"Thebaid": this side of paradise

Abstract

The 8^th symphony of Mahler, which is the musical backdrop to the final scene of the second part of the Faust of Goethe, is the departure point for an analytical examination of the Thebaid motif mentioned in the play. The origins of the Italian Thebaid examples encountered in the Tuscan painting of the 15^th century are undoubtedly Byzantine in their origin and are related to the depictions of the scene of the Dormition of Hosios Ephraim the Syrian. The surviving examples of the painting along with the text of Markos Eugenikos showcase that the Italian painting had played a formative role in the development of the scene. However, the possible tracking of the overall evolution of the theme suggests that the latter was actually born to a purely Byzantine artistic context by the 11^th century. Nevertheless, after 1204, the presence of both Western artists and works of art in the Byzantine territories lead to an appropriation of the subject by the Italian painters. At the same time, the subject was considered to be suitable for the emerging urban class and bourgeois spirit of the Italian society, which was heavily influenced by the creation and prevalence of the religious orders of the Franciscans and Dominicans.