Icon 2

The Performative Icon
Author(s): Bissera V. Pentcheva

Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 88, No. 4 (Dec., 2006), pp. 631-655
Published by: CAA
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25067280
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The Performative Icon
Bissera V. Pentcheva
Icon (ikon, eiKcov) in Greek is understood as image, repre enameled cover, which floods the eye with its radiance and
sentation, and portrait. In Byzantium the word also acquired shimmer. When illuminated by the trembling flicker of can
a very specific meaning as a portable portrait of Christ, the dles and oil lamps rather than the steady and harsh spotlights
Virgin, and saints with scenes from their lives on wood panels of museum displays, the painted holy face on the revetted
or precious surfaces such as ivory, metal, enamel, mosaic, and icon sinks and disappears in the shadow. These panels oper
steatite (Figs. 1-4).* The icon was perceived as matter im ate at the brink of the extramission and intromission models of
bued with charis (âpi?), or divine grace.2 As matter, this visuality. They deny the tangibility and even visibility of the
object was meant to be physically experienced. Touch, smell, sacred image, while they appeal to the sense of touch through
taste, and sound all contributed to the experience of "seeing" the textured surface of their repouss? and enameled-filigree
the portable portrait. Over the years, this sensory and sensual metal revetments.7
experience (aesthesis) of the image has been lost from view in Because they are luxury objects, relief icons are now con
the scholarship.3 sidered exceptions among an otherwise largely panel-painted
The icon is in fact a surface that resonates with sound, icon production. However, the way relief icons in metal,
wind, light, touch, and smell. This object thus offers us a enamel, steatite, and ivory integrate the iconophile theory of
glimpse into what vision meant in Byzantium: a synesthetic images and the way they sensorially engage the faithful
experience in which the whole body is engaged. The term through their tactile representations suggest that these ob
synesthesia as employed in modern art theory and psychology jects, rather than being exceptions, lead us instead to a
refers to concomitant sensation: the experience of one sense fundamental expectation and experience of icons as textured
through the stimulation of another, such as color experi surfaces in Byzantium. The relief icon, which dominated
enced as sound. Instead, I will use the word synesthesis (syn-, artistic production in the ninth and tenth centuries, most
together, plus aesthesis, sensual apprehension) to focus atten closely fulfilled the qualities of Byzantine tactile and sensorial
tion on consonant sensation: the simultaneity of senses. This visuality.
synesthetic experience is very characteristic of Byzantium. Yet In its original setting, the icon performed through its
it is rarely discussed in medieval studies. Whenever a link materiality. The radiance of light reflected from the gilded
between the senses and the spiritual is made, it is often drawn surfaces, the flicker of candles and oil lamps placed before
primarily on the basis of the writings of Abbot Suger.4 the image, the sweetly fragrant incense, the sounds of prayer
According to Byzantine image theory as it emerged in the and music?these inundated all senses. In saturating the
ninth century, the icon is the imprint (in Greek, typos) of material and sensorial to excess, the experience of the icon
Christ's visible characteristics (appearance) on matter. The led to a transcendence of this very materiality and gave access
quintessential Byzantine image ideally should not be thought to the intangible, invisible, and noetic.8 This phenomenolog
of as a painting created by brushstrokes but as an imprint? ical aspect of the icon has been largely overlooked in modern
a typos impressed on a material surface. The relief icon scholarship. By treating it as art, confining it to a glass-cage
most closely conformed to this theoretical model; it defined museum display, subjecting it to uniform and steady electric
Byzantium as the culture of the imprint, mold, or seal lighting, the icon has been deprived of life?its surface,
(Figs. 1-3). dead.9
The relief icon also best responds to the prevailing theory In Byzantine culture, mimesis is the word closest to the
of vision known as extramission.5 According to this model, the definition of "performance." It stands for an admixture of
eye of the beholder is active, constantly moving and sending presence and absence.10 The icon exemplifies just such an
light rays that touch the surfaces of objects. The eye seeks the admixture. While itself an absence (appearance), the Byzan
tactility of textures and reliefs. Sight is understood and expe tine icon enacts divine presence (essence) in its making and
rienced as touch.6 Not surprisingly, Byzantine icons address in its interaction with the faithful.11 A person's approach,
this tactile desire with their rich decoration, varied materials, movement, and breath disrupt the lights of the candles and
and reliefs. They employ a baroque pastiche of metal re oil lamps, making them flicker and oscillate on the surface of
pouss?, filigree, cloisonn? and champlev? enamels, pearls, the icon, This glimmer of reflected rays is enhanced by the
and gemstones. Some of these panels also contain poetic rising incense in the air, the sense of touch and taste, and the
inscriptions embedded in the metal surface (Fig. 21). sound of prayer to animate the panel.12 The icon thus goes
The later and better-known production of wood panel through a process of becoming, changing, and performing
paintings covered with metal revetments (Fig. 4) differ sig before the faithful,
nificantly from the Middle Byzantine relief icon. In the latter, These shifting sensations triggered through sight, touch,
the holy figure projects in relief, whereas in the former, the sound, smell, and taste stir the faithful. They are then led to
sacred form recedes in darkness. It is painted on the flat project their whirling psychological state and sensual experi
surface of the wood and surrounded by a raised silver-gilt or ence (pathema, Tr?diq/xa) back onto the object to make the
532 ART BULLETIN VOLUME LXXXVIII NUMBER 4
1 Icon of the Archangel Michael, late 10th century, enamel on 2 Icon of the Archangel Michael, late llth-12th century,
gold, 17% X 14V6 X 3/4 in. (44 X 36 X 2 cm). Treasury of the enamel on gold, 85/s X 7V4 in. (22 X 18.5 cm). Treasury of the
basilica of S. Marco, Venice (artwork in the public domain; basilica of S. Marco, Venice (artwork in the public domain;
photograph by Cameraphoto, provided by Art Resource, NY) photograph by Cameraphoto, provided by Art Resource, NY)
icon appear alive. Animated by the projected human clastic period. The definition of the icon as absence has
7r?0T)/xa, it turns into a living painting: an empsychos graphe paradoxically heightened the materiality of this object. A
(e/xi/fuô? ypa</>ff). A new meaning of "living painting" tension lurks on the icon's surface between absence and
emerges from my analysis.13 presence, a tension that will be resolved in the icon's perfor
The Byzantine icon has a legacy of tactile visuality, sensu mance (mimesis) : the way it plays with appearances before the
ally experienced. Because the Eastern Orthodox liturgy main faithful. In contrast to our Western notion of mimesis as the
tained its late antique tradition of saturating the senses, the imitation of form, Byzantine mimesis is the imitation of pres
objects embedded in its rite gave rise to a sensorially rich ence. The icon is just an imprint of form, but it simulates
performance. While all five senses are engaged, a subtle divine essence through the interaction of its imprinted sur
hierarchy is established. Sight, touch, and sound emerge as face with the changing ambience.
the senses through which the materiality of the icon as the Byzantine image theory emerged during the Iconoclastic
imprint of the divine appearance is empirically formed. At period, 730 to 843. At the very center of this controversy lay
the same time, smell and taste give access to divine essence the tension between matter and spirit. Can the icon represent
through an almost Eucharistie participatory knowledge of Christ's divinely human nature? The eighth-century defense
God. of icons presents an essentialist model. Its major proponents
were John of Damaskos (ca. 675-749) and Patriarch Germa
Byzantine Mimesis: Essence and Appearance nos (ca. 634-732).15 Using Christology, they drew a connec
The Byzantine icon is a surface that has received the imprint tion between the icon and the incarnate Christ. The Incar
of divine form. This nonessentialist definition of the icon nation manifests the divine acquiring a human form, lending
developed in the ninth-century writings of Patriarch Nike validity to the visible and representation. By extension, the
phoros and Theodore of Stoudios. Charles Barber has al icon shows the process through which the Logos acquires a
ready reconstructed their theory in his excellent study Figure visible human shape.
and Likeness:- On the Limits of Representation in Byzantine Icono The original seventh-century mosaics at Nikaia offer an
clasm.14 What remains to be explored is how this nonessen example of this incarnational dialectic (Figs. 5, 6).16 The
tialist model affected the icon production of the post-Icono pr?figurai divine, represented by the throne, book, dove, and
THE PERFORMATIVE ICON 533
3 Harbaville triptych, late 10th century, ivory, 9V? X WA in.

(24.2 X 28.5 cm). Mus?e du Louvre, Paris (artwork in the
public domain; photograph by Erich Lessing, provided by Art
Resource, NY)
?ir>#?^*Z&1*xz?.
5 Mosaic of the Hetoimasia, late 7th or early 8th century.

Church of the Koimesis of the Theotokos, Iznik, Turkey
(Nikaia) (artwork in the public domain; photograph provided
by the Theodore Schmit Archive, ? The State Hermitage
Museum, St. Petersburg)
inscription, is transformed into the Child held in the arms of

the Virgin in the apse. We witness a metamorphosis by fol
lowing the central ray of light, most likely made of silver
tesserae.17 They catch and reflect light as they lead us to the
carnal light: the golden-clad Child in Mary's arms. By equat
ing the icon with the body of Christ, making it participatory
in the divine essence, this essentialist model exposed itself to
charges of idolatry.18 The figurai representation at Nikaia
shows traces of such an iconoclastic intervention, for the
image of the Virgin and Child in the apse was replaced by the
aniconic shape of the cross sometime in the mid-eighth cen
tury. With the reestablishment of image veneration in 843,
the figurai representation was restored.
To counteract the charges of idolatry in the incarnational
model, the iconophiles of the later part of the eighth and
early ninth centuries developed a nonessentialist interpreta
tion of the icon.19 Patriarch Nikephoros (ca. 750-828) de
fined the icon as the imprint (typos) of the visible character
i ftl J; istics of Christ on matter, or appearance imprinted on
matter: "Painting represents the corporeal form of the one
4 Double-sided processional icon of the Virgin Hodegetria,
3rd quarter of the 13th century, tempera on wood, silver-metal
depicted, impressing its appearance (schema) and its shape
revetment, 38V? X 26% in. (97 X 67 cm). Icon Gallery, Ohrid, (morphe) and its likeness (empheria).'"20
Macedonia (artwork in the public domain; photograph ? Schema, morphe, empheria (oxrj/xa, jmop</>Tj, e^?peta) all
Scala, provided by Art Resource, NY) converge on the sense of appearance/likeness and empha
7 Seal attached to the memorandum of a judge of

Thessaloniki written in 927, lead, 7% X 6% in. (19.8 X 17.4
cm). Iviron Monastery, Mount Athos, Greece (object in the
public domain; from Treasures of Mount Athos, 508, cat. no.
13.1)
6 Apse mosaic of the Virgin and Child, late 7th- early 8th and
mid-9th century. Church of the Koimesis of the Theotokos,
Iznik, Turkey (Nikaia) (artwork in the public domain;
photograph provided by the Theodore Schmit Archive, ? The appearance of the prototype has been impressed onto the
State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg) memory of the artist. In the next step, this impressed form is
imprinted (literally impressed like a die) for a second time on
the material surface (bronze or gold, marble or encaustic).
The making of the icon becomes a process of double imprint
size the nonessentialist relation between copy and prototype.
(typos).
The two are connected by form, not essence. The icon as
This nonessentialist theory of the icon does not account for
imprint of appearance no longer participates in Christ's sa
miraculous images. As in any other culture, the theoretical
cred energy and therefore does not reveal his hypostasis model exercised some but not total control over artistic
(divinely human essence). In bearing only the visible charac
production and ritual practices. It gave a conceptual line
teristics and lacking the miraculous essence, the icon be
through which to defend the validity of icons.
comes the imprint of absence on matter. This object is thus
At the same time, a belief in miraculous icons did exist in
set to simulate presence (essence) through appearance.
Byzantium, and this belief went against the theoretical defi
A similar definition of the icon as an imprint of likeness on
nition of the icon as absence. Because these thaumaturgie
matter emerges in the writings of Theodore of Stoudios
images were perceived as repositories of divine presence, they
(759-826):
functioned in a way similar to relics. These icons offered
The crafted icon modeled after its prototype brings the access to sacred energy. Habitually enclosed in containers
likeness of the prototype into matter and participates in its and covered by silk veils, the miraculous images were kept
form by means of the thought of the artist and the impress away from sensual grasp, in contrast to the regular icon,
of his hands. This is true of the painter, the stone carver, which was always fully visually and tangibly available. The
and the one who makes images from gold and bronze; miracle-working images were fully revealed only at swift cli
each takes matter, looks at the prototype, receives the mactic points of the ritual.22
imprint of that which he contemplates, and presses it like
a seal into his matter.21 Typos and Sphragis
The nonessentialist model of the icon as a double imprint, I
In this passage, the icon is likeness that participates only in believe, originates from the very image production practices
the form, not the essence, of the prototype. The act of available to men of letters in ninth-century Constantinople
looking at the model is understood as a primary imprint. The and from the stronghold of the extramission theory in Byzan
8 Seal blank, lead, diameter IVs in. (2.9 cm). Dumbarton

Oaks, Washington, D.C. (object in the public domain; 10 Seal of Peter, bishop of Thebes, with the Virgin Episkepsis,
11th century, diameter 1 in. (2.5 cm). Dumbarton Oaks,
photograph provided by Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine
Collection, Washington, D.C.) Washington, D.C. (object in the public domain; photograph
provided by Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Collection,
Washington, D.C.)
11 Coin with the impressed images of Christ and Emperor

Constantine VII (r. 945-59), gold, diameter % in. (1.8 cm).
Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. (object in the public
domain; photograph provided by Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine
Collection, Washington, D.C.)
The typos/sphragis concept is not new. It has been explored

most prominently by Herbert Kessler in connection with the
acheiropoietos of Christ (miraculous image not made by human
9 Pliers with intaglio relief of a saint, iron, 6% X 6V6 in. hands, a-, without, heir, hand, poietos, made): the imprint
(17.4 X 15.5 cm). Arthur Sackler Museum, Cambridge, Mass.,
(typos) of the Holy Face on a material surface.25 This thauma
bequest of Thomas Whittemore, 1951.31.6 (object in the
public domain; photograph provided by the Arthur Sackler turgie object is allegedly the product of a single imprint of
Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge) the divine form and essence. It is created like a coin or seal.
Christ's body functions like an intaglio impressed on the
material surface (Figs. 10, 11). As an extension of the divine
form, which bears the divine touch, the acheiropoietos partici
tine visuality. Many documents, once their writing was con pates in the essence.
cluded, were secured with a seal.23 For instance, in a memo Yet the typos/sphragis concept has never been applied to the
randum by a judge of Thessaloniki written in 927, the seal is regular icon. In contrast to the acheiropoietoi, the icon is
still in its original position, affixed with a cord at the edge of created through a double imprint and participates only in the
the parchment. It completes the writing and ensures the appearance of the prototype. Again, the making of a seal or
inviolate state of the letter (Fig. 7) .24 The characteristic Byz a coin exemplifies this process. The die and its imprint
antine sealing practice was to use lead blanks with a channel (eKTweojULa, twos, a<j>payU) furnish not just a metaphor for
going through their diameter (Fig. 8). The silk cords were the relation between Christ and the icon but also a process
first threaded through the parchment and then strung that entirely maps the concept of the icon as absence, lacking
through the seal's channel. After being heated, the lead essence. The sacred body leaves a physical imprint. By dis
blanks were placed between the valves of iron pliers (Fig. 9). placing matter, it produces a negative space, a shell in which
The pliers were struck shut with a hammer, impressing a a body once resided but no longer remains. This shell is
relief on the softened surface of the lead (Figs. 10,11). While equivalent to the negative intaglio on the heads of the pliers
creating the metal relief, the pliers embedded the silk cord (Fig. 9). It is this form of absence that is then imprinted on
in the lead and closed the parchment. Writing and sealing the warm metal surface, reifying in relief the shape of ab
thus became linked in Byzantium. The graphe (encompassing sence (Figs. 10, 11). Here, absence turns into a projection,
writing and painting) was understood as a seal (sphragis, penetrating the physical space. The relief paradoxically is
ar<f>payi<;), for the seal completed it. By analogy, the icon as a transformed into the materialization of the form of absence.
manifestation of graphe also became a sphragis. The icon then becomes a reified, sensual, sensory manifesta
tion of absence. It self-consciously draws attention to absence, the chancel barrier in Hagia Sophia, Paul the Silentiary men
making it tangible, apprehensible through the senses.26 As tioned metal-repouss? disks with the figures of Christ, the
present absence, the imprint neutralizes the icon and makes angels, prophets, Apostles, and the Virgin.32 Similarly, after
it immune to charges of idolatry. It provides access to appear Iconoclasm, icons in metal repouss? adorned the epistyle of
ance, which is materially realized and sensually experienced. the imperial foundation called Nea Ekklesia (the New
The understanding of the icon through the seal-making Church) of Emperor Basil I (r. 867-86) .33 Enamel medallion
model also places an emphasis on tangible versus intangible icons of Christ appeared in the Chapel of the Savior in the
absence, rather than on the visible versus the invisible. In its
palace.34 These instances demonstrate a continuing tradition
imprinted relief, the icon materializes the absent sacred fig of luxury relief icons in both Hagia Sophia and the churches
ure. It gives it shape. Therefore, medieval objects in general
and chapels of the Great Palace.
and Byzantine icons in particular attempt to express the
The most important icon in this period was the Chalkites
paradox of the tangible versus the intangible rather than the
Christ set atop the Brazen Gates of the imperial palace. Its
visible versus the invisible (in which my analysis differs from
story summarizes the entire Iconoclastic period (730-843). It
that of the existing scholarship on medieval image theory) .27
was allegedly taken down on the orders of Emperor Leo III in
The tangible appeals to and mobilizes all five senses, while
730, and this act of public aggression against images signaled
the visible addresses itself just to the eye. It is our modern
the outbreak of Iconoclasm in the capital.35 Since this story is
culture's obsession with making things visible, fueled by op
not mentioned by any contemporary eighth-century source
tical visuality, that makes us project a similar framework onto
and appears in the written record only after 800, it casts some
medieval art.28 By contrast, the Byzantine icon presents an
doubt on the existence of a Chalke Christ in about 730.
eloquent example of tactile visuality sensually experienced.
According to the preferred theory of vision in Byzantium, Marie-France Auz?py has correctly argued that the legend
extramission, the eye casting its rays seeks a tangible form was developed in order to justify Empress Eirene's placement
that can be "touched with the eyes, hands, and lips."29 of such an icon for the first time during the iconophile
Moreover, the same desire for materiality is present in the interim period, 787-814.36 Through the invention of a leg
passage quoted from Theodore of Stoudios: "[the artist] endary past for the Chalkites, it acquired legitimacy. Then
takes matter, looks at the prototype, receives the imprint of again in 814 Emperor Leo V removed this image from the
that which he contemplates, and presses it like a seal into his gates in an attempt to emulate the legendary actions of his
matter."30 In the making of an icon, the active eye of the artist iconoclast predecessor, Leo III. Finally, a new Chalkites was
casts optical rays over the saint. They touch the sacred form set up in 843. The Chalke Christ marked the final triumph of
and return, impressing the gathered shape into the memory orthodoxy and celebrated the renewed alignment of imperial
of the craftsman. This first image (the imprinted vestige of power with image veneration. As the gate to the Great Palace,
touch) is thus internal. Like a negative intaglio, it is subse the Chalke visually and tangibly defined and propagated
quently impressed by the hands of the artist into a material imperial policy. It was probably this same image that reap
surface. peared on imperial coinage in 843.37
The Byzantine sacred portrait can be seen to function in What did this icon look like? Could it have been a metal
Neoplatonic terms. It presents a material manifestation of relief icon?a typos} Its name, Chalkites^ refers to copper and
what is immaterial and ineffable (divine essence). The image bronze,38 but is this a reference to the Brazen Gates over
is a priori internal. Its external manifestation is the icon. The which it hung or to the fact that the image itself was made of
eye "touching" its surface reaffirms the reality of the internal metal? Scholars, notably, Cyril Mango in 1959, have argued
prototype. Touch authenticates this internal imprint. The that the Chalkites was a painted panel because the iconoclasts
validity or truth of the image is its matter; its surface, having
sent it to the fire.39 However, panel painting is not suited for
received the imprint (typos) of absence, offers it in turn to the
the exterior of a building; ultraviolet light, humidity, and
touch of the "eyes and lips" of the faithful.
temperature shifts would all wreak havoc with egg tempera
Paradoxically, the icon as reified absence is imbued with on wood.
the most profound materiality. Its lack of essence is compen
By contrast, if we identify the Chalkites as a metal relief
sated by the materially manifested likeness: palpable, tangi
icon, all of these issues are resolved. A bronze or copper icon
ble, and sensual. It is this materiality of the icon that is
(a typos) would have easily been burned in accordance with
overlooked in the recent studies of Byzantine image theory.31
the incident of 730 or 814. In fact, fire would have been the
The Relief Icon only and perhaps best way to destroy it. Moreover, its burning
For the period from the ninth to the eleventh centuries, would have had a strong symbolic value by alluding to the
relief icons in metal, enamel, ivory, and steatite survive in biblical Golden Calf (Exod. 32:20). Burning, indeed, would
greater numbers than panel paintings. So far, this imbalance have justified the icon's destruction in the eyes of iconoclasts
has been attributed to wood's vulnerability to deterioration. as an orthodox act of pulling down the idols.
Perhaps a different interpretation, which takes into account Further confirmation of this hypothesis can be found in
tradition, theory, and the function of icons in the ninth and the written record. In one of the two earliest Byzantine
tenth centuries, is in order. In this interpretation, the seal sources describing the Chalke incident of 730, the Life of Saint
and-coin-based model at the core of Byzantine image theory Stephen the Younger (written about 809), the icon appears as a
furnishes an insight into the art produced after Iconoclasm. copper relief image. The passage mentions the icon and its
Already in his discussion of the sixth-century decoration of location at the gates:40
In these days [the patriarch Anastasios,] having become holy face was rendered as a relief, while the epigram as letters
the leader of heresies, immediately attempted to take incised on matter. Both draw attention to the textured and
down and throw into the fire the authoritative icon of imprinted surface. Finally, Michael Glykas in the twelfth cen
Christ our Lord, hanging above the imperial gates, at the tury reinforces the idea of the Chalkites as a metal relief icon
place, where due to its relief character, it [the icon] is called by calling it an imprint (ekt?tt?uiio) .47
the Chalke (the Copper One).41 What is the importance of identifying the Chalkites with a
metal relief icon? This was the most prominent icon in Con
The syntax of the dependent clause is rather difficult to stantinople during and after Iconoclasm. It symbolized pro
interpret. It is introduced by a relative pronoun (kv oicnrep), image policy. Therefore, its form would have been under
which refers to the gates, yet the rest of the sentence has a stood as the ideal icon. If my interpretation of the written
subject in the feminine singular, and the only other word in sources is correct, the Chalkites served as the model for the
the feminine singular in the main clause is "icon" (eiKC?v). Byzantine metal relief icon. As a typos, the Chalke Christ also
While the Greek for gate (pyle, 7r6kr?) is in the feminine fulfilled Byzantine image theory. According to its nonessen
gender, a switch from the plural to singular and the subsequent tialist definition, the ideal icon is a representation in relief:
description of this object as holy suggest that the subject of an imprint (typos) left by an intaglio (Figs. 10, 11).
the relative clause is not the Brazen Gates but the Chalkites It is quite possible that the Chalkites was medallion-shaped.
icon. The relative pronoun can then be translated as refer In Byzantine iconophile writings the legitimacy of the icon is
ring to the locale, where the icon is set.42 frequently argued on the basis of the imperial coin. A reci
The word used to describe the metal object in the quoted procity is established between the emperor and his represen
passage is charakter (xotpoLKTr\p). It means an imprint, relief, tation on the gold solidus (Fig. 11), Both are linked by one
and engraved surface. In fact, its first definition is connected identity yet separated by natures.48 The same reciprocity
to the stamping of an intaglio on a metal surface in order to reigns between the icon and Christ. Both represent the same
produce a coin. The same word also appears in th? descrip identity but differ in nature: a material substance versus a
tion of the Chalkites in Theophanes' Chronographia (early divinely human hypostasis. The roundel icon evokes in its
ninth century), The passage narrates the events of 602 CE, shape the very arguments used to defend its legitimacy. The
when Emperor Maurice (r. 582-602) dreamed of his judg medallion panel thus becomes an ideal devotional object
ment by Christ, which resulted in his deposition. Theophanes protected by form and theory from charges of idolatry.49
embellished the story by ahistorically inserting the Chalkites Similarly, the majority of icons depicted in the mid-ninth
icon?the very object that was most likely first placed ?t the century Khludov Psalter (State Historical Museum, Moscow,
gates almost two centuries later, in the period 787-814. The cod. gr. 129) have a round shape that evokes coins and seals
icon became the medium through which Christ appeared (Fig. 12).50 These images do not resemble what we consider
and judged the emperor: "One night as [Emperor Maurice] to be the canonical look for an icon: a rectangular wood
was sleeping, he saw a vision; he was standing before the icon panel painting. In employing the shape of coins and seals, the
of the Savior at the Chalke gates and ? crowd was standing representations in the Khludov Psalter activate the nonessen
around him. A voice from the relief icon of our Lord and tialist definition of the icon as imprint of absence on matter.
Savior Jesus Christ came and spoke."43 Hence, the circular form validates th? veneration of images.
Later sources also indicate a copper relief icon for the The manuscript begins with a depiction of a youthful
Chalkites. In the Patria (a compilation of various sources on Christ set within an arch (Fig. 12). Underneath the tympa
the topography of Constantinople, edited about 995), we num, King David dressed in imperial attire sits on a throne
read the following: "In the so-called Chalke Gates a copper and strums the strings of his lyre. Divine and imperial are
stele of our Lord Jesus Christ was erected by Constan tine the joined through the seal of the icon. King David emerges as a
Great. The emperor Leo [III], father of Kavallinos, took it protector of images and vice versa: as a recipient of the icon's
down. Now decorated with mosaics, this icon is restored by protection. This idea captures the climate of ninth-century
the [empress] Eirene the Athenian."44 Constantinople, where imperial policy had just firmly em
The icon is called a copper relief slab (stele chalke, ottj?tj braced icon veneration. The Chalkites Christ established the
XakKrf). These words have hitherto been interpreted as a seal of affirmation in 843.
bronze statue and discredited as corrupt information because The medallion icon and its setting in the Khludov Psalter
Byzantium did not produce three-dimensional statues of within the tympanum of an imaginary arch recall the shape of
Christ or the saints.45 Yet the Byzantine choice of words is a gate. Given the manuscript's polemical depiction of current
quite clear. Just as the Greek word stele presents figures in low political events and its avid defense of irhages, it is likely that
relief, so, too, the Byzantine Chalkites icon displays a bas the preface miniature of the Khludov Psalter is not just a
relief of Christ on a metal surface. The rest of the passage visualization of an author portrait (King David as the poet of
states how this icon was decorated with mosaics by Empress the Psalms) but is possibly meant to configure in two-dimen
Eirene, which could be interpreted as a metal icon adorned sional form a memory image of the Chalke gate and Chalke
with glass tesserae or even enamel. Christ. Such a commemorative image would be quite appro
Similarly, the epigram written by Patriarch Methodios priate for the particular patron of the manuscript: most likely
sometime between 843 and 847 identifies the orthodox im Patriarch Methodios.51 His epigram adorned the Chalkites,
ages as typoi: "I am representing [Christ] with imprints [ty and, by extension, his Psalter begins with a miniature emu
poi]."46 This poetic inscription most likely surrounded the lating his most prominent public act of image veneration. If
Chalkites icon, thereby linking image and text visually. The this reading of the preface miniature as a vision of the
12 Khludov Psalter, preface miniature,

medallion icon of Christ and King
David, mid-9th century. State Historical
Museum, Moscow, cod. gr. 129, fols,
lv, 2r (artwork in the public domain;
photograph ? by the State Historical
Museum, Moscow)
Chalkites at the Bronze Gates is correct, then all medallion Painting as Imprint
icon depictions in this manuscript acquire greater signifi In modern Western culture we are predisposed to conceive of
cance as copies sharing in the Chalkites's tradition, form, and painting as the markings of the brush on a material surface.
legitimacy. The ideal Byzantine icon emerges as a Chalke Traced to its source, this perception derives from the Natural
icon: a medallion metal relief. History of Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE). In one of his anecdotes
Finally, a dominance of relief icons over panel paintings in the painter Zeuxis creates a virtuoso mimetic picture of
the ninth and tenth centuries is also evident in the contem grapes, which deceives the birds. His competitor, Parrhasios,
porary function of images. In this period icons were not in turn paints a curtain so skillfully that Zeuxis himself is
carried in public processions (litaniai), so they were not the deceived as he attempts to draw the curtain in order to see
focal point of public ceremonies. The small size and luxury the supposed painting behind it.54 The same definition of
materials of these relief icons conformed to a more intimate graphe as the marks of the brush on a surface creating a
system of use. mimetic image of the world also obtains in the Renaissance
The situation changed in the late tenth century when icons theory of Leon Battista Albert! written in 1436.55 In recent
appeared in imperial and liturgical processions and led to a times, Ernst Gombrich has offered the best-known discussion
new demand for the larger size and accessibility of the image of painting as a naturalistic, mimetic pictorial copy of the
in large public gatherings.52 Wood panel paintings allowed world.56 Although Norman Bryson and other scholars have
for unlimited expansion of size. The sacred figure painted in challenged his perceptualist theory, they have not questioned
tempera lacked relief and functioned primarily optically (Fig. the understanding of painting as a pictorial form of art:
4). Only the revetment preserved the aesthetic of the luxury brushstrokes on a material surface.57
metal relief icon. In the best examples, this metal cover By contrast, in what emerges in the Byzantine theory and
consisted of an enameled silver-gilt surface decorated with practice, painting (graphe) is best understood as imprint (ty
filigree designs, pearls, and gemstones. pos and sphragis). The image is not the imitation of form but
The history of Constantinople's most famous icon, the rather the imprint of form. This Eastern perception of paint
Hodegetria (the One Who Leads the Way), exemplifies this ing?and, by extension, the icon?as imprint gives an insight
development (Fig. 4). Until the late tenth century, the icon into Byzantine culture. As mentioned earlier, Byzantine mi
ographie type without the toponymie name occurred mostly mesis is understood as the simulation of presence through the
on small luxury relief icons. Once the Hodegetria became the interaction of the imprinted form (typos) with the changing
focus of a cult and acquired its own weekly liturgical proces ambience.
sion, it established the first example of a monastery in Con Typos in Byzantium encompasses a range of definitions
stantinople investing its identity in an icon rather than a relic spreading from individual mark, standard pattern, and state
of the Mother of God.5S Consequently, Marian devotion in decree to ritual.58 The dictionary entries are as follows: im
the Byzantine capital was shaped through icons and icon pression, imprint and mark, mold, representation, image,
processions. These processional icons (later referred to as exact replica, shape, form, type, pattern, model, example,
signa) had the effect of shifting the perception of the ideal decree, and, finally, rite. One gradually proceeds from the
image in Byzantium from a medallion relief (typos) to a individual mark to the state, from the private to the public,
painted panel (signori). from the particular to the cultural. All meanings are inter
linked through the model of the imprint of an intaglio on fossils: contact relics giving tangibility to the angel's present
metal. Just as the icon is an imprint of visible characteristics absence.62 For this reason, the relief icon as a typos becomes
on matter, so, too, the rite becomes the imprint of a set of the only truthful form of representation for the Archangel.
gestures and speech acts in time and space. Both icon and By its definition, it is the imprint of absence. His enamel icon
ritual present endless faithful reproduction rather than imi in S. Marco is even closer to the truth, for it is an imprint of
tation of form.59 The imprint as a cultural practice ensures fire on glass. Its materially saturated surfaces inundate the
uniformity and secures traditions. Byzantium emerges as the senses and simulate the angel's presence.
culture of the typos:, the image understood as the impression, The icon belongs to a group of luxury objects looted from
mold, form, and decree, all authentic and limitlessly repro the palace in Constantinople when the city fell to the Cru
ducible, linking image production to ritual practices and saders in 1204. Andr? Grabar and Michelangelo Muraro have
cultural identity. commented on the "unusual" medium and technique of this
The coin or seal model (typos/sphragis) of the icon explains icon. Their reaction betrays once again our modern precon
why after Iconoclasm enamel became the medium par excel ception that icons should be primarily identified with paint
lence. It, too, gives theory a palpable shape by displaying the ings.63 As discussed earlier, the relief icon of the Archangel
imprint of divine appearance in a material form. The enam might have been more characteristic of the Middle Byzantine
el's underlying metal foundation of cells functions like a period than wood panels painted with tempera. The S. Marco
negative intaglio. The glass powder poured into this grid enamel is one of the few extant examples of this exquisite
becomes the imprint (typos). Once the powder is fired into production. It displays a mastery of metal techniques (enamel
glass, it acquires mass, giving shape to divine absence. The filigree, repouss?) and lavish use of materials (Figs. 13-15).
congealed glass forms the materiality of the enamel image. As The Archangel stands frontally, dressed in an imperial
with the relief icon, matter fills an empty shell and gives purple tunic covered with a gem-studded sash called a loros
materiality or substance to what is no longer there, to what is (Fig. 13). With one hand he holds a scepter and lifts the
beyond the tangible: a present absence. Both enamel and re other in a gesture of intercession. His enormous wings press
lief icons display divine appearance through textured matter. to the sides (Fig. 15). A subtle tension emerges between the
While enameled relief icons best embody the concept of figure projecting in relief and the sunken central plaque. The
the icon as imprint, panel painting continued to be produced face extends outward the most, yet this projection is imme
in the period right after Iconoclasm, as attested by the pre diately checked by the palm turned to the viewer. It stops
served collection of icons at St. Catherine's Monastery on movement and arrests the projection.
Mount Sinai.60 However, the graphe of tempera could not The body is outlined, but its materiality is rendered as a
compete with the perfect reciprocity of theory and produc multiplicity of surfaces. Imitation-pearl strings delimit all
tion practices signaled by the metal icon, because the latter shapes and frame the enamel plaques and gemstones (Figs.
displayed in its making the actual materialization of the typos. 13, 14). The gold repouss? surface is enlivened by thin,
Nor could tempera compare to encaustic, a form of relief undulating filigree with a pearly dot profile. This is one of the
that imparts a vivid sensation of imprint. The surface of the most exquisite Byzantine filigree examples in existence.
warm wax is pushed, impressed, and incised by the palette The excess of matter functions as dissemblance, set to
knife, "imprinting" a figure in relief. oppose a desire to depict in a naturalistic style.64 Rather than
This understanding of graphe as imprint simultaneously a mimetic figuration of the angel's appearance, the enamel
engages touch, sight, and sound. Touch, because grapheis the icon of the one who is fire and spirit offers a dissemblant
actual physical impression made on a material surface: it re-presentation of the angel's nature. It is made of glass
leaves a relief, a texture that has tactile presence. Sight and powder, placed in a metal mold, and fired to a high temper
sound, because both are modes of perception of graphe: as ature. As an imprint, the enamel icon responds to the Byz
both painting and writing, graphe unites image and letter. Just antine definition of an angel's representation: a symbolic
as the image is an imprint of visible characteristics on matter, impression that allows for the contemplation of higher heav
so script is the impression/trace of letters incised, inscribed, enly reality beyond matter.65 The enamel icon itself is thus a
imprinted onto a surface (Fig. 21). Only through matter can dissemblant material imprint of the unfigurable created by
abstract ideas be realized and perceptually accessed. They fire?a dissemblant semblance of the symbolic imprint.
need to be embodied, incarnated. Graphe as imprint prede The Archangel's nature of fire and spirit is nonmimetically
termines the importance of the material surface in the Byz reproduced and hapticly enfigured on the diverse surfaces of
antine perception of the icon. this icon. The ample textures are sensually and sensorially
available to the gaze, touch, and taste. Tactility combats the
The Icon's Materiality and the Sense of Touch optical experience. Alois Riegl referred to the tactile qualities
The textured surfaces of the Byzantine icon engage the five as the true aspect of an object as opposed to the illusion
senses, as demonstrated by the sensual appeal of the late generated through the optical frame.66 It is this hap tic aspect
tenth-century enamel relief of the Archangel Michael (Figs. (relief and textured surfaces) that engages both the Byzan
1, 13) .61 By nature, the angel is fire and spirit; no materiality tine theory of vision (extramission) and the practical vener
rests in him. Human beings can grasp him only through the ation of the icon. The viewer's gaze seeks the tactility of the
imprint he leaves on matter. For instance, Saint Michael's icon's textures. The active eye sends off rays that touch the
shrines at Chonai and Monte S. Gargano are perceived as surfaces of objects. At the same time, the glitter of light
imprints left by him on the landscape. A chasm (Chonai) and emanating from the gold surface visualizes the rays that the
a shrine carved in the rock (S. Gargano), they form giant "animated" image itself sends off to touch and in a sense
13 Icon of the Archangel Michael, late

10th century, central panel (artwork in
the public domain; photograph by
Cameraphoto, provided by Art
Resource, NY)
capture th? viewer. The space between icon and beholder teriality of color. It is glass packed in a metal mold. After
becomes activated through the exchange of gaze and touch. firing, it becomes a congealed, gemlike mass. Not surpris
The desire to touch is also expressed in the manner in ingly, enamel became the signature Byzantine medium in the
which a Byzantine icon is expected to be venerated: aspasmos tenth century.
(kiss) and proskynesis (lighting of candles, making the sign of As we learn from an Arabic source, the eleventh-century
the cross, and prostration), both defining a body-centered Book of Gifts and Rarities, enamel and purple silk were the two
ritual.67 The proskynesis sets off the optical dazzle of the icon most highly valued Byzantine exports.70 A description of one
as the approach of the faithful disrupts the air with their such gift, a set of enamel bracelets given by Emperor Michael
breathing and movement, making the wicks tremble. The VII to the Fatimid caliph's mother in the 1070s, reads: "five
agitated lights dance off the metal revetments. This shimmer bracelets inlaid with glass in five colors: deep red, snow white,
ing, glittering effect gives rise to a sense that the image is jet black, sky blue, and deep azure. They were fashioned with
animated. The body of the worshiper is thus fully engaged in the best goldsmith's work. Their inlaid design was of the
the spectacle of the icon's performance/mimesis. finest craftsmanship."71 While this text gives us the perspec
tive of the Arab importers rather than the Byzantine export
Color and Light and the Sense of Sight ers, it still attests to the high quality and craftsmanship of the
In Byzantium, color, as visible traits impressed on matter, is Constantinopolitan production.
the most material aspect of light, or, as Suida, the tenth Similarly, in the Byzantine sources, such as the twelfth
century encyclopedia, announces, "color in appearance is century epic Digenis Akritis, enamels decorate the borders of
what is visible and vision receives this."68 Looked at in this luxury clothing, saddles, and armor.72 Being on the fringe of
light, color is an equivalent of form?the corporeal, material the garment, these sparkling objects were subject to the most
aspect of the image.69 The enamel best exemplifies this ma intense movement, where they gave a dynamic coruscating
THE PERFORMATIVE ICON 54I
14 Icon of the Archangel Michael, late 10th century, head (artwork in the public domain; photograph by Cameraphoto, provided
by Art Resource, NY)
effect. The colored glass mimics the look of gems and is Words for color in Byzantium describe the brilliance and
always set into a glittering metal plaque. As such, the medium light-emitting qualities of a substance rather than its hue. A
combines the two most important elements of the perception characteristic passage in Digenis Akritis relates: "the glittering
of color in Byzantium: form and radiance. violets were the color of the sea with its calm ruffled by a light
15 Icon of the Arch

angel Michael, late 10th
century, porphyreos wing
(artwork in the public
domain; photograph by
Cameraphoto, provided
by Art Resource, NY)
breeze."73 These words do not define the hue, instead con flowers emerge in their shimmering radiance, their colors
juring a picture of the shimmer of ruffled water. The chang constantly fluttering and changing. Color becomes the re
ing vibrancy denotes the visible characteristics of this surface. flected light from surfaces: a polymorphous sight paired with
Radiance is most highly valued. In the same passage the the sweet sense of smell and sound.
garden is described as gleaming and shining: "a meadow The glitter of surfaces betrays the "jeweled inflation" that
bloomed brilliantly beneath the trees with its many colors surfaced in Early Christian art and ceremony and remained
gleaming with flowers, sweet-scented narcissus, roses and dominant in Byzantine aesthetics.75 Gold and purple contin
myrtles. The roses were a purple-tinted ornament on the ued to be the two most significant elements in it. Both appear
earth, the narcissus reflected in turn the color of milk."74 The prominently in the celestial and terrestrial courts, as both
embody radiance. Gold and purple are employed in imperial

silks, such as an eleventh-century fragment kept at Auxerre
(shroud of Saint Germanus, St-Eus?be, Auxerre) and the
contemporary depiction of such cloth in the miniature from
the Homilies of John Chrysostomos (Biblioth?que Nationale
de France, Paris, Coislin cod. gr. 79, fol. 2r) showing Emperor
Nikephoros III Botaneiates (originally Michael VII Doukas)
(Figs. 16, 17).76 The contrasting textures of the fabric in
crease the visibility of the eagle design in the Auxerre frag
ment. At the same time, the alternation of gold and purple
enhance the radiance of the silk. With each step and gesture,
the body dressed in the purple silk will animate the fabric,
revealing its vibrancy of hues and shimmer. The coruscating
effect of purple complements the glitter of gold.
This fascination with gold can easily be explained by its
radiance and glitter, but purple has a more culture-specific
meaning in Byzantium.77 Like gold, it has a changing, muta
ble character that imitates both fire and turbulent waters.
The highest-quality dye was derived from the murex, a ma
rine mollusk, and each batch could differ in hue and satura
tion.78 The Greek word for purple (porphyreos or pyravges,
TTop(j>vpeo<; or irvpetvyri?) captures this changing quality. Por
phyreos derives from the colors of the heaving, surging waters
of a stormy sea or gushing blood, while pyravges expresses the
luminous spectacle of fire. Therefore, unlike the limited
English term, the Byzantine word encompasses a spectrum of
hues ranging from rosy red, green, and purple to blue and
black.79 The fiery, iridescent, and polymorphous nature of
porphyreos exemplifies the Byzantine love for glitter and
change and makes it a fitting actor in Byzantine mimesis.
The affinity between purple and gold is made prominent
16 Imperial silk with eagle designs, 11th century, gold and
in the way they are paired on luxury objects. Besides silks and
purple silk. Church of St-Eus?be, Auxerre (object in the public
imperial accoutrements, enamel icons and liturgical chalices domain; photograph by Giraudon, provided by Art Resource,
from the same period employ the fiery splendor of gold and NY)
purple. A late antique sardonyx bowl known as the chalice of
the Patriarchs (in the treasury of S. Marco) is set in a tenth
century Byzantine gold enamel mount (Figs. 18, 19).80 De
pending on the intensity and position of light, the body of the likened to fossilized tongues of fire contained in a golden
chalice can glow like burning ambers (Fig. 18) or coagulate armature. The icon is paradoxically an iridescent imprint of
into a deep blood color (Fig. 19). Through its changing fire on matter. The as?malos (bodiless) angel, who is fire and
appearance, it performs divine presence. For instance, when spirit, is reified in enamel and gold. This icon constantly
empty, its translucent fiery body of sardonyx gives the impres transforms before the viewer as light into matter, matter into
sion of live flesh: the body of Christ. When filled with wine, light, the whole dematerialized by the scintillating glitter of
the deepened purple color is overwhelmed by the dazzle of gold.
gold, suggesting the presence of divinity. Finally, as one lifts The word enameled in Greek, chimevtos (;\a>u.evT?<?), derives
the cup to drink the wine, the diminishing liquid gradually from chimio (xvfJbeio)), "to alloy," yet it could also be phonet
reveals an enamel icon of Christ at the bottom of the bowl ically linked to chimeo (êt/xeco), "to freeze."82 According to
(Fig. 20) .81 As it is consumed, the wine becomes visually the latter, the medium imitates the effect of the shimmering
equated to the human body of Christ. The worshiper is and reflective surface of ice. This appearance is paradoxically
whirled through the many changes of the sardonyx under the achieved through its opposite: fire. Enamel thus presents
spectacle of light and gold, experiencing it as flesh, blood, matter purified through fire. The S. Marco icon uses a dis
body, and divinity. semblant substance frozen through fire and dappled in cor
The late-tenth-century enamel icon of the Archangel ex uscating purple and gold in order to perform the angel's
ploits the same shifting fiery vibrancy of the Byzantine por kinetic essence: a dynamic, energetic, ever-moving being
phyreos (Figs. 13-15). The tunic and feathers of the wings play (fc?kro?, evepyov&o?, ?eiKiWjro?) .83
with the mutability of Byzantine purple: the deep green of The polymorphy of this glittering metal and enamel is also
the dalm?tica is picked up in the outer rim of the feathers, captured in the Greek word metallaxo (fieTaWaCo)), describ
which are followed in turn by feathers dappled in ruby red ing metal's reaction to temperature changes.84 Metallon
and emerald green (Fig. 15). The spectrum of hues is ar (?jL Ta\X.ov) is another term used to designate gems and
ranged to perform, to act like fire. The enamel could be mosaic cubes, again with the idea of change introduced by
surfaces (filigree, cloisonn?, and repouss?) (Figs. 13-15).

The icon changes before the gaze and touch, subtly trans
muting under the effect of ambient light. In fact, in one of
the catalog descriptions of this object, Grabar remarked that
the Archangel's image was photographed under enormous
difficulties because of the shimmering multiple reflections of
light that constantly changed the expression of the face.86
This kinetic effect of the Byzantine relief icon defies modern
photography and display and gives rise to the icon's mimesis.
A similar synesthetic vision (pikilia) emerges in the ekphra
seis of palatial churches, in whose architectural surroundings
this enamel icon resided.87 In the description provided by
Photios (ca. 810-after 893) of the Pharos church in the Great
Palace, the imaginary visitor is transfixed by the incessant
whirl of aesthetic sensations. The spectator is first enchanted
by the diversity of veins in the exterior marble revetment:
"Arresting and turning towards themselves the spectator's
gaze, they make him unwilling to move further in; but taking
his fill of the fair spectacle in the very atrium, and fixing his
eyes on the sight before him, the visitor stays as if rooted [to
the ground] with wonder."88
The approach of the interior only escalates the sensory
overload. The spectator is stirred by the diversity of shimmer
ing materials and textures:
It is as if one had entered heaven itself with no one barring

the way from any side, and was illuminated by the beauty
in all forms shining all around like so many stars, so is one
utterly amazed. ... It seems that everything is in ecstatic
17 Homilies of John Chrysostomos, Emperor Nikephoros III motion, and the church itself is circling around. For the
Botaneiates, 3rd quarter of the 11th century. Biblioth?que
spectator, through his whirling about in all directions and
Nationale de France, Paris, Coislin cod. gr. 79, fol. 2r (artwork
in the public domain; photograph provided by the Biblio being constantly astir, which he is forced to experience by
th?que Nationale de France, Paris) the variegated spectacle on all sides, imagines that his
personal condition is transferred to the object.89
The rich aesthetic of scintillating gold, mosaic, silver, marble

the scintillating quality of light and the transformative nature revetments, silks, and gemstones is orchestrated in order to
of metal. The icon of the Archangel exemplifies this poly perform before the spectator a reeling vision of change. The
morphous substance that melts into fire and freezes into glass effect of this vision on the subject causes a reciprocal projec
before the gaze. tion of his or her experience back onto the object, making it
appear animate. The visitor is continuously astir, spinning
Pikilia (HoLKi\ia) as Synesthetic Vision round in a whirl, sensations that arise from the polymor
Although only a symbolic imprint, dissemblant in both form phous and polychromatic vision (pikilia).
and essence, the icon of the Archangel enacts presence. Its Pikilia seduces the moving eye. In trying to grasp the ob
light-emitting, glimmering, and shimmering surfaces imbue ject, the eye, according to the extramission model of vision,
this icon with life. Through its performance (mimesis) of moves energetically across the surface, scanning, spinning in
changing appearances, it conveys the angel's kinetic essence an attempt to take in more of the spectacle.90 In a similar way,
of fire and spirit. The diversity of textures that appeals to the agitated spectator of the Archangel icon is dazzled by the
touch also gives rise to a dynamic polychromacity of matter, diversity of sensations triggered by this object. The whirling
surfaces, and shimmering light.85 This changing effect of spectacle of this mimesis makes the worshiper reproduce in
sight and touch is captured in the Greek word pikilia his/her own excited state the very essence of the subject
(ttoikiXIol), meaning "diversity," an arresting sight of varied depicted in enamel: a living, energized, ceaselessly moving
and shifting sensual impressions, all gained through chang angel. The spectacle of the icon equates the essence of the
ing colors, textures, and smells. being depicted to the psychological state of the subject expe
Pikilia is at the core of both the spectacle (mimesis) of the riencing the image.
enamel icon of the Archangel and the description of the These sensations are materially generated. The perfor
dazzling and fragrant meadow in Digenis Akritis. On the S. mance of shimmer and radiance is fulfilled on the surface of
Marco icon, this diversity is optically and hapticly configured the relief icon. The gems and gold enamel mutually reinforce
through the use of gold, enamel, glass (with hues ranging each other in creating a vision of splendor: photismos, a spec
from green to dark purple), gemstones, and a variety of metal tacle of light (Figs. 13, 14). It is in this splendor that a vision
18 Chalice of the Patriarchs, 10th

century, sardonyx glowing in amber
shades, gold enamel, 8% X 6% in.
(22 X 17 cm). Treasury of the basilica
of S. Marco, Venice (object in the
public domain; photograph provided
by the Procuratoria di San Marco,
Venice)
of paradise emerges. It is encoded in the gold repouss? and again written as an epigram for an icon: "I contemplate the
raised filigree of the enamel revetments of icons.91 On the Golden Eden of the icon, which the plants fashioned by art
Archangel icon they display vegetal and flower motifs. The seem to surround the creator of Eden."93
pearly dot profile of this delicate gold file coruscates, enliv In the icon, the verdant paradise is materially reconfigured
ening the background and halo of the angel with vibrant as gold, for both are connected through brilliance. Gold
glitter (Fig. 14). (chrysos, ^ptxr?c) and green (chloros, ^?copo?, but especially
The sparkling blossoms evoke the evergreen gardens of chloe, Âon, which means "the radiant first green of spring")
paradise, for the icon is a material incarnation of the ineffa radiate light. They shimmer and sparkle. Since the Byzan
ble paradise. This connection between Edenic gardens and tines categorized color according to brilliance rather than
the icon's decoration is fully explained in the metric prayers hue, fresh green (chloe) and gold were for them equivalents.
(epigrams) written on the surfaces of some Byzantine icons Like the first green of spring that appears in its brightness
(Fig. 21). They draw attention to the material gifts, silver, as gold, or the leaves of the ginkgo tree in autumn, half
gold, pearls, and gemstones, and ask in exchange for these golden yellow, half vibrant green, the surface of Byzantine
tangible riches to be granted a place of rest in the imagined icons stirred the faithful to imagine in the radiance of gold
evergreen gardens of Eden: "give me enjoyment in the ver the verdant paradise of divine delights.94 Another enamel
dant radiant green of divine delights [deia? rpv<\rr\<; ?o? icon of the Archangel (also in the treasury of S. Marco)
evTpvtyav fie rp ^?o-n]."92 The shining gold on the material displays a more literal enameled image of Eden: a peristyle
surface of the icon appears as a dissemblant material vision of garden with green, blue, and red blossoms set in a golden
the verdant paradise and the means through which to imag armature (Figs. 2, 22). In its pikilia, the icon emerges as a
ine this ineffable place of rest and delight. The same idea is vision of paradise.
voiced in the fourteenth-century poem of Manuel Philes, The image of gemstones shimmering on a glittering gold
?. . vt* .wn** *.* ?'* î?t?^;^1^^^^?
?3?rfV
*r*:s*
*m*^M*
V o!* -3\\
19 Chalice of the Patriarchs, sardonyx
glowing in purple shades (object in
the public domain; photograph
provided by the Procuratoria di San
Marco, Venice)
surface appears in many of the tenth-century visions of par The floors are of immaterial gleaming gold tiles outlined by
adise such as the Life of Basil the Younger ( Vita Basilii Iunioris). ineffable plants. The blossoms of these flowers fill the space
Yet, while the synesthetic vision (pikilia) is materially gener with an extraordinary perfume:
ated on the icon, the same spectacle is beyond the tangible in
the celestial realm. There, color exists without form, as radi
We came to a courtyard, which was wondrous and incom
ant, self-generated light. The tents of the saints radiate with
parable. And its floor was flashing like lightning, adorned
immaterial light:
with golden tiles, and there was no dirt at all on it, and the
And arising from there we journeyed to the abodes of the air which was like lightning illuminated it, and in the joints
saints; these were very, very many, not subject to enumer of those golden tiles there were flowering plants of every
ation, flashing the brightest gleam as if from the sun's rays, sort, fragrant and abounding in fruits, beautifully culti
and immaterially, and spiritually flashing inexplicably by vated, and they were sending forth inexpressible and in
the hand of God with many colors as if of linen-white and describable pleasure and joy and filling those who saw
divine purple light.95 them with divine happiness.96
20 Chalice of the Patriarchs, medallion with Christ at the

bottom of the bowl (artwork in the public domain)
The table decked out for the feast, quarried of scintillating

emerald, is laid with ruby dishes framed in gold:
[The table was] 30 pech?is large, it was beautifully quarried

and constructed from emerald, emitting flashing rays, ... 21 Enkolpion (pectoral pendant) of the Virgin with an epigram
and on this table there were also visible red gemstones inscribed on the frame. Basiliek van Onze Lieve Vrouwe,
lying like dishes set with gold like lightning, which were Maastricht (artwork in the public domain; photograph
similar to all the precious stones and gold that come from provided by Basiliek van Onze Lieve Vrouwe, Maastricht)
paradise.97
The angels appear in scarlet tunics with loroi radiating the

In contrast to this immaterial celestial light, the tenth
colors of paradise. On their heads they carry luminous gold
crowns: century icon of Michael exploits a material splendor of ligh
that is reflected from the metal and glass surfaces?a phot
[The servants/angels were] clad immaterially in cloaks mos that bounces off bodies. Paradise is materially "en-fig
dyed scarlet and filled with all beauty, their feet snowy, ured"
girt in the Archangel's icon. An imperfect embodiment
in belts like loroi with color from heaven's rainbowthat andevokes the immaterial perfection of heaven (Figs. 1,13),
flashing like lightning, and on their heads they were wearicon falls short of the celestial exactly in its materiality.
the
ing diadems of gold which were exceedingly glorious Although and the realm of paradise is ineffable, within the Vita
variegated with gems and precious pearls like sunbeams.98 Basilii Iunioris, which seeks to make it tangible, an extraor
nary effort is placed on sensual experience. All five senses are
The images that emerge in this vision are polymorphous, engaged in the pikilia. This whirling vision is addressed to the
changing their shape under flashing iridescence and eyes, radi fingers, ears, mouth, and nose, but the effect is titillat
ance. About thirty words for light come up in this ekphrasis. ingly invisible to sight, inaudible to hearing, intangible t
They derive from light (</>a>?: TT pL<t>o)T?(rixevo<;9 <J>o>to touch,
i?tj?, and beyond taste and smell. A list of words and phrase
(?HuTeiv??, </>?)to/3o?o?, (?xoTotvy??); fire (itvp: imp?iao-iia,
reveals how this immaterial pikilia affects the body: " [visions]
VTwp<?<;); ray (avy?j: (?xoTavy??, xpwavy?C?), irepiavy?C?), inexperienced; noetic; unspoken, inexpressible; unseen; im
?Lavy??a, ?ktx?, aKTtvoei?ff?, a?yX.% OL<rr?)p, r??MH^?yyo?) ;
possible to render in human words; beyond description; be
sun (rf?to?: r??ux^?yyo?, ir??iaKO?); gold (xpwr??:
yond human reason and words; immaterial beings that can
not be held by human hands; beauty and pleasur
XpwoâTj?, xpwavyi??)) ; lightning (aorpair?}, aoTpairo
lxop<t>os, aaTpairro), e?aorpairT?)); and radiance (X.afi7rpvv?)9
inexpressible by human voice and inaudible for hearing;
?a/uLirry?ovo?, Av^wraibc). Light conveys the ineffable es nuanced taste beyond expression and recount; fra
richly
sence of souls, buildings, and surfaces in paradise." The of violets and roses beyond human knowledge and
grance
polymorphous and polychromatic vision (pikilia) reifies out
experience; perfume beyond recount; indescribable sweet
of light immaterially created. fragrance; inexpressible sweetness."100 This synesthesis lacks
The icon thus sets up a circle: a mirror reflecting the faithful

in their process of prayer and imagined response.
In Byzantine culture, the Psalms of David represent the
quintessential example of prayer. These poems, like the icon,
are corporeally experienced. Illustrated Psalter books furnish
a record of this perception. In the preface miniature of the
Khludov Psalter, sight and sound are linked (Fig. 12). Music
and writing coexist as King David strums the chords on his
lyre. The sound of his tune grows in the accompaniment of
the musicians flanking him. Two more figures appear above
the arch. One brings the audience into the space of the open
book and directs its gaze above and across the page to the
beginning of Psalm 1 on the facing folio. The other figure is
about to sound his trumpet to initiate the reading of the
Psalms. Music visually emanates from this miniature, associ
ating the act of praying with the sonorous sound of the lyre
and the imagined melodious human voice.
The image triggers the memory of a performance: a prayer
pronounced. The sound of this performance, its music, is
then linked to the script. The letters on the page then be
come transformed from a silent string of characters to a
record of a corporeal experience of sound and sight that can
be activated the moment the lips begin to pronounce the
poem. The multisensory experience triggered by the perfor
mance of the Psalms resembles the sensual experience of
other genres of writing. For instance, in Byzantium, letters
were often sent with gifts, so that the sound of reading the
22 Detail of Fig. 2: the garden of paradise (artwork in the letter was linked to the smell and taste of the gifts.102 The
public domain; photograph by Cameraphoto, provided by Art resulting experience was simultaneously aural, visual, tactile,
Resource, NY) and olfactory.
The link between music and prayer, established through
the Davidic Psalms, also materializes in the epigrams of icons
(Fig. 21 ).103 Most of these poems are written in the frame of
icons, encircling and customizing the central image to re
material stimuli. Ineffable, immaterial, inaudible, testing and
teasing, this overload of sensations gains reality in the way it
spond to a particular request. Even when the panel does not
is so profoundly bodily experienced, yet so beyond expres contain an epigram, it does not lose its music, for it continues
sion and articulation. to avail itself of the sound of the faithful praying before it.
Poetic inscriptions are performative; they are prayers meant
to be pronounced, similar to high literature in Byzantium,
The Sound of Prayer: The Circuit
which was meant to be read aloud (Fig. 23).104 All epigrams
While all five senses are engaged in the pikilia of paradise, this
on icons are composed of twelve syllables, which means that
sensorial agitation is created by ineffable stimuli. By contrast,
everyone will uniformly put the stresses at the same point,
the icon replicates this experience through material, tangible
and all prayers will create the same sonorous framework. This
means. Its lush decoration and epigrams demonstrate a de
repetitive, standardized form generates the prayer's perfor
sire to imagine the ineffable. Both being a graphe, letter and
mative magic, ensuring its efficacy.
image form a prayer. While the image visualizes the perfor
Similarly, sound reverberates in the vaulted interiors of
mance of prayer, the epigram reinforces this action by sono
rously replicating it. The poetic inscription contributes a Byzantine churches, bouncing off the curves of arches,
visceral, material presence of sound, transforming the icon domes, and semidomes (Fig. 24). The same perception is
into a sonorous body.101 found in Photios's ekphrasis of the Pharos church: "It seems
The faithful's needs and wishes for help materialize in the that everything is in ecstatic motion, and the church itself is
shape of the depicted sacred figure?in this case, the Arch circling around."105 Robert Nelson has recently defined the
angel (Fig. 13). He is shown raising his hand in a gesture of icon's system of signification as circular and tautological.106
intercession. The Archangel not only receives the prayer of Byzantine architecture exploits the same circular paradigm
the faithful, but with his own stance and hand movement he insofar as it captures meaning in the confines of the sphere:
replicates the position and action of the supplicant. Simulta the arch, the vault, and the dome. These spatial forms con
neously, the image ensures the continuation of the prayer tinue to express Byzantium's essence as the culture of the
because the angel transfers the received request to a higher imprint, shaping matter by impressing its circular seal of
level and supports it through his own power of intercession. signification.
W:??W~?
wm
''MMj
mi
i*y
?*?
23 Homilies of John Chrysostomos, g^fe&^
monk reading the homilies to the
emperor. Biblioth?que Nationale de
France, Paris, Coislin cod. gr. 79, fol. 1
(2 bis)r (artwork iri the public domain; :;??pp
photograph provided by the
Biblioth?que Nationale de France,
Paris)
Smell and Taste: The Transformation emerges in the vision of the Vita Basilii Iunioris. The souls of
The sonorous icon brings the two aspects of graphe, painting the saints are gathered at an Edenic symposium. They pass
and writing, together: graphe as the imprint of form on mat around a glowing chalice with a nectar of ambrosia. Drinking
ter. Figure and letter, one translates into scintillating light, this divine substance, the face of each participant transforms
the other into a sound carried in space. And through the into the gleam of budding roses:
voice bearing the melody in space, the sense of taste emerges.
As Theodore Hyrtakenos wrote in a letter to his friend in the The mixed wine in those immaterial and sun-bright cups
fourteenth century: "gazing at the letter, I feel I see you in was gleaming intensely like burning hot coals, and when
front of me and fill up with your sweet traits like honey, I hear someone received in his hands that wondrous and flashing
the echo of the musical tones of this wonder."107 This con cup, filled with nectar of ambrosia and brought it near his
nection between the pleasure of reading/hearing the voice of own mouth to drink, he was filled with the sweetness of the
the writer, drinking, and music is a topos in letter writing.108 Holy Spirit.. .. His face gleamed and he was more illumi
The oral performance of letters and prayers (epigrams) de nated, like a rose emerging from the calyx.110
pends on a multisensory experience.109 In both cases, it tries
to reconstitute presence of an absent entity through sensual The synesthetic experience described in Vita Basilii Iunioris
stimuli. In the case of letters, this absent referent is the writer. could also be demonstrated by the Eucharist cup at S. Marco.
In the case of prayers, it is the invisible and intangible God. It can show how sight, touch, and sound could be linked to
For the Byzantines, empsychos graphe becomes the performa smell and taste (Figs. 18, 19). An inscription is enameled on
tive image/writing that stirs the five senses and triggers syn the golden rim. The letters imprinted on the metal surface
esthesis. announce: "Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New
A similar synesthetic experience of hearing and taste Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins"
psalter easily and quickly and had learnt the whole of it by

heart in a few days.113
According to Paul Speck, the excerpt about the icon that

caused the sensation of honey after the saint had prayed to it
was interpolated in this passage during Iconoclasm: the asso
ciation of the icon with psalms and prayer was established
during that period.114
The panel becomes the channel of direct divine response.
The role of the icon is equated to the effect of prayer. Sacred
presence translates into the sensation of honey in the mouth
of the faithful. Like the Davidic poems, the sonorous icon
triggers the sense of taste: the sweetness of honey. At the
same time, the reference to honey in the Psalms (Pss. 18:11,
118:103) indicates the moment when God's voice directly
reaches the supplicant and grants him or her forgiveness.
Similarly, in the climactic moment of the liturgy, the Com
munion, the supplicant is exhorted with Psalms 33:8: "taste
and see that God is good."115 Taste leads to participatory
knowledge of God.
Saint Theodore of Sykeon participates in the sweetness of
God. The verb used, "partake" (metalamvano, fJi TOikafx?av(o), is
usually associated with the Eucharist.116 It refers to this trans
formative moment when the worshiper loses his or her iden
tity, dissolving into the sacred presence and sharing in the
sacred essence. The performance of the icon is equated to
that of the bread and wine transformed into body and blood
24 Domed interior of the monastery church of Hosios Loukas,
Greece, late 10th century (photograph by Erich Lessing, during the liturgy. This metamorphosis of the icon, or better,
provided by Art Resource, NY) this metamorphosis of the worshiper takes place in the pro
cess of prayer. He or she then projects this experience (path
ema, 7r?0T)/xa) back onto the icon.
(Matt. 26:27-28).m As these words are pronounced and the Sight and touch, triggered by proskynesis (prostration, ven
lips touch the surface of the chalice, the wine fills up the eration, prayer) and aspasmos (kiss) give rise to sound in the
mouth. Then words become body. Sounds become taste and enunciation of prayer. Sound in turn precipitates the sensa
smell. The recipient of the wine, agitated in the synesthetic tion of taste and smell. The olfactory experience of the icon
vision (pikilia) of these corporeal sensations, becomes trans is more difficult to gauge, yet it is linked to taste and the
formed in this climactic moment of the liturgy. The partici Eucharistie ritual and stems from the integration of the icon
pation in the Eucharist replicates the metamorphosis de in the liturgical rite. Incense burning accompanies prayer. As
scribed in the vision of Vita Basilii Iunioris where the saints' Susan Harvey has argued, the smoke of incense provides a
faces alight as they feel the sweetness of the Holy Spirit after visual and olfactory bridge between the human and divine
imbibing the nectar of ambrosia. spheres. Like taste, incense affords a participatory, experien
In a similar way, the hands touching the icon and the lips tial approach to God. Divine knowledge becomes sensorially
kissing its surface link words with taste. The textures of the apprehended through the body.
icon trigger a synesthesis: sight, touch, hearing, smell, and This sensual aspect of the Byzantine rite is fully integrated
taste are engaged simultaneously. This experiential knowl in the way the icon operates. Like taste, smell engages es
edge of God, this intuition of presence is achieved through sence, not appearance, and this ensures divine knowledge.
an almost Eucharistie experience of the icon. Smell is affective yet intangible. While burning, incense be
comes transformed from material substance into smoke: an
An account of such a spectacle of senses is found in the Life
of Saint Theodore of Sykeon (d. 613) (Vita Theodori Syceotae).112 ineffable yet sensorially present essence. As such, smell be
The saint, frustrated in his attempt to learn all the Psalms, comes a perfect means through which to experience divine
resorts to an icon of Christ. After praying for help, he expe presence: intangible yet palpably present through the olfac
riences the taste of honey in his mouth, followed by his tory sense.117
miraculous new ability to learn all the Psalms by heart in a Perfumes, incense, and spices traditionally accompanied
matter of days: imperial and liturgical ceremonies.118 It is in such aromatic
settings that luxury icons like the enameled panel of Arch
For as the boy got up from the ground and turned to the angel Michael performed. The sweet smells are part of the
icon of our Savior in prayer, he felt a sweetness more synesthetic vision (pikilia), which is addressed to the partici
pleasant than honey poured into his mouth. He recog pant. The Book of Ceremonies reveals many instances where a
nized the grace of God, partook of the sweetness and gave variety of smells and spices are distributed to the court, or are
thanks to Christ, and from that hour on he memorized the carried by the crowd, or simply waft in the ceremonial
THE PERFORMATIVE ICON 55!
space.119 The most elaborate account appears in the section way, the icon uncovers a divine vision by giving it a material
on imperial military campaigns. The extensive list of aromat being?textures that can be grasped and sensorially experi
ics includes "ointments, various perfumes, mastic, frankin enced. Its rich surfaces function as the material veil affirming
cense, sachar, saffron, musk, amber, bitter aloes moist and the presence of the intangible underneath. The icon as sur
dry, pure ground cinnamon of first and second quality, cin face becomes the sensual "givenness" of absence. It rises as
namon wood, and other perfumes."120 This rich assortment the saturated phenomenon synesthetically performing the
served a variety of functions: medicinal, political, even diplo invisible and intangible to the faithful.127
matic, because some of these rare scents and spices were In its original context, the icon's instability, polymorphy of
offered as gifts. This fascination with aromatics betrays the shimmering light, reverberating sound, and redolent fra
sensually rich environment in which both the imperial and grance imbue it with life, making it an empsychos, an "inspir
liturgical ceremonies were set. ited" image. The Byzantine icon is dependent on a living
Unlike our contemporary olfactory neutrality in regard to body in space in order to perform. The object reconstitutes
power, authority in Byzantium was linked to aromatic itself before the human gaze, touch, hearing, smell, and taste.
scents.121 The enamel icon at S. Marco with its imperial attire This mimesis of surfaces changing by the shifts in ambient
of the Archangel and the court chapel in which it resided light, air, smells, and sounds creates a synesthetic vision
likely shared the same aromatized air of scents, perfumes, (pikilia) that affects the faithful. This performance inundates
incense, and spices (Fig. 13). Power in the Middle Ages and saturates the human corporeal apprehension. The effect
manifests itself in a complex synesthetic vision (pikilia).122 of sight and touch is coupled with hearing and smell. The last
These fragrances also enhanced the sensual effect of the sense to be activated is taste. Through it emerges the climax:
panel. Moreover, the elaborate golden filigree and enameled the metamorphosis. It is in this crucial moment that the
lozenges with flowers conjure an image of the fragrant gar individual, the corporeal, and the tangible dissolve into a
dens of the palace and of paradise (Fig. 21). Similarly, the spiritual vision of partaking in the sacred. This sensual, phys
Greek word usually employed to designate "colors" is flowers ical agitation (ir?Qîia) experienced by the faithful is simul
(avOa). The polychromatic surface of the enameled icon is, taneously transferred onto the object. The icon becomes an
in Greek, "enflowered": virtually filled with the complex per empsychos graphe. From being a mere imprint of visual char
fume of fragrant blossoms. The visual and haptic aspects of acteristics, a materially reified absence, the performative icon
the icon subtly tease out through form and color the memory thus stages the most sensually rich experience of divine pres
ence.
of aroma wafting into space. This perfume, imagined or real,
brings to the faithful the scent of salvation.123
A Circle Completed Bissera V. Pentcheva is assistant professor at Stanford Unive

As the worshiper approaches the icon and begins praying, the Her work focuses on medieval image theory and Byzantine icon
five senses alight. These corporeal pleasures trigger an intu hook Icons and Power: The Mother of God in Byzant
ition of sacred presence. While sight, touch, and sound stem (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006) explores the inter
from matter and perform the appearance of the divine, smell between imperial power and the cult of Mary [Department of A
and taste engage the essence and make possible a participa Art History, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. 94305, bi
tory, sensorial experience of the holy. Both taste and smell stanford.edu].
are embedded in the liturgy. The icon operates like other
liturgical objects, such as the Eucharist chalice of the Patri
archs at S. Marco. As wine pours from the cup, sight, touch, Notes
and sound transform into smell and taste. Taste itself be
This article presents an excerpt from my forthcoming book, Sensual Sple
comes the seal or affirmation of participatory knowledge of The Icon in Byzantium (University Park: Pennsylvania State University P
God.124 Unless otherwise indicated, translations from the Greek are mine.
As a result of the performance/mimesis of the icon, this 1. For the definition of icon as a portable devotional object, see Ern
Kitzinger, "The Cult of Icons in the Age before Iconoclasm," Dum
materially triggered synesthetic pleasure experienced by the ton Oaks Papers 8 (1954): 83-150; and most recently Thomas Mathe
faithful leads to something like Eucharistie transformation. "Isis and Mary in Early Icons," in Images of the Mother of God: Percep
of the Theotokos in Byzantium, ed. Maria Vassilaki (Aldershot, U.K.:
Sight, touch, and sound, the three aspects of the experience gate, 2005), 3-9. Another, broader definition, which includes rep
of graphe, display a vision of paradise and present a prayer. sentations in all media, from frescoes and mosaics to coins, is als
Taste and smell form the answer to this request and provide current in Byzantine studies. Yet it is problematic, for many of the
images included in this definition, especially monumental paintin
a proleptic access to divine delight. The circle of human and mosaic, preclude the intimate engagement of proskynesis (rev
request and divine response is completed, preserving the tial bowing) and aspasmos (kiss) that is tied up with the identity o
Byzantine icon. This broader use of the term arose from Otto De
Byzantine tautological, closed system of signification. The mus's concept of "spatial icons"; Demus, Byzantine Mosaic Decoratio
icon's magic thus resides in the circular dynamic it elicits.125 Aspects of Monumental Art in Byzantium (London: K. P. T. Trubner,
This dynamic begins with the icon's surface, with its con 1948; reprint, New York: A. Caratzas, 1993).
2. Bissera V. Pentcheva, "Epigrams on Icons," in Art and Text in Byz
centration of rich materiality?an excess of materiality that
Culture, ed. Liz James (New York: Cambridge University Press, for
paradoxically reveals a vision of the immaterial. The concept coming) .
of the icon as surface resembles Martin Heidegger's defini 3. Earlier studies on sensual apprehension in medieval art focused on
tion of truth. Starting with the Greek word alithia or alathia the depiction of the five senses, such as Carl Nordenfalk, "The Five
Senses in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art," fournal of the Warburg
(a-, without, lathia, covering, aAfjfleia, akaQeia), he argues and Courtauld Institutes 48 (1985): 1-22. By contrast, recent work has
drawn attention to the sensual effect of art and architecture: Liz
that truth is the unconcealedness of being.126 In a similar
James, "Sense and Sensibility in Byzantium," Art History 27, no. 4 20. Patriarch Nikephoros, Antirrheticus II, in Patrolog?a cursus completus: Se
(2004): 523-37; and Rico Franses, '"When All That Is Gold Does Not ries graeca (hereafter, PG), ed.J.-P. Migne, 161 vols. (Paris: Migne, 1857
Glitter," in Icon and Word: The Power of Images in Byzantium; Studies Pre 66), vol. 100, col. 357D: "En tj ypa<j>i) t? crc?iiariK?v eXSo? r?V
sented to Robin Cormack, ed. Anthony Eastmond and Liz James (Alder ypa(j)ovevov 7Tap?o-Tr?cri, o-^rfjLia te Kai fxop^v avr?v
shot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2003), 13-24. See also the collection of essays / evrvTTovpievr} Kai tj]v kyn^?peiav.
cinque sensi, ed. Natalie Blanchardi, Micrologus, vol. 10 (Florence: Sis 21. Theodore of Stoudios, Antirrheticus II, sec. 11, in PG, vol. 99, col.
mel, 2002). 357D: ri?vTC?c ?? tj eiKOiv tj ?7]fXLovpyov[jL?v% fX Ta(f) poii?vr} arrb rov^
4. Dominique D. Poirel, ed., L'abb? Suger, le manifeste gothique de Saint TTpC?TOTVTTOV, T7)V b?JLO?(?(TlV 6L? TT/V V?.TfV e'i'?TJê KUl /XeTeCT^Ke T??
Denis et la pens?e victorine (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001); Conrad Rudolph, XOLpaKTffpo? ?ke?vov ?l? Tff? T?T? T6XV?TOV ?iavoia? Kai x LP0<>
Artistic Change at St.-Denis: Abbot Suger's Program and the Early Twelfth vaTT?ixay?xa' ovt(o? b ?wypaQo?- ovt?o? 6 kidoykvQo?, ovtw? ? t?v
Century Controversy over Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, Xp?xreov Kai t?v x???.k ov avbpi?vTa 8T)iuovpy6$v, eXa?ev v\j\v,
1990); and Jean-Claude Bonne, "Pens?e de l'art et pens?e th?o ?ireT?ev el? to 7Tp?)T?TVTrov, otve\a?e ro?? reQeu)py)fxevov t?v tvttov
logique dans les ?crits de Suger," in Artistes et philosophes: ?ducateurs? kva7r (T(f)payiaaTo t??tov kv Tff v^-XI
ed. Christian Descamps (Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1994), 13 22. For instance, the famous icon of the "usual miracle" at the Blachernai
50.
Church of the Virgin in Constantinople was always covered with a silk
5. No systematic study of vision in Byzantium exists. This is a subject that veil. When on some Fridays the Holy Spirit allegedly descended on
needs to be addressed in the future. Robert Nelson's pioneering essay the image, this veil lifted itself to reveal the animated (empsychos) im
suggests that while both intromission and extramission were known in By age of the Virgin beneath. Bissera V. Pentcheva, Icons and Power: The
zantium, extramission appears to be the dominant prism through Mother of God in Byzantium (University Park: Pennsylvania State Univer
which vision was perceived to operate. Nelson, "To Say and to See: sity Press, 2006), 154-60. See also idem, "The Performance of Relics,"
Ekphrasis and Vision in Byzantium," in Visuality before and beyond the in Mullett, Performing Byzantium.
Renaissance (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 143-68;
23. For the wide use of seals in Byzantine society, see Gary Vikan and
and Gervase Mathew, Byzantine Aesthetics (London: John Murray,
John Nesbitt, Security in Byzantium: Locking, Sealing and Weighing,
1963), 29-31. For ancient Greek thought on vision, see David Lind
Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Collection, 2 (Washington, D.C: Dum
berg, Theories of Vision from Al-Kindi to Kepler (Chicago: University of
barton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, Trustees for Harvard Uni
Chicago Press, 1976), 1-17.
versity, 1980).
6. Sight as touch resonates with Maurice Merleau-Ponty's ideas ex
24. A. Karakatsanes, ed., Treasures of Mount Athos (Thessaloniki: Organiza
pressed in "The Intertwining?the Chiasm," in Merleau-Ponty, The
tion for the Cultural Capital of Europe, 1997), 508, cat. no. 13.1.
Visible and the Invisible (Evanston, 111.: Northwestern University Press,
1968), 130-55. 25. Herbert Kessler, "Configuring the Invisible by Copying the Holy
Face," in The Holy Face and the Paradox of Representation, ed. Kessler and
7. The revetted icon is explored at length in Bissera V. Pentcheva, Sen
Gerhard Wolf, Villa Spelman Colloquia, 6 (Bologna: Nuovo Alfa,
sual Splendor: The Icon in Byzantium, forthcoming. For preliminary find
1998), 129-51, reprinted in Kessler, Spiritual Seeing: Picturing God's
ings, see Pentcheva, "Epigrams on Icons"; and Glenn Peers, Sacred
Invisibility in Medieval Art (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Shock: Framing Visual Experience in Byzantium (University Park: Pennsyl
Press, 2000), 64-87.
vania State University Press, 2004), 101-31.
26. The way the icon self-consciously draws attention to matter, thus can
8. Jean-Luc Marion, Being Given: Towards a Phenomenology of Givenness,
celing any claims for the presence of sacred energy (essence), resem
trans. Jeffrey Kosky (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002). I
bles the way images were fashioned and displayed in the Latin West
thank Robert Harrison for introducing me to this work.
before 1140. See Herbert Kessler, "Real Absence: Early Medieval Art
9. Only isolated voices have expressed concern about the draining of and the Metamorphosis of Vision," in Morfologie sociali e culturali in
the icon's meaning when subjected to the standard museum display. Europa fra tarda antichit? e alto medioevo, 2 vols., Settimane di Studio
See Sharon Gerstel, "The Aesthetics of Orthodox Faith," Art Bulletin del Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, 45 (Spoleto: Centro
87 (2004): 331-41, esp. 332. Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, 1998), vol. 2, 1157-213, re
10. For the Byzantine definition of mimesis as performance, see the article printed in Kessler, Spiritual Seeing, 104-48.
by Eustratios Papaioannou on the self-fashioning of Michael Psellos in 27. Kessler, Spiritual Seeing. See also idem, Seeing Medieval Art (Toronto:
Performing Byzantium, ed. Margaret Mullett (Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, Broadview Press, 2004).
forthcoming).
28. For a discussion of Western culture's privileging of sight, see Martin
11. Concepts that are again surprisingly close to the notion of the embod Jay, Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century Thought
iment of ideas and the interaction of viewer and viewed are in Mer
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 1-148. I thank Lela
leau-Ponty, "The Intertwining," 130-55. Graybill for introducing this study to me.
12. Pavel Florensky, "The Church Ritual as a Synthesis of the Arts" 29. The expression "to touch with the eyes and lips*' is recorded in the
(1918), in Beyond Vision: Essays on the Perception of Art / Pavel Florensky, liturgical treatise of the Mandylion, mid-tenth century. See Ernst von
trans. Wendy Salmond, ed. Nicoletta Misler (London: Reaktion, Dobschutz, Christusbilder: Untersuchungen zur christlichen Legende, 3 vols.
2002), 95-111. (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1899), 112**.
13. For an understanding of empsychos graphe as images inhabited by the 30. See n. 21 above.
Holy Spirit or as pictorial equivalents to figures of speech, see Bissera
V. Pentcheva, "The Icon of the 'Usual Miracle' at the Blachernai," 31. Barber, Figure and Likeness, 107-37.
Res: Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics 38 (2000): 34-55; and idem, 32. Paul the Silentiary, "Descriptio Sanctae Sophiae," in Prokop. Werke, ed.
"Visual Textuality: The Logos as Pregnant Body and Building," Res 45 Otto Veh, 5 vols. (Munich: Heimeran, 1977), vol. 5, 306-58, esp.
(2004): 225-38. 340-42, lines 691-720; trans. Cyril Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Em
pire 312-1453 (1986; reprint, Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
14. Charles Barber, Figure and Likeness: On the Limits of Representation in
1993), 87-88. See also S. Xydis, "The Chancel Barrier, Solea, and
Byzantine Iconoclasm (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002).
Ambo of Hagia Sophia," Art Bulletin 29 (1947): 1-24.
15. Ibid., 70-81.
33. Vita Basilii Imperatoris, bk. 5, sec. 83, in Theophanes continuatus, ed. Im
16. Oskar Wulff, Die Koimesiskirche in Nic?a und ihre Mosaiken (Strassburg: manuel Bekker, Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae (hereafter
Heitz und M?ndel, 1903); and Theodor Schmit, Die Koimesis-Kirche von CSHB), 33 (Bonn: Impensis ed. Weberi, 1838), 326; trans. Mango, The
Nikaia: Das Bauwerk und die Mosaiken (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1927). Art of the Byzantine Empire, 194. The sanctuary, synthronon, altar tables,
17. Wulff, Die Koimesiskirche in Nic?a, 246, 271; and Schmit, Die Koimesis templon barrier, and epistyle were all covered in gilded-silver re
Kirche von Nikaia, 39, described the ray as gray (grau and hellgrau). pouss? work and adorned with pearls and gems.
Most likely the tesserae were silver, still covered in soot and dirt, hav 34. Vita Basilii Imperatoris, bk. 5, sec. 87, in Bekker, Theophanes continuatus,
ing lost their luster and shimmer. Only metal could have created the 330; trans. Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 196.
glimmer and flicker in the early morning light that would have actual
ized the prophecy of the mosaic inscription into a visual reality: "I
35. Marie-France Auz?py, "La destruction de l'ic?ne du Christ de la
have begotten thee in the womb before the morning star" (Ps. 109:3). Chalc? de L?on III: Propagande ou r?alit?," Byzantion 60 (1990): 445
92; Robin Cormack, "Women and Icons, and Women in Icons," in
For a discussion of the Incarnation symbolism at Nikaia, see Cyril
Women, Men and Eunuchs: Gender in Byzantium (London: Routledge,
Mango, "The Chalkoprateia Annunciation and the Pre-eternal Logos,"
1997), 24-51; Leslie Brubaker, "The Chalke Gate, the Construction of
Deltion tes Christianikes Archaiologikes Hetaireias 17, no. 4 (1993-94):
165-70. the Past, and the Trier Ivory," Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 23
(1999): 258-85; and Cyril Mango, The Brazen House: A Study of the Ves
18. Barber, Figure and Likeness, 72-81. tibule of the Imperial Palace of Constantinople (Copenhagen: B. L. Bog
19. Ibid., 107-23. trykkeri, 1959), 108-42.
36. Auz?py, "La destruction de l'ic?ne du Christ de la Chalc?," 445-92. Mass.: MIT Press, 1990); and Georges Didi-Huberman, Devant Vimage:
Question pos?e aux fins d'une histoire de l'art (Paris: ?ditions de Minuit,
37. Philip Grierson, Catalogue of Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Col
1990).
lection and in the Whittemore Collection, 5 vols. (1966; reprint, Washing
ton, D.C: Dumbarton Oaks, 1992), vol. 3, pt. 1, 160-61, 454-55. 58. Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexikon, s.v. "typos."
38. The Greek word chalkeos (x?AKeos) does not distinguish between cop 59. In the eyes of outsiders Byzantium has been identified correctly as the
per and bronze. Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, eds., Greek culture of the imprint. See the recent discussion of Alexander Nagel
English Lexikon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996); and Liddell, Scott, and Christopher Wood, "Interventions: Toward a New Model of Re
and H. Stuart Jones, Greek-English Lexicon: A Supplement (Oxford: Clar naissance Anachronism," Art Bulletin 87 (2005): 403-15, esp. 407 and
endon Press, 1968). See also Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spaw note 28 (referring to the writings of Theodore of Stoudios).
forth, eds., The Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University 60. Konstantinos Manaphes, ed., Sinai: Treasures of the Monastery of Saint
Press, 1996), s.v. "bronze." Catherine (Athens: Ekdotike Athenon, 1990), 140-46, nos. 6-7, 10-15;
39. Mango, The Brazen House, 108-42, esp. 116. and Kurt Weitzmann, The Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai:
40. The second source, the Chronographia of Theophanes, simply states: The Icons (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976), nos. 50ff; with
"They also killed a few of the emperor's men who had taken down a recent revision of the dating of some of these icons in Leslie
the Lord's icon which was [set] above the great Bronze Gates," Brubaker and John Haldon, Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era (ca. 680
Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. Immanuel Bekker, 2 vols., CSHB, 41 850): The Sources; An Annotated Survey, Birmingham Byzantine and Ot
42, vol. 1, 623; trans, and ed. Cyril Mango and Robert Scott, The toman Monographs, 7 (Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2001).
Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History, AD 61. See Antonio Pasini, II tesoro di San Marco in Venezia, 2 vols. (Venice:
284-813 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 559. F. Ongania, 1886), vol. 1, 73-74, cat. no. 4; Michelangelo Muraro and
41. Vita Stephani Iunioris, bk. 10, in La vie d'Etienne le Jeune par Etienne le Andr? Grabar, Treasures of Venice (Milan: Skira, 1963), 65-69; Klaus
Wessel, Byzantine Enamels from the Fifth to the Thirteenth Century (Green
Diacre, trans, and ed. Marie-France Auz?py, Birmingham Byzantine
wich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1968), 89-91, cat. no. 28;
and Ottoman Monographs, 3 (Aldershot, U.K: Variorum, 1997), 100:
'ev ToirroL? oiw eôixnariKO? ?pa??iievo? tff? aip?creaj?, ireip?tTai Grabar, catalog entry in // tesoro di San Marco, ed. H. R. Hahnloser
TrapevOv rr}v ? o-7Totiktjv eiK?va XpiaTd??To??(deoi?r}iL&v ri)v (Florence: Sansoni, 1971), 25-26, cat. no. 17; and The Treasury of San
iopv?jL6vriv virepdev tQv ?acrikiK?iv ttvXQv, ev olcnrep ?i? t?v Marco (Milan: Olivetti, 1984), 141-47, cat. no. 12. The central plaque
XapaKTrfpa 7] ?yia Xo??.kt? keyerai, KareveyKai kql? rrvpi is dated to the late tenth century. The transverse bands are Byzantine,
irapaot?vPai. as are the enamels, but they no longer form their original sequence.
The outside frame is Venetian, thirteenth century. The reverse side is
42. Auz?py has offered a similar translation in La vie d'Etienne le Jeune, possibly Byzantine; the cross is part of the original back of the icon.
193.
The medallions are out of sequence. The daisy-pattern frame around
43. Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. Bekker, vol. 1, 439-40: ev ?x?q: the plaque with the cross is modern.
KOipL?)yL VOV CiVTCfi} 6??6V OTnOKJlCtV, i? TTp ^??K'?fV TwXj]V T?V
62. Glenn Peers, Subtle Bodies: Representing Angels in Byzantium, Transfor
TTOtkOLTLOV V T^f LK?VL T?? (T?)Tr]pO<? eOiVTOV 7Tap OT?T?!, KCi? kdOV mation of the Classical Heritage, 32 (Berkeley: University of Califor
Trapecrrc?TOL avrtj^' k ? (?xuvt) yeyove ck TotrâpaKTffpo? roi) nia Press, 2001), 167-71, 177, 191.
liey?\ov dedv Ka? auyfrfpos thaGjv 'lâduXpiar?i? keyovaa. The
sense of an icon in metal relief is lost in Mango's and Scott's 63. Muraro and Grabar, Treasures of Venice, 65.
translation, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, 410. 64. Georges Didi-Huberman, Fra Ang?lico: Dissemblance and Figuration,
44. Scriptores Originum Constantinopolitarum, 2 vols., ed, Theodor Preger trans. J. M. Todd (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 3, 5,
45-60.
(Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1901), vol. 2, 219: ev rff keyofx?vxi Xa?Ktf
OTTJATJ XahK*?? ^\v TC??? KVplOV 7]jJiiuV TTjaO^XpiOT?tT TTCip? TOIT 65. Patriarch Nikephoros, Apologeticus pro sacris imaginibus, in PG, vol. 100,
puey?kov Kcjvo-ravT?vov KTiad?l& ? de Kecav o TTcnj)p to?T col. 777C: r?? tBv imepovpav??ov ovv?fie?ov evTVTrcuTLK?iq cru/ui?oAotc
Ka?akkivov ravrr)v Kcnr\yayev. 'H be vvv ?i? if/riî?wv bpejpi?viq 6K(j)aivea6aL. See Peers, Subtle Bodies, 89-125, esp. 113.
eiKoov T?iT Xpio-Totr ?vi(TTop7)dr) trapa E?pr)vr?<; Trf? 'Adiqvaias. 66. Alois Riegl, "Late Roman or Oriental," in Abis Riegl: German Essays on
45. Mango, The Brazen House, 108-9. Albrecht Berger has also translated Art History, ed. Gert Schiff, the German Library, 79 (New York: Con
the passage using "bronze statue." Yet, relying on the evidence of the tinuum, 1988), 173-90, esp. 181: "Whereas the optical qualities disap
Life of Saint Stephen the Younger, he has suggested that the original pear in the dark, the tactile qualities remain. Extent and delimitation
Chalke image was a bronze relief, which was replaced after 843 by a are thus the more objective qualities, color and light the more subjec
mosaic. Berger, Untersuchungen zu den Patria Konstantinupoleos, Poikila tive ones, for the latter depend to a great degree on those chance
Byzantina, 8 (Bonn: Dr. Rudolf Habelt, 1988), 252-55. circumstances in which the perceiving subject finds itself."
46. Patriarch Methodios, epigram for the Chalkites icon, in Mango, The 67. Robin Cormack, Painting the Soul: Icons, Death Masks, and Shrouds
Brazen House, 126-27: odev irepiypatytov ere kol? yp?<?)0)v tOttol?. (London: Reaktion, 1997), 26-27.
47. Michaelis Glycae Annales, ed. Immanuel Bekker (Bonn: Impensis ed. 68. Suidae lexicon, ed. A. Adler, Lexicographi Graeci, 1, 4 vols. (1928-38;
Weberi, 1836), 623. reprint, Leipzig: Teubner, 1971), vol. 4, 828-29: tovto 8? ?art to
48. Basil of Caesarea, De Sancto Spirito 18.45, 45, in PG, vol. 32, col. 69D; Xpf?p<a' t? y?p ev tyf emp?vela xp?l?a t?vto ?ori t? bpaT?v, Kai
and John of Damaskos, De imaginibus, I, in PG, vol. 94, col. 1264A; TOVTOv al ?if/eic avTika\x?avovTai. The passage is discussed in Liz
both are discussed in Barber, Figure and Likeness, 74-76, 122. James, Light and Color in Byzantine Art (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1996), 74-75.
49. In fact, the medallion image came to be understood as the canonical
icon of Christ already in the late seventh century. See Kathleen Corri 69. Liz James, "Color and Meaning in Byzantium," Journal of Early Chris
tian Studies 11, no. 2 (2003): 223-33.
gan, "The Witness of John the Baptist on an Early Byzantine Icon in
Kiev," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 42 (1988): 1-11, esp. 10. 70. Book of Gifts and Rarities: Kitab al-Hadaya wa al-Tuhaf trans, and ed.
50. Marfa V. Scepkina, Miniatjury Khludovskoi Psaltyri (Moscow: Isskustvo, Ghada al Hijjawi al-Qaddumi, Harvard Middle Eastern Monographs,
1977); and Kathleen Corrigan, Visual Polemics in the Ninth-Century Byz 29 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996), no. 62 (a belt
antine Psalters (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992). There with gold enamel), no. 73 (rock crystal vessels caged in gold enamel,
are roughly seventeen depictions of icons, fourteen of which display gemstones, and pearls), no. 82 (enamel vessels), no. 86 (enameled
the image in a medallion shape. Only three show a rectangular icon; gold vessels), no. 97 (enamel bracelets).
two of these depict Saint Peter, the other the Virgin and Child. 71. Ibid., no. 97.
51. Corrigan, Visual Polemics, 131-34. 72. Digenis Akritis, trans, and ed. Elizabeth Jeffreys, Cambridge Medieval
52. For the evolution of processions with icons, see Pentcheva, Icons and Classics, 7 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 1.164
Power, 37-59. (gilded spear with blue enamel), 4.220-22 (golden hems enameled
with pearls), 4.239-40 (saddle and bridle), 6.555 (saddle and reins).
53. Ibid., 109-43.
73. Digenis Akritis 7.28-29: t?l Xa iracrTpaTTTOvTa xpoGv etyov 0ak?aar?<;
54. Pliny, Natural History bk. 35, lines 64-66. / ev yakr\vr\ Wo ? tttt]<? aakevo?JLevr)<; avpa?.
55. On Painting/Leon Battista Alberti, 1436, trans. Cecil Grayson (London: 74. Digenis Akritis 7.23-27: o AeijLLwv </>ca?p?<? edakke t?Sv 8?v?po)v
Penguin, 1991). mroKaTu) / TroiK?kr)v eycov TT)v xpo?v, toT$ avQediv aCTTpaTTTCuV, / Ta
56. Ernst Gombrich, Art and Illusion: A Study of the Psychology of Pictorial li?v v?)07] v?pKMj&a, p?oa Te Kai ?ivpaivai' / Ta p??a yff? eTvyxavov
Representation (New York: Pantheon Books, 1960). Trop(j)vpo?a(j)o<; KO0710?, / y?kaKTO? e&TLk?ov xpo?v o? v?pKiaaou ev
fiepet.
57. Norman Bryson, Vision and Painting: The Logic of the Gaze (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1983), 163; Jonathan Crary, Techniques of the Ob 75. Dominic Janes, God and Gold in Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge
server: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, University Press, 1998), 126. "Jeweled inflation" refers to the appropri
ation of imperial splendor in church ritual in the course of the fourth 90. On the concept of the moving eye in extramission, see Mathew, Byz
century. antine Aesthetics, 30. On the wandering gaze in ekphraseis, see Wulff,
"Das Raumerlebnis des Naos," 534-35.
76. Helen C. Evans and William D. Wixom, eds., The Glory of Byzantium:
Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261 (New York: 91. Pentcheva, "Epigrams on Icons"; and Jannic Durand, "Precious-Metal
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997), cat. nos. 143 (Coislin 79), 149 Icon Revetments," in Byzantium: Faith and Power, 1261-1557, ed.
(Auxerre silk), with bibliography. For Auxerre, see also Danielle Ga Helen C. Evans (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004), 243
borit-Chopin, ed., La France Romane au temps des premiers Cap?tiens 51.
(987-1152) (Paris: Mus?e du Louvre/?ditions Hazan, 2005), no. 128.
92. Spyridon Lambros, "O MapKiavos k&?l? 524," Neos Hellenomnemon 8
77. For a similar use of the dazzling effect of gold to emphasize power (1911): nos. 73, 109. For a discussion of the role of these metric
and divinity, see Janes, God and Gold, 3, 23, 26-27, 84-86, 89, 121, prayers, see Pentcheva, "Epigrams on Icons."
139-52. See also Peers, Sacred Shock, 107-17, 126-31; and Franses, 93. Manuelis Philae Carmina, ed. Emmanuel Miller (Amsterdam: Hakkert,
"When All That Is Gold," 13-24.
1967), vol. 1, 65-66: Xpv&ffv de pG? tt/i> JE?e/x Tff? eiK?vos, / ev tjt?
78. On Byzantine purple, see Alexander Kazhdan, ed., Oxford Dictionary of (f)vT?: TexvLKB? rfpfxoo-fx?va / boKoVcri KVKkoVv Tf/? JE??p< t?v
Byzantium, 3 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), vol. 3, epy?TT\v. Discussed in Andr? Grabar, Les rev?tements en or et en argent
1759-60, with bibliography. For the association of purple with gold des icones byzantines du Moyen ?ge, Biblioth?que de l'Institut Hell?nique
and the link it preserved between imperial power and divinity, see d'?tudes Byzantines et Post-Byzantines de Venise, 7 (Venice: Institut
Janes, God and Gold, 20-21, 28, 37, 84, 86, 89, 129-30, 150-51. Hell?nique d'?tudes Byzantines et Post-Byzantines, 1975), 6; and Du
rand, "Precious-Metal Icon Revetments," 247.
79. James, Light and Color, 50, 74, 99. For porphyreos and pyravges, see also
the entries in Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon. 94. For the association of gold and green with paradise in late antiquity,
80. The Treasury of San Marco, 159-65, cat. no. 16; and Wessel, Byzantine see Janes, God and Gold, 100.
Enamels, 72-73, no. 20. 95. Trans. Denis Sullivan, Stamatina McGrath, and Alice-Mary Talbot,
81. In fact, by the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, usually only the from Aleksandr N. Vesselovskji, "Razyskanija v oblasti russkago du
patriarch and the emperor would continue to receive Communion hovnago stiha," Sbornik' Otdelenija russkago jazyka i slovesnosti Imperators
directly from the chalice. Robert Taft, "Byzantine Communion koj akademii nauk' 46 (1889-90), suppl., 3-89 (henceforth, Vita Basilii
Iunioris), 39: 'Air?pavTes oltv 6K T0ev km r?? T??v ayi&v crevas
Spoons: A Review of the Evidence," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 50 (1996):
eiTopevdrjixev. avrai be rjcrav irokkal cr<f>?8pa crty?bpa ?jlt]
209-38. Thus, the chalice's exquisite synesthetic experience was re
served for the select few. Political power in Byzantium translated into \moK???xevai ?pidpA$, axnrep e? r)kiaKr?<; aKtTvos <f>ai8poT?Tiqv
the fullness of sensual delight. a?ykr)v acrTpaTTTOwai, al be ?k [ivpio?a^cov o>? k ?ixraov Kai
TToptyvpa? deia? a?y?rj? onDAco? Kai votjtS?? acnp?movcrai. I
82. On a twelfth-century icon from Sinai, an image of the Virgin is identi thank Alice-Mary Talbot for allowing me to use their draft transla
fied as êi/iei/n], a word that conflates the roots of both "to alloy" tion.
and "to freeze." For this icon, see George Sotiriou and Maria Sotiriou,
Eikones tes mones Sina, 2 vols., Collection de l'Institut Fran?ais 96. Trans. Sullivan et al, ibid., 42: Eio-r?k0oiiev eis Tiva irepiavkov ??vov
d'Ath?nes, 100 (Athens: Institut Fran?ais d'Ath?nes, 1956-58), vol. 1, Kal iravTekSs k^rjkkayfjb?vov Kai r\v to b?irebov avro?r eâarp?irrov,
TrepiKeKO(T?jLr)iJL vov xpwaV; irka?l, Kal pimoq ev avtQS ov Trpoafjv to
125-28, vol. 2, figs. 146-49; and Nicolette Trahoulia, "The Truth in
ovvokov, Kal ar)p aaTpaTr??JLOp^)o<; Trepir\vya?,ev amo, ev be toV;
Painting: A Refutation of Heresy in a Sinai Icon," Jahrbuch der ?ster
apixov?ais t?JSv xpvo~o<j)av?j5v eKeiv v irkaKBv vTff\pxov <j>vr?
reichischen Byzantinistik 52 (2002): 271-85.
k^r?vdLO-jxeva T?avTt??a tBv r\bvrrv?(x)v Kal ?ykaoKap v (?pai s
83. Patriarch Nikephoros on the nature of cherubims, in PG, vol. 100, TTe(f)VTovpyriii va.
col. 776D.
97. Trans. Sullivan et al., ibid., 43: eyyiora b? tQv ?v?biov avrBv loraTo
84. Eve Borsook, "Rhetoric and Reality: Mosaics as Expressions of Meta Tp?ire?a jmey?oTTf Trr?xe(?v Tpi?Kovra, Kal avTr\ r\v ?k kiOov
physical Idea," Mitteilungen des kunsthistorischen Instituts in Florenz 44, o~iLap?ybov oip??ox; kekaToyLT\?x?vr\ Kal KaTeaKevao-fx?vri, ??KTlVa?
no. 1 (2002): 3-18, esp. 4-5; John Gage, Color and Culture: Practice and kKTrefXTTOvaa (fxoTo?okovs, . . . crel ?X??'ol TTpoKeifievoi bi?xpvo'oi
Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction (Boston: Bulfinch Press, 1993), ?o-TpairoeubeV; kvxvi>TO?Cbi Kal <W??? ?k iravTwv TBv evTijxojv kiO v
39-64; and Franses, "When All That Is Gold," 13-24. So far, the dis Kal xpvo~6iv tQv ck toI? irapabeiaov k?epxojJL?vcjv Kal b?xoio^>epeV;.
cussion has focused only on mosaics. Yet enamel presents the same
98. Trans. Sullivan et al., ibid., 44-45: 01 b? vrn)percfvVTe<s avroV;
polymorphous glitter and privileges dazzle over hue.
veavicTKOL (?pd?Oi iraw kivyxavov, eveubeV; toV; 7rpoo"?>7roi?, kevKol
85. Pikilia (ttoikiXiol) has a long tradition in Byzantium. Already in late &el x??v, ci ?paxeioves avrtSv Kal ci b?KTvkoi, w? ?v Tt? euroi
antiquity, ordinary body remains were transformed into spiritual ob tovtov? ib?)v, ?K y?kaKTO? oit? (frvpa??vTos KaTao-ev?ada?, k?kklvov
jects (relics) by being staged in sensually enhanced environments. See r?ijL<l>ieo-iJL?voi oto?t/v ?vkco? ?e?afjbfxevriv Kal 7r?errjc wpai?rrjToc
Patricia Cox Miller, "'The Little Blue Flower Is Red': Relics and the Treirkripwixevriv, ol b? Trabes avtBv xwvoetbeV;, irepLe?(uo~p,?voi ?wvaq
Poetizing of the Body," Journal of Early Christian Studies 8 (2000): 213 (ocnrep kcjpovs K T?&ovpaviov to?ov tt]v evxpoiav KeKTrux?vov? Kal
36.
airao-TpaTTTOvTac, em be toV; KopwfraV; avf&v xpwfx: e<f>epov
86. Grabar, catalog entry in Hahnloser, II tesoro di San Marco, 25. biabr\ixaTa ev kidois koI fxapy?poic TrokvT??xoLs cocrei ?okal k?av
TTavevrrpeireo-TaTa Kal TTOiK?ka vrr?pxovTa.
87. In Byzantium, ekphrasis presents a description of a building written
and received from the point of view of a subject moving through 99. For the scriptural tradition of associating whiteness and transparency
space. Oskar Wulff, "Das Raumerlebnis des Naos im Spiegel der Ek with paradise, see Janes, God and Gold, 72-74, 84-86.
phrasis," Byzantinische Zeitschrift $? (1929-30): 531-39; and Ruth 100. Trans. Sullivan et al., Vita Basilii Iunioris, 36-46: ??Treip?crTo?;
Webb, "The Aesthetics of Sacred Space: Narrative, Metaphor, and Mo ctKaTav?riTo?; ?<j>pao-T?)?; ?v?K<f>pacrTO<;; ?d?aTov; ovbel? bvvaTai
tion in Ekphraseis of Church Buildings," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 53 k?yos ?p?Teis bir\yecrao~Bai'y ?ireipo?; aveKk?kr\Toc\ ?vepixiqvevT s;
(1999): 59-74. On the creation of the visual equivalent of this genre vor\T?<;; voV? koX koyo? oC bvvaTat ?v$p6)7nve<; bir\yr\o~ao,Qai\
of literature in the twelfth century, see Pentcheva, "Visual Textuality," ?pprfro?; ?vkai odaai ?>? ai T/?iaKai aKTTve?', KpaTeTcrdai irap?
225-38.
cr piaTiK?dv x^P^v abvvaTov; evfypocrvvr) Kal eimp?rreLav
88. Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 185; Photios, Homily X, sec. 4, ?ovyKpLTOv wpat?TT/T? T Kal T)bovr)V yk?)craxi ?vdpo)7rivxi
in Photiou Homiliai, ed. V. Laourdas, Hetaireias Makedonikon Spou ?vep[Xf}V VTOV Kal O?KOX? avT?KOVO~TOV, y??m? /XVptOjLLtKTW?
don, 12 (Thessaloniki: Hetaireias Makedonikon Spoudon, 1959), 101: ?v pp,T)vevT?)<; tc Kai ?v K?iT)'yf/T?)?; TravT?Ta ?wv Kal p?bcjv
?? odrrep r?? ?ipeis ovv?xovcrai koli 7rpo? eaur?? kiricrTpefyovcrai v?crp,(x)v Ib?ai eTreKeivro; kv k?yq> ?(j)paaTov; kv oo-<f>pr)cr i Kal
ovK kdeXeiv iroidvcrai tov ?earrjv iL Tax(opr}aai irpo? r? aicrdr)o- L avdp?)Trivr?<; biavo?as ?KaTavor)To? Kal avekbir)yr\Tov
kvS?repa, ?XX' kv otvr? irporepiev?o-fiaTL toV KaXXd?? Oeajutaro? ? tt\v evocrpXav; a(/)pao"To? t/?vtt/to?; r?bovrJ<; Kal 6vpiiqb?a<; aireipov
TTpoai?v kjJLTTLTrX?^jievo^ Kai toV; bp iL?vois kpei?ojv r? ?jipbara Trkr)povp, voi.
?HTTTep Tt? kppL???lx?vO? T? QOLVILOLTI ?CTT7]K?V. 101. See Pentcheva, "Epigrams on Icons." Here, I am concerned with the
89. Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 185; Photios, Homily X, sec. 5, epigram's performative aspect and circular structure.
in Photiou Homiliai, 101: 'fk elavrbv y?p tov ovpavbv pL7}8evb<; 102. Margaret Mullett, "Writing in Early Medieval Byzantium," in Uses of
kiMTpoa?dvPToc ?jnr)Oa?ji?dev kp,?e?ir}Ku)<; Kai toT? TToXvp,?p<\>oi<; Literacy in Early Medieval Europe, ed. Rosamond McKitterick (Cam
Kai iravTax?dev wrofyaivoyLevois K?XXecriv <w? aorpoi? bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 156-85, esp. 179-85.
TTepiXa?j?TTOixevo<; oXo? kKTTeTrXr\yixevo<; ylverai. AoKeT?? Xonrbv
kvrevOev r? re ?XXa ev eKcrravei elvai kol? avrb irepL?iv??&dai to 103. The connection between the icon and the Davidic Psalms will appear
t?/x ?>o?* toV; y?p otKeiai? Kal 7rai^To?a7raT^ irepicrTpoâV; Kai again in the discussion of the sense of taste.
ovvex?crL KLvqaecriv, ? 7r?vT0)q iraOeTv t?v 0eaTJ)v r? iravrax?Bev 104. On the performative nature of epigrams, see Amy Papalexandrou,
TToiKiX?a ?iaCerai to?? Be?jiaToc, ei? avrb t? bp(?p,evov to oiKeTov "Text in Context: Eloquent Monuments and the Byzantine Beholder,"
<j>avT??eTai Tr?BiqfjLa. Word and Image 17, no; 3 (2001): 259-83. On the orality of Byzantine
literature, see Guglielmo Cavallo, "Trace per una storia d?lia lettura ? 115. This and the following biblical quotations follow the text and num
Bisanzio," Byzantinische Zeitschrift 95, no. 2 (2002): 423-44; idem, "Le bering of the Greek Septuagint, Septuaginta, ed. Alfred Rahlfs (1935;
rossignol et l'hirondelle: Lire et ?crire ? Byzance, en Occident," An reprint, Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelstiftung, 1935).
nales: Histoire et Sciences Sociales 4, no. 5 (2001): 849-61; and Mullett,
116. Geoffrey Lampe, ed., Patristic Greek Lexicon (1961; reprint, Oxford:
"Writing in Early Medieval Byzantium," 156-85. Clarendon Press, 2001).
105. See nn. 88-89 above.
117. Susan A. Harvey, "St. Ephrem on the Scent of Salvation," Journal of
106. Robert Nelson, "Byzantine Art vs Western Medieval Art," in Byzance et Theological Studies 48, no. 1 (1998): 109-28; and idem, "Incense Offer
le monde ext?rieur: Contacts, relations, ?changes; Actes de trois s?ances du XXe ings in the Syriac Transitus Mariae. Ritual and Knowledge in Ancient
Congr?s International des ?tudes Byzantines, Paris, 19-25 ao?t 2001, ed. Christianity," in The Early Church and Its Context: Essays in Honor of Ever
Michel Balard et al., Byzantina Sorbonensia, 21 (Paris: Publications de ett Ferguson, ed. Abraham Malherbe, Frederick Norris, and James
la Sorbonne, 2005), 255-70. Thompson, Supplements to Novum Testamentum, 90 (Leiden: Brill,
107. Theodore Hyrtakenos, quoted in Fran?ois Jean Gabriel de la Porte-du 1998), 175-91. Harvey will offer an extensive study on the role of
Theil, "Notice et extraits d'un volume de la Biblioth?que Nationale, scent in late antiquity in her forthcoming monograph, Scenting Salva
cot? MCCIX parmi les mansucrits grecs et contenant les Opuscules et tion: Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination, Transformation of
letters anecdotes de Th?odore l'Hyrtakc?nien," Notices et Extraits des the Classical Heritage, 42 (Berkeley: University of California Press,
Manuscrits de la Biblioth?que Nationale et Autres Biblioth?ques 6 (1800): 2006). For an anthropological point of view, see Constance Classen,
1-48, esp. 42, letter no. 75: 'Eyc? 8', kvavTevi?c?v toV; yp?pifxacnv, David Howes, and Anthony Synnott, Aroma: The Cultural History of
avrbv cr? ?Xeireiv T)yo?p,iqv, Kai Tff? ?xeXixp&s oifs kpLcfropeTtrdai Smell (London: Routledge, 1994).
creipijVoc, Kal T&v kp,fxeXBv a.KpO?to~Bai <$>Qbyyo)v Tff? dva?iacr?aq
118. For an excellent analysis revealing how the lavish imperial ceremonial
TjôiT?. Translated into Italian and discussed in Cavallo, "Trace per
una storia della lettura ? Bisanzio," 426. shaped the imagined realm of paradise, see Liz James, "Art and Lies:
Text, Image and Imagination in the Medieval World," in Eastmond
108. Mullett, "Writing in Early Medieval Byzantium," 179, discusses Symeon and James, Icon and Word, 59-71.
Metaphrastes on writing and drinking (letter no. 89) and John Mavro
119. Constan tine Porphyrogennetos, De ceremoniis aulae byzantinae, ed. Jo
pous on writing and music (letter no. 1). See also Cavallo, "Trace per
una storia della lettura ? Bisanzio," 425-26. hann Jacob Reiske, 2 vols., CSHB, 9-10 (Bonn: Impensis ed. Weberi,
1829), 160 (bk. 1, chap. 28), 438 (bk. 1, chap. 96).
109. On the role of orality in Byzantine literature, see n. 104 above.
120. Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus: Three Treatises on Imperial Military Expedi
110. Trans. Sullivan et al., Vita Basilii Iunioris, 44: ??v 8e b krrl t?ls ?vXoi? tions, trans. John F. Haldon, Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, 28
eKeivoL? rfXioêyyecn irornpioi? KLpv?fievo? oivo?, t tf XP0La (Vienna: ?sterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1990),
kpvOp? TJVpaK?o~iiaTi Xiav evTrvpio? aTrao-TparrTC?v, Kal birr?v?Ka 108-9; Constantine Porphyrogennetos, De ceremoniis, ed. Reiske, 468:
rt? avTc5v ?m x??jt>a? k???aTo ttjv dav?iaaT7]v eKe?vr\v Kal Hapap,r]pLOv ev akeiTTT?, KaTrv?crjxaTa Oi?ôpa, dv?jiia?jba, (xao-T?xr)v,
<j)?)To?bXov KvXiKa, v?KTapo? api?pocriac Tr TrXr)pa)pi?vr?v, Kal t@ ki?avov, cr?xap, Kp?KOv, fi?crxov, apuTrap, ?vkakor)v vyp?v Kal ?,r\p?v,
?O?q) ar? fian Tairrr\v irpocrfiyaye to?j meTv. . . . rfiya?e 8e t? KLvv??x(?fxov akr)Qiv?v TTp?dTov Kal bevrepov, Kal ^vkoKLvv?pLCjpiov,
Trpbo~(?Trov avroV Kal ?ri rrXeov kXap,7rpvveTo, (oairep pb?ov ?pTi
?jLVp?criiaTa koiu?. For the specialized terms, see also Charles Du
tG>v KaXvK(ov vire?eXdc?v.
Cange, Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae graecitatis (Lyons: Anis
111. The Treasury of San Marco, 159, cat. no. 16: Iltere e? avrd? navres' son, Posuel, Rigaud, 1688; reprint, Graz: Akademische Druck, 1958).
T?VTO puOi) kcTTl TO ?LjUL?, TO Tff? KOUV?f? ?taOTJKTJ? T? VTTep Vp,i?v KO.I
121. On the contemporary perception of power and smell, see Classen et
iroXXGv eKXvv?pLevov et? ?êaiv appuaTiBv. The translation comes
al., Aroma, 161-79. Similarly, the modern utopia created by Hollywood
from the King James Version.
is "totally inodorate, existing only in the sensory domain of sight and
112. Vie de Th?odore de Sykeon, ed. A.-J. Festugi?re, Subsidia Hagiographica, hearing," 175, in contrast to the complex fragrance of the Byzantine
48 (Brussels: Soci?t? des Bollandistes, 1970), 11. imperial and liturgical ceremonial and the concomitant image of par
113. Vita Theodori Syceotae, bk. 13, trans, in Elizabeth Dawes and Norman H. adise.
Baynes, Three Byzantine Saints (Oxford: B. Blackwell Press, 1948), 95; 122. See n. 81 above.
A.-J. Festugi?re, ed., Vie de Th?odore de Syke?n, Subsidia Hagiographica,
48 (Brussels: Soci?t? des Bollandistes, 1970), 11: 'Avaor?im yo?v 123. On the association of perfume with salvation and paradise, see Har
avrt$ 6K toV e??Qov?, Kal TfjeiKbvi To?rX(uff?po<; TTpoa?xovTi Kal vey, "St. Ephrem," and idem, "Incense Offerings"; and Suzanne Evans,
8eo???v?), i) adeTo yXvKvrr)Ta r)8vrepov jut??lto? kyxvd?ttrav kv rQ "The Scent of a Martyr," Numen 49 (2002): 193-211. On the connec
or?/mcm avrcfi?. 'O 8? yvov? rrfv x?nv To?T deo?r Kal p.eTaXa?oiv Tff? tion between odors and dreams and the imagined world of the be
yXvKVT7)Tos Kal vxapio-Tr)0~a<; Tc$Xpio~T<$ airo Tff? ?opa? eKeiviq? yond, see Classen et al., Aroma, 155-58.
evK?X??s Kal etyiadid? ?ireo'T'qdLê to ipaXTr?piov, kv bXiyai? Tj/x?pai? 124. Pss. 33:8: "Taste and see that God is good."
airav avrb eKpiadcjv.
125. Conforming to the conclusion of Nelson, "Byzantine Art vs Western
114. Paul Speck has contested the seventh-century date of the passages Medieval Art," 269-70.
about icons in this life and argued instead that these references were
126. Martin Heidegger, "The Origin of the Work of Art," in Poetry, Lan
interpolated in the mid-eighth or early ninth century. His theory
brings the date of the text closer to the context and use of the S.
guage, Thought, trans, and ed. Albert Hofstadter (New York: Harper
and Row, 1971), 36, 62.
Marco enamel icon. Speck, "Wunderheilige und Bilder: Zur Frage des
Beginns der Bilderverehrung," in Poikila Byzantina, vol. 11, Varia III 127. On the saturated phenomenon, see Marion, Being Given: Towards a
(Bonn: Dr. R. Habelt, 1991), 163-247, esp. 245-46. Phenomenology of Givenness, 199 -221.

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The Performative Icon

Author(s): Bissera V. Pentcheva

3 Harbaville triptych, late 10th century, ivory, 9V? X WA in.

5 Mosaic of the Hetoimasia, late 7th or early 8th century.

inscription, is transformed into the Child held in the arms of

7 Seal attached to the memorandum of a judge of

8 Seal blank, lead, diameter IVs in. (2.9 cm). Dumbarton

11 Coin with the impressed images of Christ and Emperor

The typos/sphragis concept is not new. It has been explored

12 Khludov Psalter, preface miniature,

13 Icon of the Archangel Michael, late

15 Icon of the Arch

embody radiance. Gold and purple are employed in imperial

surfaces (filigree, cloisonn?, and repouss?) (Figs. 13-15).

It is as if one had entered heaven itself with no one barring

The rich aesthetic of scintillating gold, mosaic, silver, marble

18 Chalice of the Patriarchs, 10th

?. . vt* .wn** *.* ?'* ^i?t?^;^1^^^^?

20 Chalice of the Patriarchs, medallion with Christ at the

The table decked out for the feast, quarried of scintillating

[The table was] 30 pech?is large, it was beautifully quarried

The angels appear in scarlet tunics with loroi radiating the

The icon thus sets up a circle: a mirror reflecting the faithful

psalter easily and quickly and had learnt the whole of it by

According to Paul Speck, the excerpt about the icon that

A Circle Completed Bissera V. Pentcheva is assistant professor at Stanford Unive

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