Post by Tamrin on Aug 2, 2008 20:25:07 GMT 10
A Vast, Immeasurable Sanctuary:
Iconography for Churches
by David T. Mayernik, The Institute for Sacred Architecture
(Excerpt)
Iconography for Churches
by David T. Mayernik, The Institute for Sacred Architecture
(Excerpt)
The subject of iconography, the creation or study of images with specific narrative or symbolic intent, raises complex aesthetic and philosophical questions for the modern world about the universal legibility of pictorial messages. Are symbols cross-cultural or temporal? Should messages be conveyed by realist, idealized, or abstract art? What messages can we all agree on? This complexity has virtually precluded iconography’s relevance to modernist art. But in classical art, and especially in the art of the Church, it has never lost its relevance, because the messages conveyed in religious pictures speak the same messages that have been proclaimed from the pulpit for almost two thousand years.
In any discussion of creating iconographic images for Catholic church buildings, it is first important to understand what it is that architecture can not do that painting and sculpture can. A helpful analogy might be that architecture is to music as painting and sculpture are to words: like music, architecture can be “affective,” conveying general emotive or spiritual states: solemn, joyful, serene, inspiring. It can also, like music, be stretched to convey certain figurative/anthropomorphic impressions. Paradigmatically for churches, the Latin cross plan not only alludes to the cross but to Christ crucified. The classical orders rhythmically structure space, and each can suggest a male or female reading (ideally the dedication saint of the church). But architecture by itself can not convey specific narrative or allegorical messages. Only the human figure (the timeless, universal narrative “sign”), and a commonly understood symbolic language, can tell a story visually or represent specific characters or ideas.
In any discussion of creating iconographic images for Catholic church buildings, it is first important to understand what it is that architecture can not do that painting and sculpture can. A helpful analogy might be that architecture is to music as painting and sculpture are to words: like music, architecture can be “affective,” conveying general emotive or spiritual states: solemn, joyful, serene, inspiring. It can also, like music, be stretched to convey certain figurative/anthropomorphic impressions. Paradigmatically for churches, the Latin cross plan not only alludes to the cross but to Christ crucified. The classical orders rhythmically structure space, and each can suggest a male or female reading (ideally the dedication saint of the church). But architecture by itself can not convey specific narrative or allegorical messages. Only the human figure (the timeless, universal narrative “sign”), and a commonly understood symbolic language, can tell a story visually or represent specific characters or ideas.