Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium: Image as Exegesis in the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus (review)

Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium: Image as Exegesis in the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus. By Leslie Brubaker. [Cambridge Studies in Palaeography and Codicology, 6.] (New York: Cambridge University Press. 1999. Pp. xxiii, 489; 47 figures on unnumbered pages. $95.00.)

The subject of Brubaker's monograph is the "Paris Gregory," Bibliothèque Nationale codex graecus 510, one of the most splendidly executed and richly illuminated Byzantine manuscripts. Because of its fragile nature, however, it has not been opened for many years, and has to be studied on the basis of photographs. The manuscript contains altogether 46 full-page miniatures involving more than 200 distinct scenes; portraits of the Emperor Basil (867-886) and his family permit it to be dated to the years between 879 and 882. Many of the individual scenes, however, bear no obvious relationship to the text of the homily with which they are associated. A solution to this problem was offered in 1962 by Der Nersessian, who suggested that many of the scenes were intended as commentary on, rather than illustrations of, the text. In 1985 Brubaker showed that much of this commentary, or "visual exegesis," reflected the thought of Photios, Patriarch from 858 to 867 and again from 877 to 886.

In her book, Brubaker appears to pursue a double aim. As the title suggests, one purpose is to elucidate the meaning that the manuscript would have had for a ninth-century viewer, an approach followed by Kathleen Corrigan in her discussion of ninth-century Byzantine psalters, Visual Polemics (1982). In this respect, the personality and writings of Photios dominate Brubaker's book. Individual scenes are interpreted as either flattery or patriarchal admonition of the emperor; as reflecting Photios' views of the relative roles of emperor and patriarch; and as demonstrating the concerns of both Basil and Photios with missionary activities and the fight against heresy (here the filioque controversy is briefly mentioned). By the time the conclusion of the book is reached, Brubaker can claim that "the audience to whom Paris.gr.510 was directed seems to have consisted only of two men, the Emperor Basil I and the patriarch Photios" (p. 411).

At the same time, Brubaker's book reflects more traditional art-historical concerns such as iconography. Here we may cite Kurt Weitzmann's publication of another ninth-century manuscript, The Miniatures of the Sacra Parallela (1979). An example can show how the two approaches are combined.

The "Penitence of David" is one of six scenes on fol. 143^v, the full-page miniature preceding Gregory's homily "To the people of Nazianzus and the prefect." David is shown prostrated before the prophet Nathan, while Bathsheba watches. The scene is first described in Chapter 2 ("The miniatures: internal evidence"); it is seen (p. 74) as exemplifying the topic of forgiveness, which is a major subject of the sermon. Later, in Chapter 4 ("Basil I and visual panegyric") its possible relation to Basil's murder of his predecessor Michael III is explored (p. 193). Finally, in Chapter 8 ("Iconography") the representation of the scene is compared to related images in both contemporary and later manuscripts (pp. 352-356).

Iconographic comparisons, however, appear throughout the book, and in general it would have been desirable to have easy access to the various discussions of a given image. In this respect the author has been very badly served by her editors: both index and cross-referencing are woefully inadequate. Under "penitence of David" the index states, "See Paris.gr.510, f. 143v"; and there the reader finds a list of some twenty pages and groups of pages citing every reference to any of the six scenes shown on fol. 143^v. Equivalently, footnotes referring to other discussions of a given scene generally cite only the chapter (ninety-two pages...