Iconografia mariana e culto popolare nel codice Siriaco 341 di Parigi

• Autores: Valentina Cantone
• Localización: Rivista di storia della miniatura, ISSN 1126-4772, Nº. 15, 2011, págs. 17-25
• Idioma: italiano
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Because of the presence of a medallion or a mandorla, modern scholars often connect the iconography of the Virgin and Child surrounded by an aureole to the imperial cult. In fact, the Emperor held in triumph on a shield was probably at the origin of the iconography, popularized through consular diptychs, that took over and developed the imperial prototype. Nevertheless, the connection between the shield and the mandorla can only partially explain the fortune of the Christian iconography of the Virgin with Child in an ellipsoidal medallion. As Cyril Mango noted, this iconography cannot be considered just an interpretation of the triumphal models and the Virgin is not a simple translation of the pagan Victory. The presence of the aureole around the Child defines His non-human status and it is a way to distinguish the body of Mary from the Logos that took bodily form in her womb.

    The meaning of this composition can be further illuminated by a careful reconsideration of an important pre-iconoclastic representation. A Syriac Bible at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris (syr. 341) shows the Virgin with the Child in a mandorla as a part of a rich decorative programme, which dogmatic meaning is closely connected to the contemporary hymnography. The fragmentary Bible, datable through a stylistic comparison to the end of 6th or the beginning of the 7th century, contains four big miniatures and a sequence of small compositions with the portraits of standing Prophets and the Apostle James. It cannot be excluded that the depiction of the Virgin and Child in the Syriac Bible (f. 118r) is the most ancient example of the iconography of the pregnant Virgin. In fact, this image reflects the tradition of hymnography and the popular cult testified by a group of wedding presents of Hellenistic origin, that could provide a precedent and possibly constitute the ancestry of the iconography, then adapted to the monastic context. These representations attest that the tradition flourished outside the official art sponsored by the Church, as testified by some late Egyptian frescoes.