Icon of St. Mena, St. Mark’s Coptic Museum: Akhmim Style?

Abstract

St. Mark’s Coptic Museum’s collection contains an icon of St. Mena. The saint is mounted on a horse and has “Arabized” facial features and clothing. A praise to St. Mena, written in Arabic is found on the upper part of the icon. There is, however, no date or artist’s signature. The style of the icon suggests that it belongs to the Akhmim style of iconography believed to have developed in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century. As the name indicates, this style of icon is mainly but not exclusively found in Akhmim, Upper Egypt. While little is known about the artists, Mattary and Father Abd Shahid are two iconographers who have signed their names to some of the icons and wall paintings in the Akhmimic style. The Arabized features of the St. Mena icon and similar illuminations in Coptic manuscripts can be explained as a symbiosis of two cultures. This article further explores how this depiction may be making a subtle socio-political statement similar to Mozarabic art developed in Spain between the eighth and eleventh centuries. Mozarabic art was a clear response to the Arab conquest of that country.