{"title":"Compounding Greekness: St. Katherine “the Egyptian” and the Sta. Croce Micromosaic","authors":"J. Lansdowne","doi":"10.1086/715503","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article is the first critical study of a small panel painting of St. Katherine of Alexandria, discovered sixty years ago on the reverse of the well-known micromosaic icon of the Man of Sorrows at Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome. Proceeding from close visual and material analyses, supplemented by unpublished conservation photographs, the article calls into question the original identity of the figure represented, revealing the extent to which it was adapted on the panel’s journey through the Mediterranean between Byzantium and Rome. The article spotlights the southern Italian leg of that journey. It was in Apulia, in an act of repurposing and rededication, that the unknown original figure depicted on the panel was transformed into Katherine of Alexandria and that this transformed image was joined with the micromosaic Man of Sorrows to form one bifacial icon. In elaborating on the implications of this rededication, the article revises the theory of the double-sided icon’s patronage in Italy, connecting it instead to major political figures in Angevin Naples. Beyond new historical details, research into the adventure of the bifacial Sta. Croce icon affords fresh insight into how such foreign objects were received in the Latin West ca. 1400. While the micromosaic side of the icon is best known for its associations with the Mass of St. Gregory, a legend that pegged the micromosaic’s origins to Rome, its fusion with St. Katherine speaks to a now-eclipsed origin tradition for the icon, one that underscored a provenance in the Greek East, specifically Egypt, the epicenter of Katherine’s cult. Katherine’s unconventional costume, the style in which she was depicted, the inclusion of Greek epigraphy, and the distinctive punchwork ornamentation of the gold ground all contributed to this conceit, which indicates a desire to emulate the requisite terms of dedication customary in the Christian East.","PeriodicalId":43922,"journal":{"name":"GESTA-INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF MEDIEVAL ART","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"GESTA-INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF MEDIEVAL ART","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1086/715503","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"ART","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
This article is the first critical study of a small panel painting of St. Katherine of Alexandria, discovered sixty years ago on the reverse of the well-known micromosaic icon of the Man of Sorrows at Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome. Proceeding from close visual and material analyses, supplemented by unpublished conservation photographs, the article calls into question the original identity of the figure represented, revealing the extent to which it was adapted on the panel’s journey through the Mediterranean between Byzantium and Rome. The article spotlights the southern Italian leg of that journey. It was in Apulia, in an act of repurposing and rededication, that the unknown original figure depicted on the panel was transformed into Katherine of Alexandria and that this transformed image was joined with the micromosaic Man of Sorrows to form one bifacial icon. In elaborating on the implications of this rededication, the article revises the theory of the double-sided icon’s patronage in Italy, connecting it instead to major political figures in Angevin Naples. Beyond new historical details, research into the adventure of the bifacial Sta. Croce icon affords fresh insight into how such foreign objects were received in the Latin West ca. 1400. While the micromosaic side of the icon is best known for its associations with the Mass of St. Gregory, a legend that pegged the micromosaic’s origins to Rome, its fusion with St. Katherine speaks to a now-eclipsed origin tradition for the icon, one that underscored a provenance in the Greek East, specifically Egypt, the epicenter of Katherine’s cult. Katherine’s unconventional costume, the style in which she was depicted, the inclusion of Greek epigraphy, and the distinctive punchwork ornamentation of the gold ground all contributed to this conceit, which indicates a desire to emulate the requisite terms of dedication customary in the Christian East.
这篇文章是对亚历山大的圣凯瑟琳的一幅小板画的第一项批判性研究,这幅画是60年前在斯塔著名的悲伤之人的微马赛克图标的背面发现的。克罗齐在耶路撒冷,克罗齐在罗马。从近距离的视觉和材料分析出发,辅以未发表的保护照片,这篇文章对所代表的人物的原始身份提出了质疑,揭示了它在拜占庭和罗马之间的地中海之旅中被改编的程度。这篇文章重点报道了这段旅程中的意大利南部。正是在阿普利亚,在重新利用和重新奉献的行为中,面板上描绘的未知原始人物被转变为亚历山大的凯瑟琳,这一转变后的形象与微马赛克的悲伤之人结合在一起,形成了一个双面偶像。在详细阐述这种重新奉献的含义时,文章修改了双面圣像在意大利的赞助理论,将其与那不勒斯安热时期的主要政治人物联系起来。除了新的历史细节,研究双面人的冒险经历。克罗克图标提供了一个新的视角,让我们了解大约1400年拉丁西方是如何接受这些外来物品的。虽然这个图标的微马赛克一面最出名的是它与圣格雷戈里弥撒(Mass of St. Gregory)的联系,传说这幅微马赛克的起源与罗马有关,但它与圣凯瑟琳(St. Katherine)的融合,说明了这个图标现在已经黯然失色的起源传统,强调了它的起源在希腊东部,特别是埃及,凯瑟琳崇拜的中心。凯瑟琳非传统的服装,她被描绘的风格,希腊铭文的包含,以及金色地面上独特的打孔装饰都促成了这一幻想,这表明了模仿基督教东方奉献习惯的必要条件的愿望。
期刊介绍:
The Newsletter, published three times a year, includes notices of ICMA elections and other important votes of the membership, notices of ICMA meetings, conference and exhibition announcements, some employment and fellowship listings, and topical news items related to the discovery, conservation, research, teaching, publication, and exhibition of medieval art and architecture. The movement of some material traditionally included in the newsletter to the ICMA website, such as the Census of Dissertations in Medieval Art, has provided the opportunity for new features in the Newsletter, such as reports on issues of broad concern to our membership.