L’icona miracolosa del principe Ašot II Bagratuni
abstract
The Armenian prince Ašot II Bagratuni (685/686-688/689 d.C.) placed in the church he himself founded in the village of Daroynkʽ a Byzantine icon mentioned in the Armenian historical sources as an image of the «Incarnation of Christ», coming from «the West». The years of the principate of Ašot partly coincide with those of the first of the two reigns of Justinian II, the emperor who for the first time issued monetary coins with the image of Christ impressed, and presided in 692 d.C. the Quinisext Council ‘in Trullo’, whose canon no. LXXXII dealt with the representation of the Saviour’s body. The case of Ašot is an example of the worship of icons in the late 7th century Armenia, and contributes to witnes both the circulation of this kind of artifacts in the armenian territories, and the the impact of the contemporary reflections about the Incarnation of Christ and the sacred images; in agreement, moreover, with the condemnation of the iconoclastic theses expressed in the Armenian treatise attributed to Vrtʽanēs Kʽertʽoł.
Keywords: Icons, Incarnation of Christ, Prince Ašot II Bagra