International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

STUDIES IN BYZANTINE ICONOGRAPHY ‒ PART 2
Chairs: 
Mirjana Gligorijević Maksimović, Piotr Ł. Grotowski
Maria Kazamia-Tsernou
, 
The Presence of the Mother of God in Byzantine Art: A Liturgical Approach
Agnes Kriza
,
 
The Life-Giving Body of Christ: The Leaven Debate and Byzantine Sanctuary Decoration
Maria Alessia Rossi
, 
Christ’s Miracle Cycle in the Fourteenth-Century Thessaloniki: 
In-between Religious Policies and Artistic Trends
Rostislava G. Todorova
, 
An Early Fourteenth-Century Visual Theology: First ‘Hesychastic’ Mandorlas
András Kraft
–
Dimitris Minasidis
,
 
An Imperial Komnenian Depiction of the Last Judgment: Kallikles’ Testimony Revisited
Aleksandar Vasileski
,
 
Resurrection of the Dead as Conceptual Basis for the Representations of Last Judgment 
in the Monastery Churches St. Nikola, Manastir and St. Bogorodica, Manastirec
Mirjana Gligorijević Maksimović, 
Classical Elements in the Paintings at Saint Niketas near Skopje

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Maria Kazamia-Tsernou
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Theology, 
School of Theology, Thessaloniki, Greece; 
[e-mail]
The Presence of the Mother of God in Byzantine Art: A Liturgical Approach
The iconography of Panaghia has been an object of various scientific approaches from 
historical, archaeological and theological point of view. A great number of scholars focused on this, 
that is why the relevant bibliography is particularly extensive.
Our acquaintance with the person of Panaghia is primarily based upon the New Testament text 
and secondarily on the apocryphal literature. It is well-known that Panaghia holds a “peripheral” 
role in the New Testament in the sense that relative connotations are fragmentary and laconic. 
This is due to the character of the New Testament text through which the historically substantiated 
earthly presence of Jesus Christ comes first and mostly his teaching in the context of divine economy 
for man’s salvation. Nevertheless, the patristic literature, the ecclesiastical poetry and the orthodox 
liturgical tradition in general, reserve for Theotokos a special highlighted position. This is wisely 
demonstrated by the phrase of St. John Damascene: “we rightly and truly call holy Maria, Theotokos. 
Because this name constitutes the whole mystery of compensation (oeconomia)”. The worship is 
exceptionally offered to Theotokos (Holy Oblation, Divine Liturgy of John the Chrysostom) as 
being above all holiness. 
Taking into account that the Byzantine art is mainly a liturgical art, in a sense that it is interrelated 
dialectically with the liturgical experience, we wanted to explore how this art comprehends Panaghia’s 
exceptional position in the Divine Liturgy and other holy services (akolouthies). My aim in the 
present communication is a liturgical approach of Virgin’s images presented through characteristic 
selected examples from a variety of media of Byzantine art.