Deēsis Deconstructed: Imagining Intercession in the Medieval West
2012; Brepols; Volume: 43; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1484/j.viator.1.102545
ISSN2031-0234
Autores Tópico(s)Medieval Literature and History
ResumoThis article examines artistic representations of intercession (third-party advocacy) in early medieval Europe ca. 800–1100, focusing upon how a common Byzantine intercessory schema (the Deēsis) was adopted and adapted by Western artists. I argue that the Deēsis composition, while used in a variety of ways in medieval Europe, underwent a number of significant transformations which reflect a different sense of the intercessory process and the role of its participants. In particular, Western artists recast Deēsis in order to incorporate the petitioner within the representative frame, a change that gave greater importance to the propinquity of petitioner and intercessor than to the latter‘s exalted status vis-à-vis the (heavenly) ruler.
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