Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Tuesday 7 April 2015

Medieval images of the Resurrection


On the Medieval Religion discussion group John Dillon has posted some links to a few medieval depictions of the Anastasis (in Orthodox churches, celebrated on Holy Saturday) mostly from churches in areas that are liturgically Greek:

a) Mosaic (early eleventh-century; restored betw. 1953
and 1962) in the narthex of the katholikon of the monastery of Hosios Loukasnear Distomo in Phokis:

b)
Mosaic (mid-eleventh-century) in the katholikon of the Nea Moni on
Chios:

c)
Fresco (later eleventh-century) in the Karanlık kilise (Dark Church) at Göreme in Turkey's Nevşehir province (two images, each showing matter absent from the
other):

d)
Fresco (ca. 1130-ca.1140) in the narthex of the Transfiguration cathedral in theMirozhsky monastery inPskov:

e)
Mosaic (ca.1180-ca.1200) in the basilica cattedrale di San Marco in
Venice:


f) Fresco (ca. 1191) in the church of St. George at Kurbinovo (Resen municipality) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:

g) Fresco (ca. 1300; attrib. to Manuel Panselinos) in the Protaton church on Mt. Athos:

h) Fresco (ca. 1313-ca. 1320) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the altar area of the King's Church (dedicated to Sts. Joachim and Anne) at the Studenica monastery near Kraljevo (Raška dist.) in Serbia:

i) Fresco (betw. 1315 and 1321) in the apse of the parekklesion of the Chora church in Istanbul:
[a very famous and particularly striking one, that communicates the dynamism of the Resurrection - Clever Boy]

j) Fresco (1330s) in the church of the Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:


Gordon Plumb added a selection of western, medieval stained glass images of the same subject:

Tours Cathedral, Bay 2, The Harrowing of Hell, mid 13thC:
and from the same window, the Resurrection:
and also angel at tomb and Christ meeting Mary in the Garden:

Bourges, Cathédrale St Étienne, Bay 6,The Harrowing of Hell, 1210-15:
and from same window the Resurrection:

York, All Saints Pavement, wI, 4d:

York, St Denys, nIII, 2b-4b. the resurrected Christ:

York, St Michael-le-Belfrey, I, 2d:

Stamford, St Martin, sV, 2s, originally from Tattershall, Lincs, late 15th C:

Wrangle, St Mary and St Nicholas, nV, 3d:

Exeter Cathedral, sIII. Doubting Thomas, Flemish glass from the Costessey Hall collection and acquired from the London dealer Grosvenor Thomas c.1920:

York, All Saints North Street, nV, 1b-2b:

Leicester, Jewry Wall Museum, late 15th C. roundel:

Oxford, Balliol College Chapel, the east window, 3e:

East Harling, St Peter & St Paul, Norfolk, east window, 1b:


Prof Madeleine Gray added what she describes as an intruguing Resurrection at Llangadwaladr on Anglesey: http://stainedglass.llgc.org.uk/object/2348
click on the larger image and you can see it depicts the bones under the skin - but there is some uncertainty how much of this is actually medieval. The Crucifixion in the main window certainly is medieval and shows the bones -

"I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death ....
I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture."


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