CC BY
67Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies 2020, 8(2), 41-54
www.aaatec.org ISSN 2310-2144
Personification of the Sun, the Moon and the planets in fourteenth century Serbian iconography
Dragana Van de moortel-Ili?
Full Summer school programm coordinator, Oxford, [email protected]
Abstract
This paper investigates the celestial-religious images in fourteenth century Serbian Christian Orthodox iconography, painted in the Byzantine style. The focus of this research is on the fresco of the Sun, the Moon, the planets and the Zodiac, from the Lesnovo monastery, now situated in North Macedonia. While the monasticism view and official church refuse to accept that the fresco presents the Zodiac signs and the planets, in the academic world there are detailed explanations of the visual details of this fresco but no explanation as to why the Zodiac is painted there. The other subject of this research is the Visoki De?ani monastery in Kosovo, with a specific focus on the images of the Sun and the Moon in the fresco entitled, The Crucifixion of Christ. This paper concentrates on possible explanations as to why these figures, the Zodiac and the planets were painted and what they could possibly represent. The conclusion is that these celestial images are a product of a synergy between the Hellenistic and the Christian cosmology.
Keywords: Zodiac, personified planets, medieval iconography, archaeoastronomy, Psalm 148, Byzantine style, Visoki De?ani, Bogorodica Ljevi?ka, Lesnovo, Serbia.
Introduction
The Serbian fourteenth-century Lesnovo and Visoki De?ani monasteries were painted in mid-1340s (Gabeli?, 1998, p. 9; Todi?, ?anak-Medi?, 2005, pp. 326-328), during the ascent of the Kingdom of Serbia (1217-1346), which transformed into the Serbian empire (1346-1371). Both states were ruled by members of the Nemanji? dynasty and the Kingdom was proclaimed an empire on 16th April 1346, by king Stefan Du?an, better known as 'the Mighty', who became the Tsar and autocrat of the Serbs and Greeks and Bulgarians. His childless son, known as Uro? the Weak, lost most of territory and the Empire effectively ended in 1371 (Sakralna umetnost�, 2016, pp. 582-583). The Serbian state experienced the final collapse in 1389, in the Battle of Kosovo, when Turkish armies managed to overpower Serbia and encircle the crumbling Byzantine Empire. The influence of the Hellenistic cosmology might be the reason why the personified cosmic bodies accompany the Christian paintings in these frescoes, because of the territorial and political connections.
The aim of this research is to put these celestial-religious images into a cultural and contemporary cosmological context by comparing them with other celestial images in Serbian churches, constructed and painted in the same period. Most celestial images used as references are found in the Bogorodica Ljevi?ka church, located in the town of Prizren, Kosovo, 60 km from the Visoki De?ani monastery, and the Lesnovo monastery, which is between the towns of Zletovo and Kratovo in North Macedonia � 260 km from the Visoki De?ani monastery.
Celestial imagery in the Lesnovo monastery
The Lesnovo monastery, or Saint Archangel Michael and Saint Hermit Gabriel of Lesnovo monastery, is located in the eastern part of the North Macedonia, between villages Zletovo and ?tip. This is one of the best preserved Serbian fourteenth century monasteries, which inside painting was finished around 1349 (Gabeli?, 1998, p. 9). The plan of this monastery and the view from the southwest side are presented in Figure 1a and 1c, and taken over from an article (Gabeli?, 2018, pp. 322, 329). The church of the monastery-complex is oriented slightly northeast-southwest, as presented via Google maps in Figure 1b. The blue arrow points up North. The place of the fresco from Figure 2 is indicated by a red arrow in the plan in Figure 1a.
a
b
c
Figure 1. The Lesnovo monastery: a - the longitudinal section and plan of the church, drawn by ?ur?e Bo?kovi? (Gabeli?, 2018, pp. 322); b - the orientation of the church, Google maps, 42�00?48??N, 22�13?42?? E, the blue line shows North; c - view from the southwest, photo by G. Popov, 1960 (Gabeli?, 2018, pp. 329).
The fresco with celestial elements, which is the subject of this research, is located in the South dome of the narthex, as pointed by the star in Figure 1a. This fresco involves a painting of the zodiac, as shown in Figure 2a.
The head of Christ, which is in the center of the South dome, is oriented to the center of the narthex and the signs were on the vertical part of the dome, on the East side, partly visible from the entrance door. Next to every sign or celestial object there are words written in the Old Church Slavonic language. Those words are difficult to read by the naked eye, but the images are clearly visible from the ground. Two similar young men are depicted holding each other's hands. Considering the inscription next to them, "���z�����", which can be translated as twins, we believe that this fragment of the fresco depicts the zodiac sign of Gemini. Above the horns of a ram it is written"?���". When photos of all written words are enlarged, all names of signs and planets are recognizable. Those examples are to be seen in Figure 2b, with paintings of wat we believe to be Aries (above) and Gemini (below), with words naming those two signs in the Old Church Slavonic language. Smiljka Gabeli? wrote that around this whole fresco there were quotations of the Psalm 148 (Gabeli?, 1998, pp. 183-185), as explained further. In the first horizontal row, under Christ with angels, there is a naked winged figure, which sits on a bipod beast and carries the Sun in its hands. Above its head is written "��(��)�� " (the Sun).1
Next to this image there are three paintings next to each other: of a ram, with the word "?���"., which is split next to his horns, a bull, with the word "���z�����", on the right side of his horns, and a crab with the word "���� ". On the right side of the crab's claws is a painting with a point in the middle surrounded by five concentric circles. Above those circles are words "����(�)������?�������(�)��" (Fig. 2c), meaning 'waters that be above the heavens ', with a few missing letters, which I checked comparing the inscription with explanations of Gabeli? (Gabeli?, 1998, p.184) and the Old Church Slavonic dictionary.2 Those words belong to the Psalm 148:4 '(Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye) waters that be above the heavens'. The words "������(�) �(�����)�" ('Praise him') are written overhead the large painting of Christ, which is above this fresco.
a
b c Figure 2. A part of the zodiac in the southern dome of the narthex of the Lesnovo monastery: a � the whole fresco with the zodiac3; b � fragment of the fresco � image of Aries (above) with an inscription "?���" and Gemini (below) with an inscription "���z�����" (Gabeli?, 1998, fig. LI); c � possible image of the geocentric model with words "����(�)������?�������(�)��" (Gabeli?, 1998, fig. LI).
The most striking in East side of the fresco from Figure 2a are double white-blue frames with figures inside. Those figures have wings and naked upper body, and one of them, which appears to be a presentation of Venus (Gabeli?, 1998, p.184), is painted with no signs of clothing, and with the word "������ ". However, this word in the modern Serbian language means 'virgo'. The expressions on faces of those figures inside frames are serious. They all hold some sticks with curves on the top, which Gabeli? named symbols of planets (Gabeli?, 1998, p. 184): Mars (below left) with the word "����� ", Mercury (in the middle, with the bald head) with the word "������� " and Venus, with inscription mentioned above. However, the symbols of planets on the sticks of the painted figures were n�ot immediately recognizable in the contemporary Western symbolical presentation of planets. Nenad ?. Jankovi? provided a list of symbols of planets and zodiac signs, which show similarity with those symbols, with an explanations that they were the first Greek letter of names of those planets and signs, used by ancient Greeks (Jankovi?, 1996, p.496). I believe that the word "z?�oy�� " (Zeus) is also recognizable: next to the figure in the top left frame, which might be interpreted as Jupiter. The West side of the dome is partly damaged, but an image of the Moon is visible with the word "������ ", with a winged figure inside. Next to the Moon there is a character which looks like the modern symbol of Libra with the word "zy��� ", and the word "��op�Io(c) " ( Scorpio) but there are no more images, due to damage in this part of the painting. Gabeli? stated that this part of the narthex was repainted after 1349 (Gabeli?, 1998, appendix LI).
Celestial imagery in the Bogorodica Ljevi?ka church
The Serbian church of the Holy Virgin Ljevi?ka, or the Bogorodica Ljevi?ka church, is situated in South-West Kosovo, in the town named Prizren. Painted in the beginning of the fourteenth century, this church has a number of reference frescoes for the research of frescoes with cosmological elements from the Lesnovo monastery.
The most striking celestial frescoes from this church are frescoes from the exonarthex, which feature Hellenistic motifs.4 On the ceiling there are remnants of paintings that were clearly once pristine and exquisitely beautiful. However, now they are quite badly damaged, as shown in Figure 3a. In these remnants many personifications of natural phenomena are depicted, with Christ inside the Sun in the center of the painting. Draga Pani? and Gordana Babi? stated that this was a painting of the Last Judgment, and a drawing of this painting from their book is featured in Figure 3b (Pani?, Babi?, 1975, p.49). At the top of these images two angels are holding up the sky, which is presented as a banner on either side of Christ. All fine points are difficult to clearly see by the naked eye, but a detailed explanation of this fresco been given by Mirjana Gligorijevi?-Maksimovi?, who also named Gea, Psyche and other nature gods to be find there (Gligorijevi?-Maksimovi?, 2007, p. 208).
a
b
Figure 3. The ceiling on the South side of the external narthex. a - The arrow pointing downwards shows the personification of the Moon and the arrow pointing upwards shows the personification of the Sun (photo: Koen Van de moortel); b - the weighing of souls is underlined (Pani?, Babi?, 1975, fig. 30).
In the paintings from Figure 3 there are many naked figures with wings, which, according to Gligorijevi?-Maksimovi?, are personified souls and in some cases can be compared with Psyche from antiquity (Gligorijevi?-Maksimovi?, 2007, p. 208). Pani? and Babi? wrote that the winged figures from Figure 3b, which is underlined, present the weighing of souls (Pani?, Babi?, 1975, title of the fresco XLIV). The appearance of winged figures will be discussed later in this article, in the context of images from the Lesnovo and Visoki De?ani monasteries.
In the arch of the North wall (Figure 4), there is a fresco presenting pre-Christian, Greek philosophers and a prophet. Their identity � philosphers Plato and Plutarch and the prophet Sybille - is explained by Gligorijevi?-Maksimovi? (Gligorijevi?-Maksimovi?, 2007, pp. 205-207). By a careful observation, the inscriptions with their names could be identified by a naked eye. On the left side of Figure 4 there is a photo of the damaged North side of the ceiling of the exonarthex, with Sybille, Plato and Plutarch on the vertical part of the arch of the North wall. On the right side of Figure 4 there is a drawing illustrating a reconstruction of the fresco of those philosophers (Gligorijevi?-Maksimovi?, 2007, p. 216; Pani?, Babi?, 1975, fig. 30).
The painting on the ceiling was systematically hit by some sharp tool, possibly a hammer, and is almost unrecognizable. Furthermore, the arch with the frescoes has been exposed to rain and wind, and the colours are obviously bleached to a great extent. The paintings of the Greek philosophers are to be found in other Serbian medieval paintings, for example in the ?i?a monastery. In this monastery they are also painted in the entrance area. In Lesnovo is the fresco with personified planets correspondingly painted in the narthex. A question which appears spontaneously is why the Hellenistic elements are to be found in narthexes of churches, and a logical conclusion is that there must be a theological rational which would explain this phenomena.
a b Figure 4. Greek philosophers in the arch: a - the ceiling on the North side of the narthex with the Greek philosophers in the arch, indicated by the arrow (photo: Koen Van de moortel); b - the reconstruction of the painting on the arch (Pani?, Babi?, 1975, fig. 30). Celestial imagery in the Visoki De?ani monastery
The frescoes in Visoki De?ani monastery were painted in the mid-fourteenth century. According to what the monks of Visoki De?ani wrote in the book detailing basic information about the monastery, the church managed to largely preserve its original fourteenth century appearance, despite the fact that many valuable pieces had been stolen (Monks�, 2009, p. 29). The most famous fresco in this monastery - The Crucifixion of Christ - is set high in the central dome, in the North arch (Fig. 5).
On the left and the right sides of The Crucifixion fresco, above Christ, there are tear-shaped forms, each containing a small figure. The person on the left side is wearing a cloak around his body and across his left shoulder. This wrap looks like a himation, as illustrated in Figure 6. According to Sr?an ?uri? this is the representation of the Sun, while a painting of the Moon is portrayed on the right side (?uri?, 1989, p. 341). The figure inside this painting is wearing a cloak wrapped around the hips, as shown in Figure 7. There are two eight-pointed stars on the painting of the Moon, one in front of the figure and one behind it.
The figures are looking at each other, or at angels flying above the Christ, as displayed in Figure 5. The rays on those paintings could represent the movement from the left side to the right side since the sharpest point of the tear-shaped form of the Sun is on the left side, and the sharpest point of the Moon is on the right side. The Sun has six rays and the Moon only three.
Figure 5. The Crucifixion of Christ from the Visoki De?ani monastery5.
Figure 6. The painting of the Sun in The Crucifixion6. Figure 7. The painting of the Moon in The Crucifixion7.
Comparison and discussion
The winged figure that probably waits to be weighed and appears under the scales in the Bogorodica Ljevi?ka church (see the underlined part of Figure 3), looks very much like the winged figure inside the image of Mercury in Lesnovo, as presented in Figure 2. They are both hairless at the top of their heads, serious, not very young, with wings painted on the same way, as shown in Figure 8.
a b Figure 8. Hairless figures from Lesnovo and Bogorodica Ljevi?ka a - personified Mercury, Lesnovo (Gabeli?, 1998, fig. LI); b - the figure from the weighing of the soul, Bogorodica Ljevi?ka (Pani?, Babi?, 1975, fig. XLIV). This might be just a speculation, but the facts that those figures are hairless, connected with Mercury, or Hermes (in Lesnovo), and with the weighting of the souls (in Bogorodica Ljevi?ka), make an automatic connection with the god, or a personified spirit (daimon) Kronos, who is in iconography also presented hairless and with wings. In the contrast with the chronological time, the term kairos (which comes from mythological connection with Kairos) is connected with the qualitative form of time, or 'the time has come for something to happen' affect � a fleeting moment must be grasped (by the tuft of hair on the forehead of the fleeing figure); otherwise the moment is gone and cannot be re-captured, as explained in detail by Deitrich Boschung (Boschung, 2003, p. 54). This is why in iconography Kairos is presented hairless - at least a part of his head misses hair.
A further consideration is whether other figures inside the Sun or the Moon could also present spirits, gods, or souls of those cosmic bodies. In Figure 9 there are comparisons of frescoes of the personified Sun and Moon in Visoki De?ani and Lesnovo monasteries.
Plato wrote that in the ensouled cosmos to every soul was assigned a star (Timaeus, 41E-42A)8, and the idea of immortal souls which can undertake a journey to the stars appeared already in Egyptian though. Nicholas Campion emphasises the connection between classical and medieval astronomy with psychology, 'the capacity of the stars to inspire awe, wisdom, poetry and spiritual enlightenment', (Campion, 2011, p. 249).
a b c d Figure 9. Personified Sun and Moon: a - Personified Moon in The Crucifixion, Visoki De?ani; b - personified Sun in The Crucifixion, Visoki De?ani; c - personified Moon in Lesnovo (Gabeli?, 1998, fig. LII); d - personified Sun in Lesnovo (Gabeli?, 1998, fig. LI).
It is my contention that the whole cosmological thrust of the fresco is encapsulated in the message that man can reach the Divine through the planets, each of which has a life principle, or soul. Telling this, I would like to emphasize the influence of Platonistic philosophy in the fourteenth century Christian Orthodox iconography. All mentioned frescoes are situated in the vicinity of the Greek Macedonia, which suggest a possible influence of the Greek version of Christianity, with their cultural elements which includes Hellenistic philosophy. It was mentioned by the contemporary Orthodox theologian Gregory Palamas (c. 1296-1357 or 1359) 'The intellect of pagan philosophers is likewise a divine gift' which could be used for its 'therapeutic values even in substances obtained from the flesh of serpents' (Gregory Palamas�, 1983). All mentioned frescoes are exceptions from the general style and motifs of the Byzantine religious art � in churches illustrations of the biblical texts, martyrs and national rulersare the central themes. The cosmological elements in medieval Orthodox frescoes were representation of the cosmos as a creation of God. Pseudo-Dionysius, an unknown supporter of Orthodoxy from the sixth century, wrote an essential explanation of the connection between a man and the Christian god: 'inspired by the Father, each procession of the Light spreads itself generously toward us, and, in its power to unify it stirs us by lifting us up. It returns us back to the oneness and deifying simplicity of the Father who gathers us in' (Pseudo-Dionysius�, 1987, p. 145). This is why in the top of every dome of Orthodox churches there is a fresco of Jesus. John D. Zizioulas explains how man and nature, including cosmos, create a balance between the transcendence and immanence are become oneness under the influence of Jesus, what he calles anakephalaiosos (under one head). He adds that the fear of paganism and all that it implies can justify a great deal of the attitude that led to sheer rationalism, and that a there is a 'total dichotomy between nature and history, the holy and the profane, reason and myth, art and philosophy, which have marked our modern way of thinking in the West'.9 A reason why there are now very rare, frescoes with celestial elements and influence of the Hellenistic philosophy might be the desire of the Orthodox church to 'purify' itself from the Hellenistic elements.
From the evidence presented, Gabeli? confidently suggested that the planetary symbols in Lesnovo were not painted merely to illustrate the Sun's movement through the zodiac constellations but rather in order to illustrate the cosmological character of Christ (Gabeli?, 1998, p. 184). The question of the astronomical knowledge of medieval theologians will be discussed in my future articles, as a challenge to this statement. The observation of the movement of the Sun did not oppose the Christian learning and was even an important part of calculations of religious feasts, and for this reason cannot be excluded as a reason to create those frescoes. Above the head of Christ and the circle of angels there are words, translated by Gabeli? as Psalm 148:1 (Gabeli?, 1998, pp. 184-185). She wrote that the rest of this Psalm continues further, above the zodiac signs and other frescoes on the South wall, ending with Psalm 148:10, which I observed personally and confirmed as a fact � all inscriptions are visible and recognizable. The inscription of Psalm 148:4 is already shown in Figure 2c. The whole Psalm 148 reads as follows (The Holy Bible, 1900, pp. 463-464):
PRAISE ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights.
2 Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all hishosts.
3 Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.
4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.
5 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.
6 He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass.
7 Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
8 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:
9 Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:
10 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl�
On the top right side on Figure 2, together with most of the zodiac signs, a point with five circles around it is located, containing the words written in the old church Slavonic language from Psalm 148:4 'waters that be above the heavens' and next to the personified Sun and Moon words from Psalm 148:3 are to be seen: '(Praise him), sun�and moon'; Gabeli? names those images 'the Solar system' (Gabeli?, 1998, p. 184). However, the term "solar system " might be considered as incorrect, because it assumes that the sun is the centre of our planetary system, which was not applied in this period of time. The model of the planetary movements in medieval period and the system of the world was Aristotelian. This described a world view with the Earth at the centre, around which orbited the planets and beyond those, the sphere of the fixed stars. According to Aristotle, the Prime Mover was God ~ the most perfect, nearly perfect were the heavens, much less perfect were the planets and the most imperfect was the Earth (On the Heavens, book 13, II ).10 Therefore the soul's pathway to God was seen as specifically through the planetary spheres. This part of the cosmology of Aristotle might influence the painting in Lesnovo.
The complete break with this cosmology came in the eighteenth century, with the work of Newton (The Occult Sciences�, 2006, p.365).
The words from Psalm 148 are indeed written in and around this fresco, yet the zodiac constellations, planets and winged figures are not mentioned in this Psalm. It leads to the conclusion that the Aristotelian cosmology could offer an extended explanation as to why the images of planets and signs were painted in this fresco. An important point is that all these cosmological frescoes are painted in the narthex, the entrance area symbolizing the neophyte's preparation for Christianisation and/or for the liturgy.
Conclusions
The aim of this article was to put celestial-religious images of Lesnovo and Visoki De?ani monasteries into a cultural and contemporary cosmological context by comparing them with each other and other celestial images in Serbian churches, constructed and painted in the same period. The majority of celestial images used as references were found in the Bogorodica Ljevi?ka church.
What I found was that the winged figures from Lesnovo and Bogorodica Ljevi?ka were linked through a clear similarity in the style of painting and the specific depiction of souls. Paintings based on the philosophy of Plato were found in other medieval Serbian churches. From these it became evident that the ideas of Plato about the immortality of the soul and the ensouled cosmos might be known to contemporary fresco painters.
The most important conclusion is that the knowledge of the Hellenistic teaching, including astronomy, as an integral part of the Hellenistic cosmology, proved to be an introduction to liturgical enchantment. The argument underpinning this statement is that the frescoes of Greek philosophers, the Zodiac signs and planets were always painted in the narthex, which was a place where people prepared themselves to be baptised and to participate in the liturgy. In the nave of these churches I did not find any paintings by Greek philosophers or paintings depicting the Zodiac.
References
Boschung, 2003 � Boschung, D. Kairos as a figuration of time; Wilhelm Fink Verlag: M?nchen, Germany, 2003.
Campion , 2011 - Campion, N. Astronomy and the Soul. In Astronomy and Civilisation in the New Enlightenment; Springer: Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London and New York, The Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain and USA, 2011.
Duri?, 1989 - Duri?, S. The Representation of sun and moon at De?ani. De?ani i vizantijska umetnost sredinom XIV veka, SANU XLIX, 13, 1989.
Gabeli?, 2018 � Gabeli?, S. Lesnovo Floor Rosettes. Ni? i Vizantija XIV, 2018, 321-332.
Gabeli?, 1998 � Gabeli?, S. Manastir Lesnovo; Stubovi kulture, Beograd, Serbia, 1998.
Gligorijevi?-Maksimovi?, 2007 - Gligorijevi?-Maksimovi?, M. Anti?ki elementi u slikarstvu Bogorodice Ljevi?ke u Prizrenu, Zbornik Matice Srpske za klasi?ne studije, 2007, 9, pp. 203-221.
Gregory Palamas�, 1983 - Gregory Palamas. The Triads, ed. John Meyendorff, trans. Nicholas Gendle; Paulist Press, New Jersey USA, 1983.
Jankovi?, 1996 - Jankovi?, N. D. Otkrivanje vasione; Muzej nauke i tehnike i Zavod za ud?benike i nastavna sredstva, Beograd, Serbia, 1996.
Monks�, 2009 - Monks of the Visoki De?ani monastery, Manastir Visoki De?ani; Manastir Visoki De?ani: Visoki De?ani, Serbia, 2009.
Pani?, Babi?, 1975 - Pani?, Draga, P.; Babi?, G. Bogorodica Ljevi?ka; Srpska knji?evna zadruga: Beograd, Serbia, 1975.
Pseudo-Dionysius�, 1987 - Pseudo-Dionysius: the complete works, trans. by Colm Luibheid; Paulist Press, New York and Mahwah, USA, 1987.
Sakralna umetnost�, 2016 � Sakralna umetnost srpskih zemalja u srednjem veku, ed. by Dragan Vojvodi? and Danica Popovi?; Srpski komitet za vizantologiju: Beograd, Serbia, 2016.
The Holy Bible, 1900 - The Holy Bible, authorized King James Version. Pure Cambridge Edition, Cambridge, Great Britain, c.1900.
The occult sciences �, 2006 � The occult sciences in Byzantium / edited by Magdalino, P.; Mavroudi, M.; La Pomme D'or: Geneva, Switzerland, 2006.
Todi?, ?anak-Medi?, 2005 - Todi?, B.; ?anak-Medi?, M. Manastir De?ani; Muzej u Pri?tini (displaced), Mnemosyne: Beograd, Serbia, 2005.
� This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons by Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
1 For clarification of Old Church Slavonic inscription the dictionary of the website http://www.slavdict.ru/ was utilized.
2 http://www.slavdict.ru/
3https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Frescos_from_the_Michael_the_Archangel_Church_of_Lesnovo_014.jpg [accessed 29 03 2020]
4 Hellenism, Hellenistic elements, as they are used in our text, should be understood most generally as the case of cultural influence of classical Greek culture on any country. In our study, however, it should be understood as also Byzantinization (or even as a Serbian Early Renaissance like the Carolingian Early Renaissance). An expression of Hellenistic cosmology influenced Byzantium culturally from the first centuries of its existence, being from the Medieval states a direct heir to the Greek and Roman classical cultures of antiquity. Byzantinization in the Balkans, which were conquered by the Kingdom of Serbia, which has already begun to influence art (temple paintings and its motives) is an original cultural and historical phenomenon that influenced the attitude of masters and architects and it is in this form that Hellenization should be understood in our text. Thus, Hellenization was carried out through the culture of Byzantium, which is a subsidiary culture, or even the continuation and development of the culture of Hellas and Ancient Rome. Therefore, we can talk about Hellenistic motifs in art and the Hellenistic school of philosophy, which are spread already through the mediation of Byzantium and appear in the Serbian Empire.
5https://www.blagofund.org/Archives/Decani//Church/Pictures/Frescoes/Dome/Third_Level/CX4K1777.html (accessed 22nd November 2020)
6 https://www.ruicon.ru/arts-new/fresco/1x1-dtl/dechany/voskreshenie_lazarya_vstrecha_hrista_s_mariej_i_marfoj14/ (accessed 22nd November 2020)
7 https://www.ruicon.ru/arts-new/fresco/1x1-dtl/dechany/voskreshenie_lazarya_vstrecha_hrista_s_mariej_i_marfoj14/ (accessed 22nd November 2020)
8 http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekFeb2011&query=Pl.%20Ti.%2041e&getid=1 (accessed on 07/11/2020)
9https://www.resourcesforchristiantheology.org/preserving-gods-creation-1/ [accessed on 12 12 2020]
10 http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/heavens.2.ii.html (accessed on 22nd November 2020)
---------------
------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
------------------------------------------------------------
54
Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies 2020, 8(2), 41-54
10
