Abstract
During the Middle Ages, images had to be tied to the truth. Otherwise, they were considered idols. And the idols are always dangerous and, therefore, banned. So, to be justified, the imago had to be true or really refer to truth. It follows that the images were not considered just objects ‘to see’, but were perceived as almost ‘alive bodies’, real bodies: they could act as if were actually present. This essay studies the image concept in Christian thought, with particular attention to Eastern Europe, in connection to the patristic and conciliar sources. The result is the shift of its ontological meaning: contrary to the mimetic idea of greek-hellenistic culture, the christian image is an ‘impression of similarity’. This conceptual revolution implies change of visualization strategies, which are specifically performative: ‘seeing the icon’ is doing something which involves ‘physically’ the viewer, as if he came into a scene and became an actor.
Highlights
Resumen: Durante la Edad Media, las imágenes tenían que estar atadas a la verdad
They often have such great powers as to bring about miracles.2. In some cases they take the place of people so successfully that they are understood and perceived as bodies or as similar to bodies, and so they may move, speak, be hurt, bleed, or weep.3. In other cases they stand for situations and facts and as such belong to the future as much as to the past, but in showing themselves ‘now’ they are aoristic, since they render all time present
Medieval images seem to be endowed with their own identity and with a living force which means that they are able to be truly present and to create continually a rapport with the viewer, who is thereby implicated and engaged
Summary
In the Middle Ages, images –whether material or immaterial In recent years the idea of ‘performative vision’ has been at the heart of international studies of the Middle Ages Such studies, embracing an interdisciplinary approach and re-reading sources and documents from a variety of different perspectives, have been concerned with the meaning of representation and questions of how representation works, in an attempt to rethink radically the status of images and their relationship with the spectator.. This theoretical paradigm shift is part of both theology, which concerns thinking about God, and divine economy, which devotes itself to the visible and experiential translation of that mode of thinking and to its concrete revelation and deployment throughout history In both cases the redefining of the concept of the image takes place through an identical process which entails moving from the idea of an imitative copy to the idea of a demonstrative form. It is with such question and connections that this essay is concerned
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