Święci i ikony : ikona jako atrybut ikonograficzny w poikonoklastycznej sztuce bizantyńskiej

Initially, the images of Christ, the Mother of God, the Apostles and saints had a commemorative function, and their role in religious culture was limited to individual devotion. It was only in the 6th century that the concept of the icon as the true image of the Saviour gradually came to the fore. In Byzantine post-iconoclastic art, depictions of the cult of icons are rare. Among them, a representative example is the cult of the icon of the Mother of God in the Hodegon Monastery, which was immortalized in the miniature from the Hamilton Psalter in the 13th century. The attention of the researchers was also attracted by the miniatures from the Chludov Psalter (9th century), which included a depiction of the patriarch Nikephoros, who was portrayed as the defender of the orthodox faith with an icon of Christ. In some cases, the icon becomes an attribute within the collective portrait of the defenders of the orthodox teaching on icons. We know of three such representations, the oldest of which is an icon in the British Museum that dates from the beginning of the 15th century and two icons signed by a painter from Crete, who was active in Venice, Emmanuel Tzafournaris (deceased after 1631). The images of saints with an icon in their hands are primarily associated with the theme of the iconoclastic controversy and the restoration of the orthodox doctrine of images in 843. Apart from these examples, there are only a few representations of saints with icons. One of them includes the images of St. Stephen the Younger from the second half of the 11th century, he is portrayed with an icon in the newly established style. Moreover, different variants of this representation are known: the Saint holding the icon of Our Lady of Eleusa in his hands (located at the monastery of St. Neophyte in Cyprus), the Saint with the representation of a diptych with the image of the Dead Christ on the left wing and Mary leaning towards Him on the right (miniatures in the menologion of 1055, in the Psalter of Theodore of 1066). In the Menologion of Basil II, St. Nicetas the Confessor (d. 824) is depicted with a round icon of Christ in his hand. Both Stephen the Younger and Nicetas the Confessor were famous for their courage in defending the cult of icons, for which they faced persecution. The icon undoubtedly occupied a unique place among the forms of devotion that developed in the post-iconoclastic Byzantine Empire. However, in art, the manifestations of private devotion were avoided and limited to official, church and imperial ceremonies. In the iconography of a few saints, the icon manifests itself, not merely as an attribute, but also as a historical testimony to their steadfast attitude during the Iconoclasm period.

W poikonoklastycznej sztuce bizantyńskiej przedstawienia kultu obrazów należą do rzadkości. Wśród nich na plan pierwszy wysuwa się dewocja ikony Matki Bożej w klasztorze Hodegon, uwieczniona w miniaturze Psałterza Hamiltona (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett 78.A.9.) z XIII wieku. Wyjątkowo także wyobrażenie ikony było obrazowym argumentem w przedstawieniach o charakterze polemicznym, jak np. w Psałterzu Chłudowa z IX wieku czy w Psałterzu Teodora z 1066 roku. Osobną kategorię stanowią równie nieliczne przedstawienia ikony jako atrybutu świętego, np. patriarchy Nikefora, Teodora Studyty, cesarzowej Teodory czy św. Stefana Młodszego. Wątek ten nadal nie jest dość rozpoznany w literaturze przedmiotu, a niniejszy artykuł stanowi jedynie wstępny zarys tego zagadnienia.