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98-464: The current monastery dates back to the 10th century, while tradition holds that the site had been used as a monastery since as early as the 5th century. Esphigmenou ranks eighteenth in the hierarchy of the Athonite monasteries and since the early 1970s has been embroiled in legal and ecclesiastical disputes. It is considered amongst the most conservative of the monastic houses on Mount Athos. In Greek,

196-469: A branch of art history , studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct from artistic style . The word iconography comes from the Greek εἰκών ("image") and γράφειν ("to write" or to draw ). A secondary meaning (based on a non-standard translation of

294-508: A collection of roughly 2,000 printed books, while 6,000 more are housed in another part of the monastery, on the second floor of the northern wing. The Holy Mountain is governed by the "Holy Community" (Ιερά Κοινότης) which consists of the representatives of the 20 Holy Monasteries, having as executive committee the four-membered "Holy Administration" (Ιερά Επιστασία), with the Protos (Πρώτος) being its head. Civil authorities are represented by

392-561: A fully formalized system of law. This plan was left unfinished, but the work of a second commission that met in Constantinople, assigned to collect all of the general legislations and bring them up to date, was completed; their collection was published as the Codex Theodosianus in 438. The law code of Theodosius II, summarizing edicts promulgated since Constantine, formed a basis for the law code of Emperor Justinian I ,

490-487: A large (3.05×2.80 m) part of Napoleon Bonaparte 's tent , which was donated to the monastery by Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople. The monks use this once a year, at the celebration of the Ascension of Christ, as a tent over the entrance of the catholicon. The so-called Cross of Pulcheria lies at the catholicon's altar, which also houses cases of holy relics and a very important Byzantine mosaic icon . The icon

588-661: A long dispute with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople . The dispute continues since a new "Esphigmenou brotherhood", was established. The monastic community of Mount Athos is under the direct spiritual jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch and all Athonite monks are canonically required to commemorate (Greek: να μνημονεύουν ) the Patriarch. However, since the 1970s, Esphigmenou, along with other Mt. Athos monasteries, had accused

686-515: A man in Christ, and the other rejected the title, based on God being eternal and thus could not be born. Nestorius' compromise, the title Christotokos ("birth-giver of Christ"), was rejected; he was accused of separating Christ's divine and human natures, resulting in "two Christs", in a doctrine later called Nestorianism . Nestorius was strongly opposed by Archbishop Cyril of Alexandria and eventually lost Theodosius's support. At Nestorius's request,

784-447: A man presented the emperor with an "apple huge beyond any exaggeration." The emperor thanked the man with 150 solidi , and promptly sent the apple to his wife as a present. Eudocia decided to give the apple to Paulinus, a friend of both her and the emperor. Paulinus, unknowing of where Eudocia had gotten the apple, thought it was fit for only the emperor, and gave it to him. Theodosius was suspicious, and asked Eudocia what she had done with

882-530: A monk on Athos and Esphigmenou's tradition has his having lived in a secluded cave there overlooking the sea, which is still shown to visitors, and he is commemorated on the feast for All Saints of Esphigmenou — that lies just across from the monastery. The monastery's treasury houses many important relics. The treasury, along with the monastery's library are temporarily housed over the catholicon's narthex. Among important cultural treasures, such as crosses, books, garments, etc., Esphigmenou has in its possession

980-769: A more scientific manner than the popular aesthetic approach of the time. These early contributions paved the way for encyclopedias , manuals, and other publications useful in identifying the content of art. Mâle's l'Art religieux du XIIIe siècle en France (originally 1899, with revised editions) translated into English as The Gothic Image, Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century has remained continuously in print. In early twentieth-century Germany , Aby Warburg (1866–1929) and his followers Fritz Saxl (1890–1948) and Erwin Panofsky (1892–1968) elaborated

1078-460: A specialist on early medieval churches and another German émigré, extended iconographical analysis to architectural forms . The period from 1940 can be seen as one where iconography was especially prominent in art history. Whereas most iconographical scholarship remains highly dense and specialized, some analyses began to attract a much wider audience, for example Panofsky 's theory (now generally out of favour with specialists of that picture) that

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1176-512: A thousand years ago, though development, and some shifts in meaning, have occurred – for example, the old man wearing a fleece in conversation with Saint Joseph usually seen in Orthodox Nativities seems to have begun as one of the shepherds, or the prophet Isaiah , but is now usually understood as the "Tempter" ( Satan ). In both East and West, numerous iconic types of Christ , Mary and saints and other subjects were developed;

1274-708: A well-educated contemporary. The subtle layers of meaning uncovered by modern iconographical research in works of Robert Campin such as the Mérode Altarpiece , and of Jan van Eyck such as the Madonna of Chancellor Rolin and the Washington Annunciation lie in small details of what are on first viewing very conventional representations. When Italian painting developed a taste for enigma, considerably later, it most often showed in secular compositions influenced by Renaissance Neo-Platonism . From

1372-680: A wrathful deity but in few contexts is depicted in pacified mood. Although iconic depictions of, or concentrating on, a single figure are the dominant type of Buddhist image, large stone relief or fresco narrative cycles of the Life of the Buddha , or tales of his previous lives, are found at major sites like Sarnath , Ajanta , and Borobudor , especially in earlier periods. Conversely, in Hindu art, narrative scenes have become rather more common in recent centuries, especially in miniature paintings of

1470-434: Is a concern of other academic disciplines including Semiotics , Anthropology , Sociology , Media Studies , Communication Studies , and Cultural Studies . These analyses in turn have affected conventional art history, especially concepts such as signs in semiotics . Discussing imagery as iconography in this way implies a critical "reading" of imagery that often attempts to explore social and cultural values. Iconography

1568-415: Is also used within film studies to describe the visual language of cinema, particularly within the field of genre criticism . In the age of Internet, the new global history of the visual production of Humanity (Histiconologia ) includes History of Art and history of all kind of images or medias. Contemporary iconography research often draws on theories of visual framing to address such diverse issues as

1666-474: Is barely 0.15×0.07 m and depicts Christ in a standing position in great detail. The icon is surrounded by a silver frame that depicts the apostles , while holy relics are embedded on its lower side. The monastery also has a large collection of manuscripts. Its library houses 372 manuscripts, of which 75 are parchment , some bearing iconographic decoration. Famous among these is the renowned Minologion, coded #14, that bears 80 miniatures . The library also holds

1764-522: Is likely that his wife Eudocia encouraged him in this matter and was behind the establishment of the university; she had been born in Athens, where the Neoplatonic School of Athens was the last great center for pagan, classical learning. Eudocia was known for her great intellect. In 429, Theodosius appointed a commission to collect all of the laws since the reign of Constantine I , and create

1862-506: Is restricted by three small mountains, close to the sea. Another tradition attributes the name to a monk who either founded or restored the monastery, recounting that he used to wear a tight rope around his waist, so from him the monastery got its name "of the tightened". Athonite tradition attributes the foundation of the monastery to the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II and his sister St. Pulcheria during

1960-399: Is used to keep holy water . It was built in 1815 by the abbot Euthymios, at the site of an older similar structure that dated from the time of John V Palaiologos . The structure is roofed by a dome that is held up by eight marble columns, connected by sculpted marble metopes. The refectory is the oldest building in the monastery. It is a semi-detached building in the west wing, across from

2058-551: The Corpus Juris Civilis , in the following century. Eudocia reached the height of her influence with the emperor from 439 to 441, a period in which the emperor's sister Pulcheria was sidelined in favor of his wife. Eudocia's power was undone by a certain Phrygian apple in a story conveyed by the sixth-century historian John Malalas of Antioch. Malalas wrote that one day, the emperor was on his way to church when

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2156-604: The Catacombs of Rome show orans figures, portraits of Christ and some saints, and a limited number of "abbreviated representations" of biblical episodes emphasizing deliverance. From the Constantinian period monumental art borrowed motifs from Roman Imperial imagery, classical Greek and Roman religion and popular art – the motif of Christ in Majesty owes something to both Imperial portraits and depictions of Zeus . In

2254-543: The Franciscans , as were many other developments. Most painters remained content to copy and slightly modify the works of others, and it is clear that the clergy, by whom or for whose churches most art was commissioned, often specified what they wanted shown in great detail. The theory of typology , by which the meaning of most events of the Old Testament was understood as a "type" or pre-figuring of an event in

2352-596: The Late Antique period iconography began to be standardized, and to relate more closely to Biblical texts, although many gaps in the canonical Gospel narratives were plugged with matter from the apocryphal gospels . Eventually, the Church would succeed in weeding most of these out, but some remain, like the ox and ass in the Nativity of Christ . After the period of Byzantine iconoclasm iconographical innovation

2450-457: The Ottoman conquest . Many Byzantine emperors, such as John V Palaiologos , contributed to this prosperity, as did other Orthodox rulers such as Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan and Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković . This prosperity was however shrouded by constant disputes over land issues with the neighboring Vatopediou monastery , as well as by many pirate raids and two great fires that damaged

2548-462: The 'new' monastic community. In January 2017, eight monks of 'old' Esphigmenou monastic community, including abbot Methodios (Papalamprakopoulos), received jail sentences in-absentia from Thessaloniki Mixed Jury Criminal Court. The monks were charged with instigating violence and throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers following an incident in July 2013 in the Athonite capital of Karyes (relating to

2646-445: The 15th century religious painting gradually freed itself from the habit of following earlier compositional models, and by the 16th century ambitious artists were expected to find novel compositions for each subject, and direct borrowings from earlier artists are more often of the poses of individual figures than of whole compositions. The Reformation soon restricted most Protestant religious painting to Biblical scenes conceived along

2744-454: The 5th century; the remains of this early monastery, having been subsequently destroyed by a huge rock that fell from the nearby hills, can still be found 500 metres from the existing monastery. However, historical and archaeological evidence cannot safely confirm this tradition and, therefore, the precise time of the monastery's foundation, as well as its founders, cannot be positively identified. The evidence can however confirm that as early as

2842-552: The Civil Governor, appointed by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose main duty is to supervise the function of the institutions and the public order. Due to its irregular relations with the patriarchate of Constantinople, the current occupants of Esphigmenou Monastery had long not been represented in the "Holy Community", but presently the new canonical Esphigmenou brotherhood, which is still seeking access to

2940-601: The Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of being ecumenist and had refused to commemorate him. These complaints mainly consist of canon law prohibiting Orthodox from praying with heretics. The relationship between the current occupant monks of Esphigmenou Monastery and the Ecumenical Patriarchate has greatly deteriorated since 2002, when Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople declared them as being in schism from

3038-455: The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople reacted by declaring the schismatic monks inside Esphigmenou illegal, and on 3 October 2005 sanctioned the formation of a new Esphigmenou brotherhood, under the spiritual guidance of Archimandrite Chrysostomos Katsoulieris. In November 2005 Katsoulieris and his monks tried to take over the ‘old’ Esphigmenou konaki in Karyes (building 23), but failed and

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3136-519: The Greek and Russian equivalent terms) is the production or study of the religious images, called " icons ", in the Byzantine and Orthodox Christian tradition. This usage is mostly found in works translated from languages such as Greek or Russian, with the correct term being "icon painting". In art history , "an iconography" may also mean a particular depiction of a subject in terms of the content of

3234-555: The Holy Mountain. In January 2007, the district attorney of Thessaloniki pressed charges against the monks of Esphigmenou ("σχισματικοί ρασοφόροι") for "embezzlement" of over 150,000 euros and the estate rightfully belonging to the monastery. In 2014, Greek police took part in an operation to clear an apartment in Thessaloniki used as a hostel by the 'old' Esphigmenou monks. Police said one monk and five supporters were in

3332-535: The Huns. Anatolius negotiated a peace agreement; the Huns withdrew in exchange for humiliating concessions, including an annual tribute of 2,100 Roman pounds (c. 687 kg) of gold. In 447 the Huns went through the Balkans, destroying among others the city of Serdica ( Sofia ) and reaching Athyra ( Büyükçekmece ) on the outskirts of Constantinople. In 449, an Eastern Roman attempt to assassinate Attila failed, however

3430-607: The Index of Medieval Art (formerly Index of Christian Art) at Princeton (which has made a specialism of iconography since its early days in America). These are now being digitised and made available online, usually on a restricted basis. With the arrival of computing, the Iconclass system, a highly complex system for the classification of the content of images, with 40,000+ classification types, and 84,000 (14,000 unique) keywords,

3528-531: The Old and the New Testaments, is carved wood, covered with golden plating and is considered one of the most important post-Byzantine iconostases on Athos. The catholicon also has two chapels , a vestibule and a porch , added in 1845 by Ecumenical Patriarch Anthimus VI of Constantinople , a previous Esphigmenite monk. Outside the southeastern corner of the catholicon there is a font (Greek: Φιάλη ), that

3626-716: The Orthodox Church (using a rule that many believe was created to keep Roman Catholics out of the Holy Mountain). Since the Constitution of Greece prohibits schismatics (or Roman Catholics) from dwelling in Athos, the occupants of Esphigmenou were ordered by a Thessaloniki court to leave the monastery; however they refused to comply. The case was taken to the Supreme Court of Greece . The Holy Synod of

3724-656: The Romans and the Sassanids deteriorated in 420 due to the Persian persecution of Christians, and the Eastern empire declared war against the Sassanids (421–422); the war ended in an indecisive stalemate, when the Romans were forced to accept peace as the Huns menaced Constantinople . Peace was arranged in 422 without changes to the status quo . The later wars of Theodosius were generally less successful. The Eastern Empire

3822-783: The Virgin , parts of the Old Testament, and, increasingly, the lives of popular saints . Especially in the West, a system of attributes developed for identifying individual figures of saints by a standard appearance and symbolic objects held by them; in the East, they were more likely to identified by text labels. From the Romanesque period sculpture on churches became increasingly important in Western art, and probably partly because of

3920-517: The Western Emperor Honorius , Theodosius's uncle, died and the primicerius notariorum Joannes was proclaimed emperor. Honorius's sister Galla Placidia and her young son Valentinian , who had earlier fled to Constantinople to escape Honorius's hostility, sought Eastern assistance to claim the throne for Valentinian, and after some deliberation in 424 Theodosius opened the war against Joannes. On 23 October 425, Valentinian III

4018-524: The abbot Methodios and the monk Antypas for the 2013 attacks. The other six monks were sentenced to 9 years and 5 months (all prison sentences were slightly reduced from the 2017 ruling). On 8 July 2020, the Greek Supreme Court rejected the appeal filed by the 'old' Esphigmenou community against the decision of the Court of Appeals of Thessaloniki from June 17, that obliged them to hand over all

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4116-584: The affairs of the West after installing Valentinian III as his Western counterpart. When Roman Africa fell to the Vandals in 439, both Eastern and Western Emperors sent forces to Sicily , intending to launch an attack on the Vandals at Carthage, but this project failed. Seeing the borders without significant forces, the Huns and Sassanid Persia both attacked and the expeditionary force had to be recalled. During 443 two Roman armies were defeated and destroyed by

4214-555: The apartment in central Thessaloniki during the raid, which followed a court ruling for the eviction. Riot police cordoned off surrounding blocks to prevent other supporters from hindering the operation. The monks continued to remain inside the premises of Esphigmenou Monastery, under blockade, as shown in a 2016 travel documentary by British presenter Simon Reeve . The supply ship that supports Mt. Athos no longer stops at Esphigmenou, their bank accounts have been seized and nearly all of their property outside Mt. Athos has been taken over by

4312-580: The apple. "I ate it," she replied, and then Theodosius asked her to confirm her answer with an oath, which she did. Theodosius then presented her with the enormous apple. The emperor was enraged and suspected an affair between Eudocia and Paulinus; he had his lifelong friend Paulinus executed, and Eudocia asked to be exiled to Jerusalem. A separation ultimately occurred between the imperial couple around 443, with Eudocia's establishment in Jerusalem where she favored monastic Monophysitism . The situation between

4410-424: The catholicon was decorated with iconography in 1811 and the sanctuary in 1818 by the iconographers Veniamin, Zacharias and Makarios. The decoration was completed in 1841 with iconography of the narthex by the iconographers Ioasaf, Nikiforos, Gerasimos and Anthimos. The altar , the iconostasis , as well as other features of the temple, date back to this era. The iconostasis in particular, which depicts scenes from

4508-470: The catholicon. It is a rectangular building, renovated in 1810 by Abbot Euthymios. Its iconography, dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries still survives, albeit greatly damaged by the fires that the Ottoman soldiers lit to accommodate themselves during their stay in the monastery during the Greek revolutionary war. The monastery also has 13 chapels , eight inside the main complex and five outside. Among

4606-649: The collections of the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin and the German Marburger Index . These are available, usually on-line or on DVD . The system can also be used outside pure art history, for example on sites like Flickr . Religious images are used to some extent by all major religions, including both Indian and Abrahamic faiths, and often contain highly complex iconography, which reflects centuries of accumulated tradition. Secular Western iconography later drew upon these themes. Central to

4704-477: The construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople . He also presided over the outbreak of two great Christological controversies, Nestorianism and Eutychianism . Theodosius was born on 10 April 401 as the only son of Emperor Arcadius and his wife Aelia Eudoxia . On 10 January 402, at the age of 9 months, he was proclaimed co-a ugustus by his father, thus becoming the youngest to bear

4802-460: The council the "robber synod". Theodosius supported the outcome, but it was reversed by the Council of Chalcedon after his death in 450. Theodosius died on 28 July 450 as the result of falling off his horse. On 25 November, his sister Pulcheria married the newly elected emperor Marcian , a domesticus under the influential general Aspar . The eunuch Chrysaphius was executed shortly after by

4900-762: The definitions, and so the distinction made, varies. When referring to movies, genres are immediately recognizable through their iconography, motifs that become associated with a specific genre through repetition. Early Western writers who took special note of the content of images include Giorgio Vasari , whose Ragionamenti interpreted the paintings in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence . Ragionamenti reassuringly demonstrates that such works were difficult to understand even for well-informed contemporaries. Lesser known, though it had informed poets, painters and sculptors for over two centuries after its 1593 publication,

4998-403: The early 18th century, Bishop Gregory of Melenikon made donations to the monastery and eventually become one of its monks, undertaking a renovation of the monastery. Also, Bishop Daniel of Thessaloniki took care of the monastery's finances and, with the consent of the Athonite community and Patriarch Gerasimus III of Constantinople , made the monastery a cenobium . The relevant patriarchical edict

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5096-735: The emperor convened the First Council of Ephesus in 431 to allow Nestorius to contest Cyril's accusations of heresy. The council was divided between the Cyrillians and the Nestorians, with Theodosius ultimately favoring the Cyrillians. The council affirmed the title Theotokos and condemned Nestorius, who returned to his monastery in Syria and was eventually exiled to a remote monastery in Egypt. Constantinopolitan abbot Eutyches reignited

5194-648: The iconography and hagiography of Indian religions are mudra or gestures with specific meanings. Other features include the aureola and halo , also found in Christian and Islamic art, and divine qualities and attributes represented by asana and ritual tools such as the dharmachakra , vajra , chhatra , sauwastika , phurba and danda . The symbolic use of colour to denote the Classical Elements or Mahabhuta and letters and bija syllables from sacred alphabetic scripts are other features. Under

5292-421: The iconography of climate change created by different stakeholders, the iconography that international organizations create about natural disasters, the iconography of epidemics disseminated in the press, and the iconography of suffering found in social media. An iconography study in communication science analyzed stock photos used in press reporting to depict the social issue of child sexual abuse. Based on

5390-530: The identification of visual content) and "iconology" (the analysis of the meaning of that content), has not been generally accepted, though it is still used by some writers. In the United States , to which Panofsky immigrated in 1931, students such as Frederick Hartt , and Meyer Schapiro continued under his influence in the discipline. In an influential article of 1942, Introduction to an "Iconography of Mediaeval Architecture" , Richard Krautheimer ,

5488-411: The image, such as the number of figures used, their placing and gestures. The term is also used in many academic fields other than art history, for example semiotics , media studies , and archaeology, and in general usage, for the content of images, the typical depiction in images of a subject, and related senses. Sometimes distinctions have been made between iconology and iconography , although

5586-594: The imperial title up to that point . On 1 May 408, his father died and the seven-year-old boy became emperor of the Eastern half of the Roman Empire. The government was at first administered by the praetorian prefect Anthemius , under whose supervision the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople were constructed. According to Theophanes the Confessor and Procopius , the Sasanian king Yazdegerd I (399–420)

5684-513: The influence of tantra art developed esoteric meanings, accessible only to initiates; this is an especially strong feature of Tibetan art . The art of Indian Religions esp. Hindus in its numerous sectoral divisions is governed by sacred texts called the Aagama which describes the ratio and proportion of the icon, called taalmaana as well as mood of the central figure in a context. For example, Narasimha an incarnation of Vishnu though considered

5782-634: The inner chapels, the most important are the chapel of the Presentation of Mary and the chapel of the Archangels at the sides of the catholicon. The other inner chapels are distributed at various sites inside the monastery and contain no frescoes but house important icons . Of the outer chapels, the most notable is the chapel of Saint Anthony of Kiev , the founder of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra — St. Anthony's life states he became

5880-545: The lack of Byzantine models, became the location of much iconographic innovation, along with the illuminated manuscript , which had already taken a decisively different direction from Byzantine equivalents, under the influence of Insular art and other factors. Developments in theology and devotional practice produced innovations like the subject of the Coronation of the Virgin and the Assumption , Both associated with

5978-476: The late 10th or early 11th century the monastery existed. It is mentioned in at least three manuscripts. The monastery is referred to in a letter by Saint Paul of Xeropotamou dating from 1016. The will of the monk Demetrius of Chalki, dating from 1030, is signed by a monk who calls himself "Theoktistos monk and abbot of Esphigmenou Monastery". Finally, the monastery is mentioned in the second Typicon of Mount Athos in 1046. The monastery greatly prospered until

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6076-556: The later decades of his life, Chrysaphius rose to prominence as one of the emperor's favorites. He favored the pro-Monophysite policy, influenced the foreign policy towards the Huns , and was resented by Pulcheria, general Zeno , and ancient writers. According to Theodorus Lector , Theodosius was so unmindful of his surroundings that he accidentally signed his sister's note selling his wife, Eudocia, into slavery. However, some scholars argue that contrary to hostile ancient sources, Theodosius

6174-627: The life of, or aspect of, Christ or Mary was often reflected in art, and in the later Middle Ages came to dominate the choice of Old Testament scenes in Western Christian art. Whereas in the Romanesque and Gothic periods the great majority of religious art was intended to convey often complex religious messages as clearly as possible, with the arrival of Early Netherlandish painting iconography became highly sophisticated, and in many cases appears to be deliberately enigmatic, even for

6272-654: The lines of history painting , and after some decades the Catholic Council of Trent reined in somewhat the freedom of Catholic artists. Secular painting became far more common in the West from the Renaissance, and developed its own traditions and conventions of iconography, in history painting , which includes mythologies , portraits , genre scenes , and even landscapes , not to mention modern media and genres like photography , cinema , political cartoons , comic books . Renaissance mythological painting

6370-404: The lives of Krishna and Rama . Christian art features Christian iconography, prominently developed in the medieval era and renaissance , and is a prominent aspect of Christian media . Aniconism was rejected within Christian theology from the outset, and the development of early Christian art and architecture occurred within the first seven centuries after Jesus . Small images in

6468-400: The meaning of Christian images and architecture is closely linked to the content of biblical , liturgical and theological texts, which were usually considered authoritative by most patrons, artists and viewers. Technological advances allowed the building-up of huge collections of photographs, with an iconographic arrangement or index, which include those of the Warburg Institute and

6566-399: The monastery by using the name and seal of the Holy Monastery of Esphigmenou. Thus, they were illegally receiving economic benefits, not paying the taxes due. Monks of the Holy Mountain are exempt from the tax, but the squatter monks are not officially considered Athonites. A few days later, a Thessaloniki appeals court handed down a sentence of 17-years’ imprisonment and a fine of 600 euros for

6664-495: The monastery during the 14th century. According to manuscripts held in the monastery's collection, the pirates posed a serious threat to the monastery because the sea near it is usually calm compared to the seas around the rest of the Athonite peninsula. Because of these reasons the monastery was eventually ruined and practically deserted which allowed the nearby monasteries of Hilandar and Zograf to grab various portions of land from it, which led to further legal disputes. However,

6762-499: The monastery for many years. During the Greek War of Independence , the monastery, being the northernmost on the peninsula, suffered gravely from the Ottoman armies that ravaged Mount Athos. However, during this period, it also experienced some degree of prosperity. During the Macedonian Struggle , the monastery supported the Greek guerillas in their struggle against the Bulgarian komitadjis . Esphigmenou along with other Mt. Athos monasteries, sketes and monks, had been involved in

6860-419: The monastery is a rectangular wall which forms a spacious inner courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard lies the catholicon surrounded by the wings that house the monks' cells, the guesthouse and the refectory. The catholicon, which is dedicated to the Ascension of Christ , was built between 1806 and 1810 by the abbot Theodoritos on the site of an earlier catholicon and in the manner of Athonite churches. It

6958-426: The monastery land, seats a representative. Theodosius II Theodosius II ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Θεοδόσιος Theodosios ; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450) was Roman emperor from 408 to 450. He was proclaimed Augustus as an infant and ruled as the Eastern Empire 's sole emperor after the death of his father, Arcadius , in 408. His reign was marked by the promulgation of the Theodosian law code and

7056-493: The monastery managed to recover eventually, as evidenced by a manuscript dated from 1569 that tells of 51 monks working for its reestablishment. In 1655, Czar Alexis I of Russia gave the monks permission to travel throughout his lands every five years to raise funds for the monastery. During the same period the rulers of the Danubian Principalities also made significant contributions to the monastery. During

7154-409: The monastery's name literally means tightened , and there are conflicting traditions regarding the origin of the name. One attributes it to the fact that the monastery is built on a stretch of land, tightened by three surrounding hills and the sea. John Comnenus, a 17th-century metropolitan of Drystra, wrote in his book Proskynetarion tou Agiou Orous tou Athonos : It is called Esphigmenou because it

7252-708: The new imperial couple. Like Constantine I and several of his successors, he was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles , in a porphyry sarcophagus that was described in the 10th century by Constantine VII in the De Ceremoniis . Saint Right-Believing Theodosius II the Younger is commemorated in Eastern Orthodox Church on 29 July. Iconography Iconography , as

7350-606: The nineteenth century in the works of scholars such as Adolphe Napoleon Didron (1806–1867), Anton Heinrich Springer (1825–1891), and Émile Mâle (1862–1954) all specialists in Christian religious art, which was the main focus of study in this period, in which French scholars were especially prominent. They looked back to earlier attempts to classify and organise subjects encyclopedically like Cesare Ripa and Anne Claude Philippe de Caylus 's Recueil d'antiquités égyptiennes, étrusques, grècques, romaines et gauloises as guides to understanding works of art, both religious and profane, in

7448-512: The number of named types of icons of Mary, with or without the infant Christ, was especially large in the East, whereas Christ Pantocrator was much the commonest image of Christ. Especially important depictions of Mary include the Hodegetria and Panagia types. Traditional models evolved for narrative paintings, including large cycles covering the events of the Life of Christ , the Life of

7546-569: The occupation of the 'old' konaki building). The incident in question occurred when court bailiffs arrived to the Esphigmenou administrative offices in Karyes on July 29, 2013, to evict the schismatic monks, who responded by throwing three Molotov cocktails and an explosive device. Abbot Methodios and monk Antypas, the main aggressor, both received twenty-year sentences, effective immediately. The other six monks were charged as accomplices, receiving sentences of ten years and four months. The sentence

7644-550: The occupied territories both on and outside of Mt. Athos to the new Esphigmenou brotherhood, currently based in the Athonite capital of Karyes. On July 23 police officers arrived at the monastery's dependencies in Ierissos and in Nea Roda and forced the monks to leave. As of 2022, the conflict is ongoing, with the 'old' Esphigmenou monks still occupying the monastery buildings and the administration building in Karyes. Banners with

7742-404: The police had to be invoked to separate the parties. On Sunday, October 22, 2006, Patriarch Bartholomew himself placed the “foundation stone” of the new and official konaki of Esphigmenou. This is a new building near the old konaki (nr 23A). Temporary, until the dispute is resolved, this konaki will be the (official) monastery itself. For this event a heavy police force was mobilized but the ceremony

7840-544: The practice of identification and classification of motifs in images to using iconography as a means to understanding meaning. Panofsky codified an influential approach to iconography in his 1939 Studies in Iconology , where he defined it as "the branch of the history of art which concerns itself with the subject matter or meaning of works of art, as opposed to form," although the distinction he and other scholars drew between particular definitions of "iconography" (put simply,

7938-446: The publications of Erwin Panofsky, has been critically discussed since the mid-1950s, in part also strongly ( Otto Pächt , Svetlana Alpers ). However, among the critics, no one has found a model of interpretation that could completely replace that of Panofsky. As regards the interpretation of Christian art , that Panofsky researched throughout his life, the iconographic interest in texts as possible sources remains important, because

8036-547: The relations between the two did not deteriorate further. Theodosius frequently attempted to resolve doctrinal controversies regarding the nature of Christ . During a visit to Syria , Theodosius met the monk Nestorius , a renowned preacher. Nestorius was appointed as archbishop of Constantinople in 428 and became involved in a Christology dispute between two groups. One group called the Virgin Mary Theotokos ("birth-giver of God"), based on God being born

8134-427: The slogan Orthodoxia i Thanatos (Ορθοδοξία ή Θάνατος, "Orthodoxy or Death") can still be seen at the monastery. As of July 2024, the police has been preparing an operation to evict the monks. The monastery is home to various important structures. Although the monastery was founded no later than the 11th century, the current structures were built mainly during the first half of the 19th century. The general outline of

8232-478: The theological dispute almost twenty years later by asserting the Monophysite view that Christ's divine and human nature were one. Eutyches was condemned by Archbishop Flavian of Constantinople but supported by the powerful Dioscurus of Alexandria , Cyril's successor. The Second Council of Ephesus in 449 restored Eutyches and deposed Flavian. The Chalcedonians opposed the decision, with Pope Leo I calling

8330-529: The writing on the rear wall in the Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck turned the painting into the record of a marriage contract. Holbein 's The Ambassadors has been the subject of books for a general market with new theories as to its iconography, and the best-sellers of Dan Brown include theories, disowned by most art historians, on the iconography of works by Leonardo da Vinci . The method of iconology , which had developed following

8428-462: Was Cesare Ripa 's emblem book Iconologia . Gian Pietro Bellori , a 17th-century biographer of artists of his own time, describes and analyses, not always correctly, many works. Lessing 's study (1796) of the classical figure Amor with an inverted torch was an early attempt to use a study of a type of image to explain the culture it originated in, rather than the other way round. Iconography as an academic art historical discipline developed in

8526-488: Was appealed by the defendants. In April 2019, the monks inhabiting the buildings of Esphigmenou Monastery, considered squatters by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Sacred Community of Mt. Athos, were sentenced to 6-months imprisonment with a 3-year suspension for fraud against the Greek state. The schismatic monks were illegally exempted from the value-added tax and pretending to be the regular administration of

8624-555: Was appointed by Arcadius as the guardian of Theodosius, whom Yazdegerd treated as his own child, sending a tutor to raise him and warning that enmity toward him would be taken as enmity toward Persia. Though this story is assumed to be inconclusive, Antiochus , a eunuch of Persian origin, became a tutor and an influence on Theodosius. He also became praepositus sacri cubiculi later but Theodosius dismissed him when he reached his adulthood. In 414, Theodosius's older sister Pulcheria vowed perpetual virginity along with her sisters. She

8722-562: Was completed calmly and peacefully. Esphigmenou again gained global attention in December 2006 when members of the new brotherhood tried to force their way into the monastery's offices in Karyes (in the "old" konaki at nr 23). In the ensuing clashes seven monks were severely injured: four of the ‘official’ monks and three of the schismatic monks. All were brought to hospital by the police outside Athos. The last three were not allowed to return to

8820-433: Was consecrated by Patriarch Gregory V in 1811. The construction of the catholicon was greatly aided by personal donations from Bishop Ignatius of Kassandreia. The temple itself is spacious and majestic and bears eight domes on its lead-covered roof, the central dome being the largest. The marble used for its construction was transported to Athos from Tinos , the place of origin of the church's architect, Paul. The nave of

8918-663: Was developed in the Netherlands as a standard classification for recording collections, with the idea of assembling huge databases that will allow the retrieval of images featuring particular details, subjects or other common factors. For example, the Iconclass code "71H7131" is for the subject of " Bathsheba (alone) with David's letter", whereas "71" is the whole " Old Testament " and "71H" the "story of David ". A number of collections of different types have been classified using Iconclass, notably many types of old master print ,

9016-607: Was in theory reviving the iconography of its Classical Antiquity , but in practice themes like Leda and the Swan developed on largely original lines, and for different purposes. Personal iconographies, where works appear to have significant meanings individual to, and perhaps only accessible by, the artist, go back at least as far as Hieronymous Bosch , but have become increasingly significant with artists like Goya , William Blake , Gauguin , Picasso , Frida Kahlo , and Joseph Beuys . Iconography, often of aspects of popular culture ,

9114-557: Was installed as emperor of the West with the assistance of the magister officiorum Helion , with his mother taking an influential role. To strengthen the ties between the two parts of the empire, Theodosius's daughter Licinia Eudoxia was betrothed to Valentinian. She married Valentinian III later on 29 October 437, and became empress of the western portion of the empire. Theodosius is often seen by both ancient and modern historians as being constantly pushed around by his sister, wife, and eunuchs, particularly Chrysaphius among them. In

9212-621: Was more in control of his government. Others view that the government was controlled mostly by civilian officials, and not by a particular individual. Among ancient and medieval writers, Monophysites had a favorable opinion of Theodosius. In 425, Theodosius founded the University of Constantinople with 31 chairs (15 in Latin and 16 in Greek). Among the subjects were law, philosophy, medicine, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music and rhetoric. It

9310-492: Was plagued by raids by the Huns . Early in Theodosius II's reign Romans used internal Hun discord to overcome Uldin 's invasion of the Balkans. The Romans strengthened their fortifications and in 424 agreed to pay 350 pounds of gold to encourage the Huns to remain at peace with the Romans. In 433 with the rise of Attila and Bleda to unify the Huns, the payment was doubled to 700 pounds. Theodosius became engaged with

9408-414: Was proclaimed augusta , and acted as a guardian of her brother. The guardianship ended when he reached his majority, but it is assumed that his sister continued to exert an influence on him until his marriage. In June 421, Theodosius married Aelia Eudocia , a woman of Athenian origin. The two had a daughter named Licinia Eudoxia , another named Flaccilla, and possibly a son called Arcadius. In 423,

9506-452: Was published in 1797 by Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople , who also rebuilt the southern part of the monastery that had been ruined. A series of competent abbots (Acacius, Euthymius, Theodoritus, and Agathangellus) greatly renovated and expanded the monastery, to the point where the current structures date almost exclusively from their time. The successor of Agathangellus, Lucas, founded an iconographic school, which did great service to

9604-596: Was regarded as unhealthy, if not heretical, in the Eastern Church, though it still continued at a glacial pace. More than in the West, traditional depictions were often considered to have authentic or miraculous origins , and the job of the artist was to copy them with as little deviation as possible. The Eastern church also never accepted the use of monumental high relief or free-standing sculpture, which it found too reminiscent of paganism. Most modern Eastern Orthodox icons are very close to their predecessors of

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