Classicisation or representation ? Mimesis in Byzantine pictorial arts as a derivative of style

The idea of mimesis in art theory has been neglected by Byzantine scholars. Reasons for this may lie in the fact that the understanding of the term in Byzantium was very complex and that it changed over time. In the Early Byzantine period and the so-called Macedonian Renaissance, a tendency to use tonal modelling, which was inherited from ancient Greco-Roman art, can still be observed. Starting in the late tenth century they give way to a more linear style. Simultaneously, a change in the understanding of mimesis in theological writings can also be observed. The aim of this paper is to introduce the problem of a mimetic approach in visual arts as a phenomenon in Byzantine culture.

The concept of mimesis as a phenomenon in Byzantine civilization has so far been mainly investigated by literary historians. They commonly use the term to refer to such practices as the repetition of style and even content 1 rather than using it in its antique meaning, which is related to the method of depicting nature. 2 In turn, * e-mail: oxygenium@poczta.fm An earlier version of this paper was presented at The Second Cracow Symposium on Byzantine Art and Archaeology, September 5-7, 2012, under the title Μίμησις in Byzantine Art: Classical, Realistic or Imitative? I owe my gratitude to Mrs. Milica Ševkušić, who significantly improved the English language of the paper. 1 Cf. e.g. H. Hunger, On the Imitation (Mimesis) of Antiquity in Byzantine Literature, DOP 23-24 (1969-1970 (Wien, 22.-25. Oktober 2008), eds. A. Rhoby, E. Schiffer, Wien 2010 (esp. cf. D. R. Reinsch, Der Autor ist tot -es lebe der Leser Zur Neubewertung der imitatio in der byzantinischen Geschichtsschreibung, 23-32, for definitions). 2 For the ancient idea of mimesis as the reflection of reality cf., e.g., Plato's Republic, books III and esp. X (imitations as copies of Platonic ideas): Plato. Republic, I-II, ed. Chr. Emlyn- Jones, W. Preddy, Cambridge 2013, 1, 248, 423 sqq; in the context of art, cf. Pliny the Elder, Natural History, XXXV 65- 67;cf. Pliny, Natural History, transl. H. Rackham, Cambridge -London 1984, 308-310) on the competitions between Zeuxis and Parrhasius (and ibid. § 68-72, 310-312 on the contour line style of the latter). For the different levels of mimesis in Plato's writings art historians are either focused on the relationship between devotional practices, liturgy and ceremonials, or on Christian motifs depicted in art as a catalyst in ritualised re-enactment of biblical events and other imitative actions, or even as a support in contemplation.
The term was introduced more than twenty years ago by Gary Vikan in his study on pilgrimage art. Vikan demonstrated that influences operated in both directions: while ceremonies such as the Triumphal Entry were modelled after iconography, the imagery on the works of pilgrimage art, such as ampullae, tokens and jewellery, diverges from the Gospel account of the event in favour of a setting known to travellers from their own experience and popular beliefs. 3 His observations were accepted by Gleen Peers 4 and they inspired Elisabeth S. Bolman to analyse the frescoes on the walls of a monk's cell at the Apa Jeremiah monastery in Saqqara (sixth to eighth century); according to her, they were meant to assist hermits in the process of assimilation to Christ. 5 Monumental paintings were discussed by William Tronzo, who noticed a mimetic correspondence between rituals celebrated within monastic churches (washing of the feet by the abbot, Baptism and the Holy Communion) and scenes chosen to decorate them in the katholika of Hosios Loukas, Nea Moni and Daphni, as well as with the function of the proskynetaria icons. It led him to the conclusion that liturgical ceremonies followed in form the images on the walls that surrounded the space where they took place. 6 In turn, in his commentary to the facsimile edition of the Theodore Psalter (Brit. Add. 19352;1066 A.D.), Charles Barber explained the presence of the image of Theodore the Studite on page 192r in the scene of the investiture of the abbot's stick as a sign of mimetic economy that demanded of subsequent abbots to imitate their great predecessor. 7 Finally, Henry Maguire recently used the term mimesis in his study on literary metaphors taken from the natural world in artistic representations of the Holy Virgin. 8 There is the impression that the authors of the above-mentioned studies avoid a verbatim definition of mimesis as a stylistic feature in favour of its metaphorical understanding. The term is assumed to designate something beyond the object of art, related rather to worshipers' reception than to the style of a picture. To the best of our knowledge, no attempt has been made to explore mimetic values as an immanent feature of an object of art, i.e. as being an element of its style. 9 Such an attitude surprises, especially if we keep in mind that the antique understanding of the word was closely tied to the representation of the natural world in art. 10 However, this can be explained by the changes in thoughts on art that occurred in late antiquity.
Christian authors did not present a coherent attitude towards the veracity of an image. In his polemics with the Gnostics (Contra haereses II 7,2), Irenaeus of Lyon still referred to the category of similarity in the 25 (Spring 1994) 61-76. A similar understanding of the term in the context of depictions on ecclesiastical vestments and liturgical actions is presented in W. T. Woodfin, The Embodied Icon. Liturgical Vestments and Sacramental Power in Byzantium, Oxford 2012, 98-102. For a similar interpretation of the scrolls in the hands of Church Fathers depicted in sanctuaries in the Middle Byzantine period cf. S. Gerstel, Liturgical Scrolls in the Byzantine Sanctuary, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 35 (1994) 195-204. 7 Ch. Barber, Authority, Mimesis, and Prayer: Prolegomenon to an Abbot's Reading of the Theodore Psalter, in: Theodore Psalter. Electronic Facsimile, ed. Ch. Barber, Campaign 2001, 1-22. 8 H. Maguire, Metaphors of the Virgin in Byzantine Literature and Art,in: Imitatio,Aemulatio,Variatio,[189][190][191][192][193][194]. A recent paper on imperial portraits between the seventh and fourteenth centuries is also worth mentioning: A. Cutler, The Idea of Likeness in Byzantium, in: Wonderful Things: Byzantium Through its Art. Papers from the 42 nd Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, London 20-22 March 2009, eds. A. Eastmond, L. James, Aldershot 2013 Studies related to the Constantinian period, such as M.  Minor,Palestine,, London -New York 2003, 68-69). This fragment was also quoted during the Seventh Ecumenical Council (Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, ed. G. D. Mansi, Paris 1901-1927, vol. 12, col. 1066vol. 13, col. 277, 300)  sense established in antique considerations on aesthetics, though he further noted that it was impossible to depict supernatural beings that had no form by means of figures (II 7,7). 11 A greater degree of scepticism was expressed by Lactantius (Divinarum Institutionum Liber II 'De Origine Erroris' 2, 6-10), who deemed depictions justified only in the case when the original object was not present; accordingly, in the case of omnipresent God there is no need for them. 12 A less firm attitude can be observed in Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite's Neo-Platonist work The Celestial Hierarchy (I 3). According to him the spiritual hierarchy can be imitated by means of material art because this is the only way acceptable for our senses. 13 Theodore the Studite referred to this opinion in his letter to his uncle, abbot Plato. 14 In his writings, especially those addressed to iconoclasts, he adopted the Iconophile distinction between the essence of being (οὐσία) and its external manifestation (ὅμοιος). Due to this, he was able to eliminate the factor of any accidental lack of resemblance, caused by artists' insufficient skills. In the third chapter of his anti-iconoclastic treatise he wrote: Even if we grant that the image does not have the same form as the prototype because of insufficient artistic skill, still our argument would not be invalid. For veneration is given to the image not insofar as it falls short of similarity, but insofar of as it resembles its prototype. 15 This theoretical shift towards the imitative function of art corresponded to a change in methods used by Christian artists -i.e. the Pictographic Style observed by Ernst H. Gombrich in the early art of the Christian period. 16  Διὸ καὶ τὴν ὁσιωτάτην ἡμῶν ἱεραρχίαν ἡ τελετάρχις ἱεροθεσία τῆς τῶν οὐρανίων ἱεραρχιῶν ὑπερκοσμίου μιμήσεως ἀξιώσασα καὶ τὰς εἰρημένας ἀΰλους ἱεραρχίας ὑλαίοις σχήμασι καὶ μορφωτικαῖς συνθέσεσι διαποικίλασα παραδέδωκεν. For translation cf. Dionysius Areopagite, The Mystical Theology and the Celestial Hierarchies, Surrey 1949, 30: "Wherefore that first institution of the sacred rites, judging it worthy of a supermundane copy of the Celestial Hierarchies, gave us our most holy hierarchy, and described that spiritual Hierarchy in material terms and in various compositions of forms so that we might be led, each according to his capacity, from the most holy imagery to formless, unific, elevative principles and assimilations". 14 PG 99, col. 500-501: Πᾶσα τοίνυν τεχνητὴ εἰκὼν, ὀμοίωσίς ἐστιν οὗ ἂν ᾖ εἰκὼν, καὶ ἐν ἑαυτῇ τὸν χαρακτῆρα τοῦ ἀρχετύπου μιμητικῶς δείκνυσι, καθώς φησιν ὁ πολὺς τὰ θεῖα Διονύσιος. "Every artificial image is a likeness of that whereof it is the image, and it exhibits in itself, by way of imitation, the form (charakter) of its model ( that the imitation of supernatural reality is impossible and that only conventional symbols which bear no pretence of resemblance are valid. However, even symbolic art focused on the transmission of meaning had to rely on visual forms familiar to the audience. The issue was well encapsulated by Hans Belting in his discussion on idealism and realism in late antique funerary portraits: The study of nature by necessity involves the question of how nature is understood in a given age. 17 Keeping in mind his words, we will venture into an analysis of the degree and character of imitation and representation in Byzantine art. A representation of the natural world upon a flat, limited surface of a picture is always a result of a compromise between conventionality and imitation. It is equally determined by the physiology of the human body and external limitations. Due to stereoscopic vision, which allows us to estimate the distance and depth of objects, a picture is perceived as flat and motionless. Limited means of expression, such as line and colour, are available to artists when they want to suggest three-dimensional space. In turn, our eyes' structure, similar to lenses, causes our gaze to focus on one vision plane, while others remain blurred as part of peripheral vision. Due to this fact, a picture that renders sharply all objects, including those that belong to the background, is commonly perceived as artificial. 18 This problem makes us aware that a genuine pictorial effect cannot be achieved by merely reproducing the shapes of individual details. In imitating space, painters have to keep in mind that forms, light and shadow should be used in a way that is accepted and properly understood by viewers. As Ernst Gombrich has shown in his studies on illusion in art, in different periods, the degree of resemblance and conventional forms varied: 19 it was determined by the time, place and artistic milieu. If we agree that artistic convention, which facilitates visual transmission to the beholder, is an important element of style, then we also have to acknowledge the attitude towards the faithful depiction of nature as its component. * * * While looking for mimetic tendencies in Byzantine figurative art, at the very outset it seems logical to turn attention towards scientific illustrations of nature, because of their documentary character, which expectedly resulted in the veracity of depictions. As a civilization which heavily relied on normative manuals, Byzantium handed down to us a significant number of illustrated physical treatises. One of the most famous among them is the luxurious edition of Pedanius Dioscurides' De materia medica (Περὶ ὕλης ἰατριῆς), probably made in the imperial scriptorium at Constantinople around 512; it is now held by the National Library in Vienna (Cod. med. gr. 1). 20  cording to the inscription in the inner frame of the dedicatory miniature (fol. 6v), 21 the book was commissioned by the inhabitants of the suburb Honoratia and presented to the patrikia Juliana Anicia as a gift for the founding of a church in this district. 22 The main part of the codex consists of Dioscurides' herbal arranged in the alphabetical order, but at the end, minor supplementary texts were also added: anonymous Carmen de viribus herbarum (fols. 388-392), 23 paraphrases of Nicander of Colophon's texts on snakes, insects and remedies to their venoms: Therakia (393r-437v) and the Alexipharmaka (438r-459v), both written by Euteknios; as well as anonymous paraphrases of Oppian's poem on fishing -Halieuktika (fols. 460r-473r) and Dionysios' Ornithiaka (474r-485v). 24 The text De materia medica is accompanied by 383 mostly full-page miniatures of various plants. Generally, they are depicted minutely with proper proportions, colours and accurate modelling based on tonal contrasts. Even an untrained botanist can easily recognise the most popular plants without reading the accompanying texts. However, the question arises whether such a high degree of veracity is a result of sharp observation and the technical skills of sixth-century artists or rather a consequence of the simple reproduction of earlier, antique models. Although the Vienna Dioscurides is the earliest surviving example of this type of book, scholars have no doubt that it followed an earlier tradition of illuminated herbals. Already Charles Singer pointed out that miniatures in Juliana's Anicia codex had been copied from much earlier originals, probably an item of Rhizotomicon attributed to Crateuas of Pergamon (121-163 BC) 25 .
The existence of e arlier illustrated texts about plants is confirmed by surviving fragments of papyri with drawings (though they are rather sketchy in nature) 26 and references by Pliny and Cassiodorus 27 . Evidence that earlier patterns were indeed used is also provided by the Vienna Dioscurides. The original text of the treatise was supplemented by notes from the writings of other ancient authors: those of Crateuas and Galen. On several pages (fols. 25v, 34r), they are accompanied with smaller miniatures that present variants different from the main illustration, and they were undoubtedly borrowed from the same codices from which the quotations were taken. 28 In turn, some full-page miniatures -e.g. papilionaceous flowers on the stems of the garlic plant (moly) on fol. 235v -show unnatural details, probably introduced by a copyist who misinterpreted the model drawing (Fig. 1) Art, November 19, 1977, through February 12, 1978, ed. K. Weitzmann, New York 1979 proaches to realistic details are also evident in subsequent parts of the codex. Carmen de viribus herbarium is illustrated with a single representation of a coral accompanied by an antique personification of the sea. The miniatures that accompany the Theriaka paraphrase are small, schematic and also repetitive. Their details often fail to provide sufficient information for the identification of particular species (Fig. 2). 29 On the other hand, the prose paraphrase of Dionysius' poem is illustrated with twenty-four miniatures of various birds that are so detailed (though rather small) as to allow accurate identification. The two remaining paraphrases have no illustrations at all, but in the text of the Alexipharmaka, the scribe left nine blank spaces, undoubtedly intended for miniatures. The reasons for not filling them remain unknown, but a possible explanation could be that the copyist was unable to find a proper manuscript to serve as a model. 30 These differences indicate that artists, while working on the Vienna Dioscurides, used several codices with illustrations of varying artistic quality and factual accuracy of miniatures.
Therefore, the miniatures of Anicia's codex cannot be treated as an example of straightforward artistic imitation of nature, but rather as the repetition of ancient pictorial formulae. This observation may be generally extended to other Byzantine illuminated herbals executed in the following centuries. Over time, the style of drawings only slightly changed. An example of fairly high fidelity to an ancient prototype is the early seventh-century Naples Dioscurides (Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale; Ms. Suppl. gr. 29 An attempt to identify various kinds of reptiles depicted in the Vienna manuscript is presented in Z. Kádár Mazal) 28; olim Ms. ex. Vindob. gr. 1), probably made in Italy. 31 Although its illustrations follow the same presumed model as Anicia's codex, they were derived independently and rendered even more naturalistically (Fig. 3). Additionally, in the Naples manuscript, 409 illustrations arranged in pairs occupy the top half of each of the 172 folios, rather than being full-page miniatures as in the Vienna Dioscurides. 32 A tendency to simplify and a stiffer, linear style 31 Until the early eighteenth century, the manuscript was held by the Augustine monastery of San Giovanni a Carbonara in Naples. In 1718, the Habsburgs plundered it for the Viennese Court Library. After the conclusion of the peace negotiations after World War I, in 1919, the codex was returned to the Biblioteca Nazionale in Naples. Its date and origin were hypothetically established on the basis of a palaeographic analysis solely (presence of the maiuscola biblica typical for the turn of the sixth and seventh centuries and for Western manuscripts) by G. Cavallo 33 The antique light-and-shadow modelling recurs in miniatures in Nicander's Theriaka and Alexipharmakia (Par. suppl. gr. 247), but its presence cannot be associated with the accuracy of transmission. The Codex was made in Constantinople in the second half of the tenth century. Artists depicted human bodies in a manner that resembles antique reliefs, with muscles suggestively outlined with shadows and accurate proportions, but animals and especially plants were rendered conventionally and without care for details despite the informative function of the book. They are hardly recognizable and can be identified only due to the accompanying inscriptions. 34 A similar approach to rendering the human body can also be observed in slightly earlier illuminations in the codex which contains a collection of surgical manuals of Apollonius of Kiton (the commentary to the Hippocratic treatise On Dislocations; Περὶ ἄρθρων πραγματεία) and Soranus of Ephesus' On Bandages (Περὶ ἐπιδέσμων). 35 The manuscript was made for the Constantinopolitan physician Niketas around 900 and until the fourteenth century it remained in the local hospital near the church of Forty Martyrs. 36 Scholars generally agree that miniatures depicting various medical treatments, being meant for educational purposes, repeated earlier formulae unknown to us. 37 However, in the modelling of figures and in the decorative arcades framing the compositions (Fig. 4) literature and figural art (though to a lesser degree) in the second half of the ninth century and lasted for only one hundred years. A more dramatic change in the approach to representing nature can be observed in the following century, as exemplified by the Athonite Dioscurides Codex from the Great Lavra monastery (Ω 75). The manuscript, initially dated to the eleventh or perhaps twelfth century, 39 was finally identified solely on the ground of a palaeographic analysis as a work from the turn of the tenth and eleventh centuries. 40 While the text remains related to the Morgan Herbal, its illustrations differ significantly. Plants are usually lined up in a row at the top of the page in groups of two or three. The painter captured only their essential features without paying attention to shadows and details (Fig. 5). The degree of convention is so high that identification is usually possible only due to inscriptions and the accompanying text. On the contrary, human figures were painted quite effectively and despite a pronounced linearity, light and shadow were used to suggest their volume.
The anticlassical tendencies in eleventh-century painting also determined the artistic expression of another illustrated treatise on the natural world, namely the poem On Hunting (Cynegetica), written by Pseudo-Oppian and dedicated to Emperor Caracalla. Codex Marcianus gr. Z 479, produced in a Constantinopolitan scriptorium around 1060, is the oldest and the only known illustrated Byzantine copy of the text. 41 Nevertheless, the majority of modern scholars agree that the miniatures generally follow a lost antique model, arguing, on the one hand, that the original must have had illuminations because the text would not have been fully understandable without them, 42 and, on the other, that minor discrepancies in narration indicate that the artists relied on an earlier set of images. 43 While the problem of earlier sources will probably remain 41 Facsimile edition: Tratado de caza y pesca, Oppiano Cynegetica, Valencia 1999; colour illustrations were also published by I. Spatharakis unsolved, it should be noted that the images of nature are not faithful. 44 Anatomic details are shown conventionally and they conform to an overall linearity of style. In turn, the linear style did not affect very precisely depicted details of dress, both male (hunters and soldiers) and female (e.g. Medea's hat and the dress on fol. 47r, Fig. 6). 45 Both phenomena are in line with the change in eleventh-century painting, already noted by Christopher Walter, who has drawn attention not only to the simplification of modelling but also to the enrichment of iconography, 46 which is not irrelevant for our further discussion. This mechanism can also be observed in later illuminated manuscripts that contain physical writings: the lost manuscript of Physiologus (Smyrna,Theological School,B 8; 47 and Hippiatrica 44 We omit cases, in which the limited knowledge of an artist caused mistakes; e.g. a hippopotamus depicted as a horse (verbatim ἱπποπόταμος = river horse) in Christian Topography (XI 9) by Cosmas Indicopleustes, (Cod. Laur. Plut IX 28, fol. 268v;Cod. sinai. gr. 1186, fol. 202r), see Cosmas Indicopleustès. Topographie chrétienne, ed. W. Wolska-Conus, Paris 1973, 333, figs. 4-5. 45 Spatharakis, The Illustrations of the Cynegetica in Venice,[193][194][195][196][197][198][199][200][201][202][203][204][205] fig. 99. 46 Ch. Walter, Expressionism and Hellenism, 286: "For those who concentrate their attention on the survival of Hellenism, the answer is clear. The Macedonian 'Renaissance' was a 'peak' , while the eleventh century was a 'valley' , a 'period of estrangement from the classical tradition' . Yet such a proposition is reversible. In terms of iconographical development, the eleventh century was a 'peak' and the Macedonian 'Renaissance' a 'valley' . " 47 The codex was destroyed in the Smyrna fire of 1922; however, it had been published before destruction, see J. Strzygowski 48 The last example is especially noteworthy because it still follows the mid-Byzantine pattern despite its late date.
It seems that contemporaries were aware of this change. For example, Michael Psellos wrote about it in one of his homilies: That painting proceeds exactly according to the law of art is clear from its use of color, as a wise man has observed. But what is admirable here lies rather in the fact that the icon is full of life and nowhere lacks movement. If one lets one's eyes rest successively on different parts, one can see them change, grow larger, and move […] Thus the dead man seems to be alive, yet one sees precisely what is dead -the body. To be sure, the elements of such painting can also be found in artless icons, namely […] the impression of life in the color of the blood and the impression of death in the pallor. But there they are imitated from models and copies of copies. Here, however, the impression does not arise from the composition of colors, but from the nearness of living nature, which is not moved by art. One can hardly imagine how the icon could come into being in such a form. As its beauty resides no less in the contrast than in the harmony of the parts and limbs, so the painting shines with such beauty, although it is not a phenomenon of nature. Smyrna, JÖB 25 (1976)  Although this living painting is built up from the skilful composition of such parts, the appearance of life goes beyond such means. The icon lives on the one hand from the fact that it imitates [life] from art, and on the other in that it does not merely copy it but reproduces it in spirit through the influence of grace. What use now is Plato's comparison of images with shadows? I would not compare this icon with any other painting, even if one were to discover images in the ancient manner or even its archetype. I should no more wish to do so if [painters] of our time or of the recent past depicted such apparitions anew. This icon, I say, resembles exactly the appearance of Christ when he stood facing Pilate and was condemned by him at the desire of the clamoring people [with the words: Ecce homo]. Thus he is shown in a very similar manner in the icon. I shall not, therefore, call into doubt that a higher power guided the hand of the icon painter and the understanding of the one who executed it, to the true prototype. 49 While reading these words one should remember that Psellos was one of the most eminent connoisseurs of his epoch, as well as a collector of icons, which -as he personally admitted -he had stolen from various churches and sanctuaries. 50 * * * As it has been demonstrated, depictions of the natural world conformed to the general rules of style of an epoch. Yet, due to the unchangeable character of the models, their analysis could hardly reveal whether Byzantine artists worked independently in reproducing external realia, or rather imitated earlier sources. Therefore, additional information may be provided by images of human-made 49 P. Gautier, Un discours inédit de Michel Psellos sur la Crucifixion, Revue des études byzantines 49 (1991) 5-66, here 65-66 [chapter 63]. Translation after H. Belting, Likeness and Presence, 529: Ἀλλ' ὅτι μὲν πρὸς ἀκρίβειαν τῆς τέχνης ἠκρίβωται ἠ γραφή, χρῷ δῆλον, ἔφησέ τις σοφός· ἔστι δὲ τὸ θαυμαζόμενον οὐκ ἐντεῦθεν, ἀλλὰ τῷ δοκεῖν ἐμψυχῶσθαι σύμπασαν τὴν εἰκόνα καὶ μηδεμιᾶς ἀμοιρεῖν τῶν κινήσεων. Εἰ γοῦν ἐπερείσῃ τις τοῖς μέρεσιν ἐφεξῆς ταύτης τὰ ὄμματα, τὰ μὲν αὐτῷ ἠλλοιῶσθαι δόξειε, τὰ δὲ ηὐξῆαθαι, τὰ δὲ μεθίστασθαι, τὰ δ' ἄλλο τι πάσχειν ἢ ποιεῖν, ὥσπερ ἄρτι φυόμενα ἢ φθίνοντα, οὕτω καὶ τὸν νεκρὸν αὐτῆς ἔμψυχον καὶ τὸ δοκοῦν οὕτως ἄψυχον ἀκριβῶς. Τὰ γάρ τοι τοιαύτης γραφῆς σχήματα κἀν ταῖς ἀτέχνοις τῶν εἰκόνων ἴδοι τις ἄν, τὸ οὕτως ὀρθοῦσθαι ἢ κεκάσθαι, τὸ συγκεκάμφθαι, τὸ δοκεῖν αἲματι ζῆν ἢ αὗθις τεθνᾶναι τῷ ὠχριακέναι, ἀλλ' εἰσὶν ἅπαντα τόπων, ὡς ἄν τις εἴποι, μιμήματα καὶ εἰκασμάτων εἰκάσματα. Ἐνταῦθα δὲ οὐκ ἐκ χρωμάτων τὰ τοιαῦτα δοκεῖ συνεστάναι, ἀλλ' ἔοικε τὸ σύμπαν ἐμψύχῳ φύσει καὶ ἀτεχνῶς κινουμένῃ, καὶ οὐδὲ δύναταί τις εὑρεῖν ὁπόθεν οὕτω γεγένηται ἡ εἰκόν. Ἀλλ' ὥσπερ τὸ κάλλος ἐξ ἀντιλογίας μέν ἐστι καὶ εὐαρμοστίας μελῶν καὶ μερῶν, πολλάκις δὲ καὶ ἡ ἐκ μὴ οὕτω δοκούντων ἔχειν ὑπερφυῶς απολάμπει, οὕτω δὴ κἀνταῦθα.
On the other hand, the term mimesis, understood already by Vikan as the repetition of motifs known to the artist from an environment contemporary to himself, seems to be more accurate in the case of Byzantine art, which focused on the function of a representation rather than on illusionistic imitation. This statement leads us to the conclusion that in order to offer a proper answer to the question formulated in the title of this paper, we should not ask how, but rather what Byzantine artists depicted. To illustrate the phenomenon, we will cite two examples related to military equipment, though it should be borne in mind that the broad area covered by the study of the history of Byzantine dress, including monks' robes, 52 ecclesiastical garbs 53 and female dress, 54 offers numerous examples.
The first example is the stirrup as a novel motif in Byzantine iconography. This device for horsemen was unknown in antiquity and due to this fact the riding technique was different from that commonly used in the Middle Ages. The Romans used the so-called horned saddle, and they embraced the horse's neck with their knees. This way of mounting a horse can be seen on numerous antique artefacts, where the position of riders' legs clearly indicates the lack of stirrups. Stiff metal hoops fastened to leather straps were introduced as late as the fifth century AD in the North Korean kingdom and during the following one hundred years they were transferred by steppe tribes to Europe. 55 The earliest examples in Europe ap-pear in sixth-century Avar graves in the territory of modern Hungary. 56 In the second half of the same century, the skala, i.e. steps that make mounting on a steed easier, were mentioned for the first time by Emperor Maurice in his Strategicon. 57 A depiction of stirrups appears already in an icon from the Sinai Monastery showing St. Mercurius on horseback killing Emperor Julian (Fig. 7). Approximately dated to the ninth century, this is probably the earliest representation of this element in European art. 58 After 56 A summary of the discussion on the Avar stirrup: F. Curta, The Earliest Avar-Age Stirrups, or the "Stirrup Controversy" Revisited, in: The Other Europe in the Middle Ages, eds. F. Curta, R. Kovalev, Leiden 2007, 297-326, and figs. 2, 5; the author dates their appearance ca. 650 AD; cf. also e.g. W. Świętosławski, Rola Awarów w rozpowszechnieniu w Europie azjatyckich form uzbrojenia, Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Archaeologica 23 (2001) 1976, 78-79, No. B 49), points out similarities with ninth-and tenthcentury Coptic manuscripts, brings the object into relation with the local school, and based on that suggests that it should be dated to the tenth century. His opinion was accepted by G. Galavaris the period of Iconoclasm, the motif became widespread in Byzantine figurative art and in later periods horsemen were always depicted with stirrups (Fig. 8). 59 Another example is the so-called kite-shaped shield. This form of protection appeared in Europe probably before the mid-eleventh century. In his latetwelfth-century manual, the Ayyubid military theoretician al-Tarsusi still opposed the kite-shaped shield used by European knights to the Arab rounded turs. 60 Depictions of the kite-shaped shield appear in Byzantine art already on the pages of the Theodore Psalter made in 1066 at the Studios scriptorium (Brit. Add. 19352) 61  shield also became popular in the iconography of warrior saints, where they replaced the traditional rounded or oval form. 63 The meticulously painted shields on the in Byzantine Manuscript Illustration, University Park 1992, figs. 2, 49, 68, 87, 89, 163, 167, 170, 175;Weitzmann, Joshua Roll, figs. 27, 28, 33, 40, 41 64 Its field, which is white with a gilded horizontal band, is filled with a heraldic representation of a lion standing on two back paws (Fig. 9). The same motif appears on a wooden shield dated to ca. 1200 AD, held by the Landesmuseum in Zurich (Fig. 10). The object has been traditionally associated with the Crusader's milieu and it could have been owned by the fifth Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Conrad of Thuringia (ca. 1206 -24 July 1240). 65 If so, the artefact would be in fact later in date than the representation; however, it may be assumed that similar shields with this popular heraldic motif also existed in an earlier period and that Byzantine artists could have come in contact with them already at the Westernized court of Manuel I.