From Allegory to Icon:
The Christian Church Triumphant (cat. 16-30)
17
Liturgical Vessel (a Pyx) with Christ, the Virgin and Two ArchangelsSilver with gilding Byzantine, Constantinople, ca. 600-650 AD Height: 3 inches (7.6 cm.) Two control stamps on the bottom |
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A bearded Christ blessing with his right hand and holding the gospel with his left stands immobile and frontally on a dais. On the opposite side, the Virgin is depicted in a similar frontal pose holding an emblem emblazoned with a cross over her womb, symbolic of her role as the Mother of God. Between them stand Archangels holding orbs and staffs, dressed in richly-embroidered garments, a striking contrast to the simple, austere depictions of Christ and the Virgin.
From the fifth century forwards there is a noticeable trend by Christian iconographers to reinforce and to codify in their images the basic dogmas of Christian faith. The peaceful, pastoral images of the Good Shepherd ministering to his small Christian flock and other themes that derive from allegories popular in Late Antiquity move in the fifth and sixth centuries to more marginal fields in church decoration and in manuscripts. By the seventh century, the theme of the Good Shepherd has disappeared entirely and been replaced by a new type of hieratic image.
On our pyx, Christ appears remote, removed from the physical world like an icon. The message is unambiguous: Christ as a ruler invests the Emperor and the Empire with the almighty power of God. This iconic image marks a clear break from earlier Christian imagery which was more allegorical and open to interpretation. The new imagery borrowed elements from imperial iconography. The frontal, iconic , motionless Christ on this pyx brings to mind a description of Constantine II seen by one observer during a procession in Rome "looking neither to right nor left, as if his head were held in a vice".
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