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The Life of Mary Cycle at the Chora Church and Historical Pre- Occupations with the Chastity of the Virgin Mary in Byzantium

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The Life of Mary Cycle at the Chora Church and Historical Pre- Occupations with the Chastity of the Virgin Mary in Byzantium 1 Purity as a Pre-requisite for Praise: The Life of Mary Cycle at the Chora Church and Historical Pre- Occupations with the Chastity of the Virgin Mary in Byzantium Elizabeth Fortune AH 4119 Natif 12-6-2013 2 In this paper I will explore historical preoccupations with the physical purity of the Virgin Mary within Christian Byzantium. My discussion will focus on the second-century apocryphal gospel the Protoevangelium of James, Cappadocian theology, and the role of women within Byzantine society. I will ground my exploration within the context of historical debates regarding the status of the Virgin in the Early Christian Church. I will particularly discuss Mary’s significance as the Theotokos (God-bearer)within Byzantium, as it was necessarily informed and justified by perpetual assertions regarding the purity and sanctity of Mary’s physical body. I will utilize the decorative program of the Chora Church in Istanbul as a visual manifestation of perpetual concerns with Mary’s purity within Christian Byzantium. As the resident monastic order at the Chora, Cappadocian devotion to the Virgin necessarily influenced the iconographic and thematic content of the church’s decorative program.1 The particular nature of Cappadocian Marian devotion is thus relevant to my discussion of the Life of Mary Cycle, the Protoevangelium, and the Virgin’s role as Theotokos within Byzantium and the Eastern Church. In order to contextualize the Life of Mary cycle at the Chora, I will briefly investigate other historical and contemporary visual examples of the subject. I will then discuss one mosaic scene from the Life of Mary cycle at Chora: the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple (fig. 1). While the entire narrative cycle can be said to be preoccupied with communicating the purity of the Virgin, this scene– wherein the young Mary is brought at the age of three to the temple in order to be raised there– particularly emphasizes the holy nature of the Virgin’s early life.2 Visual analysis of this scene will echo the perpetual concern with the Virgin’s physical purity that I will establish through my investigations of The Protoevangelium of James, debates 1 Anne Karahan, Byzantine Holy Images: Transcendence and Immanence, (Leuven: Peeters, 2010): 10. 2 Robert Ousterhout, The Art of the Kariye Camii, (London: Scala, 2002): 107. 3 surrounding Mary as the Theotokos within the early Christian church, and Marian Devotion within Cappadocian theology. My aim is argue that the Life of Mary cycle at the Chora encapsulates an underlying ambivalence towards the Virgin as a spiritual figure within the early Christian church in general, and Byzantium in particular. Furthermore, I will assert that this ambivalence is reflective of attitudes towards Byzantine women in general. It thus provides fascinating insight into the influence of gender in the construction of early Christian theology, as well as the role of women in the Byzantine Empire. In order to proceed with my discussion of the societal and theological implications of the Life of Mary cycle at Chora, I will briefly introduce the history of the church and its decorative program. The Chora Church The Chora Church was first consecrated in the fourth century as the main church of the Chora Monastery. The monastery was historically inhabited by the Cappadocian order and was apparently founded by Saint Theodore, the alleged uncle of Empress Theodora, wife of Justinian. 3 The church is constructed on an unstable, inclined plot by the Adrianople Gate. At the date of it’s consecration it lay outside the city walls of Constantinople, and was thus called “Chora”, which in Greek translates as “field” or “country.”4 During the reign of Justinian, an earthquake destroyed the original structure of the church. The present naos was re-constructed in the Komnenian Period. It was built in two subsequent phases, one during the late eleventh-century and the other during the early twelfth century. The architectural structure of the church is a modified Greek cross plan–the arms of the structure are relatively short and of an equal length (fig.2).5 3 Ousterhout, Kariye Camii, 11. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. 4 When the Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453, the Chora was one of the first ecclesiastical structures to fall under the control of conquering troops. The church was adapted for use as a mosque during the early sixteenth century. It is thus frequently referred to by its Arabic name, Kariye Camii.6 In 1568 Stephan Gerlach, a German visitor to the Chora Church, wrote of the site’s magnificent frescoes and mosaics. His account of the building evidences the remarkable survival of its dazzling decorative program and unique architectural structure.7 Moreover, Gerlach’s text evidences the toleration of the Chora’s mosaics and frescoes by the Muslim believers that utilized the site. The decorative program was, like the mosaics and frescoes at Hagia Sophia, covered with plaster and paint as late as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.8 Few Byzantine mosaics and frescoes have survived Istanbul’s turbulent history. As such, those at the Chora provide unique insight into the religious and political dynamics of the empire. The church was secularized in 1945 and now operates as a museum. Beginning in 1948, the Dumbarton Oaks Field committee undertook an extensive investigation of the Chora. The committee performed focused archaeological excavations of the site. They also rehabilitated the physical structure of the church, and cleaned its frescoes and mosaics.9 The committee’s work on the Chora has provided a wealth of information regarding elements of the decorative program commissioned by Theodore Metochites in 1315–the very aspects of the church most relevant to my discussion of the Life of Mary cycle and historical pre-occupations with the purity of the Virgin within Byzantium. 6 Ibid, 16. 7 Robert Ousterhout, “A Sixteenth Century Visitor to the Chora,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 39 (1985), 117. 8 Ousterhout, Kariye Camii, 16. 9 Paul A. Underwood, “Notes on the Work of the Byzantine Institute in Istanbul:1955-56,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 12 (1958), 32, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1291123. 5 Theodore Methochites’ Decorative Program at the Chora Theodore Metochites was a great intellectual and spiritual leader, as well as one of the wealthiest men in Constantinople during the Late Palaeologan period.10 During the first decade of the fourteenth-century, Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos appointed him as the leader of the Cappadocian Monastery at the Chora. Methochites’ most important contribution to the Chora was his design for the decorative program of the church, a significant portion of which has survived up until the present day.11 His fresco and mosaic program–begun in 1315 and completed by 1321– constitutes a dazzling example of the striking mannerism characteristic of the Palaeologan era.12 The church is dually dedicated to Christ and the Virgin; however, the monastery proper is devoted to the Virgin Theotokos (or God-bearer).13 Metochites asserted that the main purpose of the decorative program of the Chora was to relate “in mosaics, and painting, how the Lord himself became a mortal man on our behalf.”14 The program thus includes Old Testament scenes that prefigure the lives of both Christ and the Virgin Mary, as well as narrative cycles from both figures’ lives, and scenes of the Last Judgment.15 Mosaics cover the walls of the naos, while fresco is utilized in the decoration of the parekklesion. The church boasts a mosaic image of The Virgin Hodegetria, as well as one of The Virgin Blachernitissa– a less common iconic type that represents Mary in an orant position, holding the Christ-child in her lap (fig. 3 and fig 4).16 The Virgin Blachernitissa is inscribed:“ Mother of God, Dwelling Place of the Uncontainable.” This epithet speaks the particular significance of the Virgin 10 Ousterhout, Kariye Camii, 19. 11 Ibid, 16. 12 Ibid, 19. 13 Ibid, 13. 14 Ibid. 15 Ibid, 19. 16 Ousterhout, Robert, “ The Virgin of the Chora,” in The Sacred Image East and West, ed. Robert Ousterhout and Leslie Brubaker, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 91. 6 as the Theotokos to the Eastern Church and the Cappadocian order.17 I will discuss these particular topics in more detail in subsequent sections of my paper because they complicate any consideration of the religious and political implications of the Life of Mary Cycle at the Chora Church. The inner narthex of the church boasts three separate sections dedicated to the birth, childhood, and pregnancy of the Virgin Mary. The beginning of the narrative cycle is damaged; however, it represents one of the most complete extant versions of the narrative in the Eastern Church.18 The cycle continues in the outer narthex with mosaics of the Infancy of Christ, as well as scenes from the Ministry of Christ.19 The scenes portrayed in the Life of Mary cycle expand on narrative accounts of the Virgin’s life found in canonical Christian gospels. The artists who created the cycle certainly drew on descriptions of Mary’s early life found in the apocryphal gospel The Protoevangelium of James.20 Both the Protoevangelium and the Chora Life of Mary cycle demonstrate a persistent preoccupation with the purity of the Virgin. This thematic strain speaks to the particular inspiration for the apocryphal gospel, as well as the implications of its considerable influence in Byzantium with regard to attitudes towards the Virgin in particular, and women in general. In order to further illuminate the specific content of the Protoevangelium, I will investigate circumstances surrounding the text’s creation. Additionally, I will discuss its significant impact on Marian devotion in the early Christian church.
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