{"id":3051,"date":"2017-10-30T04:21:37","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T01:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aeneas.byzantinewalls.org\/?p=37"},"modified":"2017-10-30T04:21:37","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T01:21:37","slug":"theology-in-iconography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/3051\/theology-in-iconography\/","title":{"rendered":"Theology in Iconography."},"content":{"rendered":"

“When you want to paint the walls of a church, begin with a circle of different colors at the top of the cupola, as if you were drawing a rainbow amidst the coulds during the storm. Inside the circle, represent the Christ blessing and carrying the Gospels with the letters IC XC. Below, around the circle, paint a row of seraphims and beneath them, the prophets…”
\nManual of Painter<\/a><\/em> by Denis of Fourna. <\/p>\n

Anyone who visits Europe from East to West or West to East will be amazed at the churches and cathedrals that, in almost every town and city, is the center of the city: churches are often the largest and tallest buildings, and the entire community seems organized around it, a witness to the role that our religion played on our continent until recently. At first there seems to be unity in this European civilization that so many admire, a unity which the place granted our churches and cathedrals in olden times recalls. No doubt, we are here in Europe, and every visitor, whether European himself or not, coming from more distant lands, whether believer or not, will recognize and admit this fact: as we know that we are in Buddhist or Shinto land because of all the temples and shrines that exist all over the cities and towns of East Asia, we are here in Christian land. <\/p>\n

Yet, beyond the apparent unity that seems to prevail in the former Christendom, a much deeper rift appear if we take even a little time to consider. We may have equal admiration for the cathedrals of Chartres and Notre-Dame as well as for those of St. Basil and Hagia Sophia, this admiration does not erase the obvious differences between the two pairs. The former pair, jewel of the triumphant Gothic style of the 13th century, is well known for the characteristic spires which rise up to the skies, resting on the gothic crossed vaults and arches. In Greek-speaking areas, the dome prevails, of which the Russian ‘onion bulb’ is but a variation. <\/p>\n

It is the interior, however, that reveals the most differences. In the East, in the Greek- and Russian-speaking world, churches are always an explosion of light and colors, which combine to reflect the divine radiance as if it were given to men as a gift from the world to come. The first thing that strikes is the passage quoted above: the cupola is the highest element of the church, thus, with its round shape, it symbolizes the cosmos. The Christ Pantocrator, ruler of all things, is the first element painted; looking down, awake, the Christ blesses all the faithful as ruler of above, of a world that is not yet but still present. The Pantocrator dominates the church, He is above everything else: thus, He is truly ruler, king. The rest of the decoration is hierarchically organized with respect to this element: the angels, the apostles, the saints, the prophets, etc., and the walls are surrounded with icons. Thus, the church in the East is a microcosm filled with divine energy, an image of the world to come and a reminder that the Christ, source of all things, is always present, transcending everything. <\/p>\n

In the West, there are also representations of the Christ, the Mother of God, the saints and prophets. These, however, take a different form. Instead of icons, they are depicted in the form of statues and stain glass. The most strking difference comes from the representation of Christ. Here, He is typically presented not above, but facing the faithful, usually behind and slightly above the altar, overlooking everything, but lower that the highest vaults. Also, he is put on the cross, eyes closed, and not alive. Thus, the faithfull may remeber His sacrifice for us and the meaning of divine Love and Mercy. We have here a pattern that will distinguish Western from Eastern iconography: while in the East the Christ Pantocrator would necessarily get higher as the architectural plan of the church gets higher, in the West, it is not the case. The crucified Christ remains always at the same height, while the roof of the church becomes higher with the vaults. <\/p>\n

The men of the 13th century built these cathedrals out of faith, in the feeling that the increased height would reach to heaven–although there was also some competition between towns and cities to have the largest, most beautiful cathedral. Yet, we already feel, at the dawn of the Gothic age–the age of faith par excellence in the West– that man is attempting to surpass God Himself in his construction: the new techniques of the ogival arch, flying butresses, and ribbed vault were used to show the faith of the builders, yet they are also a first witness to the Western man’s nascent desire to conquer nature by his own means. If the spires testify to his sincere wish to go up to heaven, they also testify to this wish as an attempt to build a ladder to heaven and enter the Kingdom by human means only. it is perhaps why the term ‘Gothic’ was condescendingly coined in the Renaissance to qualify an art seen as degenerate, inharmonious and barbarian–although the renaissance did not result in a purer faith. We have the contradiction of the Western man: his faith drove him to test his own strength. This process, which will later turn into a liberation from God, started in the Middle-ages, and would continue in the Renaissance and with the advent of the scientific age. <\/p>\n

The other element, the crucified Christ, points in the same direction. By the presence quasi-exclusive of the dead Christ, the western Church made of the sacrifice and the cross the focus of worship. His death was due to our sins, an art that illustrates the Augustinian concept of original sin. But if we forget God, the cross becomes a symbol not of life but of death. It is perhaps why the West has been so passionate about death, depicting in its art and music themes relating to death (Mozart’s Requiem, the intense human suffering emanating from the pieta<\/em> sculptures, etc). But as we forgot God, death became not a passage to life, but a closed door. Thus, the cross was turned from a salvific instrument to the symbol of abyss, an element of Western culture that continues even today. <\/p>\n

The art is a reflection of theology. Men’s relationship with and longing for God have directed their representation of the divine Face, and of the entire Church with God. And because Western and Eastern Christian art diverge in fundamental ways, we may only see how widely our theologies have diverged. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“When you want to paint the walls of a church, begin with a circle of different colors at the top of the cupola, as if you were drawing a rainbow amidst the coulds during the storm. Inside the circle, represent the Christ blessing and carrying the Gospels with the letters IC XC. Below, around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_disable_autopaging":false},"categories":[6600,10,6601],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-orthodox-christianity","category-western-christianity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}