DOI issue:
No. 4
DOI article:Ratkowska, Paulina: An East Christian diptych with the Heortological Cycle
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17160#0124
27. The Warsaw diptych, de taił
of the fig. 2
25. Detail of the
fig. 8
26. Detail of the
fig. 21
Taking into consideration the retarded penetration of iconographic novelties into Minor arts,
wilii ivory scultpure among them, and, especially, into provincial workshops, we have to close
the date of our diptych within the limits of the XIth — the first half of the XIIth century.
The author of the present article is an adherent of the ea-Ker dating on the ground of the sty-
iistical similarities, discussed above, found in the Xth century Greek Asiatic manuscripts.
The Warsaw diptych is an icon of the Feasts of Our Lord, the cycle of the holy episodes,
commemorated in great festivals of the Greek Church51. The Feasts were chosen of the ample
context of Gospel narratives to show the fundamental concepts of faith. The selection of these
scenes was made in Byzantium and in the East on different principles. In contradistincton
to the Eastern group, expanding the themes of the Incarnation and the Passion,, the Byzan-
tine one preserved to some extent the narrative character in showing all periods of Christ's
life. Such a Byzantine version of the cycle we are faced with on the Warsaw diptych.
The number of the Feasts (having usually symbolical associations) becamc canoiiical only
sińce the XIVth century. From the IVth, when Pseudo-Chrysostom enumerates the seven
Feasts, their number increases to ten. (VIIIth century) and then to twelve (XI-XII centuries).
At. the beginning of the XIIth century the typicon at Grottaferrata mentions fourteen sacred
events, and the Pantocrator typicon on Mount Athos of the same century — eighteeni2. The
most popular was, however, the cycle of the twelve Feasts, which, as the time went on,
became the rule, sanctjfied by writings of iconographers.
The developed heortological cycle was almost constantly composed of the Annunciation,
the Nativity. the Meeting with Symeon, the Baptism, the Transfiguration, the Entry into
Jerusalem, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Ghost^3.
The remaining components, supplementing the number to twelve or morę, were chosen accor-
ding to actual needs or to local traditions. On the Warsaw diptych the nucleus of the cycle
js supplemented with five scenes, inserted, generally speaking, without breaking off the chro-
51. G. Millet, op. c>(., L. I, ch. II, p. 15-30.
52. G. Millet, op. cii., ibidem, p. 19-20.
53. G. Millet, op. cii., ibidem, p. 20—25; the cmissicn of the Pentecost, however in different context, is dissussed by E. Ki-
tzinger, „The Mosi-ics of the CapeUa Palatina in Palermo'", The Arl BulUtin, XXX, 1949, No 4, p. 209 sq., fn. 55.
110
of the fig. 2
25. Detail of the
fig. 8
26. Detail of the
fig. 21
Taking into consideration the retarded penetration of iconographic novelties into Minor arts,
wilii ivory scultpure among them, and, especially, into provincial workshops, we have to close
the date of our diptych within the limits of the XIth — the first half of the XIIth century.
The author of the present article is an adherent of the ea-Ker dating on the ground of the sty-
iistical similarities, discussed above, found in the Xth century Greek Asiatic manuscripts.
The Warsaw diptych is an icon of the Feasts of Our Lord, the cycle of the holy episodes,
commemorated in great festivals of the Greek Church51. The Feasts were chosen of the ample
context of Gospel narratives to show the fundamental concepts of faith. The selection of these
scenes was made in Byzantium and in the East on different principles. In contradistincton
to the Eastern group, expanding the themes of the Incarnation and the Passion,, the Byzan-
tine one preserved to some extent the narrative character in showing all periods of Christ's
life. Such a Byzantine version of the cycle we are faced with on the Warsaw diptych.
The number of the Feasts (having usually symbolical associations) becamc canoiiical only
sińce the XIVth century. From the IVth, when Pseudo-Chrysostom enumerates the seven
Feasts, their number increases to ten. (VIIIth century) and then to twelve (XI-XII centuries).
At. the beginning of the XIIth century the typicon at Grottaferrata mentions fourteen sacred
events, and the Pantocrator typicon on Mount Athos of the same century — eighteeni2. The
most popular was, however, the cycle of the twelve Feasts, which, as the time went on,
became the rule, sanctjfied by writings of iconographers.
The developed heortological cycle was almost constantly composed of the Annunciation,
the Nativity. the Meeting with Symeon, the Baptism, the Transfiguration, the Entry into
Jerusalem, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Ghost^3.
The remaining components, supplementing the number to twelve or morę, were chosen accor-
ding to actual needs or to local traditions. On the Warsaw diptych the nucleus of the cycle
js supplemented with five scenes, inserted, generally speaking, without breaking off the chro-
51. G. Millet, op. c>(., L. I, ch. II, p. 15-30.
52. G. Millet, op. cii., ibidem, p. 19-20.
53. G. Millet, op. cii., ibidem, p. 20—25; the cmissicn of the Pentecost, however in different context, is dissussed by E. Ki-
tzinger, „The Mosi-ics of the CapeUa Palatina in Palermo'", The Arl BulUtin, XXX, 1949, No 4, p. 209 sq., fn. 55.
110