IKON6 r 2013

Sad flaj Uvodna riiei lForeword .....6- . Michelle P. BrownLOntentS Visons and EremiticVocation in the"Deserts"of the North:

The lconographyof lnsular Hagiography... ....7Veronika Nela GaiparLe apparizioni mariane nel nostro tempo:ll significato e i criteri del discernimento nella teologia ... ...... j7Marianne SiighyHungarians in Hell: The Visions of Laurentius de Tar. . . . . . . 29

Dominic E. DelarueViri Dei:Visionen, Erscheinungen und Wunder in spdtmittelalterlichenBildzyklen zu den Heiligen Jodokus, Antonius und Benedikt.... ... ... 39

Ludovico V. GeymonatUn disegno preparatorio del XIll secolo per un ciclo pittorico sullApocalisse...... 55

Alessandro TomeiI pannelli dellApocalisse di Stoccarda e altre visioni angioine ... 65

Barbara Baert"Gender'ivisione e sensi: nuova luce sul tabernacolo del Beato Chiarito .... 79

Gaetano CurziMultiple Visions at Santa Maria del Casale in Brindisi:Art, Politics and Devotion in the Principality of Taranto .. ....... 97

Lado MirianashviliNon-Traditional lconography of The Hospitality of Abrahamfrom the Refectory of Udabno Monastery in Davit-Gareji, Georgia ... .. .. .. 109

Branislav CvetkoviiVision of the Heavenly City in Joianica Monastery . ... ... 1 15

lvan Ger6tVisions and the lmage of Ecclesiastical Dignitariesin the Pre-Reformation Period ... . .. ... 131

Gied16 MickunaiteManiera Graeca in Europe's Catholic EastRepresentation, lmagination and Tradition:ACaseStudyof theParishChurchofTrakaiin Lithuania.... ...14iJanet RobsonBonaventure's "Visions of the Cross" in the Saint Francis Cycle at Assisi . . . . . 1 55

Karen McCluskeyMiraculous Visions:Apparitio in the Vitae of Mediaeval Venetian Saints and Beati . . 167

Ana MunkVisions of Beatitude in Santa Maria Novella's Paradise:The Ultimate GoalofHuman Endeavorin MonasticTraditionand DominicanThought.... .... 183

lvana eapeta RakitLa visione del frate Domenicano Lorenzo dalla Grotteria e gli echidell'iconografia del miracolo di Soriano in Dalmazia ..... 199

Rostislava Todorova

Visualizing the Divine

Mandorla as a Vision of God in Byzantine lconography

UDK:7.046.37.033.2

Rostislava Todorova

Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen, Bulgariarostislava@sh u-bg.net

The visual culture of Byzantium was profoundly religious in its character and was intended to serve as "theology in images'

equal to theology in words. The gradual development of the Orthodox theology over the centuries has caused noticeable

changes in the visual paradigm of Byzantine art.Therefore, all Byzantine visual models can be seen as visual interpretations

or,,translations,,of the then contemporary theological thought, and it is possible to"read"them through the theological writ-

ings and religious mainstreams of the time. One of the best examples in this regard is the mandorla as a visual sign of the in-

describable phenomenon of God's Glory, mentioned in the Old and the NewTestaments. Byzantine art had established two

main types of mandorla representing the spatio-temporal and resplendent manifestations of the Glory of God. These visual

models have been reflecting every alteration of the theological milieu concerning the current concept of how God reveals

Himself to humankind. More and more elaborated notions about the Vision of God resulted in more and more elaborated

visual paradigms of the Glory of God and moulded various patterns in its iconographic expression - the mandorla.

Keywords: mandorla, Glory of God, Vision of God, Byzantine iconography

The visual culture of Byzantium was profoundly religious on its character and was intended to serve as

,,theology in images,,r equal to theology in words, as St Basil the Great says.2 The gradual development of the Or-

thodox theology over the centuries has caused noticeable changes in the visual paradigm of Byzantine art.There-

fore, all Byzantine visual models can be seen as visual interpretations or "translations" of the then contemporary

theological thought, and it is possible for them to be "read"through the theological writings and religious main-

streams of the time. one of the best examples in this regard is the mandorla as a visual sign of the indescribable

phenomenon of God,s Glory, mentioned in the Old and the NewTestaments.The Biblicalconcept of the"Glory of

God,,points out that God is transcendent, although God manifests Himself in front of humans.3 The forms of the

manifestation of God's Glory are manifold. According to Balthasar, the whole Old Testament could be called "the

book of the Glory of God'i while the New Testament combines the notion of God's Glory with the communion of

the divine and human nature in Lord Jesus Christ.a

ln the Septuagint, the notion of God's Glory is translated as 6d{4, in order to render adequately the Hebrew

word kabod,occurring 1 81 times in the Old Testament.s The meaning of both terms is multifaceted and the Greek

translation of kabod as 6o€o is a frequently discussed matter.6 Balthasar states that the content of the Hebrew

word kabod can be divided in two main eleme nrs: shekinah (from the verb shakan - to dwell), which refers to the

permanent presence of God's majesty, because the literal meaning of kabod is "heaviness, solidity, weightiness";

and yekara,which refers to the sensory splendour of light of the God's Glory and is connected with the second'

more abstract meaning of kabod as "9lory, honour, richness and affluence".7

It is very important to underline here that although the notion of shekinah acquired different accents in the

Targums, Talmud, Midrash, Jewish philosophy and Kabbalah, it is viewed as a presence. ln particulal it is put in

the spatial and temporalframes:God sanctifies a place, an object, an individual, or a whole people - a revelation

287

lKoN, 6-2013

of theholyinthemidstof theprofane.slnotherwords, shekinah isconnectedwiththeperceptionof God'sGloryas a dwelling place of God,e while yekara refers to its unbearable luminosity.

ln the Vulgate and the Septuagint the aspects of both dwelling place and luminosity remained mixed inboth terms glory and 6dfo. However, iconographically and theologically, by means of different types of mandorla,it is possible for these two aspects of meaning to be divided. ln Byzantine iconography, the notion of shekinah

as a spatio-temporal manifestation of the Glory of God refers to the oval type of mandorla, while the notion ofyekara as demonstration of the Uncreated Light of God's Glory refers to the round type of mandorla.l0

ln Christian iconographythe mandorla is used in particular iconographicalscenes, circumscribing thefig-ure of Christ, the HolyTrinity, the Virgin, and rarely - various saints.l1 Despite the fact that it is frequently listed

simply as a kind of halo, as Didron states for example,l2 the mandorla actually defines a sacred space aroundChrist. This separated space can be interpreted in various ways: as a symbol of heaven (the'bther world"); as a

metaphysical space, in which the sacred events take place; or as a symbol of the union of the opposites (includ-

ing the union of the heaven and earth).13 The origins of the mandorla symbol are still a matter of discussion.Scholars generally agree that the mandorla descends from the representation of gods and honourable men in

Greco-Roman art. G.W. Elderkin,la A. Grabarls and J. Miziolekl6 argue that the mandorla is an adaptation of imagoclipeata - the Roman tradition of depicting persons in honour, or derives from the pagan representation of the ris-

ing sun - the 5o/Dominus lmperiiRomani.lT According toT. Mathews this tendencyfor binding the mandorla withthe Roman imperial sources is not productive. Considering it as a Christian takeover of imago clipeata, scholarsunderrate its visionary character. ln this regard, he argues that the obvious gap between Roman prototypes and

Christian mandorlas can be filled, if we look at mandorlas in Buddhist art from Central Asia, the first of them dat-ing from the first decades of the 2nd century AD.rsThe most recent hypothesis about the mandorla's origin alsofinds its roots beyond the triumphal imagery. A decade ago, A. Hagstrom bound the Christian mandorla with theancient sacred symbol of vesica piscls. She argues that this Pythagorean sign, which symbolizes the entireness ofbeing, with its inherent opposites; the wholeness of the cosmos; the birth of life; the feminine archetype of be-ing, was adopted into Christian art because of the ability to represent together terrestrial and celestial, humanityand divinity, inseparably bound together after Christ's Resurrection. Hagstrom also points to the western type ofChristian mandorla as evidence for her hypothesis.leO. Brendel sees the mandorla's origins also in the manner ofrepresenting the Pantheon of gods and their activities in ancient Hellenistic art.20The Zoroastrian notion of thelight luminous clouds, which envelope the bodies of the gods as a visual sign of their divinity transited into theHellenistic art. Greek gods lived and acted among people, but they derived from cosmic powers and remained

bound by cosmic necessity anangke, as Virgil described it in the Aeneid.21 lt is important to note here, that this'tloud of divinity"in the ancient Greek images had a predominantly light character, but in certain cases, it had a

protective function too - the gods use it for self-protection and for the protection of their favourite humans, mak-

ing them invisible for example.22 ln addition, Riesenfeld proves that protection is one of the aspects of the Jewishkabod, therefore the idea of the protective cloud can be interpreted as one of the points of coincidence betweenthe Hellenic and Jewish concept of the Glory of God.23

However, neither Hellenistic, nor Jewish art provided a pictorial solution for the proper representation ofthe biblical 66{a,2a or more precisely for the super brilliant cloud of the Glory of God in which He dwells. ln thevery first extant depictions, we can see only attempts at a naturalistic representation of the divine cloud of God's

presence as reddish clouds, which although enveloping the figure of God, can also serve as a stylized part of thelandscape. For example, the Parousia scene in Santa Prudenziana, Rome, from the end of the fourth century AD,

illustrates the text from Matthew 24:30"... the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and greatglory", representing the power and luminosity of the Glory of God in the style of Hellenistic bucolic scenes.2s

One century later, a solution to the problem of the proper depiction of the complicated Biblical notionof kabod appears in two small-scaled nave mosaics in Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome - the central figure in theHospitality of Abraham (fig. 1 ), and the group of Moses and his companions in the scene of their stoning (depicted

2BB

Todorova, Visualizing the Divine

inside oval mandorlas, fig.2). Both of them are used for delimiting the metaphysicalfrom the material space.Themandorla, circumscribing God the Father, emphasises the phenomenon of the Theophany, whilst the mandorlain the scene with Moses has a strong protective character. Loerke states that the motivation behind the artisticseries of mosaics could derive from patristic commentaries and rabbinic texts,26 in addition, Nordstrom pointsto the explanation of the scenes in Midrashic texts2T and against this background, H. Kessler even supposes thatthe mosaics are following an unknown manuscript model - a Jewish paraphrase of the Old Testament.28 However,the resemblance with the protective function of the divine cloud, enveloping bodies of the ancient Greek gods,cannot be ignored (fig.2).

The twofold meaning of kabod, translated for Christian use with the wide spectrum meaning of 6o{a, re-sults in the twofold form and meaning of the symbol of the Christian mandorla. During the fourth century AD,the various manifestations of the Divine Glory had been a topic of discussion in the early Church Fathers writ-ings. One of the best examples in this regard is a commentary on the Transfiguration by St Basil the Great, wherehe speaks about the various types of appearance of the Glory of God:"... some are destined to be within thesplendour of the Vision of God, some will find their rest in the shelter of the heavenly powers, and others shall beconcealed in the glory of light as if in smoke".2e

From the end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth century AD, we can see that Christian art hadalready developed two basic types of mandorla as the representation of the Glory of God - oval and round. Myapproach is that the oval one expresses the primary significance of the Hebrew word kabod as "weight, heaviness,richness"and unfolds the spatial manifestation of God's presence, while the round one is more common to thesecond meaning of kabod as"glory, honour, and eminence'iand relates to the expression of the Divine Light.Thetransition from the narrative depiction of the"divine cloud"as the dwelling place of God to the more abstract rep-resentation of His Glory through a special symbol, is engendered by the development of the theological doctrineof Christianity. Theological continuity between Judaism and Christianity, together with the works of the earlyChurch Fathers shaped the theological core of the Christian mandorla. After that, the form and colour schemeof the mandorla followed the theological mainstreams over the centuries and reflected every theological altera-tion of the time. Both major types of mandorla were preferred during various periods, according to the currenttheological concepts of how God reveals Himself to humankind at the time. More and more elaborated notionsabout theVision of God resulted in more and more elaborated visual paradigms of the Glory of God.The zenith ofthat process is the development of the "hesychastic" mandorla visualizing the result of contemplative prayer andshowing "in colour"the Uncreated Light of God's Presence and Glory.

The apse mosaic of St Catherine's Monasteryon the Sinai peninsula is probablythe most importantTransfigu-ration representation ever (fig. 3). lt set the typological rules for all subsequent representations of the Transfigura-tion.3o Here we can see the first extant pattern of the fully elaborated oval mandorla, depicting the notion of kabodas shekinah - the metaphysical space where God dwells. From the theological point of view, the notion of shekinahisfirmly rooted in Hebrew liturgy. lt found its place in Byzantine iconography through the exegetical tradition of suchauthors as Philo of Alexandria, Origen, St Gregory of Nyssa, Pseudo Dionysius the Areopagite.3l The iconographicalscheme of the Sinai Transfiguration mosaic is extremely well based theologically. lt lacks the narrative character ofall pre-Sinaitic Transfiguration examples - the Hand of God, the cloud, the mountain, and instead it represents theultimate Theophany in a quite sophisticated way. According to K. Weitzmann "the artist's great sensitivity" pointsto "the highest artistic skill by the leading artist of an eminent atelier'i He writes: "Only Constantinople could havesupplied such highly trained craftsmen in the time of Justinian". Moreover,"a learned cleric advised the artist on theaccuracy of the iconography and supplied him with basic and, in this case, manifold ideas".32

The egg-shape blue, layered mandorla with rays of light, which has no iconographical predecessors, provesthat the theologian, responsible for the scenet conception was aware of the theological discourse of the time.The three Synoptic Gospels describe the event briefly and with common words Mark 9:2-10; Matthew 17:i-9;

289

(oN 6-2013

Luke 9:28-36 - "Christ transfigured before the apostles and His garments became glistening, and after peter,s

question a cloud overshadowed them and the voice of God appeared'iThe second Epistle of peter 2pt.1:16-19is the source which speaks directly about how Christ "received honour and glory from God the Father and thevoice was borne to Him by the Majestic Glory". However, the two apocryphal sources, describing the same eventaremoredetailed.Both,theEthiopic Apocalypseof Peter andthe Actsof John arefromthesecondcenturyAD,and speak about the heaven opened, the tabernacle not made by men's hands and the showing of the Gardenof Paradise. According to Sozomen,33 the Apocalypse of Peter was quite widespread until at least the fifth centuryAD and inspired a separate type of allegorical representation of theTransfiguration, such as the apse mosaic in StApollinaris in Classe at Ravenna.3a

All these facts prove the theological knowledge of the unknown theologian, who advised the artist at Sinaito represent magnificent glorious figure of Christ in a blue, layered mandorla which does not limn the luminouscloudof theGospel'snarrative,butrathersymbolizesGod'sGlory asshekinahandalsoasavisionof theTrinity.According to a contemporary writer of the sixth century AD, monk John of Gaza, the threefold concentric layerscould be read as a sign of God.3sThis is an iconographical statement analogue to the sermons that speak aboutthe full divinity and humanity of Christ, an issue that was still alive in the theological milieu at that time.36

Semantics of both Byzantine mandorla types remained dependant on the theological debates of the time.During the next centuries, until the moment of iconoclastic heresy, the oval mandorla was generally preferredand took its place in the formation process of the iconography of other important Christological events, wherethe Glory of God is revealed - such as the Resurrection and the Ascension of Christ. The round mandorla type wasnot abandoned of course, and serves as a visual sign of the second notion of the Glory of God - the resplendentluminosity of yekara.

From the third and fourth centuries AD the theme of the Divine Light became a central topic of manypatristic writings. Origen, Gregory Nazianzinos, St Gregory of Nyssa, and a century later Pseudo Dionysius theAreopagite, and after that St Maximus the Confessor developed the so-called "theology of light'i centred in theTransfiguration of Christ - the base of the Orthodox mystical tradition.3T Here is the proper place to mention thatfrom the fourth century AD a new aspect of the Divine Light was added to the "theology of light'i Macarius ofEgypt and Evagrius of Pontus for example, connected the Uncreated Light of God's Glory with the light experi-enced during the ascetic practice of contemplative prayer.38This period was certainly very important for the laterdevelopment of Byzantine theology and for the fourteenth-century Hesyshasm in particular.

For the century between the 730 andB42 AD, the Christian Church was struggling with two waves of icono-clastic heresy. Surviving archaeological evidences of the iconoclastic church decoration programs are almostentirely limited to mosaic crosses.3e However, we have not lost the mandorla, which had been used in these non-problematic depictions. Probably the best examples in this regard are the iconoclastic images of the Holy Crossand the Hetoimasia from the Dormition Church at Nicaea.ao Both images are indeed Trinitarian. ln the first, we cansee an iconoclastic image of the Holy Trinity - the round blue triple-layered mandorla depicts the Glory of Godand theTrinity itself, while the Holy Cross points to Christ's redemption of our sins. ln the second we see a littlemore "narrative"Trinitarian representation - the Cross symbolizes Lord Jesus Chrisu the Dove - the Holy Spirit; andthe round blue triple-layered mandorla symbolizes the Glory of God and God the Father Himself. Both mandorlashere are proper depictions of the second meaning of kabod as the resplendent yekara.

According to Hans Belting, after iconoclasm, when icons were accepted as significant as words, iconogra-phy had to assert itself in a more sophisticated way. Religious culture in Byzantium became much more monastic,icons obtained a certain degree of freedom from the Biblical narrative, and became themselves a visualtheologi-cal commentary on the represented events.alThe round mandorla type was almost exclusively favoured betweenthe ninth and the eleventh century AD, probably for two reasons. The first one is an extension of the dominancyof round mandorla type during iconoclasm. The second is connected with the participation of God's Glory inthe prophetic visions, and is well formulated by A. Grabar. He states that the images of the prophetic visions be-

290

Todorova, Visualizing the Divine

1. Hospitality of Abraham, navemosaic (detail), 432-440 AD,St Maria Maggiore, Rome

3. Transfiguration of Christ, apse mosaic, 550-565 AD,

5t Catherine's Monastery, Sinai

2. Stoning of Moses and his companions, nave mosaic (detail), 432-440 AD,St Maria Maggiore, Rome

5. TheTransfiguration of Christ, MS gr. 1242, fol92v,1370-1375 AD, National Library, Paris

4. The Dormition of the Theotokos (detail),mosaic, 1 31 5-1 321 AD, Chora Monastery,lstanbul

291

lKoN, 6-2013

came especially popular in the tenth and eleventh century AD, and constituted a part of the iconophilic ideology,

which placed emphasis on the visionary motives in the Bible.a2 During this period, the depictions of the visions

of lsaiah, Habakkuk and Ezekiel were favourite iconographical motives in which the Glory of God is represented

surrounded by Tetramorphos, the heavenly army, with the Christ figure sitting on a rainbow. Probably the main

reason for this taste for visions during that time is St Symeon the NewTheologian and his writings, focused on theimportance of experiencing the Grace of God and the Divine Light of God.

During all this time the classical oval type of mandorla was not abandoned and around the twelfth and the

thirteenth century AD, it became dominant and even developed new forms. The first example is the spiky red

mandorlas in the art of the Crusades. The use of red as a background colour for icons and frescoes, although a rel-

atively rare phenomenon, is encountered in a number of objects from the Middle Byzantine period.a3 Due to thestrong Western influence, this type of mandorla is not elaborated on here, but the unusual red colour and flame-

like spikes are reminiscent of the frequently appearing Biblical definition of God as "a consuming fire" Deut.4:24;

Hebrews 12:29. Also, some patristic commentaries on prophetic visions, such as that of St Theodoret of Antioch,

state that the brightness of the Saviour shows that He is near, but the fire shows that He cannot be approached;*and Pope Gregorius I Magnus mentions that the glowing metaland the appearance of fire is Christ, who is made

of the gold of God and the silver of man, and who is surrounded by the fire of persecution.as

Speaking of the emergence of new features in established types of mandorla, we have to pay special atten-

tion to a particular form of the oval mandorla, which is based on the theological writings of the time - it visual-

izes the Glory of God at the moment of the Dormition of the Virgin. The iconography of the Dormition follows ingenera I the Second homily on the Koimesis of Joh n of Da mascene together with the earlier Akathist Hymna6 a nd thePastoral Letfer of John I of Thessaloniki,o' as well as the early apocryphal gospel texts.a8

The earliest extant representations of the Virgin's Dormition do not have mandorla.The mandorla can be

seen in Dormition scenes after the eleventh-twelfth century AD, when it began to consist of depictions of heav-

enly powers. Probably created on Mount Athos, the most elaborated type of this mandorla with an oval or oval-pointed form appears at the very beginning of the fourteenth century AD. One of the first extant examples ofit is the Dormition mosaic at the Chora Monastery (fig. 4). The presence of angels inside the mandorla can be

connected with Pseudo-Dionysian theologyae and is well described in the homily On the Dormition of St Gregory

Palamas.so Palamas describes in detail the Divine Liturgy, which was taking place at the moment of the Virgin's

Dormition, naming the Theotokos "the House of God", "the Place of God" and "the Gate of Heaven". Therefore, the

oval-pointed mandorla in this scene is a classical example of the depiction of God's Glory in its notion as shekinah

- the dwelling place of God, the tabernacle, opened Heaven, a gate to the metaphysical space. Significant in this

regard is the'grisaille" method of painting the angelssl - it intensifies the differentiation between both spaces.

The oval mandorla virtually replaced the circular one from the eleventh untiithe fourteenth century AD,

when not only the oval type with the heavenly powers emerged. A completely new type of mandorla took itsplace in Byzantine art from that time, when Hesychasm became a theological mainstream in the East OrthodoxChurch. Since then, both types of mandorla - the oval and the round one, began to consist of two superimposed

rhombus or squares inside.

This enriched visual device expressed the theological thought of the time and was strongly connected tothe hesychastic practices of silence and contemplative prayer, and quickly became the only visual representation

of the resplendent Divine Light of God's Glory.The first extant pattern of the"hesychastic mandorla'i as Patterson

named it,s2 is a mosaic of the Transfiguration in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki, c. 1312. This typeof mandorla (from almost the same period) can be seen in the frescoes from the tombs C and E in the monastery

of Chora.s3Yet, the most elaborated example of the new mandorla type is an illumination from the manuscript

of John Vl Kantakouzenos (fig.5). Although the older types had never been completely forsaken, the hesychas-

tic mandorla became the dominant type for a couple of centuries. We find it in the icons and wall paintings on

292

Todorova, Visualizing the Divine

Mount Athos, and then in Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and Russia, apparently following the spread of Hesychasmnorth of Byzantium.

Formulated in the fourth century AD, cultivated in the tenth-eleventh centuries by such authors as StSymeon the New Theologian and his disciple Nicetas Stethatos and fully developed by Theophanes of Nicaeaand St Gregory Palamas at the beginning of the fourteenth century, the "theology of light" became the maincore of hesychastic practice of contemplative prayer.sa Through this kind of asceticism one can see the Uncre-ated "Taboric Light" of God's Grace. Seeing the resplendent Light of God's Glory is a result of experiencing God'senergies and uniting with Him through them. God is unknowable in His essence, but genuinely knowable fromHis energies. Preeminent among these divine energies is the Uncreated Light of the Godhead, the light in whichChrist was transfigured before His disciples on MountTabor.ss Since that time, the concept of the spatial characterof the mandorla began to fade away. lt represented the Glory of God only in its meaning as a source of God's ener-gies and predominantly in its circular type. lt is very interesting that even from the first illuminations of the round"hesychastic mandorla" Christ's feet are depicted outside it, stepping on the summit of the mountain (fig. 5). Thecolours of the mandorla began to correspond with the hesychastic understanding of how the Uncreated Lightlooks (it is so bright that it is blinding, so men's eyes see it as darknesss6), and so they became extremely dark.

The origins and development of the"hesychastic mandorla"are still a matter of discussion. Some scholarsare not convinced that this type of mandorla was influenced by hesychastic theology.sT However, such state-ments underestimate the continuance of the Orthodox mystical tradition, which began in the fourth century ADsB

and the immanent connection between Orthodox theology and iconography. ln addition, there are attempts tofindacorrelationbetweenthehesychasticmandorlaandthemandala,orthe mappamundiimages.seHowever,it is impossible to prove such an import, because there is no theological evidence that Byzantine theology andespecially the Hesychasm have ever assumed the Glory of God and its visual interpretation as a ritual image, noras a "map of the Universe'iThese iconographic patterns belong to the classical heritage in Byzantine imagery andwe can find their visual correspondence with some images as Roman floor mosaics (the mosaic of Dionysos andAriadne, Archaeological Museum of Hania) and early portrait medallions (the Portrait of Juliana Anicia, fol. 6v,Vienna Dioskurides) for example.

After the end of Byzantium, the hesychastic model of the mandorla was gradually abandoned and the ovaltype became favoured in Greece, the Balkans, Romania and Russia again. However, its significance was not equalto the meaning of the oval mandorla in Byzantine art, whose spatial meaning never returned. The decline of Or-thodox theology and iconography, and the strong Western influence affected its shape and semantics.

The Old Testament is full with warnings that no one may see God and remain alive Exodus 33:20. The NewTestament states that no one has ever seen God, except through the Lord Jesus Christ John 1:18. ln fact, theproblem with seeing the Glory of God relates not only to the problem of looking at and admiring His brillianceand power. lt is connected directly with the problem of seeing God "face to face'i as for example, Moses and Elijahwanted. Seeing the Glory of God has became the only possible vision of God before the advent of the Son of God,and after this moment - the only possible vision of the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, the mandorla as

a visual expression of the complicated phenomenon of the Glory of God becomes itself a Vision of God. A vision,which is trying not only to represent Him iconographically, but also to express the true theological essence of theOrthodox belief of what God is - an ultimate Theophany in colours which exceeds all words.

293

rKoN, 6-2013

lwould like to express my gratitude to the Getty Foundation and to the Council of American Overseas Research Cent-

ers for granting me the Getty Research Exchange Fellowship for the Mediterranean Basin and Middle East - 2012.

Sincere thanks are due to the Bulgarian National Science Fund for funding of research project Ns IIOCTIOK02-1 /1 1.01.2010.

" Talk on the same theme was given at the workshop "Vision and Meaning in Byzantium", organized by CAORC and

ARIT-lstanbul and sponsored by the Getty Foundation. The event took place on July 16,2012 at the Research Center

for Anatol ia n Civi I izations, lstan bu l, Tu rkey.

1 L.OUSPENSKY Theologyof thelcon, SVS Press, 1992,vo|.1,p.6.2 ST BASIL THE GREAT, A Homily on the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, in: Patrologia Graeca (J.P. MIGNE ed.), Paris, 1857-1866,

3 1 , 509A.

3 S. MAKSELIEN E , The Glory of God and its Byzantine lconography, M.A. Thesis in Medieval Stud ies, Centra I European Uni-

versity, 1998, pp.1-2.

4 H. VON BALTHASAR,The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics, vol. 6 (Theology:The Old Covenant), Edinburg, 1 991 .

5 lbid., p. 52.

6 S. MAKSELIENE, op. cit,, pp. 3-6.

7 H. VON BALTHASAR, op. cit., p.53.8 EncyclopaediaJudaica,3'd ed., Keter Publishing HouseJerusalem Lid.,1974,vo|.14, coll. 1349-1354, s.v."Shekhinah"

9 Encyclopedia of Religion,2nd ed., Macmillan Reference USA, 2005, pp. 831 2-8316.

10 R. TODOROVA, New Religion - New Symbolism: Adoption of Mandorla in the Christian lconography, in: Collection of Sci-

entificWorks lX, Nii and Byzantium,Towards the Celebration of the Edict of Milan Anniversary, Ni5,2011,pp.47-64.1 1 S. MAKSELIENE, op. cit., pp. 7-8.

12 A. DIDRON, Christian lconography: The History of Christian Art in the Middle Ages, New York, 1 965, vol. 1, pp.22-24, 107 -

1 10.

13 R. TODOROVA, The Migrating symbol: Vesica Piscis from the Pythagoreans to the Christianity, in: Proceedings of the 1"

lnternational Conference "Harmony of Nature and Spirituality in Stone'i Kragujevac, 201 1, pp. 217-228.

14 G. ELDERKIN, Shield and Mandorla, in: American Jou rnal of Archaeolo Sy, 42,2, 1938, pp.227 -236.

15 A. GRABAR, IJimago clipeata chrdtienne, in: ldem, L'art de la fin de lAntiquit6 et du Moyen Age, Paris, 1968, vol. 1, pp.

15-29.

16 J. MlZlOt-EK, Transfiguratio Domini in the Apse at Mount Sinai and the Symbolism of Light, in: Journal of the Warburg and

Courtauld lnstitutes, 53, 1 990, pp. 42-60.

17 A.GRABAR, Christianlconography:AStudyof ltsOrigins, Princeton UB l968, p.117.

18 T. MATHEWS ,The Early Armenian lconographic Program of the Ejmiacin Gospel, in: East of Byzantium: Syria and Armenia

in the Formative Period, Dumbarton Oaks, 1982, pp.208-209.

19 A. HAGSTROM, The Symbol of the Mandorla in Chrisilan Art: Recovery of a Feminine Archetype, in: Arts: The Arts in Reli-

gious and Theological Studies, 10,2, 1998, pp.25-29.

20 O. BRENDEL, Originandmeaningof theMandorla,in:Gazetledes Beaux-Arts,25,1944,pp.5-24.

21 W. LOERKE, Observations on the representation of Doxa in the Mosaics of S. Maria Maggiore, Rome, and St. Catherine's,

Sinai, in'. Gesta, 20, 1, Essays in Honour of Harry Bober, 1981, pp. '15-16, 18.

22 O. BRENDEL, op. cit., p.18.23 H. RIESEN F ELD, Jdsus transfigure: l'arridre-plan du rdcit evangdlique de la transfiguration de notre-Seigneur, Kopen hage n,

1947, pp.139-144.

24 W. LOERKE, op.cit.,p.15.25 S. MAKSELIENE, op. cit., p.12.

26 W. LOERKE, op.cit.,p.20.27 C.NORDSTR6M,Rabbinicainfrilhchristlichenundbyzantinischenlllustrationenzum4.BuchMose,in'.Figura, 1,1959,p.32.

28 H. KESSLER, Old Testament Panelfrom Sta. Maria Maggiore, in: Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art,

Third to Seventh Century, K. WEITZMANN (ed.), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1 979, p.469.

294

Todorova, Visualizing the Divine

29 ST BASIL THE GREAI Commentarium in lsaiam,4, 138, v. 5, in: J.A. MCGUCKIN, Ihe Transfiguration of Christ in Scriptureand Tradition, Edwin Mellen Press, I986, p. i 68.

30 A. ANDREOPOULOS, Metamorphosis:TheTransfiguration in ByzantineTheology and tconography, SVS Press, 2005, p.76.31 S.MAKSELlENE,op.cit.,p.6.

32 G. FORSYTH-K. WEITZMAN N, The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai: The Church and Fortess of Justinian, AnnArbot 1965,p.16.

33 SOZOMEN, Ecclesiastical History, Vll.19, in: Patrologia Graeca (J.P. MIcNE ed.), Paris, 1857-1866,67,1477.34 A.ANDREOPOULOS, op.cit.,pp.49,117-125.35 P. FRIEDLANDER, Johannes von Gaza und Paulus Silentiarius, Leipzig, 1912, pp.137-138.36 A.ANDREOPOULOS, op.cit.,p.62.37 A. LOUTH, The Origins of the Christian MysticalTradition: From Plato to Denys, Oxford tJP,2007

.

38 A. ANDREOPOULOS, op. cit., pp.62-63.39 V. BARANOV The Theological Background of lconoclastic Church Programmes, in: Studia Patristica, vol. XL, Peeters, 2006,

pp.165-175.

40 C. BARBER, Figure and Likeness: On the Limits of the Representation in Byzantine lconoclasm, Princeton UP,2OO2, pp. 66-69.

41 H. BELTING, Likeness and Presence: A History of the lmage before the Era of Art, U niversity of Chicago press, 1 997 , pp.164-183;261-296

42 A. GRABAR, L'iconoclasme byzantine: le dossier archdologique,2nd ed., Paris, 1 984, p.244 et passim.43 l.A.P|ATNlTSKll,Sinai,Byzantium,Russia:TheArtfromtheSixthtotheTwentiethCentury,London,2000,pp. 102-104.44 THEODORET oF CYRUS, in: Patrologia Graeca (J.P. MtcNE ed.), paris, 1957-1866, 81.

45 ST GREGORY THE GREAI, Homilies on the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel,f .TOM KTNSON (trans.), Etna, 2008.46 A. LOUTH, St. John Damascene:Tradition and Originality in ByzantineTheology, Oxford Uq 2005, pp.243-249.47 The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, A. KAZHDAN (ed.), Oxford UP,1991, vol. 1, s.v. "Dormition'i48 M. JAMES, The Apocryphal New Testament: Being the Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses, oxford UB

1924, pp.209-215; S. SHOEMAKER, Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption, Oxford Uq 2003.49 C. WALTER, Three Notes on the lconography of Dionysius the Areopagite, in: R6vue des Etudes Byzantnes, 48,1990, pp.

255-274.

50 STGREGORY PALAMAS, Marythe Motherof God:SermonsbySaintGregoryPalamas, MountTabor Publishing,2005, pp.

69-75.

51 A. KARAHAN , Byzantine Holy lmages - Transcendence and lmmanence: the Theological Background of the lconographyand Aesthetics of the Chora Church, Peeters, 20 1 0, pp. 102-106.

52 J. PATTERSON , Hesychastic Thought as Revealed in Byzantine, Greek qnd Romanian Church Frescoes: A Theory of Originand Diffusion, in: R6vue des Etudes Sud-Est Europ6ennes,16,1978, pp.663-670.

53 P. UNDERWOOD, The Kariye Djami,vol.'1, London, 1967, pp. 272-275, 2BO-287.

54 A. LOUTH, Light, vision and religious experience in Byzantium, in:The Presence of Light: Divine Radiance and ReligiousExperience, M. KAPSTEIN (ed.), University of Chicago Press, 2004, pp. 85-103.

55 L. OUSPENSKY-V. LOSSKI, The Meaning of lcons, St.Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1982,pp.209-2i2.56 A. ANDREOPOULOS, op. cit., p.92.57 S. DUFRENNE, La manifestation divine dans l'iconographie byzantine de IaTransfiguration,in: Nicee ll, 787-1987: Douze

siecles d'images religieuses, F. BOESPFLUG-N. LOSSKY (eds.), Paris, 1987, p.202; and most recently l. DRplC, Art, Hesy-

chasm, and Visual Exegesis: Parisinus Graecus 1242 Revisited, in: Dumbarton Oak Papers, 62,2008, pp.229-230.58 A. ANDREOPOU LOS, op. cit., p.214; A. LOUTH, The Origins of the Christian MysticalTradition: From Plato to Denys, Oxford

uP,2007.

59 A. ANDREOPOULOS, op. cit., pp.231-242.

295

tKoN,6-2013

1

Rostislava Todorova

Vizualiziranje boZanskog: mandorla kao vizija Boga u bizantskoj ikonografiii

Vizualna kultura u Bizantu u svojoj je naravi bila duboko religiozna/religijska, a namjera joj je bila da sluZi kao "teolo-

gija u slikama,,uz teologiju u rijeiima. postepeni razvoj ortodoksne teologije kroz stolje(a uzrokovao je znatajne promjene

u vizualnoj paradigmi niiants[e umjetnosti. stoga se ivi bizantski modeli mogu smatrati interpretacijama ili"prijevodima'

suvremene teoloike misli, te ih je mogute"iitati"-kroz teolo5ka pisanja i religiozne misli vremena. Jedan od najboljih primjen

toga jest mandorla kao vizualni znak neopisivog fenomena Bozje slave, spomenutog i u starom i u Novom Zavjetu' Bizantska

umjetnost uspostavila je dva glavna tipa man-dorle koji predstavljaju prostorno-vremenske i blistave manifestacije Boije

slave. Ovi vizualni modeli odraZavaju svaku promjenu u teoloikom miljeu koja se tiie trenutnog koncepta BoZjeg otkrivenja

iovjeianstvu. sve razradenije miiljenje o videnju Boga rezultiralo je sve razradenijom paradigmom o Bozjoj slavi, te je obli-

kovalo razlitite uzorke n.lenog ikonografsko g izriiaja-- mandorle. Vidjeti Bozju slavu postalo je jedino moguie videnje Boga

prije dolaska Bo2jega sina, a nakon toga trenutka, jedino mogu(e videnje boZanstva naieg Gospodina lsusa Krista' Dakle'

mandorla kao vizualna ekspresija zamr5enog fenomena BoZje slave i sama je postala vizija Boga.

Prijevod s engleskoga: lva Brusit

Primljeno/Received: 29. 1 0.201 2.

Pregledni rad

296