BOOK REVIEWS

Davezec, Bertrand. Greek Icons after the Fall of Constantinople. Selectionsfrom the Roger Cabal Collection. Houston TX: The Menil Collection, 1996. Pp. 89 + 58 illustrations. $19.95 cloth.

Menil Collection, established in 1987 to house the permanent col- Thelection of John and Dominique Menil, received national attention when its "Byzantine Fresco Chapel" was unveiled in February 1997. The Chapel, designed by Fran?ois de Menil, contains the only intact Byzantine frescoes in the entire western hemisphere. The thirteenth-century frescoes were painstakingly restored and installed in the dome and apse of an abstract, translucent glass version of the original Byzantine chapel in Lysi, Cyprus. The "Byzantine Fresco Chapel" is a monumental complement to the Menil Collection's impressive concentration of icons and other art objects from the Byzantine and post-Byzantine world. The Chapel opening was preceded in 1996 by an exhibition of icons catalogued by the chief curator of the Menil Collection, Bertrand Davezac, in Greek Icons after the Fall of Constantinople. The twenty-five icons catalogued in this handsome volume were all, with one exception, produced after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Dating from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries, and created in the principal centers of the Greek world, these icons represent an excellent chronological and regional cross-section of post-Byzantine art and devo- tion. Several of the seventeenth and eighteenth-century icons from the Greek mainland and the Balkans are signed and dated, furthering our understanding of styles and subjects characteristic of that period. The one chronological exception is an encaustic icon of the Virgin and Child flanked by St. Nicholas. Dated to around 600 AD, and published here for the first time, this icon is said to be the earliest extant image of St. Nicholas, evidence for whose cult had not previously been available prior to the sev- enth or even eighth century. This is a delightfully beautiful little volume. The plates (twenty-six color, thirty-two black and white) are all of outstanding quality, and the icons, ranging from images of saints to scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin, are all remarkable, not least of all for their striking fusion of the artistic styles of East and West. Byzantine prototypes are intriguingly merged with Venetian scenography, and Davezac perceptively notes that our "postmodern sensibility [may be] more responsive to the confluence of styles and mentalities than the aesthetics of carlier generations." Indeed, Davezac's excellent introduction and commentary transcends the genre of the exhibition catalogue-art history is skillfully supplemented with insights from popular devotion, liturgy, and theological aesthetics. With a fine eye for detail, Davezac provides extensive cross-referencing to, and reproduc- tions of, cognate images and ancient models, thereby linking the post- Byzantine tradition with its late-antique and medieval sources. Some minor errors or points of clarification should be noted, however. The martyr St. Charalambos is described, for instance, as the "bishop of Magnesia" based on the "lozenge-shaped piece of embroidery below his right knee" (correctly identified as an epigonation), but the Greek hagiolog- ical and liturgical tradition universally identifies this saint as a priest. Oddly, St. Hermolaos, who also wears the epigonation, is not said to be a bishop. Although Sts. Victor and Vincent are identified (incorrectly) as "deacons," they are nevertheless said to be clad in "episcopal pallia." In fact, what appear to be pallia is merely decorative gold trim along the edges of their (secular) tunics. Davezac's English translation of the signature on an icon of St. Athanasios, "By the hand of the holy deacon George," should like- wise be emended, in part, to "deacon-monk," the Greek hierodiakonos being a technical term for a monastic deacon. Similarly, the English translation of the signature affixed to an icon of the "Last Supper" reproduces the signa- ture from the icon of the "Birth of the Virgin," leaving the former signature untranslated. Even more surprisingly, in Davezac's description of the icon of the "Dormition of the Virgin," the Roman Catholic doctrine of the immaculate conception is incorrectly attributed to "Orthodox theology" which actually rejects such a teaching. Two figures flanking the Virgin in the central tondo of the icon "In Thee Rejoiceth All Creation" are identified as Adam and Eve, but are more likely the Virgin's parents, Joachim and Anna. The use of the adjective "Athanasian" to describe the work of the Council of Ephesus is somewhat misleading; "Cyrilline" (i.e., Cyril of Alexandria, the president of that Council) seems more appropriate. Finally, the identi- fication of two figures as "Turkish-looking Jews" in an icon of the "Beheading of Saint John the Baptist" is problematic. One of the two is turned com- pletely away from the viewer, so that we can see only the back of his head. The other is said to be wearing a "turban embroidered with pseudo-Arabic motifs," although these are not visible in the reproduction provided.

Harvard Divinity School Nicholas Constas

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