Studenica. An identity in marble

This paper discusses the nature and inherent symbolics of the material of choice of which the body of the chuch of the Virgin Euergetis at Studenica was fashioned. In view of Byzantine theological concepts deeply ingrained in this material, concepts which were present and well understood also among the learned theologians of medieval Serbia, this paper presents the implied messages behind such a choice of material as well as the possible theological, ideological and political interpretations and applications of this medium at the time of Nemanja’s founding of Studenica and raising of the church of the Virgin therein. It thus questions the theory of its marble facades as simply a case of a Byzantine structure clad in Romanesque garb.

root of the holy Nemanjid family tree, the Tabernacle of the Serbian people, 2 the issue of her identity in marble assumes a purpose and a meaning which prompts us per se to reconsider the widely accepted and (curiously) never questioned theory of the church of the Virgin at Studenica as a Byzantine style structure clad in Romanesque garb.In fact, it appears to us that, in its existence and perception as a symbol, the visual identity of Studenica, and in particular its trade-mark marble body, was essential in constructing and conveying its singular identity and message so wholly steeped in deeply Byzantine theological and ideological concepts.In view of all of the above, we must say that it seems quite implausible and inadequately proportioned to the depth and impact of its role in the history of the Serbian church and state, at whose very source it stands, to assign the marble identity of the church of the Virgin at Studenica to the simple fact that its builders and master craftsmen may have originated from the Adriatic littoral.The marbe body of Studenica as an image and iconic presence thus calls for a much more complex approach than the anachronistic formal analysis and search for similarities of its particular constituent parts within the pool of artistic creation of Byzantium and/or the West.
Observed from the methodological approach of the socalled anthropological turn and New Iconology,3 and in the words of Hans Belting, the what of an image, the issue of what the image serves as an image or what it relates as an image, is steered by the how in which it transmits its message. 4In fact, the how is often hard to distinguish from the what, as it is the very essence of an image.Because of the interchangeable relation between internal and external representations, endogene and exogene or mental and physical images, mediality is not replacable by the materiality of images -as has been the custom in the old distinction of form and matter.The interaction of mental images and physical images is a fi eld still largely unexplored, one that concerns the politics of images no less than what the French call the imaginaire of a given society, as it is largely triggered or conducted through the medium (material, technique) of their production. 5oreover, images do not exist by themselves.They are in need of an agent or a medium resembling a body.From early on, humans were tempted to communicate with images as with living bodies and also to accept them in the place of bodies, perceive them as bodies, as substitutes of bodies or body parts. 6Through ritual enactment, primarily liturgical in the Middle Ages and driven by desire of achieving unity with God, their media is animated in order to experience images as alive, in order to create their iconic presence. 7Images traditionally live from the body's absence, which is either temporary (that is, spatial) or, in the case of death, fi nal.Images replace the body's absence with a different kind of presence.Iconic presence turns the body's absence into what must be called visible absence.Images live from the paradox that they perform the presence of an absence or vice versa.They are present in their media but they perform an absence, which they make visible.Animation, our desire for the image, our interaction often dictated by the politics of the image, means that we open the opacity of a medium for the transmission of images, the how to perceive the what . 8he iconic presence of any church, Studenica as any other, is a typos of the God-chosen designated (and designed) dwelling place or chora -the Tent of the Meeting and the Tabernacle, and ultimately, the Body of Christ as Logos Incarnate.Therefore, having in mind the what of the church as the chora of inscription (emgraphe) of the Logos, the how i.e. its material structure, the corpus of the church building proper, can hardly be regarded simply as a construction circumscribing (perigraphe) the (sacred) space designated for liturgy and devotion. 9Consequently, its outer faces, or the facades, can hardly be regarded as simply the external material surfaces of walls made of different materials, whether stone, brick or combination of the two (randomly picked, or laid out according to some "fashion" or "style") and subject or, rather, subjected to so-called "decoration" with a program of its own and only loosely, superfi cially, and not essentially -in homoioseis -related to the essence of the church as the chora tou achoretou.The corpus of the church, the building and the congregation within it, being indeed the body of Christ -as expounded in Pauline texts (I Cor.12)in unity of interior and exterior image, actually does not or, rather, is not intended, despite all its materiality, to veil (as appearance) but rather to reveal (as apparition), its stands as a portal between the terrestrial and celestial realm. 10It does not need simply to represent but to make present the divine Word to the point of actualizing (enargia), of taking place of the miracle -of the constantly recurring Divine presence i.e. of the Incarnation of the Logos. 11lready the fi rst (God designed) dwelling of the shekinah, the Tent of the Meeting and the Tabernacle within it, was, after instructions received by Moses from the Lord which were carried out by Bezalel, one "in the shadow of God" fi lled with "wisdom and knowledge" by which the Almighty had created the world, made of a specially designated number of veils or curtains.Although nominally veiling, their very presence (and visual qualities) actually reveals or demonstates, testifi es of the in-dwelling presence of the Lord among his Chosen People.As revealed in Exodus 26, the how of the Tabernacle and Tent of the Covenant stands in direct relation to its what -for the choice of materials, colors, number and order of parts, indeed the material and visual features of all the elements of the medium, is dictated by the Lord.Whatsmore, the Cherubim, spirits who serve God, woven in gold on the parochet made of pure linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn dividing the Holy Place from the Kodesh Hakodashim and hiding the presence of God from mortals, were, on the other hand, just as much there to demonstrate his almighty power and majesty. 12n Christian exegesis, in Pauline and patristic interpretation, as is well known, the medium of the Tabernacle veil or curtain, and in particular the parochet, has been interpreted as the Flesh of Christ.In general, the topos of weaving of textiles, curtains in particular, was, especially among the Alexandrian philosophers and holy fathers, employed in explaining the mystery of the incarnation of the Logos as well as the Eucharistic sacrifi ce. 13 As opposed to the Jewish tradition, however, in Christian thought the parochet unveils the Divine -as demonstrated at the moment the Temple curtain was torn in half at the moment of Christ's death on the Cross (Mat.27,51; Mk. 15,38; Lk. 23,45).The topos of Christ-veil, typos of the parochet (Hebrews 10, 19-20), or ultimate iconic curtain which functioned as a powerful image paradigm in Judeo-Christian civilization, is visualized in the ninth century miniature in the Vatican Christian Topography of Kosmas Indikopleustes showing the Second coming structured by the Tabernacle as well as in the post iconoclastic marble incrustation opus sectile panel showing the crux gemmata in a domed edicule fl anked by curtains on the western wall of the naos of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, directly above the Royal Doors.Whatsmore, it lies at the core of the concept, function and visual qualities of the catapetasma of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople or the Eastern Christian antpendium and of old Russian icon curtains (peleni), as well as of the painted representations of textile hangings or veils in fresco decorations of altar and church spaces in general in the Byzantine world whose presence on the walls actually determines their true nature as screens (veils, curtains) at the point of touching and interaction of the sacred and the profain domain. 14uch an equaling of the parochet with the fl esh of Christ is, although the ultimate, still only a segment of the general approach to the didactic, mimetic, apotropaic and dogmatic function of textiles in medieval Christian culture.This is particularly clearly discussed in the fourth century homily of bishop Asterius of Amaseia who spoke of textiles (with gospel scenes) "like painted walls" and their use not only in church interiors but as personal apparel and as a mode of being "one in Christ". 15Wearing clothes with images from the Gospels may have been one way that certain early Christians believed they were mimetically and visually assimilating themselves to Christ's incarnation.The notion that Christians were called to assimilate themselves to Christ through robing had its roots in the fi rst century writings of apostle Paul who often used the metaphor of dress to describe what this assimilation was supposed to look like.Identifi cation with Christ, of which disrobing and re-robing were constituent gestures, is most apparent in the baptismal formula "As many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ" (Gal.3,27).Putting on the the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom.13,14) is the path of salvation determing by the Saviour putting on a body in order that the body having been woven together with life (Athanasios of Alexandria, On the Incarnation, 44,6) should no longer remain in death. 16he mystery if the incarnation of the Logos, or of putting on a body woven together with life, stands in homoioseis with the act of building and in the art of the Byzantine world the body of Christ is often actually realized and visualized as a building. 17The material particularly well suited as a medium in this enterprise, one whose physical and visual qualities and symbolics, and thus openness to theological interpretation as well, match most deeply and accurately the rhetoric of the parochet screen, i.e. the how of the what of this building, is marble.

Fig. 2. Studenica, church of the Virgin, view from the east
As attested by texts of numerous Byzantine ekphrases, marble as a material and its use in the sacred space of the church, whether as panelling, revetment or construction material, made a very deep impression on the beholders and generated a variety of readings.In the eyes of the authors of ekphrasis texts, as well as in those of the beholders yielding to the perigesis of their works, the texture, color and patterns of carefully cut marble slabs had vast evocoative power, a mystic meaning equal to acheiropoitai or images not made by human hand, i.e. to ex-contactu imprints of the presence of the Divine Creator of the World. 18At times they were identifi ed with and visually and verbally fomulated as glimpses of nature, landscapes of meadows and woods.In his description of the newly raised structure of Justinian's Hagia Sophia, Prokopios (De Aedifi ciis, I, 1, 59-60) speaks of the building as a vision of nature and relies on the topos of marble as a fl owering meadow.In the ekphrasis composed on the occasion of the second consacration of Hagia Sophia following the fi rst restoration of the dome on December 24th, 562, Paul Silentiarios also compares marble to elements of nature and sees the architectural and sculptural elements of the church interior as either a forest fi lled with fl owers of various color (verde antico coloumns in the naos) or wax and ivory (the alabaster of the ambo) and roses, lilies and anemonae (Phrygian marble of the coloumns separating the naos from the aisles). 19Moreover, according to the words of this ekphrasis, they produce in the beholder the impression of movement, growth, branching, almost as in a living organism.He relies on terms and tropes of animated matter fi lled with (Holy) spirit.Coloumns are said to dance, arches between the four central piers to "rise up little by little on well-curved airy paths", conchs to spring. 20oing a step further and giving even more theological depth to the empsyche topos, more precisely, relying on the naos empsyche topos, in his twelfth century ekphrasis Michael the Deacon speaks of the huge space of the church of Hagia Sophia in terms of pregnancy -thus underlining its theological parallel with the Virgin as the chora tou achoretou and the receptacle of boundless divinity. 21Moreover, this is augmented and attested by the very nature of marble as the dominant material of which this space is fashioned.Speaking of the Proconnesian marble of the ambo of Hagia Sophia, Michael the Deacon points out that "one of these stones puts on the guise of living fl esh, and, whitish in color, displays all over itself what looks like gaping veins of blood". 22The acheiropoietos and anthropomorphic qualities of marble were perceived as an enactment, actualization of the miracle of Incarnation, of the Virgin pregnant with Logos, and the Body of Christ.As pointed out in recent studies by B. Pentcheva and G. Peers, visual evidence of such symbolic interpretation of marble as the medium of choice for actualizing the miracle of Incarnation, Virgin pregnant with Logos, and the Body of Christ, the heavenly i.e. earthy abode of shekinah is found in the, indicatively contemporary to Studenica, full page author's portrait in Cod.sin.339 Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzos. 23Moreover, churches or sacred spaces fashioned of marble were not just a theological ideal in the Byzantine world of the Komnenian era, the time of construction of Studenica.The actual contemporaneous practice of raising churches in this material-medium is attested by the construction in 1146 of the Virgin Pantanassa on the island of Hagia Glykeria by the hegoumenos of the Pantokrator monastery, the actual ktetor of the mentioned manuscript of Gregory of Nazianzos. 24Whatsmore, according to the account of a Latin pilgrim who visited the celebrated Constantinopolitan shrine of the Virgin Mary at the Blachernai in the second half of the eleventh century, both the basilica and rotunda renovated after the fi re of 1069 were made of marble. 25et another highly signifi cant symbolic quality of marble is related to its history as frozen waters of primeval creation, the Okeanos.In ancient times the marble that regularly impersonated water was Carystian from Euboea in Greece.Its marine veining "competed with the grey/green sea". 26By the sixth century, however, it was Proconnesian marble that had largely supplanted Carystian in its power to epitomize the sea.One of the most striking examples is the sixth century fl oor of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, a vast expanse of Proconnesian marble fl agstones, traversed only by four green stripes, which conjured a number of marine images in the eyes of the visitors, recorded in their accounts or ekphrases. 27In Komnenian times examples of Proconnesian "seafl oors" were to be found in the abbey church of Montecassino (1066-1071) and, most impressive of all, in the fl oor of the basilica of San Marco in Venice (1110-1150)  where the massive Proconnesian slabs under the crossing have been known as "il mare" since the seventeenth century, quite possibly after a much older tradition. 28This aquatic quality of marble, a more opaque cousin of crystal, granted also its reception as a form of ice -water frozen by primordial cold which, when polished, recovers its original light in a surface slick -suggesting that light, the active principle of the Logos, was frozen into its very fabric. 29It could thus be directly identifi ed with the Jordan and the Epiphany which had taken place in its midst. 30n view of all of the above, it appears that the how of Studenica was logically a perfect match for its what.Namely, at the time of its founding, the above mentioned acheiropoitos qualities and symbolic meaning of marble as the material of choice for the body of this specifi c structure, particularly in view of the physical similarities in color and texture between Proconnesian marble and stone from Radočelo quarries used to build Nemanja's church, white marked by grayish-blue veins, must have been highly communicative and effi cient in conveying an iconic presence of the Logos Incarnate, of the Virgin pregnant with Logos, of the very mystery of the Incarnation.Considering the historical cirucumstances of the day, this must surely have been perceived as the ultimate sign of prevalence of True Faith against (Bogumil) heresy and therefore answered perfectly what appears to have been the primary purpose behind the raising the Virgin Euergetis church at Studenica, indeed of the founding of the monastery as a whole.
This act was in all probability deeply correlated to the mutually signifi cant bond between Nemanja, from the very beginning of his rise to power, and institutions representing Byzantine power in the Balkans in the latter half of the twelfth century -fi rst and foremost the Archbishopric of Ohrid.It is interesting to note that, chronologically, according to the sources, the Vita of St. Simeon by Stefan Prvovenčani, the founding and building of Studenica issued directly after the Council convened at Ras against Bogumil heretics, called by Nemanja and held in the presence of bishop Eustatije of Ras, whom the sources refer to as "his own archiereos". 31It is highly signifi cant to note that surpressing Bogumil heresy was among top priorities of the diocese of Ohrid already during the offi ce of archbishop John Adrian Komnenos, close relative of emperor Manuel I. 32 By calling together this council and by the fi erce slaying of the enemies of Orthodoxy and Byzantine taxis which ensued, Nemanja would, thus, be once again confi rmed as a soldier of tue faith, a "holy warrior", a new St. George slaying the dragon of heresy -displaying the very virtues for which he was recommended by John Adrian Komnenos to the emperor Manuel I upon their meeting in Niš several decades earlier.Therefore, it appears that Studenica could indeed have been founded by Nemanja, in correlation with the interests of the bishops of Ras with whom he had noticeably good relations, as an axial point in establishing the triumph of Orthodoxy against the Manichean heresy of the Bogumils on the territory of the Bishopric of Ras. 33hatsmore, the very toponym of Studenica is essentialy associated with the symbolic core identity of marble as the frozen, still waters of the primeval Okeanos of All Creation which, in turn, are associated with both the cult of the Virgin and the True Cross, both inextricably woven into the essence of Studenica.Whatsmore, its identity in marble could clearly visualize the effect of the Epiphany, or Christianization in general through Baptism, when, at the submersion of the Cross -in place of, originally, Christ himself in the waters of the Jordan -the waters stand still and demons of the deep are destroyed. 34In the case of Studenica, those demons could well have been the "beasts" mentioned in the opening sentence of the Vita text of St. Simeon Nemanja written by his son, St. Sava. 35Within the given set of historical conditions surrounding that particular act, they could be identifi ed with the Bogumil heretics over whom Nemanja  ЗОГРАФ 35 (2011) [93-100]   celebrated victory immediately prior to the founding of Studenica, as miles Dei battling against the forces of the dark on behalf of the Bishopric of Ras and Archbishopric of Ohrid.
Such a contextualization of marble in the process of planning, constructing and perceiveing the visual identity of the Euergetis church at Studenica was possible because it was based on ancient and highly sophisticated readings of symbolic qualities of this material present in Byzantine mineralogy and employed in ekphrases of sacral buildings. 36ighly signifi cant in attempts to understand the true purpose and meaning of marble facading of Studenica are not only the general meanings assigned to this material but even more precisely the almost exact physical similarities in color and texture between stone from Radočelo quarries and Proconnesian marble -white marked by broad grayish-blue bands -of which, nota bene, the most prominent trade mark Constantinopolitan landmarks and sacred spaces were fashioned.In Studenica, as in Constantinople, the anthropomorphic allusion of this material, simulating human fl esh and veins, as well as the effect of fl ashing of white marble, was used to visualize the ultimate truth as the refl ection of the Light of God, light uncreated unto light uncreated, the Virgin through which shines the True Light of the World which, through the cross as its signum, is the vexillum of triumph over all evil and demons of the deep.The fusion of image (Crucifi xion on the western wall, dominating the entire naos), relic (particle of the True Cross as part of Nemanja's pectoral kept at Studenica) and iconic presence of Logos Incarnate (marble body of the church) revealed the sense of proximity of Christ and the salvation Christ promised. 37emonstrating the proximity of Logos Incarnate and of salvation through becoming one in Christ, through the holy sacrament of Baptism, i.e. the what communicated by the how of the church of the Virgin Euergetis, must have been a high priority in raising Studenica -not only from the point of view of general Christian eschatological thought but also as part of the strategy of declaring, theologically, the supremacy and eternal triumph of True Faith over heresy and ultimately, politically and ideologically, of the formal organization and structure of the Byzantine church, in the guise of the Archbishopric of Ohrid and the Bishopric of Ras, over the institutions of the Bogomils.As such, this purpose was part of the broader agenda and one of the high priorities of the Komnenian administration in the Balkans and throughout the Empire, from the times of Alexios I and his trial against their leader Basil, at the close of which, as recounted by Anna Komnene, the heretic was burned at the stake. 38A crucial constituent element of this struggle against heresy, naturally, was the political use of images.In Byzantium, this goal, as well as the congruent goal of promoting the Komnenian dynasty as «guardians of Orthodoxy», was most effi ciently achieved by the spread and political use of the iconographic schema of the Virigin orans with the hovering medallion of Christ Emmanuel on her chest, the type of Virgin Blachernitissa of the "usual miracle".This image type, which fi rst appeared on coins and seals in the second half of the eleventh century, coinciding with the era of religious disputes, was promoted on a grand scale in monumental public art and placed in the apses and above the doors of the narthexes of a number of churches in the Byzantine world, thereby confronting the believers with the central issue of Orthodox dogma.By passing underneath its outstretched arms they would confi rm, even literally, their embrace of the keystone of Orthodox dogma which it represented. 39This precisely was the case in Studenica where the image of the Blachernitissa graces the lunette over the door separating the narthex from the naos of the church of the Virgin Euergetis. 40ighly indicatively it was part of the program of decoration produced in 1208/1209 or, more precisely, together with the huge Crucifi xion painted on the other side of the same wall, on the western wall of the naos, the key element of visual rhetoric which presented the theological premises and concepts of St. Sava ever focusing on constant sustenance of Orthodoxy which the emerging autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church shared as agenda with the Byzantine church and, more specifi cally, with the Archbishopric of Ohrid from which it had, in a manner of speaking, inherited the task of guardian of True Faith on the territory of its formation. 41hus, it appears that the identity in marble of the church of the Virgin Euergetis at Studenica may not have appeared because of the technical prowess of skilled stone masons and sculptors from the Adriatic littoral (although we do not and should not dispute and refute their participation in the actual process of creation of the building) but as an embodiment of Byzantine concepts deeply ingrained in this material and expounded and lauded in numerous ekphrases, concepts which were obviously present and well understood also among the learned theologians of medieval Serbia.Insight regarding the perception of marble in the Serbian milieu is gleaned from the works of Domentijan and Teodosije who speak of "marble more precious than gold" -whatsmore very indicatively when speaking of Nemanja's tomb at Studenica. 42 раду се разматрају природа и инхерентна симболика изабраног материјала од којег је саздано тело цркве Богородице Благодетељнице (Евергетиде) у Студеници.Имајући у виду византијске теолошке концепте који су били дубоко уткани у сврху његовог коришћења у сакралној уметности, као и на схватање тог материјала изражено у бројним екфрасисима и трактатима о минералогији -концепте које су прихватали и учени теолози у српској средини у средњем веку -у раду се указује на могуће поруке исказане таквим избором материјала, као и на теолошка, идеолошка и политичка тумачења његове примене у време кад је Стефан Немања основао манастир Студеница.Идентитет у мермеру Јелена Ердељан Студеницу и у њему подигао цркву посвећену Богородици.Мермерни идентитет Студенице сагледан је са становишта њеног значаја и значења као симбола тријумфа истините вере над јереси, иконичног присуства оваплоћеног Логоса и божанске епифаније, у контексту опште платформе и циљева деловања комнинске администрације на Балкану -посебно Охридске архиепископије и Рашке епископије -у чијем је остваривању ктитор Студенице Стефан Немања био дубоко ангажован.Стога се у раду поставља питање о одрживости до сада прихваћеног становишта о Студеници као византијској структури једноставно заоденутој у романичко рухо.

Fig. 1 .
Fig. 1.Studenica, church of the Virgin, view from the southeast