The image of a city in the mosaics of the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem

Аниконическая иконография церковных соборов в виде архитектурных мотивов, которая представлена в мозаиках базилики Рождества Христова в Вифлееме 1169 г., встречается сравнительно редко. Известно несколько ее примеров в византийских и западноевропейских памятниках IXX вв. В рукописях IXXII вв. встречается комбинация архитектурных композиций и антропоморфных изображений участников соборов. Аниконические мотивы в Вифлееме соответствовали не только обращению к древней программе мозаик самой базилики при реставрации XII в. или идеологии и политике крестоносцев, но и традиции нефигуративного искусства византийского мира, существовавшей вплоть до XII в. Иконография городов в топографических напольных мозаиках Иордании получила особое распространение в VIII в., в чем очевидна связь с актуальностью аниконического искусства именно в этот период. Закономерно, если циклы напольных мозаик Святой земли послужили одним из источников монументальных мозаик базилики в Вифлееме. Aniconic iconography of Church Councils in the form of architectural and urban motifs, which is represented in the mosaics of the northern wall of the central nave of the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 1169, is relatively rare. Several examples of such type are known in Byzantine and West European monuments of the 9th 10th centuries. A combination of architectural compositions and anthropomorphic images of church fathers, emperors, participants of Councils could be found in manuscripts of 9th 12th centuries. The aniconic motifs in Bethlehem corresponded not only to the appeal to the early mosaic program of the basilica during the restoration of the 12th century or to the ideology and politics of the crusaders, but also to the tradition of non-figurative art of the Byzantine world, which existed until the 12th century. The Eastern Christian Monophysite tradition and Islamic monuments could also have an influence on the aniconic motifs in the mosaics of the Bethlehem basilica. The iconography of cities in topographic floor mosaics on the territory of Jordan became especially widespread in the 8th century some of the monuments were created during the period of the formation of iconoclasm, as in Umm al-Rasas and Main, which clearly shows the relation with the relevance of anionic art at that time. It is quite natural if such cycles of floor mosaics of the Holy Land served as one of the sources of aniconic monumental mosaics on the northern wall of the central nave in the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem.