Christodoulos

Hadjichristodoulou

A Map of Cyprus in a Post-Byzantine Cypriot Icon

Abstract The Orthodox Byzantine cultural tradition remained strong and even thrived in Cyprus throughout the U^-lty^ centuries although the island had become a badly neglected province of the Ottoman Empire from 1571 to 1878. The leading figure among a multitude of 17 th century icon painters in Cyprus was Leontios, who used to sign his icons as "the hieromonk (= priest-monk) from Nemesos" (Limassol). The signature of the Cyprus-born painter is found on an icon kept in the Royal Monastery of Machairas. The icon represents the founder of the Church of Cyprus, the Apostle Barnabas, enthroned. Below the saint's feet, Leontios painted a map of the island, which is so far unique in the corpus of Byzantine painting, as far as Cyprus is concerned. What was the printed or manuscript prototype and where did Leontios come upon it?

The post-Byzantine artistic tradition r e m a i n e d strong and flourished in Cyprus b e t w e e n t h e s e v e n t e e n t h a n d t h e n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y , a p e r i o d w h e n t h e island w a s an insignificant, neglected province of the O t t o m a n Empire. O n e of Cyprus's important icon-painters of the seventeenth century was Leontios (1673P-1705?), 1 w h o usually signed his icons as "the p r i e s t - m o n k from Nemesos [Lemesos, Limassol]." The Cypriot painter's signature is to be found on an icon 2 (dimensions: 49 x 37.5 cm) of 1673 (Fig. 1), w h i c h is kept in the sacristy of the Royal and Stavropegic Machaira Monastery 3 and comes from the Church of St. George 4 in nowadays Turkishoccupied Nicosia. The icon shows the founder and patron saint of the Autocephalous Church of Cyprus, the Apostle Barnabas, 5 enthroned, and with the island of Cyprus shown at the bottom of the icon. St. Barnabas wears episcopal vestments, gives his

Institute for Neohellenic Research N.H.R.F. Tetradia Ergasias 25/26 (2004)

Eastern Mediterranean

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blessing w i t h his right hand, and in his left holds an open gospel book with the inscription: 0 0/ 0 [ ] (He that hears you hears m e ; and h e that despises you despises me - Luke 10: l 6 ) . 6 Two archangels are shown in the two upper corners, doing reverence and proffering to the saint a mitre, an imperial sceptre (!), a gold inkstand w i t h cinnabar, and an archipiscopal royal staff and the melon (globe of the world), imperial privileges, which were given, according to tradition, to the Archbishop of Cyprus. The iconographie subject is, without any doubt, the creation of Leontios and concealed behind it are symbolisms of the secret longings of the enslaved Greeks of Cyprus. The Apostle Barnabas is, then, s h o w n to be blessing his h o m e l a n d of Cyprus, as its missionary, protector and saviour par excellence, and the Archbishop of the day, his successor on the t h r o n e . St Barnabas was established as the p a t r o n saint of the Autocephalous Church of Cyprus in the late fifth century, w h e n the Roman doctrine of apostolicity on apostolic sees m a d e its appearance in the East and was at that t i m e declared to be a principle of ecclesiastical organisation. Leontios seems to h a v e b e e n a p r i e s t - m o n k at t h e archipiscopal court, w i t h access to the upper reaches of Cyprus society, and to libraries. It is apparent from his w o r k that h e had a good k n o w l e d g e of history and of the local hagiography 7 of the Church of Cyprus, and was the sole portrait-painter of his age, h i s subjects i n c l u d i n g t h e A r c h b i s h o p s of Cyprus Christodoulos II (1682-1685?) and Iakovos I ( I 6 9 I - I 6 9 2 ? ) . 8 Typical is the use of escutcheons in his icons for the inclusion of inscriptions or dates. He could be identified w i t h the painter Leontios 'Lefkosianos' (of Nicosia), w h o m the m o n k Akakios m e n t i o n s in his texts of 1733. 9 Leontios had studied painting for ten years in Russia. 10 His icons, w i t h their o n i o n - d o m e d Russian churches, p r o v i d e evidence of this. Leontios also had connections w i t h the
fig. 1: Saint Barnabas, 173-

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fig. 2: Saint Barnabas, the map of Cyprus

(detail).

Maronite c o m m u n i t y of Cyprus, given that in 1684 h e p a i n t e d the icon of St. Antony, w i t h Greek and Arabic inscriptions, for the Maronite c h u r c h at Kythrea. The presence of a m a p in an icon is, in the present state of our knowledge, a unique p h e n o m e n o n in the Byzantine and post-Byzantine painting of Cyprus. 1 1 The m a p of Cyprus (Fig. 2) in the icon of the Apostle Barnabas was painted afterwards, since the outline of the south coast continues o n to the gold b a n d of the margin. The title of the m a p - (Cyprus)- is w r i t t e n outside the island, top left o n the background of the icon. There is damage to the m a p of Cyprus from the crack, w h i c h has o p e n e d b e t w e e n the two b o a r d s of w h i c h the icon is m a d e up at the level of the Karpasia p r o m o n t o r y . There has also b e e n

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fig. 3: Paolo Forlani, "Isola di Cipro," Venice 1570.

a loss from the clear outline of the map, located in the Famagusta -Larnaka area (in the east) and the Limassol- Akrotiri area (in the south). But which map served as the working drawing or the model for Leontios? It seems likely that the painter Leontios would have come into contact with cartographical material on his journey to and from Russia. It is, however, much more likely to have been the case that he had some model at hand, which he would have found in the well-stocked library of the Cyprus Archbishopric. The outline of the map, and particularly the rendering of the northern shoreline, leads to the conclusion that its model must have been the map, which is based on the outline of the one drawn and published in 1570 by Paolo Forlani 12 (Fig. 3). This
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fig. 4: Paolo Forlani, "Isola di Cipro," Venice 1570.

fig. 5: Matthes Ziindt, "Cypern," Nuremberg

1570.

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specific m a p by Forlani happens to be shown in some copies of the w o r k of Steffano Lusignano, Chorograffia et Breve Historia Universale dell' Isola de Cipro principiando al tempo di No per insino al 1572 (Bologna 1573) 1 3 (Fig. 4). The Church of Cyprus possessed certain p r i n t e d chorographies; one copy has b e e n preserved in the library of the Archbishopric of Cyprus. In 1570, Nadale Bonifacio Sibenisensis 1 4 used Forlani's m a p in publishing his o w n Cyprus Insula in Venice. Furthermore, another very important m a p w i t h an outline identical w i t h that of Forlani was brought out in the same year by Matthes Ziindt (Fig. 5). There was always a copy of this m a p in Cyprus; today it is kept in the Kykkos Monastery. 1 5 The outline of Forlani's map was in wide circulation from the end of the sixteenth century to the second decade of the eighteenth in the itineraries {viaggia). The itineraries belong to a category of travel books of modest quality. They circulated widely because they were cheap and provided a service for travellers setting out from Venice for Constantinople and the Holy Land. These travel guides had almost always three items which concerned Cyprus: the map of the island and the topographical plans of the cities of Famagusta and Nicosia. 16 In all the itineraries, the same map is used, and that is the map of Forlani. The m a p in the icon of the Apostle Barnabas may b e related m o r e particularly w i t h the m a p of Cyprus w h i c h the engraver Gioseppe Rosacelo re-engraved in his Viaggio Da Venetia, a Constantinopoli per Mare, e per Terra Santa, Venice, after l 6 l 0 , w h i c h is also s h o w n devoid of place-names. 1 7 Leontios was also aware of the geophysical morphology of Cyprus and ventured to give a rendering not only of the Trodos mountain range, but also of the Pentadaktylos, schematically, in the form of five mountains in a row. Low vegetation and flowers grow all over the island, showing Cyprus, in spite of the difficult situation then prevailing, as an 'earthly paradise'. Traces of blue paint on the background of the icon rendered the sea which surrounds the island. Christodoulos Hadjichristodoulou Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation
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NOTES

1. ATHANASIOS PAPAGEORGIOU, entries on 'the painter Leontios' and 'the priest-monk Leontios', [Great Cyprus Encyclopedia] (Nicosia: Philokypros, 1984-), 9: 29. This is probably the same artist who, as a layman in 1659, signed the icon of the Crucified in the katholikon of the Our Lady Amirous Monastery. Leontios painted in I677 the icon of the Deesis from the Church of St. John at Galini, in 1679 the icon of St. John the Theologos in the Church of Our Lady Amirous, in I68O the icon of the Crucified and the Lypera in the katholikon of the Monastery of St. Spyridon at Tremetousia, in 1685 the icon of St. Antony in the Maronite church of the same dedication at Kythrea, in 1683 the icon of St. John the Theologos in the Church of Our Lady Chrysopolitissa at Larnaka, in 1685, as a commission from Archbishop Christodoulos II (16821685?), he painted the icon of St. John the Baptist for the Church of Our Lady Asprophorousa at Bellapai's, in I686 the icon of All Saints in the Cathedral Church of the Saviour in Larnaka. The icon for veneration of the Transfiguration of the Saviour in the same church has also be attributed to this painter (K. GERASIMOU, " 15 17 " [The art of icon-painting from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century] in [The Kition art of icon-painting], Larnaca: Sacred Bishopric of Kition, 2000), 83-4 and I96 (l659?-l692?). In I696 he painted the icon of Christ the Great High Priest in the Machaira Monastery. Gerasimou, op. cit., 93-4, note 26. In 1705 Leontios painted the icon of St. John the Theologos, which used to be located in the women's gallery of the old Cathedral Church of Sts Andronicus and Athanasia at Limassol. 2. I. K. PERISTIANIS, [General history of the island of Cyprus] (Nicosia: Epiphaniou, 1995), 758 (photocopied reprint of the first edition, Nicosia 1910). Peristianis erroneously read the name of the painter as "Leonidas, priest-monk". 3. Thanks are due to the Very Reverend Archimandrite Arsenios Machairiotis, Abbot of the Holy Machaira Monastery, for permission to photograph and present the icon of the Apostle Barnabas, and to Professor Maria Iakovou for her suggestions in connection with the cartographical material. I owe my information on the existence of the icon to the conservator Mr Costas Gerasimou, in whose studio this icon was conserved.
4. PERISTIANIS, op. cit.

5. It is customary for small icons of the Apostle Barnabas, founder of the Church of Cyprus, instead of an icon of Christ, to be placed on the bishop's thrones of the churches of the Archdiocese, within whose jurisdiction the Holy Monastery of the Apostle Barnabas, near ancient Salamis, belongs. According to Peristianis, op. cit., the icon under

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examination was also hung o n the episcopal throne of the Church of St George, Nicosia. Peristianis makes no reference to the presence of the map in the icon. A similar custom, of placing icons of the Apostles or Hierarchs who are patron saints o n episcopal thrones, is to be found i n the Metropolitan Bishopric of Paphos, where the icon of the Apostle Philip, whose relics are kept in the churches of Arsos and Omodos, is placed on the throne, a n d in the Metropolitan Bishopric of Kition (which then included what is today the Metropolitan Bishopric of Limassol), where it is the icon of St Lazarus, patron saint of Larnaka, which is placed on the episcopal throne. 6. Of particular interest are depictions of the Apostle Barnabas as a bishop, wearing a pallium and holding a gospel book, as in wall-paintings in the Church of Our Lady of Asinou (1105-1106). V. ENGLEZAKIS (Archimandrite Pavlos), . / [For the Church of Cyprus. Twenty studies / Fourth to twentieth century] (Athens: A. G. Leventis Foundation & CFNB, 1996), cover illustration and p . 71, in the Church of Our Lady Arakiotissa at Lagoudera (1192). D. MOURIKI, "The Cult of Cypriot Saints in Medieval Cyprus" in The Sweet Land of Cyprus, papers given at the twenty-fifth jubilee spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Birmingham, March 1991 (Nicosia: Cyprus Research Center & The University of Birmingham, 1993), 258; A. & J. STYLIANOU The painted Churches of Cyprus. Treasures of Byzantine Art (Nicosia: A. G. Leventis Foundation, 2 1997), 175, in the Church of the Holy Apostles at Pera Chorio (late twelfth century) (MOURIKI, op. cit., 213), in the Church of of the Holy Cross of Agiasmati (1494) (STYLIANOU, op. cit., 213), in the Church of Christ Antiphonitis (late fifteenth century) (STYLIANOU, op. cit., 484), in the Church of Our Lady at Kourdali (first half of the sixteenth century) (STYLIANOU, op. cit., 147, 149-50), in the Church of the Archangel Michael at Choli (sixteenth century) (STYLIANOU, op. cit., 421) -only the saint's head has survived here, but his full-frontal posture is reminiscent of the examples cited above- in a portable icon from the Church of St. Luke, Nicosia (first half of the sixteenth century) (MAKARIOS III, Archbishop of Cyprus, ' [Cyprus the sacred island] (Nicosia: Sacred Archibishopric of Cyprus, 1997), cover, Figs 7, 8), in a portable icon of the Man of Sorrows with saints from the Church of Our Lady Chrysopantanassa at Palaichori, now in the Byzantine Heritage Museum of Palaichori
(SOPHOCLES SOPHOCLEOUS in collaboration with CHRISTODOULOS

HADJICHRISTODOULOU, Palaichoria. Heritage of Centuries (Nicosia: A. G Leventis Foundation, 2002), 194-95 (Greek, English)), and in a portable icon from the Church of Our Lady Pallouriotissa, Nicosia (I69I), in which the Apostle Barnabas is shown enthroned (entry on 'The Apostle Barnabas', in A. PAPAGEORGIOU, [The autocephalous Church of Cyprus], exhibition catalogue (Greek, English) (Nicosia: Byzantine Museum of the Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus Foundation, 1995), 159-60.

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7. C. GERASIMOU, "Rescuing from obscurity the humble icon-painters of the churches of the Metropolis of Morphou," in Sacred Bishopric of Morphou. 2000 Years of Art and Holiness (Nicosia: Sacred Bishopric of Morphou, 2002), 165. 8. G. KARGOTOU, " " [The Palouriotissa Kypriakai Spoudai 13 (1949): 71-2 and Pi. VII, 2. Monastery],

9. . SPYRIDAKIS, G. PAPACHARALAMBOUS, . KLERIDES, A. and J. STYLIANOU,

" , , , , , (1733), " ["The saints of Karpasia Philo, Synesios, Thyrsus, Photeine, Sozomenus. Introduction and text of offices and synaxaria on the basis of the manuscript of the monk Akakios of Cyprus (1733), with icons"], Kypriakai Spoudai 11 (1947): 26-7. 10. Op. cit., 27. 11. CHRISTODOULOS HADJICHRISTODOULOU, "Maps and the Cultural Heritage of Cyprus in the Post-Byzantine Period" in 18th International Conference on the History of Cartography, Athens, 11-16 July 1999, Abstracts, p . 75.
12. ANDREAS and JUDITH STYLIANOU, The History of Cartography of Cyprus

(Nicosia: Cyprus Research Center, 1980), 218, entry 39

14. A. HADJIPASCHALIS, M. IAKOVOU, Maps and atlases (Nicosia: Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, 1989), 54 (English, Greek).
15. STYLIANOU 1980, op. cit., 234, entry 5316. HADJIPASCHALIS, IAKOVOU, op. cit., 78.

17. Op. cit., 76-7.

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