La Mezquita in Cordoba – Part IΙ

In the first part, published some time ago, I presented the Mosque of the Mezquita complex.

In the second part I present photographs of the Christian Chapel that has been built inside the complex.

Martha and Mary in Painting

The biblical story of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38–42) has been depicted in paintings many times over the centuries.

“38 Ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν τῷ πορεύεσθαι αὐτοὺς καὶ αὐτὸς εἰσῆλθεν εἰς κώμην τινά. γυνὴ δέ τις ὀνόματι Μάρθα ὑπεδέξατο αὐτὸν εἰς τὸν οἴκον αὐτῆς. 39 καὶ τῇδε ἦν ἀδελφὴ καλουμένη Μαρία, ἣ καὶ παρακαθίσασα παρὰ τοὺς πόδας τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἤκουε τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ. 40 ἡ δὲ Μάρθα περιεσπᾶτο περὶ πολλὴν διακονίαν· ἐπιστᾶσα δὲ εἶπε· Κύριε, οὐ μέλει σοι ὅτι ἡ ἀδελφή μου μόνην με κατέλιπε διακονεῖν; εἰπὲ οὖν αὐτῇ ἵνα μοι συναντιλάβηται. 41 ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ εἶπεν αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Μάρθα Μάρθα, μεριμνᾷς καὶ τυρβάζῃ περὶ πολλά· 42 ἑνὸς δέ ἐστι χρεία· Μαρία δὲ τὴν ἀγαθὴν μερίδα ἐξελέξατο, ἥτις οὐκ ἀφαιρεθήσεται ἀπ’ αὐτῆς. ………” (Λουκ. Κεφ. 10ο, 38-42)

38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary.[b] Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

(Luke 10: 38-42)

In this post I present some of the most interesting paintings of the story. In terms of their composition, I grouped the paintings as follows.

Christ, Mary and Martha (5)

El Greco (c. 1600)

Jan Bruegel the younger and Rubens (1628)

Attributed to Abraham van Dijck (1652)

Johannes Vermeer (1655)

Charles de La Fosse (1700s)

Mary and Martha (1)

Caravaggio (1598)

Picture within a picture (1)

Velazquez (1618)

Interior without kitchen scene (3)

Engebrechtsz (1515-1520)

Tintoretto (1570 – 1575)

Anonymous, French (18th century)

Kitchen scene in the foreground (4)

Artsen (last quarter of the 16th century)

Beuckelaer (1568)

Jacopo and Francesco Bassano (1576 – 1577)

Jan Steen (1650s)

Cornelis Engebrechtsz – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Circa 1515-1520
oil on panel
Height: 55 cm (21.6 in); Width: 44.5 cm (17.5 in)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Interior with Christ in the house of Mary and Martha. To the left Christ is sitting next to his mother Mary speaking to some of his disciples. On the floor in front of him Mary, Martha’s sister, is kneeling. In the background Martha is working by the fireplace. Above the archway to the kitchen a relief with the death of Lucretia is placed.

Cornelis Engebrechtsz – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Pieter Artsen – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
Oil on panel

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Pieter Aertsen (1508 – 2 June 1575), called Lange Piet (“Tall Pete”) because of his height, was a Dutch painter in the style of Northern Mannerism. He is credited with the invention of the monumental genre scene, which combines still life and genre painting and often also includes a biblical scene in the background. He was active in his native city Amsterdam but also worked for a long period in Antwerp, then the centre of artistic life in the Netherlands.

His genre scenes were influential on later Flemish Baroque painting, Dutch still life painting and also in Italy. His peasant scenes preceded by a few years the much better-known paintings produced in Antwerp by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

The painting depicts a kitchen scene combined with a religious subject is set within Renaissance architecture. The background depicts the story of Christ in the house of Martha and Mary. This painting marks the transition from the late mediaeval practice of depicting religious subjects to a new era, in which art depicts the everyday life of the self confident bourgeoisie.

Pieter Artsen – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Joachim Beuckelaer – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

1568

Oil on canvas

The foreground shows an everyday scene of a kitchen filled with still-life elements and two women at work. In the background, beneath a portico, Jesus can be seen visiting the house of Martha and Mary, as is told in the book of Luke (Luke 10, 38-42). This Bible story is appropriate for emphasizing spirituality over material things. The abundance of objects in the foreground, recalling the opulence of the wealthy Flemish, is surpassed by the importance of the religious event depicted in the background. This approach breaks with the traditional thematic hierarchy and was characteristic among Flemish artists of that time. It had a considerable influence on Diego Velázquez´s early works. In this work, Beuckalaer combines the realist capacity to represent objects, which was characteristic of northern art, with the use of architectural elements, such as the portico, drawn from a knowledge of Italian art theory.

Joachim Beuckelaer – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Jacopo Tintoretto – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

between 1570 and 1575
oil on canvas
Height: 200 cm (78.7 in); Width: 132 cm (51.9 in)

Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Jacopo Tintoretto – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Jacopo and Francesco Bassano – Christ in the House of Martha, Mary and Lazarus

1576 – 1577
Pitti Palace, Florence, Italy
Oil on canvas
81 x 116 cm (with 105 x 140 x 8 cm frame)

The description of the environment dominates everything: the large rustic kitchen opens onto an open hilly landscape – typical of the Veneto region– and is equipped with various kinds of utensils, copper pots, tin dishes, bowls and sieves; a kitchen where the opulence of food triumphs with a great variety of poultry and fish. In the foreground a cook is bending over a large crockpot in which she is making soup, and Lazarus is looking at its meal avidly. Of course the vices of greed and gluttony are contrasted with the virtues of the spirit and sacrifice but the scene as a whole is a pleasant description of a domestic environment at the end of the 16th century.

Probably due to the depiction of the pleasantness that surrounds the moral content, this picture was extraordinary successful compared to other Venetian paintings from the 1570s. A large number of replicas and variations are kept in Italian and European museums and abroad.

Jacopo and Francesco Bassano – Christ in the House of Martha, Mary and Lazarus

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio – Martha and Mary Magdalene

c. 1598
Oil on canvas, 98 x 133 cm
Institute of Arts, Detroit

The painting shows the sisters Martha and Mary from the New Testament. Martha is in the act of converting Mary from her life of pleasure to the life of virtue in Christ. Martha, her face shadowed, leans forward, passionately arguing with Mary, who twirls an orange blossom between her fingers as she holds a mirror, symbolising the vanity she is about to give up. The power of the image lies in Mary’s face, caught at the moment when conversion begins.

Martha and Mary was painted while Caravaggio was living in the palazzo of his patron, Cardinal Del Monte. 

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio – Martha and Mary Magdalene

El Greco – Christ in the House of Mary and Martha

circa 1600
oil on panel
38 x 33 cm

Private collection

El Greco – Christ in the House of Mary and Martha

Diego Velázquez – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

1618
Oil on canvas
63 cm × 103.5 cm (25 in × 40.7 in)
National Gallery, London

Velázquez has painted the interior of a kitchen with two half-length women to the left; the one on the left appeared in his Old Woman Cooking Eggs from the same period. On the table are a number of foods, perhaps the ingredients of an Aioli (a garlic mayonnaise made to accompany fish). These have been prepared by the maid. Extremely realistic, they were probably painted from the artist’s own household as they appear in other bodegones from the same time.

In the background is the biblical scene. Christ is shown as a bearded man in a blue tunic. He gesticulates at Martha, the woman standing behind Mary, rebuking her for her frustration.

Diego Velázquez – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Jan Bruegel the younger and Rubens – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

1628

oil on oak wood
64 × 61.9 cm (25.1 × 24.3 in)

National Gallery of Ireland

Jan Bruegel the younger and Rubens – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Christ conversing with Martha and Mary – Attributed to Abraham van Dijck

Drawing on paper

c. 1652

Height: 184 millimetres
Width: 261 millimetres

The British Museum, London

Pen and brown ink with brown and grey-brown wash, heightened with white; some scraping-out;* framing lines…

Abraham van Dijck was a painter and draughtsman; probably from Dordrecht. He may have been a young pupil of Rembrandt in c.1650, to judge from his style, though this was possibly transmitted by another Rembrandt pupil, such as Samuel van Hoogstraten (q.v.). Dated paintings are known from 1651. He is recorded in Amsterdam in 1661, but died in Dordrecht in 1680.

The drawing presents a dark interior with Christ seated before a window with double arch, addressing Martha who stands at left with a basket in her hand, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, Mary sits with a book on her knees to right. 

Christ conversing with Martha and Mary – Attributed to Abraham van Dijck

Jan Steen – Christ in the House of Mary and Marth

1650s
oil on panel
Height: 73 cm (28.7 in); Width: 73 cm (28.7 in)
Collection Pollock House, Glasgow, Scotland

Steen, Jan; Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Johannes Vermeer – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary 

1655
Oil on canvas
160 cm × 142 cm (63 in × 56 in)
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

It is the largest painting by Vermeer and one of the very few with an overt religious motive. The story of Christ visiting the household of the two sisters Mary and Martha goes back to the New Testament. The work has also been called Christ in the House of Mary and Martha (reversing the last two names).

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary is thought to be the earliest known painting by Vermeer. The strongest argument for its early date is the differences in painting techniques between this work and his later ones. In no other painting does he focus so exclusively on the figures in the central core of the composition. Vermeer in his mature works was very conscious of the relationship of his figures to their environment, a concern not evident in this work. Another element of Vermeer’s mature style is his interest in rendering the specific textures of objects. 

Johannes Vermeer – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Charles de La Fosse – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary 

1700s

Oil on canvas

90 x 117 cm; 35 1/2 by 46 in.

Charles de La Fosse – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Anonymous, French – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
18th century
Engraving

Sheet: 12 1/16 × 7 1/2 in. (30.6 × 19.1 cm)

An engraving of an interior scene with Christ seated in a chair, addressing Mary and Martha, with three men standing behind him in the shadows. The print was published by Jean Mariette (French, 1660-1742), one of the most important print publishers active in Paris in the first half of the 18th century. An attribution to Claude Simpol (French, 1666-1716) has been tentatively proposed.

Ο ζωγράφος Πανσέληνος

Σήμερα ταξιδεύω στο χώρο και τον χρόνο και πηγαίνω στο ναό του Πρωτάτου και τη μονή Βατοπαιδίου στο Άγιο Όρος, και το παρεκκλήσιο του Αγίου Ευθυμίου στο ναό Αγίου Δημητρίου στη Θεσσαλονίκη, το σωτήριο έτος 2003. Το καλοκαίρι αυτού του χρόνου πραγματοποιήθηκε στο Γ’ Κτίριο του Λιμένα Θεσσαλονίκης μια έκθεση με θέμα τη ζωγραφική του ζωγράφου Πανσέληνου.

Τα εκθέματα της έκθεσης ήταν φωτογραφίες υψηλής πιστότητας από τις ζωγραφιές του Πανσέληνου. Ο κορμός αποτελούνταν από τις τοιχογραφίες του ναού του Πρωτάτου, ενώ την έκθεση συμπλήρωναν ζωγραφιές από τη μονή Βατοπαιδίου στο Άγιο Όρος, και το παρεκκλήσιο του Αγίου Ευθυμίου στο ναό Αγίου Δημητρίου στη Θεσσαλονίκη.

Στη συνέχεια παραθέτω κάποιες από τις εικόνες της έκθεσης του 2003, αναμειγμένες με φωτογραφίες που πήρα στο ναό του Πρωτάτου το 2009.

Ξεκινώ με ένα ταμπλώ γεμάτο κίνηση και χάρη, τα εισόδια της Θεοτόκου. Εδώ εκφράζεται με τον καλύτερο τρόπο η νηφαλιότητα που χαρακτηρίζει τα έργα του Πανσέληνου. Ακόμη και στις πιο δύσκολες στιγμές, υπάρχει μια διέξοδος, μια ανάσα, μια πίστη στο ότι σε τελική ανάλυση αυτός ο κόσμος, αυτοί οι άνθρωποι, αυτοί οι άγιοι, οι προφήτες, και όλα τα θεϊκά πρόσωπα και μορφές πάνε να κάνουν κάτι καλό και θα τα καταφέρουν.

Τα Εισόδια της Θεοτόκου. Ναός Πρωτάτου. Ναός Πρωτάτου (1290). Φωτογραφία: Νίκος Μορόπουλος από την έκθεση του 2003 στη Θεσσαλονίκη.

Ο Ιησούς Χριστός είναι γαλήνιος, σοβαρός, και όμορφος, χωρίς ίχνος αυστηρότητας. Το “κλασσικό” βυζαντινό ύφος εξατμίζεται με τον Πανσέληνο, και παραδίδει τη θέση του σε μια ζωγραφική ανθρώπινη και γήινη.

Ο Χριστός ένθρονος. Ναός Πρωτάτου (1290). Φωτογραφία: Νίκος Μορόπουλος από την έκθεση του 2003 στη Θεσσαλονίκη.
Το γενέσιο της Θεοτόκου – Λεπτομέρεια. Ναός Πρωτάτου (1290). Φωτογραφία: Νίκος Μορόπουλος από την έκθεση του 2003 στη Θεσσαλονίκη.

Η Θεοτόκος με το Θείο Βρέφος απεικονίζεται σε φωτογραφία που πήρα μέσα στο ναό του Πρωτάτου το 2009 με ελάχιστο φώς από κεριά, σκαλωσιές για επισκευές και συντηρήσεις, και ηχητικό υπόβαθρο από πολλούς θορυβώδεις Ρώσσους προσκυνητές.

Η Θεοτόκος ένρονος Βρεφοκρατούσα. Ναός Πρωτάτου (1290). Φωτογραφία: Νίκος Μορόπουλος, Πρωτάτο 2009
Αναπεσών Χριστός. Ναός Πρωτάτου (1290). Φωτογραφία: Νίκος Μορόπουλος, Πρωτάτο 2009
Ο Μυστικός Δείπνος – Λεπτομέρεια. Ναός Πρωτάτου (1290). Φωτογραφία: Νίκος Μορόπουλος από την έκθεση του 2003 στη Θεσσαλονίκη.

Ο Πανσέληνος είναι πιθανώτατα ο ζωγράφος του Μυστικού Δείπνου που απεικονίζεται στον εξωνάρθηκα Καθολικού της μονής Βατοπαιδίου.

Ο Μυστικός Δείπνος. Εξωνάρθηκας Καθολικού της μονής Βατοπαιδίου (1312). Φωτογραφία: Νίκος Μορόπουλος από την έκθεση του 2003 στη Θεσσαλονίκη.
Ο Άγιος Νικόλαος. Ναός Πρωτάτου (1290). Φωτογραφία: Νίκος Μορόπουλος, Πρωτάτο 2009
Άγιος Θεόδωρος ο Στρατηλάτης. Ναός Πρωτάτου (1290). Φωτογραφία: Νίκος Μορόπουλος από την έκθεση του 2003 στη Θεσσαλονίκη.
Ο προφήτης Δανιήλ. Ναός Πρωτάτου (1290). ωτογραφία: Νίκος Μορόπουλος από την έκθεση του 2003 στη Θεσσαλονίκη.

Η Κόκκινη Εκκλησιά, Τζουμέρκα, Ήπειρος, Ελλάς

Ένα ανοιξιάτικο μεσημέρι επισκέφτηκα την Κόκκινη Εκκλησιά, κατεβαίνοντας τον κατηφορικό δρόμο από το Βουλγαρέλι, μια κωμόπολη περίπου 60 χιλιόμετρα ανατολικά της Άρτας.

Η Κόκκινη Εκκλησιά, Τζουμέρκα, Ήπειρος, Ελλάς. Νότια Είσοδος. Photo @ Nikos Moropoulos
Πινακίδα στην Είσοδο του Ναού. Photo @ Nikos Moropoulos

Συνοπτικά Στοιχεία του Ναού

Θέση: Στο χωριό Βουλγαρέλι (Δροσοπηγή) 56 χλμ. από την Άρτα.
Αρχιτεκτονική: Δικιόνιος σταυροειδής εγγεγραμμένος ναός με τρούλο και τριμερή τρουλαίο νάρθηκα.
Χρονολόγηση του ναού: 1295/ 1295.
Επιγραφές: Στη δυτική είσοδο του ναού, πάνω από την πόρτα υπάρχει μια επιγραφή γραμμένη σε δώδεκα στίχους.
Κτήτορας: Ο πρωτοστράτορας Θεόδωρος Τζιμισκής και ο αδελφός του Ιωάννης.
Ζωγραφική: Ο ναός αυτός ήταν κάποτε κατάγραφος. Σήμερα όμως το μεγαλύτερο μέρος των τοιχογραφιών είναι κατεστραμμένο.

(Πηγή [1])

Η περιοχή των Τζουμέρκων, στην οποία βρίσκεται η εκκλησία κατοικήθηκε από το 2000 προ Χριστού, την εποχή του χαλκού, οπότε εγκαταστάθηκε σε αυτήν το φύλο των Αθαμάνων (Πηγή [2]).

Το Δεσποτάτο της Ηπείρου

Το Δεσποτάτο της Ηπείρου συστάθηκε μετά την κατάληψη της Κωνσταντινούπολης από τους Σταυροφόρους το 1204 και καταλύθηκε το 1359, οπότε και περιέπεσε στον έλεγχο των Σέρβων.

Ο ακάματος Αναστάσιος Ορλάνδος αποτύπωσε το ναό το 1923.

Κόκκινη Εκκλησία, Κάτοψη, Ορλάνδος, 1923, Πηγή [3]
Κόκκινη Εκκλησία, Τομή κατά Μήκος, Ορλάνδος, 1923, Πηγή [3]
Κεραμοπλαστικός διάκοσμος στη νότια πλευρά

Οι τοιχογραφίες του ναού έχουν σχεδόν ολοσχερώς καταστραφεί, παρόλα αυτά όμως είναι τόσο όμορφες οι πλινθοδομές και οι κεραμοπλαστικοί διάκοσμοι, που ανταμείβουν τον επισκέπτη για τον χρόνο και τον κόπο του.

Δυτική Είσοδος. Photo @ Nikos Moropoulos
Κτητορική επιγραφή στον δυτικό τοίχο του κυρίως ναού. Photo @ Nikos Moropoulos

Ναὸς ἅ[γιος……………………….
[εὐ κλ]έος τὸ συ …………………
εἰς ὄνομα τέθητο τῆς Θεοτόκου
εἰς κλίσην συνήρμοστω τῆς [Παν]υμνήτου
Τὸν δόμ[μον ἐδείματο Τζημησκῆς πέλω
σὺν τῇ συνεύνω τῇ ταπεινῇ Μαρίᾳ
οὐ μὴν οὖτοι ζηλω[ταὶ – – ν αἰσίως
πυκνοῖς ἀναλλώμασιν εἰς κάλλος τόσον
καθωραΐσας εἰκόν[ων τεχνουργίᾳ]
Βρυένις ὃς ἐξισοῦσθαι τῶν ἀνωτά[των

– – τος τῶν πάντων Δέσποινα, κάμ[ε
τα τῶν ἀνελο[μένων – – – –
τὸ σμῆνος ἅπαν τῶν δικαίων, ἀξίων.
Ἄλλ’ ὧ θρόνε προκ – – – – – – –
[Πανάχρα]ντε τοῦ μόνου βασιλέως
παράσχε τοῖς τλήμοσιν ἀμφοῖ[ν- – -]
[ἀμπλακημάτων λύσιν καὶ π]άσις βλάβης
ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦτο τοῦ τρισολβίου δόμο[υ
[αὐτοὺς καταξίωσον τὰς α]ἰωνίους
μονὰς δικαίων εἰς Ἐδὲμ τὸ χω[ρίον
σκηπτροκρα[τού]ντων τῶν δυτηκῶν φρουρίων
Νικηφόρου, Ἄννης[τε- – – – – – – –
Κομνηνοφυῶν δεσποτῶν ἀϊδοίμων
΄
Ἔτους [- – – – -] ἰνδ(ικτιῶνος) Θ΄

(Πηγή [1], σελ. 28. Η μεταγραφή της επιγραφής έχει γίνει από τον Β. Κατσαρό ο οποίος προτείνει ως πιθανή χρονολογία
το έτος ςψοη΄ = 1269/70)

Δανιήλ ο Στυλίτης, Photo @ Nikos Moropoulos

Η μεγάλη κτητορική επιγραφή βρίσκεται ανάμεσα σε δύο στυλίτες, (σημείωση δική μου: Δανιήλ και Συμεών) οι οποίοι μας πληροφορούν ουσιαστικά για τους κτήτορες, για την εποχή της ίδρυσης του ναού καθώς επίσης και για τον βασικό ηγέτη στον πολιτικό στίβο της εποχής, τον Δεσπότη Νικηφόρο και την γυναίκα του Άννα.

(Πηγή [1], σελ. 115.)

Απόστολος Πέτρος. Photo @ Nikos Moropoulos

Πηγές

[1] LEONELA FUNDIĆ. Η ΜΝΗΜΕΙΑΚΗ ΤΕΧΝΗ ΤΟΥ ΔΕΣΠΟΤΑΤΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΗΠΕΙΡΟΥ ΤΗΝ ΠΕΡΙΟΔΟ ΤΗΣ ΔΥΝΑΣΤΕΙΑΣ ΤΩΝ ΚΟΜΝΗΝΩΝ ΑΓΓΕΛΩΝ (1204-1318). Διδακτορική Διατριβή, Θεσσαλονίκη 2013.

[2] Κωνσταντίνα Ζήδρου, Η Αρχιτεκτονική της Κόκκινης Εκκλησίας. Τζουμερκιώτικα Χρονικά, Τεύχος 9, Μάϊος 2008.

[3] Νικόλαος Χ. Καπώνης, Η ΝΑΟΔΟΜΙΚΗ ΑΡΧΙΤΕΚΤΟΝΙΚΗ ΤΟΥ ΔΕΣΠΟΤΑΤΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΗΠΕΙΡΟΥ ΤΗΝ ΠΕΡΙΟΔΟ TΗΣ ΔΥΝΑΣΤΕΙΑΣ
ΤΩΝ ΚΟΜΝΗΝΩΝ ΑΓΓΕΛΩΝ (1204-1318). Διδακτορική Διατριβή, Πανεπιστήμιο Ιωαννίνων, 2005.

A journey in Romanesque and Gothic Art

I have started reading the “History of European Culture”, by Panayiotis Kanellopoulos (1902 – 1986), a Greek author and politician. In the first volume of the treatise he explores Romanesque, and Gothic Art and this led me to depict part of his journey pictorially.

The term Romanesque Art refers to a period from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style in the 12th century, or later, depending on region.. The term appeared first in France and England in 1818 and 1819 respectively, and then in the German territories in the 1830s.

Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Southern and Central Europe, never quite effacing more classical styles in Italy. In the late 14th century, the sophisticated court style of International Gothic developed, which continued to evolve until the late 15th century. In many areas, especially Germany, Late Gothic art continued well into the 16th century, before being subsumed into Renaissance art.

Gothic Art has a child movement, Expressionism, which also transcends Gothic to the Renaissance. Expressionism is linked to romanticism, the bedrock of German culture of the age. As such, some of the works visited here are expressionistic. It resurfaced as a major movement in Germany in the late 19th , early 20th century.

A journey of such scope will never end unless it is cut short. This is the predicament of every effort that attempts to capture what is almost infinite.

The stained glass windows in the Cathedral of Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany c. 1065

Germany has the distinction of having preserved the oldest complete windows in the world – in the cathedral in the ancient town of Augsburg, which was founded by the Romans in the first century AD.

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Prophet Windows, Augsburg Cathedral, Bavaria, Germany. The oldest surviving stained glass windows in the world. (Installed 1065 AD)

 

The southern clerestory of the Cathedral of Augsburg (German: Dom Mariä Heimsuchung) has five stained glass windows dated to the late 11th-early 12th centuries, the oldest in Germany: they feature the prophets David, Jonah, Daniel, Moses, Hosea, and were perhaps part of a larger series, the others now being missing.

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Clerestory Diagram

The colours in these windows are very different from the colours of twelfth‑century stained glass in England and France. Instead of luminous blues and rubies, the Augsburg figures are predominantly brown, gold, yellow, green and wine, and what little blue is used is a murky grey. These were the colours that predominated in many German churches, both in the Romanesque period and beyond.

The tympanum of the central portal of Abbaye Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay, Burgundy, France, c. 1130  

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In a 1944 article, Adolf Katzenellenbogen interpreted Vézelay’s tympanum as referring to the First Crusade and depicting the Pentecostal mission of the Apostles.

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The central tympanum shows a benevolent Christ conveying his message to the Apostles, who flank him on either side.

Braunschweig Collegiate Church, Germany, second half of the 12th century 

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Wooden Crucifix crafted by Master Imervard dating from the second half of the 12th century

Kanellopoulos considers this wooden sculpture to be the first work of art of German expressionism. This is where the path to the inconceivable and the infinite has started.

Chartres Cathedral, France, early 13th century

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The transition from Romanesque to Gothic Art combines classical aesthetic values with the the gothic turn to man’s internal world. Comparing the Christ of Vezelay, to the Christ of Chartres, it is clear that one is God, the other is almost human.

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Gone are the sad, serious, frightened faces of Romanesque Saints.

St. Modeste of Chartres is happy, smiling, calm.

Naumburg Cathedral, Saxony, Germany, 13th century

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Uta von Ballenstedt (c. 1000 — 23 October before 1046), a member of the House of Ascania, was Margravine of Meissen from 1038 until 1046, the wife of Margrave Ekkehard II. Umberto Eco wrote in his ″History of Beauty″ that from all women of art history, the one he would like most have dinner with was in first place, ahead of all others, Uta von Naumburg.

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Founder figures Ekkehard II and Uta, c. 1260

 

Art Critic Ernst Gombrich’s first research project after leaving university was on the expressive features of the statues of the founders in the Cathedral of Naumburg:
‘These lifelike but imaginary portraits appeared to be so full of expression
that a whole drama had been woven around them. Ciceroni had developed
the legend that all these figures were participants in a story of conflict and
murder.’ (‘The Study of Art and the Study of Man’ in Tributes, Oxford 1984)

A lover handing his heart to his mistress, Roman de la Poire, c.1275

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Atelier du Maître de Bari. La dame de Thibaud et Doux Regard, Biblioteque National de France, Paris, c.1275

“Miniature (capital S) from a manuscript of the Roman de la poire. This is the earliest known visual depiction of a lover handing his heart to his mistress. The heart is in the shape of a pine-cone (point upward), in accord with anatomical descriptions of the human heart at the time.” (Wikipedia)

Notre-Dame de Reims, France, 13th century

The cathedral of Notre-Dame in Reims is a masterpiece of 13th-century Gothic architecture, where the kings of France were once crowned. It was begun in 1211 and completed at the end of the 13th century, with the exception of the upper parts of the western towers.

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The Bamberg Cathedral, Bavaria, Germany

On May 6, 1237, the city of Bamberg celebrated the consecration of its newly rebuilt cathedral. Perched high on a hill at the center of town and accented by four imposing towers, the new structure loomed over the civic space in the valley below. Now known as the Fürstenportal, the chief ceremonial entryway at the building’s north side was lavishly adorned with sculptures.

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Bamberg Cathedral Fürstenportal,  The Damned

Deeply carved figures in dramatic poses inhabit its tympanum, offering a pantomime performance of the separation of the saved and the damned at the Last Judgment. Wedged into the door jambs below, apostles stand on the shoulders of prophets; both strain to look up and catch a glimpse of the sacred drama being enacted in the tympanum.

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Bamberg Cathedral Fürstenportal

Hovering at the base of the portal’s left archivolts, a trumpeting angel announces Christ’s Second Coming and a figure of Abraham sits enthroned, cradling the souls of the saved.

The Bamberg Horseman (Der Bamberger Reiter), c. 13th century

The trigger for me to include the Bamberg Cathedral in this journey was the Horseman.

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The Synagoga Sculpture

But in the process I discovered the Synagoga sculpture and I was stunned.

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Flanking the portal’s ensemble are monumental sculpted female personifications of Church and Synagogue, each installed atop a column and beneath a baldachin. The column under Ecclesia is adorned with a seated figure and symbols of the evangelists; that beneath Synagoga features the Devil blinding a Jew.

Synagoga represents Judaism and the Old Testament defeated by Christianity.  She’s blindfolded and dropping  Moses’ tablets of law.  Troubling anti-Semitism aside, Synagoga is the most beautiful sculpture in the church.  Actually, with her sheer dress and dignified  stance, she’s quite sexy.

Professor Achim Hubel, considers this as one of the finest 13th century female figures. There is sensuality in the bodily posture that has never before been accomplished in medieval sculpture.

Marienaltar, Herrgottskirche, Creglingen, Germany, early 16th century

I conclude this journey with the transition to the Renaissance.

The small Gothic Herrgottskirche in Creglingen near Würzburg and Rothenburg ob der Tauber has four altars including the Altar of the Virgin Mary (Marienaltar) — a masterpiece by the Late Gothic sculptor and woodcarver Tilman Riemenschneider. It is one of the most important medieval wood-carved artworks in Germany and as much worth seeing for its exquisitely carved details as for the religious messages in the work.

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Marienaltar, Herrgottskirche, Creglingen

The faces of Christ’s disciples are considered splendid works of Expressionism, the child of Gothic Art that was handed over to the Renaissance.

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Marienaltar, Herrgottskirche, Creglingen, The left side

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Marienaltar, Herrgottskirche, Creglingen, The right side

The Discovery of Matthias Grunewald: a personal journey

Featured Image: Grünewald in a 19th century depiction on the de:Frankoniabrunnen, by Ferdinand von Miller (1824), now in front of the Würzburg Residence.

This is a short recount of how I discovered Matthias Grunewald, the late German Renaissance Master of the Isenheim Altarpiece. It is one of the best journeys of my life.

Updated 14 March 2024

“Mathis der Maler”, a Paul Hindemith Opera

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In 1995 I was living in London and one of my favorite past times was going to the opera. The Royal Opera at Covent Garden in London was the most famous and reputable, but at the same time more conservative compared to other operas in the UK. However, there was the odd occasion when a “radical” production would be staged. One of them was Peter Sellar’s staging of Paul Hindemith’s opera, “Mathis der Maler”. This is how I was introduced to the mystical world of Mathias Grunewald.

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I was one of the lucky ones who got a last minute STB ‘stand-by’ ticket in the orchestra stalls for 20 pounds. These tickets would normally sell for more than 80 pounds. I was seated in row B at the center of the stalls, and could hear the Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen breath as he conducted the orchestra.

The Royal Opera organized on Saturday 11 November 1995 a study day, so that people would learn about the subject of the opera, the painter Mathis, and the people behind the production would present their views and aesthetic ideas.

Luckily I attended and got to meet Peter Sellars, the American theater director of the staging.

He was kind enough to sign the program with the following:

Dear Nick,
So wonderful to meet you.
Thanks for your GENTLE sense of ANARCHY.
Peter Sellars.

But the key person as far as Grunewald was concerned, was the lecture given by Anne Tennant, an art historian, which was the best introduction to the world of Grunewald. From this moment on, I became hooked.

I went to the opera, enjoyed it immensely becasue Hindemith is one of my favorites, but my mind was travelling to Isenheim.

The trip to Colmar, Stuppach and Karlsruhe

I therefore decided that I had to see the Isenheim altarpiece and on April 1996, I embarked on a short trip to visit Matthias Grunewald’s Isenheim Alterpiece, the painting of the Madonna in Stuppach, and the Crucifixion in Karlsruhe. I picked the weekend of 13-14 April 1996, which happened to be the Greek Orthodox Easter weekend.

The route

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Fly from London Heathrow to Basel – Mulhouse, rent a car and drive to Colmar.

Then drive to Bad Mergentheim (some 350 km) to spend the night, Stuppach, Karlsruhe and back to the Basel – Mulhouse airport.

Colmar

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A canal in Colmar. Photo: N. Moropoulos
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The center of Colmar is picturesque, with canals and medieval houses and buildings. It is also small and compact, so that you can get around quickly.

The Isenheim Alterpiece

“Beauty is only the beginning of the terrible.” Rainer – Maria Rilke

The Isenheim Alterpiece is exhibited in the Unterlinden Museum, a former Dominican convent, dating back to the 13th century.

The Crucifixion panel is the most horrid depiction of suffering leading to death that I have seen. Being such, nevertheless it captivates the observer, at least the one who has some sort of affinity to Christianity. Its intensity and brutality give new meaning to the Resurrection.

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Matthias Grunewald, The Isenheim Alterpiece, Crucifixion, 1513 – 1515, Museum Unterlinden, Colmar

The French writer and art critic Joris-Karl Huysmans wrote about Grunewald:

“He was the most uncompromising of realists, but his morgue redeemer, his
sewer Deity, let the observer know that realism could be truly transcendent …
Grunewald was the most uncompromising of Idealists… In this canvas was
revealed the masterpiece of an art obeying the unopposable urge to render the
tangible and the invisible, to make manifest the crying impurity of the flesh and
to make the sublime the infinite distress of the soul.”

As I mention in an article I have written on the Isenheim Altarpiece, in a way it is Germany’s Sistine Chapel.

The Madonna in the Rosegarden

A stone’s throw from the Museum is the Dominican Church where I saw the masterpiece of Grunewald’s mentor, Martin Schongauer’s, the “Madonna in the Rosegarden”, painted in 1473.

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Was the Madonna in the Rosegarden related to the Madonna in Stuppach? I would find out the next day.

Bad Mergentheim

I spent the night in Bad Mergentheim, in the Main-Tauber-Kreis district in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

The room in the ‘Alte Muenze’ Gasthaus was clean and spacious.

The next day, Orthodox Easter Sunday, I had a wonderful walk in the park around the town’s castle, called home and then drove the short distance to Stuppach.

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Bad Mergentheim Castle, Photo: N. Moropoulos

The Stuppacher Madonna

Suppach is a village 2 km south of the town of Bad Mergentheim.

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Suppach – The Vilalge and the Church © ML Preiss, Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz, Bonn

In the chapel of the village church, the visitor can see Matthias Grunewald’s masterpiece “The Stuppacher Madonna”. Having seen the Isenheim Alterpiece, the Stuppach Madonna is a brilliant return to some sort of normal life, where there is beauty, love, happinness.  I could see the influence of Schongauer, even van der Weyden.

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Von Matthias Grünewald – Stuppacher_Madonna – Fokus GmbH Leipzig, via blicklokal.de, Gemeinfrei, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56132209

Ticket to view the Stuppacher Madonna

The Stuppacher Madonna and Christ’s Lamentation in the Collegiate Church of St. Peter and Alexander in Aschaffenburg are the only Grunewald paintings that are not kept in museums today. I have seen a copy of it, but not the original.

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The Karlsruhe Crucifixion

Following my visit to the Stuppacher Madonna, I had time to quickly drive to Karlsruhe and visit the Staatliche Kunsthalle (State Art Gallery), where one of Grunewald’s Crucifixion’s is kept.

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Christ on the Cross between Maria and John (Tauberbischofsheim Altarpiece), 1523 – 1525.  Height: 195.5 cm (76.9 in); Width: 142.5 cm (56.1 in), Staatliche Kunsthalle  Karlsruhe

It has been painted some years after the ISenheim altarpiece, it is even drarker, but not less gruesome.

In the same museum they have a drawing of Christ on the Cross, but it is not exhibited, so I did not get to see it.

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Matthias Grunewald, Christ on the Cross, 1520, 531 x 320 mm, Black chalk on brownish paper, Staatliche Kunsthalle  Karlsruhe

As I was exiting the museum room where the “Crucifixion” painting hangs, I stumbled upon two beautiful etchings of female saints. This is my favorite, because of the hair.

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Matthias Grunewald, 1511/1512, Holy Saint (Bibiana or Lucia?), H 101 cm W 43, Staatliche Kunsthalle  Karlsruhe

The Basel Crucifixion

Some years later, in 2003, I visited the Arts Museum in Basel (Kunstmuseum) to see the Crucifixion. Although painted at about the same time with the Isenheim Altarpiece, it is much softer as far as the depiction of the Holy Drama goes, and it has much more light.

Matthias Grünewald; Die Kreuzigung Christi; um 1515 (?), HxB: 74.9 x 54.4 cm; Mischtechnik auf Lindenholz; Inv. 269, Kunstmuseum Basel

Epilogue

And so I have traced the painter’s personal journey back to its origin.

Up to the Basel Crucifixion, Grunewald was painting like one of late German Renaissance Masters. The Isenheim Altarpiece was his “Turn”.

From the relatively ordinary Basel Crucifixion, the painter enters the world beyond with the Isenheim Alterpiece. And he continues with the Karlsruhe painting.

He is not a man living in a world without beauty, he is a man who can appreciate beauty because he has seen the absolute horror.

A 1954 Guide (in Greek) to the Dormition of the Virgin Chapel in Lindos, Rhodes, Greece – Ο Ιερός Ναός Λίνδου “Η Κοίμησις της Θεοτόκου”, Αρχιμανδρίτου Θεοδοσίου Αναστασιάδου – Λίνδος 1954

Συνέχεια παιδικών αναμνήσεων και χρόνων.

Ψάχνοντας στην βιβλιοθήκη μου, βρήκα αυτό το φυλλάδιο που αποτελεί οδηγό για τον ιερό ναό Κοιμήσεως της Θεοτόκου τη Λίνδο της Ρόδου.

Εκδόθηκε το 1954 και γράφτηκε από τον Αρχιμανδρίτη Θεοδόσιο Αναστασιάδη. Ο Μητροπολίτης Ρόδου Σπυρίδων έγραψε μιαν εγκριτική εισαγωγή. Τον Σπυρίδωνα τον θυμάμαι καλά, λειτουργούσε στον Ευαγγελισμό κάθε Κυριακή και το Πάσχα. Τον Αναστασιάδη δεν τον ενθυμούμαι.

 

 

On Light and Shadow: A “Fluxus Eleatis” Discourse

“Our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and come to nought as the mist that is driven away with the beams of the sun. For our time is as a shadow that passeth away and after our end there is no returning.” Wisdom of Solomon 2.4

Participants

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer

Ernst Gombrich, British-Austrian art historian

Mr. F, wanderer

Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian poet

Ms. B, anthropologist (of unknown ethnicity)

Marcel Proust, French writer

Miss. T, gourmant

Junichiro Tanizaki, Japanese author

Leonardo (da Vinci), Florentine painter, artist, scientist

Martin Gayford, English, Art critic

The Discourse (Fragments)

Ernst Gombrich“By shadow (ombra) is meant that which a body creates on itself, as for instance a sphere that has light on one part and gradually becomes half light and half dark, and that dark part is described as shadow (penumbra)Half-shadow (mezz’ombra) is called that area that is between light and the shadow through which the one passes to the other, as we have said, gradually diminishing little by little according to the roundness of the object. Cast shadow (sbattimento) is the shadow that is caused on the ground or elsewhere by the depicted object . . . .” – After Filippo Baldinucci, Vocabulario Toscana dell’Arte del Disegno, Florence 1681.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Where there is much light, the shadow is deep. A shadow is made when an object blocks light. The object must be opaque or translucent to make a shadow. A transparent object will not make any shadow, as light will pass straight through it.

Junichiro Tanizaki:  Why should this propensity to seek beauty in darkness be so strong only in Orientals? The West too has known a time when there was no electricity, gas, or petroleum, and yet so far as I know the West has never been disposed to delight in shadows. Japanese ghosts have traditionally had no feet; Western ghosts have feet, but are transparent. As even this trifle suggests, pitch darkness has always occupied our fantasies, while in the West even ghosts are as clear as glass. This is true too of our household implements: we prefer colors compounded of darkness, they prefer the colors of sunlight. And of silver and copperware: we love them for the burnish and patina, which they consider unclean, unsanitary, and polish to a glittering brilliance. They paint their ceilings and walls in pale colors to drive out as many of the shadows as they can. We fill our gardens with dense paintings, they spread out a flat expanse of grass.

Mr. F: The opening aria in Handel’s opera Serse (Xerxes), sung by the man character, Xerxes I of Persia, is about the shade of a plane tree.

Ombra mai fu (Never was a shade)

Tender and beautiful fronds
of my beloved plane tree,
let Fate smile upon you.
May thunder, lightning, and storms
never bother your dear peace,
nor may you by blowing winds be profaned.
A shade there never was,
of any plant,
dearer and more lovely,
or more sweet.

Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and the Young St. John the Baptist (The Burlington House cartoon)
(London, National Gallery of Art)

Leonardo (da Vinci): Shadow is the obstruction of light. Shadows appear to me to be of supreme importance in perspective, because, without them opaque and solid bodies will be ill defined; that which is contained within their outlines and their boundaries themselves will be ill-understood unless they are shown against a background of a different tone from themselves. And therefore in my first proposition concerning shadow I state that every opaque body is surrounded and its whole surface enveloped in shadow and light. . . . Besides this, shadows have in themselves various degrees of darkness, because they are caused by the absence of a variable amount of the luminous rays; and these I call Primary shadows because they are the first, and inseparable from the object to which they belong. . . . From these primary shadows there result certain shaded rays which are diffused through the atmosphere and these vary in character according to that of the primary shadows whence they are derived. I shall therefore call these shadows Derived shadows because they are produced by other shadows . . . Again these derived shadows, where they are intercepted by various objects, produce effects as various as the places where they are cast . . . And since all round the derived shadows, where the derived shadows are intercepted, there is always a space where the light falls and by reflected dispersion is thrown back towards its cause, it meets the original shadow and mingles with it and modifies it somewhat in its nature.

Martin Gayford: “According to ancient sources, the first artist ever to use this device (chiaroscuro: contrasting light and dark) was an Athenian named Apollodorus. It was he, according to the historian Plutarch, who ‘first invented the fading in and building up of shadow’. Apollodorus was called ‘Skiagraphos’ (‘Shadow Painter’). Before he began to model his figures, Pliny says, there was no painting ‘which holds the eye’.

 

Miss. T: Monsieur Proust “In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower”, the second volume of “In Search of Lost Time”, you define memory.

Marcel Proust: The greater part of our memory lies outside us, in a dampish breeze, in the musty air of a bedroom or the smell of autumn’s first fires, things through which we can retrieve … last vestige of the past, the best of it, the part which, after all our tears have dried, can make us weep again. Outside us? Inside us, more like, but stored away…. It is only because we have forgotten that we can now and then return to the person we once were, envisage things as that person did, be hurt again, because we are not ourselves anymore, but someone else, who once loved something that we no longer care about.

Mr. F: The woman without a shadow.

Hugo von Hofmannsthal: “Er wird zu Stein.”

Ms. B: If the Empress still does not cast a shadow within three days, the Emperor will be turned to stone. The following clip is from a stunning production with David Hockney’s stage designs.

Hugo von Hofmannsthal: “My earliest sketches for the libretto are based on a piece by Goethe, “The Conversation of German Emigrants” (1795). I have handled Goethe’s material freely, adding the idea of two couples, the emperor and empress who come from another realm, and the dyer and his wife who belong to the ordinary world.” (as quoted in wikipedia)

Giorgio de Chirico L’enigma di una giornata (II) ~ 1914 Museo d’arte contemporanea dell’Università di San Paolo

Ernst Gombrich: “Cubism reinstated the role of shadows both to guide and confuse the viewer. Later still the Surrealists exploited the effect of shadows to enhance the mood of mystery they sought, as in Chirico’s dreamlike visions of deserted city squares, where the harsh shadows cast by the statue and solitary figures add to the sense of disquiet.’

Martin Gayford: “Shadows can convey information, but also create illusions.”

Ryoji Ikeda, test pattern [no.5], 2013, audiovisual installation at Carriageworks. Commissioned and presented by Carriageworks and ISEA2013 in collaboration with Vivid Sydney. Image Zan Wimberley | © Carriageworks/WikiCommons
Junichiro Tanizaki:  And so it has come to be that the beauty of a Japanese room depends on a variation of shadows,heavy shadows against light shadows—it has nothing else. Westerners are amazed at the simplicity of Japanese rooms, perceiving in them no more than ashen walls bereft of ornament. Their reaction is understandable, but it betrays a failure to comprehend the mystery of shadows. Out beyond the sitting room, which the rays of the sun can at best but barely reach, we extend the eaves or build on a veranda, putting the sunlight at still greater a remove. The light from the garden steals in but dimly through paper-paneled doors, and it is precisely this indirect light that makes for us the charm of a room. We do our walls in neutral colors so that the sad, fragile, dying rays can sink into absolute repose.

© Roy Zipstein

Junichiro Tanizaki: It has been said of Japanese food that it is a cuisine to be looked at rather than eaten. I would go further and say that it is to be meditated upon, a kind of silent music evoked by the combination of lacquerware and the light of a candle flickering in the dark. In the cuisine of any country efforts no doubt are made to have the food harmonize with the tableware and the walls; but with Japanese food, a brightly lighted room and shining tableware cut the appetite in half. The dark miso soup that we eat every morning is one dish from the dimly lit houses of the past. I was once invited to a tea ceremony where miso was served; and when I saw the muddy, claylike color, quiet in a black lacquer bowl beneath the faint light of a candle, this soup that I usually take without a second thought seemed somehow to acquire a real depth, and to become infinitely more appetizing as well. Much the same may be said of soy sauce. In the Kyoto-Osaka region a particularly thick variety of soy is served with raw fish, pickles, and greens; and how rich in shadows is the viscous sheen of the liquid, how beautifully it blends with the darkness.

 

 

The Monastery of the Vlacherna Madonna, near Arta, Epirus, Greece – Η Μονή της Παναγιάς της Βλαχέρνας, κοντά στην Άρτα

Η Μονή της Παναγιάς της Βλαχέρνας βρίσκεται στο χωριό Βλαχέρνα λίγα χιλιόμετρα από την πόλη της Άρτας.

Η μονή ιδρύθηκε στις αρχές του 10ου αιώνα. Ο ναός κτίσθηκε ως τρίκλιτη θολωτή βασιλική και στα μέσα του 13ου αιώνα (1250-1260) ανακατασκευάστηκε απ’ τον (ή επί) Μιχαήλ Β΄ και μετασκευάστηκε σε τρουλλαίο. Στο νέο κτίσμα ενσωματώθηκαν υλικά και ολόκληρα τμήματα τοίχων απ’ τον αρχικό ναό…. ο νάρθηκας προστέθηκε λίγο αργότερα, δηλαδή στο τέλος του 13ου αιώνα, ενώ το κωδωνοστάσιο που είναι ενσωματωμένο στη δυτική πλευρά, είναι πολύ νεότερη προσθήκη (19ος αιώνας). (Από το σχετικό άρθρο της Περιφερειακής Ενότητας Άρτας)

Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Όμως ο ναός δεν είναι μόνο ένα εκκλησιαστικό μνημείο.

Είναι και το μαυσωλείο του Δεσπότη (Ηγεμόνα) της Ηπείρου Μιχαήλ Β΄ Κομνηνού Δούκα (1230 – 1271). Στο ναό αναπαύονται και δύο από τους γιους που απέκτησε ο Μιχαήλ Β’ με την γυναίκα του Θεοδώρα (1210 – 1280), που έγινε οσία. Η Αγία Θεοδώρα είναι η πολιούχος της Άρτας.

Λέγεται ότι ο Δεσπότης Μιχαήλ Β’ ανακατασκεύασε το ναό σαν ένδειξη μετανοίας για την έκφυλη ζωή του, που τον αποξένωσε από την σεμνή και πιστή γυναίκα του Θεοδώρα για μεγάλο χρονικό διάστημα.

Το Δεσποτάτο της Ηπείρου ιδρύθηκε από τον Μιχαήλ Α΄ Δούκα το 1204, μετά την κατάκτηση της Κωνσταντινούπολης από τους Σταυροφόρους. Το Δεσποτάτο κατέρρευσε το 1449, οπότε η Άρτα κατελήφθη από τους Οθωμανούς.

Κατά κάποιο τρόπο λοιπόν ο ναός συμβολίζει την περίοδο του Δεσποτάτου, στην οποία κτίσθηκαν και τα περισσότερα από τα σωζόμενα βυζαντινά μνημεία της Άρτας.

Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Η κυρία είσοδος του ναού σήμερα είναι εμφανώς μικρότερη σε πλάτος από ότι ήταν παλαιότερα.

Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Η τοιχοποιία παραπέμπει στην αρχαία Νικόπολη. Είναι κάτι που το έχω δει και σε άλλους ναούς της περιοχής, που χτίστηκαν με υλικά από τα τείχη της αρχαίας πόλης.

Κίονας με ζωγραφιστό μάρμαρο στο εσωτερικό του ναού.  Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Το σωζόμενο ξύλινο τέμπλο είναι ζωγραφισμένο και φέρει στο κέντρο του τον Σταυρό της επόμενης εικόνας.

Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Το πάνω μέρος του τέμπλου φαίνεται στην εικόνα που ακολουθεί.

Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Οι δύο εικόνες που ακολουθούν ευρίσκονται στο ξύλινο τέμπλο του ναού.

Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Βασίλισσα ή Παναγία Ένθρονη, από τη Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας

Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Στον θόλο κυριαρχεί ο Παντοκράτωρ.

Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Οι τοιχογραφίες είναι σε κακή κατάσταση, και κάποιες ευρίσκονται σε φάση συντηρήσεως.

Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Όπως φαίνεται στην παραπάνω εικόνα, με την αφαίρεση στρώματος κονιάματος αποκαλύφθηκαν οι τοιχογραφίες του ναού.

Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Ενδιαφέρον παρουσιάζει η ανομοιότητα των δύο κιόνων.

Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Η προσθήκη κονιαμάτων έγινε σε εκτεταμένο βαθμό στο παρελθόν, όπως φαίνεται και στην ανωτέρω εικόνα.

Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Στο αυτό το κομμάτι τοιχογραφίας φαίνεται η λιτάνευση της ιεράς εικόνας της Παναγίας Οδηγήτριας στην Κωνσταντινούπολη κατά το βυζαντινό τυπικό.

Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Η μονή σήμερα λειτουργεί και διαθέτει πλήρως ανακαινισμένα κτήρια.

Μονή Παναγίας Βλαχέρνας Άρτας. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Με εντυπωσίασε το γεγονός ότι σε όλη τη διάρκεια της επίσκεψης μου μέρα μεσημέρι δεν υπήρχε άλλος επισκέπτης στη μονή ή/και τον ναό. Είναι σα να  αφήνουν τον Μιχαήλ Β’ να αναπαύεται μόνος του, δίπλα στους δύο γιους του.

Η επίσκεψη μου στην εκκλησία της Αγίας Θεοδώρας στην  Αρτα ήτανε μια εντελώς διαφορετική εμπειρία. Το σίγουρο είναι ότι η Αγία Θεοδώρα λατρεύεται στην κυριολεξία από τους ντόπιους. Ίσως γι αυτό και αφήνουν το Μιχαήλ Β’ στην αιώνια μοναξιά του.