DOI issue:
Nr. 1-2
DOI article:Dobrzeniecki, Tadeusz: Imago Pietatis: its meaning and function
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18819#0011
Tadeusz Dobrzeniecki
IMAGO PIETATIS. ITS MEANING AND FUNCTION
The image of Sorrowful Christ with the signs of the already accomplished Cross sacrifice was
wellknownin the Eastern1 and Western2 Christianworld. The Greeks calledit rj axqa ranEivwaię
rov Xyiarov3 and the Latins—Imago Pietatis.1
Students of this subject have been interested mainly in the origins and emergence of the repre-
sentation in the Byzantine art5 while its further development, sińce the XIIIth century on, in the
Latin West has arisen less attention.6
It was Italian art that first took this Byzantine type making use of it with a certain conser-
vatism and, thus, handed it over across the Alps.7 Here,in Northern countries, this new represen-
tational type rapidly evolved — to be enriched as far as its content and form is concerned8 — into
an equivalent picture of half or full-figure of Sorrowful Christ.0
The present article is intended to discuss briefly the problem which has been often neglected by
the historians of art. It brings to light basie literary sources of this image inchided in the Apostolic
catechesis, mostly that of St PauTs and St John's (the Gospel, the Epistles, the Apocalypse). Some
effeetive influence of these texts is attested by the works of art, in which the pictorial represen-
tation is accompanied with inscriptions contrihuting to its dogmatic, mainly Eucharistic,10
content and explaining its meaning and function as well.11
The lost icon of Sorrowful Christ used in the liturgy of Holy Saturday in Hagia Sophia in Con-
stantinople was called t] axQa ranswcoaię The source of this title is to be found in the
Pourth Canticle on Suffering Servant of Jahve (Ebed Jahve) in Isaiah LII, 13 — LIII, 12,
extolling the humiliation (= ra7isivtoaię)13 of this sorrowful man, which later brought about
his elevation.13
The Suffering Servant was not beautiful: ,,he has no form, nor comeliness... there is no beauty
that we should desire him" (non esł species ei neąue decor); only suffering was his: „he is des-
pised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief... he was despised
and we esteem him not " (ridimus eum despectum... vitum dolorum), he was killed for sins of
people: ,,he was opressed and he was afflicted... the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us
all" (oblatus est quia ipse voluit); he voluntarily took upon himself all sufferings and supported
them obediently: „he opened nothis mouth" (nonaperuit os suum). The obedience and the deepest
humiliation of the Servant is emphatically expressed by a metaphor of a lamb that being brought
to the slaughter does not resist but goes on obediently.
Christian tradition sińce its very beginnings has read in this Canticle of Isaiah the prophecy
on Christ-the Servant of God.14 An important evidence of such an interpretation is the hymn
on the humility of Jesus, having been inserted by St Paul into his Epistle to the Philippians
(II, 6—ll).15 Already Patristic exegesis perceived a verbal and formal dependeuce of this hymn
on the Canticle of Isaiah on the Suffering Servant.1G
For our furlher considerations it is worth recalling here two strophes of Pauline hymn, the
second and the third one. The first of them concerns the Sotcriological humiliation of Christ:
,,(he) made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, and was madę
in the likeness of men" (cf. Is. LIII, 3; Semetipsum exinanivit formam servi accipiens, in simi-
litudinem hominum factus et habitu inventus ul homo). Jesus destituted himself of Divine majesty
5
IMAGO PIETATIS. ITS MEANING AND FUNCTION
The image of Sorrowful Christ with the signs of the already accomplished Cross sacrifice was
wellknownin the Eastern1 and Western2 Christianworld. The Greeks calledit rj axqa ranEivwaię
rov Xyiarov3 and the Latins—Imago Pietatis.1
Students of this subject have been interested mainly in the origins and emergence of the repre-
sentation in the Byzantine art5 while its further development, sińce the XIIIth century on, in the
Latin West has arisen less attention.6
It was Italian art that first took this Byzantine type making use of it with a certain conser-
vatism and, thus, handed it over across the Alps.7 Here,in Northern countries, this new represen-
tational type rapidly evolved — to be enriched as far as its content and form is concerned8 — into
an equivalent picture of half or full-figure of Sorrowful Christ.0
The present article is intended to discuss briefly the problem which has been often neglected by
the historians of art. It brings to light basie literary sources of this image inchided in the Apostolic
catechesis, mostly that of St PauTs and St John's (the Gospel, the Epistles, the Apocalypse). Some
effeetive influence of these texts is attested by the works of art, in which the pictorial represen-
tation is accompanied with inscriptions contrihuting to its dogmatic, mainly Eucharistic,10
content and explaining its meaning and function as well.11
The lost icon of Sorrowful Christ used in the liturgy of Holy Saturday in Hagia Sophia in Con-
stantinople was called t] axQa ranswcoaię The source of this title is to be found in the
Pourth Canticle on Suffering Servant of Jahve (Ebed Jahve) in Isaiah LII, 13 — LIII, 12,
extolling the humiliation (= ra7isivtoaię)13 of this sorrowful man, which later brought about
his elevation.13
The Suffering Servant was not beautiful: ,,he has no form, nor comeliness... there is no beauty
that we should desire him" (non esł species ei neąue decor); only suffering was his: „he is des-
pised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief... he was despised
and we esteem him not " (ridimus eum despectum... vitum dolorum), he was killed for sins of
people: ,,he was opressed and he was afflicted... the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us
all" (oblatus est quia ipse voluit); he voluntarily took upon himself all sufferings and supported
them obediently: „he opened nothis mouth" (nonaperuit os suum). The obedience and the deepest
humiliation of the Servant is emphatically expressed by a metaphor of a lamb that being brought
to the slaughter does not resist but goes on obediently.
Christian tradition sińce its very beginnings has read in this Canticle of Isaiah the prophecy
on Christ-the Servant of God.14 An important evidence of such an interpretation is the hymn
on the humility of Jesus, having been inserted by St Paul into his Epistle to the Philippians
(II, 6—ll).15 Already Patristic exegesis perceived a verbal and formal dependeuce of this hymn
on the Canticle of Isaiah on the Suffering Servant.1G
For our furlher considerations it is worth recalling here two strophes of Pauline hymn, the
second and the third one. The first of them concerns the Sotcriological humiliation of Christ:
,,(he) made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, and was madę
in the likeness of men" (cf. Is. LIII, 3; Semetipsum exinanivit formam servi accipiens, in simi-
litudinem hominum factus et habitu inventus ul homo). Jesus destituted himself of Divine majesty
5