170 Part Two: Epigrams in Context
very end, we are told to our surprise that “the art” does not allow painters to
breathe life into inanimate material: to “animate” (vyco ̄n) is beyond their
capacity. But if painters cannot make pictures come to life, as the poet overtly
declares, how is it possible that the emperor appears to be “alive” (f0n)? The
answer is that the picture is what the viewer reads in it. If the viewer looks at
the picture and listens to its message attentively, he may see the emperor
addressing the Holy Virgin and asking her to present his petition to her Son;
but if he only casts a casual glance at it and does not perceive its message with
proper care, the picture remains mute. Pictures are lifeless as they are, but may
come to life if viewers read the pictorial message they convey. It is a matter of
mental and visual imagination. Images need to be seen through imaginative
eyes.
**
*
Theodore of Stoudios, no.
Epigram cycles are groups of epigrams that constitute a cohesive whole and
describe the pictorial programme of a specific monument or the miniatures of
a specific illuminated manuscript. In the second chapter (pp. 76–81) I dis-
cussed a number of epigram cycles, either consisting of authentic verse inscrip-
tions or assembled from various sources as quarries for inscriptions; special
emphasis was placed on the manuscript evidence in general. In the following
pages, until the end of this chapter, I shall examine several epigram cycles in
more detail.
Let me begin by saying that there are two epigram cycles that I will not
discuss, the reason being that Ševcenko and Speck have already admirably
studied these two collections. Ševcenko published a highly interesting collec-
tion of tenth-century epigrams that were inscribed on the door panels (made of
ivory or inlaid bone) of the Chapel of the Burning Bush in the monastery of St.
Catherine at Sinai; the panels showed various scenes of the life of Moses as well
as the Transfiguration^52. And Speck convincingly proved that epigrams nos.
61–84 of Theodore of Stoudios, which describe pictures of saints, monks and
church fathers in the Stoudios monastery, constitute a cohesive whole and
form an epigram cycle^53.
(^52) ŠEVCENKO 1998: 284–298. See also J. GROSSMANN, JÖB 50 (2000) 243–265 and I. ŠEV-
CENKO, JÖB 52 (2002) 177–184.
(^53) See SPECK 1964b: 333–344 and 1968: 211–217.