an unnoticed byzantine psalter-ii

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An Unnoticed Byzantine Psalter-II Author(s): Mary Phillips Perry Source: The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 38, No. 219 (Jun., 1921), pp. 282-283+286

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severely practical. They have to do solely with the art of painting; they are born of his own experience; and he makes visible use of them. That is why I call Friesz a painters' painter. I wonder whether the Italian primitives, with that disquietingly unselfconscious inspiration of theirs, directed with such amazing confidence along well-devised, practical channels, were not a little like him.

The exhibition at the Independent Gallery is fairly representative of Friesz's later work; and

if it cannot be said quite to summarize a stage of his career, at least it is a milestone. Friesz has arrived: that is to say, what he has already achieved suffices to affirm the existence of a dis- tinct, personal, talent, entitled to its place in the republic of painting. At that point we leave him. But we may be sure that, with his remarkable gift and even more remarkable power of turning it to account, his energy, his patience, and his manifest ambition, he will soon have gone beyond it.

AN UNNOTICED BYZANTINE PSALTER-II BY MARY PHILLIPS PERRY

HE third class of subject repre- sents scenes from the life of David, several of which are incidents re- corded in the historic preamble to a particular psalm, for example,

David hiding himself in a cave (Psalm lvi) [PLATE III, A], the Philistines taking him in Gath (Psalm Iv), and his escape from the assassins sent by Saul (Psalm lviii) [PLATE III, B & E]; in the last the king is seen being let down from his house by Michal, his wife, and also hastening away, the double representation in the same miniature being unique in this codex. But the greatest artistic interest in the David pictures consists in the close similarity between certain of these, and those of the fine psalter with full-page illustrations of the Bibliothbque Nationale, Paris, M.S. Grec. 139. The Paris manuscript belongs to a section of psalters which has been named the " Aristocratic Group," since they were thought to have been executed for rich patrons, probably by a court painter. These differ entirely from the " Monkish theological," in that the miniatures form a supplement and are not closely related to the text; they do not add to the teaching value of the codex.1 Each is a fully developed enclosed picture with a land- scape, or architectural background.2

One of the most striking resemblances between the Bristol and the Paris psalter is in the representation of the history of David and Goliath. In the Bristol manuscript this is depicted in two miniatures, the first illustrating Psalm cxliii, i, " Blessed be the Lord my strength: Who teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight." [PLATE III, G] shows David, a youthful figure with sling and stone, supported by an angel " strength," meeting a man in armour, Goliath, who has just thrown his lance, and behind whom is an allegorical figure of " boastfulness " turning away with

hand to forehead in an attitude of despair. In the second miniature, which follows the last of the psalms, David is represented decapitating Goliath who is kneeling with his hands stretched awkwardly downwards towards his helmet on the ground before him, two soldiers stand behind Goliath [PLATE III, D]. In the Paris psalter the two scenes are superimposed to form one full-page illustration-the first, the upper one, is a faithful counterpart of the Bristol miniature; in both cases the details of the costume of David, the stole-like enrichment, the cloak twisted round his arm, the dis- tinctive curve of his garment over his knees are identical, as also are Goliath's pose and costume, the position of his shield and spear, and most telling of all the pose and gesture of " boastfulness." The decapita- tion of Goliath below duplicates the second Bristol miniature as far as the principal figures are concerned, the two soldiers being expanded in the Paris manuscript to two groups, one behind each of the chief actors. The first of the two scenes is also reproduced in the thirteenth century Grxeco-Latin Hamilton Psalter of Berlin 3; the allegorical figures are no longer included, but the pose of David and Goliath, particularly the right arm of Goliath, are strikingly like the Paris and Bristol miniatures.

There are marked points of resemblance between the representation of David's rebuke by Nathan [PLATE III, F] in the Bristol and Paris codices. In the Bristol manuscript it belongs to Psalm 1, the preamble to this psalm referring to the incident. David, watched through the window of a garden house by Bathsheba, has left his throne, and is abasing himself before Nathan whilst an allegorical figure of Penitence is in the background. The pose and dress of David, his broad belt and the design on his sleeves are very like similar details in the Paris miniature, as also Nathan's pose and dress, 1 J. J. Tikkanen, op. cit. p. 14. 2 H. Omont, " Fac-similds des Miniatures des plus anciens

Manuscripts Grecs de la Bibliothdque Nationale " (P1. i, xiv). s J. J. Tikkanen, op. cit., Fig. I27.

282


A David in Cave .

C Coronation of David F David rebuked by Nathar

. . . *L I

B Da id and Philistines E David's Escape

D Beheading of Goliath ( David and Goliath

Plate III. An Unnoticed Byzantine Psalter-II


H Elijah between Night and the Dawn L Jonah

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Plate IV. An Unnoticed Byzantine Psalter-II


his covered left hand, and especially the figure of Penitence, which is almost identical in both miniatures, the likeness between the sorrowful pose of her left hand and the pulpitum at which she stands, being particularly arrest- ing. There are also similarities in the scene of the coronation of David, which in the Bristol codex illustrates Psalm xx, 3, " And shall set a crown of pure gold upon his head." [PLATE III, C.] David is being raised upon a shield, according to the Byzantine coronation rite, and crowned by an allegorical figure, pre- sumably Fortune. The pose of Fortune's right arm, and the method of holding the crown by the back of the circle, repeat exactly the detail in the Paris psalter, whilst David's drapery, three of the figures holding the shield, and particularly the knot and point of drapery of one figure, are markedly similar in both instances. The same scene occurs in most of the psalters of the " Monastic-theological " group, but in the Theodore manuscript the allegorical figure has given place to an angel. The similarity between the Paris psalter and the Bristol codex is not confined to scenes from the Life of David, it extends to certain of the miniatures which illus- trate the Canticles, chief of these is the representation of Isaiah between the allegorical figures of Night and the Dawn [PLATE IV, H], which except for a few small details is a duplicate in vignette of a page of the Paris psalter.'

The figures also of Hannah and Hezekiah have a certain resemblance in both manuscripts; in the Bristol psalter the dress of Hannah and her pose are almost identical with that in the Paris psalter; Hezekiah also in the detail of his garments, the pose of his hands and something in the general stamp of his figure and cast of countenance, has a common factor in both. Of lesser significance is the large oar held as sceptre, both by Thalassa who rides the hippo- campus in the Jonah miniature of the Bristol psalter [PLATE IV, L], and by the sea goddess in the corner of the Red Sea picture in the Paris miniature

.5 The similarity in certain respects between the

detail of the Paris psalter and of the Bristol, is here dwelt upon at length to show that these manuscripts, one belonging to each of the two groups, had something in common in artistic tradition, as well as in subject-matte'r. Whether the artist of the eleventh century Bristol manuscript was acquainted with the tenth century Paris psalter and was directly influenced by that, or whether the artists of both drew from a common model, there is no evidence to prove,

but there certainly was some artistic point of contact. The inclusion in the Bristol psalter of two full page miniatures suggests the example of a codex of aristocratic type, but although the Bristol4 is now the earliest known Byzantine psalter to include both full page and marginal illustrations, there is no reason to assume that such was originally the case.

An important point in considering the rela- tionship of the two manuscripts is the employ- ment of allegorical personifications. For the powers of nature, Helios, Thalassa, rivers and winds, personification was the usual means of expression throughout the " Monkish-theological " group, but the personification of abstract ideas was exceptional,' and, in the Bristol manuscript, this is confined to those miniatures which are related to those in the Paris psalter, which admittedly owes much to classic tradition, whence such personifications were derived. In the pictures of the Bristol psalter the personifications of rivers and winds which occur, are for the most part small, dusky, seated figures of grey or blue, many of whom wear large crowns, or wreaths with ribbons flying in the wind [PLATE II, F & I], but the river god which illustrates Ps. i, 3, is of a much finer type; it is a large semi-nude forceful figure of realistic colouring, at once suggestive of a classic prototype. There is a classic feeling also about many of the less active figures in the codex, such as the single figure of Habakkuk [PLATE IV, N]. Another inheritance from the same source is the use of the coloured nimbus for Caiaphas and Nathan, as well as for Night, Day, and the Fortune who crowns David, which resemble in this the Paris psalter. There is an ill-understood representation of the Helios chariot (Psalm xlix, I), a subject which occurs in almost all the psalters of the " Monkish- theological " group, as do also idols represented on pillars.

In the Bristol manuscript the flesh tints are very warm, of a pinkish red colour, shaded with brown, though the female figures are of a paler tint with greenish-grey shading, a distinction which it is significant to note is also made in the Paris psalter.8 The colours used elsewhere are for the most part clear and brilliant, different shades of bright azure blue being predominant. There is no bright yellow except gold, though to a small extent a dull shade of ochre is used.

4 This miniature of the Paris psalter is reproduced by Ch. Diehl op. cit. Fig. 274, and " Histoire de l'Art," ed. by Andr6 Michel, Tome I, Fig. 124, as well as by H. Omont, op. cit.

5 Ch. Diehl. op. cit. fig. 275.

6 I believe this to be correct; I can remember no reference to any full page combined with marginal illustrations before the Graeco-Latin Hamilton psalter of the thirteenth century. M.P.P.

7 J. J. Tikkanen, op. cit. pp. 41, 42. Prof. Tikkanen can only cite one example, that of " Compassion in Chludoff Psalter, fol. 35- 8 The writer is much indebted to Professor Tikkanen for having kindly looked at the flesh tints of the Paris psalter on her behalf, after having seen the Bristol manscript.

287


Curiously brilliant are the architectural details, the buildings being often of pink or mauve, roofed with the brightest blue or red.

In the matter of colour the Bristol manuscript is a great contrast to the Theodore psalter of the same century, in which the flesh tints are much colder with greenish shading, and the general effect of the rest of the colouring is heavier and less transparent. In the Theodore psalter the draperies are emphasized by means of fine gold lines, and hatching,' a method which is entirely absent in the Bristol codex, where gold is used rather sparingly for the enrichment of detail, or for armour, but is always laid on broadly. The contrast between these two manuscripts is emphasized by the difference in the iconographic programme, that of the Theodore psalter being much more extensive, and including non-scrip- tural subjects such as scenes from the lives of the Saints, or incidents of the iconoclastic con- troversy. Another difference lies in the dis- tribution of the miniatures; in the Theodore psalter they are fairly evenly distributed throughout the volume whereas, in the Bristol, there is a great falling off in the number at the end of the Book of Psalms, only three miniatures occurring between Psalm cvi and the beginning of the Canticles. A somewhat similar diminution is also found in other psalters of the group.'" XVith the strong traditional tendency of Byzantine art such contrasts, originating within a comparatively short space of time, make it probable that the two manuscripts were illuminated in different schools. Both in colour and in breadth of treatment of the draperies the Bristol resembles more nearly the Paris than the Theodore psalter. There are points of similarity, between the Bristol codex and Pantokratoros 61, of Mt. Athos, which in- cline to the suspicion that if full data for compari- son were available, some artistic contact between these might be found.

Throughout the Bristol manuscript the type is constant for the representation of Christ, and of the Blessed Virgin, and both follow the Byzan- tine tradition. David is represented in two ways, as a curly-headed youth in the scenes of his more active adventures, or as a bearded king when the occasion is a solemn one [PLATE I, A, PLATE II, G & H, PLATE III, B, D, E, G, PLATE III, F, etc.], but both types are consist- ently maintained to be quite recognisable. Moses also is young, as the leader of the Israelites, old, on the Mount of Transfiguration and between the Night and the Day [PLATE I, A]. Wherever there is a repetition of a prominent character, the individuality is preserved.

The chief architectural features are Basilican churches with single domes on drums [PLATE IV, J], cushion capitals with volutes at the corners [PLATE I1, B & C, PLATE III, F], one design being constantly and conscientiously re- peated, even when the scale is only one-sixteenth of an inch in entire width, sometimes with a lunette above [PLATE IV, J], many of which occupy the entire front of the building. The scale of the buildings is quite out of proportion to that of the figures, being much smaller. The style of doorway is rather suggestive of some Asiatic or Egyptian influence, but if so there is no reason to suppose that this was direct; it might quite well have been embodied in an artistic tradition.

Not many devils are represented, but it is curious that wherever these occur they are obliterated, as though purposely [PLATE II, D]. A good many, though not all, of the devils in the Theodore psalter have been treated similarly.

The artist of this manuscript was often defec- tive in technique, his perspective being impos- sible, and his method of representing a backward look in some instances being the childish ex- pedient of setting the head on the shoulders the wrong way round [PLATE IV], yet working to a fixed theological programme," on an exceedingly small scale, he has managed to preserve a fresh- ness and spontaneity throughout, imparting to his figures a living interest, and filling their tiny faces with expression. In spite of the minute size of the faces, only W to I in. long, and the care with which the principal ones are modelled, they are free from any feeling of over-elabora- tion, and are, in proportion to their scale, broadly treated. The individuality of a real artist has here risen triumphant above his limitations.

The following is a list of all the passages illustrated in the Bristol Psalter, the references being numbered according to the English Authorized Version, Roman numerals indicating the psalms, and Arabic numerals, the verse. The references in the text of the article are to the passages in the Greek Psalter, as the Greek text is the one to which most authorities on the subject of Byzantine Psalters refer.

I, 2, 3, 5? (almost erased); II, 2, II, Nativity; III, Preamble; IV, 8; V, 7, 9; VII, 15; VIII, Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, 7; IX, 17; XII, 6 Resurrection of Christ; XVI, 3; XVIII, 3, 10-12 Christ in Glory, 15; XIX, 3; XXI, 3; XXII, I Crucifixion, 2; XXIII, 2, 4 & 5; XXIV, 7; XXVI, 7 & 8; XXIX, Baptism of Christ; XXXIV, Preamble, 8 Communion of the Apostles; XXXVI? (much erased); XXXIX,

Ii; XL, 2; XLI, 9; XLI, Last Supper; XLII, I;

XLV, Annunciation; XLVII, 5 Ascension, I, L, i; LI, Preamble ; LII, Preamble ; LIV, Preamble ; LVI, Preamble; LVII, Preamble; LVIII, 4; LIX, Preamble; LX, Preamble; LXIII, Preamble; LXV, 4; LXVIII, i Harrowing of Hell, 15-16, 27; LXIX, 21 Crucifixion; LXXII, 6, II

Adoration of the Magi; LXX, 14, ?; LXXVII, 16; Full-page miniatuie before Ps. LXXVIII; LXXVIII, 13-14, 23-24, 27-29, 44-45, 47-48, 5 x; LXXIX, I; LXXXI, r16; LXXXIII, I ; LXXXVIII, 6 Entombment of Christ; LXXXIX, 9, II Transfiguration ; XCI, II-I2 The Temptation; CII,

9 Professor Tikkanen points out, op. cit. p. i8, that a light gold hatching is used in the Chludoff psalter.

10 J. J. Tikkanen, op. cit. p. 89.

11" The Council of Nicaea had decreed that the composi- tion of each subject, down to the smallest detail, was the province of theologians, the part of the artist was confined to the execution." 0. M. Dalton, op. cit. p. 250.

288


Preamble; CV, 17, 20, 23, 29-31, 33, 34, 36, 39, 40; CVI, I1, 19, 28, 37, 42; CXXXVII, I; CXLIV, I; Extra Psalm of Greek Version, Beheading of Goliath.

Illustrations to portions of Scripture included with Greek Psalter :

I Sam. II, ix-o Hannah; Hab. III, x-I9 Habakkuk; Isaiah XXVI, 9; Jonah II, xo; Song of the Three Children; S. Luke I, 46-55, Blessed Virgin as Orans; S. Luke I, 68-79, Priest Censing Zacharias; Isaiah XXXVIII, Hezekiah; Prayer of Manasses; Manasses.

THE SARACENIC HOUSE-II. BY MARTIN S. BRIGGS

fHE earliest example of a mediaeval dwelling-house in Cairo dates from the thirteenth century, whereas the history of Arab art is six hundred years older, and even in the ninth and

tenth centuries Cairo was a large and wealthy city. The recent excavations at Fustat, the southern suburb of Cairo, founded in the middle of the seventh century by Amr, give some slight indication of the most primitive dwel- lings. Nasi-i-Khosrau, a traveller of the eleventh century, visited Egypt during a period of tranquil prosperity. He states that the caliph himself owned twenty thousand houses, five and six storeys high, but these were let in tenements-the raba mentioned later in this chapter. They were built of stone, not brick, and had good gardens. A French visitor at the beginning of the sixteenth century, just before the Turkish conquest, describes the house assigned by the sultan to his embassy, where he was an official.

"'It contained six or seven beautiful halls, paved with marble, porphyry, serpentine, and other rare stones, inlaid with wonderful art; the walls were of similar mosaic, or painted with azure and r-ich colours; the doors inlaid with ivory, ebony, and other singularitez; yet the workmanship excelled the materials. Extensive gardens, filled with fruit-trees, surrounded the mansion, and were watered from the Nile night and morning by means of horses and oxen. Such a house, he exclaims, might have cost 8o,ooo seraps of gold; yet it was but one of a hundred thousand more beautiful still." 3

Turning from these hysterical exaggerations to concrete examples still existing, we find the earliest authenticated in the Ka'a or " Hall of Beybars," otherwise known as the " House of Osman or Othman Katkhoda," but in reality the ka'a of the now non-existent palace of Muhammed Muhebb ed-din. (1253.) This building stands in the Sharia Beit el-Kadi and was constituted "wakf" (i.e. a charitable trust) by Osman Katkhoda2 a Turkish official in the eighteenth century. It was restored by the Comit6 in 1911-12. It consists of a fine ka'a over 50 feet high, with a durka'a and two liwanat, the former lit by a lantern, now unfortunately missing . Loggias filled with musharabiya in the east and west wall allowed the ladies of the harim to watch festivities down below. The chief features of the design are the stone lining of the interior, the fine stalactite corbels, and' the sunk fountain or faskiya in the floor. The

latter is, however, comparatively modern * and was brought from the house of Ayesha el- Bezada.

The Palace of the Emir Yushbak 5 (com- monly called Hosh Bardak) adjoins the great mosque of Sultan Hassan. An inscription states that it was restored by Yushbak in 1475-6, but Creswell 6 adduces an elaborate argument to prove, on architectural grounds, that the original building must have been erected about the year 1337, thereby differing with M. Van Berchem. Although largely ruined, it is still an imposing pile, and possesses one of the finest of the great porches with stalactite heads in all Cairo, comparable with the Bab el-Kattanin at Jerusalem. It is almost entirely built of dressed stone. The facade is featureless in its present state, but contains some remarkable groups of windows, such as might be caused by piercing rudimentary tracery through a wall several feet thick. The ground floor, beyond the stalactited vestibule leading from the porch, consists of chambers with painted vaults of stone. On the upper floor is a gigantic ka'a with vast horseshoe arches of stone.

The Palace of the Emir Beshtak " (1337 or 1339) had a great reputation in the days of the fifteenth-century historian, Makerizi, who states that from its topmost windows one could see the Nile, and praises the richness of its decoration. It lies in the Sharia en-Nahhasin, and is largely submerged by modern buildings. A modern staircase leads up to the remarkable ka'a, which consists of a durka'a and four liwanat. The larger of the two latter are on the east and west, and have noteworthy ceilings 8 coffered in hexagons. The two smaller liwanat are separ- ated from the durka'a by a triple arcade of horseshoe arches. The plan of the whole kaa is thus cruciform. The walls are all lined with stone, and the kdia is in good condition, though the rest of the building is ruinous.

The porch, the only surviving part of the

3 From Lane- Poole's Art of the Saracens, pp. 86-7, quoting Jehan Th6naud.

i See Mrs. Devonshire Rambles in Cairo, p. 93, for good illustration and reference to this fountain. 5 Creswell. A Brief Chronology, etc., p. 99. 6 Illustrated with plans in report of Comitd for 1894, and

in Mrs. Devonshire (op. cit.) and Creswell (op. cit.). 7 See Report of Comitk 1909, with illustrations (also report

for 1902 for life of Beshtak). 8 Illustrated in above report, also in Mrs. Devonshire

op. cit.

289


Article Contentsp. 282p. [283]p. [286]p. 287p. 288p. 289

Issue Table of ContentsThe Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 38, No. 219 (Jun., 1921), pp. 260-318Volume Information [pp. 315-318]The Nameless Exhibition [pp. 261-262]A Self-Portrait by Rembrandt [pp. 260+262-263]The Barend Family [pp. 263-265]The Engraving of Arms on Old English Plate-I [pp. 264-265+267-268]Georgian Rummers [pp. 270-273+276-278]Othon Friesz [pp. 278-279+281-282]An Unnoticed Byzantine Psalter-II [pp. 282-283+286-289]The Saracenic House-II [pp. 289-291+294-296+301]Chinese Porcelain in the Collection of Mr. Leonard Gow-VII [pp. 297+300-303]ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 302+305-306]Review: untitled [pp. 306-307]Review: untitled [pp. 307-308]Review: untitled [p. 308]Review: untitled [pp. 309-310]Review: untitled [p. 310]Review: untitled [p. 310]Review: untitled [pp. 310+313]

Monthly ChronicleThe London Group [p. 313]Publications Received [p. 313]June Exhibitions [p. 313]

LetterCezanne and the Nation [pp. 313-314]

Auctions [pp. 312+314]

an unnoticed byzantine psalter-ii

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