Resumen de Cristo al tempio, Lazzaro, il formicaleone. Osservazioni iconograpfiche su alcune miniature dell' Athen. Gr. 211
Among the illuminated byzantine books containing homilies, Athen. gr. 211 (Athens, National Library of Greece, IX-X c.) is the only manusctipt which has preserved a group of images expressly created to illustrate a collection of sermons by John Chrysosomos. The strong originality of these illuminations seems to be caused by the strict relation between text and image: without knowing the homilies’ contents in dept, it would be almost impissible to understand the true maning of most of the pictures. These characteristics allow to assum the existence of a sophisticated ‘editorial project’, made to satisfy a specific function which was probably connected to a high-ranked and culutred commissioner, or social group. Unluckly, due to the lach of any further information or colophon, this commmisiones is totaly unknown. This contribution aims to analyze specifically three illuminations (the Myrmecoleon, Lazarus and Dives, Christ teaching in the Temple), in order to highlight their relation with the sermons, and to find the various figurative sources that probably generated their innovative iconography.
