The shaping of an icon: St Luke, the artist

Abstract

This paper addresses why, in legends concerning portraits of Christ and the Virgin painted from life, Saint Luke the Evangelist is named as the artist. The paper focuses on the perceived identity of Luke in early Byzantium, arguing that his status as a Christian, Evangelist and doctor made him the most credible figure as the artist in the story and the person most likely to be accepted into the Church's history as a painter.

Notes

1 Andrew of Crete, De Sanctarum Imaginum Veneratione, ed. J.-P. Migne, PG 97 (Paris 1857‒66) 1304B-C; trans. in M. Bacci, ‘With the paintbrush of the Evangelist Luke’, in M. Vassilaki (ed.), Mother of God: Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine Art (Milan 2000) 79‒89 (p. 80). On attribution: M.-F. Auzépy, ‘La carrière d'André de Crète’, BZ 88/1 (1995) 1‒12, here at 7.

2 Irenaeus, Contra Haeresis, i, 25.6: Migne, PG 7, 685.

3 Epiphanios Salamis, Panarion, i, 2, 6.9: Migne, PG 41, 373C.

4 Doctrine of Addai, the apostle, ed. G. Phillips (London 1876) 5.

5 Acts of Thaddeaus, eds R. A. Lipsius and M. Bonnet, Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha, I (Leipzig 1891‒1903) 273‒78. On these changes to the legend, and why this interpolation occurred in relation to the general development of the veneration of images in early Byzantium and the specific religious instability of Edessa in the fifth and sixth centuries, see S. Runciman, ‘Some remarks on the Image of Edessa’, Cambridge Historical Journal 3/3 (1931) 238‒52. A. Cameron, ‘The history of the Image of Edessa: a telling of a story’, Harvard Ukrainian Studies 7 (1987) 80‒94. J. J. Drijvers, ‘The Image of Edessa in the Syriac tradition’, in H. Kessler and G. Wolf (eds), The Holy Face and the Paradox of Representation (Bologna 1998) 11‒31.

6 Julius Africanus (spurious), Narratio de rebus Persicis: Migne, PG 10, 108A.

7 Vita S. Pankratios of Taormina, full text unpublished, extracts in A. N. Veselovskij (ed.), Sbornik Otdelenija Russkogo Jazyka i Slovesnosti Imperatorskoj Akademii Nauk 40/ 2 (St Petersburg 1886).

8 R. Grigg, ‘Byzantine credulity as an impediment to antiquarianism’, Gesta 26/1 (1987) 3‒9, here at 5.

9 Canon eighty-two, Canons of the Quinisext Council, in J. B. Pitra, Juris Ecclesiastici Graecorum Historia et Monumenta, II (Rome 1864‒68) 62‒3. L. Brubaker and J. Haldon, Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era c. 680–850: A history (Cambridge 2011) 62‒64. On the canons that related to imagery, see L. Brubaker, ‘In the beginning was the Word: art and Orthodoxy at the councils of Trullo (692) and Nicaea II (787)’, in A. Louth and A. Casiday (eds), Byzantine Orthodoxies (Aldershot 2006) 95‒101.

10 E. Kitzinger, ‘The cult of images in the age before Iconoclasm’, DOP 8 (1954) 83‒150, here at 124. Discussed further in J. Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a Culture (Cambridge 1990) 281; Brubaker and Haldon, Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era c. 680–850: a history, 61‒4.

11 Brubaker and Haldon, Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era, 61‒4.

12 Νουθεσία, in B. M. Melioransky (ed.), Georgii Kiprianin I Ioann Ierusalimlianin. Dva maliozvetsnikh borca za pravoslavie v. VIII veke (St Petersburg 1901) xxvii‒xxix, xxxii.

13 John of Damascus, De Sacris imaginibus adversus Constantinum Cabalinum, v, PG 95, 321. George Hamartolos, Chronicon, iv, 248: Migne, PG 110, 920. Epistola ad Theophilum Imperatorem de Sanctis et Venerandis Imaginibus: PG 95, 345‒86.

14 Part text in translation in: T. Dasnabedian, ‘L'histoire de l'icône de Hogeak‘ Vank‘. Une attribution à Moïse K‘ert‘ol’, Handes Amsorya 107 (1993) 149‒66.

15 M. Bacci, Il pennello dell'Evangelista: Storia delle immagini sacre attribuite a san Luca (Pisa 1998) 188.

16 Bacci, Il pennello, 187.

17 Bacci, Il pennello, 189.

18 E. von Dobschütz, Christusbilder: Untersuchungen zur christlichen Legende (Leipzig 1899; repr. 2010) 26‒39.

19 M. Cunningham, Wider than Heaven: Eighth-century homilies on the Mother of God (Crestwood, NY 2008) 42.

20 Bacci, Il pennello.

21 M. Bacci, ‘The legacy of the Hodegetria: holy icons and legends between East and West’, in M. Vassilaki (ed.), Images of the Mother of God, 321‒36.

22 B. Pentcheva, Icons and Power: the Mother of God in Byzantium (University Park 2006) 109‒44.

23 References to Luke as an artist are found in numerous texts including: Νουθεσία, ed. in Melioransky, Georgii Kiprianin I Ioann Ierusalimlianin, v-xxxix; John of Damascus, De Sacris Imaginibus Adversus Constantinum Cabalinum, v: Migne, PG 95, 321C; Anthony of Novgorod, The Pilgrim's Book, ed. B. de Khitrowo, Itinéraires Russes en Orient, Publications de la Société de l'Orient Latin, 5 (Geneva 1889) 99.

24 Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos, Ecclesiasticae Historiae: Migne, PG 145, 876.

25 Theodoros Anagnostes, Historia Ecclesiastica, i, 15: Migne, PG 86a, 173.

26 On authorship see: P. Walters, The Assumed Authorial Unity of Luke and Acts: a reassessment of the evidence (Cambridge 2008).

27 Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Origen name Luke as the author of the Gospel.

28 D. Krueger, Writing and Holiness: The Practice of Authorship in the Early Christian East (Philadelphia 2004) 36.

29 Georgios Hamartolos, Chronicon, iv, 248: Migne, PG 110, 920. Ioannes ho Damaskenos, De Sacris Imaginibus Adversus Constantinum Cabalinum, 5: Migne, PG 95, 321. Vita S. Stephen the Younger, by Stephanos Diakonos: Migne, PG 100, 1085.

30 On the concept of imagination in Byzantium, see L. James, ‘Art and lies: text, image and imagination in the medieval world’, in A. Eastmond and L. James (eds), Icon and Word. The Power of Images in Byzantium: Studies presented to Robin Cormack (Aldershot 2003) 59‒72.

31 i John 1.1. John 1.14. John 1.29.

32 For example, John 1.34.

33 A Lexicon, Abridged from Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford 1891) 145, 196, 299. Bacci, ‘With the paintbrush of the Evangelist Luke’, in Vassilaki (ed.), Mother of God, 81.

34 Andrew of Crete, De Sanctarum Imaginum Veneratione: Migne, PG 97, 808B.

35 Andrew of Crete, Migne, PG 97, 1301D.

36 Luke 1.1‒4.

37 For example, it means ‘from above’ in: John 3.31, James 3.17.

38 Luke 1.1‒4, 12, 29. 2.15, 17, 30, 48. 3.6. 4.20. 5.2, 8, 20, 26‒27. 6.20, 41‒42. 7.3, 22, 25‒26, 39. 8.10, 16, 20, 28, 34‒36, 47. 9.9, 27, 32, 36, 49, 54. 10.22‒23, 31, 33. 11.33‒34, 38. 12.54‒55. 13.12, 28, 34. 14.18. 15.20. 16.23. 17.14‒15, 22‒23. 18.13‒15, 24, 43. 19.3‒7, 37. 20.13‒14, 20, 27, 30‒31, 42. 21.1‒2. 22.49, 58. 23.8, 40, 47. 24.16, 23–24, 31, 37, 39.

39 Discourse on the authority of the two senses preceded Iconoclasm. Sight was the primary sense for Plato and Aristotle: Plato, Republic, vii, 514‒20, ed. P. Shorey (London 1930‒35). Aristotle, Metaphysics, i, 1, ed. H. Tredennick (London 1933). Byzantine sources on the hierarchy of the senses include Basil the Great, Homilia 17 In Barlaam Martyrem: Migne, PG 31, 489; Vita S. Spyridon, 20, by Theodoros, ed. P. van den Ven, La légende de S. Spyridon évêque de Trimithonte (Louvain 1953); Miracula S. Demetrios: Migne, PG 116, 1265; Anastasios Sinaitos, Hodegos, 11: Migne, PG 89, 198.

40 John of Damascus, Contra Imaginum Calumniators Orationes Tres, i, 22: Migne, PG 94, 1341.

41 Luke 6.7. 14.1 20.20. Acts 9.24. See W. K. Hobart, The Medical Language of St. Luke; a proof from internal evidence that “The Gospel according to St. Luke” and “The acts of the apostles” were written by the same person and that the writer was a medical man (Dublin 1882) x.

42 Colossians 4.14.

43 The Miracles of St. Artemios: A collection of miracle stories by an anonymous author of seventh-century Byzantium, ed. V. S. Crisafulli and J. W. Nesbitt (Leiden 1996). See esp. miracles 3, 4, 20, 21, 23‒6, 36, 44.

44 See, for an overview, J. Haldon, ‘Supplementary essay’, in The Miracles of St. Artemios, ed. Crisafulli and Nesbitt, 33‒75, here at 44‒5.

45 O. Temkin, ‘Byzantine medicine: tradition and empiricism’, DOP 16 (1962) 95, 97‒115.

46 Alexander von Tralles: Original-Text und Übersetzung nebst einer einleitenden Abhandlung: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Medicin, ed. by T. Puschmann, I (Vienna 1878‒9) 571‒73. Temkin, ‘Byzantine medicine’, 110.

47 Prokopios, De Aedificiis, i, 7, ed. H. B. Dewing (London 1940).

48 Pliny, Natural History, ed. H. Rackman (London 1963) xxxv, 16 (Cleanthes invented drawing an outline) 42 (Mico I invented black ink) 122 (Aristides invented encaustic technique). See E. Kris and O. Kurz, Legend, myth, and magic in the image of the artist (New Haven 1979) 22.

49 Acts 4.3. Homilies on John 2.1.

50 Eusebios, Ecclesiastical History, iii, 24.2.

51 Exodus 34.

52 Vita S. Stephen the Younger, by Stephen the Deacon: Migne, PG 100, 1067‒186; ed. M.-F. Auzépy, La Vie d’Étienne la Jeune par Étienne la Diacre, introduction, edition et traduction, Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs, 3 (Aldershot 1997).

53 Nicholas Maniacutius, De sacra imagine SS. Salvatoris (repr. in G. Wolf, Salus Populi Romani: Die Geschichte römischer Kultbilder im Mittelalter (Weinheim 1990) 321‒25); Gregory of Kykkos, Description of the Kykkos monastery, edn in K. Chatzipsaltis, ‘Τὸ ἀνέκδοτο κείμενο τοῦ ἀλεξανδρινοῦ κώδικος 176 (366). Παραδόσεις καὶ ίστορία τῆς μονῆς Κύκκου’, Kypriakai Spoudai 14 (1950) 39‒69, here at 51‒2.

54 N. Schibille, ‘The profession of the architect in Late Antique Byzantium’, B 79 (2009) 360‒79.

55 Procopius, De Aedificiis, i, 1.68.

^* The present article derives largely from my doctoral thesis, 'In the image of Saint Luke: The Artist in Early Byzantium' (University of Sussex 2013). I am especially grateful to Liz James, Leslie Brubaker and Michelle O'Malley for their critical discussions and support, and to the anonymous reviewers of the article for sharing their insights with me.