This book focuses on the earliest surviving Christian icons, dated to the sixth and seventh centuries, which bear many resemblances to three other well-established genres of ‘sacred portrait’ also produced during late antiquity, namely Roman imperial portraiture, Graeco-Egyptian funerary portraiture and panel paintings depicting non-Christian deities.
Andrew Paterson addresses two fundamental questions about devotional portraiture – both Christian and non-Christian – in the late antique period. Firstly, how did artists visualise and construct these images of divine or sanctified figures? And secondly, how did their intended viewers look at, respond to, and even interact with these images? Paterson argues that a key factor of many of these portrait images is the emphasis given to the depicted gaze, which invites an intensified form of personal encounter with the portrait’s subject.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, theology, religion and classical studies.
Author(s): Andrew Paterson
Series: Routledge Research in Art and Religion
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 228
City: New York
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Range of Material
Questions of Methodology
Working Definitions of Key Terms
1. The Production of Sacred Portraits (i): Techniques and Stylistic Variation
The Physical Format of the Framed Pinax
Encaustic and Tempera Techniques
The Use of Encaustic in the Mummy Portraits and Early Christian Icons
The Use of Tempera in the Mummy Portraits and Fayum Portraits of Deities
Stylistic Variation: Naturalism and Schematicism
Hellenistic Naturalism
Egyptian Schematicism
Stylistic Contrasts within Single Images
Distinctive Formal Aspects of the Sinai Icon of Christ Blessing
Stylistic Choice and the Role of the Artist
2. The Production of Sacred Portraits (ii): The Visualisation of the Prototype
The Visualisation of Non-Christian Deities
The Visualisation of Christian Saints
Portraits of Isis and the Virgin Mary: Examples of Artistic Syncretism?
Idealisation and the ‘Heavenly Likeness’
The Visualisation of the Deceased in Roman Egypt
The Visualisation of Roman Emperors
The Visualisation of Christ
3. The Reception of Sacred Portraits (i): Functions and Meanings of the Depicted Gaze
Portraits of Non-Christian Deities
Imperial Portraits
Portrait Mummies
Portraits of Saints
Portraits of Christ
4. The Reception of Sacred Portraits (ii): Reciprocal Looking and Spiritual Practice
Image-Based Devotional Practice in the Context of Pilgrimage
Theories of Visual Perception and Icon Veneration
The Role of Images in Spiritual Practice (i): Plotinus
The Role of Images in Spiritual Practice (ii): Early Monastic Teachings
An Account of an Exchange of Gazes in Anagogical Prayer
The Sinai icon of The Mother of God Enthroned with Warrior-Saints and Archangels: Anagogical Prayer as Spiritual Warfare
Monastic Training and a Hierarchy of Looking
The Use of Images at the Monastery at Mount Sinai in the Sixth Century
The Spirituality of John Climacus and the Sinai Icon of Christ Blessing
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
