Resumen de The medieval "home office": evangelist portraits in the Mount Athos gospel book, Stavronikita Monastery, MS 43
The writer argues that the architectural settings in depictions of the four gospel writers in the 10th-century Mount Athos Gospel book Stavronikita, MS 43, represent the courtyard garden of a Roman country villa. The architectural settings in which the gospel writers are depicted in medieval manuscripts have been associated with the Roman theater, but this association has been shown to be problematic. Contending that, during Late Antiquity, the country retreat became a focus for literary activity, the writer examines the Stavronikita portraits of the evangelists, asserting that the buildings shown behind the holy authors represent architectural features common to such domestic gardens. Referring to late antique authorial traditions, contemporary narrative theory, and formal analysis, she argues that the Stavronikita portraits do not simply reproduce the composition of author and architecture common to the theater but aim to conceptualize the author by showing him diligently at work in a “home office.”
