The Burial of Saint Ephraim

Born in Nisibis in circa 306, Ephraim the Syrian was a prominent Christian theologian and a prolific author of religious hymns, poems and sermons in verse. This panel shows the Saint’s funeral in the desert of Thebes and the many ascetics who flocked to attend the ceremony. Surrounded by a throng of bishops and monks, the dead Saint is shown lying on a bier in the foreground, an icon of Christ as Man of Sorrows resting on his chest. The old and sick are transported to the ceremony by animals or younger brethren. The arid rocky landscape is pitted with the caves which the monks have turned into cells where they perform their daily activities of prayer and work. At the center of the composition, a stylite saint (a hermit who has voluntarily chosen to be confined to the top of a tall column) lowers a basket to be filled with provisions by a disciple. Nearby stands a figure striking the semantron, the customary call to service in monastic communities. Above this group an angel bears the soul of Ephraim to heaven.

The composition can be compared with the panel in the Vatican Museums by Emmanuel Tzanfournaris (1570-1631), a native of Corfu who lived and worked in Venice for nearly thirty years. Another rendition of this subject can be found in the central panel of the unattributed triptych on long term loan to the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, from a private collection (NGL 022.79).