BALKAN SAINTS - Mirjana Detelić

43
THE ICON IN CONTEXT: ITS FUNCTIONAL ADAPTABILITY
IN MEDIEVAL SERBIA
Branislav Cvetković
Regional Museum, Jagodina (Serbia)
Abstract: The role of icons has always been a major issue for art historians and
Byzantinists. 2 Research has demonstrated that sacred imagery played a large
role in the devotional and ideological concepts of Byzantium and its neighbours,
including Serbia. Following the sequence of icon-prayer-salvation, medieval
people regarded icons as mystical intermediaries between them and the
supernatural. As such, sacred images could acquire various benefits for the
faithful through intercession of carefully chosen saints (Bakalova 2001, 130).
Although portraits of the holy persons were not to be used simply as magic
tools, they could perform miracles proving that the power of God was close and
effective. Sacred images were thus widely seen as remedies against the evil and corrupt
in general. However, dualism in the usage of icons has constantly been – and still is –
found among Orthodox Christians, revealing different human approaches to religion,
one canonical and another superstitious. The correct understanding and use of an icon
entirely depended on firm theological grounds: the Incarnation dogma and theories that
emerged during the period of Iconoclasm. According to learned commentators
interpreting the nature of holy images, icons ought not to be worshipped as objects. On
the contrary, it was the holy prototype that was to receive one‟s prayer. Conversely, the
icons were thought of as windows into Heaven, mirroring the images of the holy, and
were therefore intended to transport the image of the holy prototype, elevate the soul of
the beholder, and provide direct access towards Divine mercy on behalf of the believer,
regardless of their social status. 3
2 This article is the final version of a paper given at the international conference, „The intertwining of
cultural influences: Medieval and baroque art from Budapest to Kotor,‟ at University College, London,
April 7-8, 2001.
3 More recent studies on icons include R. Cormack, Writing in Gold: Byzantine Society and its Icons,
London 1985; G. Babić, „Il modelo e la replica nell‟arte bizantine delle icone‟, Arte Christiana 86, fasc.
724 (1988), 61-78; Holy Image, Holy Space, ed. G. Vikan, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore 1988; D.
Freedberg, The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response, Chicago 1989; R. S.
Nelson, „The Discourse of Icons, Then and Now‟, Art History 12 (1989), 144-57; J. Pelikan, Imago Dei:
The Byzantine Apologia for Icon, Princeton 1990; M. Barasch, Icon: Studies in the History of an Idea, New
York 1992; A. Weyl Carr, „Originality and the Portable Icon‟, in Originality in Byzantine Literature, Art
and Music, ed. A. Littlewood, Oxford 1995, 115-24; The Sacred Image East and West, ed. R. Ousterhout
and L. Brubaker, Chicago and Urbana 1995; H. Maguire, The Icons of Their Bodies. Saints and Their
Images in Byzantium, Princeton 1996; R. Cormack, Painting the Soul: Icons, Death Masks and Shrouds,
London 1997; A. Karstonis, „The Responding Icon‟, in Heaven on Earth. Art and Culture in Byzantium, ed.
L. Safran, University Park PA 1998, 58-80. Also see G. Podskalsky, R. Stichel, A. Weyl Carr, „Icons‟, in
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 2, New York-Oxford 1991, 977-81; B. Todić, „Ikona‟, in Leksikon
srpskog srednjeg veka, Beograd 1999, 252.