medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Amici,
many thanks for Marjorie's recalling of Jim Buglsag's earlier comment, which was - at least for me - exteremely interesting. It triggered a few thoughts in me which I would like to put forward for learned comments of those who know better.
Not being an art historian, just an ordinary ignorant philosopher - a disclaimer for the clear and imminent danger of being taken in by a hazardous view in iconography - I wonder if there could be an interesting clue for the passing from the beardless, short haired Christ of the catacombs (and of other depictions, like that of the San Vitale) to the well-known long-haired, bearded, older image of the later periods, and that cause not being the imperial cult, but rather the - admittedly slow - iconographic implimentation of the Trinitological and Christological controversies (as alluded to by Jim Bugslag).
I came across an interesting footnote (where, gosh, where?!!! - Harnack??? Peterson??) which stated that the earliest pictures of the Christ were modelled on Alexander the Great's image. Again, it was the same period that the Christ was called 'cosmocratoor' - as was Alexander himself. A 'cosmocratoor' epithet, and an image alluding to the well-known conqueror of the oikumene might have been very suitable for the propaganda of a Christ with an Arian tint, or at least acceptable for Arians, too.
Jim Bugslag also reported on the change in the Christ's picture in becoming more similar to Zeus' or Jupiter's image. This is enlightening. For this change seems to coincide with the (roughly) contemporaneous change in the epithet from 'cosmocratoor' to the much more powerful epithet 'pantocratoor' (being equal to the One God, who does not only kratei tou kosmou, but 'horatoon te pantoon kai aoratoon'), which was a markedly divine prerogative even in Greek (let alone - Hellenised - Jewish) context. Then it seems just natural that the image was changed from Alexander's to Zeus' well known depiction from the Iliad, with long locks and beard, taken as guidance by Pheidias himself - this being an easy way of expressing the gist of the Christian theological claim, thereby readily understood by the environment, which was thoroughly educated in Homer in 'first form' classes (during that part of the basic curriculum which meant 'Hellenising the tongue').
Is this silly and/or completely speculative? Any comments of the 'few and learned'?
Best,
George
George Gereby
Ancient and Mediaeval Philosophy, ELTE, Budapest
>>> [log in to unmask] 28/02/04 20:11 >>>
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
To complement Jim Bugslag's thoughtful (as usual) comment, I found a discussion of _The Clash of Gods_ on our own list by... Jim Bugslag. Here it is:
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 12:09:45 +0000
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
Sender: medieval-religion
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Images of Jesus the Christ
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
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> I am perplexed as to why most images of Christ show him to have long
> hair, when I Corinthians 11:14 (KJV) states:
>
> I Corinthians 11:14
> Doth not even nature [phusis] itself teach you, that, if a man have
> long hair [komao], it is a shame [atimia] unto him?
>
> More generally, I'm interested to know where I can learn about the
> origins of historical and modern images of Christ.
Dear Michael,
The earliest images of Christ do, indeed, depict him as young and
beardless, e.g. the 3rd-century catacomb paintings, and such images
continued to appear until the 6th-century, eg. the apse mosaic in S.
Vitale in Ravenna. But from the 4th-century onwards, the competing
image of Christ as older, with long dark hair and beard, began to
appear as well, and this image evenually replaced the earlier
non-bearded type of image completely. The bearded type was
evenually formalized in the Byzantine east as the image of Christ
Pantocrator (ruler of all), and in fact, one theory has it that the
long-haired and bearded image of Christ represents a tranference from
a non-Christian image tradition, depicting the father of the gods,
Zeus or Jupiter, who was, indeed, depicted in such a manner. My own,
completely unsubstantiated (yet) opinion is that these two manners of
representing Christ also had something to do with the increasing
doctrinal importance of Christological and Trinitarian questions (for
which, see this list`s Threatened Series by Bill East). For more on
the subject of images, you might look at André Grabar, Christian
Iconography: A Study of its Origins (Princeton, 1968), still a
valuable work, and Thomas F. Mathews, The Clash of Gods: A
Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art (Princeton, 1993), an
interesting but overstated re-evaluation of imperial influence on
early Christian imagery (see the excellent review by Peter Brown in
Art Bulletin, vol. 77 (1995), 499-502).
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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