This essay offers some thoughts on an important and well-known object that has mostly received the attention of church historians.1 It has a place in history during the early stages of the relations that developed between Wallachia and the post-Byzantine Orthodox Church in the very early years of the sixteenth century. However, as an object it also displays a complex and layered visual message arising from its hybridity, itself the result and visual testament of a series of geographical intersections from Wallachia to Constantinople. It is a reliquary, now in the monastery of Dionysiou on Mt. Athos, that contains most of the bones of St. Niphon.
St. Niphon II was an Athonite monk who also, for a brief period, served as ecumenical patriarch in Constantinople, but who moreover settled in Wallachia in the early years of the sixteenth century after an official invitation from the countryâs ruler, Radu cel Mare (r. 1495â1508). He was pronounced a saint a short time after his death in 1508. Looking at his life and a series of related events, they reveal the interactions that unfolded between the patriarchate, Athonite monasticism, and the political life of Wallachia. All this unraveled in the wake of the Ottoman Empireâs rise as the dominant political and military power in the region. In this reliquary, we have an object that, through its form, images, and materials, is the product and testimony to the interactions and exchanges that this volume has proposed to study. It also demonstrates the concepts that can be extracted from the study of multicultural exchanges such as hybridity, portability, and transportability.
This reliquary, when displayed open for pilgrims who pay their respects to the saint, does not quite reveal its full form. It appears as a rectangular container in the shape of a box or even a coffin. Once the âarchitecturalâ lid is lifted, the reliquary reveals its content (Fig. 11.1). Several of the bones are visible through openings cut out of the metal cover that protects the contents. These cutouts are shaped in the form of the bone immediately underneath.2 A portrait of St. Niphon, that is, his âicon,â was painted on the inner surface of the open lid, depicting a frontal bust-length St. Niphon dressed in his episcopal garments, holding a thick book in his outstretched left hand and with his right blessing a young man in a kneeling and praying position before the saint (Fig. 11.2).3 He is dressed in a bright red tunic and mantle with a wide collar and golden decorative trim; he also wears a high crown. Although there are no inscriptions next to the figure, he has always been identified as the voivode of Wallachia, Neagoe Basarab, the supporter of Niphon and patron of the reliquary, depicting here the spiritual connection that was established between the two.
View of relics, Reliquary of St. Niphon Dionysiou monastery
Photograph: Dionysiou Monastery
It is important to realize that after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, the patriarch was the authority of the Orthodox Church. Niphon II, as mentioned above, had been ecumenical patriarch, the highest ecclesiastical position in the Orthodox Church. He was recognized not only as a religious figurehead but also as an administrative and legislative authority, which stretched beyond Constantinople. The Orthodox Church, in general, and more specifically the patriarch, were to organize and administer the various Orthodox populations within the Ottoman Empire. His authority and jurisdiction (
Although known as one of the first ten ecumenical patriarchs after the fall of Constantinople, Niphon II is also known as a saint of the Orthodox Church. In Romania, he is particularly revered because of his role in the organization of the church.5 His early life is not known, except that he was born in the Peloponnese around 1435â40. However, we do have knowledge of his clerical career from a vita composed in Greek by a certain Gabriel (known as Gavriil Protu in Wallachia), also from Mt. Athos; probably composed shortly after his death.6 This version, however, has not survived but exists in various redactions and biographical texts that describe his activities as a monk and priest before he became patriarch and later archbishop in Wallachia. It is important to point out that he held the diocese of Thessaloniki for several years before receiving the patriarchate, giving him the opportunity to not only establish important connections with individuals within the Orthodox hierarchy but also political connections with the Ottoman authorities.7
As patriarch, Niphon served on the throne at least twice, but both were rather brief periods.8 After his second patriarchate, which ended in 1498, Niphon was exiled to Adrianople. It was there, while residing at the monastery of St. Stephen, that he met Radu cel MareâRadu the Great, voivode of Wallachia since 1495.9 Radu had come to Adrianople to pay the annual tribute and homage to Sultan Bayazid II (r. 1481â1512). It was then that Radu, having met the ex-patriarch, invited him to his country to become Wallachiaâs new archbishop, which was approved by the Ottoman authorities and the Holy Synod.10 The reason for this gesture was his realization that the Wallachian Church had fallen into lawlessness and the charge to the archbishop was to establish order and reorganize it.
His activities and his reception are enthusiastically recorded in the various vita redactions. In the Meteora redaction he is seen as a new apostle who has come to liberate many from the claws of the devil.11 In another redaction he is described as having been sent by God to restore order.12 When in Wallachia, he took his task quite seriously, to the point that he began to interfere in state affairs, something that angered Radu, who then decided to dethrone Niphon in 1505 and exiled himânever to return to Wallachia again. Niphon withdrew to the monastery of Dionysiou on Mt. Athos, where he remained until his death three years later in 1508.13 What occurred in the following years led to the creation of the reliquary under discussion.
St. Niphon and Neagoe Basarab, Reliquary of St. Niphon, Dionysiou monastery
Photograph in the public domain
In the few years Niphon spent in Wallachia he established a close relationship with the young noble Neagoe Basarab, a voivode of Wallachia, to whom he had become a spiritual father. Neagoe became an important political figure, ascending the throne after Niphonâs death in 1512 and gaining the throne with the help of his family, the Craiovesti boyars, and reigning for nine years, until 1521.14 He became famous not only as a great ruler but also for his attention to the Orthodox Church throughout the Eastern Ottoman world, supporting various establishments and monasteries on Mt. Athos. For the monastery of Dionysiou he had a fortification tower and water reservoir built in 1520, a year before his death. He also is known for one of the earliest literary works of Wallachia called âThe teachings of Neagoe Basarab to his son Theodosie,â where he touches upon various subjects, such as philosophy, diplomacy, and ethics.15 In Dionysiou there is a small portrait painting that possibly depicts Neagoe and his son Theodosie blessed by the hand of God from above.
Neagoeâs close relationship to his mentor and the bond that developed between them found expression in his decision to ask for the exhumation of Niphonâs remains from the monastery of Dionysiou where he was buried. A translation took place and the body arrived in Wallachia where Neagoe set up a penitential apology to Niphon from his deceased predecessor Radu the Great, the man who had sent the archbishop into exile. The ceremony took place at the monastery of Dealu, which was founded by Radu and also where he was buried.16 Niphon was canonized, and then the bones, now holy relics, were returned to the Dionysiou monastery on Mt. Athos.17 They were returned in the reliquary under discussion, which Neagoe had commissioned in the shape of a five-domed church, the type of building that had become popular in the Balkans in the fourteenth century and beyond. However, he did not return the head and the right arm of the saint, which are still kept in the cathedral church of St. Demetrios of Craiova. Recently, in 2019 these relics were moved into a new silver reliquary. In other words, the relics of St. Niphon are divided between Mt. Athos and Craiova, in todayâs geography between Greece and Romania, the two places with the most dedicated venerations of the saint. Now knowing the circumstances of the creation of this object, we can return to the reliquary and take a closer look at its appearance and what messages it might communicate.
The container in the Dionysiou monastery is not just a chest for the placement of the saintâs bones. When closed, it becomes a small architectural structure, clearly a church, and most importantly a church with five domes, a typical feature of fourteenth-century and later church structures in the Balkans (Fig. 11.3).18 The rectangular container with Niphonâs relics forms the body of the church building, and the lid is built up in order to create the roof with the domes. In the central crossing of the structure is placed the main octagonal dome, the tallest and largest reaching a total of sixty centimeters in height. The four smaller domes are placed in the four corner sections of the building and are hexagonal (Fig. 11.4). Gothic pinnacles, with a small bird attached at their top, fill in the empty space of the roof between the domes. Although constructed to depict a church, it is interesting to see that there is no indication of an apse on either one of its narrow sides (Fig. 11.5).19 Gothic elements are present around the reliquary. The lowest section of the church structure is surrounded by a series of plaques in silver-gilded openwork. They are arranged so as to have eight on the long sides and four on the short, suggesting Gothic windows. Narrow double windows with arched tracery and a centrally placed rose window above form the series.20
Reliquary of St. Niphon, Frontal full view when closed Dionysiou monastery
Photograph from N.P. Kondakov, Pamjatniki histianskogo iskusstvo na Afone, St. Petersburg, 1902, fig. 85
Reliquary of St. Niphon, View from above, Dionysiou monastery
Photograph: Dionysiou Monastery
Reliquary of St. Niphon, Frontal view, Dionysiou monastery
Photograph: Dionysiou Monastery
The openwork design is also applied in the upper parts of the building. There are four cornices, two on each of the long sides with an ogee arch and pinnacle, wrought in the same open work technique as the Gothic windows at the lower register. The drums of the domes display the same tracery, and the numerous pinnacles of the cornice appear Gothic in concept. The unusual decoration of this Gothic design on what is considered a Byzantine-type church building is remarkable. It shows a hybridity of architectural styles not seen before on metalwork objects. It is also a witness to the impact that Western church design had in the region in this period.
Between these delicate and light sections of the church structure, two rows of enameled plaques with representations of busts of saints cover the sides of the container up to the level of the roof. The portraits selected to be placed on the exterior of the reliquary represent what is a typical Byzantine visual structure of the hierarchy of the holy (Fig. 11.6). On the front side, Christ, flanked by the Virgin and John the Baptist, and the archangels form the most important visual representation of prayer, the Deesis, located at the top row of the holy figures. This composition can be expanded to include some or all of the apostles, the evangelists, church fathers (bishops), and martyrs, among them the military saints and the holy monks. The two registers of figures around the body of the reliquary include all these categories, sixty figures in total. Most of the enamel portrait plaques, created by the champlevé technique, have lost the colorful enamel paste, used mainly for their garments, so that the reliquary now appears more uniform in its silver-gild surface. Scant remains of the enamel help identify the colors used: light blue, green in two different tones, red, brown, white, and ochre yellow. Thus, originally, the colorful main body of the reliquary made a much more vibrant and lively impact on the viewer than today.
Enamel plaques of the Deesis and additional saints, Reliquary of St. Niphon, Dionysiou monastery Front detail
Photograph: Dionysiou Monastery
On the front, together with the Deesis, are placed the four evangelists, hymnographers, and archbishops, all figures that contributed to the theology and structure of the church. These figures together comprise what can be defined as the liturgical side of the church and represent its intercessory role, as visualized through the Deesis itself with the figures of the Virgin and John the Baptist, who are addressing Christ. On one of the narrow sides are eight apostles. On the second narrow side a variety of figures are placed together, from monks to bishops; among them are Athanasios the Athonite as well as St. Niphon himself (Fig. 11.7).21 This side is most appropriate for Niphon to be included on, reflecting his episcopal as well as his monastic characteristics. On the second larger side, the back of the reliquary, are applied plaques depicting the military saints, the protectors of the church and its people, and a few other categories of saints, like martyrs, Constantine and Helena and the medical saint Panteleimon. Eight additional plaques are placed at the roof level at the corners, which contain two figures each (Fig. 11.8). Six contain pairs of prophets, rightly placed at the upper segments of the reliquary-church, the traditional location of prophets in the interior decorative system of wall paintings within a church building. The other two depict four archangels, which are placed on the front long side of the reliquary accompanying the scene of the Deesis, most appropriate for the extended composition of the Deesis. At the same level are also four of the highest hierarchy of beings in the category of angels, one on each side; two cherubim are on the long sides and two seraphim on the narrow.
Reliquary of St. Niphon, Saint portraits of the two short sides, Dionysiou monastery
Photographs: Dionysiou Monastery
Reliquary of St. Niphon, Back view, Dionysiou monastery
Photograph: Dionysiou Monastery
All figures have inscriptions that identify them, which are written in Slavonic. However, the main dedicatory inscription is written in Greek. It surrounds the reliquary as a border at the lowest level of the lid of the container.22 It is assembled by twenty-four narrow plaques, and the letters fill the whole height of the plaques. Unfortunately, those plaques on the back side, where the hinges are also attached, have lost the lettering, and the enamel and the inscription is incomplete. This is most unfortunate, since it was in this location that the name of the donor was mentioned. The Greek has many orthographical as well as misconstrued words, which suggests that it was composed by someone who knew some Greek but had little written experience and had mainly learned the language orally. The inscription explains that this is the chest of the most holy archbishop of Constantinople Niphon, also Ecumenical Patriarch of New Rome, commissioned and completed by the God-loving and most pious. Here, the name of Neagoe would have followed, since these adjectives are used mostly for worldly leaders. Two other plaques survive with the following text: âThe most holy, honest and illuminated father fell asleep there [â¦],â and then on an additional plaque a date is given âin the year 7023=1514/5.â This is the date of the production of the reliquary and is related to Neagoeâs commission. The sequence of the plaques as they are now, applied on the container in this damaged area, seems not to be original.23
The one church famous for its five domes in Byzantium was the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, which was built on the fourth hill and rose above the city. It is well known as one of Constantine Iâs great foundations, where he was also buried in 337 in an adjacent mausoleum.24 This early Constantinian church was rebuilt by Justinian and was celebrated for its architecture of five domes, and also because it became the burial place for all Byzantine emperors until the eleventh century.25 The church however, has not survived. Immediately after the conquest of the city in 1453, the Holy Apostles was given by Mehmet II to Patriarch Gennadios to become the seat of the patriarchate instead of the Hagia Sophia, where it had resided since the fourth century. For a number of not so clear reasons Gennadios, after a short time of residency at the Holy Apostles, abandoned the church and moved the Patriarchate to the Church of Pammakaristos in the northwestern part of the city.26 The Holy Apostles, once the great church of Constantinople that dominated the city, was demolished in 1461 by Mehmet II to make way for the Fatih Mosque. Two illustrations in the Menologion of Basil II from circa 1000 depict the Holy Apostles. The scenes depict the translations of the bodies of St. Luke and St. John Chrysostom, both brought to be buried in that church.27 In both, an attempt is made to show as many of the domes as possible. Three twelfth-century manuscripts also have as their frontispiece a representation of a five-domed church, usually identified symbolically as depicting the Church of the Holy Apostles. All three introduce homilies, and one has the homilies of Gregory Nazianzus in the Mt. Sinai manuscript. The other two, produced in the same workshop, contain the Homilies of James Kokkinobaphos on the life of the Virgin.28
These are sermons by church theologians, who were preachers, so to speak, of Christian teachings, as were the apostles. They follow their tradition, and introducing their texts with the image of the Church of the Holy Apostles makes this relation and parallelism very clear. That this building is meant to be the Church of the Holy Apostles is certified by the two scenes depicted within the architectural framework: the Ascension and Pentecost.
The one medieval building modeled after the Constantinopolitan Holy Apostles was the Church of San Marco in Venice. Built in the eleventh century, it became famous in the West for its Byzantine design with its five domes, a most unusual structure in the West.29 In the late fifteenth century, the façade of San Marco was transformed by the addition of five round-arched portals with Gothic elements.30 It became most renowned for this new aesthetic combining Byzantine grandeur and design with Western Gothic decorative features. It is this novel and recent aesthetic that we find also on the reliquary, which makes it unique and most unusual for its time.31 By the fourteenth century, the five-domed church had become a favorite architectural type built throughout the Balkans.32 Well known are the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki, the Church of GraÄaniÄa, and many others, as are the foundations of the ruling Wallachian families, for example, the Church of Dealu founded by Radu or Curtea de ArgeÈ, the foundation of Neagoe Basarab.
The reliquary of St. Niphon is most unusual for this period and possibly is the first to use a church building to house the remains of a saint in the Eastern tradition. What is unusual in this work is the transformation of the âbodyâ of the church structure into a âsarcophagusâ for the remains of the body of a saint.33 The five-dome design is also of special interest. Possibly the idea to create a church to house relics might have derived from seeing Western reliquaries with the remains of saints, which by this period had the appearance of church-like structures. But the pinnacles and turrets present on these are actually applied on what began as a sarcophagus with a slanted roof cover and not a church structure as such. I believe that the choice of the domed building for the reliquary here had a more specific meaning.
In the various versions of the vita, we are told that Radu is described as having a deep admiration for the devout Patriarch Niphon when he met him in Adrianople. It is also specifically mentioned that he was absolutely convinced that, while in Wallachia, Niphon âwill become a new apostle, destined to save many a soul from the claws of the Devil.â34 The author describes, among other things, everyone welcoming Niphon âas having been sent by Godâ (
Once in Wallachia, the archbishop at once dedicated himself to organizing the church and reproaching and warning the people of their uncontrolled behavior in matters of religious and moral conduct. He also devoted much energy to instructing Radu and the local nobility on how to govern with political competence. These activities and the way they are described in the various vita redactions present him very much in an apostolic light.
Because of his patriarchal position and his apostolicity in Wallachia, I can easily infer that special intention and meaning were given to the choice of a five-domed church-like structure for the housing of his remains. In this case, we have an object created in Wallachia in the early years of the sixteenth century, to be sent to the monastery of Dionysiou on Mt. Athos, which through its form references Constantinople and the apostolic tradition of teaching and organizing the church at the same time. Thus, we see portability and transported architecture as the chief carriers of meaning brought together in one most unusual object.
I want to close with a passage from a 1928 description of this reliquary by Robert Byron, a well-known English traveler who visited Mt. Athos and provided the following account:
âAnd with much ceremony the incomparable reliquary of St. Niphon was placed before the doors of the altar for our inspection. Of all products of the North Balkan, that cultural no-manâs-land between east and west Europe, this object is perhaps the most extraordinary and beautiful. Niphon was the successor of Gennadios, the first Oecumenical Patriarch after the fall of Constantinople. (He seems to have retired at this monastery where he died in 1505). His bones with exception of his head and right hand, which are now said to be in Hungary, were incased in this coffer, sent from Wallachia by the Voivode Neagoe, whose confessor and godfather the Patriarch had been.
[â¦] But the outstanding and astonishing feature of the whole is the magnificently wrought tracery which, together with the numerous pinnacles of the cornice is entirely Gothic. Thus, it is shown how with the destruction of the Eastern Empire, western forms began to permeate the strongholds whence all medieval culture had originally sprung.â36
The âcultural hybridityâ of the reliquary was recognized early on. However, pointing out the themes, the forms, and the materials used in the creation of the St. Niphon reliquary allows us to recognize how, through visual means, an overall message is expressed; one connecting the political affairs of rulers, church hierarchy, and monasticism in the Balkans when it was under complex military and geopolitical conditions during a period of a struggle for recognition and the establishment of a new order.
Bibliography
Bagnoli, Martina, ed. Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relic and Devotion in Medieval Europe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.
Byron, Robert. The Station: Travels to the Holy Mountain of Greece. London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2011. [Originally published in 1928 by Duckworth Publishers under the title The Station, Athos: Treasures and Men].
Demus, Otto. The Church of San Marco in Venice: History, Architecture, Sculpture. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Studies, 1960.
Fousteris, George. âH ÎειÏανοθήκη ÏÎ¿Ï ÎÎ³Î¯Î¿Ï ÎήÏÏνοÏ.â In á½ ÎÎ³Î¹Î¿Ï ÎήÏÏν, ΠαÏÏιάÏÏÎ·Ï ÎÏνÏÏανÏÎ¹Î½Î¿Ï ÏÏλεÏÏ (1508â2008), ΤÏÎ¼Î¿Ï ÎµÏεÏειακÏÏ ÎµÏί Ïη ÏÏ Î¼ÏληÏÏÏει ÏενÏακοÏίÏν á¼ÏÏν αÏÏ ÏÎ·Ï ÎºÎ¿Î¹Î¼Î®ÏεÏÏ Î±Ï ÏοÏ. Mount Athos: Monastery of Dionysiou, 2008.
Grecu, Vasile, ed. Viata sfântului Nifon o redacÈiune greceascÄ ineditÄ [An unpublished Greek redaction of the life of St. Niphon]. Bucharest, 1944. Also in Greek: ÎÎ¯Î¿Ï ÎºÎ±Î¹ ÏολιÏεία ÏÎ¿Ï Î±Î³Î¯Î¿Ï ÎήÏÏνοÏ. ÎνÎκδοÏÎ¿Ï ÏαÏάÏÏαÏÎ¹Ï (Ï ÏÏ ÎαβÏιήλ Î ÏÏÏÎ¿Ï ). Bucharest, 1944.
Grigore, Mihai-D. Neagoe BasarabâPrinceps Christianus. Christianitas-Semantik im Vergleich mit Erasmus, Luther, Machiavelli (1513â1523). Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2015.
Guran, Petre. âInvention et translation des reliquesâun cérémonial monarchique?â Revue des Ãtudes Sud-Est Européennes 36, nos. 1â4 (1988): 212â222.
Jacoff, Michael. âFashioning a Facade. The Construction of Venetian Identity on the Exterior of San Marco.â In San Marco, Byzantium, and the Myths of Venice, edited by Henry Maguire and Robert Nelson, 113â150. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Symposia and Colloquia, 2010.
Johnson, Mark Joseph. The Roman Imperial Mausoleum in Late Antiquity. Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Kondakov, Nikodim. Pamjatniki hristianskogo iskusstva na Afone. St. Petersburg: n.p., 1902.
Marinescu, Florin. âΠμαÏÏÏ ÏιÌα και Ïο εÌÏγο ÏÎ¿Ï ÎγιÌÎ¿Ï ÎηÌÏÏÎ½Î¿Ï ÏÏη ÎλαÏιÌα.â In Î ÎÎ³Î¹Î¿Ï ÎηÌÏÏν, ΠαÏÏιαÌÏÏÎ·Ï ÎÏνÏÏανÏÎ¹Î½Î¿Ï ÏοÌλεÏÏ. ΤοÌÎ¼Î¿Ï ÎµÏεÏειακοÌÏ ÎµÏÎ¹Ì ÏÎ·Í ÏÏ Î¼ÏληÏÏÌÏει ÏενÏακοÏιÌÏν εÏÏÌν αÏÎ¿Ì ÏÎ·Ï ÎºÎ¿Î¹Î¼Î·ÌÏεÏÏ Î±Ï ÏÎ¿Ï Ì (1508â2008), 134â145. Mount Athos: Monastery of Dionysiou, 2008.
Millet, Gabriel, Jules Pargoire and Louis Petit, eds. Recueil des inscriptions chrétiennes de lâAthos. Première partie 465. Paris: A. Fontemoing, 1904.
Mavroudis, Aimilios. âÎÌÎ³Î¹Î¿Ï ÎηÌÏÏν, ÏαÏÏιαÌÏÏÎ·Ï ÎÏνÏÏανÏÎ¹Î½Î¿Ï ÏοÌλεÏÏ. ÎÏÎ¿Ì Ïον ÎÏÏεÌα ÎµÎ¹Ï Ïην ÎÏÏιÌδα.â In Realia Byzantina, edited by Sofia Kotzabassi and Giannis Mavromatis, 167â190. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009.
El Menologio de Basilio II Emperador de Byzancio (Vat. Gr. 1613). Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. [Codices e Vaticanis selecti v. 64. Madrid: Testimonio CompañÃa, 2005.]
NÄsturel, Petre È. âRecherches sur les rédactions gréco- roumaines de la âVie de Saint Niphon II, patriarche de Constantinople.ââ Revue des Ãtudes Sud-Est Européennes 5, nos. 1â2 (1967): 41â75.
Panou, Nikos. âGreek-Romanian Symbiotic Patterns in the Early Modern Period: History, Mentalities, Institutions (II).â The Historical Review/La Revue Historique 4 (2007): 59â104.
Philippides, Marios. Emperors, Patriarchs, and Sultans of Constantinople, 1373â1513: An Anonymous Greek Chronicle of the Sixteenth Century. Archbishop Iakovos Library of Ecclesiastical and Historical Sources 13. Brookline, MA: Hellenic College Press, 1990.
Smyrnakis, Gerasimos. á¼Î³Î¹Î¿Î½ á½ÏοÏ. Athens: n.p., 1903.
Trahoulia, Nicolette. âThe Scent of an Emperor: Desire and the San Marco Incense Burner.â Arte Medievale 7 (2008): 33â40.
Uspenskij, Porfirije. Pervoe puteÅ¡estvie vafonski monastyri I skity v 1845 godu, astâIja, otdalenie vtoroe. Kiev: n.p., 1877.
Vergatti, Radu Ştefan. âRadu le Grand: Un voïvode valaque méconnu.â Revue Roumaine dâHistoire 47 (2008): 15â30.
Notes
Porfirije Uspenskij, Pervoe puteÅ¡estvie vafonski monastyri I skity v 1845 godu, astâIja, otdalenie vtoroe (Kiev: 1877), 93â94; Nikodim Kondakov, Pamjatniki hristianskogo iskusstva na Afone (St. Petersburg: n.p., 1902), 214â15, fig. 85;
The head and right arm are still in the cathedral church of St. Demetrios of Craiova in Romania.
This painting of Neagoe Basarab praying to St. Niphon has now been removed and has become an independent icon of St. Niphon in the monastery. A copy of this scene has replaced it in the inner side of the lid where the original was removed. This change is also the cause of a misunderstanding in Panouâs discussion of a description in one of St. Niphonâs vita texts, see âGreek-Romanian Symbiotic Patterns,â 74â75.
The author is indebted to two authors and their studies. For the historical information, most essential was Panou, âGreek-Romanian Symbiotic Patternsâ; and essential for the reliquary, since I was not able to see it myself, was Fousteris, â
For detailed bibliographical references on his life and career, see Panou, âGreek-Romanian Symbiotic Patterns,â 62â63.
The vita composed by Gabriel seems to have been commissioned by Neagoe Basarab who, with this document, was at the same time promoting his own agenda for his monarchical career.
For his career, see Florin Marinescu, â
Panou, âGreek-Romanian Symbiotic Patterns,â fn. 8.
For Radu the Great, see Radu Ştefan Vergatti, âRadu le Grand: Un voïvode valaque méconnu,â Revue Roumaine dâHistoire 47 (2008): 15â30.
For further bibliography, see Panou, âGreek-Romanian Symbiotic Patterns,â 64.
On the Meteora manuscript, see Petre È. NÄsturel, âRecherches sur les rédactions gréco- roumaines de la âVie de Saint Niphon II, patriarche de Constantinople,ââ Revue des Ãtudes Sud-Est Européennes 5, nos. 1â2 (1967): 71; Panou, âGreek-Romanian Symbiotic Patterns,â 68.
Grecu Vasile, ed., Viata sfântului Nifon o redacÈiune greceascÄ ineditÄ [An unpublished Greek redaction of the Life of St. Niphon] (Bucharest: n.p., 1944), 78 (esp. lines 12â19).
Panou, âGreek-Romanian Symbiotic Patterns,â 64â65.
Neagoe had usurped the throne by killing Raguâs brother, who ruled after Raguâs death in 1508.
For the life and career of Neagoe Basarb, see Mihai-D. Grigore, Neagoe BasarabâPrinceps Christianus. Christianitas-Semantik im Vergleich mit Erasmus, Luther, Machiavelli (1513â1523) (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2015). The idea to write a text for his son reminds me of the one compiled by Constantine VII for his son Romanos in the tenth century, the De Administrando Imperio (How to rule an empire), containing much advice on diplomacy and other matters of government. In Dionysiou there is a small portrait painting depicting Neagoe and his son Theodosie blessed by the hand of God from above.
For a discussion of the translation and the ceremony, see Panou, âGreek-Romanian Symbiotic Patterns,â 72â73; and Petre Guran, âInvention et translation des reliquesâun cérémonial monarchique?â Revue des Ãtudes Sud- Est Européennes 36, nos. 1â4 (1988): 212â22.
The canonization was recognized by the Constantinopolitan Church, which was celebrated at Curtea de ArgeÈ in 1517, a famous foundation by Neagoe Basarab dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin. Panou, âGreek-Romanian Symbiotic Patterns,â 72â73 and fn. 32; for the political dimension of these events, see esp. 74â75 with further bibliography.
Reliquaries in the form of a church were not common until this late period. There is one example, probably from the tenthâeleventh century, now at Aachen, which has the shape of a small Byzantine church and served most likely as an Artophorion, a container that housed the bread of the liturgy. As such, the church building was most appropriate in relation to the liturgical space of the transubstantiation. It was transformed into a reliquary containing the head of St. Anastasios once it reached the West; see Martina Bagnoli, ed., Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relic and Devotion in Medieval Europe (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), cat. no. 55. Nonreligious buildings as containers did exist; for example, the famous incense burner in the treasury of San Marco, which was converted to a reliquary by the addition of crosses on its domes when it was brought to Venice from Constantinople by the crusaders. Nicolette Trahoulia, âThe Scent of an Emperor: Desire and the San Marco Incense Burner,â Arte Medievale 7 (2008): 33â40.
Perhaps an apse would have created an image expressing too strong a statement of St. Niphonâs place in the church. Creating a reliquary with the likeness of a church was already a daring innovation.
There is another example of a miniature church in silver-gilt, very similar but much smaller, called Kivotion (Greek: container) now in the Muzeul NaÅ£ional de ArtÄ al României (Inv. 14083/M 1446). It was given by the Craiovescu family to the BistriÈa monastery in the early sixteenth century. This is the family of Neagoe Besarab, and it seems to have been produced by the same workshop as the Niphon reliquary, but it had a different function.
Athanasios as well as Niphon are placed together here since they are both saints from Mt. Athos. All the figures are listed by Fousteris, with a drawing identifying their placement on the reliquary, in â
Fousteris, â
For a discussion of this text, see Fousteris, â
Mark Joseph Johnson, The Roman Imperial Mausoleum in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 118â22.
Another contemporary church, built by Justinian in the same design, with one large dome placed at the crossing of the two arms, the nave, and transept, and the other four placed one on each of the arms, but with an additional dome on the long nave arm, bringing the domes to six, was that of St. John in Ephesus, which is no longer standing. A later five-domed church, but of a smaller scale, was the Nea Ecclesia on the palace grounds, built by Basil I in the nineth century, which unfortunately has also not survived, and it is not certain how the five domes were arranged, probably with the four secondary ones not on the cross arms but in the corner segments.
Marios Philippides, Emperors, Patriarchs, and Sultans of Constantinople, 1373â1513: An Anonymous Greek Chronicle of the Sixteenth Century. Archbishop Iakovos Library of Ecclesiastical and Historical Sources 13 (Brookline, MA: Hellenic College Press, 1990), 57.
El Menologio de Basilio II Emperador de Byzancio, BAV, ms. Vat. Gr. 1613, f. 61 r, 121r; although only the third and fourth of the five domes are visible in the illustrations. Constantineâs original conception of the church was for it to be a memorial dedicated to the apostles, with their cenotaphs arranged around the church and himself to be buried in the center. However, his tomb was removed and a separate mausoleum built for it. Over time, relics of apostles and patriarchs were brought to Constantinople and buried in that church.
Mt. Sinai, ms. gr. 339, fol. 1r, Paris, Bib. nat. gr. 1208, fol. 3v; and Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana BAV, ms. Vat. Gr. 1162. It is not an accident that the Kokkinobaphos frontispieces have two narrative scenes added to the architectural design, the Ascension and Pentecost representing the apostles.
For its relation to and association with the Constantinopolitan Church of the Holy Apostles, it is important to mention that above the original central portal of the eleventh-century church there is a mosaic with representations of the apostles.
Otto Demus, The Church of San Marco in Venice: History, Architecture, Sculpture (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Studies, 1960). Michael Jacoff, âFashioning a Facade. The Construction of Venetian Identity on the Exterior of San Marco,â in San Marco, Byzantium, and the Myths of Venice, eds. Henry Maguire and Robert Nelson (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Symposia and Colloquia, 2010), 113â50.
Actually, if one studies the overall impression of the late fifteenth-century façade of San Marco one can see that the reliquary has a similar construction: the Gothic portal/windows at the lower level, the body of the structure, the Gothic pinnacles, and then the five domes. I do not think it is a coincidence.
There are numerous buildings that spring up from the fourteenth century onwards. Where the four secondary domes are placed, however, has varied. The late Byzantine churches have the domes over the corners of an ambulatory, rather than the corners of the naos as they did in the middle Byzantine period, but the idea of the five domes remains the same.
As mentioned above, miniature versions of church buildings were made in Byzantium but not for bodily relics, see footnote 18.
Panou, âGreek-Romanian Symbiotic Patterns,â 66â68; and also the Greek from the Meteora redaction in the edition of the vita published by NÄsturel, âRecherches sur les rédactions gréco- roumaines,â 71.
Grecu, Viata sfântului Nifon, 78 (lines 21â22).
Byron, The Station, 122.