International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Natalia Teteriatnikov
Washington D.C., United States; 
[e-mail]
On the Iconography of the Hypapante in Byzantine Art
This paper discusses the change in iconography of Hypapante from Late Antiquity through the 
period after Iconoclasm. It attempts to explain changes by using the contemporary homiletic literature 
and liturgy. The iconography of Hypapante from Antiquity till the Renaissance has been surveyed by 
Dorothy Shorr. Henry Maguire, on the other hand, focused on the depictions of the Christ Child in the 
hands of Symeon in the Middle and Late Byzantine periods which he proposed is based on homiletic 
literature. Yet the changes of iconography of Hypapante through Late antiquity and after iconoclasm 
in Byzantium were not clearly defined and explained, which I intend to do here.
Originally, the Hypapante (meeting) was an important but minor feast, which was a part of 
the liturgical calendar in Jerusalem already in the fourth century. Images of Hypapante for this 
period are rare. The fifth-century mosaics of Santa Maria Maggiore present the Hypapante or 
the Presentation of Christ in the Temple as a biblical narrative. It shows Symeon near the temple 
meeting Joseph holding sacrificial doves following by Mary holding Christ, who according to 

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Jewish tradition forty days after giving birth brought Jesus into the temple. Using biblical sources, 
early homiletic literature included vivid descriptions in sermons of church fathers, as for example 
Gregory Nazianzen, Basil the Great or John Chrysostom. In ca. 542, emperor Justinian upgraded the 
status of the feast as one of the twelve major feasts celebrated (2 February) throughout the Byzantine 
Empire. One mosaic image of Hypapante is found in Constantinople, which was made after the 
establishment of the feast. The mosaic icon of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple from the 
Kalenderhane, Constantinople (third quarter of the sixth century) shows only Mary presenting the 
Christ Child to Symeon. Here the figures of Joseph and the temple are omitted. Thus the image does 
not provide information as to where the scene occurred. The kontakion of Romanos the Melodist 
(sixth century) which was written for the feast and read in Hagia Sophia, focuses on Mary holding 
the Christ Child and Symeon; Joseph and the prophetess Anna, and the temple are omitted from his 
text. He just added a choir of angels. The ring from the Dumbarton Oaks collection, Washington, 
D.C. (early seventh century, Constantinople?) depicts the same iconographic formula as the mosaic 
from the Kalenderhane. It seems that the artisans of the Kalenderhane image and the Dumbarton 
Oaks ring were familiar with Romanos kontakion and followed his model for constructing images.
During the eighth and ninth centuries the depiction of the scene underwent further changes; 
several images show the scene at the altar. The earliest is an enameled cross of Pope Paschal I (817-
824) from Museo Sacro, Vatican, which was probably made by the byzantine artisans in Rome. It 
depicts Mary and Josef presenting Christ Child to Symeon; Christ is shown above altar. The ninth-
century cross from Pliska, includes the image of Hypapante on the obverse. By excluding Joseph’s 
figure, the artisan focuses on Mary, holding the Christ Child above the altar, and Symeon. Another 
example is the mid-ninth-century Khludov Psalter, Moscow, Historical Museum, fol. 163v, where 
Symeon stands behind the altar stretching his hands through the columns of the ciborium above 
it, whereas Mary holding the Child in front of the altar is followed by Joseph holding doves. By 
depicting Symeon’s hands stretching above the altar and below the ciborium the artisan confirms 
the action of Symeon bringing the Child to the altar. Christ stretches his hands toward Symeon as 
a sign of recognition of his divinity and fulfilment of the prophecy. The major iconographic change 
in both the reliquary cross from Pliska and the Khludov Psalter is the introduction of the altar. 
The images preserved from the ninth and tenth century on with some variations follow this model 
where altar became an important symbol of Christ and the Eucharist. The Khludov Psalter was 
produced in the circle of Patriarch Methodius (788/800 – June 14, 847), and included the newest 
trends in iconography introduced by the iconophiles. As Henry Maguire has suggested, some late 
ninth-century images of Hypapante already show the Christ Child held by Symeon, an iconographic 
feature which was often depicted in the Middle and Late Byzantine art. Nonetheless from the mid. 
ninth century on the scene of Hypapante was always depicted at the altar. Some cases show the altar 
under a ciborium. Presenting an altar under ciborium transforms the image of the temple into a 
sanctuary of a contemporary church familiar to worshipers. The altar as described in the homilies 
of Patriarch Germanos of Constantinople (d.733), Josef the hymnographer (d. 886), and George of 
Nicomedia (2
nd
half of 9
th
c) were probably the sources of a new iconographic type of Hypapante, 
which become a model with some variation in depiction of participants of the scene in the Middle 
and late Byzantine period.

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As suggested, iconography may rely on a variety of sources including liturgy and homiletics. 
After iconoclasm, the depiction of the old biblical story acquires a new liturgical role, where the 
focus is on Christ and an altar, and their Eucharistic meaning. At the same time depicting Mary at 
the altar manifests her purity and her role in the Virgin Birth. This transformation in iconography 
and its variations can be explained by the response to the feast of the church fathers which they 
express in new sermons and liturgical hymns.