Madeleine Gray wrote:
"One reader has challenged what we said about multivalent images, saying
"it is unhistorical to read such complex literary meanings into it..."
.........
"Medieval preachers certainly were adept in multiplying meanings - but
whether I should be reading this into the visual imagery, I don't know.
Comments, anyone?"
Dear Maddy:
May I suggest that you present your reader, as a small token of
gratitude for his thoughtful comments, with "MOSAICO DI S.CLEMENTE",
which I picked up for under $5.00 at the gift shop at San Clemente
(Rome) last summer: beautiful photos of the apse mosaic at San Clemente
with notes (in four languages) by a writer well-versed in literature abd
theology.
The mosaic at S.Clement's is quite serviceable as an example of multiple
meanings in visual imagery, first because it was set in the 12th century
following a late antique pattern: thus, it spans some 800 years of
visual tradition. Secondly, the mosaic has a contemporary inscription at
the bottom of the apse, meant to make the multiple meanings clear to the
rudes and simplices (or should it be, rudibus ac simplicibus?), and here
I quote from "Mosaico di S.Clemente" fig. 1:
'The words of Christ "I am the vine, you are the branches", are recalled
by the inscription at the bottom of the apse:
ECCLESIAM CHRISTI VITI SIMILABIMUS ISTI
DE LIGNO CRUCIS JACOBI DENS, IGNATIIQ.
INSUPRA SCRIPTI REQUIESCUNT CORPORE CHRISTI
QUAM LEX ARENTEM, SED CRUX FACIT ESSE VIRENTEM
(Taking the first and last lines together we read)
"We have likened the Church to this vine; the Law made it wither but the
Cross causes it to bloom. A piece of the true Cross, a tooth of James
and of Ignatius rest in the body of Christ above this inscription". [the
'body of Christ' is the center of the mosaic, where Christ is
represented on the Cross - it would be interesting to see if the relics
are still there, typists's note]
The vine is in fact a vast acanthus which springs from the ground where
it is watered by the blood which flows from the open side of Christ on
the Cross. It curls and spirals outward as though to reach to men at all
times and in all places. This living union with Christ is actually
brought about as the faithful take part in the sacrifice offered on the
altar below the apse. The mystery pictured in the mosaic becomes a
reality in the liturgical action centred on the altar, and the Church
becomes, in fact, the vine-yard of the Lord."
With Pat Sloane, we might recall that the imgaery is already in the
O.T., where Israel is the vine-yard of the Lord; and with B.M. Cook we
ought to "temporarily suspend our disbelief", because this is reality.
Cheers to all, Luciana
--
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Luciana Cuppo Csaki
Societas internationalis pro Vivario
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.geocities.com/athens/aegean/9891/
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