MIRACLE 0.1.
The narrative:
THE MIRACULOUS ICON OF VIRGIN MARY WHICH WAS IMPRINTED IN A TREE HOLLOW, AT THE VILLAGE OF PLATANIOTISSA, ACHAIA,GREECE c. 840 AD.
This visual metanarrative is based on the miraculous icon of Virgin Mary.
According to the legend, the icon was imprinted on a plane tree, during Iconoclasm, when the monks of the Great Cave tried to save the icon of Virgin Mary. Protecting the icon, they transported it from place to place and so they spent one night in the village of Klapatsouna (as it was called then), in the natural hollow of the plane tree. In the morning, when they took the icon to continue their way, they were surprised to see its imprint on the tree, at the location where they had put it at night.
Another narrative is about the Evangelist Luke, who when he came to Achaia, after the death of the Apostle Paul, brought with him from Palestine the image of the Virgin Mary, which he had painted himself and which he had given to the first Christians. At the time of the persecution, Christians took refuge in the cave, where they hid it. The Icon remained in the cave until it was miraculously discovered by Saint Euphrosyne, who revealed it to the two Thessalonian monks Symeon and Theodore, who, after a vision, left Jerusalem and arrived in the area to look for the icon.
The Metanarrative:
Mockup in scale for the Great Cave painting
All Rights Reserved © Karoussos Archives
Τhe iconographic narration of the miracle by Karoussos presents an anachronism, relevant to that of the icon of the Restoration.
The painter, in order to narrate a miraculous event that took place during the Iconoclasm, he meta-narrates the important role that the Great Cave played, during the Greek Revolution of 1821. Therefore, the witnesses of the miracle are, actually, the representatives of the Revolution.
Ηowever, instead of an anachronism one may consider it as a metanarrative, because neither the essence of the narrative nor its Byzantine character allow the anachronism to be considered as an element in the artwork.
Basically, this becomes legit, if one considers that, on the one hand, the meta-narrative contains other meta-narratives without a time-serial structure. On the other hand, time in Byzantine art is differentiated and altered. The past, the present, and the future come together, and all events are timeless. For example, in the image of Pentecost, Paul is shown sitting in one of the first seats even though he was historically absent. The explanation is that Pentecost does not refer to a particular timeframe. It started that day, but it continues to happen since Pentecost is the constant presence of the Holy Spirit in the church.
Likewise, Virgin Mary, the core of this miracle, has a timeless position as the Invincible Champion -Υπερμάχος ΣτρατηγÏŒς-, that certifies her presence in any time and place.
The Transhistorical Metanarrative:
"Doxology" St. Spyridon Chapel - All Rights Reserved © Karoussos Archives
The metanarrative of the Great Cave's metanarrative is a transhistorical narrative that is deeply embedded in the local culture and offers a social legitimation through the anticipated completion of a master idea. However, as in all metanarratives, the master idea has not yet been completed and therefore it provides the required interoperability for future metanarratives to come.
Based on the narration of the miracle, the iconographic metanarrative of the chapel is composed of the cumulative nature of the metanarratives and their reliance on some form of transcendent and universal truth
"Doxology", named after the events of Greek Revolution, embeds the non-linearity of time, as depicted in the Great Cave's metanarrative and also modifies the space of the miraculous scene. The depicted place is Verga and the Messenian Bay, in where the chapel is located. The enlargement of historical narration, by adding the signification of the unconquered Mani, after the Greek victory of the Battle of Verga (June 22-25, 1826) provides
additional semiology to the narrative.
Semantic elements
A metanarrative involves a relationship with other metanarratives without necessarily quoting or mentioning them. Hence, in Doxology, the miracle is embedded in the semantic elements of the iconography,
-The Icon
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The group of people accompanying the icon annotates the miraculous phenomenon of the nimbus, written in the Old Testament, in the Book of Exodus, where Moses leads the Israelites from Egypt in an extraordinary Exodus. According to the narrative, a nimbus led people to their departure from Egypt. In the morning, the nimbus was showing the way, while casting a shadow to protect people from the heat. At night, it was casting light to illuminate the way of the Exodus. Sometimes it was ahead and other times, it stayed back, as a rearguard.
In Byzantine semiology, the nimbus is the Virgin Mary, who, as another kind of nimbus, embraces, guides, and protects people in perpetuity.
-The figures
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The figures on the left side are depicted while they are reaching the point where the image will be placed, after a difficult course. The figures seem to have been recorded as a snapshot while walking towards their destination. In the composition, the diagonal axis of the group, tends, upwards and outside the canvas, indicating the influx of people accompanying the icon. The sixteen figures, wear traditional apparel of the Revolution era, which had been translated precisely, in the hybrid fresco, from the Great Cave painting.
On the right side, the representatives of the church are the bishop and two young deacons, who have the same authority as the angels, that is, to serve on the altar.
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-APPAREL
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The costume is a kind of communication code; it states the elements of the social and cultural environment in which the iconographic narrative takes place. Thus, just as in a literary description, the visual rendering of a garment should contain all its detail, both historically and aesthetically. The vivid colors, the gold-embroidered details, and the qualities in the fabrics, but also in all the other parts of the apparel, compose the historical structure of the narrative, as well as the visual space and the color structure of the artwork.
The painting of the Great Cave has been executed after a thorough study of the clothes of this period and especially those that concerned the tradition of Morea. Therefore, the richness of historical data and aesthetic mastery was translated digitally, transferring the historical and cultural cohesion.
-The Architectural elements& the area
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In Byzantine art, buildings have no value in themselves, but they are signs that emphasise the position of the figures and contribute to the semantics of the context.
Although the painting of the Great Cave does not include any architectural elements, the hybrid fresco has added two sides of the architectural edifice: On the left side, a complex of Maniot houses is depicted, while on the right side, the church is indicated by an indoor arched wall with columns at its sides.
The area is the village of Verga, where the historic battle, that kept Mani unconquered, took place. During this battle, the civilian population lifted the icon of the Virgin Mary (the hope of the Christians) from the shrine of the Church of the Annunciation of Theotokos, with all other icons that were inside the church and formed a procession in the direction of Mount Kalathi from where they had an overview of the battlefield.
All these elements contribute as landmarks to the visual meta-narrative and offer to locals, but not only, their inherent relationship with the artwork, thus helping them to understand its semantic references.
The longwall
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Verga was a stone fortress (longwall) that was built in July 1826 in the village of Verga, the strategic point which was the only entrance to western Mani. The Wall that the Maniots built to face Ibrahim's troops was two meters high and 1500 meters long. With loopholes and two war towers. It was made of dry stone, starting from the sea, and reaching the rock Kastraki in Kato Verga.
To highlight the importance of this wall, the hybrid fresco depicts it, in the form of an iconostasis. In this way, it also strengthens the notion of the relation between the indoor and outdoor space that governs the entire synthesis.
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