Theotokos and Logos: the interpretation and reinterpretation of the sanctuary programme of the Koimesis Church, Nicaea

One of the more compelling moments in the reinterpretation of a visual text is offered by the reconfiguration of the well-known late seventh-century sanctuary programme in the Koimesis Church at Nicaea during the iconoclast crisis of the eighth and ninth centuries (Fig. 4.1).1 In the exchange between the Theotokos and the Cross that is proposed within the common framework of this decoration, we will find competing claims on the origins of Christian representation.