Modus: Prace z historii sztuki (19.2019)

Sofia (see: Figurę 13), where the relief depiction of Saint George and Demetrius
was distinguished from the section with scenes of the saints lives using a very
wide frame with a floral ornament, imitating reliefs from the fourteenth century.27
The inserted element was also framed in a sixteenth-century icon from the Byz-
antine Museum in Athens (see: Figurę 14), where the lost image was replaced by
the Virgin of the Passion from the seventeenth century.28 Such a distinction can
also be found in the icon from the Panagia Chrysopolitissa church in Larnaca
(see: Figurę 15), where representations of prophets and hymnographers were added,
in the sixteenth century, to the image of the Virgin in an orans position with the
Child in a medallion.29 It seems that in all these examples, the smali element in
the form of a frame is meant to differentiate the inserted part. However, the element
in ąuestion also appears in other icons, which are not examples of composite icons,
as in the representation of Saint Nicholas enthroned and surrounded by scenes
from his life (see: Figurę 16). The whole is dated to around 1500, but the central
representation was framed with a convex frame, which creates an illusion of it
being a separate panel.30 It is possible that this is an example of imitation of com-
posite icons, resulting from the desire to raise the rank of the image by creating
the impression that the central representation is older. The above list of composite
icons illustrates a certain regularity, namely that in most of them the inserted ele-
ment is located in the central part of a larger representation, just like in the case
of the Vlatadon icon. In many cases, the older and the newer icons are separated
by a frame - which resulted not only in the enlargement of the icon, but above
all, in distinguishing the central work, prompting ąuestions about the potential
motives for this action.



The practice of insertion as “renovation”
It is highly probable that the insertion was intended to maintain the older work
in the best possible condition, whereas the enlargement should protect it from
destruction. The icons were never treated only in aesthetic terms - they were, and
so they still remain devotional images, which are considered sacred. Theologians
have often emphasized this - among them, Theodore the Studite, who in his Letter
to Platon of Sakkudion stressed that the essence of holiness in the icon does not
depend on the materiał, but on the holy prototype. When the image is destroyed, it
is not only the representation that is lost, but also its connection to the prototype,
and therefore its sanctity.31 The conseąuence of this relationship, and the depend-
ence of the copy on the original,32 was the special veneration attached to these
27 Various scholars datę the relief icon to the ioth, nth, or i2th, and the wooden icon, to the 14* or
15* century, respectively; see: K. Paskaleva, Die bulgarische Ikonę, Sofia 1981, p. 84.
28 M. AyeipauTou-tloTapidYoi), Eikóv£c; tov Bv^avrivov Movoeiov AQr[vó>v, A0r]va 1998, pp. 164-167,
no. 48.
29 Athanasions Papageorghiou refrained from proposing a datę of the inserted icon, and he only
stated that it was an earlier work; in turn, Kostas Papageorghiou in his publication mentions
the i4th century provenance, see: A. Papageorghiou, Icons of Cyprus, Nicosia 1992, p. 112, no. 69;
K. najiaYECopyiou, H EIavayia rrję Kvnpov — H SiKrjc; pac, FIavayia, Kunpoc; 2008, pp. 127-128.
30 From Byzantium, pp. 186-187,no. 57-
31 Theodori Studitae Epistulae, edited by G. Fatouros, Berolini-Novi Eboraci 1992 (= Corpus Fontium
Historiae Byzantinae: Series Berolinensis 31/1), pp. 164-168.
32 For a broader discussion, see: G. Babic, U modello e la replica nellarte bizantina delle icone, “Arte
Cristiana”,76,i988,pp. 62-78, particularlyp. 66; G.Yikan, Ruminations on Edible Icons: Originals

Figurę 12. Icon of Saint
Paraskevi, fifteenth/sixtee-
nth century (the halo and
the background repainted
in the eighteenth century),
church of the Prophet Eli-
jah, Agridia, Cyprus. Photo
from S. Sophocleous 1994,
p. 98, no. 42
-> see p. 10
Figurę 13. Fourteenth/fif-
teenth century icon with an
inserted relief icon, Natio-
nal Ecclesiastical Museum
of History and Archaeology,
Sofia (3140). Photo from
K. Paskaleva 1981, p. 84
-> see p. 10
Figurę 14. Seventeenth-
-century icon with a sixtee-
nth-century frame, Byzan-
tine and Christian Museum
in Athens (vol. 1561).
Photo from M. AycipóoTOU-
norcipićwou 1998, p. 165,
no. 48.
-> see p. n

27

The composite icon at Vlatadon monastery in Thessaloniki...