La nudité visible et invisible : de la nudité honteuse vers la nudité en quête de spiritualité dans l’iconographie médiévale russe

Abstract

The conscious awareness of the nakedness of the body is brought about by disobedience against the divine order and the subsequent Fall of Adam and Eve , as their mortal bodies are laid bare and stripped of their divine light . Adam ’ s loss of immortality creates a parallel between visible nudity and death . By laying completely or partially bare the body of Christ , these images will highlight the humanity of the Savior and at once reflect the New Adam as represented by Christ , who will deliver man from his original sin . Through death , Christ will save humanity and equally , through his nakedness , he will show himself to be the New Adam . This is the reason why Jesus is depicted naked only in those image where he is figured with Adam , notably The Bath of Baby Jesus , The Baptism , The Crucifiction , The Descent from the Cross , The Burial and even the Lamentations of Christ . It is also through nudity or the absence of proper clothing , that the “ madman ” is depicted in hagiographic imagery . This is a nakedness that goes against convention and ruptures the social order , through the material and spirituality austerity of the “ Fool­for­Christ ” or the iurodivy in Russia . Medieval iconography reproduces the nudity of the “ Fool­for­Christ ” as a manifestation of the austerity , destitution and fragility of life . In this case the shame of the naked body is transformed into that of bare innocence on a spiritual quest to find the original purity of Adam . Likewise , there exists here a parallel between mortal death and spiritual resurrection . It is clear that in medieval iconography the depiction of nudity is never a trivial matter . On the contrary , it is an important part of a symbolic vocabulary that contributes towards the decoding of the rich theological significations of these images.