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The Fine Incense of Virginity: a late twelfth century wallpainting of the Annunciation at the Monastery of the Syrians, Egypt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Lucy-Anne Hunt*
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham

Extract

A richly symbolical wallpainting of the Annunciation was brought to light in 1991 in the western conch of the church of the Virgin at the desert Monastery of the Syrians at Scetis (Wadi al-Natrun) in Egypt (figs. 1-5). The interpretation put forward here is that the scene celebrates the Mother of God as the epitome of perfect womanhood at the moment of Christ’s conception with her key role reinforced by explicit symbolism of her virginity. This is stated visually, through the liturgical symbolism of the burning censer at her feet, and verbally through the ‘container’ imagery proclaimed on the scrolls of the accompanying prophets: Isaiah, Moses, Ezekiel and Daniel. A detailed townscape represents the town of Nazareth, both the Virgin’s own birthplace and the site of the Annunciation.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1995

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References

1. I am grateful to Revd. Prof. P. van Moorsel for facilitating my work and his kind permission to reproduce the photographs of the wallpainting included here. This paper was presented at a Table ronde on the wallpainting at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 25-26 March 1994. Summaries of all the papers will appear in Cahiers archéologiques 43 (1995), in press.

2. Sperber, D., Rethinking Symbolism (Cambridge 1974) especially 616 Google Scholar.

3. On these categories of the Virgin see, in general, Warner, M., Alone of Her Sex (rpt, London 1990)Google Scholar. Recent studies concerning the veneration to the Virgin are referred to by Leveto, P.D., ‘The Marian Theme of the Frescoes in S. Maria at Castelseprio’, Art Bulletin 72 (1990) 411 n. 82 Google Scholar.

4. Maguire, H., Art and Eloquence in Byzantium (Princeton 1981) especially 4452 Google Scholar.

5. This is particularly apparent in the Coronation of the Virgin: see Verdier, P., Le couronnement de la Vierge: Les origines et les premiers développements d’un thème iconographique (Institut d’études médiévales, Albert-le-grand, Montréal) (Paris 1972)Google Scholar and Gold, P. Schine, The Lady and the Virgin: Image, Attitude, and Experience in Twelfth-Century France (Chicago and London 1985) especially 5165 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6. Dr.Wuttmann, M. (paper at the Paris Table ronde Google Scholar cited in note 1 above) points out that the floral border was painted on the same plaster level separately from the rest in its different, wax, technique.

7. Forsyth, G.H. and Weitzmann, K., The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai. The Church and Fortress of Justinian (Ann Arbor 1973) 1617 Google Scholar with, respectively, pis. CXXX and CXXXI and details.

8. For the twenty four Elders at Dayr Abu Makar: Leroy, J., Les peintures des couvents du OuadiNatroun (l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire, Mémoires, CI, (Cairo, 1982), 2126 Google Scholar with Diagram A, figs. 2-3 and pis. 8-18. For the panels taken by Prince Johann Georg zu Sachsen to Dresden and now in the Landesmuseum in Mainz see Sachsen, J.G. zu, StreifzUge durch die Kirchen und Kloster Aegyptens (Leipzig 1914) 6970 Google Scholar with figs. 225-26 and Leroy, Ouadi Natroun, 25 with fig. 4, who does not, however, discuss the technique. My observation is made on the basis of the painted heads viewed at Mainz, but this has not been verified by technical analysis. I plan to argue the twelfth-century dating for the Dayr Abu Makar painted programme in more detail elsewhere.

9. Moorsel, P. van, ‘DeirasSourianRevisted’, Nubian Letters 17 (Leiden, 1992), 113 Google Scholar, with Arabic summary, 14-16. Moorsel, P. van, ‘Une Annonciation faite à Marie au Monastère des Syriens (Une découverte de l’I.F.A.O., faite en mai 1991)’, lecture delivered June 1991, published in the Bulletin de la Société Française d’Egyptologie 124 (June 1992) 523 Google Scholar.

10. Wuttmann’s report, Mission d’Etude et de Restauration des Pentures Coptes au Wadi-Natroun/Rapport sur les travaux effectués en mai 1991 à Deir-Amba Bischoi et Deir el-Sourian, I.F.A.O., (Cairo, 15 July 1991) 6-7 and 9-12 is cited by Moorsel, Van, ‘Une Annonciation’ 10, 12-13, 1516 Google Scholar.

11. Notably parts of an angel carrying a staff, a bearded male head and the nimbus of another head next to it: Strzygowski, J., ‘Der Smuck der alteren el-Hadrakirche im syrischen Kloster der sketischen Wiiste’, Oriens Christianus 1 (1901) 36263 Google Scholar.

12. Leroy also noted trees at the top of the scene which he described as ‘un paysage feuilli’: Leroy, , Ouadi Natroun 72 with pi. 128 Google Scholar (P.-H. Lafferière’s copy).

13. For the three upper paintings see White, H.G. Evelyn, Monasteries of the Wâdi ‘n Natrûn III: the Architecture and Archaeology (New York, 1933), 190193 Google Scholar: Leroy, J., ‘Le Décor de l’Église du Couvent des Syriens au Ouadi Natroun (Egypte)’, Cahiers archéologiques 23 (1974), 16267 Google Scholar; Leroy, , Ouadi Natroun 61-74 and 117 Google Scholar, where he dates them generally to the late twelfth/early thirteenth century. Hunt, L.-A., ‘Christian-Muslim Relations in Painting in Egypt of the Twelfth to mid-Thirteenth Centuries: Sources of Wallpainting at Deir es-Suriani and the Illustration of the New Testament MS Paris Copte-Arabe l/Cairo, Bibl. 94Cahiers archéologiques 33 (1985) 117-125, 142 Google Scholar, dates them c. 1225. This has been accepted by Van Moorsel, ‘Deir es-Souriani revisited’ 6. Van Moorsel, ‘Une Annonciation’, 18 posits the existence of a painting below the Dormition, but he has informed me that since the upper layer is stable there are no plans to remove the sanctuary semidome paintings.

14. Grossmann, Peter, ‘Neue Beobachtungen zur al-Adrâ’ Kirche von Dair as-Suryàn’, Nubian Letters 19 (1993), 18 Google Scholar, with Abb. 1, 2 A-B.

15. For the history of the monastery see: White, H.G. Evelyn, The Monasteries of the Wâdi ‘n Natrûn Part II: The History of the Monasteries of Nitria and ofScetis (New York 1932) 309-321, 414416 Google Scholar; White, Evelyn, Architecture and Archaeology 16971 Google Scholar. Leroy, , Ouadi Natroun 5360 Google Scholar, traced the history of the monastery but (54 with note 3) pointed out that the entire nature of the transfer — apart from the fact that a large sum of money changed hands — remains obscure.

16. Blanchard, M.J., ‘The Syriac Inscriptions on the Paintings in the Church of the Virgin of the Monastery of the Syrians (Deir es Souriant)Sixteenth Annual Byzantine Studies Conference: Abstracts of Papers The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, October 26-28 (1990) 1213 Google Scholar focused on the Syriac context of the paintings through their inscriptions.

17. See, for example, the approach of Hutnik, N., Ethnic Minority Identity: A Social Psychological Perspective (Oxford 1992)Google Scholar in discussing minority-majority ethnic relations.

18. White, Evelyn, History of the Monasteries 383 Google Scholar.

19. Innemée’s summary is forthcoming (see note 1). There are, however, no parallels with painting elsewhere to justify this dating. While the Annunciation appears amongst the frescoes at Castelseprio of the late eighth to early tenth centuries, it does not display any of the distinctive features under discussion. In fact Leveto, ‘Marian Theme’ 393-413 argues that Mary as the symbol of the Church is the focal theme there. Innemée’s dating is taken, with no good evidence, by Grossmann, ‘Neue Beobachtungen’ 4, to apply to the building of this conch.

20. Van Moorsel, ‘Deir es-Souriani Revisited’ 11. For reference to Leroy ‘s view, see above, note 12.

21. In particular the head of the figure on the Virgin’s right — now known to be the prophet Isaiah — is comparable with Peter’s in the scene of the Disciples at the Tomb in the Greek Gospel book in Berlin, Staatsbibl. gr. qu. 66, dateable to the late twelfth to early thirteenth century and in Egypt by 1219: Hunt, ‘Christian-Muslim Relations’ 120-21, with fig. 26 and note 76. For discussion of MS Berlin gr. qu. 66, and previous bibliography, see Carr, A.W., Byzantine Illumination 1150-1250: The Study of a Provincial Tradition (Chicago and London 1987) 212-214 and 94 Google Scholar where she dates the manuscript ‘a full decade’ before 1219.

22. Moorsel, Van, ‘Deir es-Souriani Revisted’ 9, 11 Google Scholar. See further below, note 62.

23. Gabriel is the most venerated angel after Michael: Miiller, C.D.G., Die Engellehre der koptischen Kirche (Wiesbaden 1959) 40 Google Scholar.

24. For example, the early twelfth-century paintings of the Virgin Blachernitissa in Asinou and in Trikomo: D. Winfield, ‘Hagios Chrysostomos, Trikomo, Asinou, Byzantine painters at Work’, ITpaKziKà zooITpojTOU AieOvovç KunpoXoyiKov Zvveôpíov (Nicosia 14-19 April 1969) II (Nicosia 1972) 288, pi. LX: 1,2, as noted by Dodd, E. Cruikshank, ‘The Monastery of Mar Musa Al-Habashi, near Nebek, SyriaArte Medievale II ser., Anno VI no. 2 (1992) 119 Google Scholar with note 43 with reference to dotted halos at the thirteenth-century Syrian church of Sts. Sergios and Bacchos at Qara. Numerous examples of dotted halos appear in icon painting of the Crusader period, such as those reproduced in Weitzmann, K., ‘Icon Painting in the Crusader Kingdom’, DOP 20 (1966), 4983 Google Scholar reproduced in Weitzmann, K., Studies in the Arts at Sinai (Princeton 1982) no. XII, 325386 Google Scholar.

25. Hadermann-Misguich, L., Kurbinovo. Les fresques de Saint-Georges et la peinture byzantine du Xlle siècle 2 Vols. (Brussels 1975) 99 Google Scholar.

26. Vat. gr. 1162, fol. 118r: Anderson, J.C., ‘The Illustrated Sermons of James the Monk: Their Dates, Order, and Place in the History of Byzantine ArtViator 22 (1991) 90 Google Scholar gives this date for the Vatican manuscript which, he argues, copies the Paris version (B.N. gr. 1208). Anderson argues (103) that buildings as units connected by a wall is a common device in Byzantine MS painting of the eleventh-twelfth centuries.

27. Demus, O., The Mosaics of Sicily (London 1949) 2134 Google Scholar with pi. 12 reproduced here. Borsook, E., Messages in Mosaic: The Royal Programmes of Norman Sicily (1130-1187) (Oxford 1990) 25 with pi. 18 Google Scholar.

28. Codex Ebnerianus fol. 118v: Hutter, I., Corpus der byzantinìschen Miniaturen-handscriften (Stuttgart 1977) nr. 39, 63 with pi. 238 Google Scholar. Other examples are Athos Dionysiou MS 587 fol. 150 conveniently reproduced in Maguire, Art and Eloquence fig. 36 and London, B.L. Harley 1810 fol. 142r: Carr, Byzantine Illumination no. 70, 251-2 with colour reproduction fiche 6 F. 10.

29. , G. and Soteriou, M., Icônes du Mont Sinai Vol. I (Athens 1956) (Plates) pi. 57 Google Scholar. II (Athens 1958) (Text in Greek with French summary) 75-77. (The icon is here dated too early: late eleventh or early twelfth century).

30. Mouriki, D., ‘Icons from the 12th to the 15th century’ in Manafis, K.A. (éd.), Sinai: Treasures of the Monastery of Saint Catherine (Athens 1990) 108 Google Scholar with fig. 28.

31. Hadermann-Misguich, , Kurbinovo 102 fig. 37 Google Scholar; Maguire, Art and Eloquence 48.

32. Weitzmann, K., ‘Eine spãfkomnenische Verkiindigungsikone des Sinai und die zweite byzantinische Welle des 12. Kahrhunderts’, in Osten, G. von and Kauffmann, G. (eds.), Festschrift Herbert von Einem (Berlin 1965)Google Scholar reproduced in Weitzmann, Studies no. X, 271-289; Mouriki, ‘Icons’ 107-108, with fig. 29.

33. Kitzinger, E., The Mosaics of St. Mary’s of the Admiral in Palermo (Washington D.C. 1990) 174 Google Scholar (with note 169). His dating is given, 16.

34. Mouriki, ‘Icons’ 156 with colour fig. 25 dates it to the last quarter of the century.

35. For the Annunciation at the Encleistra: Mango, C. and Hawkins, E., ‘The Hermitage of St. Neophytos and its Wall PaintingsDOP 20 (1966) 119206 Google Scholar with plates; the Annunciation is discussed, 168-69, 194, with fig. 73 (angel). Cormack, R., Writing in Gold: Byzantine Society and Its Icons (London 1985) 238 Google Scholar with fig. 92. For the connections between the Encleistra, and Lagoudera, see Hadermann-Misguich, Kurbinovo, 39 with note 61 and figs. 3839 Google Scholar. See also , A. and Stylianou, J. A., The Painted Churches of Cyprus (London 1985) 16162 Google Scholar with fig. 87 (angel). Kurbinovo: Hadermann-Misguich, Kurbinovo, 96-103, figs. 36-37 and pi. B, with comments, 39.

36. Maguire, H., ‘The Self-Conscious Angel: Character Study in Byzantine Painting of the Annunciation’, Byzantine Studies Conference: Abstracts of Papers 8 (October 15-17 1982) University of Chicago (Chicago 1982) 3031 Google Scholar. For MS gr. qu. 66’s presence in Egypt in 1219 see the comments of O. Rossler on the added dedicatory inscription in Hamann-Maclean, R., ‘Der Berliner Codex Graecus Quarto 66 und seine nàchste Verwandten als Beispiele des Stilwandels im friihen 13. Jahrhundert’, Studien zur Buchmalerei und Goldschmiendekunst des Mittelsalters, Festschrift für Usener, K.H. (Marburg 1967) 244ff, Abb. 41 Google Scholar.

37. Hearn, M.F., Romanesque Sculpture (Oxford 1981) 216 Google Scholar with pi. 157; Gold, Schine, The Lady and the Virgin 5253 Google Scholar.

38. Moorsel, Van, ‘Deir es Souriani Revisited’, 9 with note 17 Google Scholar.

39. Brightman, F.E., Liturgies Eastern and Western (Oxford 1896) 74 Google Scholar.

40. Brightman, , Liturgies 7677 Google Scholar.

41. Cody, A., ‘L’Office divin chez les Syriens Jacobites’, Proche Orient Chrétien 19 (1969) 3156 Google Scholar, with note 48.

42. Brightman, Liturgies 150.

43. See, respectively, King, A.A., The Rites of Eastern Christendom Vol. 1 (Vatican 1947) 349 Google Scholar; Brightman, Liturgies 74. The most comprehensive general discussion of incense in the liturgy remains Atchley, E.G.C.F., A History of the Use of Incense in Divine Worship (London 1909)Google Scholar.

44. The Ethiopie Liturgy, dependent on the Coptic, is particularly extravagant in its development of the incense imagery of the Virgin. The plea is made to her, as mother and queen, to intercede with Christ for the remission of sins, as in the following extracts, collated from seventeenth-century Ethiopie manuscripts of the Jacobite mass (Brightman, Liturgies, 217): ‘This is the time of blessing, this is the time of choice incense, the time of the praise of our Saviour, lover of man, Christ. The incense is Mary: the incense is he who was in her womb which is fragrant: the incense is he whom she bare: he came and saved us, the fragrant ointment Jesus Christ. O come let us worship him and keep his commandments that he forgive us our sins… The fragrant ointment is Mary: for he that was in her womb, who is more fragrant than any incense, came and was made flesh of her. In Mary Virgin pure the Father was wellpleased and he decked her for a tabernacle for the habitation of his well-beloved son.’

45. Graf, G., Ein Reformversuch innerhalb der koptischen Kirche im zwõlften Jahrhundert (Collectanea Hierosolymitana Bd. 2) (Paderborn 1923) 5152 Google Scholar, refutes the view of Renaudot, cited by others (e.g., later, E. Cerulli, Etiopi in Palestina I (1943) 54) that this official recognition took place under John V (1146-1166) and Mark III (1166-89). Either way, it is safe to assume that the issue must have been in flux throughout the period between the 1140s-1180s.

46. For Ibn al-Kanbar’s position and theology see Graf, , Reformversuch, 3871 Google Scholar.

47. Chabot, J.B. (ed. and trans.), Chronique de Michel le Syrien 4 Vols. (Paris, 1899-1910) IV, 720 Google Scholar; trans. Ill, 379-80. Michael, in Jerusalem at the time, received disputations from both sides. Following the judgement Ibn al-Kanbar attached himself to the Chalcedonian Greeks (Melkites).

48. Graf, , Reformversuch 110114 Google Scholar.

49. On the question of blessings see Dodd, Cruikshank, ‘Nebek12324 Google Scholar.

50. Moorsel, Van, ‘Deir es Sourian Revisited910 Google Scholar. I am grateful to Dr. L. MacCoull for checking these inscriptions. Van Moorsel, ‘Deir es Sourian Revisited’ points out that the Coptic versions are ‘free’. However it has been pointed out to me by Dr. S. Brock that several versions were in circulation in the eastern churches. All these inscriptions are in black excepting the name of Moses, which is written in white behind him, against the blue background.

51. Brière, E., Scripture in Hymnography: a study of some feasts of the Orthodox Church D. Phil thesis (Oxford University, 1982) Abstract, 178, 2012 Google Scholar. I am grateful to Dr. S. Brock for reference to this work.

52. Brière, , Scripture in Hymnography, 180, 183 Google Scholar. Babic, G., ‘L’Image symbolique de la “Porte Fermée” à Saint-Clement d’Ochrid’, Grabar, A. et. al., Synthronon: Art et Archéologie de la fin de l’Antiquité et du Moyen Age (Paris 1968) 14551 Google Scholar.

53. Budge, E. A. Wallis, Coptic Homilies in the Dialect of Upper Egypt (edited from the papyrus Codex Or. 5001 in the British Museum) (London 1910) 4045 Google Scholar. The passage quotes from Ezekiel 44:1-3.

54. Moses at the Cappella Palatina in Palermo also displays this variant from the Septuagint, which replaces ‘He’ with Borsook, T., Cappella Palatina 46 Google Scholar note 84 attributes this to the Greek being a translation from the Vulgate.

55. Brière, , Scripture in Hymnography 180 Google Scholar (present readings).

56. Brière, , Scripture in Hymnography 188 Google Scholar.

57. There is some debate about this manuscript and the time at which the paintings were added. Weitzmann, K., ‘An Early Copto-Arabie Miniature in Leningrad’, Ars Islamica 10 (1943) 12931 Google Scholar with figs. 15-16, dated the MS to the ninth century and believed that the miniatures were added, in Cairo, in the same century. Leroy, J., Les Manuscrits Coptes et Coptes-Arabes Illustrés (Paris 1974), 108110 Google Scholar, pi. 98(2) and pi. 98(1), without reference to Weitzmann’s article, dated the manuscript to the ninth-tenth centuries and believed the miniatures to have been added in the twelfth-thirteenth centuries. My own view is that the miniatures were added in the 12th century, probably at the monastery of Dayr Abu Makar.

58. Brière, , Scripture in Hymnography, 188 Google Scholar.

59. PG 96, col. 713B; Nersessian, S. Der, ‘Program and Iconography of the Frescoes of the Paracclesion’ in Underwood, P. A. (éd.), The Kariye Djami Vol. IV: Studies in the Art of the Kariye Djami and Its Intellectual Background (London 1975) 312 Google Scholar with note 41.

60. Brière, , Scripture in Hymnography, 188 Google Scholar. This first finds expression in art in Greek ninth-century Psalters: see Nersessian, Der, ‘Programe and Iconography311 Google Scholar, with references cited, note 40.

61. Brière, , Scripture in Hymnography, 190 Google Scholar.

62. The Coptic version of a homily by Demetrius, Bishop of Antioch on the Birth of Christ and the Virgin Mary has Gabriel praising the Virgin in terms of an arch, a lamp, a golden table, tower, golden vessel, water vessel etc. : see Müller, C. D. G., Die Alte Koptische Predigt (Diss. Univ. of Heidelberg 1954) (Berlin 1954) 2312 Google Scholar, who argues that the homily was translated from Greek into Bohairic Coptic in the fifth/sixth centuries. Fourteenth-century fragments of the liturgies of St. Basil and St. Gregory in Greek from the monastery of Dayr Abu Makar include a Hymn to the Theotokos in which the Virgin is termed bush, throne, tabernacle of the Lord, rod, crown, shelter and chariot of God: White, H.G. Evelyn, The Monasteries of the Wadi ‘n Natrûn Part I: New Coptic Texts from the Monastery of Saint Macarins (New York 1926), I, 200, 213 Google Scholar. The Liturgy of St. Gregory was arguably used at Dayr al-Suryãn, with the Greek/Coptic version ultimately of Syriac origin: see Hammerschmidt, E., Koptische Gregoriosanaphora (Berlin 1957) 17680 Google Scholar; idem, Studies in the Ethiopie Anaphoras (Berlin 1961) 139. For hymns with this imagery see also, generally, De Lacy O’Leary, Fragmentary Coptic Hymns from the Wadi ‘n Natrun (London 1924) 51 (XXII: Greek hymn to the Theotokos), 53 (XXXIX: Coptic hymn).

63. Soteriou, Sinai, I figs. 54-56, II, 73-75. Der Nersessian, ‘Program and Iconography of Parecclesion’ 313. Mouriki, ‘Icons’ 105 with pi. 19.

64. Borsook, Messages in Mosaic, 39-40 for the dating of the mosaics as a whole, with pi. 16 (location of the Annunciation and the prophets of the central cupola with Christ and angels) and colour pi. Ill (Annunciation).

65. Borsook, Messages in Mosaic, 41 and 46 note 84. Ezekiel’s differs in being Baruch 3:35. The text of Moses’ scroll at the Cappella Palatina is included in A.-M. Gravgaard, Inscriptions of Old Testament Prophecies in Byzantine Churches: A Catalogue (Copenhagen 1979) 78.

66. Borsook, Messages in Mosaic, 25. The Annunciation also functions as ‘the gate of heaven’ recognised by Jacob waking from his dream, as the culmination of the Genesis cycle in the nave (Id., 33), and equated with man’s return to Paradise.

67. Borsook, , Messages in Mosaic, 3436 Google Scholar.

68. ‘Today the Virgin gives birth to the maker of the universe. The cave brings forth Eden, and the star makes known Christ, sun to those in darkness … rejoice Jerusalem … today the age-old bond of Adam’s condemnation has been untied… Paradise has been opened to us …’: quoted by Borsook, Messages in Mosaic, 35 with note 142.

69. Chiaravalle, Bernardo di, Lodi della Virgine Maria, ed. Turco, D. (Rome 1984) 43 Google Scholar, Sermon 1, 3; Borsook, Messages in Mosaic, 35 with note 144.

70. Brière, Scripture in Hymnography, 188 (stikhera).

71. See also White, Monasteries III 184-5, pi. LVII and Leroy, Ouadi Natroun, copy, pi. 126, with the lower level showing through.

72. For example in the sixth-century mosaic of the Annunciation at Porec: see Millet, G., Recherches sur l’iconographie de l’évangile aux XlVe, XVe et XVI siècles (Paris 1916) 8889 Google Scholar; Hadermann-Misguich, , Kurbinovo, 101 with note 247 Google Scholar.

73. Annunciations at the Cappella Palatina, St. Nicholas Kasnitsi at Castoria, Lagoudera and Kurbinovo: Hadermann-Misguich, Kurbinovo, 102.

74. Piccirillo, M., I Mosaici di Giordania Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Castello di Malpaga, Cavernago-Bergamo, March-June 1991 (Jerusalem 1991) 151, pi. 5.5 Google Scholar. Similar pediments, with the ‘bending’ of the central element of the building, appear in the sixth-century Madaba ‘map’: see Piccirillo, , Mosaici, 3436 Google Scholar, fig. 17 and 39 fig. 18.

75. Reproduced in colour in Ettinghausen, R., Arab Painting (London 1977) 27 Google Scholar.

76. The scene is divided between the north-east and south-east pendentives in the church: Megaw, A.H.S., ‘Background Architecture in the Lagoudera Frescoes’, JOB 21 (1972), 195201 Google Scholar.

77. Blue in the case of the Presentation of the Virgin at Lagoudera is especially comparable: Megaw, ‘Background Architecture’, 196.

78. Demus, , The Mosaics, pi. 12 Google Scholar; Megaw, , ‘Background Architecture’, 196-7, 200201 Google Scholar.

79. Megaw, , ‘Background Architecture’, 197 with fig. 4. 80 Google Scholar

80. Megaw, , ‘Background Architecture’, 1978 Google Scholar.

81. Krautheimer wrote that in the Middle Ages there was in operation ‘a quite different approach as compared with that of the modern mind to the whole question of copying. Indeed the lack of geometrical precision is as characteristic as the “indifference” towards the precise imitation of architectural shapes and patterns… It would seem as though a given shape were imitated not so much for its own sake as for something else it implied …’ Krautheimer, R., ‘Introduction to an “Iconography” of Mediaeval Architecture’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 5 (1972) 8 Google Scholar. The article is reprinted in the author’s Studies in Early Christian, Medieval, and Renaissance Art (New York 1969), 115-150.

82. Fournée, J., ‘Architectures symboliques dans le thème iconographique de l’Annonciation’, in Grabar, A. et al., Synthronon: Art et Archéologie de la fin de l’Antiquité et du Moyen Age (Paris 1968) 230 Google Scholar, with figs. 2 and 3.

83. For the tabernacle of the Lord as a type of the Virgin in a Coptic hymn, see above note 62.

84. Wilkinson, J. with Hill, J. and Ryan, W.F., Jerusalem Pilgrimage 1099-1185 (London 1988) 163 Google Scholar.

85. Wilkinson, , Jerusalem Pilgrimage, 193 Google Scholar.

86. Folda, J., The Nazareth Capitals and the Crusader Shrine of the Annunciation (Penn State Univ. Park and London 1986) 7 Google Scholar.

87. Folda, Nazareth Capitals, 7, fig. 2, reproduces the plan of the Crusader church c. 1187 after B. Bagatti and E. Alliata, with the position of the former shrine monument designated SM. PI. 73 reproduces a model of the site of the aedicule.

88. Folda, Nazareth Capitals, especially 27-30 re the polygonal shape andpassim, with bibliography. It was planned, argues Folda, to decorate the corners of the aedicule with the four polygonal capitals, unearthed in 1908, carved with scenes from the lives of the apostles. This is not the place to discuss the reconstruction in detail; see the review of Folda’s book by Pringle, Denys in Palestine Exploration Quarterly 120 (1988) 14950 Google Scholar.

89. Müller, , Koptische Predigt, 231 Google Scholar.

90. See Nersessian, Der, ‘Program and Iconography’, 31112 Google Scholar. The literary developments begin in the eighth century; I am grateful for discussion with Dr. M. Cunningham on this point.

91. Fol. 121r: Dufrenne, S., L’illustration des psautiers grecs du moyen âge (Paris 1966) 32 with pi. 18 Google Scholar (Pantocrator Psalter); Corrigan, K., Visual Polemics in Ninth-Century Byzantine Psalters (Cambridge 1992) 9798 Google Scholar with figs. 99-100 points out that the Pantocrator psalter also has an inscription above David’s head designating Sion ‘the Holy City of God’.

92. Moorsel, Van, ‘Deir es Sourian Revisited’, 10 Google Scholar. See the Moses and the Burning Bush in MS Vat. Copto 1 (here fig. 18) for a Coptic rendering of the Bush, drawn around with red flames. In twelfth-century icons at Sinai the Burning Bush is more specifically depicted not as a tree but a compact bush, shaped to a point at the top and growing straight from the ground: see, for example, Soteriou, , Icônes, I, figs. 158 and 163 Google Scholar.

93. Maguire, , Art and Eloquence, 4252 Google Scholar, especially 48.

94. Hadermann-Misguich, , Kurbinovo, 102 Google Scholar and Maguire, , Art and Eloquence, 48 Google Scholar enumerate other examples at Sinai, with late twelfth- and thirteenth-century paintings in Macedonia and Serbia.

95. Maguire, , Art and Eloquence, 49 Google Scholar.

96. Floral imagery can be associated with Nazareth itself literally as well as metaphorically. In excavation work carried out at the Church of the Annunciation after 1955 Fr. B. Bagatti exposed carving in a subsidiary grotto with flowers and wreaths of victory; one inscription reads ‘Christ, son of God’: Hoade, E., Guide to the Holy Land (Jerusalem 1981) 691 Google Scholar.

97. Fournée, , ‘Architecture symboliques’, 231 with note 17 Google Scholar.

98. Demus, Mosaics, 310 with fig. 63, points to churches with this dedication in Constantinople. Borsook, Messages in Mosaic, 57-58 discusses the mosaic in the context of the cycle of Marian imagery at Monreale.

99. While east and west converge in expressing the belief in the Virgin as the Mother of God and Queen of Heaven, the Coronation of the Virgin is the culmination of the exclusively western belief in the Assumption of the Virgin and the Virgin as the Church, the bride of Christ.

100. See above, note 18.

101. Furthermore relations between the Coptic patriarchs of Alexandria and the Syrian patriarchs of Antioch, at a high point in 1179 during the consultation over Ibn al-Kanbar’s views on confession, had deteriorated a few decades later: see Cernili, , Etiopi in Palestine, 1617 Google Scholar with note 1.