Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 30. (Budapest, 2016)
Szilveszter TERDIK: “Athonite” Miniature Carvings at the Museum of Applied Arts
is a scene of the Baptism of Christ. As on the front, there are unidentifiable half- length portraits of evangelists at the top and bottom. At the ends of the horizontal arms, however, are angels, which are part of the scene of the Baptism. The enamelled silver parts may be of the same age as the carving, and were possibly made in Constantinople, for research has shown that some similarly shaped, enamelled crosses are associated with workshops in the former capital: two rather more finely worked blessing crosses of 1676 at the Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos,29 and a blessing cross from Argyroupolis, now at the Benaki Museum in Athens, whose handle has similarly coloured enamels, although the ornamentation is different.30 These items clearly show the influence of Islamic art motifs. The second blessing cross in the collection has no metal mounting, but it does have its own wooden case, for safe transportation, which is probably coeval.31 (Fig. 1) The handle of the cross can be detached, reducing the space taken up by the object during storage or transit. The case was made by carving out a piece of wood to match the shape and dimensions of certain elements of the cross, which was then covered with a slide-off wooden top. The latter parts were not made of boxwood.32 The boxwood carving, pierced and worked on both sides, was probably made on Mount Athos in the seventeenth century. One side of the cross depicts the Crucifixion, with only the Virgin Mary and John the Apostle standing at the base of the Cross. Inside a frame above the scene is the Greek name of the holy event: H 2TAYPÍÍZI2. At the top and bottom of the vertical shaft are half-length portraits of evangelists, who cannot be identified more closely, while at each end of the crosspiece are angels beholding the scene of the Crucifixion. On the other side, in the middle, is a scene of the Baptism of Christ. Above the scene, which follows the conventional 5. Blessing cross in a wooden case, Mount Athos, end of seventeenth century. Boxwood. Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest, inv. no: 67.227.1.1-1.2 iconography, is the Greek inscription: H BAflTHSE. Evangelists in half-length portrait appear above and below the scene, while angels witnessing the Baptism feature on the horizontal arms. A piece of the 61
