Koimesis

KOIMESIS. - It is a simultaneous representation of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary and her passing into Heaven, which became established in Byzantine art. It depicts the Madonna lying asleep on a low bed with her hands crossed on her breast; behind the bed stands Christ with Mary's soul in his arms, depicted as a little girl who will be entrusted to the angels, who are in heaven to receive her; the Apostles, divided into two groups, stand at the two ends of the Virgin's bedside.

A good Byzantine example of the K. (perhaps from the 12th century) has come down to us on a book cover, carved in ivory, preserved in the Museum of Ravenna. A mosaic of c. 1143 in the church of the Martorana in Palermo may also serve as a typical Byzantine depiction of the K., where on the gold background an inscription explains the scene with its name. The art of the European West was already depicting the K. in the 12th century, as proven by a German miniature in a codex owned by the Royal Library in Munich (reproduced by A. Venturi, v. bibl., p. 387). In Rome there are two mosaic representations of the K., surviving from the late 13th century: one, by Pietro Cavallini of 1290, in S. Maria in Trastevere, follows the Byzantine model closely; the second, by Jacopo Torriti of 1296, in S. Maria Maggiore, already foreshadows the individual interpretation of the subject, which would subsequently develop gradually in Italian art, transforming the K. into the simple depiction of the Dormition or the death of Mary. To illustrate the successive phases of the iconographic development of the Dormition of the Virgin in Italian art, the following may serve, for the 14th century: a panel of c. 1370 attributed to Andrea da Bologna and preserved in the Pinacoteca of Ancona, and another by Spinello Aretino in the Pinacoteca of Siena. The depictions of the Dormition of Mary from the first half of the 15th century, even if highly individualized, are nonetheless still linked to the concept of the K., as the frescoes by Taddeo di Bartolo in the Palazzo comunale in Siena and by Ottaviano Delli in the Trinci chapel at Foligno prove. The same can be said for the painting by Beato Angelico that represents the Dormition in a predella now in the Museum of S. Marco in Florence, where Christ with Mary's soul in his arms is depicted for the last time. The depictions of the second half of the 15th century usually show, above the scene of Mary's death surrounded by the Apostles, her ascension into Heaven; a fine example, in its simple sincerity, of such a model is offered by a panel in the Palazzo municipale in Fabriano by the local painter Antonio; a grandiose representation of this kind is frescoed by Domenico Ghirlandaio in the main chapel of S. Maria Novella in Florence. The K., simplified into a depiction of Mary's death, is found in the frescoes by Fra Filippo Lippi of 1457-65 in the cathedral of Spoleto; Christ carrying the Mother's soul to heaven is no longer found there. For the art of the early Baroque, one notes the Death of Mary in the Museum of the Louvre, painted by Michelangelo da Caravaggio in 1606. - See pl. XLVI.

Witold Wehr