International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Georgios
Velenis
,
 
Τα ψηφιδωτά του τρούλου της Ροτόντας στη Θεσσαλονίκη. 
Περιεχόμενο και τρόπος σύνθεσης του εικονογραφικού προγράμματος
Elida Miraj, 
The Early Christian Mosaics from Dyrrachium
Ljubinka Džidrova
The Early Christian Floor Mosaics from
 Heraclea Lyncestis
and the spheres of Influence 
– East and West – in the Republic of Macedonia and the Central (West) Balkans
Elizabeta Dimitrova
,
 
Ars Viva of Macedonia Paleocristiana. Byzantine Frescoes in the Episcopal Basilica at Stobi
Patrick Blanc
–
Véronique Blanc-Bijon
,
 
Nouvelle intervention sur la mosaïque du sanctuaire de Mar Gabriel (Turquie orientale)
Bertrand Billot
,
 
Les femmes des Évangiles dans l’art protobyzantin : choix des scènes et problèmes d’identification
Anđela Gavrilović
, 
The Inlaid Opus Sectile Panels with Dolphins from above the Imperial Door 
in Saint Sophia in Costantinople
Mikhail V. Fomin
, 
Склеп «на Земле Н. И. Тура» в ранне византийском Херсонесе – 
Херсоне как памятник становления Церкви в городе
Asnu Bilban Yalçin
, 
Recent Restoration Work in the Museum of Aya Sofya (2011-16)

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68
Diliana Angelova
University of California, Berkeley CA, United States; 
[e-mail]
The Virgin Mary and the Quadernity
In recent years a number of scholars have argued that the cult to the Virgin Mary emerged 
in the eight or the ninth century. These scholars have seen Marian cult as driven by two related 
developments: 1) the iconophile theology of the image, which emphasized the humanity of Christ 
and its Marian origins, and 2) the emergence of “affective piety,” devotional emphasis on the suffering 
Christ and Mary’s anguish, both of which were rendered in emotive literary and visual images.
The present paper challenges these arguments by analyzing images of Mary in the apses 
of early Christian churches. These fifth- and sixth-century mosaics usually show the Theotokos 
enthroned with the Child on the lap with angels and martyrs bringing her gifts. On theological and 
iconographic grounds, this presentation argues that early Christian apse mosaics, starting with the 
non-extant fifth-century image in the Church of the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, consistently 
showed the Theotokos as the fourth person in the “Quadernity.” The “Quadernity” is a neglected 
fifth-century idea that follows from the argument that if Christ was with the Virgin and of the 
Virgin, then the Theotokos should be considered as the fourth person of the Trinity. Though 
contested, specifically by Nestorius’s supporters, the idea that Mary should be considered as part 
of the Christian understanding of the divine found its way into the documents from the Council 
of Ephesus. Consequently, early Christian apse mosaics with the Virgin Mary attest to Marian 
veneration. They call the faithful for venerating the Theotokos on par with her son. 
By demonstrating the tight connections between theology and the visualization of the divine 
mysteries, the paper formulates a new definition on the chronology and essence of the Byzantine 
cult of images before the Iconoclasm.