Biblia w sztuce - słowo obrazem się stało
Ryszard Knapiński
Abstract
The article presents a relation between a word and a picture against a back- ground of art theology developing in Christianity. Such an assumption releases from the presentation of a selection of illustrations to biblical texts. Assumed delibera- tions have a form of an outline illustrated by the examples from the field of miniature painting and engraving, depicting in a literal sense a transformation of a word into a picture. The studies from the field of a word function in faith tradition created the whole theological and biblical literature. On the other hand analyses of the analo- gical role of a picture in Christianity are relatively new and only seldom are they conducted by theologians or art historians. The title of the present issertation constitutes a travesty of a sentence announ- ced by St. John in the prologue of his Gospel: ”And the Word was made flesh” (1:14). When John is talking about the Logos it means in our perspective a written word, that is the Revelation described in the Bible. Based on what St. Paul said in the Lettex to the Romans (10:14–18) the expression: Fides ex auditu started to be used in theology. The question of the role of a picture in religion can be encapsulated in a paraphrase of this expression, as: Fides ex visu. Certain people in specific circum- stances acquire faith through the sense of sight, through image. The Prophets attributed to pictures magic forces and the power of influencing human souls. Therefore they pushed them into the field of magic and witchcraft, into the world of dark forces, using signs. According to their teaching a real cult does not need any material signs. A monotheistic religion wants to remain a religion based on reading and not watching „suspicious” pictures. Rejecting visual representations, the Old Testament favours verbal symbols. And not only has the image of a false god become the idol, but also a false image of the true God. The invisible God can be described, but not painted. Art is too weak to show the greatness of God. The undescribed God remained invisible. He made himself known to people only through the revealed word and depicting Him in paintings was forbidden because it was a threaten to the primary Plan of Salvation. In such an approach a word becomes a power and the rejected picture becomes weak because it is useless and even harmful. This was well expressed by Re´gis Debray, who wrote that art with its altars, paintings and figures was too heavy to be carried by the Jew, this eternal wanderer, on his way. Thus he took the book. Despite strict bans we can find in the Old Testament statements containing human longing for watching God, either during the sleepas in the case of patriarch Jacob, or in a „face-to-face” meeting as Moses at Mount Sinai, or in a prophetic seeing as it was experienced e.g. by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, or the other ones „seeing”. The situation changed in the New Testament, when the eternal Logos – the son of God became a man. It was possible to see God through the incarnate Word, as Jesus Christ became the most ideal icon of God. The incarnation gave a possibility of depicting the one that was so far Invisible. This can be contained in a sentence that „the Word was made a picture”. The Mystery of the Incarnation was invoked by the iconodules at the Second Council of Nicea, in 787. Christianity is a religion of a word and a picture, but Protestants are different from Catholics in their approach to pictures. Taking a doctrinal assumption on the sole primacy of a word (sola Fcxiptuxa), certain sections of the Reformation rejected a picture as a form of superstition. The specific character of Protestant art became the custom of placing citations from the Bible on paintings, or even placing the sole citations or the sentences of the Reformation in altar reredos.
Keywords:
Bible in art, word and picture, picture theologyReferences
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Kierownik Katedry Historii Sztuki Kos´cielnej na Katolickim Uniwersytecie Lubelskim. Prowadzi badania dotycza˛ce m.in. zagadnien´: Credo w sztuce; pa- trocinia kos´cielne w ikonografii; ikonografia hagiograficzna; teoria obrazu w chrzes´cijan´stwie – fides ex visu; doktryna katolicka w ikonogra2ii. Członek Komitetu Nauk o Sztuce oraz Rady Naukowej PAN; nalez˙y do Zespołu Specjalistycznego w Ministerstwie Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego (historia sztuki).
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