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The Catapetasma of Hagia Sophia and the Phenomenon of Byzantine Installationsстатья
- Автор: Alexei Lidov
- Журнал: Convivium. Seminarium Kondakovianum. Series Nova
- Том: 1
- Номер: 2
- Год издания: 2014
- Первая страница: 40
- Последняя страница: 57
- Аннотация: Alexei Lidov (Moscow State University) The Catapetasma of Hagia Sophia and the Phenomenon of Byzantine Installations Abstract and Summary Abstract This paper deals with three interconnected topics around the reconstruction and interpretation of the Catapetasma, or the curtain over the main altar table of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. It was an outstanding and unique art object of Byzantine culture, the most important liturgical object of the main cathedral of the Empire, which has never become a particular subject of scholarly discussion. The second topic is to pose a question of the existence of stable compositions of various objects performed in the space as a whole image, i.e. a question of particular Byzantine installations if we speak in terms of modern art. It will be shown here, that the Catapetasma played a crucial role in such an installation around the main altar table of Hagia Sophia where nothing survived at the present moment. There was a special system of various crosses, votive crowns, veils and other liturgical objects. The fact of existence of such spatial compositions, which should not be analyzed in the traditional iconographic way, once again leads us to the necessity to formulate a new concept of image-paradigm, in the case an image-paradigm of iconic curtain, which does not coincide with anyone of flat images. Summary The Catapetasma of Hagia Sophia, or the special veil in the ciborium, was a pivotal element in the spatial icon which was created as a kind of “installation” around the altar-table. It included a system of various crosses upon and behind the altar, liturgical vessels of various shapes, a whole system of votive crowns and liturgical veils. This spatial image was performative, i.e. it was in constant changes connected with the liturgical service and transferred symbolical accents of that dynamic iconic image. At the same time the altar installation had a stable focus bearing the conceptual meaning — the Catapetasma identified with the Old Testament Temple Veil. It seems quite probable that this particular ‘spatial image’ existing beyond flat depictions was the most powerful icon of the Great Church, i.e. of all the Empire, which could serve an influential model in the Eastern Christian world. The imagery that I attempted to reveal in this paper, leads to an important methodological issue. In many cases the discussion of visual culture can not be reduced to a positivist description of artefacts, or to the analysis of theological notions. Some phenomena can be properly interpreted only on the level of images-ideas, I prefer to term them “image-paradigms”. It is a new concept which does not coincide with the illustrative pictures or ideological conceptions. This special notion seems a useful instrumentum studiorum, which helps to explain a layer of phenomena. The image-paradigm of the iconic curtain was not connected with the illustration of any specific text, though it is a part of a continuum of literary and symbolic meanings and associations. It is hard to see in this paradigm just an embodiment of a theological concept though the depth and complexity of its structure is quite obvious. The image-paradigm belonged to visual culture, i.e. it was visible and recognizable, but at the same time, it was not formalized in any fixed state, either in a form of the pictorial scheme or in a mental construction. In this respect the image-paradigm looks similarly to the metaphor that loses its sense in re-telling, or in its de-construction into parts. For the Byzantines such an irrational and at once ‘hiero-plastic’ perception of the world could be the most adequate reflection of its divine essence. At that, it does not concern any mystic but a special type of consciousness, in which our modern categories of the artistic, ritual, intellectual were interwoven in the inseparable whole.
- Добавил в систему: Лидов Алексей Михайлович