Salvific imagery in the Barberini Psalter (Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barb. gr. 285) Emma Maayan Fanar* University of Haifa, Israel UDC 75.057(=14’04) 271.2-282-535.8 75.046.3 DOI 10.2298/ZOG1438031M Оригиналан научни рад The article explores iconography of the illuminated initial debate concerns the full-page illustration, placed in the letters in the tenth-eleventh-century Italo-Byzantine psalter tenth or thirteenth–fourteenth century according to its (Vatican, Barber. gr. 285). It is argued that its initial letters stylistic irregularities.2 clearly express Byzantine attitude to personal prayer, a plea for salvation and the struggle with evil through the words of Stylistic and paleographic analysis clearly shows that Psalms, despite the mixture of models, most of which are cer- the manuscript was made in Southern Italy, and is highly tainly of non-Byzantine character. influenced by Latin decorative elements.3 Certain stylis- Keywords: illuminated initial letters, Byzantine psalter, tic and thematic features link it to the Benevento-Capua psalms, salvation region. This applies especially to the dog-like figures in- corporated into initial letters, so common in Benedictine 4 A small-sized (107 × 83 mm) Greek psalter from manuscripts produced in Monte Cassino, while deep ac- the Vatican library, Barberini gr. 285, is an outstanding quaintance of Antique heritage and its reinterpretation in example of Italo-Byzantine art. The manuscript con- the Barberini initial letters may be paralleled in the elev- sists of 159 folios of parchment, gathered in quires of six, enth–twelfth century architectural sculpture of Campania.5 eight and ten leaves. The text is written in one column, In this paper I wish to show that the Byzantine atti- 21-23 lines per page, in minuscule script of tiny letters in tude to personal prayer, a plea for salvation and the strug- brown-grayish ink, with rubrication and headings in red gle with evil through the words of Psalms, is clear, despite ink. Each and every psalm of this modest psalter starts with a striking pen-drawn illuminated initial letter ex- zeitenritus Konstantinopels im Licht der Beiträge H. Schneiders und O. ecuted in the brown ink of the text or in the red ink of Strunk – eine Relecture, in: Crossroad of Cultures. Studies in Liturgy and the headings, most probably by the scribe. Red contour Patristics in Honor of Gabriele Winkler, ed. H.-J. Feulner, E. Velkovska, lines and dots are added to emphasize the initial letters. R. F. Taft, Rome 2000, 345–367. On the problem of such dual struc- Sometimes, inaccurate traces of blue and green colors can tures v. S. Parenti, The Cathedral Rite of Constantinople: Evolution of a Local Tradition, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 77 (2011) 449–469. be seen on the draperies of the figures and bodies of some 2 Tenth century according to Dewald, Grabar and Lowden animals. Some initials are strictly ornamental, decorated [J. Lowden, Observations on Illustrated Byzantine Psalters, Art Bul- with interlaces, knots, and more, others consist of human letin 70/2 (1988) 260; thirteenth century according to Lazarev, who and zoomorphic figures, or of human–animal fighting, attributes the whole psalter to the eleventh century (idem, Istoria forming a letter by means of the interplay of the bodies. vizantiĭskoĭ zhivopisi, Moscow 1986, 129); early fourteenth century ac- cording to Weitzmann]. For description of the miniature and summary All lack almost entirely any Biblical or Christological nar- of proposed dating v. A. Cutler, The Aristocratic Psalters, Paris 1984, rative. The only full-page illustration, of David fighting 80. Due to its stylistic uniqueness, this miniature deserves separate Goliath, precedes Ps 151 (fol. 140v). Another miniature treatment. Proposals have been made that the miniature was inserted may well have existed at the beginning of the manuscript, into this manuscript from another, and might not be contemporane- but this is missing today together with its first pages. ous with the rest of the Psalter. In my opinion there is no ground for such a statement; the miniature is contemporary with the rest of the The exact date of the psalter remains unclear. Its manuscript, merging two different models: the frame, which is most script, headpieces and initial letters have been attributed certainly of Late Roman origin (perhaps monumental fresco), and its to the late tenth–early eleventh century,1 while the main incorporated biblical scene. This accords nicely with the scheme well known in Byzantium at least since the seventth century and applied with minor differences in the Historical (Aristocratic) Psalters of the * [email protected] tenth–fourteenth centuries. I elaborate on this subject in the forthcom- 1 A. Grabar, Les manuscrits grecs enluminés de provenance ita- ing research on the stylistic issues of the Barberini Psalter. 3 lienne (IXe–XIe siècles), Paris 1972, 55–56, no. 36; E. T. Dewald, A Frag- E. Maayan Fanar, Byzantine Pictorial Initials of the Post-Icono- ment of a Tenth-Century Byzantine Psalter in the Vatican Library, in: clastic Period (from the End of the 9th Century to the Early 11th Century), Medieval Studies in Memory of A. Kingsley Porter, ed. R.W. K. Wilhelm, Jerusalem 2004, 144–157 (unpublished doctoral dissertation). Cambridge 1939, I, 139–150; E. Follieri, Byzantina et Italograeca. Studi 4 G. Cavallo, Between Byzantium and Rome: Manuscripts from di filologia e di paleografia, Rome 1997, 206. The Barberini Psalter was Southern Italy, in: Perceptions of Byzantium and Its Neighbors (843- studied in respect of the dual system of liturgical psalmody attested in 1261): The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia, ed. O. Z. Pevny, New it (corresponding to the Jerusalem Cathedral and to the Great Church York 2000, 142. in Constantinople) by O. Strunk, The Byzantine Office at Hagia Sophia, 5 D. F. Glass, Romanesque Sculpture in Campania, Patrons, Pro- DOP 9/10 (1956) 186–187; G. M. Hanke, Der Odenkanon des Tag- grams and Style, University Park 1991. 31 ЗОГРАФ 38 (2014) [31–44] the mixture of models, most of which are certainly of Some anthropomorphic initials recall Late Antique non-Byzantine character. sources as well. However, the artist applies these models The only other illuminated psalter with initial letters so inventively that they become almost unrecognizable. A securely attributed to Southern Italy – Paris, Bibliothèque case in point is the representation of the rivers of Babylon. nationale de France, gr. 41,6 dated about 120 years later On fol. 129 three heads in profile emerge from the side than the Barberini Psalter—differs from it stylistically and of the vertical stem of the letter Epsilon (substituting its conceptually. The two share some basic motifs and letter horizontal bars).14 This letter opens Ps 136: “By the rivers structures, which are also much more widely distributed of Babylon, there we sat....” Water flows from the mouths (birds forming Alphas and Epsilon-hasta; human figures of the top and bottom profiles, indicating that these are especially composing Epsilons and Kapas; faces enclosed personifications of the rivers. in Omicrons; in Paris. gr. 41 human faces and figures A similar approach to river personification is evi- clearly depicted as saints, identified by a halo); however, dent in the ninth–tenth-century manuscript from Ath- both psalters have a unique repertoire of motifs which re- ens, the National library, cod. 211 (fol. 84v). Instead of main unparalleled. They rely on distinctive models and representing the whole body, only a head, which is placed present different visual interpretations of psalms. inside a jar, is depicted. Water streams from its mouth, Most zoomorphic initials can be regarded as pure- representing the fountain of life. This distortion of the ly decorative, but some seem to refer clearly to the Early generally accepted classical god, leaning on a jar from Christian vocabulary of symbols. For example, initial which water pours, is also found in the eleventh-century Omicron on fol. 37 is formed of a hart, resting on its legs Theodore Psalter. Here the river personifications appear and turning its head backwards. The initial opens Ps 41: in profile, all naked, with water springing directly from “As the hart earnestly desires the fountains of water, so my their mouths (e.g., fol. 176). Such depictions can also be soul earnestly longs for thee, O God.”7 The hart, in various found, though rarely, in the tenth–eleventh-century Latin forms, appears in the Byzantine and Carolingian psalters manuscripts.15 as an illustration to the same verse,8 and also in Paris. gr. 41 (fol. 48). The hart is related to the words of the psalm, Initial Iota, replaced by a column set on a stepped symbolizing a prayer that overcomes longing.9 This sym- base and topped with a profile facing upwards, can be 16 bolism of the hart goes back to the early Christian vocabu- traced to Late Antique column altars (fol. 126v). The lary, where it appears as one of the symbols of Christ.10 initial opens Ps 133:1: “Behold now, bless ye the Lord, Another example is an eagle with a halo and raised all the servants of the Lord, who stand in the house of wings, opening Ps 61: “Shall not my soul be subjected to the Lord....” In the Utrecht Psalter people lifting up their God? For of him is my salvation” (fol. 53).11 An eagle, heads are depicted in the columned facade of a church. It the well-known Roman imperial symbol,12 also found in seems plausible that the Barberini artist takes the idea of early Christian art as a symbol of Kingship and of Christ prayer but minimizes visual depiction of “the house of the himself, here symbolizes God protecting a soul.13 Lord” to a column, merely adapting it to the shape of the initial letter copied from a Late Antique model.17 6 The only study on this psalter is by Maria Evangelatou [ead- Anthropomorphic imagery is the main form of ini- em, The Exegetical Initials of Codex Parisinus graecus 41: Word and Im- tial letter illumination in the manuscript.