Rehav Rubin Iconography As Cartography

Rehav Rubin Iconography as Cartography: Two Cartographic Icons of the Holy City and its Environs Abstract The sacredness of Jerusalem to three religions, and its veneration by members of all the different sects and divisions of the Christian world, gave it a special, unique status as a Holy City. This status has drawn the attention of an untold number of Christian authors, who published an enormous number of compositions about it. In many of these both earthly and heavenly Jerusalem were depicted, in many maps, views, and other graphic images. The study of the cartographical evidence related to Jerusalem has hitherto overlooked the Greek material, which includes some interesting specimens. The paper presents two 18th century large icons painted on wood which are preserved in the Monastery of the Holy Cross and in the Monastery of St. George in the Old City of Jerusalem. Both icons contain map-like representations of Jerusalem and its environs, focusing on the depiction of the holy sites. They were made by Greek Orthodox monks in Jerusalem, in the Greek language and for Greek audience, and reflect the geographic and cartographic concept of the Holy City which the Greek Orthodox wished to convey. Graphic depictions, maps, illustrations of holy sites within the city of Jerusalem and in its environs, as well as panoramic views of the city have been the subject of considerable scholarly works. Yet, to date, most research has focused primarily on Western European works, Catholic and Protestant alike,1 while largely ignoring graphic depictions of Jerusalem produced in Eastern Europe or drawn by members of the Greek Orthodox Church. This, despite the fact that the Greek Orthodox Church was, from the post-Crusader period until the beginning of the modern era, Palestine's primary Christian denomination, and the Greek Orthodox community the country's largest Christian community. In an attempt to rectify what is an unfortunate oversight in Institute for Neohellenic Research N.H.R.F. Eastern Mediterranean Cartographies Tetradia Ergasias 25/26 (2004) P- 347-378 REHAV RUBIN scholarly study, an effort was made to track down graphic descriptions of Jerusalem and the Holy Land produced by members of the Greek Orthodox Church. The search unearthed a wealth of material, including, manuscripts of illustrated pilgrimage books (proskynetaria),2 printed pilgrimage books,3 maps, plans and sketches incorporated in historical essays,4 and, finally, icons of a patently cartographic nature. The following article considers two large icons painted by Greek Orthodox priests, who lived in 18th century Jerusalem. The first icon incorporates a large number of holy sites in Palestine, with special reference to Jerusalem and its environs; the second, concentrates on Jerusalem and its immediate environment. As both icons present graphic images of geographic space we find it appropriate to study them as maps, using cartographic methods. AN ICON FROM THE MONASTERY OF THE HOLY CROSS The Monastery of the Holy Cross nestles in a small valley in the heart of modern Jerusalem, and is currently overlooked by the Knesset and Israeli Museum. According to Christian tradition, the Monastery marks the spot, where the legendary tree, the tree whose wood was used to make the cross upon which Jesus was crucified, grew. The monastery itself is very old, dating back well into the Byzantine era. Surrounded by thick, impregnable walls, it can only be entered through a small, shielded gate. Today, the monastery is the property of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. However, from the Middle Ages and until the 17th century, it belonged to a group of Georgian monks. Indeed, the celebrated 12th century Georgian national poet, Shota Rostaveli was, and remains, the monastery's most famous resident.5 Not too long ago, part of the Monastery's top floor was renovated and turned into a small museum, which is open to visitors. The museum consists of a single large hall and among its many exhibits is a large icon of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. The icon, is painted on wooden panels and enclosed in an arch- 348 CARTOGRAPHIC ICONS OF THE HOLLY CITY fig. 1: The Icon from the Monastery of the Holy Cross. like, irregular frame. It measures 279 cm along its base, and 172 cm from the base to the tip of the arch. The artist industriously filled every inch of the icon, careful not to leave any empty spaces whatsoever. The icon originally hung elsewhere, in an unknown location, probably, given its shape, on the wall of some vaulted chamber. The icon, which constitutes, in effect, a conceptual map of the Holy Land, depicting a tour of its principal sacred sites, is a unique example of ecclesiastical iconography (fig. 1). The centre of the icon is a large figure of Jesus on the cross, and this is its main feature. However, the whole area of the icon is full of miniatures, each depicting a specific holy site or, alternatively, describing some Christian tradition or sacred incident, which took place at a particular site. This series of 349 REHAV RUBIN sites and traditions gives the icon its map-like contents, which will be discussed below. Each site, or tradition, is identified by a tiny caption in Greek, set alongside the pictogram. The text of the captions is written in yellow, against a red-orange background. Many of the captions are blurred and almost impossible to read. However, thanks to Tsaferis, who painstakingly and successfully deciphered the captions, this no longer presents a problem and most of the sites depicted in the icon can be quite easily identified.6 At the bottom right hand corner of the icon is a cartouche. The cartouche, coloured red and enclosed in a yellow frame, contains a Greek inscription also in yellow. The inscription is seven lines long, though, unfortunately, only the last three lines are in any way legible. These attribute the painting to the protosynkelos Gregory of St. Maura (an island in the Ionian Sea, south of Corfu, known today as Lefkada) and date it, 10 July 1779.7 Father Gregory was the abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Cross, during the late 18th century, and his name also appears on another of the Monastery's icons. As the icon has distinctly cartographic features, and seems to be a kind of conceptual map, its general orientation, as well as the relative distances and directions between the sites depicted in the icon, should be reviewed and established.8 In general, the map faces eastwards. The Mediterranean is pictured on the bottom of the icon and the River Jordan on its top. The artist scrupulously maintained this basic eastward orientation throughout the icon, so that north = left; south = right; east = up; west = bottom. Yet, the sites within the icon are placed in a rather schematic manner. The same holds true in respect of the relative distances between the sites. In this respect, rather than offer a realistic cartographic description, the artist not only put those sites, which he considered more important, in a central location, but made them larger and thus they occupied a larger portion of the icon. The following analysis is based upon the detailed study of the icon's numerous graphic details and accompanying Greek captions. In the centre of icon, Jesus is depicted on the Cross. At the 350 CARTOGRAPHIC ICONS OF THE HOLLY CITY base of the cross, Mt. Calvary (Golgotha) is depicted, with the skull of Adam at its foot. Below it, the Monastery of the Holy Cross, which is where the icon was painted, is depicted. The figure of Jesus, which is enclosed in a halo, is flanked by Mary on the left, and St. John the Evangelist on the right. Above the Crucifixion scene, is a picture of St. John the Baptist baptizing Jesus in the River Jordan. Finally, directly under tip of the icon's arch, the Holy Spirit, in the form of the dove, is seen descending from a brilliantly shinning sun. These scenes, which describe the most important events in the life of Jesus (the Baptism and the Crucifixion) form the icon's central vertical axis. This axis, which is, without doubt, an ideologically inspired axis, totally dominates the icon's composition, determining the orientation and placement of the other sites within the icon. Finally, by placing the Monastery of the Holy Cross at the base of the axis, the artist effectively turned it into the cornerstone of the entire icon. In order to facilitate the description of the remaining sites in the icon, the icon will be divided into several imaginary horizontal strips. Beginning with the bottom strip, each strip will be described from left to right (fig. 2). The First Strip The Mediterranean, along with a few ships approaching land, is pictured on bottom left hand corner of the icon. Along the shore are a scattering of houses, identified by a caption as the town of Jaffa (Η ΓΙΑΦΦΑ). It seems that Italian or some other Western European language accounts for the unusual spelling of the name Jaffa (usually Ιοππα). Interestingly, a map printed almost 200 years earlier, in the book of Bernhard von Breydenbach, contains an almost identical picture of the town, which is similarly drawn with a pilgrims' ship docked alongside its shore.9 It is possible that the Holy Cross painter, was acquainted with the Breydenbach map, which was fairly well known at the time. On the other hand, the resemblance may be due simply to the fact that pilgrim ships did, as a rule, dock at Jaffa. To the right of the Jaffa, a caravan of camels is seen slowly 351 REHAV RUBIN I.Jaffa 14.

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