DOI Heft:
No. 4
DOI Artikel:Ratkowska, Paulina: An East Christian diptych with the Heortological Cycle
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17160#0117
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14. Atheniensis 211, No 19, detail 15. The Warsaw diptych, detail of the fig. 1
(after A. Grabar. Miniatures...)
"uniform work (fig. 5, 28). The representations of the obverses betray thcir dependence on two
different trends of Mid-Byzantine art, making different use of the artistic heritage of Anti-
quity. We have to exclude from our considerations the enthroned Hodegetria of the lef t wing
who with Her idealized face, slender proportions, linear treatment of the draperles of the throne
and seemingly flattened relief is obviously the copy of a classicizing model. (The existenec of
the model and its probable connection with the Malerische Gruppe is attested by another ivory,
close to the Chambery Theotokos—the reversed Hodegetria in Berlin26, dated by Goldschmidt
and Weitzmann to the XIth century and ascribed by them to a provincial (South Russian?)
workshop. A faint reflex of this style is seen also in other images of the Chambćry diptych,
which — and especially those of the upper part of the left rectangle — clearly differ from the
Hodegetria, revealing instead in their style as well as in the iconography a considerable mimber
of affinities with the Warsaw piece. The Christological scenes of the Chambery diptych are,
compositionally, more or le0s strict counterparts of the Warsaw representations and some-
times even in a distinct iconographic context single figurę appears, nearly identical with those
of our diptych (fig. 8,9,29 — 39). The figurę style is akin in both cases. The figures
of Chambery diptych are squat, with big heads on hanched, narrow bodies, drapped
in moderately folded garments. The deformation is even moro advanced and can not be wholly
explained by smaller dimensions of the compartments, smali as they are, indeed. It is rather
a next step in the dissoludon of the classical remnants of the style. The attempt to an ideali-
sation of faces, the graphical folding of draperies, the spatial gestures of the Apostles in the
Ascension must be ascribed to the influence of the model of the Hodegetria. Movements and
gestures, even if more frozen than on the Warsaw diptych, give nevertheless the representa-
tions an expression similar to the one penetrating the Warsaw compartments. The expression
is intensified by strong chiaroscuro contrasts, sińce the .relief is even deeper undercut, its con-
26. A. Goldschmidt - K. Weitzmann, op. cii., No. 29, p. 32-33, pl IX.
103
14. Atheniensis 211, No 19, detail 15. The Warsaw diptych, detail of the fig. 1
(after A. Grabar. Miniatures...)
"uniform work (fig. 5, 28). The representations of the obverses betray thcir dependence on two
different trends of Mid-Byzantine art, making different use of the artistic heritage of Anti-
quity. We have to exclude from our considerations the enthroned Hodegetria of the lef t wing
who with Her idealized face, slender proportions, linear treatment of the draperles of the throne
and seemingly flattened relief is obviously the copy of a classicizing model. (The existenec of
the model and its probable connection with the Malerische Gruppe is attested by another ivory,
close to the Chambery Theotokos—the reversed Hodegetria in Berlin26, dated by Goldschmidt
and Weitzmann to the XIth century and ascribed by them to a provincial (South Russian?)
workshop. A faint reflex of this style is seen also in other images of the Chambćry diptych,
which — and especially those of the upper part of the left rectangle — clearly differ from the
Hodegetria, revealing instead in their style as well as in the iconography a considerable mimber
of affinities with the Warsaw piece. The Christological scenes of the Chambery diptych are,
compositionally, more or le0s strict counterparts of the Warsaw representations and some-
times even in a distinct iconographic context single figurę appears, nearly identical with those
of our diptych (fig. 8,9,29 — 39). The figurę style is akin in both cases. The figures
of Chambery diptych are squat, with big heads on hanched, narrow bodies, drapped
in moderately folded garments. The deformation is even moro advanced and can not be wholly
explained by smaller dimensions of the compartments, smali as they are, indeed. It is rather
a next step in the dissoludon of the classical remnants of the style. The attempt to an ideali-
sation of faces, the graphical folding of draperies, the spatial gestures of the Apostles in the
Ascension must be ascribed to the influence of the model of the Hodegetria. Movements and
gestures, even if more frozen than on the Warsaw diptych, give nevertheless the representa-
tions an expression similar to the one penetrating the Warsaw compartments. The expression
is intensified by strong chiaroscuro contrasts, sińce the .relief is even deeper undercut, its con-
26. A. Goldschmidt - K. Weitzmann, op. cii., No. 29, p. 32-33, pl IX.
103