Theotokos — Container of the Uncontainable
Богородица Вместилище на невместимото
Language: Bulgarian with summary in English
Second edition. Category: Medieval art

     The research is debating over the relation of the catholicon of the Chora monastery in Constantinople to the cult of Virgin Mary, over the dedication of the church and the epithet “chora”. According to some sources and scholars the entire name of the catholicon of the Chora monastery is “The church of the Holy Savior ἐν τῇ χώρα “, and the dedication is to Christ. Nevertheless, the author’s opinion is that this epithet is not mostly connected to Jesus, then to the monastery itself. Chora is mainly an epithet for the Mother of God and the monastery is a shelter of Theodore Metochites, rather than characteristic of Christ. The epithet concerns the monastery of Zoodotes Christ, underlying that the main dedication of the church is to Virgin Mary. The author, using theological and iconographic methods, displays that the name of the monastery is meaning rather “a monastery behind the walls of Constantinople”, as the word chora as an iconographic epithet is bound with Virgin Mary, has a hymnographic origin and continued to be used during the Ottoman period. The author examines in depth the church with its architecture, decoration and history, describing it in an artistic, historic and prosopographic context. The main insights in this contribution are as follows: 1. For the first time in the research are presented most of the Greek inscriptions, which are commented and translated. 2. In the standard editions of the monument until now the scenes from the decoration of the church are presented in cycles, while in this text they follow the chronology of the construction of the premises; from the naos trough the narthexes to the funeral parecclesion. This kind of approach gives the opportunity to find, for example, the link to the services from the liturgical calendar and to identify saints, for whom till now exist no hypotheses. 3. On the other hand, author involves in the research also texts from manuscripts, which gives an additional explanation to the iconographic program...

Table of contents

Предговор

1. Местоположението на манастира Хόра и неговото име

2. История на сградата

3. Константинопол като столица (хόра) и Теотокуполис

4. Представяне на паметника

4.1. Архитектура на католикона

4.2. Украсата на манастира Хόра

I. Наос

II. Вътрешен нартекс

III. Външен нартекс

IV. Параклис

V. Диаконикон

4.3. Иконографията на Хόра

5. Свидетелството на надписите и художествената техника

6. Хора: въплъщение и надежда за спасение на византийския залез

7. Името на паметника: символика. Страна на живите, Вместилище на Невместимия

7.1. Богородица като хόра — Христос като хόра

7.2. Тълкуване

Библиография

Резюме на английски език

Индекс

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