medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Doctissimi,
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, 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 to the graffiti that shows only (a mockery) of the crucified Christ
(I personally suspect that this is a gnostic mockery on orthodox
Christians, who identified the OT god with the Father of the Christ,
since we have evidence that Gnostics - the charge probably originating
from a Copitc linugistic environment - credited the Jews worshiping an
ass-shaped or ass-headed god in the Jerusalem Temple).
Valete,
George
Gyorgy Gereby
associate professor
Mediaeval Studies Department
Central European University
Budapest V.
Nador u. 9.
H-1051 Hungary
Email: [log in to unmask]
Skype: ggereby4
Phone/Fax/a.m.: + 36.1.34 12 634
Mobile: + 36.30.99 69 874
>>> John Dillon <[log in to unmask]> 3/27/2008 3:30 PM >>>
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
culture
Pn Wednesday, March 26, 2008, at 5:37 pm, Tom Izbicki wrote:
> The earliest Western depiction of the Crucixion is supposed to be -
> yes
> I got that from Kenneth Clark's Civilization on TV the wooden carving
> on
> the doors of Santa Sabina in Rome - early 5th century:
>
> 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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