Иконографска забелешка о сликарству хиландарског католикона: представа Светог Сисоја над гробом Александра Великог у ексонартексу

Abstract

У чланку се разматра представа светог Сисоја над гробом Александра Великог у ексонартексу храма Ваведења манастира Хиландара. Указује се на старије српске примере те иконографске теме, али се хиландарска фреска сагледава и као израз светогорских иконографских традиција. Одговарајућа пажња посвећена је и пратећем натпису, као и разлозима сликања представе.

As part of the extensive and continuous architectural and artistic activities in the Hilandar monastery during the 18th and early 19th century, the exonarthex of the catholicon, built in the 14th century, was decorated with frescoes. This work was carried out in 1803. by the monks Benjamin and Zacharias, cousins of kyr Makarios, a painter from Galatista. On a narrow area above the portal of the south wall, above mentioned painters depicted the early Christian hermit St. Sisoes above the tomb of Alexander the Great. This image, representing well-known iconographic subject of post-Byzantine art, is not unusual for the wall paintings in Serbian churches, but is only the latest in a series of preserved Serbian depictions of Sisoes’ lament. Almost two centuries before the fresco in Hilandar was created, Greek painters depicted St. Sisoes above Alexander’s tomb in Piva (1604/5) and Lomnica (1607/8). The same type of iconographic thеme found its place in the thematic repertoires of the frescoes in the Dormition monastery in Reževići (end of the third decade of the seventeenth century), the church with the same dedication in the Podmaine monastery near Budva (soon after 1630), as well as in the narthex of the Church of St. Nicholas in the Nikolje monastery (1637). One hundred years later a fresco of Sisoes’ lament was painted in the Church of St. Nicholas in the Drača Monastery (1735). On the other side, for the purpose of adequate interpretation of Hilandar fresco in question, one should bear in mind artistic traditions of Mount Athos as well. Namely, St. Sisoes above Alexander’s grave was often painted in the temples of this monastic comunity, starting from the first half of the 16th century. Sisoes’ image from Hilandar is chronologically preceded by the frescoes in the cemetery churches of monasteries Karakallou (1768) and Stauroniketa (1798), as well as those in the Skete of Kausokalybia (1776) and in the narthex of the katholikon of Xeropotamou (1783).