Miljkovic, B., 2012. The Serbian panagiarion from Vatopedi. Recueil des travaux de l’Institut d’etudes byzantines 49: 355-364
|
|
|
|
| |
| Location: |
Museums |
| Subject: |
History |
| Species: |
Indian Rhino |
 |
|
|
The panagiarion from Vatopedi, made out of a rhinoceros horn, is decorated with the busts of the Mother of God, Christ, St. John the Forerunner, the archangels Michael and Gabriel, the apostles Peter and Paul, the Evangelists, and the text of troparion of the Mother of God from the canon of Andrew of Crete, which is read on the holiday of Mid-Pentecost. Only two other panagiaria made of the same material are preserved, in Hilandar and Deani. These are small, circular vessels used for the elevation of the panagia, a special bread made in honour of the Mother of God, from which the participants, after a meal together, take a little piece each and drink a sip of wine. Despite the obvious Eucharistic roots, the verses by Andrew of Crete carved on the panagiarion from Vatopedi, represent the terminus post quem of the creation of this rite. Some of the medieval panagiaria can be dated relatively precisely, like the one that was kept in the Russian Athonite monastery — a gift from Alexios III Komnenos Angelos, which was created most probably between 1374 and 1390, and then the panagiarion of Xeropotamou, after 1325, or the Hilandar panagiarion made out of a rhinoceros horn, around 1200. Based on the formal characteristics of its non-figural decoration, the medallions formed in the shape of the number eight by two intertwined double ribbons, characteristic for the final period of Serbian medieval art, the panagiarion of Vatopedi can primarily be dated to the end of the 14th, or the first half of the 15th century.
|
|
|
The Serbian panagiarion from Vatopedi
File available
details
Original text on this topic: