Motifs With Sacred Meanings And Apotropaic Marks On The Wall Paintings Of Cappadocia Region

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Kaya M.

24. ULUSLARARASI ORTAÇAĞ ve TÜRK DÖNEMİ KAZILARI ve SANAT TARİHİ ARAŞTIRMALARI SEMPOZYUMU, Nevşehir, Turkey, 7 - 09 October 2020, no.22, pp.122-123, (Summary Text)

  • Publication Type: Conference Paper / Summary Text
  • City: Nevşehir
  • Country: Turkey
  • Page Numbers: pp.122-123
  • Open Archive Collection: AVESIS Open Access Collection
  • Istanbul University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

In the early Christian society, continuation of pagan beliefs and apotropaic elements derived from the Roman culture can also be observed within the reflections of artistic production. Apotropaic themes bearing the traces of the Pagan faith such as the medusa head and the mask continued to be used for decorative purposes by Christian experts. In addition, these motifs also show apotropaic features in accordance with the Christian faith in the decoration of the new Byzantine art per se.

The Cappadocia region is one of the few regions that contains most of the middle and late Byzantine period wall paintings that are intact over the period of time. As of the second half of the eleventh century, even though the Christian people could not show artistic development in the region under Turkish domination, they continued their artistic production. Studies have revealed that there is no isolated art perception in the region in line with both architectural and pictorial data. Therefore, the Byzantine decoration and repertoire of the period were reflected on the wall paintings of Cappadocia.

In our study, the motifs we have encountered on the wall paintings of churches especially in the Cappadocia region dating back to the middle and late Byzantine periods, such as leaf mask, moon, sun, eight-armed star, rotating disc and medallions, precious stones, rosettes, pseudo-kufi, crucifix, and their location within the church, their use of color, and their sacred apotropaic meaning will be emphasized. Also, an evaluation about the effects of the doctrines of Cappadocian church fathers on this situation in the Byzantine art, especially about the manuscripts and wall paintings of the period, will be conducted by comparing the art within the historical framework.

We are able to notice that the majority of the artists who drew the wall paintings in the region were the local artists with Hellenistic traditions and Christian knowledge. While Byzantine artists gave the sacred meaning and apotropaic motifs (as mentioned above) in the church, they also gave importance to be in harmony with Byzantine aesthetics. Leslie Brubaker stated that “Aniconic decoration may be voiceless, but, like other non-narrative phenomenia such as music or scent, it is a powerful manipulator of perceptions, establishing a framework that silently structures meaning and mode of understanding beyond words.” In this sense, we can understand how effective adding the sacred meaning and apotropaic effect to some aniconic motifs in the middle and late Byzantine period wall paintings of Cappadocia from the viewer’s perspective is.