SACRED ART, Part 2
IS THERE STILL A SACRED ART IN THE WEST? Continuing my musing on what make an image "sacred" and not only religious.
Icons speak to faith.
How?
They represent the truths of faith in a visual manner using a theological langage of signs and symbols.
They are theology in lines and colors.
It is not for “entertainment” or emotional support.
Icons are “dogmatic” before being esthetic (even though the esthetic part is important because truth is beautiful).
They show the dogmas of the faith visually and contemplatively. It is why an iconographer should be a theologian more than an artist. It is why also an icon is built on tradition more than creativity.
Iconography uses the langage of symbols to convey and mediates the truths of faith.
It is a symbolic art and not a realistic art, because it represents spiritual realities beyond the natural world.
Like Jesus when he was explaining the mystery of the Kingdom of God through parables and allegories.
Because the “Sacred”, the “Holy”, the “Spiritual’ is beyond our natural grasp, we need symbols to bridge the gap, to reveal and at the same times conceal them.
To reveal and conceal. To make present, represent, but also to separate, to distinguish, to set apart from what is natural and visible. To keep the transcendant aspect when revealing the immanent gift.
Iconography is primarily a spiritual art, a contemplative art that demands and foster a deep spiritual life.
Icon of Christ by Gregory Krug, the ‘Rublev” of the xx century in my opinion:
the power of symbolic langage with the depth and transparency
of his use of the floating technique that gives his icon a spiritual light unparallel.
It reveals, makes Christ present in his humanity but in a symbolic way
that respects and manifests also the “beyond”,
the transcendant aspect of his divinity
Let us listen to what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us about the uses of symbol in the liturgy and sacred images:
HOW THE LITURGY IS CELEBRATED
1145 A sacramental celebration is woven from signs and symbols. In keeping with the divine pedagogy of salvation, their meaning is rooted in the work of creation and in human culture, specified by the events of the Old Covenant and fully revealed in the person and work of Christ.
1146 Signs of the human world. In human life, signs and symbols occupy an important place. As a being at once body and spirit, man expresses and perceives spiritual realities through physical signs and symbols. As a social being, man needs signs and symbols to communicate with others, through language, gestures, and actions. The same holds true for his relationship with God.
The Liturgy uses signs and symbols, words and symbolic actions, singing and music and holy images:
Holy images
1159 The sacred image, the liturgical icon, principally represents Christ. It cannot represent the invisible and incomprehensible God, but the incarnation of the Son of God has ushered in a new “economy” of images:
“Previously God, who has neither a body nor a face, absolutely could not be represented by an image. But now that he has made himself visible in the flesh and has lived with men, I can make an image of what I have seen of God . . . and contemplate the glory of the Lord, his face unveiled.” (St John Damascene, De imago,1;16)
1160 Christian iconography expresses in images the same Gospel message that Scripture communicates by words. Image and word illuminate each other:
“ We declare that we preserve intact all the written and unwritten traditions of the Church which have been entrusted to us. One of these traditions consists in the production of representational artwork, which accords with the history of the preaching of the Gospel. For it confirms that the incarnation of the Word of God was real and not imaginary, and to our benefit as well, for realities that illustrate each other undoubtedly reflect each other’s meaning. “ (Council of Nicaea II, (787) COD 111
1161 All the signs in the liturgical celebrations are related to Christ: as are sacred images of the holy Mother of God and of the saints as well. They truly signify Christ, who is glorified in them. They make manifest the “cloud of witnesses” who continue to participate in the salvation of the world and to whom we are united, above all in sacramental celebrations. Through their icons, it is man “in the image of God,” finally transfigured “into his likeness,” who is revealed to our faith. So too are the angels, who also are recapitulated in Christ:
“Following the divinely inspired teaching of our holy Fathers and the tradition of the Catholic Church (for we know that this tradition comes from the Holy Spirit who dwells in her) we rightly define with full certainty and correctness that, like the figure of the precious and life-giving cross, venerable and holy images of our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, our inviolate Lady, the holy Mother of God, and the venerated angels, all the saints and the just, whether painted or made of mosaic or another suitable material, are to be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on sacred vessels and vestments, walls and panels, in houses and on streets. (Council of Nicaea II DS 600
1162 “The beauty of the images moves me to contemplation, as a meadow delights the eyes and subtly infuses the soul with the glory of God.” (St John Damascene, De Imago. 1;27) Similarly, the contemplation of sacred icons, united with meditation on the Word of God and the singing of liturgical hymns, enters into the harmony of the signs of celebration so that the mystery celebrated is imprinted in the heart’s memory and is then expressed in the new life of the faithful.
Now, this is true in the eastern liturgies where icons are really part of the celebration. Is it true also in the western latin liturgy? Do sacred icons have a real place in the liturgy?
This will be part of my next musing, beginning with the distinction between different kinds of sacred images (mural, mosaics, stained glasses portable icons)
