Adam Roth
IUPUI Anthropology Club Presentation
Room 411, 9:00 AM
September 21, 2004
Between Logos and Ikona: A Byzantine Image in the Middle
There exist a perpetual dialogue that competes for the attention of the human mind and soul in Western religious thought. Margaret R. Miles discusses this controversy in her book Image as Insight: Visual Understanding in Western Christianity and Secular Culture. In Chapter 2 of this book “Hermeneutics and the History of Image Users,” Miles discuss the emphasis classical philosophy puts on pure thought embodied in word or logos (λόγος). Language, Miles defends, gets more legitimation as it is reaffirmed through human history as a defining human trait and the backing for power. However, Miles questions the all-encompassing ability of language to describe the human experience. She defends that images may have as much, if not more to say about human experience, though in a different way. Indeed, this controversy is one that has no simple solution, and it is in the midst of this controversy that an obscure image from a Greek monastery begins its examination.
On a hillside in central Greece sits an unassuming monastery and church that dates back to the eleventh century A.D. and perhaps, some sections may date even earlier. Within its walls are some of the most stunning images of Byzantine mosaic and stucco artwork in Europe. The vast majority of them are in excellent condition, while some of them have deteriorated with time. Among these images is an extremely well preserved stucco wall painting. The image depicts a standing man, with left arm extended, and head bowed slightly. Stucco painting, a style popular throughout the Mediterranean and Europe during the first millennium A.D., is the process of applying bright dyes or paints directly to wet plaster as a wall is being created. This process preserved the painting better than previous techniques and in this way there is less fading and damage due to weather and touch.
Returning to the elements of the image, the figure in the image is holding a long pole in his right hand and resting its cross-shaped head on his shoulder. There is a circular object concentrically surrounding the figure’s head. He is wearing apparently three separate garments, a white shaggy one over his back, a orange-brown one covering his entire body, and a dark green one draped over his left shoulder. His feet may be clad, or they may be drawn to represent lines on bare feet, it is unclear. He is apparently standing on a green foreground with a blue background. Perhaps most interesting, and most notable is the large amount of white, obscured Greek writing, both beside the figure’s head and at the figure’s side. The artist made a strong use of well-defined lines, but kept a degree of realism by varying their quality and angle. The use of color variation becomes important especially through the clothing to denote folds and bends in the body. It is hard to tell the actual balance of the piece, as it seems we see only a portion of the whole. However, it appears there is an arc of some kind over the head of the figure. Due to its location, (within a monastery,) we might be able to extrapolate that this is actually an archway or an apse of some kind where the image is painted. If this is indeed the case than the figure is probably centered within the arch or apse and there is probably symmetry to the piece.
To interpret this image one must delve into the liturgy of Christian imagery. The circle around the head is probably a halo, denoting holiness, used in connection with the divine or sainted. However, since images of Christ usually have the image of the Cross superimposed along with the halo, the absence of this probably rules out Christ. The garments are probably a tunic and cloaks, one perhaps of fur. The pole is likely a Cross-bearing staff of some kind. Bearing all of these things in mind one can then examine the liturgy of Christian saints.
According to Margaret E. Tabor in The Saints in Art:
In pictures of the Holy Family [John the Baptist, (i.e. John son of Martha, sister to the Mary, Mother of God, and cousin to Jesus)] is represented as a child; then as a boy, generally with a lamb, and a young man in a raiment of camel’s hair, sometimes holding a book or a scroll with the words: “Behold the Lamb of God.” But at all times his almost invariable attribute is the cross (Tabor 107).
Also attributed to John the Baptist is the depicted stringy beard and long wild hair, that he is said to have do to his living in the wilderness, as is described in the book of Matthew. It is interesting to note the similarity in facial features between John the Baptist and Jesus in their iconographic depictions. This may be due to the liturgical relation of them being, according to the Bible, cousins by their mothers being sisters. However, simply knowing that this is John the Baptist does not answer some of the more subtle aspects of the imagery, such as why is the head declined and the arm extended. Could the writing give more clues to the image?
The only way to determine this is to properly translate the inscription. This is difficult due to the age and wear of the lettering. However, enough of the inscription exists that a reconstruction can be made of the damaged message. In the initial analysis of the lettering, the inscription reads the fragmented:
ΟΝЄΟς
?ΓωΧ????ΝЄΧ
?Π????ΒΑΠΤΙЅ
ΘΗΝΑΙ
ΚΑΙСΥ????????
Μ?
While many of the “?” letters can be eliminated as not being a number of letters, there were still at least two or three they still might be. However, luckily, the word “ΒΑΠΤΙЅΘΗΝΑΙ” reads loud and clear. This is the aorist infinitive form of the verb “to baptize.” So the word would best be translated as “to be baptized” in common English. After attempting multiple other techniques, such as letter elimination and grammar cues, to determine the translation of the inscription, (which yielded some data,) a Bible was referenced on the context that as many images images depict Biblical events. Sure enough, the New Revised Standard Version in the Gospel of Matthew describes John the Baptist addressing Christ in Matthew 3:13 saying “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” After consulting a Biblical concordance on this verse and determining that the word used in this verse was indeed “βαπτίσθω” in root, the Greek New Testament can be sought out. The chapter and verse can be found and the words and known letters corresponded exactly. Even the extrapolated letters matched for the most part. The resulting miniscule text would read thus: “έγω χρειαν εχω ΰπο σοΰ βαπτισθήναι καί σΰ έρχη προς με;” It turns out that the NRSV is a very accurate translation of this verse. . Also, the image itself was labeled “Christ addressing John the Baptist” which we can now determine to be incorrect, and is likely a transposition of “John the Baptist addressing Christ,” which might explain the outstretched arm and declined head.
Perhaps the most puzzling ,though, is the “header”: “ονέος.” After a search through the concordance and Greek references, two equally intriguing possibilities presented themselves. The situation is that “ο νέος” means “the new.” However, this could mean two things or both. It could mean that John the Baptist is announcing the arrival of the new covenant, i.e. Jesus, or, it could mean “the new” as in “the news,” meaning John is proclaiming the good news that the Messiah has come. Both seem likely and fitting titles to such an image. All in all the process probably took about four to five hours to decipher the inscription of what would eventually be determined to be forty-nine characters of Greek.
Once knowing that this inscription is a title and a quotation from the Biblical narrative the image is put into a broader context. It would seem clear that John gestures to Christ and declines his head out of a sense of reverence to the incarnate God. It would seem that together the message and the image are intended to tell the “complete” story. There is the sense that without the understanding of the inscription the image remains partially opaque in meaning, and without the image the inscription lacks a visual context. In many ways this is very similar to the graphic storytelling of modern times that appears in comic books and graphic novels. Words are given fuller depth though the provision of visual cues, and image is given explanation and depth through the use of accompanying words.
What place would such an image have had in the ancient world that was fundamentally illiterate? One major contextual clue is the location of the image: the monastery of Hosios Lukas. Monasteries were places of learning and of the intellectual elite during the first millennium A.D. in Europe. Perhaps this image and others like it were used as reinforcement for liturgical training for the monks and friars of Hosios Lukas. The specific location within the monastery might give further clues to the function of this piece. All examples of stucco paintings in the frequently photographed upper chambers of the Katholikon and the Church are in poor condition, black from weather and age. No other photo found, save this slide photo, depicts this image, suggesting it may be off the beaten path, in a lower, less frequently visited area of the monastery that has had the advantage of more protection from air and light.
The preservation of this image is indeed a treasure. That is image has survived in such great condition shows a truly perhaps unique phenomenon: the seamless blending of word and image into an icon. Both seem to be necessary for the image to meet its goal: to communicate that John the Baptist is addressing Christ. Perhaps in this image it can be seen that image and word, icona and logos can coexist without one edging out another.
Works Cited:
Miles, Margaret R. Image as Insight: Visual Understanding in Western Christianity and Secular Culture. e-reserve. http://eres.library.denison.edu/loaddoc.asp?doctype=R&docformat=pdf&cid=657&docid=9104&crid=0&ctrlid=Hermenuetics%252Epdf&clinkid=657&dlinkid=…
The New Revised Standard Translation Bible. Cokesbury Press: Nashville, 1990.
Tabor, Margaret E. The Saints in Art. Book Tower: Detroit, 1969.
Works Referenced
Belting, Hans. trans. Edmund Jephcott. Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1994.
Cormack, Robin. Byzantine Art. Oxford University Press: New York, 2000.
Groton, Anne H. From Alpha to Omega: A Beginning Course in Classical Greek. 3rd ed. Focus Publishing: Newburyport, MA, 2001.
James, Liz. Light and Colour in Byzantine Art. Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1996.
Mathews, Thomas F. Byzantium: From Antiquity to the Renaissance. Prentice Hall: New York, 1998.
Young, Robert. Analytical Concordance to the Bible. Eedrmans Publishing: Grand Rapids, 1970.