how Mandylion (“Holy Face”) Icon do fulfill the devotional functions of an icon as a material mediation of sacred presence

 how Mandylion (“Holy Face”) Icon do fulfill the devotional functions of an icon as a material mediation of sacred presence

Immediately after Jesus death, Byzantine art and early Christian began. Between the first century and the end of the fourth century AD, Christianity was a cult rather than a formal religion; hence, the generated art during this time was secretive. During this period, Romans in Europe persecuted Christians, making the artists design their work with hints and symbols portraying Christian aspects. Christianity became the first cult that did not carry out rituals of sacrifice of animals and declined to worship an emperor resulting in the Roman Empire, declaring Christianity illegal. This accelerated the creation of Byzantine art to communicate a message to Romans regarding Christianity. Mandylion (“Holy Face”) Icon with Oklad, Russian, and 19th century has religious themes that were inspired by Byzantine tradition and Russian art. This implies that tradition emanates from God, who created human beings as social animals who inherited culture, language, and religion, which is transferred from one generation to another. In this paper, the analysis of Mandylion (“Holy Face”) Icon with Oklad would be done regarding its conformation or difference with Byzantine tradition in terms of style, iconography, and format. The paper would be concluded by highlighting how Mandylion (“Holy Face”) Icon do fulfill the devotional functions of an icon as a material mediation of sacred presence.

The Icon of the Holy Face is Slavic in origin, and it is inscribed in the image of the Lord. The existence of contacts among Slavic countries and Rome enabled the icon to arrive in Rome during the 19th century. The figure is put on the gold background that brings out the haloed head of Christ vividly. The Icon has painted a veil that consists of red lines forming a network that is cross-decorated with lozenges and stylized fleurons. The Holy Face Icon conformed to Byzantine tradition in that it was decorated and inscribed with various ornament and figural imagery in paint together with relief sculpture. However, Holy Face Icon differs from the Byzantine tradition in that the cloth utilized in it is completely taut and consists only fringes along the lower edge. Icon of Byzantine tradition represents the head of Christ on a piece of hung cloth that has creases. Therefore, we can conclude that the Holy Face Icon represents the image of Edessa as much as some of its features conforms to Byzantine tradition.

Holy Face Icon is a unique iconography, as it brings out the face of Christ vividly from a piece of cloth. It belongs to the images destined to show the power of Christ in healing sickness and raising people from death. Holy Face Icon portrayed the power of Jesus Christ in healing people suffering from serious illness if they believed in him. According to (), Jesus Christ was unable to fulfill an invitation of King Abgar to heal him at Edessa, hence sent an imprint of his face on a piece of cloth to give King Abgar the satisfaction of Christ’s wish to heal him. This implies that Jesus Christ Himself agreed His face to be represented in human form. Therefore, the Holy Face Icon image becomes a miraculous one and belongs to the ranks of the acheiropoietic. Similarly, Byzantine tradition entailed believing in the image that showed Christ. The designed Icons in the Byzantine tradition communicated theological concepts and conformed to images that were accepted to uphold Christ’s power of healing. Thus, beliefs and religious practices define the functions and appearance of icons. The worth noting concept of iconography from the comparison of Holy Face Icon to Byzantine is that too much relying on religious concepts limits one to understand the functions of icons in daily life. For instance, the existence of the difference between the Holy Face Icon with Byzantine is not much because both describe the art based on religion.

The curative and apotropaic qualities of the Holy face Icon gave the empire protection concerning securing its political and military events. For example, () highlights the image of Edessa that protected the city during the Persian siege in 544. On the contrary, the Byzantine tradition held the view of images portraying the Christianity message. The prototype and Holy Face Icon have unstable relationships, which is controlled by Byzantine theologians. Artists in designing Mandylion (“Holy Face”) Icon utilized symbols of Christianity to celebrate the religion they believed in. This is similar to the Byzantine tradition that embraced Christianity and made it a cult. The symbols portrayed different meanings that encouraged people to promote Christianity. For instance, a piece of garland showed victory over death, while a nude figure meant Christmas. Christian subject matter and Roman-style were employed in designing and generating Holy Face Icon. The artists utilized the Roman style because they had been taught about it. However, the artists incorporated Christian subject matter. Unlike the Holy Face Icon, Byzantine tradition art focused on the soul and not the body.

Holly Face Icon establishes a connection with the viewer as a mediator of the sacred through reliquaries and revetments. Reliquaries and revetments in the Holly Face Icon can conceal and reveal the artifact of ornament and inscriptions. In addition, they increase the desire for the body part to move close and feel connected or increase the visual appeal and complexity of the sacred artifact. This implies that Mandylion (“Holy Face”) fulfills the devotional functions of an icon.

Conclusion

The findings from the research above reveal that as much as Holy Face Icon conforms to Byzantine tradition, there exist differences too regarding format, style, and iconography. Holy Face icon emanates from Slavic material and brings out the image of Christ vividly, making it a unique iconography. The Roman-style was utilized in the Holy Face icon, as artists knew about but incorporated the message of Christianity. Reliquaries and revetments in the Holy Face icon enabled the connection of the viewer to the sacred.