Kompozicija Čudo u Latomosu kao predmet istoriografskih analiza: od apside Hosios Davida do Poganovske ikone
Composition Miracle of Latomos as a Theme of Iconographic Research: From the Apse of Hosios David to the Icon From Poganovo

Summary/Abstract: The main preoccupation of this text is iconographical analysis of depictions of the Miracle of Latomos. Firstly, we discussed historical background of the Miracle. At the end of the third century AD, a miraculous thing happened in Thessaloniki. Mosaic depiction of Virgin Mary transformed into Christ’s face, and that is what we today call the Miracle of Latomos. This mosaic is today connected with Hosios David church in Thessaloniki. This composition influenced various depictions of the Miracle of Latomos. The scene was painted on the walls of the Bone house in monastery of Bachkovo (Bulgaria) in the eleventh century. Unfortunately, it is very damaged, and only the figure of the prophet Ezekiel is preserved. At the end of the fourteenth century, the most detailed composition of the Miracle of Latomos was painted on the Icon of Poganovo. Classical iconography was taken from Hosios David, but in the Icon of Poganovo, the scene was enriched with a depiction of a lake with seven fish. The Icon from Poganovo has two sides and it is important to discuss its other side too. In the averse side we can see Virgin Kataphyge meaning safehouse. The donor of this icon was Helene of Serres (Jelena Mrnjavčević), who had tragic life, so she needed a kataphyge. Based on all the information given, we can conclude that all three depictions of the Miracle of Latomos represent soteriological ideas. Due to complexity of its symbolic meaning, the composition was painted very rarely, confirming the fact that people who ordered the Miracle to be painted, Jelena Mrnjavčević and a responsible person from Bachkovo, were among the best educated people of their times.

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