Performativity of Old Testament Verses: Proverbs (9:1-6) in the Liturgy and Church Decoration in the Late Medieval Balkans

The personified Divine Wisdom building a house for herself was understood—in line with the Byzantine teaching about the connection between the Old and New Testament —as the incarnate God dwelling in the flesh. The attempt to trace and define the performative capacities of the Old Testament verses (Proverbs 9:1–6) in monumental decoration involves the consideration of the complexity of the relationship between painted text and images in a ritual setting. To a much greater extent than other painted monuments of the Palaiologan era, the frescoes of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Serbian churches display a subtle and polysemic relationship between imagery and text, which was adopted from Byzantine culture and further developed in the Serbian milieu.

In attending to the performativity of Old Testament verses (Proverbs 9:1–6), the following discussion is concerned with the questions of the relationship between the theological, liturgical-hymnographic sources and the manners in which Wisdom imagery was formulated in church decoration in the Late Medieval Serbian lands. We will explore monumental representations of Divine Wisdom and Wisdom’s Feast in Serbian churches within the wider artistic, religious, and cultural context of the Late Medieval Balkans.

The Byzantine liturgy sees in Solomon’s famous verses on Wisdom (Book of Proverbs, 9:1–6) an Old Testament announcement of two great mysteries—the Incarnation of the Divine Logos and the Eucharist. Both interpretations—Christological and Eucharistic—were reflected in the contents of the painted decoration of the Late Medieval Balkan churches. Тhe liturgical usage of the text reflects the Greek patristic legacy and the well-defined theological interpretation of the dogma of the Incarnation and celebration of the Virgin as the temple and dwelling of the Divine Wisdom.

A verse from the Old Testament Book of Proverbs (9:1) was read as a paroimia at Vespers marking the feast days of the Nativity of the Mother of God, Annunciation and Dormition. [1] The same quotation was also read as part of paroimia at Vespers on Christ’s feasts—Mid-Pentecost and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. [2] Finally, there is another liturgical context where Proverbs 9 makes an appearance. The verses 9, 1–5 are included in the Service of the Consecration of a Church (ἐγκαίνια) [3] prescribed in Greek and Serbian medieval euchologia. [4] The system of prayers during the consecration of a liturgical space reflects the ancient theological belief about Solomon’s temple as an Old Testament prefiguration of the Christian Church established by the Savior.

The content of Proverbs (9:1–5) performed at the liturgy also took a visual form of representation in monumental painting. In line with different liturgical contexts, the first verse from Solomon’s Book of Proverbs accompanies the figure of this Old Testament king and prophet within several thematic ensembles, some of which are an integral part of monumental church decoration in Medieval Balkans. It is often written on a scroll in the hand of Solomon, who is invariably depicted among the prophets in the domes of Byzantine and Serbian churches churches (Mother of God Peribleptos in Ohrid, 1294/1295, Figure 1; Mother of God Hodegetria at the Patriarchate of Peć, between 1335 and 1337, Figure 2; Markov Manastir, 1376/1377; Ravanica, ca. 1385). [5] Regarding the prophet cycles of the Palaiologan era, it bears emphasizing that the selection of Old Testament figures and prophetic messages was based on the liturgical practices and theological intricacies of this period. The text on Solomon’s scroll belongs to the quotations from Old Testament stories that explain the meaning and mystery of Christ’s incarnation.

In addition, his image with a scroll quoting verse 9:1 is often found in the festal scene of the Annunciation (Mileševa, between 1220 and 1227; Sopoćani, ca. 1365, Figure 3; St. Achilleos in Arilje, 1296; Markov Manastir, Figure 4 and 5). [6]

The historicity of Christ’s incarnation is indicated through the joint representation of David and Solomon—both kings of Judah, prophets, and forebears of the Lord. [7] A deeper conceptual connection with the Annunciation is suggested by the texts on their scrolls (Solomon, Prov. 9:1; David, Ps. 44,11), which begin to appear from the tenth century onward and become far more frequent later. [8]

In the next stage of Byzantine liturgy, in parallel with the Christological one, the Eucharistic interpretation of Proverbs (9:1–6) emerged, which sees the Old Testament allegory about the feast of Holy Wisdom as the prefiguration of the institution of the Eucharist, the most important ritual foundation of the earthly church. The enriching of the liturgy of the Great Church of Constantinople with the poetic hymnody of Palestinian monastic rites, among them poetic pieces of Holy Thursday, is assumed to have been an important process in the history of the liturgy, which started in the ninth century and was only completed in the twelfth. [9] The iconographic response to this liturgical overtone, however, did not appear before the late thirteenth century and the Palaiologan era that brought the expansion of painted programs and a more elaborate arsenal of Old Testament symbolic images. Particularly distinctive for its thematic and iconographic characteristics is the composition Wisdom has built her house, whose iconographic form was directly inspired by the verses in Proverbs (9:1–6). [10] The theme of personified Divine Wisdom inviting people to accompany her to a Feast appeared in Byzantine art in the late thirteenth century (Mother of God Peribleptos in Ohrid, 1294 /1295), (Figure 6) [11] and further developed in the Serbian artistic milieu (Gračanica,ca. 1320, Figure 7; [12] katholikon of Hilandar Monastery, 1321, restored 1804; [13] Dečani Monastery, Church of Christ Pantokrator, ca. 1343 [14] , Figure 8), with some examples also found in Russia (Dormition Church in Volotovo near Novgorod, 1363) [15] and Georgia (Zarzma, middle of the fourteenth century). [16]

This group of paintings shares the same visual articulation of the Old Testament poetic image—Holy Wisdom sitting at a table, in some cases in the form of a three-headed figure as the personification of the three hypostases of the Holy Trinity, surrounded by servants in front of the Temple of Seven Pillars.

Unique in its extensiveness and narrativity is the Holy Wisdom theme at Dečani, which unfolds in four episodes. [17] The last two are particularly notable: they illustrate the fifth verse, “Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixedˮ and show angels giving people communion with bread and wine. [18]

However, two further examples that can be added to this brief survey are particularly noteworthy—the Transfiguration parekklesion in Hrelja’s Tower of the Rila Monastery (1334/1335), (Figure 9a, 9b) [19] and Markov Manastir near Skopje (1376/1377), (Figure 10), [20] where the abstract theological thought on Holy Wisdom, inspired by Proverbs 9:1–6, was given not only a considerably different but also a much more complex iconographic elaboration in comparison with the other examples. Moving away from the literal illustration of Old Testament verses, painters and commissioners of the frescoes in Rila and later in the Church of St. Demetrios in Markov Manastir designed an original ensemble that draws on the poetic hymnody of Holy Thursday and theological treatises. These two painted programs should be seen as the ultimate examples of the very close ties between liturgy and symbolical-metaphorical imagery.

In 1334/1335, one of the most prominent nobles under the Serbian king Dušan, protosebastos Hrelja, built and frescoed a tower (pyrgos) at the Monastery of St. John of Rila, the cultic center of this important Balkan hermit and saint, which had become part of the Serbian state after the Battle of Velbuzhd (1330). [21] Above the naos of the Transfiguration parekklesion on the upper story of the tower, in a blind dome, there is the Old Testament allegory about the feast of Holy Wisdom (Figure 9). At the center of the composition is Holy Wisdom on a rainbow in a mandorla surrounded by seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the form of seven semi-nude winged figures, and in the register below the Table of Wisdom approached by groups of bishops (Figure 11) and martyrs on one side and apostles and Old Testament kings on the other. In the last group, Solomon stands out in imperial ornate, pointing to Holy Wisdom in glory above him with one hand and holding a scroll with a quote from Proverbs (9:1) in the other (Figure 12). The remaining verses (9:3–5) are written on three scrolls arranged on the north, south and east side of the composition’s lower segment. [22]

More than four decades later, another relevant fresco was painted above the narthex of the Church of St. Demetrios at Markov Manastir, an endowment of the Serbian kings Vukašin and Marko Mrnjavčević (1376/1377). [23] The blind dome and upper walls of the narthex display a complex composition whose programmatic focus is on Christ as the embodiment of the Wisdom of the Word of God (Η ΕΝΥΠΟСΤΑΤΟС ΤƔ Θ(ΕΟ)Υ / ‹ΛΟΓΟΥ СΟΦΙΑ›), (Figures 10 and 13). God the Son in glory is shown seated on a red rainbow arc and blessing with both hands. Christ’s youthful image originally was surrounded with yet another, lozenge-shaped mandorla. His star-studded aureole is carried by seven winged figures personifying the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit (Is. 11:2), defined by inscriptions as: the Spirit of Knowledge, the Spirit of Counsel, the Spirit of Fortitude, the Spirit of Piety, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Understanding, and the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord (Figure 14). Quite expectedly, the iconographic emphasis is on the symbolism of the Temple of Wisdom, and so an eighth figure, instead of a personification of the Spirit of the Lord, represents the Old Testament prophet and king Solomon with a scroll inscribed with a quotation from the first verse of the ninth chapter of the Book of Proverbs (Figure 15). Between the personifications of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and King Solomon are eight six-winged seraphim shown in profile. They are stepping forward with their arms extended prayerfully towards the figure before them. The third segment of the composition, arranged around the ring enclosing the personifications of the Gifts, the seraphim, and Solomon, contains, on the east side, a table approached by the righteous grouped into nine choirs (the Old Testament prophets, male and female martyrs, nuns and ancestors, and, on the south side, the apostles, bishops, monks, and deacons) (Figure 16). An angel clad in a chiton and himation stands at either end of the table, pointing to the bread and wine on the table with one hand and inviting the saints with the other. The images of the chalice with wine and the paten with bread on the table used to be more visible, and so was the fragmentarily preserved inscription with a quotation from the Book of Proverbs (9:1–5, Figure 17). The fourth, and last, segment of the composition occupies the upper register of the walls. Below the choirs of the righteous and the table of Holy Wisdom, there are on the east and west walls sixteen figures of martyrs approaching the immortal table from the north and south sides in processions of four. Based on the surviving inscriptions, the figures on the west wall are known to represent: Thyrsos, Leukios, Philemon and Apollonius (south group) (Figure 18); and on the east wall, Manuel, Sabel, and Ismael (north group). If we take common origin as a clue to the identity of the fourth martyr in the latter group, then he may be St. James the Persian. An example is provided by Dečani, where the four martyrs are portrayed together. The group of martyrs on the north side of the west wall is difficult to identify without inscriptions and specific iconographic traits, and the question of their identity remains open. By contrast, four youths with short curly hair and caps on their heads on the south side are easy to identify as three Jewish boys, Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, and the prophet Daniel. [24]

Although the two examples are highly original visual representations of the Wisdom allegory, the basic iconographic concept and some segments of their compositions are nonetheless indebted to earlier iconography. [25] The image of Christ in Glory used elements of the imagery of theophany. As in the Ascension or the Second Coming, Christ seated on a rainbow—the Lord’s throne—is carried and glorified by heavenly powers. [26] A considerable similarity in idea and iconography is also observable in Old Testament theophanies of the pre-incarnate, eternally young Logos surrounded by Uncreated Light (the Visions of the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, Christ the Angel of the Great Council). [27] The choirs of the righteous in particular may be traced to the iconography of the Last Judgment, where they were painted under the influence of John Chrysostom’s Second Homily on the Cross. [28] Finally, the close visual-verbal interaction—long inscriptions that are direct quotations from the Proverbs—was a routine element of the so-called narrative mode in Late Byzantine painting. [29]

The compositions in Hrelja’s Tower at the Rila Monastery and in Markov Manastir have their closest parallels in the later examples of Holy Wisdom with the personifications of the Gifts of Holy Spirit, those in the katholikons of Morača (after 1617) [30] and Nikolje (1697). [31] While on the whole both examples of the Old Testament allegory of Wisdom employ the same iconographic strategy and language, subtle differences between Rila and Markov Manastir can be detected. While the older iconographic solution of the personified Divine Wisdom was retained at Rila, in Markov Manastir, the image and the accompanying inscription emphasize the representation of Christ as the embodiment of the Wisdom of the Word of God. Further, it is important to note that, at Rila and Markov Manastir, the seven pillars of Solomon’s temple, shown in the group of Wisdom has built her house images as painted architecture, acquired the form of personified Gifts of the Holy Spirit, albeit based on different formal models. This iconographic transformation of the theme of Wisdom’s Feast reveals a deeper conceptual link with Isaiah’s prophecy about the eight Gifts of the Holy Spirit that rest on the tree of Jesse (Is. 11:1–2). [32] However, the content of this text would not keep its original form in later interpretations. Let us recall the influential view of John Chrysostom, who—drawing on the prophet’s quote (Is. 11:1–2)—speaks of the seven pillars of Solomon’s temple that represent the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. [33] Besides theological texts, the symbolism of the temple of Wisdom would also become dominant in iconography, which, as we have seen, began to deviate from the basic literary source. [34] Nonetheless, it should be noted that, in the iconographic structure of the composition in Markov Manastir, Solomon’s figure, as the replacement of the Spirit of the Lord, is grouped in the segment of the composition with the personifications of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, while in Rila it belongs to the thematic group of the righteous—the Old Testament kings. The direct link with the prophetic verses (Is. 11:1–2), however, survived in the later period, as evidenced by the Feast of Holy Wisdom in Morača, where the composition includes the figure of the prophet Isaiah with the above-mentioned quote. [35] Finally, the Feast of Holy Wisdom in Markov Manastir has richer thematic contents than the older example. The group of sixteen martyrs approaching the immortal table in processions, their hands raised in supplication—the iconographic mark of the apostles approaching to receive Holy Communion—additionally underlines the Eucharistic symbolism of the image.

The Byzantine patristic tradition identified Holy Wisdom with Christ and the Temple of Solomon with the future church founded by the Savior. [36] This dogmatically formulated interpretation emerged quite early on, in a work attributed to St. Anastasios of Sinai (d. 700 CE) and his disciples. This was a detailed explanation of chapter 9 of the Book of Proverbs within a corpus of texts offering various spiritual counsels in the form of questions and answers (έρωταποκρισείς). [37] Under no. 42, in reply to a certain Hippolytus of Rome, the verses on Wisdom are interpreted as a series of Old Testament prefigurations—the seven pillars represent the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit (Is. 11: 2–3); the sacrifices refer to the prophets who gave their lives for the truth; wine dissolved in a cup (Mother of God) is the divine and earthly nature of Christ; the servants are identified as the apostles sent by Christ to preach their knowledge of the Lord; and the invitation to the Table of Wisdom is extended to those who have yet to feel the power of the Holy Spirit. [38]

This exegetic text reached the Slav lands quite early. It was translated into Bulgarian in the tenth century, but because the miscellany of Simeon I, in which it was included, has not survived, [39] it is known to us through the earliest copy of the Bulgarian original, transcribed in the Russian milieu and known as Izbornik Sviatoslava, 1073 (Gosudarstvennyi Istoricheskii muzei/GIM/State Historical Museum, Moscow, no. 1043). [40] The rich, dominantly Russian manuscript tradition spanning from the eleventh to the eighteenth century suggests that this encyclopedic miscellany enjoyed popularity, [41] and it is believed to have considerably influenced the shaping of the iconography of Holy Wisdom in Russian art of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. [42] It should be noted that the earliest transcriptions of the Izbornik include manuscripts in the Serbian redaction—Hilandar (no. 24, thirteenth century) [43] and Bucharest (Romanian Academy of Sciences, mss. slav. nos. 72 and 310, late thirteenth–early fourteenth century). [44]

Under the aegis of the Athonite manuscript tradition, the work of Dionysios the Areopagite (late fifth–sixth century), which regained popularity in the theological dispute between Gregory Palamas and Barlaam (fourteenth century), was also translated into Serbian. [45] The writings of Dionysios the Areopagite translated by inok Isaiah were widely read in the medieval period and later, as evidenced by over seventy copies in the Serbian, Bulgarian, and Russian recension. [46] Research of the Russian manuscripts, the most numerous among them, [47] reveals the unique status of the Serbian translation by inok Isaiah from 1370/1371 (National Library of Russia, Saint Petersburg, Gilferding Coll., no. 46), believed to be the protograph of all later copies. [48] Important for our topic is the fact that this earliest translation contains commentaries on Proverbs 9 in the so-called Epistle to Titos, Bishop of Crete (fol. 318–328). [49] As the corresponding replies of Anastasios the Sinaite, the commentaries are exegetic in nature, clarifying the Eucharistic meaning of the Old Testament verses. This is apparent already in the title, which seeks to answer the question “what is the house of wisdom, what the bowl, and what are its meats and drinks?ˮ According to this letter, the bowl is a Eucharistic symbol, and its spherical shape and openness symbolize Divine Providence, which is omnipresent and “without beginning and without end.ˮ [50]

To the same spiritual and intellectual milieu belonged Philotheos Kokkinos, an Athonite monk and twice Patriarch of Constantinople (1353–54/5, 1364–76). The views of this influential liturgist, who devoted as many as three sermons (logoi) to Proverbs 9:1—Wisdom has built her house—carried great weight in the theology of the second half of the fourteenth century. [51] These three sermons, presumably written sometime between 1350 and 1360, were contained in a letter to a certain Ignatios whom Philotheos addresses in the prologue as συνεπίσκοπος. [52] Therein Holy Wisdom, as a central dogmatic question, refers to the Son—the second person of the Holy Trinity, [53] while “the house on seven pillars” is interpreted as the Body of Christ in which God dwells and as a metaphor for the Virgin as the “temple of Holy Wisdom.” [54] Although they were never translated into Serbian, Philotheos’s texts reveal the state of patristic thought, which had the strongest influence on the iconography of Wisdom in Palaiologan art. [55] Referring to God the Logos as hypostatic Wisdom, as it was done in the inscription at Markov Manastir (ἡ ἐνυπόστατος τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγου Σοφία), confirms the doctrine of the Wisdom as divine will and the energy of the inseparable Trinity attributed to the Logos incarnate, through whom the trihypostatic God expressed his will. [56]

Interest for the theme of Wisdom did not wane in the fifteenth century. A surviving inscription reports that, in 1413, inok Gavrilo translated the book of Solomon the Wise for the needs of the Hilandar Monastery. [57] These examples call to mind the long-proposed views about the period of Serbian rule on Mount Athos (1345–1371) as a time when Serbian translation, scribing, and editorial work flourished. [58] Spiritual and cultural ties with Mount Athos were always reflected in Serbian art and were even more likely to be felt at the time when the monastic center was part of the principality of Serres ruled by Uglješa Mrnjavčević (1363/1364–1371), the future King Marko’s uncle. Therefore, it is to be expected that these theological and liturgical trends continued to be felt later, during Marko’s reign.

But the importance attached to Solomon’s verses on wisdom (9:1–6) in the painting of the Palaiologan period can best be understood, we believe, through their role in the liturgy. [59] A long time ago, Lazar Mirković proposed an interpretation of the image in the blind dome of Markov Manastir in light of the hymnography of the liturgical rites for Holy Thursday, which celebrates the institution of the Holy Eucharist. [60] The relevance of the abovementioned liturgical-hymnographic sources was later highlighted by other authors in their interpretations of frescoes with the Wisdom theme. [61] An attempt at a closer reading of the painting in the blind dome of the naos at Rila could be made along the same lines.

Kosmas of Maiuma’s Canon for Holy Thursday, chanted at that day’s liturgy, contains clear references to Proverbs 9 aimed at giving visual form to the meaning of the Last Supper. The first troparion of the first ode of the canon already paraphrases the opening verses of Proverbs 9:

The second troparion of the first ode reads:

while Kosmas’s verses in the third troparion call:

In the first three troparia, the famed hymnographer makes the Old Testament verses more accessible to the medieval mind, emphasizing their Christological meaning and repeating several times that Christ is the Wisdom of God. [63]

The second part of the compositions at Rila and Markov Manastir, showing saints who approach the immortal table, is again based on the Canon for Holy Thursday, more specifically, the irmos of the ninth ode:

6. Conclusion

Bibliography

Footnotes