The Discovery of Hierotopy

  • A. Simsky Research Center for Eastern Christian Culture, Leuven, Belgium
Ключевые слова: hierotopy, icon, sacred space, Byzantium, Lidov, relic, performativity, atmosphere, image-paradigm

Аннотация

This paper outlines the genesis of hierotopy, a notion serving to conceptualize the creation of sacred spaces as a particular form of human art. The concept encompasses the entirety of the multifarious components employed in Byzantine sacred spaces and analyzes the ways in which their cooperative interaction results in the formation of a ‘spatial icon’, or a kind of sacred ambiance. The very notion of a ‘spatial icon’ draws upon the central place of icons and iconicity in the Eastern Christian worldview. In Byzantium, icons were seen as windows opening out onto an otherworldly reality, or, rather, as doors opening up a two-way communication; in this way, the icon was understood as a means or a place, of immediate contact with the divine, or a sort of platonic chora, in which ideal divine forms assimilated material contours. Within the context of a sacred space, the icon appeared not only as a principal meaning-making agent, but also as a conceptual key for understanding the way in which other components, as well as the sacred space as a whole, effectively worked; each component was thus understood and experienced as being ‘iconic’, or icon-like, in the sense of providing other points (or, rather, spaces) of contact between the earthly and the divine. As this paper recounts, Alexei Lidov made his first steps towards forging the concept of hierotopy while studying the design, as well as the perception, of Byzantine iconographic programs; as his studies revealed, icons acted not simply as images, but also with the full deployment of their wonder-working potential evincing a powerful expression of religious meaning, particularly when purposefully employed together with wonder-working relics. Lidov’s next step was to realize the fully performative nature of spatial icons by taking into account the crucial role played by the surrounding liturgical context, in which each beholder, or liturgical participant, played an active role in giving life to the spatial icon. Hierotopy was thus discovered (and formally defined) as a special form of art involving the performative creation of spatial icons. The paper also discusses the concept of ‘image-paradigms’ as multimodal units of meaning within sacred spaces, or as compound mental constructs combining together dogmatic ideas, imagery and holistic emotive components (so-called atmospheres).

Биография автора

A. Simsky, Research Center for Eastern Christian Culture, Leuven, Belgium

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34680/vistheo-2020-1-9-28

Andrew Simsky
Research Center for Eastern Christian Culture, Leuven, Belgium
andrew_simsky@mail.ru 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0902-3634

Abstract
This paper outlines the genesis of hierotopy, a notion serving to conceptualize the creation of sacred spaces as a particular form of human art. The concept encompasses the entirety of the multifarious components employed in Byzantine sacred spaces and analyzes the ways in which their cooperative interaction results in the formation of a ‘spatial icon’, or a kind of sacred ambiance. The very notion of a ‘spatial icon’ draws upon the central place of icons and iconicity in the Eastern Christian worldview. In Byzantium, icons were seen as windows opening out onto an otherworldly reality, or, rather, as doors opening up a two-way communication; in this way, the icon was understood as a means or a place, of immediate contact with the divine, or a sort of platonic chora, in which ideal divine forms assimilated material contours. Within the context of a sacred space, the icon appeared not only as a principal meaning-making agent, but also as a conceptual key for understanding the way in which other components, as well as the sacred space as a whole, effectively worked; each component was thus understood and experienced as being ‘iconic’, or icon-like, in the sense of providing other points (or, rather, spaces) of contact between the earthly and the divine. As this paper recounts, Alexei Lidov made his first steps towards forging the concept of hierotopy while studying the design, as well as the perception, of Byzantine iconographic programs; as his studies revealed, icons acted not simply as images, but also with the full deployment of their wonder-working potential evincing a powerful expression of religious meaning, particularly when purposefully employed together with wonder-working relics. Lidov’s next step was to realize the fully performative nature of spatial icons by taking into account the crucial role played by the surrounding liturgical context, in which each beholder, or liturgical participant, played an active role in giving life to the spatial icon. Hierotopy was thus discovered (and formally defined) as a special form of art involving the performative creation of spatial icons. The paper also discusses the concept of ‘image-paradigms’ as multimodal units of meaning within sacred spaces, or as compound mental constructs combining together dogmatic ideas, imagery and holistic emotive components (so-called atmospheres).

Keywords: hierotopy, icon, sacred space, Byzantium, Lidov, relic, performativity, atmosphere, image-paradigm

References

Avanesov 2017 – Avanesov S. S. The Iconic Worldview. Icon in Russian Literature and Culture. Ed. by V. V. Lepahin. Moscow, 2017. P. 5–10. In Russian.

Bacci 2016 – Bacci M. Sacred Spaces vs Holy Sites: On the Limits and Advantages of a Hierotopic Approach. Icons of Space, Icons in Space, Iconography or Hierotopy? International Congress of Byzantine Studies. Belgrade, August 2016. P. 9–16. URL: http://hierotopy.ru/contents/LidovIconsOfSpaceRTcongress2016.PDF.

Bakalova 2017 – Bakalova E. The Miraculous Icon-Reliquary of Rila Monastery and the Ritual of the Consecration (Blessing) of Water (Evoking the Constantinopolitan Rituals?). Holy Water in the Hierotopy and Iconography of the Christian World. Ed. By A. Lidov. Moscow, 2017. P. 296–318.

Belting 1994 – Belting H. Likeness and Presence. A History of Image before the Era of Art. Transl. into English by Edmund Jephcott. Chicago, London, 1994.

Böhme 2017 – Böhme G. The Aesthetics of Atmospheres. Ed. by Jean-Paul Thibaud. London, 2017.

Eliade 1957 – Eliade M. The Sacred and the Prophane. The Nature of Religion. Orlando, 1957.

Freedberg 1989 – Freedberg D. The Power of Images. Studies in the History and Theory of Response. Chicago, London, 1989.

Gell 1998 – Gell A. Art and Agency. An Anthropological Theory. Oxford, 1998.

Isar 2006 – Isar N. Chorography – a Performative Paradigm of Creation of Sacred Space in Byzantium. Hierotopy. Creation of Sacred Spaces in Byzantium and Medieval Russia. Ed. by A. Lidov. Moscow, 2006. P. 59–90.

Isar 2011 – Isar N. Χορός: The Dance of Adam. The Making of Byzantine Chorography. The Anthropology of the Choir of Dance in Byzantium. Leiden, 2011.

Lepahin 2002 – Lepahin V. V. Icons and Iconicity. St. Petersburg, 2002. In Russian.

Lidov 1992 – Lidov A. Constantinopolitan Hodegetria. Wonder-working Icons in Eastern Christian Culture. Moscow, 1992. In Russian.

Lidov 1996 a – Miracle-working Icon in Byzantium and Old Rus. Ed. by A. Lidov. Moscow, 1996. In Russian.

Lidov 1996 b – Lidov A. Miracle-working Icons in Church Decoration: On the Symbolic Programme of the Royal Doors of St. Sophia at Constantinople. Miracle-working Icon in Byzantium and Old Rus. Moscow, 1996. P. 44–75. In Russian.

Lidov 1998 – Lidov A. Heavenly Jerusalem. The Byzantine Approach. Jewish Art. Jerusalem, 1998. P. 340–353.

Lidov 2003 – Eastern Christian Relics. Ed. by A. Lidov. Moscow, 2003.

Lidov 2006 a – Lidov A. The Creation of Sacred Spaces as a Form of Creativity and Subject of Cultural History. Hierotopy. Creation of Sacred Spaces in Byzantium and Medieval Russia. Ed. by A. Lidov. Moscow, 2006. P. 32–58.

Lidov 2006 b – Lidov A. Spatial Icons. The Miraculous Performance with the Hodegetria of Constantinople. Hierotopy. Creation of Sacred Spaces in Byzantium and Medieval Russia. Ed. by A. Lidov. Moscow, 2006. P. 325–348. In Russian.

Lidov 2006 c – Relics in Byzantium and Medieval Russia. Written Sources. Ed. by A. Lidov. Moscow, 2006. In Russian.

Lidov 2009 a – Lidov A. Hierotopy. Spatial Icons and Image-Paradigms in Byzantine Culture. Moscow, 2009. In Russian.

Lidov 2009 b – Lidov A. ‘Image-Paradigms’ as a Category of Mediterranean Visual Culture. A Hierotopic Approach to Art History. Crossing Cultures. Papers of the 32nd International Congress in the History of Art. Melbourne, 2009. P. 148–153.

Lidov 2009 c – New Jerusalems. Hierotopy and Iconography of Sacred Spaces. Ed. by A. Lidov. Moscow, 2009.

Lidov 2014 a – Lidov A. The Icon. The World of the Holy Images in Byzantium and the Medieval Russia. Moscow, 2014. In Russian.

Lidov 2014 b – Lidov A. The Temple Veil as a Spatial Icon. Revealing an Image-Paradigm of Medieval Iconography and Hierotopy. IKON. 2014. 7. P. 97–108.

Lidov 2017 a – Lidov A. The Priesthood of the Virgin Mary as an Image-Paradigm of Christian Visual Culture. IKON. 2017. 10. P. 9–26.

Lidov 2017 b – Lidov A. Sacred Waters in Ecclesiastical Space. The Rivers of Paradise as an Image-Paradigm of Byzantine Hierotopy. Holy Water in the Hierotopy and Iconography of the Christian World. Ed. by A. Lidov. Moscow, 2017. P 159–183. In Russian.

Lidov 2019 – Lidov A. The Image-Paradigm of Holy Mount. The Ambo in the Hierotopy of the Byzantine Church. The Hierotopy of Holy Mountains in Christian Culture. Ed. by A. Lidov. Moscow, 2019. P. 149–157.

Pentcheva 2010 – Pentcheva B. V. The Sensual Icon: Space, Ritual, and the Senses in Byzantium. University Park (PA), 2010.

Simsky 2013 – Simsky A. The Image-Paradigm of the Divine Fire in the Bible and Christian Tradition. Hierotopy of Light and Fire in the Culture of the Byzantine World. Ed. by A. Lidov. Moscow, 2013. P. 45–81. In Russian.

Simsky 2016 a – Simsky A. Image-paradigms in Religious Culture. Interdisciplinary Researches of Culture. 2016. 8. P. 36–44. In Russian.

Simsky 2016 b – Simsky A. Image-paradigms in Hierotopy: Ontological and Functional Aspects. Diogenes’ Lantern: The Human Being in Diversity of Practice. 2016. Vol. 2. P. 355–374. In Russian.

Simsky 2018 a – Simsky A. Hierotopy as Principle and Instrument. ΠΡΑΞΗΜΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. 2 (16). P. 62–85. In Russian.

Simsky 2018 b – Simsky A. The Image-paradigm of Jerusalem in Christian Hierotopy. ΠΡΑΞΗΜΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. 3 (17). P. 101–113. In Russian.

Simsky 2018 c – Simsky A. Icons of Sacred Matter: The Interpretation of Dutch Golden Age Painting in the Light of Protestant Hierotopy. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Art Studies: Science, Experience, Education (ICASSEE 2018). Atlantis Press, 2018.
P. 307–314.

Simsky 2019 – Simsky A. The Birth of Hierotopy from the Spirit of the Icon. Space of the Icon. Iconography and Hierotopy. To the 60th anniversary of Alexei Lidov. Eds. M. Bacci, J. Bogdanović. Moscow, 2019. P. 22–40. In Russian.

Zagraevsky 2018 – Zagraevsky S. V. About Scientific Validity of Hierotopy. ΠΡΑΞΗΜΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. 1 (15). P. 49–69. In Russian.

About author

Andrew Simsky
Cand. Sci. (Physical and Mathematical Sciences), Research Fellow.
Research Center for Eastern Christian Culture, Leuven, Belgium.
E-mail: andrew_simsky@mail.ru

For citation:
Simsky A. The Discovery of Hierotopy. Journal of Visual Theology. 2020. 1. P. 9–28.
https://doi.org/10.34680/vistheo-2020-1-9-28

Опубликован
2020-06-26
Раздел
Статьи
Просмотров
608
Скачиваний
259