Представе небеских светила Сунца и Месеца у живопису манастира Крупе (1617–1618) и њихов програмски контекст

Abstract

Католикон манастира Крупе осликао је знаменити и образовани српски живописац и хиландарски монах Георгије Митрофановић у другој деценији XVII века, по свој прилици 1617–1618. године (сл. 1). Он је на веома необичном програмском месту у оквиру сликаног репертоара храма приказао представе Сунца и Месеца – у зони пандантифа на северном и јужном зиду поткуполног простора, између јеванђелиста и Христових Нерукотворених образа (сл. 2–5). Иако су представе Сунца и Месеца присутне у старој српској уметности поствизантијског периода, од којих је неке извео управо поменути хиландарски зограф, нигде другде до времена осликавања Крупе оне нису илустроване на овом месту у оквиру сликаног програма храма. Њихов идејни контекст у овој цркви представља предмет истраживања овог рада.

The church of Dormition of the Virgin in the monastery of Krupa (fig. 1) has been painted by a well-known and learned Serbian painter from Chilandar monastery on Holy Mount Athos in the second decade of the 17th century, most probably in the years 1617–1618. He executed the heavenly luminaries the Sun and Moon in a very unusual programmatic place in the scope of the painted decoration of the church – in the register of pendentives, under the dome, between the figures of evangelists and the Aheiropoita (“Icons not made by human hands”), Mandylion and Keramion namely (fig. 2–5). Although the representations of Sun and Moon are present in old Serbian art of the Ottoman Turkish period, some of which were painted by Georgije Mitrofanović himself, nowhere else before the fresco decoration of Krupa did these heavenly luminaries appear in this area of the church in such a programmatic context. Apart from that, the reasons behind depicting of these heavenly luminaries as well as their relationship with the adjacent scenes have remained unexplained by scholars. The article is divided into six parts: 1) the introduction; 2) the state of the research; 3) the iconography and the placement of the representation of the heavenly luminaries, the Sun and the Moon in the painted programme of the church; 4) the history of the scenes illustrated between the pendentives and the reasons for their depiction; 5) the meaning of the heavenly luminaries in the painted programme of the area below the dome and 6) conclusions. Two greatest luminaries, the Sun and the Moon, are illustrated in the catholicon of the Krupa monastery, located in northern Dalmatia, on the river Krupa, as separated figures in the scope of the complex conceptual unit. They are depicted in a pair, as counterparts, on the southern and northern wall surfaces between pendentives, the Sun as the fiery sphere with rays and anthropomorphic face, and the Moon in the same manner as the grey sphere with rays (fig. 2–5). They are given a special place in the iconographic programme of the church – they are depicted in individual fields separated from other frescoes with a special red border. The heavenly bodies are not marked with inscriptions. It is no coincidence that the representations of the Sun and Moon have been illustrated, according to cosmological interpretations, in the border area of the church between the space of heaven and earth. The very position of the heavenly luminaries as well as their interaction with the adjacent scenes both point to their meaning. In this article we came to the conclusion that the representations of the Sun and the Moon in Krupa in the register of the pendentives symbolically allude to Christ’s Incarnation and His dual nature, both human and divine, which is attested by church authors, Teoteknos of Livia, Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Saint Theodore the Studite and others. The present paper also discusses the relationship of the representations of the Sun and the Moon and evangelists, as well as the relationship of the verses in the bottom of the dome (the troparion and kondakion of the Dormition feast) with the heavenly luminaries and busts of prophets and Christ forefathers. It is pointed out that the verses of some prophets allude to the mystery of Incarnation. In the conclusion, several conclusions of scholar Zdravko Kajmaković concerning the work of Georgije Mitrofanović are confirmed, and others rejected.