International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Francesca Dell’Acqua
University of Birmingham, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, 
College of Arts and Law, Birmingham, United Kingdom, 
[e-mail]
On the Iconography of the Hypapante in Western Art 
(And the Earliest Latin Homilies on the Feast)
The celebration of the Presentation in the Temple of the newborn Christ recalled by the Gospel 
of Luke (2, 22–39) is first recorded in Jerusalem by the late fourth century, then in Constantinople, 
and by the seventh century in Rome at the latest. Involving the urban crowd, the candle-lit procession 
which re-enacted the arrival of the Holy Family in Jerusalem is recalled by the earliest original Latin 
homilies composed for the feast: those of Bede and Ambrosius Autpertus. The latter was an eye-
witness of the celebration. Because of the many themes involved in the event – the presentation 
of the newborn in the Temple, the purification of the mother from giving birth, the prophecy of 
Symeon, the death of Symeon after recognizing the Christ-Light as the Saviour – the Presentation 
in the Temple became the object of different interpretations, as attested by texts and visual arts. As 
will be demonstrated, these various interpretations reflected substantial changes in the religious 
mentality, which were often a consequence of major doctrinal controversies tainted by international 
political tensions, especially between the seventh and the ninth centuries. In a scene that is absent 
in the earliest representations of the event, an altar appears below Christ Child while Mary hands 
him to Symeon in the early ninth century. This will be explained through reference to the emphasis 
placed on the Incarnation and the sacrifice of Christ by the on-going theological discourse, and by 
the homilies of Bede and Autpertus on the feast in particular.

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