Three Notes on the Iconography of Dionysius the Areopagite

REB 48 1990 France p. 255-274, 8 pl. Ch. Walter, Three Notes on the Iconography of Dionysius the Areopagite. — Three themes in the iconography of Dionysius are elucidated with the aid of the apocryphal literary sources. The significance of the miniature of Dionysius's vision of the Crucifixion is explained by referring it to the account of it in his autobiography. The identity of the bishops represented in scenes of the Dormition is established more precisely by a study of the accounts of the event in both the mariological homilies and the lives of Dionysius and by a study of the portrait types of the bishops. Finally the iconographical theme of Dionysius's céphalophorie is shown to be Eastern in origin although the legend itself was a Western creation. It is also shown to be distinct from the iconography of other saints 'kephalophoroi

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