DOI Artikel:
Smorąg Różycka, Małgorzata: ‘She begged the child: Let me embrace thee, Lord!’ A Byzantine icon with the Virgin Eleousa in the Poor Clares Convent in Cracow
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44936#0016
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On the basis of written and iconographie sources, four
different images of the Virgin Mary can be associated with
the Blachernai shrine in the Byzantine capital: the Virgin
Orans; the Episkepsis, with Christ Emmanuel in a medal-
lion on her breast; the Nikopoia; and the Eleousa.58 The Si-
nai Monastery icon seems to suggest that it was precisely
the Eleousa type that was given the toponymie epithet of
the Blachernitissa. Yet the depiction of the Child in this
painting, shown with straight legs, departs from the later
representations of the type, as for example in the icon of
the Virgin of Vladimir.
Another location in Constantinople where the Virgin
Eleousa enjoyed special veneration was the Monastery
of the Pantocrator, erected around 1118-1136 by emperor
John II Komnenos and his wife Eirene. Three intercon-
nected churches were built in the monastery: one on the
south, dedicated to Christ Pantocrator, one on the north,
dedicated to the Virgin Eleousa, while the imperial tomb
church, dedicated to Archangel Michael, was located be-
tween them.
From a typikon conferred on the monastery in 1136 one
can learn about an especially venerated icon of the Virgin
Eleousa, kept in the eponymous church.59 It follows from
the wider context that there were two images of the Ele-
ousa in the church, one of which, apparently portable, was
located in the nave, and another, executed in mosaic, per-
haps on wall, was in the narthex.60 Regrettably, the typikon
does not mention any details informing about the forms
of the depictions of the Virgin in these images.
Some clues, however, can be inferred from a wall paint-
ing in the monastery of Saint Neophytos at Paphos on Cy-
prus, dated to the last decade of the twelfth century, which
depicts St Stephen the Younger with an icon of the Vir-
gin Eleousa.61 * * An unrolled scroll below bears the follow-
ing inscription in Greek: Ei tis ou proskyni ton k[yrio]n
58 The theme of the enthroned Blachernitissa has been extensively
developed by I. Zervou Tognazzi, ‘L’iconografia e la “vita” delle
miracolose icone della Theotokos Brefokratoussa e Odighitria’,
Bolletino della Badia Greca di Grottaferrata, 40 N.S., 1986, pp.
262-287; see also M. Smorąg Różycka, Bizantyńsko-ruskie mi-
niatury Kodeksu Gertrudy. O kontekstach ideowych i artystycznych
sztuki Rusi Kijowskiej XI wieku, Cracow, 2003, pp. 175-177.
59 For the typikon see P. Gautier, ‘Le typicon du Christ Saveur
Pantocrator’, Revue des Études Byzantines, 1974, 32, pp. 1-145;
‘Typikon of the Imperial Monastery of the Pantocrator’, transi,
and with a commentary by R. Jordan, in Byzantine Monastic
Foundation Documents: A Complete Translation of the Surviving
Founder’s Typika and Testaments, ed. by J. Thomas, A.C. Hero,
Washington, 2000 (Dumbarton Oaks Studies, 35), pp. 725-781.
60 M.N. BuTYRSKii, ‘Vizantiiskoe bogosluzhenie u ikony soglasno
tipiku monastyria Pantokratora 1136 goda’, in Chudotvornaia iko-
na v Vizantii i Drevnei Rusi, ed. by A.M. Lidov, Moscow, 1996, pp.
145-158.
61 On the monastery of Saint Neophytos at Paphos see C. Mango,
E.J.W. Hawkins, ‘The Hermitage of St. Neophytos and its Wall
Paintings’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 20, 1966, pp. 119-206;
8. The Virgin Eleousa, c. 1500, Ioannina, bishop’s palace chapel. Pho-
to: after Byzantine and Post-byzantine Art, Athens, 1985
[...] k[ai] ten achranton autou M[ete]ra en ikoni perigrap-
to e[st]o anathema (‘If a man does not reverence our Lord
Jesus Christ and his spotless Mother depicted on an icon,
let him be anathema’).62 According to his Life, Stephen the
Younger came to the world thanks to a miraculous inter-
vention of an icon of the Virgin from the Blachernai. Ste-
phens mother repeatedly offered prayers to ‘the Virgin
Mary holding her son in her arms’. One day the Moth-
er of God appeared to the pious woman in the flesh, in
human form (homoioplastôs), foretelling the birth of her
son. Since then the miraculous Blachernai image of the
Theotokos became permanently associated with the life
of the future defender of images. It should be noted that
the painter of the Cypriot fresco depicted the Blacher-
nai image in the type known from the icon of the Virgin
of Vladimir: Mary, hugging the Child against her cheek,
holds him on her right arm.
In the Cracow icon, the left hand of the Child is nes-
tled in Mary’s right. N. P. Likhachev traces the origins
of this feature to the Italo-Greek school, in which a type
of a miraculous icon with the Roman Virgin - a copy of
R. Cormack, Writing in Gold. Byzantine Society and its Icons,
London, 1985, pp. 215-251.
62 C. Mango, E.J.W. Hawkins, ‘The Hermitage of St. Neophytos’,
pp. 156-157, figs 41 and 43 (as in note 61) (quotation on p. 156); R.
Cormack, Writing in Gold, p. 243, fig. 94 (as in note 61).
On the basis of written and iconographie sources, four
different images of the Virgin Mary can be associated with
the Blachernai shrine in the Byzantine capital: the Virgin
Orans; the Episkepsis, with Christ Emmanuel in a medal-
lion on her breast; the Nikopoia; and the Eleousa.58 The Si-
nai Monastery icon seems to suggest that it was precisely
the Eleousa type that was given the toponymie epithet of
the Blachernitissa. Yet the depiction of the Child in this
painting, shown with straight legs, departs from the later
representations of the type, as for example in the icon of
the Virgin of Vladimir.
Another location in Constantinople where the Virgin
Eleousa enjoyed special veneration was the Monastery
of the Pantocrator, erected around 1118-1136 by emperor
John II Komnenos and his wife Eirene. Three intercon-
nected churches were built in the monastery: one on the
south, dedicated to Christ Pantocrator, one on the north,
dedicated to the Virgin Eleousa, while the imperial tomb
church, dedicated to Archangel Michael, was located be-
tween them.
From a typikon conferred on the monastery in 1136 one
can learn about an especially venerated icon of the Virgin
Eleousa, kept in the eponymous church.59 It follows from
the wider context that there were two images of the Ele-
ousa in the church, one of which, apparently portable, was
located in the nave, and another, executed in mosaic, per-
haps on wall, was in the narthex.60 Regrettably, the typikon
does not mention any details informing about the forms
of the depictions of the Virgin in these images.
Some clues, however, can be inferred from a wall paint-
ing in the monastery of Saint Neophytos at Paphos on Cy-
prus, dated to the last decade of the twelfth century, which
depicts St Stephen the Younger with an icon of the Vir-
gin Eleousa.61 * * An unrolled scroll below bears the follow-
ing inscription in Greek: Ei tis ou proskyni ton k[yrio]n
58 The theme of the enthroned Blachernitissa has been extensively
developed by I. Zervou Tognazzi, ‘L’iconografia e la “vita” delle
miracolose icone della Theotokos Brefokratoussa e Odighitria’,
Bolletino della Badia Greca di Grottaferrata, 40 N.S., 1986, pp.
262-287; see also M. Smorąg Różycka, Bizantyńsko-ruskie mi-
niatury Kodeksu Gertrudy. O kontekstach ideowych i artystycznych
sztuki Rusi Kijowskiej XI wieku, Cracow, 2003, pp. 175-177.
59 For the typikon see P. Gautier, ‘Le typicon du Christ Saveur
Pantocrator’, Revue des Études Byzantines, 1974, 32, pp. 1-145;
‘Typikon of the Imperial Monastery of the Pantocrator’, transi,
and with a commentary by R. Jordan, in Byzantine Monastic
Foundation Documents: A Complete Translation of the Surviving
Founder’s Typika and Testaments, ed. by J. Thomas, A.C. Hero,
Washington, 2000 (Dumbarton Oaks Studies, 35), pp. 725-781.
60 M.N. BuTYRSKii, ‘Vizantiiskoe bogosluzhenie u ikony soglasno
tipiku monastyria Pantokratora 1136 goda’, in Chudotvornaia iko-
na v Vizantii i Drevnei Rusi, ed. by A.M. Lidov, Moscow, 1996, pp.
145-158.
61 On the monastery of Saint Neophytos at Paphos see C. Mango,
E.J.W. Hawkins, ‘The Hermitage of St. Neophytos and its Wall
Paintings’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 20, 1966, pp. 119-206;
8. The Virgin Eleousa, c. 1500, Ioannina, bishop’s palace chapel. Pho-
to: after Byzantine and Post-byzantine Art, Athens, 1985
[...] k[ai] ten achranton autou M[ete]ra en ikoni perigrap-
to e[st]o anathema (‘If a man does not reverence our Lord
Jesus Christ and his spotless Mother depicted on an icon,
let him be anathema’).62 According to his Life, Stephen the
Younger came to the world thanks to a miraculous inter-
vention of an icon of the Virgin from the Blachernai. Ste-
phens mother repeatedly offered prayers to ‘the Virgin
Mary holding her son in her arms’. One day the Moth-
er of God appeared to the pious woman in the flesh, in
human form (homoioplastôs), foretelling the birth of her
son. Since then the miraculous Blachernai image of the
Theotokos became permanently associated with the life
of the future defender of images. It should be noted that
the painter of the Cypriot fresco depicted the Blacher-
nai image in the type known from the icon of the Virgin
of Vladimir: Mary, hugging the Child against her cheek,
holds him on her right arm.
In the Cracow icon, the left hand of the Child is nes-
tled in Mary’s right. N. P. Likhachev traces the origins
of this feature to the Italo-Greek school, in which a type
of a miraculous icon with the Roman Virgin - a copy of
R. Cormack, Writing in Gold. Byzantine Society and its Icons,
London, 1985, pp. 215-251.
62 C. Mango, E.J.W. Hawkins, ‘The Hermitage of St. Neophytos’,
pp. 156-157, figs 41 and 43 (as in note 61) (quotation on p. 156); R.
Cormack, Writing in Gold, p. 243, fig. 94 (as in note 61).