Gospel Frontispieces from the Comnenian Period
1982; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 21; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/766914
ISSN2169-3099
Autores Tópico(s)Biblical Studies and Interpretation
ResumoThis article examines the frontispiece illuminations in Gospel Books and New Testaments belonging to the "Nicaea School" group of Byzantine manuscripts. It associates them with a broad expansion in the use of Gospel frontispieces in the Comnenian period, and investigates their content. Customarily interpreted in terms of liturgical and/or prefatory texts, the Comnenian frontispieces are examined here in the context of contemporary religious imagery and a growing private and devotional use of the Gospel and New Testament manuscript. This context generated a range of new frontispiece images--the Virgin and Child, the Deesis, and diptychs pairing Moses receiving the Law or the Virgin and Child with Christ Emmanuel--whose iconography cannot be explained in terms of liturgy or preface. It also modified the content of the Christ in Majesty, which had been used in conjunction with prefaces. The article concludes that the frontispiece was not a static genre tied to particular prefatory texts, but a flexible medium for the expression of shifting attitudes toward the Gospel Book and its use.
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