Corporeal Perceptions of the Immaterial Agency and Rhythm in Palaeologan Monumental Painting

Abstract

In this paper I look at aspects of the nature of the relationship between the faithful and the holy image inside church space. In order to do this, I will use as examples images from the funerary chapel of the Chora monastery in Istanbul. In examining how the agency of the sacred image is articulated inside church space, I will focus on the interaction between icon and beholder, and demonstrate how the use of a certain pictorial technique, that of rhythm, shapes the beholder’s experience of divine presence inside the funerary chapel of the Chora monastery. Through the use of rhythm, the icon exercises its agency on the faithful not only on an intellectual or spiritual level but most importantly, on a corporeal level.