DOI article:
Mierzejewska, Bożena: Remarks on decoration of the Western Wall of Narthex in the Faras Cathedral
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18950#0163
The choice of the image of the Virgin and Child, the iconographic sign of
the Incarnation, as most adeąuate for the apse created in a place of closed
doors, was not without symbolic significance. The representation has been
chosen as underlying the connection of the Incarnation with the Eucharistic
offering which became possible thanks to the Virgin. The importance of this
choice is attested by the later redecoration of the niche in the narthex, which
had to be repainted completely twice and repaired several times, most
probably because of the indurability of mud-plaster especially in the curved
parts of the wali. The figurę of the Virgin in the main apse of the Faras church
has been changed too (according to Michałowski the first version showed her
sitting among the apostles, the later showed her standing with raised hands,
and the last preserved version represents her as a standing Hodegetria with
Christ Emmanuel on her left arm protecting a Nubian king)34 so originally the
standing Virgin with Child was shown both in the apse of the narthex and in
the main apse of the church.
Another reason for the choice of the Marian theme as most suitable for
painting on the closed doors could be the Old Testament typology present in
the writings of the Church Fathers and many Christian authors. To the group
of types of the Virgin belonged the type of the Closed Gate based on (Ezk
44:2): “This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter
in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered by it.” According
to the Christian authors the closed gate is Theotokos, the instrument of the
Incarnation, the immaculate Virgin who became the Throne of Wisdom or the
Royal Throne in front of which stood the angels looking at their Lord and
Creator.35 Mary is also called the true Ark of the Word of God, not the old
Ark of the Covenant covered with gold, but the Immaculate Tabernacle of
Almighty sheltered by cherubim like the Ark in the Holy of Holiest (1K
6:27).36 The Book of Exodus describes the Ark as a kind of wooden box over
which a golden slab called the Seat of Mercy (hebr. kapporet, in LXX
hilasterioń) was placed. The slab was the place from which God spoke to
Moses and it was sheltered by the wings of the two cherubim placed “in the
two ends of the mercy seat” as a guard to it. In the Letter to the Romans (Rm
3:26) it is Jesus Christ who is called hilasterioń, the instrument of mercy. The
human eyes on the wings of the archangels seem to be particular for Nubia
and appear freąuently in Nubian representations of these creatures, probably
as a substitute for peacock feathers. The motive of the eyes characterises both
34 Michałowski, Faras..., op.cit., pp. 126- 140.
” G. Babic, “L’image symboliąue de la ’Porte Fermee’ a Saint-Clemet d’Ohrid”, in Synthronon,
op.cit., pp. 145-151.
36 Teksty o Matce Bożej. Ojcowie Kościoła greccy i syryjscy, transl. and ed. by W Kania,
Niepokalanów 1981, p. 69. The metaphor of the holy arch recurs in the inscription in the
Virgin’s church of Blachernae: “An arch hath appeared holier than that of old, not containing
the tables written by God’s hand but having receive within it God Himself”, cf. S. Der
Nersessian, “Two Images of the Virgin in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection”, Dumbarton Oaks
Papers, 14, 1960, pp. 71 f.
161
the Incarnation, as most adeąuate for the apse created in a place of closed
doors, was not without symbolic significance. The representation has been
chosen as underlying the connection of the Incarnation with the Eucharistic
offering which became possible thanks to the Virgin. The importance of this
choice is attested by the later redecoration of the niche in the narthex, which
had to be repainted completely twice and repaired several times, most
probably because of the indurability of mud-plaster especially in the curved
parts of the wali. The figurę of the Virgin in the main apse of the Faras church
has been changed too (according to Michałowski the first version showed her
sitting among the apostles, the later showed her standing with raised hands,
and the last preserved version represents her as a standing Hodegetria with
Christ Emmanuel on her left arm protecting a Nubian king)34 so originally the
standing Virgin with Child was shown both in the apse of the narthex and in
the main apse of the church.
Another reason for the choice of the Marian theme as most suitable for
painting on the closed doors could be the Old Testament typology present in
the writings of the Church Fathers and many Christian authors. To the group
of types of the Virgin belonged the type of the Closed Gate based on (Ezk
44:2): “This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter
in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered by it.” According
to the Christian authors the closed gate is Theotokos, the instrument of the
Incarnation, the immaculate Virgin who became the Throne of Wisdom or the
Royal Throne in front of which stood the angels looking at their Lord and
Creator.35 Mary is also called the true Ark of the Word of God, not the old
Ark of the Covenant covered with gold, but the Immaculate Tabernacle of
Almighty sheltered by cherubim like the Ark in the Holy of Holiest (1K
6:27).36 The Book of Exodus describes the Ark as a kind of wooden box over
which a golden slab called the Seat of Mercy (hebr. kapporet, in LXX
hilasterioń) was placed. The slab was the place from which God spoke to
Moses and it was sheltered by the wings of the two cherubim placed “in the
two ends of the mercy seat” as a guard to it. In the Letter to the Romans (Rm
3:26) it is Jesus Christ who is called hilasterioń, the instrument of mercy. The
human eyes on the wings of the archangels seem to be particular for Nubia
and appear freąuently in Nubian representations of these creatures, probably
as a substitute for peacock feathers. The motive of the eyes characterises both
34 Michałowski, Faras..., op.cit., pp. 126- 140.
” G. Babic, “L’image symboliąue de la ’Porte Fermee’ a Saint-Clemet d’Ohrid”, in Synthronon,
op.cit., pp. 145-151.
36 Teksty o Matce Bożej. Ojcowie Kościoła greccy i syryjscy, transl. and ed. by W Kania,
Niepokalanów 1981, p. 69. The metaphor of the holy arch recurs in the inscription in the
Virgin’s church of Blachernae: “An arch hath appeared holier than that of old, not containing
the tables written by God’s hand but having receive within it God Himself”, cf. S. Der
Nersessian, “Two Images of the Virgin in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection”, Dumbarton Oaks
Papers, 14, 1960, pp. 71 f.
161