IN RESIDENCE @ APEXART WITH SOFIJA GRANDAKOVSKA

THE JEWS FROM MACEDONIA AND THE HOLOCAUST: HISTORY, THEORY, CULTURE, edited with a foreword by S. Grandakovska

2011-10-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

“The Jews from Macedonia and the Holocaust: History, Theory, Culture” (bilingually published in Macedonian and English, Skopje: EuroBalkan Press, 2011) presents an academic replica of the great subject of the Holocaust in Europe, although its perspective is determined by confining its narrow field to the study of the Holocaust over the Jews in Macedonia. Therefore, the central subject of scientific interest is the tragic destiny of 7,148 Jews from Macedonia killed in 1943 in the gas chambers of Treblinka II (Poland), their culture and ontology, but also the complex discourse of the post-Holocaust theoretic thought. The frame of such theoretic focalization constitutes the fundamental characteristic and distinction of this book.

The chrestomathy “The Jews from Macedonia and the Holocaust: History, Theory, Culture” introduces a polemic on the code of the Jewish narrative and its rhetoric, focalized at the Jews from Macedonia, them being the selected target group of the Nazi final solution in Europe during the Holocaust. With the prism of interdisciplinary and intertextual approach, and within the broader understanding of the term holocaust, the excerption of the Jewish question and its “special treatment” within the Nazi plan and the Second World War, provided our subject of discussion, through its central axis-the Holocaust, to penetrate, most expectedly, into two other broader frames with chronological portent: pre-Holocaust and post-Holocaust theoretic thought.

The chrestomathy in its general structure is a triptych covering three major aspect of discussion regarding the present subject on the Holocaust: history, culture and theory and is structured by 14 original texts from: Vera Veskovic-Vangeli, Marija Pandevska, Liljana Panovska, Jasminka Namicheva, Jamila Kolonomos, Ivan Mikulcic, Krinka Vidakovic-Petrov, Samuel Sadikario, Ivana Vucina Simovic / Jelena Filipovic, Jovan Culibrk, Tijana Milosavljevic Cajetinac, Sofija Grandakovska and Gil Anidjar.

However, in its narrower structure it encompasses a sub-triptych that forms the composition: 1. Discursive discussion, proposed by the fourteen original works, created by the authors in accordance with the purpose of this publication; 2. Historical-documentary level, which refers to the presence of archival material that is of closer crucial importance for the Holocaust in Macedonia as a result of the research process and 3. Visual level, semiotically determined as an exhibition in the publication or iconic discussion on the photographic material present here, which brings closer the narration of the research process and the chrestomathy. The synthesis or unity of the sub-tryptich is multiplied on a third level- in the exhibition within the project, a visual replica of the iconic and discursive level. The “triptych into triptych” gives form to the diachronic structure of the chrestomathy in combination with the unattainable domain of the profoundness of evil and the range while presenting its details.

(from the foreword Homage on the Irony of Evil and on the Historical, Cultural and Theoretic Memory of the Holocaust by Sofija Grandakovska for the book "The Jews From Macedonia and the Holocaust: History, Theory, Culture")

ДОЛГО ВРЕМЕ

2011-08-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

Долго време

(на дедо ми К.Г.)

Живееше

долго, долго,

патуваше до крајот

исто толку колку што живееше

долго, долго,

како издиша

на моите раце

Ти

засекогаш и тивко и сам

нема да можам да заборавам уште

долго, долго време.

С.Г.

2011

ЈАЗИКОТ И ТИШИНАТА НА ЗЕМЈАТА

2011-08-02T05:40:00.000-07:00

ЈАЗИКОТ И ТИШИНАТА НА ЗЕМЈАТА

Јазикот толку многу сака

Да ја изрази тишината на земјата

Копнее да ја победи

Нејзината моќ.

Јазикот не ги познава

И сеуште ги нема откриено сите тајни.

Затоа длаби.

Затоа говорот му припаѓа на јазикот

Затоа тишината и останува единствено на земјата

Затоа и човекот не е збунето дете

Меѓу две тишини,

Затоа и човекот расте помеѓу љубовната игра на

Говорот на јазикот и на тишината на земјата.

Ете, затоа јазикот толку многу сака

Да ја изрази тишината на земјата,

Ете затоа,

Јазикот нека говори

А земјата нека продолжи да молчи.

С.Г.

Ерусалим, јули, 2011.

MULTIPLIED LITERARY STORY

2011-06-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

MULTIPLIED LITERARY STORY: A BIBLICAL TEXT, A NEREZI MASTER, THE ITALIAN PROTO-RENAISSANCE AND THE MACEDONIAN CONTEMPORARY POETRY

Sofija Grandakovska

(In: Konštantinove listy [Constantine’s letters; Константинова писмена], Uiverzita Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre, 2/2009, p. 82-93)

MULTIPLIED LITERARY STORY: A BIBLICAL TEXT, A NEREZI MASTER, THE ITALIAN PROTO-RENAISSANCE AND THE MACEDONIAN CONTEMPORARY POETRY

Sofija Grandakovska

INTRODUCTORY COORDINATES

The narrow focus of this paper is geared towards the review of the issue: what is it that connects various artistic forms of expression within different historical epochs, whose source originates in the literary story, and what is it that separates them and makes them independent within that context?

As the pretext of our ‘recurring’ or multiplied literary story is taken a story of a Biblical, that is, a New Testament event related to the last week of Christ’s earthly life that brings together his passions more coherently. This literary story can be seen as multiplied in the cycle of the scenes of Christ’s passions, in the monumental iconographic examples of the XII century Nerezi painting, in the Proto-Renaissance painting expression of Giotto, and through the poetic expression of Michail Rendzov in the Macedonian contemporary poetry. Albeit all these examples depicting one Biblical event use diversified artistic tools: words or images, and although they belong to different time periods, nevertheless, they are united through the great theme of passions that we treat as the direct link among the four texts within the context of our comparative research.

Literary and visual arts monuments taken as examples of our comparative research of the Biblical theme of passions evince that the application of the linguistic phenomenon in visual arts can be reviewed from the perspective of dissimilarity of expression from the formal standpoint, since both media choose different means to present the theme. On the other hand, however, each of these texts allows for a more articulated division into its own ‘subgroups’ that, of their own accord, enrich the multiplication of the Biblical text in an authentic fashion. Thus, the literary text ceases to be only canonical and Biblical and becomes highly poetic (Macedonian contemporary poetry), and the visual arts text expands its dimension becoming Byzantine and Proto-Renaissance, ultimately completing its growth and becoming a cultural text.

The formal diversification in the rendering of the theme of passions discovered in different media and historical periods (text/word-picture/color, different epochs), ushered us into the realm wherein we ascertained a possibility to review different forms of expression through four stories that originate in the same thematic source, versatile styles and expressions, and profound messages communicated across and addressed to the human dimension of suffering. Thus: 1) the Biblical-Christian aspects of the suffering disclose the economy of salvation of the mankind through Christ and the Mother of God; 2) the next text from our multiplied story, historically belonging to the Byzantine tradition, enhances the human dimension of man’s suffering by way of various elements of style used in the Lamentation at Nerezi; 3) in the Proto-Renaissance dissimilarity of style and expression, highlighting the power of the gesture as a motif, it humanizes the divine and affirms the idea of the power of man and the faith in himself; 4) the poetical text of Michail Rendzov in the Deposition from the Cross (fresco), poetizes the grand Biblical event that inherently belongs to the thematic scope of passion, that is, suffering becomes a poetic-lyrical category.

STORY 1: BIBLICAL TEXT

The first story refers to the Biblical story that underlies the other three stories in our research as their basic text; here we are narrowing it to the Lamentation scene as a part of the cycle of scenes depicting Christ’s passions. They are as follows[1]: the Last Supper, the Entombment, Washing the Disciple’s Feet, the Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mount Olive), Judas Betrayal, the Trial by Annas and Caiaphas, the Three Denials of Christ by Peter, the Judging by Pontius Pilate, the Mocking, the Path to Golgotha, the Ascent to the Cross/Crucifixion, the Deposition, and the Lamentation. As its textual model, the literary-Biblical Lamentation uses the prophecy of Simeon the Elder (Simeon the Righteous), the God-Receiver from the New Testament, rendered in the form of an address to the Mother of God: “Indeed, a sword will pierce your own soul, too, so that the inner thoughts of many people might be revealed." (Luke 2:35). This moment foreshadows the passions of Christ, that are announced in the New Testament through the blessing of Simeon directed to Joseph and Mary. Addressing her, he would say: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against” (Luke 2:34).

According to Ephraim of Syria[2], this part of the New Testament literary text referencing the Lamentation, that is, the theme of passions, at the same time reveals heretics’ doubting Christ’s deity. The belief in this aspect of Christ’s nature was ambivalent: the first deemed that Christ’s body was not passionless, that it was earthly, therefore, the incarnation was not performed in the real body; the second creed maintains the belief that his body was divine. The former creed evinces lack of belief in the God-Man and Savior (Messiah) Christ on the part of Jews. According to exegesis, the sword from Simeon’s prophecy that will pierce the soul of the Mother of God hints at the denial, that is, that the savior of the world was born through the Mother of God. The Passion of Christ, thus, represents the reference to the Old Testament sin now transferred to the shoulders of the entire mankind. The couple mother-son, actually, is the New Eve and the New Adam, that is, the couple savior as a semiotic category.

Within the context of our first story, the prophecy rendered through the textual act as a form of syntagmatic level resembles an epigraphic expression, since the Lamentation scene is conveyed in a brief, implicitly allegorical form that demands to be recognized and purported in the context of a dogmatic, a historical, and a divine truth. Thus, first and foremost, it refers to the revelation of the divine and human nature of Christ, but also to the crucifix in the soul of the Mother of God: at the same time, she is a mother and the path-finder for humanity. The Biblical story follows the scheme of the Christian dogma in a brief, but allegorical depiction of events, abstracting narration and dramatization of the description of the event. Here everything is subject to the promulgation of the event as a historical, Biblical-literary act. However, scarcity of details is only one way of highlighting the content and the profundity of the event concealed in the allegorical form.

It is noteworthy that part of the comparative methodology used for researching the origin of the literary story related to the Lamentation event - which will bring us closer to our second story – has revealed that more than the several literary sources from the Synoptic Gospels, the apocryphal literature treats it more comprehensively, in particular, the Gospel of Nicodemus, the homiletic literature, the sermons of George of Nicomedia, liturgical and poetic texts, and mostly the apocrypha of the Mother of God. What is impressive in these texts and sources is that they give a very poignant, detailed description on the human dimension of the suffering of Biblical characters, and that emphasized emotionality of the form and the event is conducive of the possibility to reveal the physical humanity of Christ divine attributes. On the other hand and at the same time depicted are human drama and the agony of a broken heart, rendered through the suffering of his mother. As an illustration and part of the apocryphal sources, we cite the description from the Gospel of the Mother of God, wherein Saint Nikolay of Zhicha[3] depicts the suffering of Mary with the following details:

“The shepherd is struck, and the flock has dispersed. But whereto did she, the Mother, flee? She is standing by the cross in silence and pain. With her presence here, she testifies that it is a Son of Man, Her Son, and that she is His Mother. Every painful movement of the crucified Lord is relived in her soul, not as a ripple but as a thunder-storm. Still, she keeps her mouth shut, so that thus she can, overwhelmed with pain, feel the burden of His crucifixion passions.” (…)[4]

This clearly evinces that details introduce expansions in the descriptions of the Biblical New Testament story. All this contributes to the emphasis of the human dimension in the drama of the passions of Christ as a human being and the Mother of God as His Mother.

The Lamentation scene is closely related to, that is, follows the Crucifixion and Deposition from the Cross scenes:

“And when Jesus drew His last breath, two of his secret disciples, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, upon the approval of Pilate, took the body down from the cross and with tears in their eyes kissed it and sprinkled it with myrrh and sang to it like to a God.”[5]

In the same Gospel, the profound grief of the Mother of God articulated as a powerful dirge is described in the following fashion:

“Receiving the Dead Son in her motherly embrace, the Holy Virgin broke out into more bitter crying: “My Beloved Son, why did You leave me in deep pain and sorrow? The only hope of my life and my only life is You, my Son and God! The only light of my eyes, what will your mother do without You? ... Oh, my wounded body, lying with myrrh anointed, the dead Son of me! You who hold Yourself with Your powerful hand, now, breathless are laid in your tomb! Oh, if I could only die with You, so that I, Your mother, don’t have to see You dead!...”[6]

Another source presenting the crying of the Mother of God and her lamentation represent the prayer hymns on the Mother of God. The poetical verses depicting the Crying of the Mother of God read:

“The crucified Christ the Virgin saw

And cried with her heart pierced:

Beloved Son, my life dear,

Why did You deserve such a death?[7]

… By great suffering tormented

The Holy One washes Him with her tears

And kisses with a holy kiss.

My Child, Goodness Infinite,

Your blood will wash away all sins

And Your suffering cleanse the souls

Of all those that will be baptized! “[8]

All these descriptions are not only laden with powerful expressionism and a possibility to detect metaphysics of pain and suffering, but also with a dramatic synergy of one Biblical event that in the New Testament remains deprived of this humanistic dimension.

STORY 2: A NEREZI MASTER

The emphasis on the human element of suffering, crying, and pain, that is, sentiment and emotion, will prevail over the dogmatic moment in the Lamentation scene by a XII^th century Nerezi master; to this very day, it remains to be a scene that via the language of painting captured one of the greatest sufferings and human pain in Byzantine. That comprises the second story of our comparative research. The human aspect in the Lamentation scene ennobles the dogma making it more human, since the centre of the representation is laid on emotion. The pronounced drama, the enhanced condition of a crucified heart shows the Mother of God over-ridden with pain, with legs apart, in a deep trance engrossed in crying and sorrow. The Passion of Christ and the Lamentation yield an ambience of liturgical realism in visual presentation also, they render a certain optical and emotional effect[9] upon the viewer. The possibility of a synergic experience results in the knowledge that what is depicted in the scenes imparts the impression that all that is happening here, now, and again, and before us. This kind of iconographic chronotopos creates an allusion of a real chronotopos, since the intimate nature of the scene becomes an intimate and emotional experience of the viewer. The viewer becomes a participant, the co-empathizer in Christ’s suffering and in the crying of the Mother of God. The centre of the Biblical story breaks away from the dogmatic approach in the representation of this scene, and instead the centre of this painting composition is geared towards the human, the emotional, and the humanistic. The breaking away from the Biblical story from the New Testament is carried out through the emphasis on the humanistic tendencies of the Nerezi painter, the stressing of the anatomical aspects of human body, whereas at the same time, the iconographic presentation retains the dogmatic and abstract character of a New Testament story illustration. The stylistic aspects of the visual arts language, that are, in fact, stylistic innovations in the Christological program at Nerezi, apparently breaking away from the schematic approach to these Biblical events from the New Testament, bespeak the reflexion of the current tendencies at the Byzantine court of Alexios Commnenos.[10] Namely, the emergence of liturgical realism in the Lamentation scene seems to be some kind of ‘visual marketing’ aimed at promoting the imperial politics in the region. Thus they strove to make the iconographic rendition of Biblical events closer to the audience at large, that is, to enable the people to communicate more directly with the presentation by way of their external expression and emotional dimension. To that end, the centre of the composition of the Lamentation is focused on the intensity of gesture, facial expression, new emotional power, and human, that is, humanistic sympathy.

The Lamentation from Nerezi is one distinctive example seminal of the beginning of a new evolution in style, marking a new dynamic stage in the Byzantine painting discourse, as well as some kind of breaking away from the Biblical discourse that will become more transparent a century later, in the Proto-Renaissance. However, the significance of the stylistic features that lend the depicted figures liveliness and realism, are even more significant from the standpoint of culture, that is, the contribution of the Byzantine painting to the Western thought. Within the context of comparative reviews, Ernst Kitzinger will emphasize this innovation of the Nerezi painter as breaking away from the linguistic discourse and dogmatic approach in Christianity, underscoring:

“As we can see, this stage is of extraordinary importance for the right kind of understanding of what was happening at that time.”[11]

The visual arts expression of the literary-Biblical story depicted at Nerezi was placed in the nave and represents an ‘expanded’ story as regards the details conveyed through the visual language. Beside the Mother of God, saying farewell to Christ are John the Apostle, who is kissing his hand, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who are touching his feet. The iconographic positioning of the Mother of God represents the most powerful expression of sorrow and tenderness.[12] This moment, in its own right, accentuates her historical role, since it is realized as an integration of human and divine thought. She is the spiritual priest, the first human in the relationship between men and God, the woman and the virgin that enters a spiritual marriage with God in which mankind is integrated.[13] Finally, through her Jesus acquires his carnal nature. This iconographic symbol contains the ritualistic act aiming to emphasize man’s drama, the sacrificial death of Christ and his redeeming role for the mankind. The figures are depicted in one rhythmic expression whose dynamic placement not only unites the figures involved in the scene but also the viewer, who, thus, acts as an integral dynamic category.

Judging by the stylistic expression of the anonymous painter, who will only remain to be known in history as the Nerezi painter, he was undoubtedly acquainted with the Biblical pattern of this scene, as well as the Christian canon used for its representation. Nevertheless, he used a certain artistic freedom, showing one leg of the Mother of God visibly revealed and thrown over the dead body of her son. Such innovation in the painting at Nerezi can be understood as a transparent semiotic denote that gives off the dynamism of an internal struggle and suffering, and dialectics of the salvation at the same time. The bare leg of the Mother of God inspires passion in the lamentation as a dramatic act of man. At the same time, such an iconographic approach added to the Lamentation scene at Nerezi accentuates the realism of man’s suffering. This iconographic element enriches the semiotic dimension that reveals the closeness among the representation, the Biblical story, and its human empathy in communication with wider populist masses at the time of the Commneni, as well as between God and man.

STORY 3: PROTO-RENAISSANCE OF GIOTTO

The third story from our comparative research on a multiplied literary story dedicated to the theme of passions comes from the western paining that will set in later, in the Proto-Renaissance period. One of the most reproduced scenes that mark the Byzantine contribution to the Renaissance is the Lamentation from Nerezi. This scene evokes deep reminiscences of the similarity with the ethos of Giotto’s scene depicting the Biblical lamentation. This example should be expounded from the standpoint of exclusion of any direct connection, that is, direct impact of the Nerezi painter on the Italian Proto-Renaissance. Even though, for the time being, as regards this issue in the world of science, there has still not been made any research pertaining thereto, therefore, unfortunately, this relation remains without any definite answer,[14] still, the argument remains to be that this example is one distinctive form, one distant (in terms of time and space) emancipation of the Byzantine innovation in St Panteleimon at Nerezi, through the application of the linguistic Biblical representation in the western painting. This data coming from the world of science should be understood as valuable, for it indicates science still has not shut the door before this important issue that treats the relationship between the Nerezi painting and the Proto-Renaissance painter Giotto by way of the Lamentation.

Addressing the Byzantine contribution to the western painting,[15] the renowned E. Kitzinger mentions several key names[16] from the world of science that have been doing research on this important cultural topic. Viewing the situation within the comparative ambience, different scholarly stances place the issue in ambiguous contexts.

V. Lazarev, one of the most esteemed authorities as regards this issue, expresses a negative stance pertaining to any direct relation and considers it to be an over-rating of the Byzantine role in the later western painting. On the other hand, G. Vassari writes that the Byzantine painting is a completely static art and thus can be included in manuals on painting; in other words, it relies on the traditional approach in depicting saints, use of colour, and alike from generation to generation, and he does not mark any dynamism in its development.

Notwithstanding this, the issue science is facing today is: Did Byzantium substantially affect the development of the western painting or, on the other hand, it only rendered life and positive guidance to the painting in the West?

Our research of this issue wants to affirm and elaborate the idea that with his Lamentation Giotto complements the Byzantine Nerezi Lamentation through its humanistic tendencies. Even though they are two different kinds of aesthetics and concepts connected through the same Biblical story, the point of convergence of these two parallels, and not direct influences, rests on their propensity to highlight the humanistic tendencies in both iconographic representations. Hence, according to V. Lazarev, one should not over-rate the Byzantine role on the later western painting but place the situation into the context of trend setting in the later development of the western painting treating Biblical themes. Therefore, bearing in mind the stylistic innovations of the Biblical text at Nerezi applied as visual arts, it should be emphasized that Byzantine art should not be treated as essentially static.[17] The Lamentation at Nerezi represents a new interest in the human shape and a new type of human being, which will be more pronounced in its expression later in the Proto-Renaissance. In this period, the predominant emphasis of man’s anatomy supports the idea of man’s superiority and his faith in himself. In Giotto’s Lamentation, that new interest in human figure and being will be conveyed through the interest in the anatomical dimension of man’s body. Thus Nerezi gets its anticipation in the new stylistic expression in the West, in Giotto, where human values, cohesion of emotions, mood, and movement dominate. As Wilhelm Keller will summarize, in the background of this concept is the human form – is Byzantium.[18] Hence, the new dynamism in the style of the Nerezi master, who creates in Macedonia, correlates by way of a powerful dynamism with the dynamic style of the iconography in the western painting. Therefore, even though a new type of humanism appears, whose center is the emotionalism captured in the representation at Nerezi, and Giotto is only further building upon it with his humanistic tendencies as regards aesthetics, still we can speak about one kind of formalism the figures in both renditions arouse and not their direct influence.

STORY 4: MICHAIL RENDZOV AND THE CONTEMPORARY MACEDONAIN POETRY

It belongs to the Macedonian contemporary poetry, the collection of poetry Nerezi (1982) by Michail Rendzov; the poem is entitled the Deposition from the Cross (fresco).[19] Through its poetic language, the same Biblical story, as represented on a fresco at Nerezi, is illustrated. The suffering and lamentation, again, is the motive instigating the creation of new poetic narration, as well as one profound human truth. In this poetic narration by Rendzov are aptly sublimed three stories (Biblical/literary, visual arts, and poetic): there are no allusions that the first poetic image makes a reference to the Biblical text: When they were taking him down, they cried…[20] This is a direct reference to the New Testament story of Christ’s deposition from the cross, as well as the lamentation that follows immediately thereafter. Through this poetic image, the poet makes a blend of two pivotal Biblical-literary and historical events that refer to human sacrifice and human suffering, as well as the economy of the salvation.

When we relate the first poetic image from the Deposition from the Cross with the last poetic image: When they were raising me, Ah, when they were raising me, they cried,[21], which captures the very lyrical point, we discover one harmonious unification of the Biblical cycle epitomized in the great theme of passions. What stems from this as a poetic truth is the subjectivization of the act of suffering, lamentation, crucifixion, and resurrection for each of us. Suffering is revealed as one intimate dialogue among the poet, God, and the word in man as one unrepeatable and unrenderable act. Suffering is disclosed as one intimate religion, a subjectivized and pure drama (of every man). Through the eschatological act of the crucifixion, the poet is making an attempt to identify God, who is beyond time, as well as any suffering that is repeatable in each of us. It is a discovered poetic liturgy in the subjective act of suffering, in the abstraction of poetry. The poet resurrects through the crucifixion of the word. The centre does not hinge on the suffering of Christ. The centre is man, the poet, the poem. Thus poetry becomes divine, and the poetic act an immortal work.

The ornithological structure of the symbol of the cross as a bird[22] pronounces the verticalization of the spirit through suffering; it carries the new birth of the poet-man; the new cosmogony that is individual, personal, intimate, and deep again. It also corresponds to the Christian discourse of the resurrection, as well as it rebirth.

Juxtaposing the crying during Christ’s deposition from the cross with the crying that appears as an allusion to the raising of the lyrical subject to the cross, the poet reveals an important relation of anti-thesis: raising-deposition. Jesus becomes a sacrifice for all people because of man’s sinful nature. The poet is put on the cross, ready to be crucified. The poet appears to be promulgating: poetry is salvation. The poet is the savior. He is ready for the act of subjective eschatology that is a big chance for the transformation and growth of the spirit. This is the individual act poetry is calling for. The centre of the subjectivity is lost again. Such a spirit has to be crucified in the name of the poetic and human truth for all. The poet appears as a personal Jesus.

Once again, from the personal, Suffering is placed into the context of the collective. They cried,[23] is the last verse. The poet puts himself in the role of the model ready to be crucified. In the poet is fractured all evil, all the foul human play that thwarts both individual growth and the global context.

In his poetical world, Rendzov reinstitutes the depraved human nature centrally. Again, he rewrites the biblical text stressing the individual sin, inertia, and defocusing from our own selves. However, through his poetic images, Rendzov also creates a possibility for a new iconography: the Crucified, man-poet, Crucifixion is a poetic act. That man is a man in each of us. Auto-referentiality indicates that the four stories are completed through the theme of suffering; that it is theme whose symbolism and gravity for which each historical period finds suitable modes of artistic expression to render, yet the emotionality, the pain, the suffering, the crying remain timeless – and the same. And they are human.

The Biblical, the Byzantine, the Proto-Renaissance, and the contemporary poetic in a multiplied passion story contain the duality of the fall and the rise, the sin and the sacrifice, the crying that should become rejoicing. Rendzov’s poetic truth becomes a synonym for an axiom that kills and gives birth, the singing that resurrects like the divine dimension in each of us. The poetic truth accentuates the spiritual quest as a venue towards salvation. Therefore, suffering emerges as the basic poetic category that yields an opportunity for an inner growth and subjective resurrection.

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Пепек-Миљковиќ, Петар. 1967. Делото на зографите Михаило и Еутихиј. Скопје.

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Свето писмо. 1999. Скопје.

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Св. Ефрем Сиријски. 2004. Тумачење четири јеванђеља. Во: Свети оци тумаче јеванђеље. Београд.

Demus, Otto. 1970. Byzantine art and the West. NY: New York University Press.

Popovski, Ante, ed. by. 2000. Orpheus and Jesus, Struga.

Sinkevic, Ida. 1994. The Church of St. Panteleimon at Nerezi: Architecture, Painting and Sculpture, (vol.1 & II). Princeton University (authorized facsimile from the micro film master copy).

Talbot David. 1997. Art of the Byzantine era. London Thames and Hudson.

[1] P. Miljkovic- Pepek, 1967, p.60.

[2] St. Ephraim of Syria, 2004, p. 262.

[3] St. Nikloay of Zhicha, 2001, pp. 51-62.

[4] Ib., p. 57.

[5] Ib., p. 36.

[6] Ib., p. 36.

[7] Ib., p. 396.

[8] Ib., p. 397.

[9] I. Sinkevic, 1994, p .43.

[10] Ib., p. 35

[11] E. Kitzinger, 1965, p. 361.

[12] S. Grandakovska, 2001, p. 202.

[13] Ib., p. 197.

[14] I find the consultations with Dr. Ida Sinkevic as regards this issue very helpful; she is the author of the volumionous monograph dedicated to Nerezi, and I use this opportunity to thank her once again.

[15] E. Kitzinger. The Byzantine Contribution to the Western Art of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, 1965.

[16] Presented at the Symposium dedicated to the Byzantine contribution to Western painting, organized by Dumbarton Oaks Papers, held in 1965.

[17] E. Kitzinger, 1965, pp. 360-361, 1965.

[18] Ib., p. 368.

[19] The poetic truth of M. Rendzov corresponds with the monumental historical and visual arts beauty that radiates from this monastery, that inspired his collection of poetry Nerezi.

[20] M. Rendzov, The Peak, the River, the Sea, 2003, p. 89.

[21] Ib., p. 89.

[22] The cross looks to me like a bird, p.89.

[23] Ib., p. 89.

CREATING HISTORY

2011-06-20T03:17:00.000-07:00

(fragment from the manuscript Triodion of Orbel, XIIIth c.)

CREATING HISTORY: EARLY BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ITS PRESENTMENT IN XIV^th CENTURY FRESCO PAINTING

Sofija Grandakovska

(In: Nis & Byzantium Symposium IX, The Collection of Scientific Works, v. IX, ed. by M. Rakocija, Nis, Serbia, 2011)

(St. Demetrious – Marko’s Monastery, Skopje, XIVth c.)

Introduction. The “Akathistos hymn of the Virgin” (3Umnov a)ka/qistov)[1] is a literary-poetic text belonging to the anonymous early Byzantine works[2] dedicated to celebrating The Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary (Theotokos) and her Divine Son. As a work translated in Old Church Slavic language it belongs to the corpus of Slavic literature grounded on theological and aesthetic principles of early Byzantine literature. The Akathistos hymn realizes its overall esthetics as inter-textual one, through the pre-sign of syncretism, such as: poetry (literary text, language and literary genre), music (liturgy) and painting (fresco painting, illuminated manuscript). On the other hand, since what is examined here is a work belonging to Byzantine literature, it bears the complex Christian theological discourse and hence, the Akathistos hymn is codified as denominator of the high aesthetics of Byzantine inter-textual poetics, which is most of all symbolic. The Akathistos hymn’s poetics is also inter-medial, seen in the frames of medieval art of painting in the Balkans, by means of which this literary work acquires its late (XIV^th c.), but new existence as a visual text[3], and nevertheless keeps its internal aesthetics and simultaneously emphasizes it in the plane of visual art. Such differential aspects open up the polyphonic space for understanding this work simultaneously as literary and visual text, as well as for its interpretation through the necessary methodology of literary and visual semiotics.

Visual semiotics of the Akathistos hymn. The visual semiotics of a literary work represents a special interest for literary science since in this way it not only expands its area of investigation, but also affirms its ability to testify its methodic and methodological tools in the context of another discipline. When we speak of the aspect of the visual semiotics of the Akathistos hymn, then the science of literature consequentially draws its interest also toward that aspect of investigation of this hymnographic work, through its displays in the art of painting (fresco painting). The inter-textual and respectively the inter-medial domain of interest, stresses the polyvalent functioning of language as a system of written signs and in this way dialogizes the functioning of literary text in relation to its reception in another medium.

The visual semiotics of Akathistos hymn shows the cultural basis of the understanding of Christocentric and triad-centric discourse through the image and its historical journey during epochs. This aspect necessarily confirms the work’s literary discourse, semiotically situated, which relates to the signification of the common code[4] that presents the collection of symbols and their meaning in Christological work frames.[5]

The connotative aspect of the Akathistos hymn as hymnographic text owes its first appearance as separate entity to the XIV^th century trend in monumental painting in Paleologan style. It is characterized as one of the most intriguing chapters in the development of painting and is marked as the last Byzantine movement or as the golden age of the Byzantine art.[6] In the period of the so-called “Renaissance of Paleologues” the relation between painting and hymnography is articulated as somewhat complex, yet simultaneously very transparent one. This infers that literature contributes to the enrichment of iconographic programs with new contents, as well as to the enrichment of theory of the image in representing the unrepresentable God:

„Today it is very hard for us to imagine in what immense measure Byzantine church literature has influenced painting giving it not only ideas to treat, but images too.“[7]

Although the oldest iconographic testimonies as a whole date back to the beginning of XIV^th century, nonetheless separate iconographic scenes (The Annunciation, the Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, Presentation in the Temple and others) which form its content are known earlier in iconography.[8] The visual cycle of the Akathistos, as a whole is made of 24 separate visual scenes according to the poetic chants (12 kontakia and 12 ikoi and the proimion). It is significant in this context to mention that the visual display of prooimion (or the main kontakion, which by its function is called koukoulion (koukoulion[kindliness])[9] of the source kontakion: To_ prostaxqe_n mustikw~j labw_n e0n gnw/sei / e0n th~| skhnh~| tou~ 'Iwsh_f spoudh~| e0pe/sth) is very rarely advanced in iconography.[10] The historical part includes the Bible events, which in turn introduce the so-called exordium to (2) the dogmatic one, which has to do the mystery of embodiment and the (3) eulogical part. Our research applies the revised considerations in relation to the tripartite thematic division of the Akathistos which extends this hymn to the plane of interpretation in visual semiotics. Since the historical part of the Akathistos hymn contains the Biblical pretext in literary context, respectively the visual scenes of the hymn related to Gospel stories, it will be quite logical that the visual ensembles in the earliest display of the Akathistos in panting to insert and respectively incorporate the already existing Biblical scenes in the visual art of Akathistos hymn entity, after the rules of iconographic representation in terms of Hermeneia, adding to them a new visual expression at that.

In this sense we could judge in relation to the following conclusions that transcend the old Christian pretext for the Akathistos hymn’s lineage (that more logically offers genealogical context of given visual scenes, later incorporated in the Akathistos’s visual cycle) and affirm the knowledge devoted to the emergence, development and cult of the Mother of God and the instituting of the Theotokological dogma in 431 at the Council of Ephesus: a) We could talk about only for iconographic emergence of the earliest representations of Christ and his mother, ones that do not stand in relationship with the Akathistos’s visual cycle. The reason for this that we endorse also as an argument against early Christian lineage of the Akathistos hymn is that before the fifth century there does not exist separate ecclesiastic (theological) attitude on the Mother of God; b) As a second argument we take the discussion directed at the emergence of this hymnographic work in the very inceptions of Byzantine literature (VI^th c.) before its first liturgical performance at the time of Emperor Heraklios (the beginning of VII^th century) that reveal its existence in early Byzantine, and not early the Christian stage (I-III c).; c) Third, the incontestable argument that the process of influence commences from the field of literature, and not from the visual domain in the context of the Akathistos, that is in integral relationship with the development of theological thought, as well as with the development of liturgical process; d) Fourth, the visual entirety of the Akathistos infers the existence of 24 poetic entities (and a koukoulion) included in one integral cycle, and not as a subordinated individual existence of separate scenes related to separate holidays.

Early Byzantine hymnography and its iconographic representation at the dawn of Byzantine art. The data testifying to the late visual emergence of the upright-sang hymn (akathistos) bring a big chronological contradiction: as a literary text the Akathistos hymn belongs to early Byzantine hymnography that represents the golden age of Byzantine creation, and as visual text commences before the dawn of Byzantine art. This larger-than-life contradiction, logically, opens the question: Why so much centuries had to pass from the existence of the literary text of the Akathistos hymn for it to enter a natural communion with its visual representations?

On one hand, researches in Byzantine iconography from Paleologan period reveal that it is inspired by the corpus of church poetry and brings forth new representations in its iconographic agenda. By this it signifies its visual tendency directed at extending and enriching the visual concept in relation to Biblical and hymnographic sources of representative art. On the other hand, the growth in number of visual scenes happens through the maintaining of dogmatic and eulogical aspect of the upright-sang hymn (i.e. the Akathistos), which in turn brings us to the conclusion for direct and entire transposition of theology through the art of painting’s literary text, as well as direct influence of the hymn in relation to the qualitative and quantitative aspect of researching this interdisciplinary tie. Of course, the visual embodiment within the art of panting at the time of the Paleologan epoch infer continuity in the ecclesiastic thought from the Ephesus victory in 431, and not the simple following the rules of painting’s representation of Biblical events form the Hermeneia. Yet we dare not abandon also the context of Byzantine history and its iconographic representation in the last scenes from the visual part of the Akathistos hymn that concern the first liturgical execution of upright-sang hymn on the occasion of the historical event from 626. We have to emphasize that these scenes contribute just as equally to the enrichment of the visual repertoire from the Paleologan concept as the scenes from the dogmatic and eulogical part.

In this context the painting of the dogmatic and eulogical part of the Akathistos hymn depend first and foremost on the ecclesiastical dogma, the theological erudition of the painters , the exegetic discourse, as well as on the painter’s creative potential, since these scenes does not have their classical narrative (Biblical) pretext as the scene that belongs to the historical part, respectively to those described at the New Testament. This aspect in relation to the way of transposing the literary-linguistic phenomenon in painting represents yet another confirmation for a profound discovery of the connections between the two disciplines, as well as for the reasons for inspiration which the visual art finds precisely in church poetry. This aspectivity contextualizes and justifies the label quality of Paleologan stylistic formation in the general plan of Byzantine art of painting as one of a Renaissance kind.

But the reasons for the late visual embodiment of the upright-sang hymn ought to be sought also in the tendencies of the Byzantine empire directed at retaining (preserving) traditional values in the context of Christological-ecclesiastical thought and their further development, and respectively surrounding, as well as in the efforts of new aspirations to conquer their place (heretic movements, wars, iconoclastic era, the implications of the theological schism etc.).In general context, the motivations for the big chronological remoteness of the literary from the visual display of the Akathistos hymn ought be positioned in the frames of Christological semiotics of culture that throughout the years of Byzantine reign’s persistence is characterized, on the one hand, with effort for continuity in view of early Byzantine ecclesiastics in relation to Christological world-outlook – testified and presented in art; and on the other hand, the tendencies at introducing new stylistic-ideological formations directed also at the historical dethronement of the metropolitan center that has dictated influences in the plane of general, respectively universal (Christological) constitution of the world. This, in turn, speaks of Byzantium’s weakened positions on the political level that slow down the direct-ratio relation with its activeness in the culture-and-arts domain, since it is just such shaky condition that drives on the maturing and manifesting of new outlooks in Byzantine culture and art affirmed by the western church.

The establishment of the new active center in Nicaea[11] as inheritor of the capitol Constantinople brings a message with very high pursuit: to preserve the Byzantine prestige from western influence through the re-actualization of Hellenism in Byzantine spirit, and with this the latter is to be set on the world’s stage for the second time.[12] However, in this period (end of XIII^th and the first decades of XIV^th century), parallel to the efforts of Byzantium, the development of the new movement in the western world of literature took place, known also as Humanism (and Renaissance), whose impulse represents the ancient case too. We could conclude that the difference is in the fact that the humanist pledges of the Nicaea’s courtyard, as a pursuit to regain the Byzantine magnificence world-wide, and the ones of the western world lie in different concepts of regeneration, as well as in the conditions for the western movement’s impossibility to become a parallel success and in the eastern orthodoxy due to the eastern-Byzantine conservatism

This argument has been reflected in the strong reaction in the 40s of the XIV^th century on the side of the church, more precisely from the monks’ lines, headed by Gregorius Palamas who fought against the liberalism of G. Akindin, and which represents the result of earlier preparation conditioned by historical events on the dogmatic plane too. This is a period when the roots of monastic reaction were strongly felt through the theological-philosophical system and the mystical-ascetic outlook as the vicious pike against new humanist ideas in Byzantium.[13] In this hesihasm’s momentum, we could see a big argument in relation to the late and first visual displays of Akathistos cycle in the Balkans, which has to do with consolidating the position of eastern theology, in relation to the question of uniatism in the western church and, earlier historically, in the time of the iconoclastic era directed at the defense of visual displays of Christ and the Mother of God.[14] Sure enough, in these frames the consolidation of the eastern perception of Holy Mother is inescapable through the Theotokological aspect raised on the theological-dogmatic level. The entire dogmatic teaching for the Mother of God is expressed in her two names: Qeoto/koj and 'Aeipa/rqenoj. Therefore the Theotokological aspect is integrative with the essence of the Christological teaching, since it is through the act of embodiment that the double birth of pre-eternal Logos[15] takes place, but without change in its two natures (as opposed to the concept of immaculate conception that will color the western church dogma of God’s Mother as Mariological[16]), but also in the development of iconographic concepts in representing this literary work in the Paleologan times, and at this plane. The Akathistos hymn is being pictured precisely in this period, in time of strong defense of eastern orthodoxy governed by Athonian circles and the consolidation of its positions in the frames of Byzantine-Christological discourse. Hesihasm, through the teaching of St. Gregorius Palamas, means the defense of the world’s image as unification with God, respectively of the uncreated divine light.[17] Hence the reason for strong inspiration in the art of painting in relation to early Byzantine hymnographic works.

In the orthodox doctrine the teaching of the body and spirit as unity prevails, respectively the Christological principle for harmony and inseparability of human and divine.[18] Hence the fierce reaction of Hesihasts means also returning to early Byzantine ecclesiastical roots in the context of semiotics of Christian world-outlook (IV^th-VII^thc.), a time to which the invention of the upright-sang hymn belongs, but also a time marked by activity of church councils that define theological-dogmatic discourse. This is why we consider that the concept of Renaissance in Christological frames does not have to be confined only to artistic novelties in the art of painting that draw from Byzantine hymnography, but Renaissance concerns also the revival of the golden time of hymnographic inventiveness from early Byzantine period and canonicity, in whose frames the invention of the upright hymn (literally the word akathistos means “not sitting”) belongs, as well as the importing of the dogmatic-eulogical aspect of painting as a possibility to expand the visual scenes.

Accordingly, we would like to emphasize that the Akathistos hymn’s late introduction in the art of painting is not due only to the new painting trends and stimuli from hymnography, but is also due to the discovery, positioning and absorption in theological differences between eastern and western Byzantine church, which are significant factors for why this work that re-discovers the orthodox dogma of the Council of Ephesus (Theotokological, as opposed to the Roman-Catholic Mariological) experience its visual expression so late after its creation. Such semiotic shifting in Christological discourse in the West results in the absence of the upright-sang hymn in visual art, as a result of the dogmatic differences concerning the dogma of immaculate conception.[19] But on the other hand it reveals the continuing endurance of Byzantine hymnography and its anticipation in another medium in eastern Byzantine art.

The humanist implications of the art of painting through the dogma. The promulgation of the Holy Mother dogma at the Third Ecumenical Council (Ephesus, 431) represent a victory over heretic ideas that were against the non-united god-human nature of Christ, as well as the dogma of hypostatic unity of Christ (from the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, 451),[20] personified in the Akathistos hymn as literary poetic text, has much more lasting implications for the humanist beginning of Byzantine hymnography and its transposition in the visual semiotics of Akathistos hymn scenes rather then, as it appears, not. Namely, the humanist beginning in Christological frames is signified by the very humanization of God.

Through the image and the role of Holy Mother the human’s humanistic dimension is being figured, and it can achieve its highest aim as a victory – it lies in the kenotic beginning which infers opening the path of the divine in oneself and merging with it. A successful example for this is the god-human Christ as the victor of death. His Mother is the first of the human kind that travels, respectively shows (Hodegetria) this path for all of the humanity:

The first man is of the earth, earthy;

the second man is the Lord from heaven (1Cor. 15:47)

This is why we want to emphasize that through the Akathistos hymn as early Byzantine literary text and through its embodiment as a visual text in XIV^th century it is for the second time that the realization of this kenotic process is personified. Namely, it is not by coincident that hesihasm experiences its Renaissance in this specific and crucial instant, not only as a resistance against new tendencies from the west as humanization of the spiritual, but most of all as suggested practical mode that the humanist dimension is already deeply rooted in Byzantine thought the image of Christ and through the Christological model of Holy Mother’s image.

Therefore we locate the second most probable reason for the representation of Holy Mother’s image in the frames of visualizing the Akathistos hymn, namely, its visual transposition from literature is intensified in this historical period and iconographically contributes for the Biblical events and theological thought for them not only to become closer with the wider publicity, that is, for the displays to more easily communicate with the people, but they also become a visible act of the humanist sympathy with religious-theological messages.[21] Thus the emergence of Akathistos cycle acquires its socio-cultural meaning, and in the image of the Holy Mother the stress goes on to her historical and anthropological role as integrator of the human (humane) with the divine.

Old Slavic literature and the art of painting in Byzantine Macedonia. The representation of literary works for the first time through the example of the upright-sang hymn as a novelty in XIV^th century iconographic cycles speaks of the key and extraordinary role of medieval literature in Macedonia as a conduit of Byzantine’s totality of visual, literary-linguistic, creative and theological plane. This, on the one hand, concerns the strengthening of Slavic-linguistic dimensions in literature through the presence of translations of Byzantine hymnography and their positioning in the domain of visual art, through the Akathistos hymn’s example, on whose visual scenes there appear Slavic insignia of the introductory verses from each stanza.

On the other hand, the Akathistos hymn’s late introduction in the art of painting speaks of the necessity to search, faced with the Latin influence, for new ways and forms of continuing the Byzantine value grounded in to the tradition of orthodox theology, for supporting anew the theological dogma as a high apology through the painting. This indicates that in the land of Byzantine Macedonia a kind of Renaissance takes place that finds its source in early Byzantium, through the visual representation of early Byzantine hymnography, namely through Old Church Slavic insignia of the upright-sang hymn. Through the confrontation of hesihasm – which experiences its Renaissance in the XIV^th century – with the Varlaamites’ rationalism, an animation of early Byzantine literature occurs, thanks to its visual embodiment. Through the Akathistos hymn’s example in the art of painting in Byzantine Macedonia we can exactly affirm the source of the new creative-spiritual mechanism. Through painting, it simultaneously signifies the stylistic improvement of literary text, the painting’s transcription of the genre, namely, the iconographic editing of early Byzantine hymn through its translation in Old Church Slaic. This reveals that the space of Byzantine Macedonia in the XIV^th century shows the avowed current as a synthesis of Athonian spiritual tendencies, of the Byzantine Metropolis, of the resistance against western influences, but also of its reaction through a lens of legitimate originality as the source-center for actualizing these tendencies through Slavism.

Especially interesting is the Akathistos hymn’s path as an early Byzantine work in the corpus of translated medieval literature and its influence as a translated work on visual art, not only from the aspect of aesthetics, but from the wider social-political and dogmatic context. Such extraordinary example is represented by the Akathistos from the painting in the church of St. Demetrius in Marko’s Monastery in the village of Sušica nearby Skopje where: on individual visual compositions the introductory verses from the hymn are written in Old Church Slavic.[22] Even though there are other examples of visual cycles of the Akathistos hymn in medieval painting in Macedonia with Slavic insignia[23] (for example, the church dedicated to The Holy Mother of God in Matejče), nevertheless we take the example with Marko’s Monastery as paradigmatic since all visual scenes are preserved, and by this are susceptible to comprehensive analysis in the poetic-visual plane through semiotic (literary and visual) methodology as necessary.

The Akathistos hymn of the Virgin which is integral in the painting’s content in the St. Demetrius Church in Marko’s Monastery, historically belongs to the second half of XIV^th century and represents a true example of the general and complex medieval ideology. We point out this argument with particular importance since it indicates the firm position of Slavic language in literature and painting alike. In this context we indicate also the Archbishopric cause that through this element points out a self-governing status in relation to the Byzantine courtyard. The inscriptions in Slavic language on the Akathistos’s visual scenes in the Marko’s Monastery indicate the general current in the development of Slavic writing in Byzantine Macedonia from the second half of XIV th century and in view of the Slavic-Byzantine institutional aspect. On the other hand, this speaks of the self-governing aspect of the Ohrid Archbishopric in relation to the metropolitan courtyard, but also for the self-governance in the Skopje episcopate in this frames (to which the Marko’s Monastery belonged) that was in close communion with the Ohrid Archbishopric:

„By the time of the second half of XIV^th century, Slavic church language takes sway in the Archbishopric office, which did not remain without resonance in the fresco inscriptions.“[24]

This moment is of extraordinary importance since it indicates two significant arguments: on the one hand, it underlines the self-governance of Skopje episcopate raised to the rank of bishop’s residence and in this we conceive the political and church surrounding of Byzantine Macedonia, and the other argument is conceived in the most probable, so-called literary aid, that the painters received in writing the inscriptions,[25] since Marko’s Monastery is significant scriptures’ center. In view of this we could conclude that the visual representation of the upright-sang hymn in Marko’s Monastery has multifold meaning: it shows the age-old path of hymnography through its later visual displays and at the same time emphasizes the role of hymnography in its power in creating iconographic displays; it testifies to the transmission of early Byzantine hymnography through translated literature in Old Church Slavic and hence its application in iconography on the territory of Byzantine Macedonia; through the presence of translated Byzantine literature in Slavic language what is indicated is not only the transmission of Byzantine domination in the land of Byzantine Macedonia but also the genealogical journey of Jewish, Hellenistic, apocryphal heritage in the sources of Byzantine literature and painting.

The visual display of Marko’s Monastery’s Akathistos addresses the visual novelties in XIV^th century that relate to the humanist dimension of painting. As an illustration, we turn to the visual display of IV kontakion from the upright-sang hymn of Marko’s Monastery. The press-mark is almost effaced. It should read: bŒ8r© vnŒ8tr6 imŒ53 pom6y[leŒnY‚i. Here, the spiritual struggle of Joseph is portrayed, whose visual dramatics is stressed through a strongly designated gesticulation, as signification of the reproaches he directs at Holy Mother. They stand one against the other,[26] Joseph on the right, Mary on the left. Mary is portrayed in a posture with the right hand up high negating the reproaches that she has conceived from the Holy Spirit, and her left hand points toward Joseph. He, on the other hand, is situated in an open gesticulation with the right hand, and in the other holds a prop, cane. His feet, being visibly astraddle, represent a visual sign functioning as to enrich the dramatics of the visual narration which concerns Joseph’s doubt about the immaculate conception.

The decision for this visual scene most explicitly reflects the tendency of Paleologan style, when expressivity is used as a way to emphasize the humanist dimension of the figures represented, as a way to get near the viewer to the code’s signification of the message. Joseph and Mary are semantically important figures, and according to the iconic principle we notice the occurrence of a concession in relation to the rules of painting, since they are portrayed in motion, and not in repose. Turned one against the other with strong gesticulation, they form a center of dynamics in the internal plan, which in turn provokes the active role of the viewer.

Even though according to the iconic rule the semantically important signs are painted frontally to the viewer in order to stimulate the discourse of prayer, and that they are represented immovably[27], however, such perspective restructuring of this scene is put in the context of the real posture of figures in a spatial situation. In a theological sense, one that expresses the discourse of Paleologan tendency of XIV^th century, and according to isihastic interpretation of strong gesticulation as expression of attachment, for St. Gregorius Palamas:

„Detachment dose not consist in undoing the passionate share, but to be moved from bad to good … In other words, the unity with God’s thought does not kill passionate forces of the soul but transforms them, it sanctifies them. These transformed emotions of the soul, the expression of the innermost agitations of the soul personify one of the features that characterizes the sacral art of this epoch.“[28]

Final observations. Through the central interest of this work: the relationship between early Byzantine hymnography, through the example of “Akathistos of the Virgin” and her late display in the art of painting, namely, its visual display in XIV^th century in Marko’s Monastery nearby Skopje we have pointed out the inter-medial and inter-textual relationship between the text and the painting. We have instituted the main parameters through the following aspects: literary and visual semiotics, ideological-theological and stylistic aspects in relation with the political circumstances in early Byzantium and Slavic culture on the Balkans in XIV^h century. In this way we have pointed out the transmission of early Byzantine literature (IV-VII c.) through translated literature in Old Church Slavic, especially in the early phase (IX^th -XI^th c.) and its influence in the formation of new visual contents (XIV^th c.) and the enrichment of liturgical and social life among Slavs on Christo-centric basis. On the other hand, we have put a stress on the linguistic, visual and historical novelties that bring translated old-Slavic literature in its early phase and its civilizational and cultural-historical value formed on the beginnings of Byzantine discourse and its way of interpreting the world. Furthermore, we have emphasized the affirmative gesture of old Slavic literature by way of it leaving its authentic seal in concert with the historical and cultural and art-related circumstances in the Balkans and the new humanist tendencies in the West.

[1] Also: “The Akathist Hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary”. Devotion to the Mother of God became central in Constantinople in the VI^th century, when she was taken as the protector of the city. Below in this text just The Akathistos hymn.

[2] J. Thomas & A. C. Hero, Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents: A complete translation of the surviving Founders’ Typika and Testaments. Washington 2000, p. 1679; See also: The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 1999; Енциклопедија православља,, vol. II, 2002.

[3] In monumental painting we point at: Panagia Olympiotissa at Elasson (circa 1304), where the first illustrated Akathistos is found, St. Nicholas Orphanos at Thessaloniki (1315), Panagia ton Chalkeon at Thessaloniki (first quarter of XIV century), the church dedicated to Christ Pantocrator in Decani (1343) (Г. Бабић, 1995), Holy Mother of God in Matejče (1348-52) (Е. Димитрова, 1996), Holy Mother of God Peribleptos (1364-5) (Ц. Грозданов, 1980), St. Demetrius– Marko’s Monastery (1376-7) (Ц. Грозданов, 1978), St. Peter at Golem Grad in Prespa (third quarter of XIV century) (Б. Кнежевић, 1966), St. Trinity at Kozija (end of XIV century) (G. Babić,1973), Panagia Pantanassa at Mistra (end of XIV century). In illuminated manuscripts: The Tomićev Psalter (1360-1363) (В. М. Щепкина, 1963), The Munich Psalter (circa 1370) (R. Stichel and J.Ševčenko, 1978; S. Radojćić, 1969; Ј. Radovanović, 1978), the manuscript from the Moscow Synod’s library gr.429 (second half of XIV century) (D. V Lihachova, 1972), as well as the manuscript from the Madrid Escorial’s library (second half of XIV century) (T. Velmans, 1972).

[4] M. Bal, Double exposures: The subject of cultural analysis, London, 2006, 70.

[5] The Аkathistоs is а hymn sang in celebration of the Mother of God which is proclaimed only as Qeoto/koj already in the Vth century with the dogma of the Council of Ephesus from 431. From here, in its Christological determination, it is Theotocological.

[6] Г. Ђорђевић-Бабић, Класицизам доба Палеолога у српској уметности, in: Историја српског народа, прва књига, Београд, 1981, 476; П. Миљковиќ- Пепек, Делото на зографите Михаило и Еутихиј. Скопје, 1967, 34-38.

[7] С. Радојчић, Радојчић, С., Постанак сликарства ренесансе Палеолога, in: Узори и дела старих српских уметника. Београд, 1975, 131.

[8] In the earlier science there are indications for the old-Christian lineage of the Akathistos hymn through mentions of iconographic displays of similar appearances in theme and composition. (А. Grabar, L’iconographie de la Parousie. L”art de la fin de l”antique et du Moyen Age, I, Paris, 1968, 576-581), which stands in relation with the final stanzas of the Akathistos hymn, for example Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome San Vitale in Ravenna and the church of Vlacherna in Arta. The indications concern also the painting of representatives from the people as a new iconographic instance, who, together with the chosen ones (prelates, martyrs, apostles, the celestial army, etc.) celebrate the embodiment of Christ. (For mentions of the old-Christian lineage of the Akathistos, see also: Ц. Грозданов, Охридско ѕидно сликарство од XIV век. Охрид, 129; А. Серафимова, Поствизантискиот контекст на Богородичниот акатист во припратата на кучевишките Свети Архангели, in: Зборник средновековна уметност, број 3. Скопје 2001, 154.

[9] K. Kern, Pastirsko bogoslovje, Vrnjačka banja, 2003, 23.

[10] One of the most rare examples are found on the territory of Macedonia, in the church St. Peter of Golem Grad in Prespa (Кнежевић, Бранка, Црква светог Петра у Преспи, in: Зборник ликовне уметности, n 2. Нови Сад, 1966; Ц. Грозданов, Композиција Опсаде Цариграда у цркви светог Петра на Преспи, in: Зборник ликовне уметности, n. 15. Нови Сад, 1979) and in Holy Mother of God Peribleptos in Ohrid (Ц. Грозданов, Охридско ѕидно сликарство од XIV век. Охрид, 1980).

[11] Theodore II Laskaris (1222-1258) from the Nicaea courtyard created a true scientific center where the most educated persons of the time with various profiles gathered (rhetors, scientists, writers) and were notable for their knowledge in ancient philosophy. According to: Г.Осторогорски, Историја на Византија, Скопје, 1992, 416.

[12] According Г. Осторогорски, Историја на Византија, Скопје, 1992,,392-6.

[13] П. Миљковиќ- Пепек, Делото на зографите Михаило и Еутихиј. Скопје, 1967, 30.

[14] Л. Успенски, Теологија на иконата. Скопје, 1994, 193.

[15] Aрхимандрит Алипије и архимандрит Исаија, Догматско богословње, 2003, 189-90.

[16] The embodiment does not at all deliver the Holy Mother from the original sin. This would mean her separation from the human kind. See: С. Булгаков, Православље. Београд, 2001, 129.

[17] Л. Успенски, Леонид, Теологија на иконата. Скопје, 1994, 195-8.

[18] Ј. Влахос, митрополит, Свети Григорије Палама како Светогорац, in: Православље и мистика светлости: Свети Григорије Палама и пут човековог обожења. Београд, 2003, 100-5.

[19]  Ј. Мајендорф, Византијско богословље. Београд, 2001, 77-8; С. Булгаков, Православље, Београд, 2001, 130.

[20] On this question see: G. Ostrogorski (1992), M. Skabalanovic (2004); Ј. Majendorf (1997); А. Smeman (1994).

[21] С. Грандаковска, Умножена книжевна приказна: Библиски текст, нерешки мајстор, италијанска ренесана и македонска современа поезија, во: Портретот на сликата, Скопје, 2010, 62.

[22] The inscriptions in Slavic language in the visual cycle of the Markov Monastery’s Akathistos, which began in the confines of the Serbian medieval state, follow the Raška editing with glagolics [јусово писмо]. See: Грозданов, Цветан, Охридско ѕидно сликарство од XIV век. Охрид, 1980, 92.

[23] In relation to the published inscriptions from Markov Monastery, see: Л. Мирковић и Ж. Татић, 1925.

[24] Ц. Грозданов, Охридско ѕидно сликарство од XIV век. Охрид 1980, 91.

[25] A larger number of painters worked at the Marko’s Monastery, post probably five of them, but V. Guric (В. Ђурић Марков манастир-Охrид, in: Зборник ликовне уметности, бр. 8, књига Дејана Медаковића. Нови Сад, 1972, 137-141)) confirms that the painted Akathistos in the altar setting and the cella is the work of the second group of masters. Their coming to Skopje alerts that the city is one of the metropolitan cities of the Serbian rulers of this time of the kingdom, but also one of the strongest literary and arts centers.

[26]  Е. Б. Громова, История русской иконографии Акафиста. Москва, 1997, 265.

[27] К. Moran, Singers in late Byzantine Slavonic painting. Leiden, 1986,112.

[28] Л. Успенски, Теологија на иконата. Скопје, 1994, 196.

ПЛАНИНАТА КАКО АРХИВ

2011-06-19T17:16:00.000-07:00

ПЛАНИНАТА КАКО АРХИВ НА САКРАЛНОТО

Софија Грандаковска

Планината е простор на сакралното. Односно, планината е сакрален простор каде секогаш постои можност да се биде онолку блиску до возвишеноста, колку што таа во разни култури е нарекувана со различни имиња: виша сила, трансцендентна стварност, Бог. Затоа, планинанита има моќ да конституира архетип, или во Фукоовска смисла да конституира „општ архив”, којшто ние овде би можеле да го наречеме архив на сакралното, каде што се затвораат сите времиња и каде што се губат сите географски одредници.[1]

Во таа смисла, сакам да го отворам прашањето за хетеротопичноста на планината, од една страна, за да укажеме на врската со божественото, возвишеното, односно сакралното, а од друга, врската на планината како другото место или простор за градење на една имагинарна можност. Ваквата теоретска предлошка подразбира и можност за освежување на семантиката на хетеротопичноста преку илустративниот пример на Царевите кули, коишто се наоѓаат на планината Еленица крај Струмица. Во оваа смисла, Цареви кули ја претставуваат монументализацијата на архетипот, односно монументализацијата на планината како архив на сакралното. Зошто?

Иако просторот на којшто се сместени Цареви кули, којшто пак топоним се забележува во употреба дури од XIX век, според резултатите од последните археолошки ископувања (2009 година), станува јасно дека се работи за простор каде може да се проследи континуирана културна и цивилизациска еволуција. Ние во овој контекст, ќе се задржиме на неговата византиска епоха, којашто е во тесна врска со христолошкото сфаќање на архетипскиот симбол на Царот како огледало на земјата. Во таа смисла, овој планински простор престанува да биде само стратешки објект, но во исто време, според артефактите, не е ниту само живеалиште на земниот цар. Во најпрефинета смисла, која што ја јукстапозицира реалната позиција на планинскиот простор, Царевите кули ја претставуваат најсуптилната култура на духовното, светото и возвишеното. Во таа смисла, земниот цар, односно стратегот на кулите е поблиску до небесниот Цар. Земниот цар на кулите на најсуптилен начин ја оправдува архетипската врска со небесниот цар. Оттука, хетеротопичноста на планината ја конституира планината како микрокосмос којшто се изразува низ атрибутите на симболичката совршеност, односно низ призмата за универзалноста. И оттука, планината конституира сакрален дискурс на универзалноста како константа на тежнение на секоја човечка група.

Планината е тесно поврзана со концептот на архетипското огледало, односно со утопијата на огледалото. Каква е врската на Цареви Кули со утопијата? Од една страна, наодите коишто се однесуваат на остатоци од црквата св. Ѓорѓија на овој простор, укажуваат на неговата социјална врска со сакралното, како простор каде се практикувал религиски дискурс. Од друга страна, овој простор укажува на утописката врска преку самото сакрално, сфатено како божествено, коешто подразбира идеалност, која што секогаш подразбира и невозможност. Токму таа утопистичка конотација на планината како „света гора“ и потребата за нејзиното симболичко зачувување како таква, упатува на метафората за рајската градина од Стариот завет, која што ја носи симболиката на непореметена хармонија меѓу човекот и Бога, како состојба на постоење во сакралноста.

Оттука, дали човековото постоење, одново барајќи начин за да ја оствари таа утопистичка состојба на своето битие преку планината, како врска меѓу него и Бога, всушност зборува за носталгичната потрага по изгубениот рај? Оваа врска преку метафората за планината, подразбира и концепт на еколошка утопија, каде социјалниот дискурс всушност треба да биде еднакво пропорционален со природноста и со природата, сфатена во прекодирана смисла на најпрвата рајска состојба на човекот. Така, планината претставува и простор за ескапизам во овие рамки. Социјалните практики на Цареви кули стекнуваат атрибут на религиозна утопичност, базирана врз идејата за просветлување на битието преку религиозен идеал како архетипска константа.

Постоењето на високите ѕидови на Цареви кули, наодите коишто говорат за Пирг-кулата дека во неа биле сместени собите за ноќевање, како и остатоците од домашни огништа, укажуваат на тенденција за уредување на утопискиот модел на планината низ архитектонската димензија како простор за живеење. Оттука, кога еден висок, планински простор станува место за живеење, тој мора да биде достапен. Наодите покажуваат дека просторот на Цареви кули функционирал како место од каде се ширела димензијата на вечноста, што значи: затворање на сите времиња на едно место, кое е во тесна врска со сфаќањето за неменливоста на архетипот, на сакралниот дискурс. Сакралното е божествено, божественото е неменливо, односно е вечно. Затоа, Цареви Кули, иако биле организирани како ран модел на град, простор за живеење, каде имало соби, трпезарија, црква за социјални практики на религијата, сепак достапноста до него била сигнализирана преку единствениот знак на негова тешка достапност - преку големите ѕидини. Затоа, уредувањето на сакралниот простор ја потенцира од една страна неговата стратешка функција, неговата затворена форма на живот, но од друга страна ја истакнува и неговата утопичност како простор од каде што се афирмира архетипската врска со Бога.

Во оваа насока, ќе поентирам со еден мал цитат од Мишел Фуко, кој на своите предавања на студентите по архитектура во 1984 година, посветени на Другите простори, Хетеротопии,[2] ќе им посочи постоење на пет принципа на хетеротопии. За нас исклучително е важен петтиот принцип, според кој хетеротопиите секогаш претпоставуваат еден систем на отворање и затворање кој, едновремено, изолира но и прави достапност за продор. Хетеротописката локација покажува дека немаме пристап кон неа како кон обично јавно место. Затоа, и планината е хетеротопична, таа е архив на сакралното.

[1] Прочитано на симпозиумот: ПЛАНИНАТА И НОСТАЛГИЈАТА, во рамки на Галичката книжевна колонија, Галичник, 14-16 август, 2009 година.

[2] Michel Foucault, Dits et étécrits, 1984, Dieespaces autres, предавање во: Cercle d’études architecturales 14.III 1967, објавено во: Architecture, movement, continuité, n.5, Oct., 1984.