Constanţa Costea Bucharest [email protected] CONSTANTINOPOLITAN ECHOES IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY MOLDAVIAN ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE AKATHISTOS HYMN* The Akathistos Hymn, a fi h century creation, in a recently pro- posed chronology1 knew its fi rst pictorial parallels centuries later, in late Byzantium, as a consequence of the inventiveness and speculative tendencies of the Constantinopolitan workshops around 1300. A peculiar interest in the illustration of the twenty four strophes of this poetic text, showed in Moldavia during the reign of Peter Rareș (1527–1538; 1541–1546) and Jeremiah Movilă (1595–1606), resulted in eleven mural cycles: nine in the exterior paintings (Probota, St. George and St. Demetrius in Suceava, Humor, Moldoviţa, Baia, Arbore, Voro- neţ, Suceviţa) and two in the interior decoration (Părhăuţi, Suceviţa). The examination of these frescoes revealed a so far unknown con- nection between a signifi cant number of versions pertaining to the fi gurative structure of the hymn, and various types of 14th century Byzantine sources: an icon (Praise of the Theotokos with the Akathiston in the Uspensky Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, with its monu- mental parallel in the Ferapontov Monastery), certain miniatures (Ms. Synodal. gr. 429, the Tomić Psalter in Moscow and the Serbian Psal- ter in Munich), and a number of frescoes (Dečani, Mateiče, Peribleptos in Ochrid, Markov Manastir).2 No evidence has been so far identifi ed to indicate the way in which 16th century artists or theologians in Romanian lands became ac- quainted with the Byzantine representations of the Akathiston. One (*) A Romanian version of this paper was published in: CAIETE ARA. Arhitectură. Restaurare. Arheologie 1 (Bucharest, 2010) 99–108. (1) L. M. Peltomaa, The Image of the Virgin Mary in the Akathistos Hymn (Leiden—Boston—Köln, 2001) chapter 4. (2) C. Costea, Sub semnul Miresei nenuntite. Despre reprezentarea Im- nului Acatist în Moldova secolului XVI, Ars Transsilvaniae 19 (Cluj, 2009) 99– 108. 131 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 03:03:24AM via free access 132 Scrinium VΙI–VIII.1 (2011–2012). Ars Christiana may simply conclude — scrutinizing the preserved pictorial mate- rial — that their interest was, on the whole, directed to versions of increased originality, as those in the icon or the manuscripts. Beyond the structure of illustrations, the cycles under consideration sometimes include details from the life of the Capital of the Eastern Christendom — referring to miracles or miracle-working images — the presence of which seems to be generated through multiple and not always visual means. A hardly recognizable representation depicts stanza 20 (kontakion 11: All praise falleth short, O holy King, when it stretcheth toward the bounds of thy bountiful compassion; in that, if we off er thee praises equalling the sands in number...3) at Parhauti:4 Christ is standing, fl anked by bishops, with a raised font surrounded by si ing human fi gures in the forefront and a spring in the proscenium; the same subject has been identifi ed at Arbore:5 Christ stands among bishops, assisting a group of people buried up to the shoulders/neck around a spring (Fig. 1). Both myste- rious representations have been found to source in the illustration to the corresponding scene of the Moscow Byzantine icon (Fig. 2):6 it is the miracle worked in the monastery of Christ Philanthropos in Old Serail, where Christ appeared (or there was an acheiropoietos icon of Christ standing) at the place where holy waters fl owed alongside the seashore, springing from under the church and curing, with the sands around, of leprosy and many other diseases.7 Although in the Mol- davian representations the “panel-wall” with the detached fi gure of Christ is diff erent in aspect, the basic elements of the subject have been (3) See the English version in: Book of Divine Prayers and Services of the Catholic Orthodox Church of Christ (New York, 21958). (4) In this monument the colour layer is almost completely covered by dust and soot. (5) This Arbore image bears no inscription and the episode seems to be casually situated in the sequence of scenes, which are otherwise disorderly associated in the second part of the hymn. (6) The identifi cation of the detail in the Uspensky panel was made through 14th–15th century reports of Russian pilgrims in Constantinople: Э. П. САЛИКОВА, Отражение исторических константинопольских реалий в иконографии иконы последней четверти XIV века «Похвала Богоматери с Акафистом», in: Государственные музеи Московского Кремля. Материалы и исследования 7 (Москва, 1990) 47–50. (7) R. Janin, Les Monastères du Christ Philanthrope à Constantinople, RÉB 4 (1946) 151–162. Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 03:03:24AM via free access Constanta Costea 133 Fig. 1. Arbore, The Akathistos Hymn, strophe 20 Fig. 2. The Uspensky Cathedral icon, detail: The Akathistos Hymn, strophe 20 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 03:03:24AM via free access 134 Scrinium VΙI–VIII.1 (2011–2012). Ars Christiana preserved. Yet, if the Părhăuţi version is quite close to the Uspensky icon, the detail showing the diseased buried to the neck in the sands in the Arbore scene cannot be found in the Russian pilgrims’ relations. It has a diff erent source: the very practice of appealing for this super- natural cure occurred on the Transfi guration day, that continued long a er the Fall of the City and was registered by some 17th century West- ern travellers.8 This development of the miraculous experience could have been known from now lost documents, if not from direct reports. Salikova’s identifi cation of the Constantinopolitan miracle in the Us- pensky icon meets an unexpected confi rmation in the Arbore unparal- leled iconographic detail. Another Constantinopolitan feature seems to have been inserted in the illustration to the stanza 17 of the Akathistos Hymn (eikos 9: Behold, the eloquent with wide speech have become in thy comprehension like fi sh without voice) at Humor, where the composition displays an un- usual structure (Fig. 3). It is mainly inspired by the Mateiče redaction, unique in the Byzantine cycles of the Akathiston for the association of the philosophers’ scene with the procession of the Virgin Hodegetria icon.9 In the axis of the composition the version in Moldavia sets an icon-bearer, supporting an image of the same iconographic type of the Virgin on a tall staff and extending his arms as if he was crucifi ed. His gesture recalls the reports of Russian pilgrims (Stephen of Novgorod, ca. 1350) about the Tuesday Offi ce dedicated to the Hodegetria icon, palladium of Constantinople, in the Hodegon Monastery of the Virgin: “...they take out this icon every Tuesday... place it... on the shoulders of a single man and he extends his arms as if crucifi ed.”10 The eleva- tion of the Hodegetria icon in procession and its carrying along the streets of Constantinople by a “crucifi ed man” is depicted on the late 13th century hapax representation in the narthex of the Blachernae church near Arta (Fig. 4). From the memory of the Hodegetria proces- sion in Constantinople, the Humor version preserved the fragment of the icon bearer, associated here with the topos of icon veneration. (8) J. de Thévenot, Relation d’un voyage au Levant (1665) (Amsterdam, 21727) 71. (9) A. Pätzold, Der Akathistos-Hymnos. Die Bilerzyklen in der Byzantinischen Wandmalerei des 14. Jahrhunderts (Stu gart, 1989) 50, fi g. 69. (10) R. Janin, La Géographie écclesiastique de l’Empire Byzantin. Première partie. Le Siège de Constantinople et le Patriarcat Œcuménique, III. Les Églises et les Monastères (Paris, 1969) 204. Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 03:03:24AM via free access Constanta Costea 135 Fig. 3. Humor, The Akathistos Hymn, strophe 17 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 03:03:24AM via free access 136 Scrinium VΙI–VIII.1 (2011–2012). Ars Christiana The same type of the Virgin and Child appears in the scene of the Siege of Constantinople which illustrates the prooemium to the Akathis- ton (To the Mighty Leader in Ba le),11 preserved at Humor, Moldoviţa and Arbore12 (Figs. 5–7): this is the icon carried in procession on the City walls as a protector from pagan invasions. Three a acks on the Capital City were mainly known to the Christian oikoumene a er the Fall of Constantinople: the onslaught of the joint army of Avars, Slavs and Persians in 626 under Emperor Herakleios, the a ack of the Arabs in 674–678 under Emperor Constantine Pogonatos, and another as- sault of the Arabs in 717 under Emperor Leo III the Isaurian.13 Though (11) During the offi ce of the Akathiston in the fi h week of the Great Lent, the prooemium “To the Mighty Leader in Ba le” is chanted in the beginning, then three times during the offi ce (a er eikoi 3, 6, and 9, according to the 16th century Triodion from the Neamţ monastery, Ms. in the Library of the Romanian Acad- emy BAR sl. 111) and at the end of the hymn. In the Moldavian cycles its il- lustration appears at the end, a er 24 stanzas, supposedly for the amplitude of the military redaction and in order to put forth the implied political allusions. (12) In the case of the church at Baia, the advanced damage makes the image undecipherable. (13) The “history fragment” was introduced as a reading in the offi ce of the Akathiston during the Great Lent. But the Neamţ Triodion (see n. 11) does not include the Siege narration. The version in Moldavia, somehow diff erent from the Synaxarium, was incorporated in the Old Slavonic Sborniks of the time (Ms. in the library of Dragomirna Monastery sl.