La version « théophanienne » de la Transfiguration : Elenchos d'une hypothèse sur les origines d'un schéma iconographique

This paper analyzes the origins and diffusion of a specific formula of the Transfiguration composition that appears in the icon of the Transfiguration from the Transfiguration Cathedral in Pereslavl Zalesskij. Now preserved in Moscow's Tretjakov Gallery, the icon is dated around 1403 and is attributed to the painter Theophanes of Constantinople or his environment. The icon's special feature is the addition of the transfer of Elijah and Moses by angels to the Mount Thabor, where they join Christ. The two prophets' journey in the clouds also includes the unusual detail of the resurrection of Moses coming out of his sarcophagus. Theophanes is assumed here to have created a new iconography inspired by a Byzantine prototype from the Middle Byzantine period, in which the details of the cloud were probably absent. It is possible that all the elaborations Theophanes made to the Transfiguration scene would have developed in connection with the Hesychast movement, which was active during the last phase of the Palaeologean period.