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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.
165
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.
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