Iconography of cheironomiai (hand-gestures)

[domesticus]

Prof. N. Zias wrote a small paper in a greek periodical edition Ἀρχαιολογικὰ Ἀναλεκτα ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν (ΑΑΑ) nr 2 (1969) about the hand gestures of cantors he observed in some byzantine icons. He also relates them to musical sources of byzantine era.

 

[domesticus]

Another publication about the hand-gestures (cheironomiai) of cantors by K. N. Moran, Musikalische gesten in der byzantinischen Malerei des späten Mittelalters, Zograf 18 (1984). The text in serbian with a small summary in german. Very interesting photos.

 

[zinoviev]

Here I attempted to translate some excerpts of the Serbian text.

Page 52 left column: The study of psalts in Byzantine paintings is relatively recent. For a long time the psalts were thought to be priests. They had luxury clothing and they stayed among the clerics.

Page 52 right column: A miniature from Athon made possible to identify two signs: oxia and ison (see the picture on page 52 ).

Page 58, right column: A Russian traveler from XIV century writes about the crowning of Manuel II: "The singers were staying on right with marvelous decoration on their clothing. They had wide shirts, long as sticharions. They all had belts. Their sleeves were long and wide. The material of the clothing was damast and silk and on their shoulders there was gold and laces. And there were many of them. The oldest one was fine-looking, white as snow."