10

The British Museum Triumph of Orthodoxy icon

Dimitra Kotoula

The British Museum Triumph of Orthodoxy icon (late fourteenth

century) is the earliest known pictorial representation of the
restoration of the holy icons, a feast first celebrated on 11 March
843 and commemorated by the Orthodox Church since then on the
first Sunday of Lent. The purpose of this article is to present and
discuss the iconography of the British Museum icon, proposing
new ways of interpreting it.
The icon of Orthodoxy is a relatively small (39 x 31cm) panel
divided into two horizontal zones (see frontispiece).1 Central to its
iconography is the icon of the Virgin with Child in the upper
register supported by two angels and flanked, according to the
surviving inscriptions, by the Empress Theodora together with her
young son, Emperor Michael III, on the left and the Patriarch
Methodios with three monks on the right. In the middle of the lower
zone, just below the Virgin with Child complex, Theophanes the
Confessor and Theodore the Stoudite are depicted jointly holding
an image of Christ. Five of the eleven figures in this zone are
identified by severely effaced inscriptions. St Theodosia, the only
female saint, is depicted holding an icon of Christ-Emmanuel while
the bishop on the right and his companion must be the two Graptoi
Brothers, Theodore

1
I am most indebted to my supervisor Prof. R. Cormack and to Prof. M.
Vassilaki for their comments and suggestions concerning this article as
well as to Prof. A. Louth for his most kind proposal to include it in the
present volume. For the most recent publication of the Orthodoxy icon, see
A. Weyl-Carr, Icon with the Triumph of Orthodoxy', in H.C. Evans, ed.,
Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557) Exhibition Catalogue (New
York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004), 154-5; R. Cormack, Icon of
the Triumph of Orthodoxy', in M. Vassilaki, ed., Mother of God:
Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine Art (Milan: Skira, 2000), 340,
no. 32. See also R. Cormack, Icon of the Triumph of Orthodoxy', in D.
Buckton, ed., Byzantium (London: British Museum Press, 1994), 129-30, no.
140 and R. Cormack, 'Women and Icons and Women in Icons', in Liz
James, ed., Women, Men and Eunuchs (London: Routledge, 1997), 25-27
fn. 8, where all the previous bibliography on the icon is sited.
From Byzantine Orthodoxies, eds Andrew Louth and Augustine Casiday.
Copyright © 2006 by the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies.
Published by Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Gower House, Croft Road, Aldershot,
Hampshire, GU11 3HR, Great Britain.
121
122 BYZANTINE ORTHODOXIES

and Theophanes. Finally, the tenth and the eleventh figures

are inscribed as St Theophylaktos and Arsakios. The
identification of the saints depicted is further helped by a
recently discovered, post -Byzantine (c. 1500) copy of the
British Museum icon 2 . Its publisher, N. Chatzidakis, identifies
the first of the three monks in the upper zone as Bishop
Theodore and the fourth figure from the left in the lower
zone as St Ioannikios.
The Orthodoxy icon commemorates the triumph of the true
faith (Orthodoxy: ). Its iconography, mainly that
of the upper register, has been related to council
representations or to depictions of the veneration and the
procession of the Hodigitria icon, in particular in cycles of
the Akathistos Hymn. 3 Both in iconography and meaning the
Orthodoxy icon shares with these scenes specific and
important characteristics. These characteristics, however,
may also refer to the historical events and the liturgical
practices that took place on 11 March 843.
In the text of the Life of Sts David, Symeon and George of
Lesbos, there is preserved a detailed account of the
celebrations held at the Blachernai church which officially
declared the restoration of the holy icons on that day. The
anonymous author of the Life centres his description on the
'all-holy icon of our Lord and of the Mother of God who bore
him' which, at the end of a vigil, was carried on the initiative
of Patriarch Methodios, and in the presence of the Empress
Theodora and of the Holy Fathers, in a public ceremonial
procession. The procession moved from the Blachernai church
to Hagia Sophia (where a special liturgy took place) and,
finally, to the palace via the Chalke Gate. 4 The text, very likely
a compilation of the eleventh century or later, was known to
late Byzantium; it is preserved only in a late fourteenth-
century manuscript, the period to which the icon of Orthodoxy
is also dated. 5 The official establishment of the cult of the icon
of the Hodigitria in the public life of the capital from the
thirteenth century must have influenced the introduction into
the iconography of a theme in which the role of icons in
procession, and of an icon of the

N. Chatzidakis, Icons. The Velimezis Collection (Athens: Benaki

2

Museum, 1998), 86-91, no. 5.

3
N. Patterson- ev enko, Icons in the Liturgy', DOP. 45 (1995), 47;
N. Patterson- ev enko, 'Servants of the Holy Icon', in C. Moss and K.
Kiefer, eds, Byzantine East-Latin West, Art Historical Studies in Honor of
Kurt Weitzmann (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), 550-51.
4
BHG 494, J. van den Gheyn,'Acta graeca ss. Davidis, Symeonis et
Georgii Mitylenae in insula Lesbo', AnalBoll 18 (1899), ch. 30, p. 249, D.
Abrahamse-D. Domingo-Foraste, 'Life of Sts. David, Symeon and George of
Lesbos', in A.-M. Talbot, ed., Byzantine Defenders of the Images
(Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1998), 223.
5
Abrahamse-Domingo-Foraste, 'Life of Sts. David...', in Talbot,
'Defenders', 145 fn. 7.
 THE TRIUMPH OF ORTHODOXY ICON 123

Theotokos Brephokratousa in particular, appears to have been

central at least as early as the middle Byzantine period. 6
A processional ceremony as the most important part of the ce-
lebrations for the restoration of the holy icons in 843 is also
mentioned in the Narratio de Absolutione Theophili, a text which, of
all the early sources on the event, is the closest one to the
iconography of the British Museum icon. Its anonymous author
does not identify a particular icon with it and mentions Saint Sophia
and not the Blachernai church as the only place for the celebrations
on the day, but clearly records that
the Empress Theodora called the most holy Patriarch
Methodios to inform and gather every single Orthodox,
bishops and archbishops and priests and monks and the laity,
to the Great Church on the first Sunday of Lent holding
crosses and icons; and, when that was done and a vast crowd
of people did gather in the Great Church, the Emperor
Michael himself along with his mother went there each one
holding a candle in their hands and, having joined the Holy
Patriarch and the crowd, processed together with them
holding the holy icons in their hands even further, from the
holy sanctuary (of the Great Church) to the imperial gates of
Ktenario.7
A procession from the Blachernai church to Saint Sophia in the
presence of the Empress Theodora, but without icons, is mentioned
as the central part of the ceremonial commemorations for the
restoration of the holy icons in 843 in the tenth-century text of
the Life of St Irene of Chrysobalanton, as well as by Genesios and
Theophanes Continuatis.8 On the other hand, in the majority of the
later sources, from the eleventh century onwards, the central role
of the icons and of the emperor in the ceremonial celebrations in
843 as well as in those performed by the Byzantines on the day of
Orthodoxy ever since are strongly emphasized; however, no
procession with the participation of a crowd is mentioned. 9

6
For the cult of the Hodigitria, see Ch. Angelidi, T.
Papamastorakis, The Veneration of the Virgin Hodegetria and the
Hodegon Monastery', in Vassilaki, Mother of God, 373-425.
7
Narratio de Absolutione Theophili in W. Regel, Analecta Byzantino-
Russica (St Petersburg, 1891), 38-39.
8
BHG 952, AASS VI, 602-603 and J.O. Rosenqvist, The Life
of St Irene Abbess of Chrysobalanton (Uppsala: Uppsala University,
1986), 2-4, Gen, Bonn, 84, Theoph. Cont, IV, 10, 40-50.
This is the case, for example, in the histories of Cedr., vol. II,
149, Skylitzis, H. Thurn, ed., George Skylitzis, Synopsis
Historiarum (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1973), 61 and 88 and in Zonaras,
Zonar., Epitome Historiarum XVI, 1.30-45. It is in Pachymeres's
description of the ceremony, however, that a crowd of laities as well
as of clergy and of monks is mentioned, Pach., V, 20.33^15. The
above sources in which the icons play a central role challenge the
discussion on the text of the Narratio de Absolutione Theophili as an
anachronism by Abrahamse-Domingo-Foraste, 'Life of Sts. David.. ,
in Talbot, 'Defenders', 223 fn. 398. For all sources on the feast see;
BHG 1386-1394t
124 BYZANTINE ORTHODOXIES

By that time the feast of Orthodoxy must have attained, apart

from its strong historical character, a more liturgical-symbolic
meaning.
According to the anonymous Narratio de Absolutione
Theophili already cited above, the processional celebrations on
the day of Orthodoxy in 843 started from the holy bema of
the Great Church. The tenth-century description of
Constantine Porphyrogenetus as to how the feast was to be
celebrated by the Byzantines mentions commemorations
which included a vigil at the Blachernai church and a
procession to the church of Saint Sophia, and ended with a
special liturgical act which took place in the holy bema of
the same church and included, among other liturgical
practices, an imperial ceremonial proskynesis of the podea
which covered the holy altar. 10 Moreover, from the eleventh
century onwards the feast of Orthodoxy was called the
enkainia, the dedication of a new church - a ceremony in
which both the holy bema and the altar were principal
elements - and was incorporated as such in the monastic
Typica. 11
This liturgical-symbolic meaning of the feast strongly
reflected in the British Museum icon is what brings its
iconography closer to the litany scenes of the veneration of
the Hodigitria icon as depicted in the Akathistos Hymn
cycles than to any other contemporary depictions of the same
theme. The veil and the podea are two central
iconographical elements strongly emphasized in the Mother
of God with Child complex in the British Museum icon of
Orthodoxy. The podea, in particular, the presence of which
intensifies the liturgical meaning of the iconography, since it
is the traditional covering tissue of the altar of the holy bema,
is usually absent from depictions of the procession or the
veneration of the Hodigitria icon - other than those included in
the Akathistos Hymn cycles (e.g., those of the Blachernai
monastery near Arta (1296), the Hamilton psalter cod. 78 A9,
fol. 39v, (Fig. 1), about 1300, or the Moscow State Historical
Museum textile, 1498.) 12 However, it dominates the scene in the
representations of the theme, mainly in the cycles of the
Akathistos Hymn, oikos 23 and 24, in all the surviving
relevant illuminated manuscripts as well as in the fourteenth-
century fresco decoration of the Serbian monuments of
De ani (1348), Matei (1355/60), and of the

10
A. Vogt, ed., Constantine Porphyrogénète, Le livre des cérémonies
(Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1935-40), 1,147.
1
J. Guillard, 'Le Synodicon de l'Orthodoxie', Travaux et Mémoires 2
(1967), 134-5; J. Mateos, Le Typikon de la Grande Église (Rome:
Pontificium Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, 1962-63), II, 186.
M. Acheimastou-Potamianou, The byzantine wall paintings of the
Blacherna monastery near Arta', Actes du XVe congrès international des
études byzantines (Athens, 1981), II, 4 14; N. Patterson- ev enko,
'Miniature of the veneration of the icon of Virgin Hodegetria', in Vassilaki,
ed., Mother of God, 388-89, no. 54; A. Lidov, 'Miracle-working icons of the
Mother of God', in Vassilaki, ed., Mother of God, 53, Fig. 23.
 THE TRIUMPH OF ORTHODOXY ICON 125

Markov Manastir (1376/77 or 1380/81) 13 (see Fig. 2). The

presence of a bishop honouring the Mother of God icon with
a censor or standing in proskynesis in front of it, and of
members of the imperial family in the majority of the
aforementioned representations, intensify even further the
links between the iconography of the Akathistos Hymn
cycles and the British Museum icon of Orthodoxy. This is
evident in particular from the representation of oikos 24 in
the fresco cycle of the Akathistos Hymn in the mural
paintings of De ani.14 It is worth mentioning here that the
actual text of the Synodikon of Orthodoxy served as an
intercessory prayer for the salvation of the souls of the
commemorated iconophile emperors and saints. Likewise, in
the Akathistos Hymn oikos 24 the Mother of God is called to
act as an intercessor for salvation. 15
The identification of the saints depicted in the Orthodoxy
icon may support even further the liturgical character of its
iconography, as well as its link with the ceremonial
celebrations and the events during the council of 843. First,
Patriarch Methodios, to whom a prominent place was given in
the British Museum icon, played an instrumental role in the
restoration of the holy icons. In the texts of the Life of St Irene
of Chrysobalanton and of St Theodora the Empress, his role in
the council, along with that of Ioannikios and Arsakios, is
particularly emphasized. 16 According to J. Gouillard, the first
version of the Synodikon of Orthodoxy was written by him,
and he is mentioned in the sources as the author of a hymn
commemorating the day of Orthodoxy in which he is clearly
referring to the historical events of 843. 17 An important
version of the Life of St Theophanes the Confessor is also
attributed to him and under his initiative the relics of St
Theodore the Stoudite were transferred to
13
For manuscript illuminations, see V.D. Likhacheva, The
illumination of the Greek Manuscript of the Akathistos Hymn (Moscow,
State Historical Museum, Synodical gr. 429)', DOP 26 (1972), 255-62 and
V.D. Likhacheva, Byzantine Miniature (Moscow: Iskusstsvo, 1977), figs. 45-
^9; for the Moscow State Historical Museum cod. gr. 429, fol. 33v. H.
Belting, Der Serbische Psalter cod. slav. 4 (facsimile and textband)
(Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1978-33); for the Serbian psalter (Munich, Bayer,
Staatsbibliothek) cod. slav. 4, fol. 222v. and N. Patterson- ev enko, Icons
in the Liturgy', DOP. 45 (1995), 50 fn. 35; for the Tomi psalter (Moscow,
State Historical Museum) Muz. 2792, fol. 296v. For the representations in
mural painting, see A. Pätzold, Der Akathistos Hymnos. Die Bilderzyklen in
der byzantinischen Wandmalerei des 14 Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart: Steiner,
1989), fig. 50a (De ani), fig. 76a-b, 14 (Matei ), fig. 70, 84,112 (Markov
Manastir).
14
G. Babi , 'The Akathistos of the Virgin', in V.J. Djuri , ed., Mural Painting
of the Monastery of De ani, Material and Studies (Belgrade: Serbian
Academy of Sciences and Arts, 1995), 159, fig. 13.
15
E. Wellesz, The Akathistos Hymn (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1957), 80.
16
BHG 952, AASS, VI, 602-603, BHG 1731, M. Vinson, 'Life of
Saint Theodora the Empress', in Talbot, 'Defenders', 369.
J. Gouillard, 'Deux figures mal connues du second iconoclasm',
Byzantion 31 (1961), 372-401 esp. 381.
126 BYZANTINE ORTHODOXIES

Constantinople in 844. 18 Both saints have a prominent place

in the iconography of the British Museum panel.
St Theodosia is the only saint of those identified so far
who is not directly connected with the events of 843 and the
feast of Orthodoxy. However, the representation of her
holding the icon of Christ-Emmanuel strongly alludes not only
to the protection of this icon by the saint at the cost of her life
but, especially, to the Chalke Gate where the icon hung and
through which the holy liturgical procession passed on the
day of the restoration of the holy icons in 843. 19 The icon of
Christ-Emmanuel, which is depicted twice in the Orthodoxy
icon, is furthermore commemorated in one of the most
important of the kontakia of the feast. 20 The kontakion was sung
by fervent iconophiles such as Stephen the Younger and
Theodore the Stoudite.21
All the other saints depicted in the Triumph of Orthodoxy
icon were venerated not only as defenders of the holy images
but also for their crucial contribution to the historical events
that led to the restoration of the holy icons in 843, e.g.,
Ioannikios and Arsakios in particular. 22 Theophylaktos, a monk
of the Agauroi monastery, was a disciple of Ioannikios, but
his presence in the Orthodoxy icon is further explained by the
fact that, according to the Constantine Porphypogenitus' Book
of Ceremonies, the feast on the day of Orthodoxy ended with a
ceremonial proskynisis at the chapel of St Theophylaktos. 23
Of the other saints depicted, Theophanes the Graptos wrote
a liturgical hymn on the day of the restoration of the holy
icons which proved crucial for the development of the
Orthodoxy feast and in which he is referring to the 'icon and
the church of the Mother of God' where the celebrations on 11
March 843 took place. 24 While usually the saint is depicted as a
monk, in the Skylitzis manuscript alone he is depicted as a
bishop confronting the iconoclastic court of Theophilos and
the emperor himself. 25 Although

BHG 1787z.
18

BHG 1774c, N. Constas, 'Life of Saint Theodosia of

19

Constantinople', in Talbot, 'Defenders', 6.

20
A. Baumstark, Liturgie Cotnparée (Chevetogne: Éditions de
Chevetogne, 1953), 103, no. 3.
21
PG 100.1125a and M.-F. Auzepy, La Vie d'Étienne le Jeune par
Étienne le Diacre, Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs
3 (Aldershot: Variorum, 1996), 131, PG 99.185.
22
M. Vinson, 'Life of St Theodora', in Talbot, 'Defenders', 375.
23
Vogt, ed., Le livre des cérémonies, I, 160. For the close
relationship of the saint with Ioannikios, see D. F. Sullivan, 'Life of
St Ioannikios', in Talbot, 'Defenders', 264 and 267.
24
J. Gouillard, 'Deux figures', Byzantion 31 (1961), 382-84 ; J
Guillard, 'Synodikon' 134-35.
25
A. Grabar and M. Manousakas, L'illustration du Manuscrit de
Skylitzes de la Bibliothèque Nationale de Madrid (Venise: Institut
hellenique d'etudes byzantines et post-byzantines de Venise, 1979),
fol. 51r.
 THE TRIUMPH OF ORTHODOXY ICON 127

Theodore and not his brother Theophanes is the second bishop

depicted in the Orthodoxy icon, we consider that this iconography
is reminiscent of the relevant illustration of the Skylitzis
manuscript and thus, consequently, of the defence of the orthodox
faith by the Holy Fathers during the council of 843.
This historical council must have deeply interested Byzantium
in the fourteenth century, when the British Museum icon is dated.
The middle years of the late Byzantine period were torn by the
debate over Hesychasm and the relationship with the West.
During the councils of 1341, 1347 and particularly 1351, which
like the celebrations after the earlier one in 843 were held in the
Blachernai church, the Synodikon of Orthodoxy was finally
crystallized and signed.26 Hesychasm was accepted at last as a true
Orthodox doctrine. During all that period the questions posed and
the theological-cultural issues central to the iconoclastic
controversy remained open and were vividly discussed. In fact,
Byzantium never overcame iconoclasm. For four of the saints
depicted in the Orthodoxy icon we have clear evidence that they,
as fervent iconophiles, were of great interest to the Byzantines of
the fourteenth century. The healing cult of St Theodosia's relics
flourished and a lengthy encomium was written praising the faith of
the female iconophile saint.27 In the fourteenth century, Makarios
Choumnos composed an encomium on Theodore the Stoudite, the
'great defender of the images during iconoclasm'.28 Theodora
Palaiologina rewrote the Life of the Graptoi brothers, Theodore and
Theophanes, in the late thirteenth century. By comparing her
mother's struggle to influence Andronikos II against the union of
the churches and the torture of her two brothers with the famous
martyrium of the Graptoi, Theodora eloquently proves that in the
consciousness of the Byzantines of the late period their cult and
consequently their depiction bore clear up-to-date allusions.29
St Ioannikios and Patriarch Methodios in particular were
honoured as the 'true defenders of the Holy Trinity' according to the
text of the Life of Saint Ioannikios and of Saint Theodora the
Empress, while central to their anti-iconoclastic arguments were the
dogmas both of the incarnation and of the trinitarian nature of
God.30 In the iconophile saints depicted in the British Museum
icon, the late Byzantine viewer venerated not only the

26
J. Guillard, 'Synodikon', 240-42.
27
N. Constas, 'Life of St Theodosia', in Talbot, 'Defenders', 1-7 esp. 3.
28
B.H.G. 1759m.
29
A.-M. Talbot, "Old wine in new bottles; the rewriting of saint's lives in
the Palaeologan period', in S. ur i , ed. and D. Mouriki, The Twilight of
Byzantium (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 20.
D.F. Sullivan, 'Life of St Ioannikios', in Talbot, 'Defenders', 344 and 346
and M. Vinson, 'Life of St Theodora', in Talbot, 'Defenders', 374.
128 BYZANTINE ORTHODOXIES

main champions of the restoration of the holy icons, but also

the most true confessors of the Orthodox dogma of the Holy
Trinity - a crucial issue in fourteenth-century theological
debates and central to the dialogue with the Western Church
that further reveals the vital relevance that the iconography of
the Triumph of Orthodoxy icon had for late Byzantium.
129
THE TRIUMPH OF ORTHODOXY ICON

Figure 1 Miniature of the veneration of the Hodigitria icon, Hamilton

Psalter 119,around 1300, Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett,
78 A 9. (after Vassilaki, ed., Mother of God, 389 fig. 54)