambiguous relationshipto the
offeredan avenuefor liturgicalinnovationand intensifica- Constantinopolitanbooks of the earliertwelfthcentury.It
tion, permittingthe introduction of new and newly in- may representa particularprovincial developmentthat
flectedservicesin responseto personalreligiousinterests.2 grew up alongsidethe metropolitanone; it may reflecta
Belting, in turn, has illustratedhow these new, private broad periodstyle that radiatedfrom the capitalas others
liturgiesgenerateda range of novel and intense icons to had before it. Its use of full-page frontispiecesis not
servethem.3Both affectivedramaslike the Threnosor the unique in Comnenianart, though its iconographicthemes
Virgin faintingat the Crucifixion,and portraiticons like are distinct:a varietyof other examplessurvivesin metro-
the Eleousa, the Virgin Kecharitomenos,the Simeon politan manuscripts,making it clear that the frontispiece
Glykophilon,and, above all, the Man of Sorrows,emerged was a broad Comneniandevelopment.Nonetheless,it is
as visualizationsof affectivemodificationsintroducedinto with the advent of the "Nicaea School" miniaturesthat

3
these images have acquired the force of a period phe-
nomenon.
It is also by virtue of the "NicaeaSchool"that they
have acquireda context. The "NicaeaSchool"is remark-
able among Byzantinemanuscriptsfor its small roster of
lavishlydecoratedservicebooks. Its decorationis concen-
trated,instead,in Psalters,New Testaments,and above all
in GospelBooks.The GospelBook wasapparentlyto a fair
degree a book of private use: monastic libraries,to the
extent that we know them, owned few Gospel Books,
though individual monks did own them, and the great
donors who willed their librariesto monasteriesseldom
includedGospel Books in the donation.8The rich concen-
tration of lavish Tetraevangeliain the "Nicaea School"
suggestsa manuscriptproductionorientedtowardprivate
consumption.The "NicaeaSchool"Gospel Books are not
the only symptomof an expandingproductionof illumi-
natedbooks for privateuse duringthe Comnenianera.The
tiny luxuryGospelBook or Psalter,too diminutiveto serve
any but private,individualends, sees its first majorflower-
ing in the Comnenianperiod.9Likewise,the Catenamanu-
script,whose privateuse Lowdenhas demonstrated,saw a
period of particularlylavish productionand illumination
in the twelfth century.l°Its script, too, shifted from the
meticulousdisplay minusculeof the eleventhcenturyto a
more facile and fluent formula relatedto the"scholarly
hand"familiarto its patrons.ll It is withinthe context of
this mountinguse of illuminationin privatebooks that the
full-page Gospel frontispiece flourished. Apparently, it
found a new utility and significancewithin this context.
This cannot be related,like the fourteenth-century frontis-
pieces,to a dwindlinginteractionbetweenscribeand book
painter;l2these frontispiecesappear in lavishlydecorated
codices with ornamentaland often figuralpaintingspro-
duced by the same handsresponsiblefor the frontispieces
themselves. Other forces must have been germinal in
producingthe vogue for frontispieces,instead.The present
paperproposesan explanation,using the"NicaeaSchool"
manuscriptsas a focal point.
Full-pagefrontispiecesotherthan authorportraitsare
well attested in Psaltersfrom the tenth century onward,
and Gospel frontispieces,too, are not unknown in the
tenth and eleventh centuries. A full-page miniature of
Moses receivingthe Law was clearlydesignedas a frontis-
piece, if not for Vatican,gr. 1522 where it is today, then
for some other Gospel Book or Lectionaryof the ninthor
tenth century.l3Mount Athos, LavraA 92 opens with an
image of Christflankedby medallionsof the Virgin,John
the Baptist, and the Evangelists,14 and Christ with the
Evangelistsappearsagain in the eleventh-centuryVatican,
gr. 756, this time with the Evangelistson one pagehurrying
with their Gospel Books towardChriston the next.l5The
full-page images of the Deesis and the mature Christ
enthronedin Heaven that appearin the ArmenianTrebi-
zond Gospels(Venice, MekhitaristanCollection 1400)are
4
so stronglyByzantinizingin characterthat they, too, may
well reflect actual Byzantinefrontispieceimages.l6These
examplesexhaustthe list, however.
In the Comnenianperiod, the full-pagefrontispiece
becomes more prevalent. All of the earlier themes are
taken up at this time, and all are elaborated,appearing
not only by themselvesas before, but also in conjunction
with additional motives. The mature Christ in Majesty
acquires the four beasts, appearing as the full-fledged
Maiestas Domini in Paris, BibliothequeNationale,gr. 81
of 1092 and Vienna, Nationalbibliothek, supplement
gr. 164 of 1 109.17 The theme of Christand the Evangelists
appears by itself in Mount Sinai 221 of 1175, London,
British Library, Egerton 2163, and the Georgian Vani
Gospels of 1186-1213,and variously elaboratedin Bal-
timore, Walters Art Gallery 522 and Venice, Biblioteca
Marciana Z 540.18In Walters 522, the Evangelistsare
augmentedby the other eight Apostles, transformingthe
image into the familiarcompositionof Christ'sMissionto
the Apostles,and in Venice540, the themeis accompanied
by a second full-page frontispieceshowing the youthful
Christ in Majesty.The image of the Deesis recursin the
GeorgianGelat and DjrutchiGospels;and Lavra A 92's
theme of the Deesis and Evangelistsis taken up again in
Mount Sinai 208 and Istanbul,PatriarchalLibrary3 19In
the latter instance,however,this image is followed by six
full-page festival icons, and in Florence, Convento sop-
presso 160, the Deesis appearspairedwith the Pentecost.20
The frontispieceof Moses receivingthe Law, finally, re-
emergesonly in the "NicaeaSchool"group.But it appears
very frequentlyin that group, both by itself, as in Mount
Athos, Dionysiou4, Mount Sinai 149, and Berlin,Staats-
bibliothek,gr. Quarto66 whereit has been displacedto
the beginning of John2l and in lavish, double-page
diptychs in conjunctionwith Christ Emmanuel.Thus in
Paris, BibliothequeNationale, supplementgr. 1335, and
probably originally also in Chicago, UniversityLibrary
965, Moses faces an abstract composition showing the
bust of Emmanuelsurroundedby angels at the crux of a
cross whose quadrants are occupied by the Evangelist
symbols, while in Florence, Laurenziana,Pluteus VI 32,
he faces Emmanuelin Majesty.22The emergenceof these
traditional themes of Moses, Christ in Majesty, the
Evangelists,and the Deesis and theirdominanceover the
historyof Comnenianfrontispieceart are indicativeof the
conservatismof Comnenianimagery. At the same time,
however,the motives that gatheraroundthese traditional
images modify them in untraditionaland creativeways,
permittingthe constructionof contemporarymessagesout
of the conventionalbuildingblocksof inheritedthemes.In
one significantinstance, moreover,a wholly new theme
emerges. This is the Virgin and Child. Seen in both the
Constantinopolitanand the "NicaeaSchool"contexts, the
Virgin and Child appears in a whole range of variants.
Thus, the Virgin Kyriotissa opens the metropolitan
 Princeton, University Library,Garrett5; the full-length
Hodegetriastands with the donor-scribe,Theophanes,at
the beginningof Melbourne,National Gallery710/5; and
a half-length Hodegetriasurroundedby the four beasts
opens Brescia,BibliotecaCivica A vi 26.23The Kyriotissa
recursin the "NicaeaSchool"in MountAthos, LavraA 9,
where a crouched donor huddles at her feet; and Kiev,
Academyof Sciencesof the UkrainianS.S.R., A 25, opens
with a handsomediptychakin to those in LaurenzianaVI
32 and Paris, suppl. gr. 1335,showingthe seated Hodege-
tria and the Emmanuelin Majesty.24An image of the
donor crouchedbefore Christ,finally,standsat the begin-
ning of Michael of Edessa's tiny Chicago, University
Library129 of 1133.25
The Comneniancentury,then, sees a notableexpan-
sion in the use and contentof the Gospelfrontispiece.The
images found in the "NicaeaSchool" manuscriptsdiffer
from those of the Constantinopolitantradition: Moses
receivingthe Law and the various diptychs with Christ
Emmanuel,which dominate the "NicaeaSchool" group,
are not found outside of it. Nonetheless,a study of their
content brings out themes that are significant to the
Comnenianperiodas a whole.
Hitherto,the most extensiveexaminationof twelfth-
centuryfrontispieceshas come with Galavaris'sstudy on
Gospel prefaces.Here, Galavarishas presentedtwo of the
most importantavenues of access to the content of the
frontispieces:the prefaces themselves and the liturgy.26
These converge especially clearly in the image of the
MaiestasDomini. This image makesits debutas a frontis-
piece in two GospelBooks of around1100:Paris,gr. 81 of
1092, and Vienna,suppl. gr. 164, whose text was written
in 1109.Neitherof these books opens with a preface.Both
contain, however,at the beginningof Lukea text whichis
similar in content to the well-knownprefaceof Irenaeus.
The Irenaeanpreface itself was illuminatedat much the
same date in headpiecesin Parma,BibliotecaCommunale,
Palatinus gr. 5, and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Clarke
10.27These headpieceshave at their center the Maiestas
Domini. The theophanicimageupheldby the Tetramorph
illustrateswell both the four-foldunity of the Gospels,to
which Irenaeus devotes the bulk of his text, and his
denominationof the revealedWord as "he who sits upon
the Cherubim."28 As such, it serveswell as a visualization
of Irenaeus'scontent. The phrase"he who sits upon the
Cherubim,"in turn, is drawn from the liturgy. The
MaiestasDomini, too, is often denominatedthe"liturgical
Majesty,"and derivesits theophaniccontent from its use
as a visualization of the theophany of Christ in the
Eucharist.29The liturgy had formalizedan equation be-
tween the theophany of Christ in the Eucharistand his
theophanyin the Gospels; Irenaeuswould seem to have
drawn upon this equation in using a liturgicalphraseto
express the presenceof Christ in the Gospel. Thus, the
frontispieceof the Maiestas Domini emerges as a com-
position derivedfrom liturgicalimageryand designedto
illuminatethe Irenaeanpreface.It may, then, as Galavaris
contends,have carriedover the content of this prefaceto
books without the text itself, performingvisuallythe role
whichthe prefaceforms verbally.30Certainlythe Maiestas
Domini was widespread.As Galavarispoints out, it was
used not only in the four manuscriptscited, but also in the
headpiecesto a furtherfive manuscripts.3l
The pattern presentedby the frontispiecesof Paris,
gr. 81 and Vienna, suppl. gr. 164 is instructive.It is not,
however,a durablemodel for the examinationof further
frontispieceimages.Theseare, in the first place,seldomso
stable as this paradigmproposes. The Maiestas Domini
itself, as we shall see, had a long and variedhistory.The
conception of the Gospel as a theophanyof Christ had
been expressedalreadylong before 1100,in the Trebizond
Gospels, where it had appearedwithout the four beasts
that bind the image to the Irenaeantheme of four-fold
harmony. It would undergo further modificationsafter
1100, for which Irenaeus offers no ready explanation.
Thus it is not clearthat the imagewas used consistentlyto
signal his ideas.
Secondly, as Galavaris points out, the correlation
between picture and preface becomes more difficult in
other instances. The relationship between preface and
frontispiece is far more attenuated than that between
prefaceand Gospeltext. Rarelydoes one find both forms
in the same book: among the forty-sevenGospel Books of
the "Nicaea School," only five codices contain prefatory
material, and none of these contains a frontispiece,as
well.32While an image may not be accompaniedby the
prefaceit illustrates,arguingfrom image to text is treach-
erous, as illustratedby Nelson'scomparisonof folio 2v of
Istanbul 3 with folio 28v of Oxford, Christ Church 12:
were they not inscribed,one would never guess that they
accompaniedthe same quatrain.33 This quatrainoffers no
explanation,moreover,for the series of six frontispieces
that follows folio 2v in Istanbul3. Thus, the relationship
between prefaceand image is scarcelypredictable.Some
frontispieces,like the Virginand Child, Deesis, or Hode-
getria and Emmanuel,have never been associable with
prefatorytexts. This disjunctionmakes it dangerousto
assert that a picture in a prefatoryposition suppliesthe
same contentthat a writtenprefacewould have. In view of
these difficulties, the idea that preface and frontispiece
fulfill the same or even similarfunctionsbecomestenuous.
The liturgy,finally, is if anythingtoo facilea point of
comparison. Many of the images used in frontispieces
have liturgicalassociations:the MaiestasDomini has been
labelled the "liturgicalMajesty,"and interpretedas an
image of the theophany that occurs through both the
Gospel itself and the elementsof the Eucharist;likewise,
the Deesis and the Virginand Child are famous subjects
for icons, and by the twelfthcenturythe Deesis had taken
its place at the center of the templon beam as a virtual
s
 frontispieceto the sanctuaryitself. The liturgyhad estab-
lished itself in the eleventh century as one of the most
significantstimulantsto Byzantineimagery,and it was in
fair measurethrough modificationsto the liturgy in the
Comnenianera that the major affective icons which dis-
tinguishthe age came into being. Liturgicalimageryis in
this sense endemicto MiddleByzantineart. These images
had great vitality, however. They migrated into other
contexts, whose specificallyliturgicalcharacteris moot.
The prefacesthemselvesare little concernedwith liturgical
patterns, treating instead the four-fold characterof the
Gospel revelation,the lives or contributionsof the indi-
vidual Evangelists, or the invitation to the reader to
partakeof the text. The books adornedwith frontispieces,
too, are notable in being Tetraevangeliaratherthan Lec-
tionaries:only one Lectionaryappearsamong the Com-
nenian examples, and the "Nicaea School" frontispieces
appear in books devoid of liturgicalequipment.Perhaps
more importantly,these images shifted, appeared, and
disappearedin patternswhich the blanket phrase"litur-
gical"does not analyzeor illuminate.Textuallyand icono-
graphically,then, liturgicalassociations do not exhaust
the significanceor explainthe historiesof frontispieces.
The Deesis offers an instructiveexample. As Walter
has shown, the Deesis was not attached to a single
meaning.34It was an ensembleof the greatestwitnessesto
the divinity of the Logos; and subsequentlyit acquired
also the intercessorycontent for which it has become
famous. It is, above all, in the latterrole that it appearson
the templonscreenand among the other Biblicalsaintson
ivory triptychs;35it is, likewise, in this intercessoryrole
that it appears as a frontispiecein the tiny devotional
Psaltersof the eleventhcentury.36It is in the formerrole,
on the other hand, that Waltersees it servingas a frontis-
piece in New Testamentmanuscripts.This would seem to
be the case in the ArmenianTrebizondGospels,wherethe
Deesis is used together with Christ in Majesty, the one
theophanicimageansweringthe other;it is surelythe case
in LavraA 92, whereMary,John the Baptist,and the four
Evangelists are lined up together in uniformly small
medallionson either side of a toweringfigure of Christ.
The same content, in turn, would seem to persistinto the
earlytwelfthcentury.In Sinai 208, the uniformlyattentive
posturesof Virgin, Baptist,and Evangelistsunite them in
a common,adulatoryactivity;in Florence,conv. sopp. 160,
the Deesis faces a miniatureof the Pentecost. Neither
image is accompaniedby overtly intercessoryinscriptions
of the sort seen in the Deesisfrontispiecesof the Psalters.37
Instead,pairedin one case with an epiphanyof the Word
and in the other with the Evangelists,the Deesis seems to
serve in Walter'ssense, as a witnessto the divinityof the
Logos who is revealedin the ensuingpages.
This witnessing role assuredly helped, in turn, to
shape the frontispieceof about 1170 in Istanbul3, where
6
Saint John the Evangelist in the lower register points
upwardto the Christ of the Deesis above.38In this case,
however,the role of witness has probablybeen combined
with the other, intercessoryrole. The book's dedicatory
inscriptioninvokesdivineaid; moreover,the pagewith the
Deesis opens a multiplefrontispieceof full-pagefestival
icons:as Nelson has said, "Theseriesof publicicons of an
iconostasis has been brought together in the manuscript
for the personaldevotion of the individualexaminingthe
codex."39In the iconostasis,the functionof the Deesis had
been intercessory.In the IstanbulGospels, then, the two
aspects of the Deesis converge. This convergencecan
probably also be ascribed to the Georgian Gelat and
DjrutchiGospels.40Here,the Deesis occupiesthe full page
without accompanyingfiguresor inscriptionsto define its
content. A few folios farther on in the Gelat Gospels,
however, the Etimasiaat the top of one canon table is
followed by the Deesis at the top of the next, indicating
the eschatologicalconnotations of the image. As an es-
chatologicalimage, the Deesis bringswith it the idea that
Mary and John not only witnessthe divinityof the Lord
but also intercedewith him for mankind.Both meanings
must, accordingly, be present in the frontispiece. The
Deesis, then, exhibits a revealingpattern.Its role is dual,
as a visual meditationon the natureof the Gospelsand as
an invitationto devotion. This is not a role paralleledby
any of the prefaces;moreover,to call it simplyliturgicalis
to ignore both the shiftingfacets of its meaning,from the
witnessingcontent that had recommendedit initiallyto a
more complex and emotionallyladen invitationto devo-
tion, and the chronologyof the shift that it illustrates.
The patternexemplifiedby the Deesis, of a shift to
devotional terminology,is confirmedby the Virgin and
Child. This image appearstwice in the"Nicaea School,"
coupledwith the Emmanuelin Majestyin Kiev A 25, and
alone in LavraA 9, wherea donor crouchesat the Virgin's
feet (Fig. 1). The stately frontalityof the figuresin Lavra
A 9 parallelsthat in the nearlycontemporarymetropolitan
frontispieceto Princeton,Garrett5, wherethe donor does
not appear.4lThe Virgin and Child are shown in two
furtherfrontispiecesof the twelfth century,one in Mel-
bourne 710/5, where she stands parallelwith the donor-
scribe, Theophanes, and the other in Brescia A vi 26,
where she is surroundedby a medallionpatternenclosing
the four beasts with their books.42In this latterbook, she
faces a similar medallion pattern enclosing Epiphanios
and his text pairingthe four beasts with the four Evan-
gelists.43In this case, then, the Virgin may be associable
with the prefatorytext, as an illustrationof the single
truth the Incarnation of the Logos which the four
Evangelistsreveal. She herself is not mentioned in the
text, however,and it is, accordingly,unlikelythat her use
originatedin Epiphanios'preface or carried its content
into other books. The Virginand Childis amongthe most

FIGURE 1. Virginand Childwith Donor. MountAthos, LavraA 9,fol.
Iv. (photo:courtesyof ProfessorKurt Weitzmann).
conventional of Christian images, a repository for ln-
numerable meanings and associations. Theophanes ad-
dresses her as pnTnp TOV Aoyov; and as an icon of the
Incarnation,the sign that the Divine Wisdom took on
tangible and narrativeform, the Virginand Child makes
an excellent prefatory image to the Gospels. It invites
meditationon theirmeaningand significance.No thought-
ful reader would have overlooked this correlation. As
such, however,the Virginand Child visualizesno specific
preface. Moreover, both the history of the image as a
frontispieceand its appearancehere with donors suggest
that the avenue to its placementat the beginningof the
Gospels did not rlln necessarilyby way of the prologues.
Though unparalleledin Gospel Books before the twelfth
century, the Alirginand Child had occurred already in
severaleleventh-centuryPsalterfrontispieces.44Its role in
them was essentiallydevotional,a mercifulimage of the
one to whom the devotions exercisedthroughthe Psalms
were directed.The crouchingdonor and the rathermore
confidentTheophanesindicatethat the Virgin'srole in the
Tetraevangeliawas much the same. Their commissioning
and use of the Gospel Book were acts of devotion for the
sake of their souls, and they commendtheiractionsto the
Virgin'sgrace. The Virgin'srole, then, emerges as two-
fold. She is, as Theophanesand the crouchingdonor of
LavraA 9 demonstrate,an icon of personaldevotion. At
the same time, she serves as an image of Theophany,
exhibitingher son as the revealedLogos. This latterrole is
emphasizedby the stately frontality of her pose, which
exhibitsnone of the intercessorymodificationsadoptedby
the image of the Virginin the twelfth century.Thus, the
Virgin and Child in the "NicaeaSchool,s'like the Deesis
elsewhere,servesa dual role, witnessingthe revealedChrist
and inviting his devotion, that has no exact precedentin
the prefatorytexts. Similarly,the fact of its applicationto
the Gospel Book in the twelfth centuryis a reflectionnot
of liturgy itself, but of an extension of evocativethemes
into the personalcontext of book and donor, an extension
which seems to have characterizedthe Comnenianera,
beginningin the Psalterand then settling,with a Christo-
centricityechoed in twelfth-centurytheologicaldebate,on
the Gospel Book.
The pattern exhibited by the Deesis and the Virgin
and Child may cast light, in turn, on the frontispiece
image of the MaiestasDomini as it appearsin the "Nicaea
School."The Majestystandsat the root of the interpreta-
tion of the Gospelfrontispiecesas illustrationsthroughthe
prefacesof liturgicalpassages.Yet this image, above all,
seems to imply a different and more varied contentual
history,signalledby the changingfigure of Christhimself.
Notable here is the fact that the Christwho appears
at the center of the four beasts is no longer mature;
from VeniceSMarcianaZ 540 throughthe "NicaeaSchool"
group FIeis young. The initial adoption of the four beasts
has been associatedthroughIrenaeuswith the imageof the
"liturgicalMajesty,"and it may well be that the shift from
mature to youthful Christ, too, reflects this liturgical
bond. The youthful Christ in Majesty was a novelty in
Byzantineart at this point, having made its appearance
only in the mid-twelfthcentury itself: it was at this time
that the miraculousrediscoveryof the Christ Latomusat
Hosios David in Thessaloniki was recounted in the
Diegesis;soon thereafterthe Christ Latomushimselfwas
revivedat Backovo;4sthe youthfulChristin Majestydomi-
nates the frontispiecesto the mid-twelfth-centuryAlenice
540 itself (Figs. 2, 3); and in Mount Sinai 339 of 1136-52,
he replacesthe youthful Christwithout the four beastsin
what seems to be a displacementof an older image by a
newly currentelaboration.46 In each instance,the Majesty
is accompaniedby prophets, but the prophetsvary, and
there is no evidencethat all occurrencesemanatefrom a
single source like the Diegesis. In the case of the frontis-
pieces, his appearancemay reflectthe liturgicallycentered
7
FIGURE 2. Christ in Majesty with Isaiah and Ezechiel Venice, Marciana
Z 540, fol. I lv. (photo: by permission of Biblioteca Marciana).
Christologicalcontroversiesof the Comnenianera, when
the characterof the Resh in the Eucharistwas rigorously
defined and associated with the child Christ in a process
crystallizedtoward the end of the centuryin the image of
the Amnos.47A shift in the conceptualizationof the
liturgicaltheophany would in this case be reflectedin a
shift of the imageryused for the scripturalone.
For all its likely basis in liturgicalconceptions,how-
ever, the youthful Majesty does not emerge as a simple
substitutefor the matureone. He appearsin a richvariety
of contexts that range far beyond the Irenaeanpreface
itself. Thesecontextsare not readilyinterpretedas illustra-
tions of liturgical formulations. No book containing a
frontispieceof the youthfulMajestyoffersa text or inscrip-
tion explaininghim, and his interpretationis thus limited
to an assessmentof the rangeof content suggestedby the
attendantmotives.Thesemotivessuggestthat the youthful
Majesty, far from repeating the content of his mature
counterpart,contributedto an expansion of frontispiece
8
FIGURE 3. Christ and Evangelists. Venice, Marciana Z 540, fol. 12v.
(photo: by permission of Biblioteca Marciana).
imagerythat was governedby forces quite differentfrom
the prefacesas we know them or the conservativeformula-
tions of liturgicalart. This is sensedalreadyin Venice540,
with which an examinationof the youthful Majestymust
begin.
The youthfulfigurewho displacedthe matureMajesty
in Venice 540 enteredthis compositionwith connotations
of his own.48 Familiar in Early Christian art, he had
becomeless prevalentin the ensuingcenturies,and emerged
into prominenceagain only in the mid-eleventhcentury,
when there was an upsurge of imagery articulatingthe
differentaspects of Christ himself within the Trinity.49In
the Johannineheadpiecein Paris, BibliothequeNationale,
gr. 74, the name Emmanuelwas first appliedto him,50and
from the twelfth century onward, this name was applied
exclusively to him.5' This definitive labelling coincides
with other instancesof differentiationamong the aspects
of Christ the associationof the name Pantocratorwith a
particularimage has been linkedwith John II Comnenos's
 s a a a Cs , s t t

foundationof the PantocratorMonastery 52and it seems
likely that the popularity of the child Christ and his
identificationas Emmanuelalso benefitedfrom sponsor-
ship by the Comnenianfamily.The child Christformsthe
subjectof one of a pairof devotionalpoemswrittenby the
youthful Anna Comnena.53The other poem is addressed
to what was apparentlya personal icon of the Man of
Sorrows,54and the same personaldevotionseemsattribut-
able to the first:
Q wxc,avapXov ovTa TnV pV[V, AO7£,
o 4X^ypa(poc,Pypa(p£tvo£ Tokpawatbiov,
a a ,
strongerin the twelfth century,when one finds the Christ
Pantocrator,Christ Emmanueland Christthe Ancientof
Days occupyingthe naos, prothesis,and diaconicondomes
respectivelyof churches like Nerezi.59The child in this
case expressesthe Word Incarnate:not in the sense of the
sufferingflesh but of the flesh madeimmortalthroughthe
Son of God.60In this role, he became an image of the
Eucharist,lodged betweenangels or lying on the paten as
the Amnos, the divine bread; and of the saving and
immortal flesh in the Platytera or the Annunciationas
depicted in wall paintingsin Jerusalemand Cyprus.61In
the second place, as the flesh immortal to whom all

Kat TnV KaTX AVpUG[V £ppaTvXv apa , k , , X,

authority was given in Heaven and Earth, the youthful

JCpOi TnV avx Z£p£t p£ AVV TpOpX X£Z£[V:
£7@ 6£ ppiTTX pn 0£VOVAa UpOAa£Z£[V.
(t) Z@i, apnT[@]p Xv avapXoi TnV pV[V,
(t)p0qg aZaT@p tv xpovoti TOti £XaTOti[;]
Kat AV TO OtZKOVV£KU£ZA7p£VOV TOKOV,
4@7pap£, Ypap£, p6£ 6tATaug, O@i
Pyapap(pcoTag (pvcs£t.
, , , Y
figure representsthe MessianicChristwho comes in glory
at the end of time. It is in this second, Messianicguise that
the figure appearsas the sign of salvationin Gregoryof
Nazianzus'sEasterHomily,and his eschatologicalaspects
come out in juxtapositionsof Emmanueland the Etimasia
in manuscriptand monumentalpainting.62The Messianic
a ,, a ,

avvPyXvT oX;£
character of this image leads on into the third major
O Word of God, how does the painterdare to depict context in which the youthful Christ appears:the typo-
you as a child, you who are without beginning by logical. Thus, it is the youthfulChristwho is shownin the
nature?By revealingthe earthlyframe he at the same Octateuchsin Deuteronomy 18:15,when Moses predicts
time sends me to look in tremblingtowardsthe heav- that "The Lord your God will raise up a prophet from
enly. But I shudder to look. O you who are without among you like myself,and you shall listento him;"63 who
motherand withoutbeginningby nature,how wereyou is shown in the Burning Bush in the Sinai icons and the
seen without a father in earthly time? Painter, depict Homilies of James Kokkinobaphos;64 who illustratesthe
the two-fold [off-spring]of wondrousbirth,and do not prophecyof Isaiah quoted in Matthew 12:17in Florence
waver,for he preservesboth natureswithoutconfusion. VI 23;65who appearsin responseto Habakkuk'sprophecy
of the Angel from the East, as we have seen in the
At much the same period, the image of the Platytera,the headpiecesto Gregoryof Nazianzus'sEasterHomily,and
orant Virginwith the child Christen bustein a medallion to the prayerof Zachariasin Vatican,gr. 1927.66Eventhe
on her breast, saw its first expansion into monumental Christ Latomus, associated in the original mosaic with
painting,and this image,too, had Comnenianassociations: two ambiguousfigures, gets linked specificallywith two
its earliest monumental use occurs at the Episkopi on prophetsin his twelfth-centuryguises, as if to accountfor
Santorini, dedicated by Alexios I Comnenos himself,55 his youthful appearanceby referenceto their prophecy.67
and it was surely through contacts with the Comnenian This typologicalassociationmay, finally, explain the fact
aristocracy that the image established itself in Cyprus, that the youthfulChristdominatestwo of the four Middle
appearing in Trikomo, Perachorio, Rizokarpasso, and Byzantineimages of the Sermonon the Mount.68In both
perhaps initially at Asinou in 1106.56In the mid-twelfth cases, the compositionis identicalto that used in London,
century, finally, the child Christ assumed a particular, British Library,add. 36928 for Moses preachingto the
bulbous-headed,babyform,and this, again,occursthrough Hebrews.69 This typological composition may be an ex-
the agencyof a Comnenus:in a slightlyoutrageouspun on pression of Jesus's own parallelingof his Sermonwith the
the names Manueland Emmanuel,the emperorManuelI teachings of Moses, claimingin Matthew5:17 that he has
Comnenos adopted the baby Christ as his major coin come not to dispel the teachings of Moses and the
image and labelled it Emmanuel.57 Thus the currency of prophets, but to give them real meaning. These three
the youthfulChristEmmanuelseems to have had a strong contexts the Christological, the soteriological,and the
Comnenianconnection. typological become the specialized provinceof the youth-
The pun on his name, and his family's association ful Christ in the twelfth century. Their content may help
with the image may account adequately for Manuel's to explain the figure's political adoption by the Emperor
adoption of the baby Emmanuelon his coins. By this Manuel. During Manuel'sreign, the Christologicalunrest
time, however,the Elgurehad acquireda particularcon- of the Comnenianeradevelopedinto a seriesof full-fledged
tent. He appearsin threecontexts. In the firstplace,he was churchcouncils.70Concerncenteredon the relationshipof
used to articulatethe aspectsof Christ.This role, reflected the incorruptibleflesh of the Eucharist to the eternal
alreadyin the eleventh-centurymanuscripts,58 becameever Christ to whom it was sacrificed,and Manuel himself is

9
known to have had strongviewson the interrelationof the
aspects of Christand the role of the incorruptibleflesh in
the Eucharist.
The sensitivity seen in Comnenian art toward the
differentiationof Christ'saspects weighs against the as-
sumption that the youthful Christ in Majesty in Venice
540 is a mere substitutionfor the mature Majesty. It is
plausible,given the associativepowersof medievalimages,
that the figuredid carryover some connotationsfrom the
matureChrist,like the four-foldharmonyof the Gospels,
but it is not likely that they were strictlyequivalent.The
Majestyin Venicepresentsthe theophanyof the Gospelin
the terms of the incorruptibleflesh, in accord with the
emphasisin ComnenianChristology,and it must convey
meaningsparticularto this conception.One of these is the
Messianic,for the incarnateChristwill come to ruleat the
end of time. The image emphasizesthis by includingon
Christ's scroll the message given at his Ascension in
Matthew28:18:"Full authorityin Heavenand Earthhas
been committedto me."Anothermeaningassociatedwith
the youthful Christ is the typological, emphasizingthe
continuity of Old and New Testaments. This, too, is
underscoredhere by the presenceof the prophets,Isaiah
and Ezechiel.They unroll on their scrolls excerptsfrom
theirvisionsof the four beasts.Ezechiel'sreads:"Athrone,
and high above all, upon the throne, one like a man . . .
like the appearanceof the Glory of the Lord"(Ezechiel
1:26). Isaiahadds: "I saw the Lord seated upon a throne
high and exalted"(Isaiah6:1). The emphasison the throne
harmonizes with the message of authority on Christ's
scroll, uniting the Old Testamentvision with the New
Testamentone. The Old Testamentcitations chosen and
the character of the theophany which they reveal are
differentfrom those of Irenaeus,and cannot be regarded
as a meremodificationof the prologue'smessage.Instead,
one seems to see here a typologicalmessage that is new
and emphatic,expressingthe actuality of Christ'spower
over time. Like other twelfth-centuryfrontispieces,this is
an image of witness.The witnessesare prophetsof the Old
Testament,however,and thWtheophanicChristto whom
they bear testimonyis the savingflesh of the end of time.
This soteriologicaldimensionof the figureof Christgives
the composition a devotional dimension akin to that
whichthe Deesis had exercised.A heighteneddirectnessof
devotional appeal, then, unites with a novel typological
emphasis, and both are dependenton the figure of the
youthfulChrist.
In ComnenianByzantium,as in the twelfth-century
West, typological imageryand an undercurrentof Mes-
sianism were current.7lTypological parallelsare seen in
James Kokkinobaphos'sHomilies on the Virgin; in the
placementof prophetsin the marginsof Parma5, Oxford,
Clarke10, WaltersArt Gallery522, Venice540, Melbourne
710/5 and Princeton, UniversityLibrary,Garrett3;72in
the illustrationof Matthew12:17in FlorenceVI 23 and of
lo
John 1:17 in Chicago 965 and Paris, Bibliotheque
Nationale, suppl. gr. 27;73and in the introduction of
prophetsinto the festivalicons of the cyclesat St. Chrysos-
tom in Cyprus,Pskov in Russia,and the "NicaeaSchool"
manuscript,Berlin, quarto 66. The liturgicaltheophany
itself was conceived in typological terms in the twelfth
century, as illustratedin the often-quotedinsertioninto
Germanos'smeditationon the LittleEntry:"TheGospelis
the coming of the Son of God, when he was seen by us, no
longer speaking through clouds and riddles as once to
Moses ... but ... clearly as a man in reality."74The
Majestyin Venice presentsthe theophanyof the Gospels
in the same, contemporaryterms.
The image of Christand the prophetsin Venice540 is
followed by a second frontispieceshowingChristand the
four Evangelists.The theme of Christand the Evangelists
was deeply rooted in the frontispiecetradition, having
appeared already in the eleventh century in Vatican,
gr. 756. There,however,it had illustratedthe presentation
of the Gospels to Christ. In Venice 540, the composition
has been reorganizedand shows Christ as the active
member, turning to bless the Evangelists,who extend
empty hands to him in veneration.Ratherthan the con-
vergenceof the four Gospels on Christ,this image shows
their disseminationfrom Christ. This composition does
not face the one of the youthful Christ: they occupy
successiveversos,and it is not entirelyclearthat they were
meant to be read together.Nonetheless,as Galavarishas
pointed out, the inscriptionon Christ'sscroll in the first
miniatureseems to draw them together.It is taken from
Matthew 28:18, and is immediatelyfollowed by Christ's
mission to his Apostles:"Go forth thereforeand make all
nations my disciples;baptizemen everywherein the name
of the Fatherand the Son and the Holy Spirit,and teach
them to observeall that I have commandedyou. And be
assured, I am with you always, to the end of time."The
miniature with the Evangelists seems to illustrate the
mission. Witnessto the Logos over time on the one page,
then, is followed by its four-fold disseminationon the
next.
The theme of the disseminationof the Gospels, like
that of typology, turns out to have been particularly
significantin the twelfth century.Popularin the West at
this time in the wake of the Crusades,75it is used
recurrently-though assuredly for different reasons in
the ByzantineGospelfrontispieces,as well. One can watch
the traditional metropolitan theme of Christ and the
Evangelistsget reorganizedin the courseof the centuryto
assume the missionarycontent and even the symmetrical
compositionof the Mission to the Apostles.The Mission
itself appears in the late eleventh-centuryfrontispieceto
the tiny WaltersArt Gallery522;it reappearstwo centuries
later, coupled with the Emmanuel in Majesty, in the
equally tiny Vatican, gr. 1210, now taking the place of
Venice 540's asymmetricalcompositionof Christand the
Evangelists.76 In the interim,the image of Christand the
Evangelistsadopts the Mission'sform, becomingan image
of transmissionand dissemination.The four Evangelistsin
Venice stand to one side of Christ,but with empty hands,
receivingratherthan presenting.In Sinai 221 of 1175,they
have taken the symmetricalpositions of the Mission, but
retain their books.77In the Vani Gospels, finally, they
stand symmetricallywithout books in a perfectabbrevia-
tion of the Missionto the Apostlescomposition,illustrating
clearly that they are, precisely,the great missionariesof
the Word.78The form and meaning of the two images
have converged. The same theme of disseminationhad
helped to shape the main frontispieceto Istanbul 3, as
Nelson has shown, for Christin the upperregisterand the
Evangelists in the lower are joined by a well-known
quatrainurgingthe readerto drinkof the watersthat Row
from the Word.79This quatrain,though used as early as
the tenth century,was exceptionallypopularin the twelfth,
and shows that the theme of the giving and transmission
of the Word was as much a part of twelfth-century
meditationon the Gospelsas typology.
Takentogether,the frontispiecesof the VeniceTetra-
evangelionsuggestsa new message,based on the eternity
and transmissionof the Logos. At the same time, they
echo the purposes isolated already in the contemporary
frontispiecesof the Deesis and Virgin:they witnessto the
potency of the revealedWord, and invoke its availability
to the devout Christian. Neither the message nor the
purposes are paralleledin the prefaces, and one cannot
account for the miniaturesin this way. The Venicemanu-
scripthas no prefaces:the literarysourceor sourcesfor its
frontispieces,if such there were, are not known. They are
not unrelated,it is true, to ideas contained in certain of
the prefatorytexts. Thus, the poem at the beginningof
Vatican,gr. 1522, repeatedin Paris, BibliothequeNation-
ale, gr. 278, speaksboth of the Logos as the fulfillmentof
the Mosaic Law, and of the Word Rourishingin the
Church.80The poem itself was rare and arcane, however,
copied in a majestic but tortuous uncial script that is
unparalleledoutsideof the two codicesin question.That it
should itself have providedthe stimulusto the miniatures
in Veniceis highlyunlikely.A somewhatsimilarsentiment
is expressedin moreaccessibleform in the text of Irenaeus.
This portion, seldom included at the opening of the
Gospels,reads:
. . . Kat aVTOi 6£ O AoPyog TOV @£0V TOti p£V ZpO
MCI)V£CI)G ZaTptapXati KaTa TO 0£[KOV Kat £V6O4OV
Cl)p£X£t,TOti 6£ £V TX VOpX t£paT[Kn Tai[V aZ£V£p£V p£Ta
6£ TavTa avOpzog 7£VOp£VOi TnV 6Xp£aV TOV aytov
ZV£UpaTOg £ti Zavav £4£Z£p£ TnV 7nV . . .
The Word of God itself communicatedwith the patri-
archs before Moses in the divine and glorious [way],
and to those in the Law he assigneda priestlystatus,
but afterthis, becomingman, he sent out the gift of the
Holy Spirit over all the earth . . .8l
The content is again much the same: the Word given
indirectlyto those of the Old Testamentis now dissemi-
nated throughoutthe earth. Yet this text, too, is unlikely
to havespurredthe Venicefrontispieces.Byzantineimagery
adhereswith almostcompleteconsistencyto the beginnings
of the texts it illustrates.Seldomunderany circumstances,
and never, if it has not exhaustedthe beginning,does it
ferretin the depths of a text for the subjectof an accom-
panyingminiature.Failingthe prefaces,one mightturnto
the liturgy, but it offers no more apposite text, and
survivingicons, the concrete crystallizationof liturgical
patterns,do not revealparallelcompositions.What other
texts may lie behindthese imagesis unknown,and perhaps
unnecessaryto know. The ideas expressedhere were not
exceptional:we have seen two prefacesjuxtaposing the
same pair of concepts; we have seen the Pseudo-
Germanos'sinterpretationof the LittleEntryin typological
terms, as the theophany of Christ directly, rather than
veiled as in the Law; we have seen the concept of typo-
logical paralleland the concernwith the disseminationof
the Word expressedin other, contemporaryworks. Such
notions constitutedconventionalbuilding blocks for the
construction of all sorts of Christian messages in the
twelfthcentury.82 The miniaturesof Venice540, too, seem
to be compositionsof this sort: pictorial meditationson
the meaningof the Gospel Book expressedin the conven-
tional termsof contemporarythought.
How truly the Venice frontispiecesare expressiveof
currenttwelfth-centurythemes can be seen by turningto
those of the "NicaeaSchool." Both the typologicalinter-
pretationof the Gospelsand the idea of theirtransmission
and disseminationaregerminalconceptshere.Theyassume
differentforms, however,whose associationwith inherited
imagery is yet more tenuous than that in Venice 540.
These are often quite inventiveforms. Vocotopoulos has
shown in his study of the headpiecesof Mytilene, Boys'
Gymnasium9, how the theme of the transmissionand
disseminationof the Word by its witnesses, the Evan-
gelists, generateda sequenceof completelynew composi-
tions.83The pressureof the messagequite displacedsuch
models as the painter might have had, and stimulateda
new, "nonconformist"iconography based on current
themes. The theme of Old and New Testamentharmony,
too, sees a new, overt formulationin the reappearanceof
the Moses frontispiece.In novel, and, in Mytilene9, even
creativeform, then, the twelfth-centuryconcernwith the
messagesof typologyand transmissiongovernsthe "Nicaea
School" group, as well. How truly these ideas dominate
any message formulatedfor the Irenaeanprefaceis illus-
tratedby the imagesof Christin Majesty.He remainsthe
youthfulChrist,and althoughhis presenceamongthe four
beasts makes him susceptiblealways of interpretationas
ll
an illustrationof the four-in-oneharmonyof the Gospels,
he assumesnew pairingswith imagesthat have no role in
the prefaces.Three times he appearspaired with Moses
receivingthe Law, and once he is coupledwith the Virgin
and Child.
In the case of Moses,the accompanyingtext is known.
It is inscribedabove the miniaturein four of the six cases
in whichthe imageis used.84It is drawnnot fromprefatory
literature,but from the text of the Gospel of John 1:17,
and reads:"For while the Law was given throughMoses,
grace and truth came throughJesus Christ.' The promi-
nenceof this passagein the twelfthcenturyis demonstrated
by the fact that, althoughunilluminatedin eitherthe frieze
Gospels or the rich eleventh-centuryLectionarycycles, it
was illustratedin both Paris, suppl. gr. 27, and Chicago
965, in the twelfth century.85Chicago965 belongs to the
"NicaeaSchool" and has a Mosaic frontispiece;thus, its
reiterationof the Moses receivingthe Law in the text may
be dismissibleas a responseto the frontispieceitself. In
Paris,suppl. gr. 27, though,wherethereis no frontispiece,
the passageis again adorned,this time with Moses receiv-
ing the Law and the crucified Christ. The typological
significanceof the passage is thus made very clear. The
explicittypologicalcontent of this verse is unquestionably
what drew attentionto it, and its elevationto the statusof
a frontispieceinscriptionis vivid testimonyto the impor-
tance of typology in twelfth-centurymeditationson the
Gospel.
The factors conditioningthis elevationare not clear.
In two cases, the image opens a New Testamentand
Psalter,and this union of Old and New Testamenttexts
may have suggested the pairing initially. Its popularity
went beyond this kind of book, however,and demandsa
broader explanation. Three of the six examples of the
Mosaic frontispiecewith the Johanninepassagewere pro-
duced in Cyprus or Palestine,86an area in which the
contiguityof Old and New Testamenteventswas boundto
be particularlystrong. This may have affectedthe choice
of subjectmatter.A similarCypriotor Palestinianprove-
nance has not been demonstratedfor the remainingthree
instancesof the Mosaic miniature,however,and the sub-
ject did have a long-distantprecursorin Vatican,gr. 1522,
where it accompaniesa poem opening with a sentiment
akin to that of John 1:17.Thus, the subjectof Moses may
well have had a historyin the capital, and have surfaced
there in the twelfthcentury.In either case, the linkageof
Old and New Testamentin the Majestypage of Venice540
helps to prove that it surfacedin responseto a broader
interestin typologicalfrontispieces.The imagemay speak
to furthertwelfth-centuryconcerns,as well. Moses serves
as a witnessto the theophanyof the Wordhere;of all Old
Testamentscenesrelatedto the Gospels,moreover,that of
the Giving of the Law most clearly brings with it the
notion of the Word's transmission.Chicago 965 closes
with the quatrain already cited, inviting the reader to
12
drink from the four-foldriverof the Word.The image of
the Giving of the Law embracesboth notions the con-
tinuity of the Word over time, and its transmissionon
earth. These ideas had occupiedthe two miniaturesin the
VeniceGospels.
In three of the six instancesin the"Nicaea School,"
the Mosaic frontispiece occurs alone. The Gospel text
itself forms the direct and unveiled counterpartto the
veiled transmissionof the Word in the Law. In two-and
originallyall three of the remaininginstances,however,
the Giving of the Law was accompaniedby an image of
the youthful Christ and four beasts. These images differ
greatlyin form, and neitheris simple. In Paris, suppl. gr.
1335(Figs. 4, 5), and probablyalso in Chicago965, where
the image is lost,87the theophanic Christ in Glory is
replacedby a bust of Christ, surroundedby angels, in a
quatrefoilmedallion at the crux of a cross whose arms
divide the miniatureinto four quadrants,each inhabited
by one of the four beasts. But for the distinctivelyByzan-
tine elements of the wingless beasts and the quatrefoil
field, the page is remarkablyreminiscentof the cross-
symbols compositionsin the Hiberno-Saxonmanuscripts
or the CuthbertCoffin.88The image in Florence,Lauren-
ziana VI 32 (Fig. 7), on the other hand,is moreapparently
conventional,with Christenthronedin a mandorla,from
whose edges the heads of the four beasts protrude. He
extends both hands,however,in a gestureoften associated
withjudgment.89Both imagesare designedto complement
the Giving of the Law, forming a visual diptych like the
verbal one in the Johannineverse. In both, accordingly,
the image of Christ appearsas the revealedWord, con-
trasting with the oblique transmissionof the Law in a
clear reference to John's contrasting verbs, £600 and
£7£V£T0. Althoughthe Christappearshere as the revealed
Word, however,the images have nothing to do with the
Irenaeancomposition of Parma 5: not only is the Christ
shown young in accord with his typologicalcontext, but
also the surroundingcompositionsare organizedto bring
out meaningsdistinctiveto the youthful image. As in the
frontispieceof Venice 540, the image of Christcannot be
understoodas a meresubstitutionfor the matureMajesty.
Of the two compositions,that in Paris,suppl.gr. 1335
is simultaneouslythe moreastonishingand the less radical.
It is uniquein survivingByzantineart, though it is known
to have appearedin a wall paintingof unknowndate in
Palestine.90It may reflectsome very old model. But details
of its imagery indicate that it was rethought in Middle
Byzantineterms,and that its designerknew perfectlywell
what he was saying.The symbols,whichstandrampantin
the quadrantsas they do in the contemporaryliturgical
scroll, Mount Athos, Lavra,rotulus2,91appearto express
the traditional Middle Byzantinetheme of the four-fold
harmony of the Word. This is given credence by the
kindred"NicaeaSchool"manuscript,Dionysiou4: here,a
page of comparable,cruciformdesign faces a frontispiece
FIGURE 4. Moses receivingthe Law. ParissBibliothequeNationale,
suppl.gr. 1335,fol. 6v. (photo:bypermissionof BibliothequeNationale).
of Moses receiving the Law, but contains images of
Eusebiusand Carpianusin its upper quadrantsand the
opening lines of Eusebius'sletter on the canon tables and
the harmonyof the Gospels in its cross.9laThe theme of
harmonyin Paris, suppl. gr. 1335is then ampliEledby the
image of Christ against the cross. As Grabarhas shown,
the medallionat the crux of the cross was a long-standing
Byzantine triumphal image, rooted in imperial usage,
employedfor Christin the marginalPsalters,and acquiring
its quatrefoilform in the tenth-centurycoins of Nicephorus
Phocas.92It appearsas a frontispiecein Psaltercomposi-
tions like that of London, add. 36928, folio 46v, where
David occupiesthe centerand his choirs of musiciansthe
quadrants.93This use in the Psalter may have some
relevancehere, since Paris, suppl. gr. 1335 and Chicago
965 were both New Testament and Psalter composites
whose Psalter imagery draws on that of London, add.
36928,probablymade, as they were, in the area of Cyprus
and Palestine.94In Paris, suppl. gr. 1335, it is Christwho
occupiesthe center,and his harmoniouschorus of Evan-
gelists is symbolizedin the quadrants.The youth of Christ
FIGURE 5. Christ and the EvangelistSymbols. Paris, Bibliotheque
Nationale,suppl.gr. 1335,fol. 7r. (photo:by permissionof Bibliotheque
Nationale).
unites him typologicallywith Moses as the Word made
visible;at the same time, it revealshim as the triumphant
Christof the end of time, who will come with his angels,
and to whom full authorityin Heavenand earth has been
committed.Thus, the curiouscross-symbolspage emerges
as a hybrid,blendingthe traditionalfour-foldunity of the
Wordwith the continuityof the Son of God over time.
Whetherliterarysources other than the bare Johan-
nine statement contributed to the formulation of this
diptych is not clear. The adulatory implicationsof the
rampantbeasts have led to the interpretationof the page
as an image of the Seraphic Hymn, celebratedin the
liturgy.95It is certainly true, as Jerphanionhas shown,
that the conception of the beasts as cryingthe praisesof
the Lord was based in Byzantiumon the four participles
used in the liturgy.96The liturgy was one of the most
powerful sources of the intellectual building blocks of
which Byzantinemeditationson the Scripturewere made,
and it would be foolish to rejectits pervasiveimpact.The
rampantbeasts were used, as noted, in Lavra,rotulus2, a
liturgicalscroll contemporarywith Paris, suppl. gr. 1335.
13
 FIGURE 6. Moses receiving the Law. Florence, Laurenziana Plut. VI 32,
fol. 7v. (photo: by permission of Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana).
They have no connectionwith the SeraphicHymn there,
however. Such a connection becomes all the less likely,
then, in Paris, suppl. gr. 1335. Paired as it is with Moses
and placed at the beginningof a book without liturgical
equipment,the cruciformpage in Paris, suppl. gr. 1335
would seem to be less an explicit visualization of the
liturgy as such than a meditationon the eternity of the
revealedWord, presentat the Givingof the Law, revealed
in the four Gospels,and triumphantin its graceat the end
of time. Moses witnesses its Messianic continuity and
heraldsits dissemination.
The image of Christagainst the cross emphasizeshis
triumphalaspect. How significantthis aspect of the image
was can be seen in the alternativeversion of Moses and
Christ in Florence VI 32 (Figs. 6, 7). Here the Christ in
Glory returns.But now he is specificallythe Christof the
end of time, for he makes the gesture of judgment. The
cumbersomeresidueof illustratingthe four-foldharmony
14
FIGURE 7. Christ in Majesty. Florence, Laurenziana Plut. V132, fol. 8r.
(photo: by permission of Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana).
retreatsin favor of the simple presentationof the Word,
presentthroughtime and triumphantin eternity.Though
the Christin Majestywith the four beastscan still be read
as an image of the four-fold harmony,this facet of the
figureis not emphasized,and the explicationof the Gospel
Book gives way to an explicationof Christhimself.
This shift in emphasis is important. With it, one
watches the frontispiece changing in character,from a
meditation on the Gospels to a meditationon Christ. It
shifts from visual prefaceto devotionalicon. This shift is
explicit in the last of the "NicaeaSchool"frontispiecesto
be consideredhere, the diptychat the beginningof Kiev A
25 (Figs. 8, 9).97 Theseminiaturesbringus full circleto the
point at which our discussion of the youthful Christ in
Majestybegan. The youthful Majestyon one page faces
the Virginand Child on the other,pairedin a contextthat
carriesover almost none of the connotationsfound in the
FIGURE 8. Christ in Majesty. Kiev, Academy of Sciences of the
Ukrainian S.S.R., A 25, fol. Iv. (photo: by permission of Academy of
Sciences of Ukrainian S.S.R.).
prefaces.The main position on the recto page is occupied
not by Christ, but by an exceptionallygracefulimage of
the seated Hodegetriaas she appears at the end of the
twelfth century in Kurbinovoand Kastoria,holding the
outstretchedfoot of her child.98The Christ in Majesty
faces this. Together, they illustrate the mystery of the
IncarnateChrist,bodily presentin both time and eternity.
They could be taken as illustrationsto Anna Comnena's
poem on the image of the youthfulChrist,showinghim as
both the motherless Son of God in eternity and the
fatherlesschild of the Virginin time. This message,akin to
that of the popular Platytera icon in its linking of the
infantand eternalChrist,bringsout the skill seen in much
of Comnenianart in blendingthe humanlyaffectivewith
the theologicallysignificant in short, in producingdevo-
tional images.99
Looking back from Kiev A 25 over the question of
content posed by the youthful Christin Majesty,one can
FIGURE 9. Virgin and Child. Kiev, Academy of Sciences of the
Ukrainian S.S.R., A 25, fol. 2r. (photo: by permission of Academy of
Sciences of Ukrainian S.S.R.).
see how clearlyit respondedto innovativecurrentsin the
developmentof frontispieceimagery.Rather than main-
taining the liturgicaland prefatorycontent of his mature
counterpart,the figuremoved into new contexts governed
by contemporarytheological and devotional concerns.
The Gospel cycle that adorns Kiev A 25 is notable in its
selective orientation toward images of strong individual
significance:healing scenes, and sceneslike Peter arriving
at the empty tomb, Mary Magdaleneanointing Christ's
feet in Bethany,and her encounterwith the risenChristin
the garden scenes that can be used by the devout viewer
to parallelhis own condition and stimulatehis emotional
and religious involvement. This essentially devotional
orientationhas also prevailedin the frontispiece,turningit
into an affectivemeditationon the natureof Christ.
This survey of the "Nicaea School" frontispiecesin
the context of other Comnenian examples, then, has
broughtout severalaspectsof twelfth-centuryart. One has
15
seen the physical expansion of the Gospel frontispiece,
from the single image of Paris 81 in 1092 through the
consecutivepages of Venice540 and Istanbul3 to the full,
double-pagespreadseen in the "NicaeaSchool"itself. One
has seen its expansion in subject matter and content to
embracethemesof broadcontemporaryconcern:the typo-
logical parallel, the disseminationof the Word, and its
interpretationin terms of the Emmanuel, uniting the
affectiveform of the child with exalted ideas of his bodily
presence in time and eternity. In the development of
compositions and compositional complexes to express
these concerns,the frontispiecesintroducenovel formula-
tions to the iconographicvocabularyof the twelfth cen-
tury, contributing to the flexibility and richness now
coming to be recognizedas characteristicof this period.
Perhaps above all, one finds the commitment of this
flexibilityto the creationof a devotionalart. Ratherthan
by the impact of inheritedGospel prefaces,the historyof
the Gospel frontispiecein this period is governedby the
adaptationof the book to currentdevotionaluse, through
meditationson the natureof the Gospel text, and even-
tually on the natureof Christhimself.
NOTES
1. G. Babic, "Les discussions christologiques et le decor des eglises
byzantines au XIIe siecle. Les eveques officiant devant l'Hetimasie et
devant l'Amnos," Fruhmittelalterliche Studien, II (1968), 368-86.
D. Mouriki, "Hai Diakosmeseis ton Troullon tes Euangelistrias kai
tou Hagiou Sozontos Gerakiou," ArehaiologikeEphemeris,Chron-
ika ( 1971), 1-7.
2. D. Pallas, Die Passionund BestattungChristiin Bzanz. Der Ritus-
das Bild. Miscellanea Byzantina Monacensia, II (Munich, 1965),
passim.
3. H. Belting, "The Portrait Icon of the Buried Christ: A Problem from
the History of Art and Liturgy," DOP, XXXIV-XXXV (1980-81),
forthcoming.
4. Ibid.;and A. W. Epstein, "Middle Byzantine Churches of Kastoria:
Dates and Implications," AB, LXII (1980), 206.
5. Gospel Books of the period include: Athens, National Library 93;
Athens, Byzantine Museum 820; Chicago, University Library 965;
Florence, Laurenziana VI 23; Istanbul, Patriarchal Library 3 and 8;
Kiev, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian S.S.R., A 25; Lenin-
grad, Saltykov-Sctedrin Public Library, gr. 105; Leyden, University
Library, gron. 137; London, British Library, Harley 1810; Paris,
Bibliotheque Nationale, suppl. gr. 914; Parma, Biblioteca Com-
munale, palat. gr. 5. Probably belonging to the early 13th century
are Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Gr. Q 66 and Mytilene, Boys' Gym-
nasium 9. Surely by Greek painters are the over 300 miniatures of
the Georgian Gelat Gospels. Lectionaries of the period include:
Mt. Athos, Panteleimonos 2; New York, Morgan Library 692;
Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, suppl. gr. 27; and probably also the
Lectionary at San Giorgio dei Greci in Venice.
6. Leningrad 105: E. C. Colwell and H. R. Willoughby, The Four
Gospelsof Karahissar,2 vols. (Chicago, 1936). Kiev A 25: A. Bank,
"Les monuments de la peinture byzantine du XIIIe siecle dans les
collections de 1'URSS," in L 'artb lxzantin
du Xllle sieele.Symposium
de Sopocani (Belgrade, 1967), figs. 7-13, 15; N. M. Petrov, "Minia-
tiury i Zasmavki v grecheskom Evangelii XIII v.," Iskusstvo,III-IV
(1911), 117-34, 170-90. Berlin Quarto 66: R. Hamann-McLean,
16
"Der Berliner Codex Graecus Quarto 66 und seine nachsten Ver-
wandten als Beispiele des Stilwandels im fruhen 13. Jahrhundert,"
in Studienzur Buchmalerei und Goldsehmiedekunst des Mittelalters.
Festsehriftfur KarlHermannUsener(Marburg-an-der-Lahn, 1967),
225-50. Harley 1810: The Year1200, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, 1970, no. 253; G. Millet, Reeherehessur l'iconographie
de l'evangileaux XIVe,XVeet XVle sieeles(Paris, 1916), see index
on p. 742.
7. The title "Nicaea School" is surely no longer apposite: see A. Cutler
and A. W. Carr, "Benaki 34.3. An Unpublished Illuminated Manu-
script from the Family 2400," Revuedes etudesbzantines, XXXIV
(1976), 306-08; or, more briskly, K. Snipes, "The Chronographia of
Michael Psallos: Prolegomena to a New Edition" (D. Phil. disserta-
tion, Oxford University, 1978), 120. I have suggested the alternative
title, "Decorative Style," but its provisional, descriptive, rather than
historical, character has limited its acceptance.
8. Thus the library of Michael Attaleiates' monastery of Christ tou
Panoiktirmonos in Constantinople (1077) had 40 books, of which
one was a Tetraevangelion (F. Miklosich and I. Muller, A(ta et
DiplomataMonasteriorumet EeelesiarumOrientis[Vienna, 1890],
V, 324-26, 470-71). The Monastery of the Theotokos tou Salim in
Edessa received 74 books in 1059 from a certain Eustathios Protos-
patharios, including two Gospels (O. Volk, "Die byzantinische
Klosterbibliotheken von Konstantinopel, Thessalonike und Klein-
asien,"dissertation, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, Munich, 1954,
147). Gregory Pakourianos endowed his monastery of Petritzos
with 30 books, of which 6 were Biblical: L. Petit, "Typikon de
Gregoire Pacourianos pour le monastere de Petritzos (Backovo), "
VizantilskilVremennik,Prilojenieto vol. XI (1904). The 68 books
surviving in the 15th century in Bishop Manuel's foundation of the
11th century at Stroumitza included only two Tetraevangelia: Petit,
Le monasterede Notre Dame de Pitie. Izvestia russkogo arche-
ologiceskago Institut v' Konstantinopolle, VI (St. Petersburg, 1900),
23. The record of the library at the Encleistra of St. Neophytos lists
16 books, all theological; the liturgical books must have been kept
in the church, but this does not account for the Tetraevangelia,
which may not have been communal property, at all: F. E. Warren,
BD, "The 'Ritual Ordinance' of Neophytos," Ar(haeologia,XLVII,
1 (1882), 6. Of the 267 parchment volumes at Patmos in 1201, only
five were Tetraevangelia, and the Abbot Sabas left none among the
30 books that he willed to the Monastery: C. Diehl, "Le tresor et la
bibliotheque de Patmos au commencement de 13e siecle," BZ, I
(1892), 514; Miklosich and Muller, Aeta, VI 241. Especially in-
teresting is the case of the early 13th century monastery of the
Theotokos tou Lembon in Smyrna, where the books willed by two
individuals and acquired from two metochia are listed, and include
no Tetraevangelia (Volk, "Die byzantinische Klosterbibliotheken,"
174-75). The library list of 1247 from the monastery of the The-
otokos tes Skoteines at Philadelphia lists one Tetraevangelion in
Greek and one in Bulgarian in the main library, and none in the
metochia: P. Schreiner, "Zur Geschichte Philadelphias im 14.
Jahrhundert (1293-1390)," Orientaliaeristianaperiodi(a, XXXV
(1969), 428-31.
9. A. W. Carr, "Diminutive Byzantine Manuscripts," Codi(esmanu-
seripti,VII (1981), forthcoming.
10. J. Lowden, "The Vatopedi Octateuch and Its Sources" (Ph.D.
dissertation, University of London, 1980), 209. Three of the five
surviving illuminated Octateuchs belong to the 12th century; at least
six of the fully illuminated Catenas in Job belong to this period, as
do the two illuminated Catenas in Prophets in Oxford, New College
44 and Laud gr. 30 A, and the companion volume to New College 44
in Athens, National Library 44.
11. N. Wilson, "Scholarly Hands of the Middle Byzantine Period," in
La paleographiegresqueet blszantine.Colloques internationaux du
 Centre national de la recherche scientifique, DLIX (Paris, 1977),
221-39.
12. Belting, Das illuminierte Buch in der spatbzantinischen Gesellschaft
( Heidelberg, 1970), 3- 17 and passim .
13. K. Weitzmann, Die bzantinische Buchmalerei des IX. und X.
Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1935), pl. VI, 25. M. Bonicatti, "L'evangeliario
Vaticano greco 1522: problemi di scrittura onciale liturgica," La
bibliofilia, LXI (1959), 129-56, argues that the manuscript is a 13th
century one copying the display uncial of the poetic inscriptions
that accompany the miniatures. The inscriptions themselves and the
five miniatures he attributes to the 9th century, however, and
suggests that they were made for a Tetraevangelion. C. Giannelli,
Codices Vaticani Graeci. Codices 1485-1683 (Vatican City, 1950),
67-70, attributes the manuscript to the 14th century. The poetic
inscriptions are reproduced from Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale,
gr. 278 in B. Montfaucon, Palaeographia Graeca (Paris, 1708), 228.
14. Weitzmann,Buchmalerei, pl. 179.
15. G. Galavaris,The Illustrations of the Prefaces in Byzantine Gospels.
ByzantinaVindobonensis,XI (Vienna,1979), 106, figs. 83-84. The
same composition appears in the 12th-centuryCrusaderGospel
Book, Vatican, lat. 5974, and seems to have been copied from
Vatican,gr. 756 itself:H. Buchthal,Miniature Painting in the Latin
Kingdom of Jerusalem (Oxford,1957),26, n. 3, pl. 40.
16. M. Janashian, Armenian Miniature Paintings of the Monastic
Librar at San Lazzaro, I (Venice, 1969), pl. xviii.
17. Galavaris, The Illustrations, figs. 54, 59. P. Buberl and H. Gerstinger
Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der illuminierten Handschriften in
Osterreich, IV, 2. Die b lszantinischen Handschriften, 2: Die
Handschriften des X.-XVII. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1938), pl. XIX.
18. Sinai 221: I. Spatharakis, "Hena eikonographemeno cheirographo
tou 1175 apo ten Krete," Thesaurismata, XIV (1977), 71-75. Walters
522: Early Christian and Byzantine Art, Walters Art Gallery and
Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, 1947), no. 712. Venice 540:
Galavaris, The Illustrations, 100-09; Belting, "Stilzwang und
Stilwahl in einem byzantinischen Evangeliar in Cambridge," ZfKg,
XXXVIII (1975), 225-28; V. Lazarev, Storia della pittura bizantina
(Turin, 1967), 193, figs. 261-62; Buchthal, An Illuminated Greek
Gospel Book (Melbourne, 1961), 2-3, figs. 1-4. Vani Gospels (Tiflis,
Manuscript Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian
S.S.R., A1335): S. Amiranashvili, GruzinskafaMinl^atiura(Moscow,
1966), pl. 32.
19. Sinai 208: Weitzmann, "A Group of Early Twelfth-Century Sinai
Icons Attributed to Cyprus," in Studies in Memory of David Talbot
Riee (Edinburgh, 1977), pl. 25. Istanbul 3: G. Soteriou, Keimelia tou
oikoumenikou Patriareheiou Konstantinopoleos (Athens, 1937),
pl. 54a. Gelat Gospels (Tiflis, Manuscript Institute of the Academy
of Sciences of the Georgian S.S.R., Q908) and Djrutchi Gospels
(ibid., H1667): Amiranashvili, Gruzinskafa Minfatiura, pls. 37, 43.
20. Florence, conv. sopp. 160: cf. Weitzmann, "Loca Saneta and the
Representational Arts of Palestine," DOP, XXVIII (1974), 46.
21. Dionysiou 4: S. M. Pelekanides et al., The Treasures of Mount
Athos, Illuminated Manuseripts. Volume 1: The Protaton and the
Monasteries of Dion lNsiou, Koutloumousiou, Xeropotamou and
Gregoriou (Athens, 1974), fig. 14. Berlin Q 66: Hamann-McLean,
"Der Berliner Codex," fig. 8. Sinai 149: unpublished.
22. Florence VI 32: Galavaris, The Illustrations, 125-27. Paris, suppl.
gr. 1335: ibid., 126. Chicago 965: E. J. Goodspeed, D. W. Riddle,
H. R. Willoughby, The Roekefeller MeCormiek New Testament,
3 vols. (Chicago, 1932). On the probable character of the lost
miniature in Chicago 965, cf. S. Der Nersessian, "A Psalter and
New Testament Manuscript at Dumbarton Oaks," DOP, X IX
(1967), 174.
23. Garrett 5: Illuminated Greek Manuscripts from American Collec-
tions, Exhibition in Honor of Kurt Weitzmann (Princeton, 1973),
no. 34, fig. 58. Melbourne: Buchthal, An Illuminated, cover. Brescia
A vi 26: Galavaris, The Illustrations, fig. 86. On this book's date,
see R. S. Nelson, "Text and Image in a Byzantine Gospel Book in
Istanbul (Ecumenical Patriarchate cod. 3)" (Ph.D. dissertation,
Institute of Fine Arts of New York University, 1978), 158-61.
24. Kiev A 25: A. Bank, "Les monuments de la peinture byzantine du
XIIIe siecle dans les collections de 1'URSS," L'art byzantin du Xllle
siecle, Symposium de Sopocani (Belgrade, 1967), 94-95. Lavra A 9:
Spyridon and S. Eustratiades, Catalogue of Manuscripts in the
Library of the Laura on Mount Athos (Cambridge, Mass., 1925), 8.
25. K. Clark, A Descriptive Catalogue of Greek New Testament Manu-
scripts in America (Chicago, 1937), 231-33.
26. Galavaris, The Illustrations. See now also Robert S. Nelson's The
Iconography of Preface and Miniature in the Byzantine Gospel
Book (New York, 1980), which was unavailable to me when I
drafted this article. Texts of numerous prefaces are given in H. von
Soden, Die Schriften des neuen Testaments, 2nd edition (Gottingen,
1911), I, 1, 301-27, though even this forms more a summary than an
inventory of the many variants encountered. They include: sentence-
long definitions of the concept of the Gospel (301-02), the preface
attributed to Irenaeus and numerous variants (302-04), biographies
of the Evangelists by Sophronios, Dorotheos and with author
unknown (304- 10), summaries of the content of the individual
Gospels by Eusebius, Cosmas Indicopleustes, Theophylact, and
Theodore of Mopsuestia (314-27).
27. Galavaris, The Illustrations, 74-109, figs. 50, 53.
28. This preface, given by von Soden on p. 302, has been translated by
Nelson, "Text and Image," 147.
29. F. van der Meer, Maiestas Domini. Thetophaniesde l'Apocalzpse
dans l'art chretien (Vatican City, 1938), 260, 277-78.
30. Galavaris, The Illustrations, 100.
31. For Vienna, Suppl. gr. 164, see note 17 above. In headpieces, the
theme turns up in Vatican, Barb, gr. 449; Athens, National Library
2645; Chicago, University Library 131; Ann Arbor, University
Library 171; and Istanbul, Topkapi Serai 34: see Galavaris, The
Illustrations, figs. 56, 57, 60, 87.
32. The Hypotheses of Cosmas appear in Iviron 55, Vatopedi 882, and
British Library, Harley 1810. The preface of John Chrysostom
appears in Cologne, Schnutgen Museum, Ludwig II 5 (olim Phillips
3887).
Nelson, "Text and Image," 192.
33.
C. Walter, "Two Notes on the Deesis," Revuedes etudesb^zantines,
34.
XXVI (1968), 324-36 and idem, "Further Notes on the Deesis,"
Revuedes etudesblRzantines, XXVIII (1970), 169-71. For Walter's
most recent work on the subject, see"Bulletin on the Deesis and the
Paraclesis," Revuedes etudesbzantines, XXXVIII (1980), 261-69.
35. Walter, "Two Notes," 333 and 333 n. 90.
36. It appears in Berlin, Christlich-archaologische Universitat 3807, in
Harvard, Houghton 3 of l lO5, and in the Crusader Psalter of 1131-
43 in London, British Library, Egerton 1139: G. Stuhlfauth, "A
Greek Psalter with Byzantine Miniatures," AB, XV (1933), fig. 8;
L. Nees, "An Illuminated Byzantine Psalter at Harvard," DOP,
XXIX (1975), 210, fig. 1; Buchthal, MiniaturePainting,2 fig. 12b.
37. Stuhlfauth, "A Greek Psalter," 321. Buchthal, Miniature Painting,
2.
17
38. Walter,"TwoNotes,"324-36.
39. Nelson,"Textand Image,"200. Cf. also Nelson,"TheIconographic
Program of a Twelfth-CenturyGospel in Istanbul (Ecumenical
cod. 3),"in XVe Congresinternationald'etudesbyzan-
Patriarchate,
tines. Resumesdes communications,IlI:Artet archeologie(Athens,
1976),unpaginated.
40. See note 19 above.
41. IlluminatedGreekManuscripts,fig. 58.
42. See note 22 above.
43. Abid.
44. It appearsin Vienna,theol. gr. 336 of 1077;DumbartonOaks3 of
1084;Berlin3807; and Venice, Marciana565 of the 12thcentury:
Lazarev, Storia, fig. 209; Der Nersessian,"A Psalter,"fig. 2;
Stuhlfauth,"A GreekPsalter,"fig. 7; Bonicatti,"Un salteriogreco
miniatonel periodocomneno,"Bollettinodell'Archivio paleografico
italiano,II-III, I (1956-57),fig. 1.
45. A. Grabar,ssAproposd'uneiconebyzantinedu XIVesiecleau Musee
de Sofia," Cahiersarcheologiques,X (1959), 299.
46. Der Nersessian,"Notesurquelquesimagesse rattachantau themedu
Christ-ange,"Cahiersarcheologiques,XIII (1962),209-16.
47. See Babic, "Les discussions,"with earlier bibliographyon the
controversy.
48. Too often, the youthfulmajestyis seen as a meresubstitutefor the
matureone: Belting,"Stilzwang,"225-28;Galavaris,The Illustra-
tions, 100-02.Oneis temptedto suggestthattheyouthfulMajestyis an
aspect of Westerninfluence:cf. van der Meer, MaiestasDomini,
277-78.The youthfulChristin Majestyhad beenverywidespreadin
Westernfrontispiecesin the Carolingianand Ottonianperiods,and
appearsherein Venice540 in conjunctionwithornateinitials,labors
of the months,andpersonifications of theVirtuesin the canontables,
both more usual in Westernthan in Byzantineart at this time.
Buchthal,An Illuminated,2-8, has shownthat the personifications
andlaborsof themonthshavetheirownByzantinetradition,however,
and in the end, the youthfulChristin Majestyis as rarein Western
frontispiecesof the 12thcenturyas in Easternones,occurringonlyin
Autun,BibliothequeMunicipale10(8) and Chantilly,MuseeConde
1347.
49. The youthful Christappearsparticularlyprominentlyin the mid-
llth-century Studite manuscripts.In the Theodore Psalter,and,
above all, in Paris, BibliothequeNationale,gr. 74, the Ancientof
Days, enthroned youthful Christ and enthroned mature Christ
occupy successiveheadpieces;and in Jerusalem,Taphou 14, the
youthful Christ in Glory appearsas the sign of salvationin the
headpieceto the Easter Homily of Gregoryof Nazianzus:S. Der
Nersessian, L'illustrationdes psautiers grecs du moyen-age, 11:
Londres,add. 19352 (Paris, 1970), figs. 1, 163, 296; idem,"Re-
cherchessur les miniaturesdu ParisinusGraecus74,"Jahrbuchder
osterreichischenByzantinistik,XXI (1972), 112-14,and S. Tsuji,
ZTheHeadpieceMiniaturesand GenealogyPicturesin Paris,gr. 74,"
DOP, XXIX (1975), figs. 1-3;Der Nersessian,"Note sur quelques
images,"passim.At muchthe sametime,the childChriston the lap
of the Ancient of Days occupies the theta of John 1:18 in Mt.
Athos, Dionysiou 587, illustratingthe idea that Christ is simul-
taneously timeless God and God the sacrifice born into time:
cf. Pelekanides,The Treasures,I, fig. 191.
so. fig. 4.
Tsuji,"TheHeadpieceMiniatures,"
sl. On the emergenceof the Emmanuelimage, see J. T. Matthews,
"ThePantocrator:Title and Image"(Ph.D. dissertation,Instituteof
Fine Arts of New York University,1976),60-61. The name Em-
manuel had been used earlier,but attachedto varyingimages of
18
Christ.It is used on a 7th-centuryicon of the Ancientof Days on
Mount Sinai (Tsuji,"TheHeadpieceMiniatures,"175;and G. and
M. Soteriou,Eikonestes Mones Sinai [Athens, 1956],II,figs. 8-9),
and withthe matureChriston coinsof the 10thcentury(P. Grierson,
Catalogueof the ByzantineCoinsin the DumbartonOaksCollection
and in the WhittemoreCollection,11I.Leo 111 to Nicephorus111,
717-1081,Partl[Washington,D.C., 1962],162).MiddleByzantine
instancesof the use of the child Christwith the label Emmanuel
includethe Johannineheadpieceof Paris74 (Tsuji,"TheHeadpiece
Miniatures," fig. 4); medallionsin the domesof (iarikliand Karanlik
Kilisein Goremeand Lagouderaon Cyprus(M. Restle,Byzantine
WallPaintingin Asia Minor[Greenwich,Conn., 1968],II, pls. 195,
220); the prothesis dome in Nerezi (R. Hamann-McLeanand
H. Hallensleben,Die Monumentalmalerei in Makedonienund Ser-
bien [Giessen, 1963], plan 6); the ceiling of St. Stephen, the
triumphalarch and Deesis compositionin the Anargyroiand the
apse wall of the Mavriotissain Kastoria(S. Pelekanides,Kastoria
[Thessaloniki,1953],pls. 6, 31, 89); betweenthe Virginand Gabriel
of the Annunciationat the Encleistraon Cyprus(C. Mango and
E. J. Hawkins, "The Hermitageof St. Neophytos,"DOP, XX
[1966], pl. 72); in the sanctuaryvault at Nereditsa,and the bema
vault and globe of Gabrielin the diaconiconconch at Pskov in
Russia; in the frontispieceof Florence VI 32; and on coins of
Manuel I Comnenos (M. Hendy, Coinage and Money in the
Byzantine Empire, 1081-1261, Dumbarton Oaks Studies, XII
[Washington,D.C., 1969], pls. 12-13). Instancesof the youthful
Christwithoutthe labelincludenumerousheadpiecesin the "Nicaea
School"manuscripts;the many imagesof the Platytera;the Christ
Latomusat Badkovo(A. Xyngopoulos,"Sur l'icone bilateralede
Poganovo,"Cahiersarchetologiques, XII [1962],fig. 3);the domeof
the parecclesionat Veljusa(V. Djuric,"Fresquesdu monasterede
Veljusa,"Berichtezum Xl. InternationalenByzantinisten-Kongress
[Munich, 1958],pl. XXII, 2); the triumphalarch of the Anastasis
Rotundain JerusalembetweenMaryand Gabrielof the Annuncia-
tion (H. Vincentand F. M. Abel, Jerusalemnouvelle,Paris, 1914,
261);the frontispiecesof Venice540 and Kiev A 25; the headpiece
to the EasterHomilyin Sinai 339, Taphou14, Paris550,and Paris,
Coislin 239 (Der Nersessian,"Note sur quelquesimages,"passim);
in the initial to John 1:18 in Dionysiou 587 (Pelekanides,The
Treasures,I, fig. 191);in the initialB of Melbourne710/5 (Buchthal,
An Illuminated,10);in Vatican,gr. 394 (J. Martin,TheIllustrations
of the Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus[Princeton, 1954],
pl. XVIII,70); in the Sermonon the Mountin Paris74, in both the
Sermonon the Mountand the Canticleof Zachariasin Vatican,gr.
1927, in the scene of Moses'sprophecyof Christin the Octateuch
manuscripts,and in Isaiah'sprophecyin FlorenceVI 23 (see below,
notes 63-68);and in the Deesis on folio 10rin the GelatGospels.
52. Matthews,The Pantocrator," 45.
53. J. N. Sola, "De codice LaurentianoX plutei V," BZ, XX (1911),
275. I am much indebtedto ProfessorJohn Duffy for his help in
translatingthis poem.
54. Pallas,Die Passion,234.
55. A. K. Orlandos,"He 'Piskopites Santorenes,"Archeionton byzan-
tinon mnemefontes Hellados,VII (1951), 178-214,pls. 22-23. On
the contentof the image,see L. Hadermann-Misguich, Kurbinovo
(Brussels,1975),I, 60-62.
56. A. Papageorghiou,Masterpiecesof the ByzantineArt of Cyprus
(Nicosia, 1965),pls. XVII, XXII. In the case of Asinou,the image
of the Platyteraover the door from the narthexto the naos is of
14th-century date. It is labelledthe PanagiaPhorbiotissa,to whom
the churchis dedicated,however,and it seemslikelythat it reflects
the originalimageof the patroness.See ibid., pl. XI, 2.
57. Hendy,Coinageand Money, 126,pls. 12-13.
58. See note 49 above.
plan
and Hallensleben,Die Monumentalmalerei,
59. Hamann-McLean
6.
60. G. Millet,La dalmatiquedu Vaticane(Paris, 1947),79 and passim.
61. Christbetweenangels:Anargyroiin Kastoria(Pelekanides,Kastoria,
pl. 6). The Amnos, seen for the first dated time in Kurbinovo,is
discussedby Hadermann-Misguich, Kurbinovo,I, 67-70, and by
Babic,"Lesdiscussions,"375-85.Onthe Platyteraandits association
withthe Annunciation,see Hadermann-Misguich, Kurbinovo,I, 60-
61. This associationwith the Annunciation,and the Platytera's
particularpopularityon Cyprus, are interestingin view of the
distinctivelyCypro-Palestinianuse of the youthful Christ in the
Annunciationat the Encleistra,Lagoudera,and the Rotundaof the
Anastasisin Jerusalem(see note 51 above).
62. Especiallyclearin the Anargyroiin Kastoria,in Lagoudera,and in
the canon tables on folios 9v-lOrin the GelatGospels(see note 51
above).
63. See D. C. Hesseling,Miniaturesde l'Oetateuquegree de Smyrne
(Leyden,1909),pl. 259;Konstantinopol 'skilCeral'skilVos'miknizila
Al'bom. IzveVstilrusskogoarcheologicweskago Institutv' Konstan-
tinople (Munich, 1907),pl. 202.
64. As in C. Stornajolo,Miniaturedelle Omiliedi GiaeomoMonaeoe
greco urbinate.Codicese VaticanisSelecti, Series
dell'evangeliario
Minor,I (Rome, 1910),folio 54 v.
65. T. Velmans,Le tetrae'vangile de la Laurentienne,Florenee,Laur.
V123 (Paris, 1971),fig. 43 (folio 23 v).
66. See note 46 above for the Gregorymanuscripts.E. de Wald, The
Illustrationsin the Manuseriptsof the Septuagint,III, Psalmsand
Odes. Part 1: VaticanusGraecus1927(Princeton,1941),fig. LXXI
(folio 285 v).
67. Grabar,ssA
proposd'uneicone,'294.
68. Paris74, folio 8v: H. Omont,Evangilesaveepeinturesdu XIesieele
(Paris, 1908),fig. 12. Vatican,gr. 1927,folio 289v:De Wald, The
Illustrations,fig. LXXIII.
69. A. Cutler,"A Psalterfrom Mar Saba and the Evolutionof the
ByzantineDavid Cycle,"Journalof Jewish Art, VI (1979), p. 41,
fig. 3.
70. See note 47 above.
71. On Messianismin Byzantium,see A. W. Epstein,"Frescoesof the
MavriotissaMonasterynear Kastoria:Evidenceof Millenarianism
and Anti-Semitismin the Wakeof the FirstCrusade,"lectureat Ann
Arbor, Michigan,May 10, 1981 [ed. note: this lectureappearsin
this issue of Gesta];I. Hutter,"DieHomiliendes MonchesJakobos
und ihre Illustrationen.Vat. gr. 1162 - Paris gr. 1208"(Ph.D.
dissertation,Universityof Vienna,1970),223-64.On suchphenom-
"Studien
ena in the West,see, for instance,H. and H. Buschhausen,
zu den typologischenKreuzender Ile-de-Franceund des Maas-
landes,"Die Zeit der StauSer:Gesehichte-Kunst-Kultur (Stuttgart,
1977), V, 260-71.
72. Vatican,gr. 1162and Paris,gr. 1208:Hutter,"Die Homilien,"223-
64. Parma 5: Galavaris,The Illustrations,fig. 50. Garret3: 11-
luminatedGreekManuseripts,no. 37. Melbourne710/5: Buchthal,
An Illuminated,pls. 6-7. Walters522:Tsuji,"TheHeadpieceMinia-
tures,"175.
73. Florence VI 23: Velmans, Le tetraevangile,fig. 43 (folio 23 v).
Chicago965:Goodspeed,Riddle,and Willoughby,TheRoekefeller
MeCormiekNew Testament,III, folio 86r. Paris, suppl. gr. 27:
Omont,Miniaturesdes plus aneiensmanuseritsgrees de la Biblio-
thequeNationale(Paris, 1929),pl. XCVIII,5.
74. Quotedby Tsuji,"TheHeadpieceMiniatures,"180.
75. A. Katzenellenbogen,"The Central Tympanumat Vezelay. Its
EncyclopedicMeaningand Its Relationto the FirstCrusade,"AB,
XXVI (1944), 141-51.
76. Galavaris,TheIllustrations,figs. 81-82.
77. See note 18 above.
78. Ibid.
79. Nelson,"Textand Image,"187-94.The quatrainreads:
H T£Tpai 46£ T@V pa0nT@V TOU Aoyow
ES%£1 TO >£Upa T@V a£1ppUT@V XO7ZV
Toiwv o bIvC9V pn SaTOKV£1 TOU ZiV£1V
wI)%qV KaTap6Zv lcai ZoTi4ZV Taq (PP£Vaq
Herethe four-foldfollowersof the Word
Pour forththe streamof ever-flowingwords.
He who thirstsdoes not shrinkthus from drinking,
Wateringthe soul and refreshingthe heart.
80. Montfaucon,PalaeographiaGraeea,228.
81. Von Soden, Die Sehriften,303.
82. As an exampleof such buildingblocks, one mighttake the hymn,
'Ev Taq)X cTZHaTllcioq.... This verseenteredthe liturgyonly in the
XIVc. (M. M. Solovey, TheByzantineDivineLiturgy[Washington,
D.C., 1970], 133). Already in the 13th century,however,it had
helped to shape liturgicalexpression(S. Dufrenne,"Imagesdu
decor de la prothese,"Revuedes etudesbyzantines,XXVI [1968],
297-310),and Nicholasof Methonehad used it in the first half of
the 12thcenturyin the descriptionof Christ:". . . nonethelessthe
Godheadwas with the soul in Hadesand also with the body in the
grave."(J. Draseke,"Nikolaosvon Methone,"BZ, I [1892],452).
83. P. L. Vocotopoulos,"TheHeadpiecesof a GospelBook in the So-
calledNicaeaGroup,"Deltiontes ehristianikesarehaiologikes
hetaireias,IV, 9 (1979), 133-39.
84. It appearsin Dionysiou4 and BerlinQ 66 (see note 24 above), in
Chicago965 (Goodspeed,Riddleand Willoughby,The Roekefeller
MeCormiekNew Testament,III, folio 8v), in Paris,suppl.gr. 1335
and FlorenceVI 32 reproducedhere,and in Sinai 149(unpublished).
The verseis givenin all except Parisand Sinai.
85. See note 73 above.
86. These includeChicago965, Paris, suppl. gr. 1335,and Sinai 149.
On Chicagoand Paris, see A. W. Carr,"A Group of Provincial
Manuscriptsfrom the Twelfth Century," DOP, XXXVI ( 1982),
forthcoming.Sinai 149is attributedon the basis of its kinshipwith
Jerusalem,Taphou47, whichis intimatelyrelatedpalaeographically
to the CypriotParis,gr. 97, and was in Cyprusin the 17thcentury.
87. See note 22 above.
88. See L. Nees, "A Fifth-CenturyBook Coverand the Originof the
Four EvangelistsPage in the Book of Durrow,"Gesta, XVII, 1
(1978),3-8; E. Kitzinger,"TheCoffin Reliquary,"in TheReliesof
St. Cuthbert,ed. C. F. Battiscombe(Oxford, 1952),p. VII. For a
discussionof these pages,see Carr,"A Group."
89. Millet,La dalmatique,24.
90. O. Pacht,"TheAvignonDiptychand Its EasternAncestry,"in De
ArtibusOpuseulaXL. Essaysin Honorof ErwinPanofsky(Prince-
ton, 1961), 414, n. 60.
91. Galavaris,The Illustrations,fig. 17; L. Brehier,"Lespeinturesdu
rouleau liturgiqueNo. 2 du Monasterede Laure," Seminarium
Kondakovianum,XI (1940), 1- 19.
91a. This miniatureis so far unpublished;it will be reproducedin
Buchthal'sforthcomingarticlein the Jahrbuchder BerlinerMuseen.
19
92. Grabar, "La precieuse croix de la Lavre Saint-Athanase du Mont- 97. See note 6 above. AlexanderSaminskyis preparinga studyof this
Athos," Cahiersareheologiques,XIX (1969), 199-24. manuscript.
93. Cutler, "A Psalter," fig. 12. See also Vatican, gr. 342, folio 24 v: 98 On the seated Hodegetria, see Hadermann-Misguich, Kurbinovo,
ibid., fg. 13. 62, frontispiece; Pelekanides, Kastoria,pl. 6a.
94. Ibid.,63 and passim. 99. The significance of the Platytera and the placement of the Em-
manuelin the centerof the Annunciationhave been noted in note
95. Galavaris, The Illustrations, 84-88. 61 above. An associationof the Emmanuelwith the Virgin,as in
96. G. de Jerphanion, "Les noms des quatre animaux et le commentaire Kiev A 25, or even more explicitly,with the Virginand Etimasia,
liturgique du Pseudo-Germain," in La voix des monuments (Paris, can be seen in the apses of the Anargyroiand Mavriotissain
1930), 251-56. Kastoria,and in Lagouderain Cyprus(see note 48 above).

20