The illuminated kosmogenesis by Georgios Choumnos at Sinai questions of iconography and aesthetics
Abstract
The Cosmogenesis is a poem written by the Cretan poet Georgios Choumnos after 1493 which has survived in four manuscripts two of which, the codex of London and of Sinai are the illustrated ones. The latter was written at Sinai by the end of the 16th century and presents a better textual version of the poem while it surpasses the former artistically too. This short presentation here discusses one of the thorniest issues in the scholarly research, whether there existed a production of illustrated Octateuchs in the centuries after the fall of Constantinople. The aesthetic approach of the Sinai codex reveals an artist who was imaginative and inventive, heavily influenced by the Venetian tastiness, and who had understood the poetic value of the text and tried to express it pictorially.
Article Details
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ΓΑΛΑΒΑΡΗΣ Γ. (2011). The illuminated kosmogenesis by Georgios Choumnos at Sinai questions of iconography and aesthetics. Deltion of the Christian Archaeological Society, 22, 103–114. https://doi.org/10.12681/dchae.295
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