Reference address : https://elpenor.org/athos/en/e218bf6.asp

Byzantine Sculpture

6.6 Closure panel
10th-11th c.
Docheiariou Monastery
Marble, 64 x 90 cm

Re-used as a sill in the opening in the north choir of the present katholikon. Part of the bottom edge missing. The panel depicts the Ascension of Alexander the Great (the 'Ascent into the Air'), quite a common theme in middle Byzantine sculpture, which indicates the survival of the Alexander myth into the Middle Ages.
Alexander, in the regalia of a Byzantine emperor, is depicted frontally in the centre riding in a chariot and holding two baited spits, which he used, so the myth goes, to make the two harnessed griffins fly upwards, drawing the chariot after them. Each of the upper corners is occupied by a lion's mask, identical to the one on the lintel over the west door of the katholikon.
As usual, the composition is strictly symmetrical, in this case with particular emphasis on the vertical axis. The design reveals a distinct decorative tendency, which is most apparent in the simulated pearls on the Emperor's clothes and the griffins' wings, details that are also seen in the closure panel with the eagle in the south choir. The relief is low and flat, and all the details are incised upon the surface.
This strongly decorative relief technique brings to mind the eagles on tenth- and eleventh-century silken fabrics at Auxerre and Brixen, which derive their themes from a repertory of oriental motifs, as do contemporary gold-work, glazed pottery, and, to a certain extent, architectural sculptures, particularly in the Church of the Virgin in Lips Monastery (907) in Constantinople (see Grabar 1963, p. 118, pl. LXXIII).
The features this relief shares with both the lintel over the west entrance and the other closure panels in the choirs of the present katholikon indicate that they all come from the same group and must have been part of the decoration of the old katholikon.

Bibliography: Berchem - Strzygowsky 1910, p. 352, fig. 299. Brockhaus 1924, p. 41 n. 3. Orlandos 1954-5, pp. 285ff., pl. 2β.

T.N.P.

Index of exhibits of Monastery of Docheiareiou
10th century

Icon of the Mother of God and New Testament Reader

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Reference address : https://elpenor.org/athos/en/e218bf6.asp

Byzantine Sculpture	6.6 Closure panel 10th-11th c. Docheiariou Monastery Marble, 64 x 90 cm

	Re-used as a sill in the opening in the north choir of the present katholikon. Part of the bottom edge missing. The panel depicts the Ascension of Alexander the Great (the 'Ascent into the Air'), quite a common theme in middle Byzantine sculpture, which indicates the survival of the Alexander myth into the Middle Ages. Alexander, in the regalia of a Byzantine emperor, is depicted frontally in the centre riding in a chariot and holding two baited spits, which he used, so the myth goes, to make the two harnessed griffins fly upwards, drawing the chariot after them. Each of the upper corners is occupied by a lion's mask, identical to the one on the lintel over the west door of the katholikon. As usual, the composition is strictly symmetrical, in this case with particular emphasis on the vertical axis. The design reveals a distinct decorative tendency, which is most apparent in the simulated pearls on the Emperor's clothes and the griffins' wings, details that are also seen in the closure panel with the eagle in the south choir. The relief is low and flat, and all the details are incised upon the surface. This strongly decorative relief technique brings to mind the eagles on tenth- and eleventh-century silken fabrics at Auxerre and Brixen, which derive their themes from a repertory of oriental motifs, as do contemporary gold-work, glazed pottery, and, to a certain extent, architectural sculptures, particularly in the Church of the Virgin in Lips Monastery (907) in Constantinople (see Grabar 1963, p. 118, pl. LXXIII). The features this relief shares with both the lintel over the west entrance and the other closure panels in the choirs of the present katholikon indicate that they all come from the same group and must have been part of the decoration of the old katholikon.
	Bibliography: Berchem - Strzygowsky 1910, p. 352, fig. 299. Brockhaus 1924, p. 41 n. 3. Orlandos 1954-5, pp. 285ff., pl. 2β.
	T.N.P.
	Index of exhibits of Monastery of Docheiareiou 10th century