ABOUT AGIOGRAPHY

A Rational Depiction - "Byzantine" Hagiography.
“Byzantine” art has two basic starting points:

Mosaics – An art that the Byzantines, like Roman craftsmen that they were, were totally familiar with (being the continuers of the late classical and Hellenistic traditions), and

Fayum (portraits of deceased personages) – late antiquity 1^st – 2^nd century A.D., which was the continuation of Hellenistic painting during Roman times.

In 313 A.D., Constantine the Great imposes religious tolerance and in 324 A.D. he transfers the capital of the Roman Empire to the straits of the Bosporus (later renamed Constantinople, 330 A.D.).

The Christian artists can now devote themselves undistracted to their work.

As the following years were passing by, whether heroic or decadent for the “Byzantine” Empire, through amidst religious fermentations, spiritual quests, dissents, quarrels, heresies and enlightened Ecumenical Councils, sprang forth what we now call “the Byzantine Art of Hagiography”.

During its first years, the religious paintings were limited to a few timid sketches of a symbolic or decorative character, and non-pictorial representations. However, as the Orthodox Theology gradually began to take shape and the new faith with its dogmas was being clarified, the artists more courageously embarked on depicting in a more realistic manner the persons of the Saints on wooden icons, as well as multi-person depictions, on the walls of the churches.

In 726 A.D., the Iconomachy (opposition to iconography) brakes out. A violent conflict, which divided the “Byzantines” with its tragic, condemnable behaviors, and plagued the Empire for entire centuries. However, from within this turmoil and upheaval came forth in all its clarity and luminance the Orthodox Theology on the Icon, under the 7^th Ecumenical Council.
The Icon is a means of worship. It is an object, not to be worshipped, but merely honoured; that honour is directed to the person depicted and –naturally- not to the wood itself.
During the illustration of a sacred person, it is his/her hypostasis that is depicted, and not its nature (which is unique). To express this in more lyrism, we could say that the faithful honors and respects the Icon, in the same way that a mother kisses and strokes the photograph (image) of her precious emigrant child, as though she could embrace it in her tender arms, and hides that image away in her bosom, with a sweet longing for their reunion slowly burning inside her.

The historical continuation was more pleasant, with a production of works of great value and small intervals of non-activity, on account of invasions from external enemies and other, internal troubles. Important art works appeared during the period of the Macedonian Dynasty (867-1056 A.D.), of the Comnenes (1081- 1185 A.D.), and the Angelos (1185-1204 A.D.).

After the Frankish occupation (1204-1061 A.D.) during the Paleologos dynasty, Byzantine art reached its apogee with the murals by Emmanuel Panselinos. Later on, after the sacking of Constantinople (1453 A.D.) Theofanes the Cretan was a dominant name. From him onwards, the remaining hagiographers became influenced by the Western art, as for example, Domenicus Theotokopoulos (El Greco) did. Thence the art history is passing over to a period of stagnancy, up until Photis Kontoglou (+1965), stoked the ashes of Byzantine tradition and brought back to life this traditional sacred art.

Therefore, the Byzantine hagiographer - due to the way he was shaped by the centuries-old search for the appropriate way of depicting the “beyond” - produces his hagiography being fully conscious of his service within the Church. He does not try to impress with his masterful brushstrokes. Just like the theologian does, he similarly avoids provoking with the powerful rhetoric of his preaching.His purpose is to present whatever is revered and Evangelically quoted by Orthodoxy, in a simple, comprehendible and respectful manner. He keeps his imagination reined in during his creative activity, because it can breed deceptions and heresies. He teaches the illiterate properly, and prompts the educated also, towards prayer, devoutness and logical worship. He strives to soften, to sweeten, to relax the soul from the neuroses of everyday toil, and to lead it unforced and easy towards the search for the Divine. He portrays the figures of the Saints in a simple and apposite way. He avoids “shouting” with brilliant and gaudy colors, with an anatomically perfect design and outline, with a realistic play of light and shadow and with beautiful shapes. On the contrary, by “humming softly”, he inspires the well-meaning observer to admire and emulate the very Saint that he has painted, without making his personal artistic style obvious. He attempts to bridge his world with this, Spiritual world. He finds himself hovering above both worlds, and invites the faithful to transform his life, from a mortal, materialistic and finite one, to an immortal and a true one. If, therefore, he were to paint with an absolute realism and in implicit detail, his creation would have a beautiful, almost real artistic result, that would satisfy human curiosity as regards the anatomical details of the portrayed object, and would evoke the observer’s admiration of the hagiographer’s sublime technical abilities. It would focus man’s mind on the observation and regurgitation of everyday, finite images and would not inspire him / her towards the logical theory of Divine Truths or the drawing of useful, soul-saving conclusions. The mind of the faithful would remain trapped in the artist’s imagination and the ordinary, everyday, mundane description. How can man properly depict the Divine Truths? – Those truths that a few humans have seen, but also these humans who have seen them could not describe them? Byzantine hagiography, does not aim to help one only to admire or to become ecstatic over what one sees, but to help one enter into another kind of perceiving reality, which will later become a way of life and will attract the mercy of God upon one’s for his salvation. This, therefore, is why Byzantine art splits the figure into smaller segments, depicting them harsher than they naturally are, and re-connects them all in a gracious harmony, thus incessantly representing the unification of the Church’s faithful into one body, with Christ the Savior as its Head. The Christian art of East, avoids anatomical perfection, yet the figure is discerned intact, within the liturgical time-space continuum; there, where we shall hopefully be led after our own personal labour of virtue and by the Grace of God. The holy personages appear to be moving towards our contemporary world, opportunely and truly. This is also the purpose of the inverted perspective that is used, so that the observer does not sink into the realm of conjecture; instead, the truth of Divine reality diffuses outwards, into his presence.
The source and the direction of light are purposely confused through out the artistic synthesis, since everything is illuminated by the Uncreated Light, which is different to our temporal one.

Finally, Byzantine art steps about on its canvas in three dimensions and not two, as certain hasty observers like to comment. In both the conventional “height and width” dimensions, as well as in the transcendental liturgical time-space.

Most of all the Byzantine hagiographer, adapts his personal lifestyle and his outlook according to the word of the Gospel, and seeks Divine enlightenment and purification through the Sacraments of the Church. In this way, there is a chance for him to correctly apply his work to describe the supernatural Divine activities.

The best way to artistically materialize Byzantine Hagiography, is the way that is now the outcome of so many centuries of experiential and artistic practice, theological revelation and mystic experience.

Nevertheless, it is quite possible that new proposals for the Christian iconography realization may appear in the future; however, the ecclesiastic tradition is the main factor, that will eventually give an opinion through the flow of the ages, whether it will embrace the new way of religious depiction or not.

   Nestor Patialiakas

   Hagiographer