Saint Tryphon’s reliquary casket in Kotor. A contribution to the study of the iconography
Affiliation:
1. Institute for Balkan studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade
Abstract
The paper analyses late Gothic and early Renaissance imagery on the reliquary
casket of Saint Tryphon kept in the Kotor Cathedral. The iconography of the
torture and death scenes of the young martyr Tryphon, as well the
representation of the architecture on the model of the town of Kotor in the
hand of Saint Tryphon opens up the possibility of interpreting this reliquary
in a historical context. The paper proposes an interpretation of the
iconography of the scenes on the reliquary casket as part of the constructed
memory of the Ottoman siege of Kotor under the command of kapudan pacha
Hayreddin Barbarossa (1539) and the Venetian defense of the town. A similar
way of creating memories through juxtaposing images of Turks, members of the
Holy League and Kotor?s devotees under the protection of Saint Tryphon has
been recorded in poetry, chronicles, and epistles.
Funder
Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia
Publisher
National Library of Serbia
Subject
Archaeology,Visual Arts and Performing Arts,History,Archaeology