Εικόνα του αγίου Χαραλάμπους
Part of : Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας ; Vol.31, 1988, pages 247-260
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247-260
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An Icon of Saint Charalambos
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Articles
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This paper deals with an icon depicting St Charalambos and six scenes from his martyrdom, which is in aprivate collection in Athens (Figs. 1, 5, 7-11, 13). Itmeasures 0,61x0,46 cm and probably dates from themidi-seventeenth century. The interest of this icon liesin its iconographie peculiarities. St Charalambos isshown as a young martyr and not, as is standard, as anold priest. The scenes of his martyrdom are taken fromdepictions of the martyrdom of St George. Identicalscenes are found in an icon of St George in Corfu, painted by Michael Damaskenos around 1580 (Fig. 6) as wellas in two transfer drawings in the Benaki Museum(Figs. 12, 14).The question is, why does the painter of the St Charalambos icon not follow the standard iconography.Examining the hagiographical tradition surrounding thesaint helps to provide an answer to this question. Hisfeast-day is celebrated on the 10th of February and hislife is included in Byzantine Synaxaries such as the Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae and the Menologion of Basil II. According to these, the martyrdomof St Charalambos consists of three episodes: his appearance before the Emperor, his flaying and his decapitation (Fig. 2). Around the mid-seventeenth centurythe Cretan monk Agapios Landos wrote a new versionof his martyrdom adding many more episodes. This version became very popular and was illustrated in postByzantine icons from the second half of the seventeenthcentury onwards (Fig. 3). The appearance of this moreelaborate version of his martyrdom was probably due tothe greater popularity he achieved around the middle ofthe seventeenth century, when the plague was ravagingGreece and he was believed to protect the faithful fromit.As the icon of St Charalambos dates from the mid-seventeenth century it was painted at a time when the expanded version of the saint's martyrdom had either not yetbeen written or, at least, had not become well-known. Itseemed likely that the artist wanted to illustrate thesaint's martyrdom with more than just the usual threescenes of the Byzantine Synaxaries in order to reflect theprominence of his cult at that time, and so he borrowedscenes from the martyrdom of St George. However, toprevent their being identified with St George, he ommitted those scenes most closely associated with St George (the torture of the wheel) or features easily recognizable as being drawn from the martyrdom of St George(the ox of Glykerios in the scene of the saint in prison,Figs. 11-12).
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