DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55204#0027
THE MEDALLIONS
21
employed on the features corresponds to the subtle treatment of the face of the
central figure, and suggests that the artist was accustomed to work in the Palace,
where his compositions were seen near at hand and their minuteness appreciated.
Iconoclasm had given a stimulus to art in general and, in particular, to the
production by artists of intimate subjects, as portraits, for instance, court and
hunting scenes, flowers and similar motives, to be used in the decoration of the
imperial dwelling. The dark-blue maphorion in which she is wrapped bears a
golden cross immediately over her brow; another is seen on her right shoulder;
a third cross is on the right wristband of the chiton; all three are woven in
the fabric of the vesture. Beneath the maphorion, where it covers her head
and falls almost symmetrically on either side of the face, she wears a white cap
edged with gold, the material of which we readily recognize as silk, as readily
as we see that the delicacy and richness of the maphorion itself are derived from
wool of extreme softness. We see the latter thrown gracefully from the right
shoulder over the left arm, which by the movement of raising the hand presses
the garment back over the left shoulder. Her right hand is outlined against her
robe, the left hand is defined against the gold and silver of the background.
With the angel, as with the figure of the woman, the artist was careful to
retain the figure on a plane of secondary importance. It corresponds in the
matter of treatment very closely to its companion. Here the outer enclosing
circle is red in colour while the inner one is dark blue, the intervening circular
band being formed of silver cubes dotted with gold points. The angel, recog-
nizable as such by his variegated wings and the rod or staff that befits a divine
messenger, has a pale, almost transparent face which is gazing into space away
from the main group and with no special intention. The face is regular if
rather long in shape; the nose, as with this feature in the other figures in the
lunette, is somewhat prominent; the bright golden, undulating locks are bound
by a blue and white fillet, which, with its ends waving out on either side of the
head towards the wings, adds to the suggestion of movement. The angel is
clad in a chiton of silvery blue brocade, similar to the chiton of Christ. A light
yellow mantle thrown over the shoulders covers a part of the right, and on the
angel’s left side encompasses the arm. The wand held at a slight angle by the
left hand is wrought in tones of red and blue. It terminates in a jasper disk
encircling a pearl; beneath this is another pearl in a square setting of blue, and
below this again a third pearl in a similar setting, only, in this instance, the
mounting is round and not square.
The pictorial compilation in the central lunette cannot yet be considered
incontrovertibly to be either a type of Deisis or an Annunciation, although
it may present the personages of the Annunciation. For, assuming that the
21
employed on the features corresponds to the subtle treatment of the face of the
central figure, and suggests that the artist was accustomed to work in the Palace,
where his compositions were seen near at hand and their minuteness appreciated.
Iconoclasm had given a stimulus to art in general and, in particular, to the
production by artists of intimate subjects, as portraits, for instance, court and
hunting scenes, flowers and similar motives, to be used in the decoration of the
imperial dwelling. The dark-blue maphorion in which she is wrapped bears a
golden cross immediately over her brow; another is seen on her right shoulder;
a third cross is on the right wristband of the chiton; all three are woven in
the fabric of the vesture. Beneath the maphorion, where it covers her head
and falls almost symmetrically on either side of the face, she wears a white cap
edged with gold, the material of which we readily recognize as silk, as readily
as we see that the delicacy and richness of the maphorion itself are derived from
wool of extreme softness. We see the latter thrown gracefully from the right
shoulder over the left arm, which by the movement of raising the hand presses
the garment back over the left shoulder. Her right hand is outlined against her
robe, the left hand is defined against the gold and silver of the background.
With the angel, as with the figure of the woman, the artist was careful to
retain the figure on a plane of secondary importance. It corresponds in the
matter of treatment very closely to its companion. Here the outer enclosing
circle is red in colour while the inner one is dark blue, the intervening circular
band being formed of silver cubes dotted with gold points. The angel, recog-
nizable as such by his variegated wings and the rod or staff that befits a divine
messenger, has a pale, almost transparent face which is gazing into space away
from the main group and with no special intention. The face is regular if
rather long in shape; the nose, as with this feature in the other figures in the
lunette, is somewhat prominent; the bright golden, undulating locks are bound
by a blue and white fillet, which, with its ends waving out on either side of the
head towards the wings, adds to the suggestion of movement. The angel is
clad in a chiton of silvery blue brocade, similar to the chiton of Christ. A light
yellow mantle thrown over the shoulders covers a part of the right, and on the
angel’s left side encompasses the arm. The wand held at a slight angle by the
left hand is wrought in tones of red and blue. It terminates in a jasper disk
encircling a pearl; beneath this is another pearl in a square setting of blue, and
below this again a third pearl in a similar setting, only, in this instance, the
mounting is round and not square.
The pictorial compilation in the central lunette cannot yet be considered
incontrovertibly to be either a type of Deisis or an Annunciation, although
it may present the personages of the Annunciation. For, assuming that the