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BYZANTINE CAMEOS and the AESTHETICS of the ICON By BYZANTINE CAMEOS AND THE AESTHETICS OF THE ICON by James A. Magruder, III A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland March 2014 © 2014 James A. Magruder, III All rights reserved Abstract Byzantine icons have attracted artists and art historians to what they saw as the flat style of large painted panels. They tend to understand this flatness as a repudiation of the Classical priority to represent Nature and an affirmation of otherworldly spirituality. However, many extant sacred portraits from the Byzantine period were executed in relief in precious materials, such as gemstones, ivory or gold. Byzantine writers describe contemporary icons as lifelike, sometimes even coming to life with divine power. The question is what Byzantine Christians hoped to represent by crafting small icons in precious materials, specifically cameos. The dissertation catalogs and analyzes Byzantine cameos from the end of Iconoclasm (843) until the fall of Constantinople (1453). They have not received comprehensive treatment before, but since they represent saints in iconic poses, they provide a good corpus of icons comparable to icons in other media. Their durability and the difficulty of reworking them also makes them a particularly faithful record of Byzantine priorities regarding the icon as a genre. In addition, the dissertation surveys theological texts that comment on or illustrate stone to understand what role the materiality of Byzantine cameos played in choosing stone relief for icons. Finally, it examines Byzantine epigrams written about or for icons to define the terms that shaped icon production. The study finds that Byzantine cameos are exceptionally homogeneous: nearly all in relief, representing sacred persons against a blank ground, and typically cut in green stones. Where middle Byzantine cameos are most homogeneous, later Byzantine examples ii show more variety of stone, color and style. While theological sources do not construct a symbolism of materials, they generally associate the Prophet Daniel's dream of a stone not cut by human hands with Christ's reign through the mediation of icons in precious materials. Byzantine poetry, on the other hand, emphasizes the icon as a renewal of Creation. The dissertation concludes that Byzantine cameos were made not so much for personal protection as for public display of divine power. They reveal icons as traces of that presence in Creation, renewing humanity in the present age. Advisor: Henry Maguire Second Reader: Nino Zchomelidse iii Preface Because my research draws on a wide variety of sources in languages that are less familiar to Western scholars, I have avoided most abbreviations except for the standard American journal of Byzantine studies: DOP, that is Dumbarton Oaks Papers. J. P. Migne's Patrologia Graeca is abbreviated as PG and his Patrologia Latina as PL. The Clavis patrum graecorum is CPG. In transliterating Byzantine words and names, I have followed alphabetic rather than phonetic conventions and Anglicized universal Christian forenames, like Mary and John. A vexing issue of terminology and thought in Byzantine art is the inflation of epithets for the Theotokos, several of which refer to icons kept in famous monasteries of Constantinople and which are used inconsistently both in the sources and modern literature. The most famous icon comes from the Blachernae Monastery, the Blachernitissa, which seems to have featured a full-length Theotokos orant. I have chosen to use Blachernitissa to refer to both full-length and bust portraits of the Theotokos with arms outstretched or in front of her body, as this seems to be the most consistent use of the term in Byzantine sources. Similarly we can understand the Hodegetria from the Monastery of the Hodegon district as an image of the Theotokos holding the Christ child in her left arm and pointing to him with her right hand. Because hodegoi means “guides,” the gesture came to be associated with her gesture of pointing out the Christ and is an easy way to remember the type. A variant of her holding Him in her right arm is usually called the Dexiokratousa, literally right-handed holding. Another early iconography that emerged from the period of Iconoclasm featured the Theotokos holding a clipeated iv portrait of the Pantokrator or Christ child and was often termed the Nikopoios or victory maker. By the twelfth century, bust-length images of the Theotokos with a medallion of Christ over her chest and womb became widespread and were frequently called Platytera or wider than the heavens after an epithet in hymnography. One also finds many images of her turned to the side with arms upraised, sometimes to a cloud with the hand of God or Christ, which often are termed Hagiosoritissa. When the Theotokos turns sideways and holds a scroll, it is sometimes called Antiphonites after the function of her icon responding to another icon of Christ in the naos of certain churches. Terminology for gemstones also can prove confusing, because scholars often repeat terms from older catalogs without reference to the field of gemology. Museums now generally separate the geological species of nephrite (jade) from jadeite, although some people continue to refer to both as jade. Bloodstone is a solid green species of chalcedony (a cryptocrystalline quartz) found in the Rhodope Mountains of Thrace that border Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. Bloodstone also is used to refer to the green stone with yellow inclusions. When the dark green chalcedony exhibits red inclusions like speckles, flecks or bands, it is called bloodstone. Bloodstone and bloodstone appear from a deep green to almost black stone with a waxy luster. Prase or chrysoprase is another green variety of chalcedony, although it is a rather light and bright green due to the inclusions of nickel in its formation. Serpentine is a similar but distinct species of gem that appears mottled or streaked with various shades of green and comes from the Greek province of Thessaly, which was known since Antiquity for its green marble. I use the appellation jasper largely for the red variety, unless otherwise noted. The other major variety of stones used for Byzantine cameos are the multilayered v chalcedony gems known as onyx or sardonyx. Onyx refers to the stone with alternating layers of black and white to light blue used for many Roman state cameos. Sardonyx indicates a stone with alternating layers of rust to brown and white. It was popular for Hellenistic imperial cameos and continued to be popular into Roman times. The attraction to using either stone was the ability of the lapidary to model a range of tones in subtly varied depths. Because this project investigates fields as diverse as alchemy and geology, in addition to more traditional historical sources, it has indebted me to many scholars. I have received generous help accessing Byzantine cameos from Georgi Parpulov at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Stephen Zwirn at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC; Helen Evans of the Metropolitan Museum, New York City; Richard Witschonke of the American Numismatic Society, New York City; Robert Ousterhout of the University of Pennsylvania; staff of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Antje Scherner of the Museumslandschaft Hessen in Kassel; Martin Hirsch in the Staatliche Münzsammlung, Munich; Michał Miśliński of the Instytut Sztuki PAN, Krakow; and Yuriy Piatnitsky of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. I was humbled to receive accommodation and guidance from Charalambos Bakirtzis of the 9th Ephoreia of Byzantine Antiquities on a study trip to Thessaloniki in June 2005. Maria Vassilaki graciously invited me to attend a conference on Byzantine sculpture at the University of Thessaly, Volos in June 2009. That trip was generously funded by a Sadie and Louis Roth Fellowship from Johns Hopkins University. At Johns Hopkins University, I was fortunate to begin my study of alchemy with advice from Lawrence Principe. Recently I have benefited from the kind nudges of Mitchell Merback and the insightful comments of Nino Zchomelidse. I am grateful to vi Henry Maguire for shepherding the dissertation through unforeseen twists and turns, as well as to Eunice Maguire for her friendly encouragement over the years. Finally, Laurel encouraged me to pursue doctoral studies and provided the financial stability to complete them. vii Table of Contents Abstract................................................................................................................................ii Preface.................................................................................................................................iv List of Figures......................................................................................................................ix Introduction.........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1. Cameos of the Middle Byzantine Period (9th–12th c.).......................................13 Materials and Subjects of Byzantine Cameos.........................................................32 Transition from Late Antique to Byzantine Glyptic..............................................39 Style and Dating of Middle Byzantine Cameos......................................................46 Daniel in the Lions' Den.........................................................................................61 Conclusions............................................................................................................68
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