Tea at Trianon: Dream of St. Romanos

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, January 4, 2019

Dream of St. Romanos

From Daniel Mitsui:

St. Romanos the Melodist was a Greek-speaking Syrian who florished as a singer and hymnographer in the sixth century. His musical and poetic abilities were a miraculous gift. While serving in a Constantinopolitan church during the Vigil of the Nativity, he chanted the sacred verses so poorly that he was dismissed from the liturgy. He fell asleep and the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in his dream, giving him a scroll to eat. The following morning he sang, extemporaneously and in a pure and resonant voice, the Kontakion of the Nativity. This remains one of the most masterful works of Byzantine music and poetry; it is the first of more than a thousand sacred compositions attributed to St. Romanos.

Here, I depicted the dream; St. Romanos rises slightly from his slumber and consumed the scroll that unrolls from the Virgin's hand. The scroll contains the Greek words of the Kontakion; a portion is legible:

Bethlehem hath opened Eden: O come, let us gaze! We have found nourishment in a secret place: O come, let us receive the things of Paradise within the cavern! There hath appeared the Root Unwatered which buddeth forth remission. There hath been found the Well Undigged, from which David of old longed that he might drink. There a Virgin hath brought forth a Child, and straightway the thirst of Adam and of David hath been assuaged. Wherefore let us go unto him where He is born a little Child, yet is God before the ages.
The background icons of David and Adam refer to the text of the Kontakion; these two men are also traditional symbols of music; David for writing and singing the psalms, and Adam for naming the beasts and birds in a prelapsarian voice that is the archetype of earthly music.

The Virgin is surrounded by cherubim; each has four wings, two hands and many eyes. The Biblical descriptions of cherubim vary, suggesting that they can take different visible forms. Here, I followed a description in the Prophecy of Ezekiel, except depicting each cherub with a single face. I followed also an old iconographic convention in coloring them blue, to distinguish them from red seraphim.

The event takes place in a decorative frame that takes the form of a Byzantine church; I got the idea for this from a twelfth-century Byzantine manuscript containing homilies of St. Gregory the Theologian. In my drawing, the domes recall specifially the Church of Hagia Sophia. The patterns on the lower part of the wall are also based on designs in Hagia Sophia. A Greek inscription at the bottom refers both to the church and to the event happening: Wisdom shall praise her own self, and shall be honoured in God, and shall glory in the midst of her people. (Read more.)