THE GALLERY OF STS. PETER AND PAUL’S CHURCH IN VELIKO TARNOVO Evgeni Dermendzhiev, Plamen Sabev The paper presents a complete and comprehensive analysis of the plan, volume, appearance, decoration, dating, construction periodization,...
moreTHE GALLERY OF STS. PETER AND PAUL’S CHURCH IN VELIKO TARNOVO
Evgeni Dermendzhiev, Plamen Sabev
The paper presents a complete and comprehensive analysis of the plan, volume, appearance, decoration, dating, construction periodization, mural decoration, and also a new reading of the inscription on the benefactor’s composition, a reconstruction of the mural calendar and the architectural reconstructions of the gallery of Sts. Peter and Paul’s Church in Veliko Tarnovo from the mid-14th c. to the beginning of the 20th c. (Fig. 1, Fig. Ill. 1). The gallery is L-shaped on the West and South sides of the nave and narthex, with a total of 11 pillars, built of stone, brick and white mortar, with brick arches between them (Fig. 23 – Fig. 36). The façades are decorated with a belt of glazed green plates, brick ornaments and brick crosses (Fig. 15 – Fig. 17). The gallery is not vaulted and has a single-pitched timber roof clad in lead sheets (Fig. 4.2), later replaced with tiles (Fig. 14). First construction period (Fig. 41). Construction of the gallery in the second half of the 14th c. Second construction period (Fig. 42). Partial walling of the inter-arch openings of the gallery and inserted wooden grates, painting the benefactor’s scene and a calendar for the whole year inside (Fig. 4, Fig. 29 – Fig. 34, Ill. 2), carried out in the 1680s. Third construction period (Fig. 43). Demolition of the East end of the South wing of the gallery, construction of the Christ Pantocrator Chapel on the same site and opening an entrance from the altar space of the church to it, roofing with tiles in the 1750s – early 1760s (Fig. 35 – Fig. 37). Fourth construction period (Fig. 7, Fig. 8, Fig. 14, Fig. 15, Fig. 44). Complete walling of the inter-arch openings of the gallery in the 18th c. – early 19th c. Fifth construction period (Fig. 16). Clearing the inter-arch open ings of the Western and South façades, and fitting in new large windows in 1908 – 1910. Sixth construction period (Fig. 17, Fig. 18, Fig. 19). The gallery was nearly destroyed completely in the earthquake of 01.06.1913 and the surviving walls were temporarily conserved (Fig. 20). Seventh construction period (Ill. 1). The gallery was rebuilt in 1965 – 1973 and the mural paintings were restored in 1973 – 1981 (Fig. 30 – Fig. 34). It has been a museum site ever since. The mural program in the gallery of Sts. Peter and Paul’s Church in Veliko Tar novo from the 1580s consists of a mural calendar (Menologue) (Ill. 3, Ill. 10, Ill. 11, Ill. 13, Ill. 14, Ill. 17, Ill. 20, Ill. 22 – Ill. 25, Ill. 27, Ill. 30, Ill. 31), the scenes of the Last Judgment (Ill. 9) and of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; the first register contains upright figures of saints (monks and anchorites) (Ill. 7. 8) and a double decorative plinth imitating drapery. The artist who painted the gallery was a follower of the post-Byzantine tradition and depicted a mural calendar (Menologue) in it for the whole year, as was the case in some churches in Thessaloniki and Pécs, as well as in the big Orthodox monaster ies in Moldavia and Wallachia (Ill. Ill. 35), and he used typical Constantinople official models in some scenes of the feast days or in scenes commemorating martyrs and saints. Reconstruction of the mural calendar (Menologue) (Fig. 45 – Fig. 50). The calendar unfolds in four rows on all the interior walls and pillars of the gallery. The rows 216 are 0.64 – 0.72 m high, and the fields are 0.33 – 0.70 m wide, with the days running chronologically and uninterruptedly over all the 12 months. The calendar begins with the winter half-year, from September, in the upper left corner of the East long wall (Fig. 45), and occupies the entire North long wall of the gallery (Fig. 46), ending at the beginning of the East short wall of the gallery (Fig. 47). The summer half-year begins with March in the upper right corner of the East short wall of the gallery (Fig. 47), after which the days pass on the South wall (Fig. 48), then continue on the West wall (Fig. 49) and end on the North short wall of the gallery (Fig. 50). The iconographer intentionally superimposed the details of the calendar in the gallery, and in some scenes, he expressed the psychological states of the martyrs. Thus the compositions are rather austere, keeping a rhythm through alternating warm and cold hues thereby achieving an artistic persuasiveness (Ill. 10, Ill. 13, Ill. 14, Ill. 22). His style is similar to the techniques and methods used to depict mural calendars, mainly in the 16th – 17th c. monasteries in the territory of present-day Romania. In canonical terms, the scenes are chosen in line with the traditions kept and elaborated in Constantinople, similarly to the scenes of the Council of the Holy Mother of God of the Sign in combina tion with St. Evaristus the Studite (Ill. 23) and the Uncovering of the relics of the Holy Martyrs at the Gate of Eugenius (Ill. 31). Furthermore, there is an affinity for monastic iconography, and this is particularly telling in the selection of saints depicted full-height (Ill. 7, Ill. 8). There is a large benefactor composition painted in the central niche above the West entrance of the narthex. (Fig. 4.1, Ill. 2) It represents the benefactor praying and offering a model of the renovated Church to the Mother of God with the Infant Jesus Christ and the intercession of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (Fig. 4.2). Above the benefactor, dressed in festive archiepiscopal vestments, there is a text in Greek stating his name, clerical rank and the time when the mural decoration in the gallery was completed (Fig. 60). A new interpretation of the inscription has been proposed, revising the previous views held by F. Uspensky and G. Gerov. (Fig. 60). Line 1: … H Δ҇ ҇H[С] ЕIMƯ ΚΑΊ ΠΑΡΘΕΝOΥ ΘΕΟΤΌΚΟΥ O… ТΥ. New translation: …To the Most Holy Mother of God and Ever-Virgin (Maria) … Line 2: …ΙΚΟΥ[...]ΤΟΣ ΤϪ Τ[…] ẪΠΑС Χ[...]ẪС КОМNН ° ПАЛАEОΛ[OΓ] Ϫ … New translation: …Archbishop … of Comnenus and Palaiologos … Line 3:...ЕΝΑΥ ΤϪ Н[…]. New translation: from I[…]. The first line contains a prayerful address to the Holy Mother of God with the Infant Jesus Christ, similar to the liturgical interjection, part of the Eucharistic canon: “Ὑπεραγίας Δεσποίνης ἡμῶν Θεοτόκου καὶ Ἀειπαρθένου Μαρίας”. The second line contains the name of the benefactor and his clerical rank: “Arch bishop of Comnenus and Palaiologos...”. This turned out to be the important point of identification, because it was the Metropolitan bishop of Tarnovo, Dionysios I Rallis (1580 – 1598), who was considered the successor of the dynasty of the Palaeologi, and is known from official documents as Διονύσιος Ι Ράλλης Παλαιολόγος. The text of the last f ifth line, where it would be logical to have a date inscribed, is in fact so illegible that only the upper parts of the hastae of an unidentifiable letter are visible. Moreover, it is not at 217 the end of the inscription! Hence, any effort to replace letters with numerical values, to try to find years corresponding to a benefactor, or to attempt to offer alternative interpreta tions of the text, falls flat! It is for the first time that some interesting details of the appearance and garments of the benefactor, metropolitan bishop Dionysios I Rallis (1580 – 1598) (Fig. 57) have also been identified. He has a noble face, a dark soft beard and moustache, a thin nose, and prominent supraorbital arches (Fig. 53). His headdress is of a special archiepiscopal design (Fig. 54, Fig. 55), and his clerical rank is further accentuated by a long and richly decorated archiepiscopal sakkos, omophorion, and oversleeves. The sakkos is made of a most expensive fabric, decorated with golden ornaments, reaching to the very edge of the skirt, and large, vertically alternating motifs – tulips with inner double hems with ribbons and beads, with interlacing floral elements and crosses in between, as is typical of the entire 16th c. (Fig. 57). Orthodox metropolitan bishops and patriarchs during this period began to use ready-made fabrics decorated with em broidered tulips (a type of Ottoman kemha damask) (Ill. 34), imports from Damascus, Aleppo, Bursa, Constantinople, to make their own sakkos, like the sakkos of metropolitan bishop Dionysius of Moscow (1581 – 1586) (Ill. 32, Ill. 33). On the strips of the right oversleeve of the benefactor, the metropolitan bishop of Tarnovo Dionysios I Rallis, two hitherto unknown embroidered inscriptions were noticed for the first time: „ΔОСΜΕΝΕ[…]“ (Fig. 58), which probably stands for the Old Greek past participle δωσέµεν(αι), meaning given, presented, whereas the second inscription is rather illegible – only “СΤΟ [...]Χ[...]” can be made out, presumably from the Old Greek preposition στο, translating as “in...”. The inscriptions were probably made on the occa sion of the cheirotonia of a supreme archpriest and contain information about a benefac tor (or recipient) and the place of presentation (or place of manufacture). Based on the analysis and the new reading of the benefactor inscription, it can be argued that the benefactor composition and the mural calendar (Menologue) in the gallery of Sts. Peter and Paul’s Church in Veliko Tarnovo were made by metropolitan bishop Dio nysios I Rallis (1580 – 1598) in the 1580s, shortly after the Tarnovo See was taken over, but before the beginning of the First Tarnovo Uprising in 1598. Then an iconographer was invited, who had an official model in line with the iconographic traditions. In some places of the Menologue, he added non-standard iconographic patterns, thus demonstrating ex pertise and highly developed skills. Another of his achievements is the truthful depiction of the details of the vestments, and of the psychological state of the benefactor himself.
