Mandorla

The main function of religious art is to embody the abstract idea of God in a form that allows its easiest perception. A central problem of any religious system is God’s presence and its adequate description. Theophanic events are never single-layered and this is a challenge for both the spiritual writer and the spiritual artist.
One of the most enduring trends in religious beliefs in all ages and cultures is the designation of the diversity of manifestations of the divine power, presence and action with unifying notions. Probably the most sustainable and universal in this respect is the concept of the “glory” of gods, through which their divinity is expressed most emphatically, most sensually, and at the same time most unattainably for mankind. This concept is expressed through the term “the glory of God”, which is used in the theological language of all organized religious systems to denote the manifestations of the sacred.
The radiance, which symbolizes the divine grace, power and superiority over all the senses is a common and invariable part of the outward expression of the supernatural character of the events connected with the manifestations and actions of God’s glory. Therefore, one of the key problems facing the visual language of any religion is to find a concise, clear, easily doable and easily understandable form in which to express the theophanic radiance. Thus, two of the most ancient sacred symbols in human history – the nimbus and the aureole (mandorla) were born.
In Christian art, the mandorla has been used to depict the manifestations of God’s presence and actions. The human consciousness perceives the verbal descriptions of theophanic events differently and is not able to create a general convention for their uniform understanding, so the iconographic canon uses certain symbols capable of presenting the necessary universal ideas. The mandorla is an oval, oval-pointed or round outline, which in certain iconographic subjects encompasses the figure of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Trinity and the Theotokos or in rare cases those of some saints. It serves as a visual epitome of the phenomenon of God’s glory.

In the final saying of the Gospel of Thomas (logion 114), Jesus speaks of needing to make Mary male so that she can enter the kingdom. Similarly, the male/female dyad is interpreted spiritually as a positive/negative opposition by many of today’s traditional societies. This paper explores maleness with respect to Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary from literary, symbolic and scientific perspectives, and considers recent medical rationalizations of Jesus’s miraculous conception. Unexpected Gnostic and Christian parallels are found in the mythic/ritual structure of the Gimi people of Papua New Guinea, which encompasses the necessity of uniting sexual opposites in male form, as well as virgin birth. We also identify gender concepts relevant to the Coptic Gnostic writings in ancient Egyptian religion. The medieval feminization of Jesus – mainly achieved by interpreting the wound in his side as a vagina or breast – provides a later counterweight to the Gnostic masculinizing of Mary. Ultimately, it seems preferable to interpret the side-wound as a surgical incision through which the rib/Eve can be reinserted back into Adam, a transformation to a “dual-gender male” that restores the primal unity. For women, this unity is probably more constructively imaged as a female with a male core, a “phallic female” form of Eve; the template for this dates back at least to Neolithic times. Refractory paradoxes like these warn that gender-based analogies of spirit are inherently limited and must be transcended.

Present paper deals with the iconographical patterns in which mandorla, colored in red is used as a visual symbol of the Glory of God. In broad outlines will be described the visual device of mandorla in the Christian iconography, its functions and symbolic meaning. Special attention will be paid to the red mandorlas in the Orthodox iconography - development and spreading of the patterns with red mandorlas in Byzantine and Post Byzantine Orthodox image tradition. Special place will be given to the Bulgarian icons from the 17th-19th c. AD, where usage of red mandorlas became a common practice. Some patterns from the Varna and Veliki Preslav Eparchy will be shown as examples on that account. Conclusions of the present paper will try to connect the usage
of red colour in drawing the mandorla with the theological core of the phenomenon of God’s presence revealed in front of humans.

The study is focused on elucidation of origins of the iconographical model of the Transfiguration of Christ around which in the second half of the twentieth century in Bulgaria has been built a legend about the pictorial representation of the Lord Jesus Christ in a spaceship. Emphasis is placed on the Transfiguration fresco from the Church of St. St. Theodore Tiron and Theodore Stratilat at Dobarsko, together with several other patterns of iconographic programs of Bulgarian churches from the sixteenth to the seventeenth century. It is the mural in the Dobarsko church that is the root of the ‘cosmic interpretation’ of the specific red geometricized post-Byzantine models of mandorla, which are very common in the Transfiguration iconography on the Balkans. Similar mandorlas are used in other iconographic schemes too, however the one from Dobarsko is the ‘prototype’ of the idea that Christ is represented inside a ‘space rocket’. Therefore, by proving the Athonite origins of this Transfiguration iconographic model, the present study aims to contribute to the dismantling of the imposed amateurish, and even offensive to the believers, way of interpreting the miracle of Christ's Transfiguration on Mount Tabor.

Abstract: In this study we will try to present the iconographic tradition as a form of visual theology, though it is difficult to conceptualize what it used to be like in the immediate presence of God. The Transfiguration is one of the keys that can unlock the mystery of our eschatological fate, glorified body and the participation in the energies of God. All the ascetics who had the experience of the uncreated light or were transfigures themselves describe it in very similar way and connect it with the Transfiguration of Christ. It is only in later hesychasm that we are assured theologically that these experiences were in the body. Within this context, liturgical art and aesthetics differ from secular aesthetics, as being beyond the five senses and beyond the art itself. The Fathers, from Origen to John of Damascus, refer to Christ as the visible image and consubstantial icon of the Father. Icons were anything more than vessels of the grace of God and suggest the real presence of the grace of the depicted person. In the Old Testament, God denied the wish of anyone who asked to see him directly. The desire to see God was impossible before the Incarnation of Christ. The mosaic of the Transfiguration in St Catherine Monastery on Mount Sinai shows a completely glorified Christ with eight rays emanating from his body and introduces the luminous mandorla, a symbol that symbolizes the glory of God. The mandorla of the Sinai mosaic is oval, whereas the mandorla of the Rabbula Gospels is round. These two types express the glory of God in different way, highlighting the correspondence between theological concepts and the visual language. Mandorla expresses visually the Jewish concept of kabod, that connoted a more physical, concrete presence than the abstract meaning of δόξα. Certain scholars separate two main meanings of kabod: shekinah (from shakan, “to live in a tent” or simply “to dwell”) and yeqara (from yqr, the sensory splendor of light), in order to express this visual manifestation of the two natures of Christ. So, the oval mandorla corresponds with the luminous characterists of the kabod as yeqara. Here, the three concentric oval layers, increasingly dark, represent the depiction of the excessive divine light as the darkness of the incognoscibility of God, even in revelation. The round mandorla, on the other hand, represents the manifestation of the kabod-glory of God as shekinah/tabernacle. Here, the emphasis on the spatial rather than luminous nature of mandorla described the glimpse of the Trinity, as opposed to a less-historicized reading that emphasized the continuous splendor of Christ. The Transfiguration enjoyed a renewed interest in fourteenth-century theology, and, at the same time, a mysterious complex mandorla made its appearance, the so-called “hesychastic” mandorla (first appears in the churches of Mistras and in manuscripts of the ex-emperor and hesychastic monk, John Cantacuzenos). It consists of a geometric design as two superimposed concave squares (actually a square and a rhombus) inside a circle. These three shapes circle-square-rhombus superimposed on top of each other indicate the Trinity. This ties with Gregory Palamas’s attempt to harmonize the days of the Gospel narratives: “six” (six figures who are visible) and “eight” (adds the two who were invisible but certainly present, the Father and the Holy Spirit). Therefore, in our study we analyze how the icon of the Transfiguration encapsulates the ascetic ascent to deification.

The present paper aims to discuss the conception of the sacred space in which God dwells and its visual representation in Christian iconography. It deals with the problem of the origins of the mandorla symbol that appears on the intersection of the metaphysical and the material space. The idea of the protective luminous cloud in which gods live and act among people is one of the most stable concepts in the ancient art. Enriched by the mystical meaning of the Pythagorean vesica piscis it forms the visual symbol of mandorla as a visual representation of the
divine space in which God dwells. On this ground, Christian art has developed two basic types of mandorla as a means for expression of the Glory of God in its splendour and spatial character. Here we are not going through the whole process of developing of the Christian mandorla and its variations according the theological alterations of the time. Pointing at a few extant patterns from the Balkan Peninsula and its neighbouring areas from the first centuries of Early Christian and Byzantine art, we are aiming to illustrate only the long-lasting ancient notion of representing the sacred space of gods, the dwelling place of the divine by the vesica piscis symbol and its successors.

The visual culture of Byzantium was profoundly religious in its character and was intended to serve as “theology in images” equal to theology in words. The gradual development of the Orthodox theology over the centuries has caused noticeable changes in the visual paradigm of Byzantine art. Therefore, all Byzantine visual models can be seen as visual interpretations or “translations” of the then contemporary theological thought, and it is possible to "read” them through the theological writings and religious mainstreams of the time. One of the best examples in this regard is the mandorla as a visual sign of the indescribable phenomenon of God’s Glory, mentioned in the Old and the New Testaments. Byzantine art had established two main types of mandorla representing the spatio-temporal and resplendent manifestations of the Glory of God. These visual
models have been reflecting every alteration of the theological milieu concerning the current concept of how God reveals Himself to humankind. More and more elaborated notions about the Vision of God resulted in more and more elaborated visual paradigms of the Glory of God and moulded various patterns in its iconographic expression - the mandorla.

The paper aims to trace out in broad outline the idea of usage the mandorla within the framework of Christian art, its further growth and changes in its semantic meaning. During the different stages of development of the East Orthodox iconography, mandorla changes its priority significance as a visual sign of the spiritual space to the symbol of the Light of Thabor, which after the Hesychasm has been considered as the only adequate material sign for expressing the uncreated energies of God.

Симболичка разноврсност, уграђена у верску доктрину и истанчан филозофскисистем хришћанства, је огромна. Значење неких од хришћанских симбола као што сусв. Крст и крстни знак например, јасно је дефинисано и никада се није мењало токомдвадесетједновековне црковне традиције. Међутим, постоје и хришћански симболикоји из низа разлога остају у „задњем плану“ и немају исту јасноћу, зато што за њих недостаје недвосмислено тумачење њиховог значења. Сличне потешкоће нарочито инхерентне код симбола, који имају своје порекло у предхришћанском језичком веровању,филозофским системима и култури. Један од тих симбола, који је нашао своју употребуу православној иконографији као израз „славе Божије“ – карактеристичан Божји израз,како у старозаветним тако и у новозаветним временима, Бог у намери да разоткријесуштину пред људима, је тако названу „мандорла” – овалне форме, овално заоштренеили округле форме, која је у одређеним иконографским тематским текстовима описанаоко фигуре Господа Исуса Христа, св. Тројства, свете Богородице и у веома реткимслучајевима око фигура неких светаца.Израстање хришћанства у срж јудеизма, као и постепена промена статуса одзабране до званичне државне религије током IV в. сл. Р. Хр., налажу и промену у сис-IV в. сл. Р. Хр., налажу и промену у систему визуелних знакова које користи. Коришћење мандорле у ранохришћанској уметности се без преувеличавања може назвати преседаном, који је у директној вези сапроменом у религијском поимању света и одговарајућим преосмишљавањем коцептуалне средине током првих векова сл. Р. Хр. Нова уметничка тенденција испуњује се новим садржајем и преузима у употребу антички знак за представљање јединства измеђудуховног и материјалног - “vesica piscis”, тако што је трансформише у хришћанскумандорлу.У раду се истражује формирање два основна типа хришћанске мандорле (кружне и овалне) и њихова употреба у византијском и поствизантијском традиционалномприказу. Пажња је усмерена не само на тражење језичких корена овог визуелног знака,већ и на његово контекстуално значење.Да би се пронашло правилно тумачење овог јерархијско семантичког централногелемента у хришћанској иконографији, поставља се питање да ли је мандорла ликовнизнак светлонсног или просторног феномена, уско повезан са изражавањем суштине„славе Божије“. Акценат се ставља на развој и промењивост семантичке тежине дватипа мандорле кроз векове, започињући од првих сачуваних образаца из IV-V в. сл. Р.Хр. у Санта Марија Мађоре у Риму, до настанка „исихастке мандорле” током XIV в.у Византији и њеним поствизантијским варијантама у пре појединачно пронађенимправославним иконографским традицијама.Упркос њеном настојећем и приоритетном прихватању као вида нимба, или као јерархијског самосталног визуелног израза превасходно Божанских енергија (деловања), проучавање проблема доводи до закључка (извода), да мандорла у православној иконографији задржава, до великог степена своје древно значење једино могучегметода паралелног представљања сакралних догађаја, који прожимају једновремено иматеријални и духовни свет.
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Present study is focused on clarifying the origin of the pictorial model of the Virgin Blachernitissa as well as on specifying the details in its onomastics. It considers the main theories about the nature and diversity of the iconographic scheme and clarifies the variety of its names. Emphasis is placed on the presence of the mandorla symbol in the subject, its meaning and variability. Thus, the present study seeks to prove that it is the mandorla that provides the dogmatic and Eucharistic significance of the subject, by visualizing the Glory of the Incarnation on the Blessed Virgin as a “living altar” of God.

Обект на изследването е начинът на изобразяване на библейския концепт за Божията слава в късновизантийската иконографска традиция. Предмет на изследването е произходът и семантиката на новия тип мандорла, използвана като основен иконографски символ за визуализация на Божията теофания в късновизантийското изкуство от XIV в. нататък. Целта е да се очертае мястото и времето на възникване на усложнената форма на мандорлата, появила се паралелно с развитието на духовното движение на исихазма, както и да се изясни функционирането й като визуална екзегеза на теологическата концепция за нетварната светлина в късновизантийската иконография.
С помощта на case study относно хронологията и интервизуалността на иконографските програми на храма „Св. Апостоли“ в Солун и храма „Иисус Христос Спасител“ на манастира Хора се формулира хипотезата, че т. нар. „исихастки тип“ мандорла се е появил в Константинопол, а не в Солун или Мистра. Като допълнителен довод в полза на столичния произход на модела служат изводите от проведеното case study на иконографската програма на Гробница Е от външния нартекс на манастира Хора. Фреската „Св. Богородица Влахернитиса“ тук има акатистово значение и би следвало да бъде сюжетно определена като „Св. Богородица Достойно ест“. Композицията й показва вероятна връзка между възникналата ок. 1300 г. в Константинопол иконографска схема на цикъла на Богородичния Акатист и формирането на „исихасткия тип“ мандорла.
Линията на разпространение на новия модел може да бъде проследена от Константинопол, през Солун и Атон към цяла Византия, а от там към България, Сърбия, Румъния и Русия.

i ÖZET ERKEN B ZANS SANATINDA MANDORLA TASV RLER Erken Bizans döneminin ilk yıllarında Hristiyanlı ın kabulüyle sanatsal anlayı ta Hristiyanlık ö retisini açıklayan dini tasvirler kullanılmaya ba lamı tır. Bu dönemde Tanrı'nın karakteri, sa'nın ilahi kimli ini ve Meryem'in kutsal bakireli ini vurgulama problemi ortaya çıkmı tır. Pagan kültlerin etkisi, konsül sonuçları ve bir takım bilimsel ara tırmaların Hristiyan felsefesi üzerindeki etkisi sonucu mandorla tasvirleri yüksek ilahi mesaj içeren bir tasvir olarak yorumlanmaya ba lamı tır. Orta Ça 'dan itibaren vesica piscis olarak bilinen ve geometrik açıdan bademe benzemesinden dolayı adını talyan dilindeki mandorla kelimesinden almı tır. Orta ve Geç Bizans döneminde farklı biçimlerle sık görülen bu tasvirin Erken Bizans döneminden önce Pagan ikonografilerinde kullanıldı ı anla ılmı tır. Pagan ikonografiden itibaren dini anlatılara uygun biçimde geli me gösteren mandorla, Erken Bizans döneminde mozaik, fresko ve ta ınabilir eserlerde kar ımıza çıkmı tır. Ula ılabilen ara tırmalarda dil birli inin olmadı ı fakat ça da ara tırmaların yo un olarak mandorla terimini kullandı ı tespit edilmi tir. Erken Bizans dönemine tarihlenen sanat eserleri üzerindeki mandorla tasvirlerini inceleyen kapsamlı bir çalı ma bugüne kadar yapılmamı tır. Bu nedenle mandorla tasvirinin kökenini ve Erken Bizans dönemine tarihlendirilen eser türleri üzerindeki mandorla tasvirlerini inceleyen detaylı bir katalog çalı ması yapılmı tır. Biçimsel özelliklerinin sundu u geometrik ekle göre sekiz farklı tip tespit edilmi tir. Tespit edilen tipler mandorlayı tanımlayan di er unsurlarla beraber incelenerek ikonografik açıklaması yapılmaya çalı ılmı ve dört farklı ikonografik anlam içerdi i tespit edilmi tir.

Based on the complex interrelations between word and image, the present paper aims to elucidate the penetrating correlation of the theological thought of the time with the art of a specific epoch. The findings of this study emphasize on the Hesychasm and its influence over Byzantine iconography in the fourteenth century AD, especially in relation to the formation of a new, unusual form of mandorla, called "hesychastic type". In order to explain its rise and further development in Byzantine and Post Byzantine iconography, the paper discusses the earliest extant patterns of the "hesychastic type" of mandorla from the very beginning of the century and compares them with several subsequent examples. The focal point of the research is to find out which one is the earliest known pattern of the "hesychastic type" of mandorla and the place where this type of the symbol has emerged. The generally shared view claims that the new form has been produced firstly in Thessaloniki and can be seen in the partially survived Transfiguration mosaics in the Holy Apostles Church there. However, this study proceeds from the assumption that the prime model originates from Constantinople, caused by the theological and artistic milieu in the metropolis and probably found its place first in the wall paintings of the Chora Church. In support of this hypothesis, we are going to pay particular attention to the evidences about the relationships between the first and the second city in the Empire, the obvious intervisuality between the iconographic models in both churches and to some data about the erroneous dating of the wall decorations of the Holy Apostles Church in Thessaloniki.

Here we propose a discussion about the "mandorla" or "vesica piscis". It is a type of 2-dimensional lens, that is, a geometric shape formed by the intersection of two circles with the same radius, intersecting in such a way that the centre of each circle lies on the perimeter of the other. The aim of the discussion is that of understanding when such a geometric shape became a symbol and when this symbol received a specific name. We will find that the name "mandorla" was used long before the term "vesica piscis", which is the Latin translation of the German "fischblosen" (fish-bladder) used by Albrecht Dürer in his book on geometry. Therefore, the name invented by Dürer was not used by the painter for a sacred form. However, after the middle of the nineteenth century the term "vesica piscis" exploded in literature. Its use was criticized and, at the same time, it was stressed that the proper term for the symbol is "mandorla".  Nonetheless, the "vesica piscis" continues to be largely used in the sacred geometry, which ascribes symbolic and sacred meanings to certain geometric shapes and proportions. In the proposed discussion, we will also show that, recently, the 2-dimensional lenticular symbol has been related to the Pythagorean philosophy. It is told that the followers of this philosophy had the habit of using an apple for symbolic communications. Sliced across, the core of the apple is displaying a pentagram, but sliced lengthwise it forms two intersecting circles, that is a "mandorla". Then, the investigation about terms and related uses of this specific geometric shape is the core of the matter of our discussion or, let us tell, the "core of the apple", in a Pythagorean-like approach to find how a German "fischblosen" evolved into a sacred symbol, thanks to a translation into Latin.

The present paper deals with the concept of sacred space as the dwelling place of God and an iconographic symbol for its visual representation. Since the idea about the otherworld as a realm of gods is common for almost all religions, there are only few symbols employed as visual denotations of the sacred space that have been used in the bigger part of the iconographic systems. The ancient radiant shapes around the figures of gods has turned into what is known today as an aureole, vesica piscis and mandorla, and has settled into the pictorial language of religions as the main visual expressions of the divine space where gods dwell.

Orthodox iconography is focused on the idea of representing the cosmos, the essence of God's creatio ex nihilo, thus serving as a visual cosmology and thence-as a cosmography of all being. Icons depict the image of the archetypal world in its integrity, unachievable for the limited human abilities, and are ontologically inseparable from this archetype. Therefore, iconography has been always related with the idea of representing the world trough symbolic images. In this context, it becomes a visual cosmology, and hence-a kind of cosmography of all being. Although not identical to cartography, Orthodox iconography creates symbolic images that can be interpreted as an image of the whole world – oikoumene. One particular example in this respect relates with the semantics and usage of mandorla symbol. In the Orthodox iconography, the mandorla has its function as a vision of Divine. It can be called even Imago Dei, expressing the invisible to the eyes and incomprehensible to the mind essence of God. However, in a number of iconographic scenes the image of God is related theologically and artistically with the cosmological perceptions of Christianity about the theocentricity of cosmos. Thus, mandorla as Imago Dei often plays the role of a symbolic Imago Mundi.

In this study we will try to present the iconographic tradition as a form of visual theology, though it is difficult to conceptualize what it used to be like in the immediate presence of God. The Transfiguration is one of the keys that can unlock the mystery of our eschatological fate, glorified body and the participation in the energies of God. All the ascetics who had the experience of the uncreated light or were transfigures themselves describe it in very similar way and connect it with the Transfiguration of Christ. It is only in later hesychasm that we are assured theologically that these experiences were in the body. Within this context, liturgical art and aesthetics differ from secular aesthetics, as being beyond the five senses and beyond the art itself. The Fathers, from Origen to John of Damascus, refer to Christ as the visible image and consubstantial icon of the Father. Icons were anything more than vessels of the grace of God and suggest the real presence of the grace of the depicted person. In the Old Testament, God denied the wish of anyone who asked to see him directly. The desire to see God was impossible before the Incarnation of Christ. The mosaic of the Transfiguration in St Catherine Monastery on Mount Sinai shows a completely glorified Christ with eight rays emanating from his body and introduces the luminous mandorla, a symbol that symbolizes the glory of God. The mandorla of the Sinai mosaic is oval, whereas the mandorla of the Rabbula Gospels is round. These two types express the glory of God in different way, highlighting the correspondence between theological concepts and the visual language. Mandorla expresses visually the Jewish concept of kabod, that connoted a more physical, concrete presence than the abstract meaning of δόξα. Certain scholars separate two main meanings of kabod: shekinah (from shakan, " to live in a tent " or simply " to dwell ") and yeqara (from yqr, the sensory splendor of light), in order to express this visual manifestation of the two natures of Christ. So, the oval mandorla corresponds with the luminous characterists of the kabod as yeqara. Here, the three concentric oval layers, increasingly dark, represent the depiction of the excessive divine light as the darkness of the incognoscibility of God, even in revelation. The round mandorla, on the other hand, represents the manifestation of the kabod-glory of God as shekinah/tabernacle. Here, the emphasis on the spatial rather than luminous nature of mandorla described the glimpse of the Trinity, as opposed to a less-historicized reading that emphasized the continuous splendor of Christ. The Transfiguration enjoyed a renewed interest in fourteenth-century theology, and, at the same time, a mysterious complex mandorla made its appearance, the so-called " hesychastic " mandorla (first appears in the churches of Mistras and in manuscripts of the ex-emperor and hesychastic monk, John Cantacuzenos). It consists of a geometric design as two superimposed concave squares (actually a square and a rhombus) inside a circle.

Based on the complex interrelations between word and image, present paper aims to elucidate penetrating correlation of the theological thought of the time with the art of a specific epoch. Accent is putted on the Hesychasm and its influence over Byzantine iconography in the fourteenth century AD, especially what concerns the formation of a new, unusual form of mandorla, called “hesychastic”. In order to explain its rise and further development in Byzantine and Post Byzantine iconography, we will discuss the earliest few patterns of “hesychastic mandorla” from the very beginning of the century and will compare them with several subsequent examples. Central point of our research will be to find out which one is the earliest known “hesychastic mandorla”, and where this type of mandorla has emerged. Generally shared view claims that the new form has been produced firstly in Thessaloniki, in the partially survived Transfiguration mosaic of the Holy Apostles Church. Here we will proceed from the assumption that the prime model originates from Constantinople, caused by the theological and artistic milieu in the metropolis and probably found its place first in the wall paintings of the Chora Church. In order to support this hypothesis we will pay special attention to the relationships between the first and the second city in the Empire, we will discuss intervisuality between the iconographic models in both churches and will try to propound a new interpretation of the timing of the wall decorations in the Holy Apostles Church.

Key words: Hesychasm, Hesychastic mandorla, Transfiguration, Holy Apostles Church, Chora Church