DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55208#0036
THE PALAEOGRAPHY
The Palaeography of the mosaic gives first of all an obvious terminus post quern.
If the practice of placing accents appears first on parchment codices about the
seventh century [60], in the uncial palaeography represented on wall paintings
and objects of the Minor Arts, the use of accents comes much later.
There are no signs except those above the letters in the inscriptions of the
fifth or sixth century mosaics of Hosios David in Thessalonike [61], nor in
the now destroyed Koimesis Church in Nicaea [62], nor yet in the Vestibule
Panel of Haghia Sophia which, after repeated scrutiny, we are the more con-
strained to give to the time of Basil II. The Deesis Panel should, therefore, be
compared at the earliest with the monuments of the middle and of the end of
the eleventh century, as the Church of Haghia Sophia in Kiev [63] and the
Monastery at Daphni [64] where accents are all but actually throughout the
inscriptions. In both the John Panel and the Deesis, the monograms and
abbreviations are supplied with accents [65].
The forms of the architecturally drawn letters allow us other comparisons
with inscriptions of the same period. The ligatures in the word TTPOAPOMO^
(Pls. XXXI & XXXII) are present in similar inscriptions bearing the same name
from the tenth century onwards [66]. The alpha of the cursive shape occurs
in the Cappadocian paintings of the eleventh century [67], as well as in the
mosaics of Haghia Sophia at Kiev, dated 1037 [68], and in those of Nea Moni
of Chios which were set in the time of Constantine IX Monomachos [69].
The gamma with a lifted top of the horizontal bar r’ which exceeds the align-
ment of the other letters is found both at Daphni [70] and in the John Panel. In
the two latter instances, to which Hosios Lukas in Phocis and the Capella Palatina
may be added, a final sigma represented in the shape of a hook 2 is also to be
mentioned [71]. It is true that the aspirates of a more or less rounded form ’ or
are different from the rectilinear signs or used in all the monuments we
have mentioned. But they are present in manuscripts beginning with the twelfth
century [72]. In the fourteenth century we find rounded aspirates in wall
epigraphy, as in the mosaics of the Monastery of Our Saviour in the Field
[Kahriye-Cami] where, nevertheless, all the other characteristics of the
alphabet are different [73].
Thus the main features of the palaeography of the Deesis Panel allow us
comparisons with a group of monuments which begins with the tenth century
and ends in the middle of the twelfth, the last instance being Capella Palatina
dated 1147. But here the aspirates are of a later form and it is therefore reason-
able to suppose that epigraphically speaking the mosaic of the Deesis belongs
The Palaeography of the mosaic gives first of all an obvious terminus post quern.
If the practice of placing accents appears first on parchment codices about the
seventh century [60], in the uncial palaeography represented on wall paintings
and objects of the Minor Arts, the use of accents comes much later.
There are no signs except those above the letters in the inscriptions of the
fifth or sixth century mosaics of Hosios David in Thessalonike [61], nor in
the now destroyed Koimesis Church in Nicaea [62], nor yet in the Vestibule
Panel of Haghia Sophia which, after repeated scrutiny, we are the more con-
strained to give to the time of Basil II. The Deesis Panel should, therefore, be
compared at the earliest with the monuments of the middle and of the end of
the eleventh century, as the Church of Haghia Sophia in Kiev [63] and the
Monastery at Daphni [64] where accents are all but actually throughout the
inscriptions. In both the John Panel and the Deesis, the monograms and
abbreviations are supplied with accents [65].
The forms of the architecturally drawn letters allow us other comparisons
with inscriptions of the same period. The ligatures in the word TTPOAPOMO^
(Pls. XXXI & XXXII) are present in similar inscriptions bearing the same name
from the tenth century onwards [66]. The alpha of the cursive shape occurs
in the Cappadocian paintings of the eleventh century [67], as well as in the
mosaics of Haghia Sophia at Kiev, dated 1037 [68], and in those of Nea Moni
of Chios which were set in the time of Constantine IX Monomachos [69].
The gamma with a lifted top of the horizontal bar r’ which exceeds the align-
ment of the other letters is found both at Daphni [70] and in the John Panel. In
the two latter instances, to which Hosios Lukas in Phocis and the Capella Palatina
may be added, a final sigma represented in the shape of a hook 2 is also to be
mentioned [71]. It is true that the aspirates of a more or less rounded form ’ or
are different from the rectilinear signs or used in all the monuments we
have mentioned. But they are present in manuscripts beginning with the twelfth
century [72]. In the fourteenth century we find rounded aspirates in wall
epigraphy, as in the mosaics of the Monastery of Our Saviour in the Field
[Kahriye-Cami] where, nevertheless, all the other characteristics of the
alphabet are different [73].
Thus the main features of the palaeography of the Deesis Panel allow us
comparisons with a group of monuments which begins with the tenth century
and ends in the middle of the twelfth, the last instance being Capella Palatina
dated 1147. But here the aspirates are of a later form and it is therefore reason-
able to suppose that epigraphically speaking the mosaic of the Deesis belongs