The Power of Statues in Byzantium The Wooden Effigy of Saint George in Omorfokklisia as a Talismanic Device

Abstract

Sculpture in Byzantium was viewed with suspicion. However, in Omorfokklisia, near Kastoria, is preserved a thirteenth-century wooden effigy of Saint George that defies this assumption. The colossal dimensions – the height reaches almost three meters – and the all-relief technique, typical of ancient statuary, detach it from all the rest of the Byzantine production. It is thus argued that this object was specifically manufactured following the model of classical monumental sculpture to enhance the power already indwelling in the depiction of a saint.