Corporeal Piety and Descended Icon: Constructing a New Understanding of the Narthex

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: This thesis proposes a reappraisal of the narthex as an architectural unit with a unique decorative, functional, and ideological program that differs from the liturgically-oriented organization of the nave and the sanctuary. On the example of the Middle Byzantine monastic church of Hosios Loukas, the analysis shows how the narthex developed an original arsenal of representational practices in response to the theological legacies and practical demands of two major events of the period – the icon controversy and the monastic reform movement. A close reading of the primary sources (writings by iconophile authors and texts of monastic foundation documents) demonstrates how the values of corporeality, synergism, and empathy – while commonly omitted from the discussion of the Middle Byzantine theological climate – arose as guiding principles of the post-iconoclast approaches to the image-beholder interaction. Against this background, the narthex became uniquely suited to represent the humanity of Christ. Representations of Christ-as-Man drive pathways of relatability, compassion, and corporeality that legitimize the beholder as an equal participant in dialogue with the divine. Through a face to face dialogue predicated on the value of synergism, the monastic community engages in ritual performances that not simply imitate, but rather complete Biblical events of the surrounding pictorial program.

Author	Savic, Sanja

Subject	Narthex
Subject	corporeality
Subject	Theodore, Studites, Saint, 759-826
Subject	iconoclasm
Subject	monastic reformation
Subject	Middle Byzantine period
Subject	Hosios Loukas (Monastery : Voiōtia, Greece)
Subject	synergism
Subject	Ritual
Subject	mosaic
Genre	Text
Genre	Thesis

DOI	https://doi.org/10.25740/mp905vg1482
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/mp905vg1482

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License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).

Preferred citation: Savic, S. (2021). Corporeal Piety and Descended Icon: Constructing a New Understanding of the Narthex . Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/mp905vg1482

Masters Theses in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies

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