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Digenis Akritas Slays a Wild Animal
Byzantine Bowl Fragment. 11-12th century.
Source: p.152, Darkevich, Svetskoe iskusstvo Vizantii: X-XIII veka, (Moscow 1975). [990MB]
Secular Art of Byzantium: X-XIII centuries.
Referenced as figure 91 in Arms and armour of the crusading era, 1050-1350 by Nicolle, David. 1988 edition
91 Fragment of a ceramic bowl from Kherson, Crimea, Byzantine, 11—12 Cents. (Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, USSR)
Medieval Byzantine ceramics are generally cruder and even harder to interpret than other forms of Byzantine art. Here the hero Digenes Akritas slays a wild animal. He wears some kind of cuirass with short sleeves whose lack of folds, when compared to those below his elbow, suggest a stiff and perhaps protective material. He may also have a dagger or short sword hanging parallel to his belt in Turco-Iranian style.
