Ars: časopis Ústavu Dejín Umenia Slovenskej Akadémie Vied (44.2011)

3. LHz-Ag A /A Tůř Dí?^g3Rr A /%v?Mt,%n?
gA^? Ař GojphBcoÁ A O#o 777, RA3ř/í^ /b/g /O^ <rř%/%ry. AÍ//AA
ByygnLßg// J/^A/Mb/ßgR, G^3. L^/. G/A. 3^/čZ 33.

into visual terms, the Haemorrhoissa iconography is
faced with two problems. That Christ is not the per-
former of the miracle, but that the Haemorrhoissa
takés the "power" from Him, had implications for
the image. Unlike, for example, the healing of the
paralytic, the artist cannot simply show Christ healing
someone; he has to visualise a healing that overtakes
Him, something sudden, a flash, unexpected and
extremely ephemeral. An ivory relief from the early
5^ Century shows a second variant in the Haemor-
rhoissa iconography [Fig. 2] 7 The Woman with
an Issue of Blood creeps behind Christ, her hands
stretched out to Him and touching his cloak. Her

' SCHILLER, G.: A GbRU/bz/Hr/, /.
/zc%, GA/9Ao2, BipEfw, HTrAr ^3
Aí/Ag/gj. London 1971, p. 179.

desire and fear are palpable in the abject posture, one
hand extended to Christ and the other clutching at
her veil, her almost pulling on Chrisťs garment and
the way in which she tilts her head back, turning a
face expressive of both despair and détermination
up to Him. But the posture of Christ, in particular,
adds to the strongly dynamic character of the scene.
In contrast to the fresco, He is hete not shown in
the accepting approval of a gesture of blessing; his
walking motion and backwards glance show Him
in the moment that He is surprised by the touch
and "feit the power pass out of Him". This is even
clearer in an ivory bookbinding from the 9^ Century;
if Christ was unmistakably the active performer and
initiator of a miracle in the scene of the healing of a
lame man, then He almost vanishes from the picture
when healing the Haemorrhoissa A The combined
représentation of the healing of the Haemorrhoissa
on the one side and the raising of Jairus' daughter on
the other, underknes the specihcity of the interaction
between Christ and the Haemorrhoissa. A miniature
m the GoipATAčA ^ 0/% 777, produced in Reichenau
around 998 — 1000, shows both in one scene: Jesus
in the middle of the composition raising the girl, the
Haemorrhoissa approaching from the bottom left
while, small and almost hidden by the throng, she
very carefully touches the hem of his mantle with
just one hnger [Fig. 3] A Christ is at the crossroads
of the two heakngs, his hand raised to the girl in a
gesture suggestive of the transfer of power, his body
turned towards the Haemorrhoissa where He feels
power being drawn from Him. The contrast between
the planned and unshowy healing of the one and
the creeping-and-quickly-touching-with-one-hnger
of the other is very clear.
Where the image was already challenged to cap-
ture in a single scene all that unfolds in a textual se-
quence of stages, then the interrupting nature of the
Haemorrhoissa's touch is even harder to represent.
For although in one iconographie variant emphasis
is placed on the Haemorrhoissa's initiative by show-
ing Christ walking away from her, the most common
visual image preferred to visualise the story,
including Chrisťs approval and blessing. Various mo-
^ Ibidem, p. 179.
Ibidem, p. 180.

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