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A NEW INTERPRETATION OF THE FRESCO IN THE CHURCH OF ST LUKE IN KOTOR
Tatjana Mićević-Đurić
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Mostaru
Sažetak
The fresco in the Church of St Luke in Kotor was discovered in 1971 and is the only remnant of the painting in this church made probably immediately after it was built in 1195.
The fresco, located on a surface shaped by an arch abutting onto the southern wall of the eastern bay, shows three persons, shown frontally in a hieratic and symmetrical composition. In the central, forming the main vertical axis of the composition, is a sainted bishop clad in an uncommon combination of clothing of bishops of the Eastern and the Western church, which is additionally pointed up by the omophorion (the mark of an Eastern rite episkopos) and a crosier (the insignia of a Western bishop). Above all, he wears on his head a cap of uncommon appearance, which proved to be crucial for his identification. This person, pursuant to analogies with painting in the cave churches of the Southern Apennine churches, was first identified as St Basil the Great, but after that as Pope St Sylvester, because of the cap that is interpreted by the papal mitre and the ornament in the form of the letter S on the cap. Next to him are two juvenile female saints. To the left of him is St Catherine of Alexandria, whose identity is not in any question. The saint to the right of him as not been identified with any certainty, and St Barbara, St Agatha and St Marina have all been proposed. Since the iconography shown on the Kotor fresco is consistent with the iconography of Agatha and Barbara, some other evidence for a more precise identification needs to be found.
This paper proposes the two saints be connected according to their common place of origin. Since St Catherine, who is variously said to be of Egypt, Alexandria and Sinai, clearly is connected by origins to the area of Egypt, it is proposed that by her birth in Egypt St Barbara is the saint shown as a companion for St Catherine, on the other side of the centrally positioned sainted bishop (or episkopos). In this case it will help in the ascertainment of the identity of the central figure in the Kotor fresco, who is undoubtedly the most important. This would be, then some canonised Alexandrian patriarch, which is additionally confirmed by the previously puzzling and inexplicable cap of uncommon appearance on his head. Among the Eastern bishops (episkopoi) only the Alexandrian patriarchs are shown with caps, precisely, what is more, in a form similar to that in the Kotor fresco. It would be reasonable, then, to assume that shown here is one of the better known and more revered patriarchs of Alexandria; a more precise identification indicates the person of St Cyril of Alexandria.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
193117
URI
Datum izdavanja:
20.2.2017.
Posjeta: 1.345 *