engleski

Byzantinizing reliquaries in Dalmatia

Most prominent among the rich holdings of the Treasury of the Cathedral at Dubrovnik are the head and arm reliquaries of the city’s patron saint, St. Blaise, the fourth-century Armenian bishop who, according to tradition, became its patron in the tenth century after rescuing the city by appearing in a dream to a priest to warn of an imminent Venetian attack. Both objects have enamels dated to the eleventh and twelfth centuries and usually described as Byzantine. The enamel and silver head or skull reliquary is a Byzantine crown set with 24 enamels, and the silver-gilt arm reliquary retains nine enamels of its original eighteen, many depicting patron saints of Dubrovnik. This paper explores the possibility that rather than Byzantine, the enamels are Byzantinizing and connects these reliquaries to others now in Zadar. For the most part ignored by the ever- growing literature on Byzantine reliquaries, some were included in the recent exhibition “Et ils s’emerveillèrent” – L’art médiévale en Croatie at the Musée Cluny in Paris. Yet the question of their place in Byzantine and Byzantinizing art remains to be reconsidered. Indeed, the larger context of the objects is the role of Dalmatian cities, especially Zadar and Dubrovnik, as crossroads within the Byzantine Empire, Dubrovnik’s trade and cultural relations with Apulia, and its ties to the Church of Rome in the eleventh century when Dubrovnik established its bishopric.

reliquary; Saint Blaise; Dubrovnik; enamels; Byzantine

nije evidentirano