Epigrams on Works of Art 187“O dreadful deed! O amazing sight! Because of us God suffers in the flesh on
the cross”^92. In an illuminated Syriac manuscript in Paris, ms. Bibl. Nat.
Syriaque 355 (s. XII–XIII), we also find a number of epigrams written below
the pictures of the Feasts of the Lord^93. The epigram on the Entrance into
Jerusalem, for instance, reads in translation: “This is the (divine) Majesty
humbly sitting on the back of a donkey in Zion. The children welcome Him
with hosannas, palm leaves and olive branches”^94.
**
*
Preaching the Gospel
In the first book of the Palatine Anthology we find a long epigram cycle
which dates from c. 600: see Appendix X, pp. 357–361. This epigram cycle,
API, 37–49 and 52–77, can be divided into four parts: infancy of Christ (37–
43), feast cycle (44–49 and 52–56), Old Testament iconography (57–73) and
miracle scenes (74–77). It is difficult to establish what these epigrams actually
describe. Pictures, of course, but what sort of pictures? Miniatures or wall
paintings? It seems unlikely that the epigrams were inscribed on the pictures
(^92) In Vindob. Iur. gr. 15 (s. XIV in.), fols. 163v–164r, an epigram on the Passion of Christ,
consisting of 8 lines, bears the same incipit: see PAPAGIANNIS 1997: I, 22 and G. VASSIS,
Hell 50 (2000) 163.
(^93) See J. LEROY, Les manuscrits syriaques à peintures conservés dans les bibliothèques
d’ Europe et d’ Orient. Paris 1964, 268–280.
(^94) For ninth- and tenth-century illuminated manuscripts bearing captions in verse, see
Appendix VIII, nos. 72–83. For later examples of miniatures with captions, see the
following three illuminated Psalters: the Theodore Psalter (a. 1066) [see S. DER NERSES-
SIAN, L’ illustration des psautiers grecs du moyen âge. II. Londres Add. 19352. Paris
1970], ms. Brit. Mus. Add. 36928 (c. 1090) [see A. CUTLER, The Aristocratic Psalters in
Byzantium. Paris 1984, 48–49 and 167–178] and the Berlin Psalter (s. XI–XII) [see G.
STUHLFAUTH, The Art Bulletin 15 (1933) 311–326]. See also the epigrams on the minia-
tures of the Odes in ms. Dumb. Oaks 3 (s. XI) [S. DER NERSESSIAN, DOP 19 (1965) 153–
183 and HÖRANDNER 1992: 114, n. 40], the monosticha on the miniatures of the twelfth-
century Vatican Octateuch (and its copy, the Vatopedi Octateuch) [J. LOWDEN, DOP 36
(1982) 115–126: for instance, figs. 15 and 16], and the fourteenth-century Hippiatrica
manuscript, Par. gr. 2244 [for instance, the miniature on fol. 54: st5c(oß)º ̧rqo ̄sin o¿de
paragzgën aJc6noß: see ST. LAZARIS, Études Balcaniques (Cahiers Pierre Belon) 2 (1995)
185, fig. 3]. For epigram cycles on small artefacts, see the Vatopedi reliquary of St.
Demetrios [A. XYNGOPOULOS, \Arcaiologikë \Eóhmer5ß 1936, 101–136] and the ex-voto
silver sheets re-used for the book cover of Brit. Mus. Add. 28815 [CH. WALTER, Studies
in Byzantine Iconography. London 1977, nos. V and VI].