The ''Icon of Christ and Abbot Mena'' (french: L'Icône du Christ et de l'Abbé Ménas, link=no) a

Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...

painting which is now in the Louvre museum, in Paris.Weitzmann, Kurt. ''Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century; Catalogue of the Exhibition ... Nov. 19, 1977 – Feb. 12, 1978''. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pub. in Assoc. with Princeton Univ. Press, 1979. The

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...

is an encaustic painting on wood and was brought from the Apollo monastery in

Bawit , settlement_type = Village , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_flag = Governadorat_d%27Asyut.png , flag_size ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. The icon measures about and is thick. The icon has been damaged over the years with some of the pigment missing and it has two vertical cracks running through the image, but it can still be readily made out.

Description

Dated to the 8th century, the icon depicts Christ with his

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described ...

halo behind him and standing next to Abbot Saint Menas (from the fifth century, not to be confused with Saint Menas the martyr of the early fourth centuryAD) who is also depicted with a halo indicating his sainthood. We know that the icon is of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

Christ and the abbot because there is writing above each of their heads stating "''ΨΟΤΕΡ (Savior)''" and "''ΑΠΑ ΜΗΝΑ ΠΡΟΕΙCΤΟC (Father Mena, guardian)''" when translated. With an ornately designed Bible with jewels adorning the cover in his left hand and his right hand on the abbot's far shoulder, Christ is asserting protection over Mena.Belting, Hans, et al. “Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art.”, University Of Chicago Press, 1 Jan. 1997, www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/0226042154/. The two are side-by-side with the abbot being slightly smaller when compared, clutching a scroll in one hand with the other hand gesturing in a blessing motion. Christ, with his arm around the abbot is giving a sort of "introduction to the people" as he takes his place with the angels. Both are shown wearing a

tunic A tunic is a garment for the body, usually simple in style, reaching from the shoulders to a length somewhere between the hips and the knees. The name derives from the Latin ''tunica'', the basic garment worn by both men and women in Ancient Rome ...

and ''

pallium The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : ''pallia'') is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropolit ...

'', though of different colors. (Christ in purple with blue highlight and Mena in brown.) Christ has a small round beard, mustache and long wavy hair and Mena is grey-haired and bearded. The noticeably large eyes are intended to be exaggerated in the composition. The color gradients where the background has green and brown hills that blend into an apricot-hued sky are clearly 6th century design, indicative of the Coptic, the largest Christian group in the region.Meinardus, Otto F. A. ''Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity''. American University in Cairo Press, 2016. The Egyptian church developed its own art traditions during the 6th century and used them in creating this icon and others like it.“Obo.” ''Coptic Art – Oxford Bibliographies'', 19 Oct. 2017, www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396584/obo-9780195396584-0137.xml. Tafelbildnis Apa Abraham

Monastery of Bawit

When the monastery of Bawit was excavated, along with this icon of Christ many other works were discovered. Whole rooms covered in icons of saints were found and one icon ''Our father Abraham, the Bishop'' was also removed from the monastery. Because the idea of sainthood was in transition, many works were created to resemble those that would indicate the image is of a saint; this was to insure if the person was later to be acknowledged as a saint, then there would be no need to retouch the portrait. The monastery, which is located on the west bank of the

River Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...

, was excavated in the twentieth century by a team from the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, which was led by Jean Cledet and

Jean Maspero Jean Maspero (20 December 1885 – 17 February 1915) was an early 20th-century French papyrologist. He was the son of egyptologist Gaston Maspero and his wife ''née'' Louise d'Estournelles de Constant (Sister of Paul d'Estournel de Constant, wi ...

.Gabra, Gawdat, and Hany N. Takla. ''Christianity and Monasticism in Middle Egypt''. The American University in Cairo Press, 2015.

References

Bibliography

* Belting, Hans, and Edmund Jephcott (2014). ''Likeness and presence: a history of the image before the era of art''. The University of Chicago Press. * Gabra, Gawdat, and Hany N. Takla (2015). ''Christianity and monasticism in Middle Egypt''. The American University in Cairo Press. * Meinardus, Otto F. A. ''(2016). Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity''. The American University in Cairo Press. * “Obo.” ''Marie de France (2017). Medieval Studies – Oxford Bibliographies'', 20 Nov. * Weitzmann, Kurt (1979). ''Age of spirituality: late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century''. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. {{ISBN, 0870991795 8th-century paintings Paintings depicting Jesus Coptic art Paintings in the Louvre by Egyptian artists