Ars: časopis Ústavu Dejín Umenia Slovenskej Akadémie Vied (44.2011)

Notes on the Visual Topič of Medieval Pictures of Martyrdom in Slovakia


The article offers a brief review of the ideas as-
sociated in older and more recent literatuře with the
repeated compositions and modfs of martyrdom, the
original understanding of them and their historical
functions. The hrst part considers general ideas,
while the second part is more directly concerned
with visual analysis of the pictures.
The Christian understanding of martyrdom con-
tinued older traditions, but also had a special charac-
ter as the most perfect of acts of virtue, as something
that shows perfect love (Thomas Aquinas). It stands
out as the extreme case and orientation point of
Christian existence. Pictures of martyrdom provided
examples of perseverance in faith, which aroused the
sympathy of believers. The victory of evil over the
martyrs sharply contrasts with the scenes in which
saints were able to protéct the victims of injustice.
The psychological and social functionality of ir-
rationality is based on providing hope of victory over
death. The attitude of the Church to the legends of
martyrs is rather ambiguous. The more sober Church
dignitaries attempted to free the rieh folk tradition
front improbably irrational éléments, but they never
succeeded in convincing the wider mass of believers
to accept a rationalist approach. The popularity of
fantastic stories, rooted in the early developmental
stages of the human psyché, was constantly renewed
in spite of critical and sceptical voices.
The condemnation of the saint was usually mod-
elled on the condemnation of Christ as described
in the Gospels and depicted in numerous pictorial
cycles. Use of the same motifs and compositional
schemes was chiefty motivated by an effort to express
sanctity. Analysis of paintings devoted to this theme
is faced with a wide complex of questions. For ex-
ample: what cultural norms, models and ideas did the
pictures represent? What values are associated with
them? How did they see the action of the figures?
What was the role of the body and corporeality?
The struggle against idolatry often appears m the
context of the condemnation of martyrs. According

to Tertullian, idolatry is the "rAf/* rGw o/ A<?
From this point of view, the picture of the
saint who destroys idols meant a paradoxical reversai
of the legal state prevailing in the picture. In the
eyes of Christians, the criminal is not condemned,
but the judge. In a society based on faith, this type
of scene could never lose its signihcance mainly
because it provided a radical example of the defence
of Christian doctrine.
Pictures of female saints resisting the enticing
offers of rulers in the name of faithfulness to their
heavenly bridegroom sometimes acquired motifs
and details with a possiblv erotic meaning in addition
to the usual emphasis on the similarities between
the martyr and Christ. The perception of nudity is
culturally coded. It is questionable how far erotic
associations are relevant to the original perception
of the pictures, which oriented the création of the
viewers' mental images in a different direction. It is
probable that under pressure from this situation, at
least the conscious éléments of viewers' imagination
took a different direction. If a picture aroused desires
in some viewers, the culture of their surroundings
did not permit such feeüngs, and people would keep
them secret, perhaps even from themselves.
Many cycles include pictures of the body tor-
mented by instruments of torture. The body ex-
posed in the centre of the composition addresses
the viewer with a multiple emotional message. It
appeals for personal sacrifice, evokes sympathy and
may also have erotic associations. When considering
the reactions of viewers to the image of a tortured
body, it is necessary to take into account various
possible interprétations from a distant approach to
the body as an object, through dialogue to identifica-
tion. When interpretmg these and similar images, it
may be meaningful to apply the traditional concept
of catharsis in addition to modem terms. It evokes
less suspicion of anachronism than rétrospective
use of modem conceptions. The tortured person
remains faithful to his or her truth. The ruler may

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