Valentina Cantone

University of Padua, Italy

I propose a critical survey on the mosaic of the main porch of San Marco in Venice, in terms of style, chronology and conservation.
The first part of the paper focuses on the historiographical tradition, based on the study of Otto Demus, published thirty years ago.
The second part of the paper discusses the recent publications which confirm the connection between the mosaic of the main porch of San Marco, The Last Judgment of Torcello, the glass tesserae from the church of San Nicola di Lido. All this studies demonstrate the relation between the mosaics in the Venetian lagoon and the mosaic decoration of the Katholikon of Hosios Loukas, in Greece.
In the third part I will talk about the new possibilities offered by the technical analysis of glass mosaics and by the mortar dating, already used in the study of Byzantine mosaics in North Italy, with a destructive methodology.
As case-study I will propose the methodology used in the laboratories of the University of Padua during the last ten years on the 6th century mosaics of Padua and Vicenza (San Prosdocimo Chapel and Santa Maria Mater Domini Chapel), showing the results of the non-destructive methods of technical analysis realized.

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Elena Lavrentyeva

The State Institute for Art Studies, Russia

Most of the Christian churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem were rebuilt or renovated by the middle of the 12th century. Throughout the century the Crusader church building was in search of an image of the Christian temple: its configuration and design, exterior and interior were changing step by step.
Christian temples make Jerusalem the main center of Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century. It was the place of formation of workshops belonging to different architectural traditions.
The purpose of this work is to identify the traditions of the Christian East and Romanesque West in the architectural forms of the churches of Jerusalem. It helps us to define the architectural features of monuments rebuilt in the first half of the 12th century. Comparison of the first crusader’s church of St. Anne with other churches — Holy Sepulcher, St. Elena, St. James, etc. — can allow establishing similarities and distinctions of architectural traditions.
These monuments will be mainly investigated from the point of view of formation of a local architectural style. In spite of the fact that this question was considered in scholarly literature (R. Krauthaimer, R. Ousterhout, J. Folda, D. Pringle, etc.), so far it has not been an object of a special research.
The characteristic of the architectural tradition of Crusades will allow us to formulate new series of questions connected with the architectural heritage of this region in the 12th century.

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Olga Shashina

Moscow Kremlin Museums, Russia

Metrical ekphrastic epigrams are a bright phaenomenon of Byzantine art. They are known to be written in the dodecasyllabic verse. This equivalent of the antique iambic trimeter was strictly regulated (obligatory caesura and stress on the penultimate syllable of the metric foot), allowed the authors to rhyme words with different quantity of syllables and highly appreciated for harmonious sounding and eurhythmy (εὐρυθμία).
We would speak about five artworks adorned with ekphrastic epigrams from the Byzantine collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums: four of them belong to the mid-Byzantine period, one comes from the late-Byzantine time.
The so-called Staurotheke of Philotheus is dated to the 11th–12th centuries (inv. no МЗ–1141). Crossed sequence of the epigram’s phrases is noteworthy. The name of the customer who ordered the reliquary — someone called John — is placed left at the foot of Golgotha, which symbolizes worship of Christ the Saviour. The sequence of the inscription symbolically repeats the prayer’s crossing. Particularly interesting is lexical and semantical analysis of the words’ combination ‘ζωηφόρον πέφυκε τοῦ σταυροῦ ξύλον’ (verbatim: ‘grew up the life-bringing stick/beam of cross’), which is a direct allusion to the legend of the True Cross.
The reliquary of St. Demetrios of Thessaloniki shaped as a ciborium (inv. no МЗ–1148) was created in Constantinople in 1059–1067. The two inscriptions form a brilliant dodecasyllabic verse, telling us the story of execution of the piece upon the order of a mistographos named John. This artwork ‘telling its story’ gives us a showy example of pious ‘theatre’ in Byzantine court culture. So does the 12th century silver reliquary of St Barbara (inv. no МР-1750/4).
The epigram on the frame of the relics of St. Dorotheos of the 10th–13th centuries (inv. no МР–1757/3) has particular poetic value. The absence of artistic decoration and paleographic data makes the exact dating of the piece quite difficult. However, the correctness and high quality of the verse allow us to link it with a large cultural centre.
A small 15th century turquoise gem with the Crucifixion (inv. no МР–6076) bears a reminiscence from the Speech of Theophila in the work of St. Methodius of Patara “Symposium, or on Virginity” (Oratio II cap. IV–V), created following the Plato’s “Symposion.”

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Inesa Danielyan

Yerevan State University, Armenia

One of the most remarkable names of Armenian medieval art is Momik. He was an architect, sculptor, miniaturist and created carved cross-stones, stately churches and illustrated manuscripts. In each of these areas he acted as an innovator and a consummate master of his craft. The art of Momik has been studied by many scholars. Still there are some unknown aspects of the art of Momik that should be studied in order to get a more complete picture of the artistic heritage of Momik and of the 14th century Armenian art in general. Research in the miniatures of the artist gives new information about transcultural and political interrelations. The iconographic and stylistic analysis can reveal the influence of Cilician miniature painting, as well as that of Byzantine and Western Christian art. The cross-stones of Momik are not only exceptional in the mastery of execution, but also display extra­ordinary wealth of iconographic programs. The architectural monuments are characterized by their constructive and unique artistic solutions.
The lords of Syunik region — Orbelian princes — patronized and sponsored master Momik, which was a new phenomenon in the culture of medieval Armenia. This feature, as well as his active work and multifaceted talent manifested in different areas of art call to mind some associations with the masters of the Renaissance.

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