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1986.
III. ABTEILUNG.
Byzantinische Zeitschrift,
Vol. 79,
Issue. 2,
Article contents
Apostolic Monasticism at Tokalı Kilise in Cappadocia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
At least as early as the day, nearly eighty years ago, when Hans Rott gained access to “Doghalikilise” through an entrance reduced to a narrow cleft by heaps of rubble and alluvial soil, the monument has been recognized as the largest and most important in Göreme. Many of the wall-paintings of both the Old and the New Church at Tokalı were published by Jerphanion who correctly appreciated the relative chronology of these successive phases. This pioneering and still fundamental survey was supplemented by the excellent photographs of Jeannine Le Brun in Restle's corpus of 1967. In the same year, Cormack suggested on stylistic and iconographic grounds a probable date of ca. 913–920 for the decoration of the Old Church, a period little less than half a century before its relatively gigantic successor was cut transversely across its eastern end. Now, within a year or two, Tokalı Kilise will receive the ultimate accolade of monographic treatment by Ann Wharton Epstein in a book which treats the church as a cultural whole and finally recognizes the frescoes in the New Church as the supreme achievement of Byzantine wall-painting to survive from the tenth century.
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References
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7 Schwartzbaum's report will appear as Appendix A in Epstein's book.
8 Tokalı Kilise lies on the edge of the much-trafficked road from Avcılar to Ürgüp.
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29 Jerphanion, (Églises rupestres, I, 1, 265Google Scholar) used the imperfect tense—probably because of the condition of the figures—to record the position of Paul and to suggest that “Pierre était en face de lui, à droite.” For his identification of the coryphaei in the New Church, where none of the apostles are identified by inscription, see ibid., I, 2, 353.
30 While the Hetoimasia is frequently shown as the source in both mosaics and miniatures (note 25, supra), on ivories the fiery tongues spring from an arc of heaven (Goldschmidt, A. and Weitzmann, K., Die byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen des Ẋ. bis XIII. Jahrhunderts, II, 1934, nos. 122, 216, 221Google Scholar).
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34 Broader variations are found in Western medieval art. Even in developed representations of the Last Judgement, such as the Anglo-Saxon ivory in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Dodwell, C. R., Anglo-Saxon Art, A New Perspective, 1983, 88 and Pl. 17Google Scholar), the ranks of both apostles and angels are omitted.
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36 The point has been made most succinctly by Mango, C. in Kähler, H., Hagia Sophia, 1967, 54Google Scholar: “It is characteristic of Byzantine sacred iconography that it should admit various overtones of interpretation … for every particular there are alternative explanations. The altar table signifies Christ's tomb, but it also signifies his cradle. And why not? Everything in Christian doctrine is interconnected.”
37 A. Cutler, “The Byzantine Deêsis and the Problem of Representativeness in Medieval Art” (in press).
38 Thus E. Dinkler von Schubert on Ayvalı Kilise, reviewing Brenk, , Tradition und Neuerung, in BZ, LXII, 1969, 371Google Scholar.
39 Thierry, N. and Tenenbaum, A., “Le Cénacle apostolique à Kokar Kilise et Ayvalı Kilise en Cappadoce,” Journal des Savants, Oct.–Dec. 1963, 229–41Google Scholar.
40 Thierry, , Nouvelles églises, 128–33Google Scholar, Pls. 63–4 and colour Pl. IV.
41 Note 4, supra.
42 Thierry, , “Ayvalı Kilise,” 134Google Scholar and Fig. 26. For the eschatological content of the Pentecost and its sometime interchangeability with the Judgement, see Kitzinger, E., “The Mosaics of the Cappella Palatina at Palermo,” Art Bulletin, XXXI, 1969, 278Google Scholar.
43 P. 59, supra.
44 Both Peter and Paul are separated from the Deêsis by a triad of angels. But no such celestial creatures stand behind the apostles either here or in the vestibule of Old Tokalı. The conventions according to which Paul was incorporated in representations of the Ascension and Pentecost at which, of course, he was not present according to the text, are analysed by Jerphanion, , “Quels sont les douze apôtres dans l'iconographie chrétienne?” La voix des monuments I, 1930, 189–200Google Scholar.
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48 Églises rupestres I, 1, 265Google Scholar.
49 Ibid., 263, note 1. These cuttings are clearly shown in Planches I, Pl. 67, 2.
50 The cutting from east to west correponds to the order of painting noted by Epstein, who observes that the westernmost medallion at the vault's apex is smaller than its counterparts. The decoration of a church customarily proceeded from east to west: Mango, , Materials, 94Google Scholar.
51 Both Restle, , Byzantinische Wandmalerei I, 113Google Scholar, and Epstein argue, contra Jerphanion, that the vestibule was painted later—though probably not much later—than the church proper. However, they differ on the relative chronology of the phases of decoration involving the church, the vestibule and the arch that connects them. Restle, for example, distinguished even between the narrative scenes in the barrel vault of the Old Church and the saints on the wall below them.
52 Églises rupestres I, 1, 263–4Google Scholar.
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54 οὖτοι μόνοι τὸν ἑαυτῶν βίον ἐκμαγεῖον τῆς ἀποστολικῆς ἐποιήσαντο ἀρετῆς (De monastica exercitatione, IV). The entire passage is available in P.G. 79, 721D–724A. For the views of the Cappadocian fathers on monks as vehicles of God's charismata and as his athletes and champions, see Mathew, G. in Cambridge Medieval History, IV, 1, 1966, 57–8Google Scholar.
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