Page 117 - Novopazarski Zbornik 36

120 Анђела Ђ. Гавриловић НЗ 36/2013

Andjela Dj. Gavrilović

ON THE ICONOGRAPHIC SPECIFICITIES AND LITERARY
SOURCE OF THE SCENE “THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS”
IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT
IN THE CHURCH OF ST NICHOLAS IN NIKOLJAC
NEAR BIJELO POLJE

The paper deals with the iconographic characteristics of the fresco of the
Death of the Righteous, depicted on the south wall of the western bay of the south
aisle of the church of St. Nicholas in Nikoljac near Bijelo Polje, Montenegro (1570).
The author devotes special attention to the reasons of the appearance of a rare ico-
nographic motive of David, the king of Israel, with a lute. The angels in the scene
were identified as Michael and Gabriel. The paper also discusses the motives of a
flower and a scepter in the hand of one of the angels (Gabriel) depicted in the scene.
It is noted that eminent King David is not always depicted in Byzantine
art in the scenes which represent the separation of the soul from the physical body
i.e. the Death of the Righteous. He is not depicted in the scenes of death of great
Egyptian fathers, such as St. Amoun of Nitria, St. Paul of Thebes, and St. Anthony
the Great; in the scenes that form part of the cycle of the Canon for the Departed,
as well as in the scenes of the Death of the Righteous in psalteria. In respect of
this, the composition in the Church of St. Nicholas is an exception to the rule.
Based on an analogy with the scene the Death of the Righteous located in the
refectory of the monastery of St. John the Theologian at Patmos (XIII c.), we suppose
that the literary source for King David’s appearance originates from a story from “The
Lives of Fathers” by an unknown Greek author [Patrologia Latina 73, 1012 (656–B,
C)]. It is a story about the visions of the death of the sinner, and the death of the righ-
teous. In the story of the death of the righteous, it is said that the angels Michael and
Gabriel came to take the soul of a certain sick poor man, and the soul refused to depart
from the body. Michael the Archangel asked the Lord in a loud voice what they sho-
uld do. The Lord sent David with a psalterion (lute) and singers of celestial Jerusalem
so that the soul willingly leaves the body after hearing melodious tunes. That moment
is depicted on the fresco in the refectory of Patmos and in the church in Nikoljac.
The motive of a flower in the hand of Gabriel, typical for the church in
Nikoljac, is interpreted as a symbol of the heavenly realm.
The fact that a scene of such a didactic thematic, certainly influenced by the
ascetic literature, could be depicted in a highly monastic milieu as Patmos leads us
to an assumption that the impetus for the depiction of such an iconographic solution
of the scene of the Death of the Righteous in the St. Nicholas church could come,
directly or indirectly, from a certain highly monastic center with long and uninter-
rupted, both spoken and literary monastic tradition, such as Holy Mount Athos.