The Byzantine World by Stephenson Paul;

Author:Stephenson, Paul;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Humanities
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2010-02-10T16:00:00+00:00

This prayer carries the visceral, abrasive power of John the Baptist; there is no middle ground, the world is divided into those who transgress without repentance, unable to carry the reproach of darkness and those who follow the right path. Death is meted out to the sinful, salvation to the righteous. The icon becomes the site of judgment, for the Forerunner asks Christ to see and thus condemn and punish the evildoers. The axe and the severed head only intensify the sheer anger and fury of John’s speech.

The word “reproach” (elegmos) is laden with meaning, for it refers both to the trial by water (elegmos tou hydatou: Numbers 2:18–31) and to John the Baptist’s washing of the sins of the repentant. The Virgin herself was subjected to this trial by water when Joseph questioned her purity after her encounter with the Archangel Gabriel.

Elegmos/reproach connects the right side of the panel to the left. The left side of the icon forms a visual and textual model for bearing the good fruits of repentance. At the top Zacharias receives the news of the conception of his son, below Mary offers a purple cloth to the Baptist, followed by a quotation from the Gospel (Matthew 3:10) and an image of a tree and an axe. The inscription emphasizes that only the trees bearing good fruit will be spared the axe and fire of destruction:

And even now the axe is laying at the root of the trees – therefore every tree that is not bearing good fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire.

(Matthew 3:10)46

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