Blog #4
Worship makes it possible to engage with an image as an “icon” because as the author Jean Luc Marion describes, the image as we understand doesn’t connect to reality but that the true image or “icon” especially in Christian art can point towards salvation and God. He brings this up when talking about the screen and the image where Marion critiques how the image is only linked to itself such as the image of the model in the dress where it doesn’t necessarily mean much but this image is mediated through the screen. The purpose is to see and our desire is to see and perceive even if we don’t want to see it. The icon and the gaze are so important. Nowadays on social media, this can be a problem because pictures on an Instagram feed, for example, have no crossing of gaze or return of gaze. It is seen but only in a one-way track. The invisible image is touched on and relates to Gadamer where he mentioned the veiling and unveiling. You may look at something or someone and want to see love or beauty means you see beyond what’s actually there and you go beyond just the material dimension of the person. The invisible gaze is talked about and how the gaze of the other looks back at you with the intentionality of love. It’s seeing a person and their person and how the gazes cross and in that crossing, it is possible to engage with the icon. Through Jesus, we see the invisible Father. Christ is a visible image of the invisible Father. Icons are modes of salvation and are a doctrine that uses visibility and it’s glorified because of the one that looks at us through it such as Christ.
God’s gaze crosses ours in the image. When looking at the Ghent Altarpiece, we see a presence that transcends the image itself. When engaging in this iconic way of seeing, you notice the eucharistic annunciation scene where the word becomes flesh, there’s a certain posture with the figures, with the altar closed but when it is closed, there is adam and eve on the right and left and the Virgin Mary with flowers of a queen and there is Jesus Christ and celebrating what looks to be a eucharistic liturgy and John the Baptist with his book. The angelic host in liturgical clothing and tiles of a church also add to this iconic way of seeing where these elements show eternal liturgy and brought between Christ and the Virgin Mary and Adam and Eve. The adoration of the lamb shows the lamb’s blood spilling out and how there is liturgical action where there is also baptism and Christ’s blood but also has a quality of cleansing and bringing everyone together to adore Christ. This way of seeing allows us to be renewed and see through Christ and attain salvation as our spiritual senses become attuned with the iconic gaze of viewing the visible and invisible.
The Florentine frescoes require us to pay attention to the physicality like incorporated images and how they take up space in nature or other sacred places. The images allow us to reveal themselves to us and image helps us to participate in interpreting and come to revelation and see anew. In cell 1 we witness strange elements of the icon where the garden is unkempt but the flowers look like flowers at first but they are actually Christ’s blood and there is a strangeness of the space and how we are invited into the tomb which also looks like a door. This assemblage invites us in to notice the image and how we can be devotional gazers. Noticing the color of the clothes and wings and posture of the figures and space allow us to contemplate and images allow for representation such as in the Dominican community. There’s a movement of progression in the ways of seeing icons and that can be purification where you learn to see, illumination where you’ve learned to see, and then to perfection. These allow us to contemplate from our experience and also make us want to live in the same posture as the Virgin Mary or other idols in the icons to come closer to God and Christ and seek salvation. The dissemblance in these frescoes allows us to learn a new way of seeing and connecting liturgy and worship/devotion as we incorporate these images into our lives and let them gaze back at us.
The Madonna altarpieces also speak to how the setting or time isn’t pinned down from the painting but our openness allows us to playfully meditate upon it and be changed by it. There’s a multifaced purpose for these altarpieces and allowing for liturgical action. The presence of the Firescreen Madonna makes its presence known and invites us in to be gazed upon and gaze back and draw wonder and liturgical possibilities. Liturgy and devotion are both linked together and allow the symbols of the icons and images to become a part of our lives and they manifest themselves through us. They allow us to see these eucharistic altarpieces and understanding sacrifice and presence in eucharistic liturgy through icons.