The Church of St. Panteleimon in Gorno Nerezi, Republic of Macedonia

Republic of Macedonia

Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...

, is a small 12th century Byzantine church located in a monastery complex. The church and monastery are dedicated to St. Panteleimon, the patron saint of physicians.

The church was constructed in 1164 as a foundation of Alexius Angelus Comnenus, a son of Constantine Angelos and Theodora Komnene, a daughter of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus , was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power. The title 'Nobilissimus' was given to senior army commanders,...

.

The church has a domed cruciform core, three apse

Apse

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...

s and a rectangular narthex

Narthex

The narthex of a church is the entrance or lobby area, located at the end of the nave, at the far end from the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex was a part of the church building, but was not considered part of the church proper...

. It is built of irregular stone blocks and brick embedded in thick layers of mortar. The surrounding monastery complex is enclosed by walls.

The frescoes in the church are famous examples of Comnenian Age Byzantine Art, depicting scenes from the Passion of Christ

Passion (Christianity)

The Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...

 and various hagiographical illustrations. Similar compositions appear in the Latomou Monastery in Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

.
The church was damaged by an earthquake in the 16th century. In the restoration that followed, some of the frescoes in the upper middle region have been repainted. The original marble iconostasis

Iconostasis

In Eastern Christianity an iconostasis is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church. Iconostasis also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere within a church...

 survived the earthquake, but lost its decorative plastic art.

In another restoration attempt in 1885, the larger part of the frescoes in the naos

Cella

A cella or naos , is the inner chamber of a temple in classical architecture, or a shop facing the street in domestic Roman architecture...

 were painted over rather ineptly. During cleaning in 1923, some of the original 12th century frescoes were restored.

The coloring, dramatic composition and purity of expression displayed in the frescoes are outstanding examples of Macedonian medieval monumental painting in the later 12th century.

The church's stucco decoration is depicted on the obverse

Obverse and reverse

Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags , seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse...

 of the Macedonian 50 denars

Macedonian denar

The denar is the currency of the Republic of Macedonia. It is subdivided into 100 deni . The name denar comes from the name of the ancient Roman monetary unit, the denarius...

 banknote, issued in 1996.

Renaissance origins

According to Andrew Graham-Dixon

Andrew Graham-Dixon

Andrew Michael Graham-Dixon is a British art historian and broadcaster.-Education:Graham-Dixon was educated at the independent Westminster School and at Christ Church at the University of Oxford, where he read English...

, British art historian and writer, these frescoes with their "...physical, electric presence..." are proof that there was more to Byzantine art

Byzantine art

Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 5th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453....

 than the formality and otherworldliness of its mosaic

Mosaic

Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...

 and icon

Icon

An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...

 tradition. In his book, Graham-Dixon questions 16th century Vasari's

Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, writer, historian, and architect, who is famous today for his biographies of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.-Biography:...

 beliefs that Giotto di Bondone

Giotto di Bondone

Giotto di Bondone , better known simply as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages...

 finally turned fresco painting away from the primitive influence of Byzantium. The frescoes contained within St. Panteleimon at Nerezi are not seen as static, they had the capacity to change into something more obviously human and realistic, anticipating the West's emphasis on depicting Christ as a man of flesh and blood by some 150 years. The lamentation of Christ

Lamentation of Christ

350px|thumb|Lamentation by [[Giotto di Bondone]] in the [[Scrovegni Chapel]]The Lamentation of Christ is a very common subject in Christian art from the High Middle Ages to the Baroque. After Jesus was crucified, his body was removed from the cross and his friends and family mourned over his body...

 fresco is described as being a fusion of life and death in a single image as Mary movingly mourns Jesus, cradling him between her legs. Graham-Dixon reminds that these frescoes from the 1160s precede Giotto's similar emotional frescoes from the Arena Chapel near Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 circa 1305. He concludes "...the Byzantine east played a much more formative role in the development of renaissance art than Vasari was prepared to concede."

Books

• Petar Miljković-Pepek: Nerezi (Kunstdenkmäler in Jugoslawien). Jugoslavija, Beograd 1966.
• Ida Sinkević: The Church of St. Panteleimon at Nerezi: Architecture, programme, patronage. Reichert, Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-89500-129-5.
• Andrew Graham-Dixon: Renaissance. London: BBC, 1999. ISBN 0-56338396-8.