I Padri della Chiesa e le immagini
Author(s)
Bordino, Chiara
Date Issued
March 15, 2010
Type
Doctoral Thesis
Abstract
The thesis aims to investigate Early Christian attitudes towards images, through a wide ranging analysis of greek and latin Church Fathers, from second century to the first half of the fifth, and through a joint examination of late antique and early christian art. Many studies were devoted to this topic, but almost all of them were based on a selection of patristic quotations offered by some German scholars at the beginning of the 1900s. At the same time the work means to analyze the interpretation that defenders and opponents of images gave, during Iconoclastic Controversy in the 8th and 9th centuries, about the relationship between Early Christian Church and art. Iconophiles and Iconoclasts, in their works, quote and comment on many patristic texts concerning images, and the interpretation that they gave has, in some respects, foreshadowed the views of the modern debate.The thesis consists of four chapters, preceded by a premise which provides a status quaestionis of 20th century studies about early christian attitudes towards images. In the first chapter, devoted to precostantinian age, I discuss Church Fathers strong attacks against pagan images. The bitter polemic they carries on seems motivated by a deep concern for widespread dissemination of pagan deite's images in late antique society. The Fathers feared very much the danger of idolatry, but we must not come to the conclusion that they absolutely refused every kind of image. In their writings we can discover many clues of a positive view of images and artistic activities, as well as the most ancient concerning Christian images, both symbolic and figurative ones. The second chapter deals with the period from Constantine to the first half of the 5th century. I discuss some key figures: Eusebius of Caesarea, who offers a complex and problematic testimony, by accepting some types of images and refusing others; the Cappadocian Fathers, who fully accept images and whose thought on the issues of visual arts is very deep and fine; fathers as Asterius of Amasea, John Chrysostom, Agostinus, who seem to waver between acceptance and mistrust towards images; Epiphanius of Salamis, whose iconophobic ideas are an exception and not a widely shared opinion in the Church of the IV century. I also take under consideration the first traces concerning: the emerge of Christian cult of images, : the reference to the dogma of the incarnation as a new and chief topic in the defence of images, the flourishing of stories on images of miraculous origin or protagonists of amazing events.The third chapter is about writings of the iconoclast era which quote and discuss patristic texts on images: the oldest iconophile florilegia, the three Orations by John of Damascus, the Acts of the II Nicene Council, the works of the monk Theodore Studite and of Nicephorus patriarch of Constantinopole. In discussing these writings, I stress the general guidelines and the specific choices showed by iconophiles and iconoclasts in the selection and interpretation of patristic quotations. Fourth chapter intends to focus on certain issues of particular relevance for the Fathers and for iconophiles of the VIII and IX centuries: relations between the reflection on the image in theological thought in and the defence of artistic handworks; the interpretation of the relationship between images Pagan and Christian images; the role of the emperor image in the iconodule theory; the power of images in provoking emotional involvement of the viewers, especially with regard to the representations of martyrdom; the problem of the existence of many different images of Christ.The thesis is complemented by extensive documentary equipment: a rich anthology of patristic texts on images, which, beside the texts in Greek and Latin, offers an Italian translation by myself; the translation of some portions of the Refutatio et Eversio of Nicephorus of Constantinople, a work that has not t been translated into any modern language yet; a repertoire of Greek terms on images.
Additional information
Dottorato di ricerca in Memoria e materie delle opere d'arte attraverso i processi di produzione, storicizzazione, conservazione, musealizzazione
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