Mother of God at the foot of the Cross: Setting of boundaries between patristics and iconography
Keywords:
Jumalansynnyttäjä, risti, ikoni, Bysantti, ekfrasis, patristiikka, Golgata, tulkinta, hymnografiaAbstract
Mary at the foot of the cross is a theme that provides an illustrative example of relations between patristic literature and iconography. In patristic theology, Mary is a figure with a deep tension between the agonising pain of loss and emerging hope of resurrection. Moreover, the fathers stress in various ways the connection between incarnation and Easter, and therefore the idea of incarnation belongs to the perception and interpreta- tion of the Golgotha event. This adds to the significance of Mary, but still the eastern fathers view her as a representative of the humankind for whom salvation was being prepared in Golgotha. In addition to patristic authors, the hymnography of Romanos Melodos is among the most crucial texts for the interpretation of Golgotha icon, given that it has a remarkable reception history and in many ways represents the most iconic textual representation of Mary.
In the classical Golgotha icons, such as the work of Dionysi (c. 1500), the same thematic appears in a harmonious and profound way. Interpretation of images, however, should not be restricted to illustration of symbolical values of detached details, for it is typical for images to present themselves as one whole, in which the meanings appear for human mind as one totality. One may argue that the icon opens a visual space that the patristic views fill up with discursive content. Moreover, Byzantine ekphrasis and modern depictions of iconography offer explicit bridges from the icon to the text and vice versa.
Without the concepts and positions of patristic and hymnographic texts, inter- pretation of icons would remain superficial or drift into detached subjectivism. And on the other hand, icons contribute to the understanding of patristic discourse by presen- ting the subject in the form of holistic and harmonious vision that may function as an unifying principle for the patristic discourse. The icon and the word supplement each other and deepen the comprehension and understanding of each. In that sense, it is indispensable for icon painters to get familiar with the theology of the fathers, and for theologians to get familiar with icons.
