DOI Heft:
Nr. 1-2
DOI Artikel:Dobrzeniecki, Tadeusz: Maiestas Crucis in the mural paintings of the Faras Cathedral (now in the National Museum in Warsaw): some iconographical notes
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18859#0026
6. Miniaturę, Paris, Bibliotheąue Nationale, Ms gr 1128, fol. 30
motifs, by which the differentia specifica of the Nubian concepts of the Cross may be explained.
This symbolism resulted mostly from the Church doctrine and a specific devotion coloured
with the magical praetices78.
Maiestas Crucis in Nubia betrays features which in the present state of our knowledge of
monuments seem to be quite specific and conditioned by the local cult of the Cross. Our know-
ledge of this cult is still fragmentary but as a result of our considcrations we may venture to
say that the meaning and form in the Nubian representations may be explained by the personal,
spiritual attitude of the faithful of that period toward the Cross, the attitude based upon an
old tradition known from numerous literary sources. A conviction expressed already by Ignatius
of Antioch must be recalled here that the Cross is a miraculous instrument (mechanism) which
introduces the soul of the Saved into Heaven. This attitude toward the Cross was formulated in
an unusually pertinent and profound way in the four following metaphors by the anonymous
author of the eulogies written under the influence of a lost text of Hyppolite's Trspi tou 7raa)£a79.
The Cross is:
78. G. Giambernardine, "La croce e il crocefisso presso i Copti". Studia Orientalia Christiana Aegyptiaca, Collectanea, VII,
1962, p. 47—101; I. H. Dalmais, "La glorification dc la saintc Croix dans l'Eglise copte", La Maison-Dieu, LXXV, 1963,
p. 109—118; some Nubian Crosses discussed there were painted on the Eastern walls of the churches testifying, perhaps,
the persistenee of a custom known among Christians of the early epoch, on which see E. Peterson, "Die geschichtliche
Bedeutung der jiidischcn Gebctsrichtung", Friihkirclie. Judentum und Gnosis, Rom-Freiburg-Wien, 1959, p. 1—14; the
same, "Das Kreuz und das Gebet nach Osten", ibid,, p. 15—35.
79. Reijncrs, op. cit., p. 198—214; The eulogy on the Cross in the Paschal Hornily inspired by Hippolytns.
80. F. J. Dolger, "Das Anhangekreuzchen der heiligcn Maltrina und ihr Ring mit der Kreuzpartikel", Antike und Chrislentum,
III, 1932, p. 81—116; W. Baur, "Amulctt", Wiirlerbuch su den Schriften des Neuen-Testaments und der iibrigen urchri-
stlichen Literatur, Berlin, 1958, col. 1716.
81. Allusion to the Jst Epistle to Corinlliians, IX, 24: Nescitis quoniam hi qui in stadio currunt, omncs (juidem currunt, sed
unus accipit bravium".
<pUA0(XT7]ptOV
80
aTTjPLY(J.0C
Ppa°Eiov81
Tp07taiOV.
20
motifs, by which the differentia specifica of the Nubian concepts of the Cross may be explained.
This symbolism resulted mostly from the Church doctrine and a specific devotion coloured
with the magical praetices78.
Maiestas Crucis in Nubia betrays features which in the present state of our knowledge of
monuments seem to be quite specific and conditioned by the local cult of the Cross. Our know-
ledge of this cult is still fragmentary but as a result of our considcrations we may venture to
say that the meaning and form in the Nubian representations may be explained by the personal,
spiritual attitude of the faithful of that period toward the Cross, the attitude based upon an
old tradition known from numerous literary sources. A conviction expressed already by Ignatius
of Antioch must be recalled here that the Cross is a miraculous instrument (mechanism) which
introduces the soul of the Saved into Heaven. This attitude toward the Cross was formulated in
an unusually pertinent and profound way in the four following metaphors by the anonymous
author of the eulogies written under the influence of a lost text of Hyppolite's Trspi tou 7raa)£a79.
The Cross is:
78. G. Giambernardine, "La croce e il crocefisso presso i Copti". Studia Orientalia Christiana Aegyptiaca, Collectanea, VII,
1962, p. 47—101; I. H. Dalmais, "La glorification dc la saintc Croix dans l'Eglise copte", La Maison-Dieu, LXXV, 1963,
p. 109—118; some Nubian Crosses discussed there were painted on the Eastern walls of the churches testifying, perhaps,
the persistenee of a custom known among Christians of the early epoch, on which see E. Peterson, "Die geschichtliche
Bedeutung der jiidischcn Gebctsrichtung", Friihkirclie. Judentum und Gnosis, Rom-Freiburg-Wien, 1959, p. 1—14; the
same, "Das Kreuz und das Gebet nach Osten", ibid,, p. 15—35.
79. Reijncrs, op. cit., p. 198—214; The eulogy on the Cross in the Paschal Hornily inspired by Hippolytns.
80. F. J. Dolger, "Das Anhangekreuzchen der heiligcn Maltrina und ihr Ring mit der Kreuzpartikel", Antike und Chrislentum,
III, 1932, p. 81—116; W. Baur, "Amulctt", Wiirlerbuch su den Schriften des Neuen-Testaments und der iibrigen urchri-
stlichen Literatur, Berlin, 1958, col. 1716.
81. Allusion to the Jst Epistle to Corinlliians, IX, 24: Nescitis quoniam hi qui in stadio currunt, omncs (juidem currunt, sed
unus accipit bravium".
<pUA0(XT7]ptOV
80
aTTjPLY(J.0C
Ppa°Eiov81
Tp07taiOV.
20