Poikilia and Sacredness: Portable Art in Byzantine Religious Experience

This paper examines examples of portable art illuminating the concept of poikilia: namely, the use of different materials and techniques within a single work of art. This was a device that contributed to the centrality of the iconographical expression in the artistic and religious production of Byzantium. Following most recent interpretations on the significance of poikilia, I will explain how this device was functional in emphasizing the sacredness in the cult images. I will thus focus on small works of art – especially on three specific case-studies: they are all characterized by easy portability, which in turn led to their physical mobility, resulting in displacement from the productive centre and their reappearance at the “margins” of the Byzantine world, where they became fundamental objects of worship. In fact, these icons and reliquaries, dating to different periods, are now all located in Italy. First, I will present the Vatican casket (6th-7th centuries) containing stones and relics collected by a pilgrim from sacred sites in the Holy Land; then, I will talk about the Mandylion (11th-14th centuries) in the Church of San Bartolomeo degli Armeni in Genoa; finally, the miniature-mosaic icon of St Demetrios (13th-14th centuries) now in the Civic Museum of Sassoferrato. The study of these pieces will show that poikilia is not only a characteristic element of Byzantine artistic taste, but is also central in the role that images held in the religious experience. Although these works are different from one another in artistic techniques and date, poikilia – combined with their physical portability – makes them relevant in the spiritual process that brings the faithful closer to God. Their polymateriality and their nature of pilgrimage relics embody a dialectical performance between the icon, the spectator, and the divine.