Стрелы и иконы
Piotr L. Grotowski. Arms and Armour of the Warrior Saints Tradition and Innovation in Byzantine Iconography (843-1261). 2010. Pp.369-374
The reluctance to depict the bow as a weapon of the military saints in Middle Byzantine art can equally be explained by the desire to preserve the Classical compositional scheme of the warrior with lance and shield, as well as ideological considerations. Taken over from ancient Rome the Asiatic composite or reflexed bow, together with its accompanying archery gear-quiver with arrows, bowcase and spare bowstrings - was a permanent element of the equipment of light formations, and in the army of Nikephoros Phokas also of cavalrymen. It was however not part of the equipment of the palace guard and officers at the imperial court. From the sixth century, attempts were made in Byzantium to create a strong force of archers. At the beginning of the tenth century, Leo VI commented on the army's defeats as a result of the decline of archery and called for every youth to exercise with the bow. But the crushing defeats suffered in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in clashes with horse archers-especially Pecheneg and Turkish-indicate that this arm continued to be the least developed branch of the Byzantine army, and was unable to stand up to mobile opponents.
Influenced by such unfortunate military experiences, and also by biblical symbolism - where the arrow is seen as an allegory of punishment sent down by God or an attack by the devil - the bow, in Byzantine eyes, becomes the weapon of the forces of evil. It already makes an appearance among the symbols of evil on a sixth-century amulet of St Sisinnios (fig. 3). In the Theodore Psalter (Brit. Add. 19352, fol. 1Ov) archers attack a clipeus with an image of Christ, and on fol. 75r they also attack Constantine the Great who holds a crux hastata. This second scene illustrates Psalm 59(60):6 "For those who fear you, you have raised a sign, That they may flee to it from the bow," and is also pictured on fol. 100 of the Barberini Psalter (Vat. gr. 372). On the Heavenly ladder of John Klimakos depicted on a late twelfth-century icon in St Catherine's monastery on Mt Sinai (fig. 95), the painter has equipped the devils attacking the monks who are climbing to heaven with bows and lassos - weapons undoubtedly associated with the Muslim persecutors of Christians.
The bow's representation as a dishonourable weapon, employed by the enemies of Christianity, was undoubtedly influenced by the patristic and hagiographic literature. John of Damascus in his Third homily on pictures cites, after Anastasios of Sinai, a legend on the Arabs "wounding" with an arrow an icon of St Theodore in a monastery four miles from Damascus. Blood flowed from the "wounded" icon . This story is among the earliest accounts of miracles connected with the damaging of icons by iconoclasts and infidels (Arabs or Jews), and gave rise to a group of so-called "wounded icons". Depending on the story, the act of destruction is carried out with a variety of instruments, although an arrow is undoubtedly among the most popular. On the other hand, John's Homily had an influence on a similar tale of a miracle performed by an image of St George. In the legend On the picture pierced by [an arrow], which appears for the first time in a ninth-century collection of Miracles, one of the Saracens camping in the martyrion of George in Palestinian Lydda shoots a missile from a bow towards an icon of the saint. Thanks to George, the arrow's flight is reversed, and strikes the archer, who falls dead. Although I am aware of no depictions of either miracle showing warrior-saint icons attacked by arrows in Byzantine art, an illustration of the second miracle can be found on frescoes in the Georgian churches at Ikvi and Phavnisi (fig. 94), where the moment of the Arab's collapse is depicted, still clutching his bow. In turn, the bow as the weapon of demons is mentioned in The life of the hermit Joannikos, which makes up part of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum. This describes how one night the saint was assailed by phalanxes of demons on foot and on horseback in iron corselets, equipped with bows, bowcases and arrows. Joannikos fended off their attacks while praying to God. His prayers were heard and St Eustathios was sent down to his aid, thereby turning the tide of battle.
The negative Christian view of the bow was nothing new. Since antiquity the weapon had not been considered a suitable subject for official art. It was connected rather with frivolous themes and frivolous gods such as Eros and Artemis. The official portraits of the emperor and divinities in military attire also rejected a weapon whose proper place was the hunt. Such associations remained into the Byzantine period, as is attested by literary references and the continued presence of Eros in art. The bow's identification as the attribute of a god of love undoubtedly did not favour its depiction as a weapon of military saints.
The introduction of the bow into the iconography of the warrior saints took place only in the thirteenth century under the influence of Crusader art. A bowcase with a reflexed bow and a large, rectangular quiver that broadens towards the bottom are suspended on St Sergios's belt on two thirteenth-century Sinai icons (fig. 63). In the Palaiologan period the bow and bowcase with arrows also permanently entered the iconography of other military saints. Demetrios was depicted with the bow especially often. In turn, Merkourios began to appear with a bow and three arrows as his attributes; this can be linked to an early Syrian version of the legend of the killing of Julian the Apostate, where Merkourios appeared to Jovian who was then in Edessa during an expedition against the Persians; the saint, who was armed with a bow and three arrows announced that he would kill the emperor with one of them within three weeks.
То есть - лук широко представлен уже в армиях поздней Римской империи, в Византии довольно быстро превращается в одну из главных частей вооружения (можно посмотреть на дифирамбы конным лучникам у Прокопия), но с "идеологической точки зрения" - полагается оружием не вполне достойным.
С учетом места византийского влияния в культуре Руси - могла ли установка "лук - оружие нечистое" как-то отразиться на изо (наличие/отсутствие лука у воинов) и нарративе (упоминание того или иного оружия в летописных текстах, к примеру)?
Дополнительный вопрос - если зарисовка "враги поразили стрелой икону" существует в византийской литературе со времен Иоанна Дамаскина, то, к примеру, в эпизоде с иконой и суздальцами имеет смысл обратить внимание на то, что "упомянуты стрелы", или на то, что "воспроизводится популярный сюжет, где враги наносят иконе рану стрелой"?