Stripped from the altar, recycled, forgotten: the altarpiece in Lusignan Cyprus

• Autores: Michalis Olympios
• Localización: Gesta, ISSN 0016-920X, Vol. 53, Nº. 1, 2014, págs. 47-72
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Decontextualized medieval works of art can slip from one functional category to another, depending on the opinions and agendas of different scholars. A prime example of this phenomenon, the medieval altarpiece has occasioned much discussion with respect to form, function, and even legitimacy as a valid category of artwork. What formal traits identify an altarpiece long divorced from the altar it once adorned? Is the altarpiece defined by its distinct form or function, or is it set apart from other kinds of images merely because of its location on an altar? This article addresses these and related questions through the lens of the multicultural and multiconfessional society of Lusignan Cyprus (1192–1489). It focuses on two test cases: the vita painted panel and the rectangular stone relief. Because altarpieces began as a primarily Latin (that is, Roman-rite) phenomenon, not attested for the Greek (that is, Orthodox-rite) or other non-Roman-rite Christians who composed Cypriot society before the sixteenth century, the existence of thirteenth- to fifteenth-century vita images identical to those produced for the Latins in Greek, Syrian, Armenian, or other contexts confirms recent scholarship on Italian vita panels that suggests functions (and locations) other than that of the altarpiece. At the same time, a number of rectangular stone slabs, carved with Christological imagery in relief and thought to have been parts of medieval tomb chests, are here reinterpreted as altarpieces mainly on the basis of their iconography. These considerations redefine our knowledge of the Cypriot altarpiece and contribute to broader questions about the fluidity between functional categories in medieval art.