Coptic Icons: Expressions of Social Agency and Coptic Identity?

Abstract

This article argues that selected wall paintings and icons created in the thirteenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries could represent what James Scott calls “hidden transcripts” that are forms of social agency used to affirm and assert Coptic identity. Three different case studies have been selected to argue that each of these examples are conscious choices used to assert Coptic identity in the periods of history in which they were created: the first discusses the significance of the location of nine equestrian saints surrounding the entrance door of the Old Church in St. Anthony’s Monastery; the second discusses the depiction of the Virgin Mary astride a horse rather than a traditional donkey; and the third discusses the depiction of St. Mena as an equestrian saint with an Arabized facial appearance and wearing a white headdress with a cross. The discussion will also suggest that the artists alone could not have decided on the locations and specific renditions of wall paintings and icons but that the role of the clergy and Coptic notables who financed or commissioned them must have played an important role.