Word: daphnis
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...miles west of Athens, where once stood a temple to laurel-crowned Apollo, is the domed Monastery of Daphni, whose fine mosaics were neglected for 700 years and are now recognized as a peak of 12th century Byzantine art. The church, named for the Virgin of the Laurels (in Greek, Daphni), stands behind a screen of cypresses, and its walls conceal a violent history. Seized and partially rebuilt in 1204 by Prankish barons, it was in turn captured and burned by Moslem Turks in 1460. The building was used in the 19th century as a powder magazine, fort, police station...
...That Daphni is a starred stop for travelers is to the credit of French Archaeologist Gabriel Millet, who in 1893 persuaded Greek authorities to save what remained of Daphni's mosaics. The ancient monastery is now a museum, and its mosaics, cleaned and repaired last year, can be seen in something approaching their original freshness (see color page...
...Daphni's mosaic designers worked at a time when Byzantine artists, moving away from elongated and stylized forms, turned for suave beauty and expert molding to the long-ignored classic Greek models. The arrangement of the mosaic murals, more than 60 in all, followed the traditional pattern, with the Virgin supreme in the apse, and prophets and saints on arches, vaults and niches. The apostles and bishops attending the Virgin Mary have the mien and carefully draped robes of the Greek philosophers. On one shell beneath the central dome the Angel of the Annunciation with classic countenance floats against...
Only when it came to the great scowling Pantocrator (Christ) who dominates the central dome did Daphni's artists desert their classic inspiration, revert to traditional Eastern models. As if they feared that the elegant style of their other mosaics would appear unseemly, Daphni's artists made the Pantocrator one of the most grim and overpowering figures to be found in all Byzantine art. Far from offending, Daphni's Pantocrator today often strikes critics as a welcome antidote to sentimentalized and saccharine images of Christ...
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