medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Gyorgy Gereby <[log in to unmask]>
> you may have noted that this website (the images are truly excellent,
thank you Tom for the hint) describes the Crucifixion scene as
'Crucifixion/Orants', the second part of which is nonsense.
The two 'orants' flanking Christ are, of course, the two thieves.
> The reason for the misreading of the iconography might be that the
crosses are heavily symbolic (the perpendicular pole missing,
not entirely.
>also the horizontal crossbeam is discontinuously represented - it is
indicated only by the beam ends at the hands. Both figures flanking figures
show the protruding ends of the beams (like in the case of the central
figure of the Christ).
as is clear from the detailed view
http://www.bstorage.com/Rome/Sabina/pages/A0609_1264WS.htm
c
> > http://www.bstorage.com/Rome/Sabina/
> >
> > It is unusual among the religious pictures of early date I have seen
>
> > on
> > several trips to Rome. The cross appears, but not much in the line
> of
> >
> > the Passion.
> >
>
> Perhaps Clark called the Santa Sabina image the earliest _certain_
> Western depiction of the Crucifixion or the earliest _reverent_ Western
> depiction of the Crucifixion. But it has long been widely thought that
> the earliest surviving Western depiction of the Crucifixion is the
> probably third-century Alexamenos graffito discovered on the Palatine in
> Rome in 1857:
> http://tinyurl.com/2zrsmu
> Other illustrations and brief discussions are here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito
> and here:
> http://tinyurl.com/2yq95k
>
> There have been dissenters, of course, and other interpretations have
> been advanced from time to time. But these have failed to gain much
> acceptance. As far as I can determine, the _communis opinio_ among the
> learned remains that the figure worshiped by Alexamenos is a parodic
> representation of the crucified Christ. That was already the view
> transmitted by the (old) Catholic Encyclopedia at the beginning of the
> last century:
> http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01793c.htm
> and it seems unlikely that Sir Kenneth (at the time of his writing he
> was not yet Lord Clark) or any careful scholar would have been unaware
> of it.
>
> For a contrary indication, see the blurb from Ashgate (a learned press)
> here:
> http://christianbookshops.org.uk/reviews/passioninart.htm
> I have not seen Harries' book. Perhaps someone who has a copy can say
> what his take is on the Alexamenos graffito.
>
> Best,
> John Dillon
>
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