International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

BOOK ILLUMINATION IN THE BYZANTINE WORLD
Chairs: 
Engelina Smirnova, Smiljka Gabelić
Armin Bergmeier
, 
The So-Called Last Judgment Miniature in the 
Topographia Christiana
(Vat. Gr. 699) 
and the Emergence of “Eschatological Time”
Guentcho Banev
, 
On the Miniatures of the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard in the Byzantine Manuscript 
Paris. Gr. 74 and Its Slavonic Replicas and Parallels
Nino Kavtaria
, 
Byzantine and Georgian Cultural Relation of the 12
th
Century: 
Gelati Gospel (Q-908) from the National Centre of Manuscripts and Cod. 93 
from Athens National Library
Anne-Catherine Baudoin
, 
Joseph of Arimathea as the “Blessed Man who Walks Not in the Counsel of the Ungodly”: 
The Visual Exegesis of Psalm 1 in the Serbian Psalter
Engelina Smirnova
, 
On the Miniatures of the Novgorod Psalter of Simon of the 2
nd
Quarter of the 14
th
Century 
(Moscow, State Historical Museum, Chlud. 3)
Snežana Filipova
, 
Palaeologan Art and Its Legacy in Post-Byzantine Art 
(Case Study of Benče Manuscript from Makedonski Brod)

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811
Armin Bergmeier
Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany; 
[e-mail]
The So-Called Last Judgment Miniature in the 
Topographia Christiana
(Vat. Gr. 699) and the Emergence of “Eschatological Time”
This talk will challenge the traditional narrative of the emergence of eschatological thought in 
images from and prior to the ninth century. It will do so by reconsidering a miniature in Kosmas 
Indikopleustes’ Topographia Christiana, a sixth-century cosmological text, preserved in three 
manuscripts, the earliest from the ninth century (Vat. gr. 699). The Topographia miniature has 
often been discussed as the earliest depiction of the Byzantine Last Judgment iconography (Herbert 
Kessler, “Gazing at the Future: The Parousia Miniature in Vatican gr. 699”, 1995). However, in this 
paper I will argue that tempting as the visual similarities might be, the miniature showing the 
enthroned Christ above angels, the living, and the dead was not in fact a Last Judgment.
I will argue that the Topographia miniature was conceived not as an image of the future, but 
rather as an image of the present condition of the world. In order to explain how this misunderstanding 
happened, I will consider the miniature alongside both the original text and other images from 
the eighth and nine centuries, which have similarly been ascribed eschatological meaning in the 
art historical literature. Some of these, such as the Al-Moallaqa lintel from Cairo, share the fate 
of the Topographia miniature. Others however, such as an illumination from the ninth-century 
Sacra Parallela, actually offer proof of the emergence of true eschatological imagery. By analyzing 
the late antique homiletic text quoted in the manuscript in relation to the accompanying image, I 
demonstrate that the meaning of the text shifted to focus on the end of times. These latter examples 
show essential differences to the Topographia miniature, which characterize them as actual Judgment 
scenes. The Topographia miniature, however, never participated in this development and instead 
visualized the present condition of the world in accordance with the sixth-century text it illustrates.