Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (15.1974)

Tadeusz Dobrzeniecki

MAIESTAS CRUCIS
IN THE MURAL PAINTINGS OF THE FARAS CATHEDRAL
(NOW IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM IN WARSAW)
SOME ICONOGRAPHICAL NOTES

The recent discoveries of mural paintings in Nubia, especially the most important of them
in the Cathedral in Faras have been of great interest for the archaeologists as we'I as the his-
torians of art of this area. These valuable paintings present also many attractive iconographical
problems1.

Maiestas Domini is an image of Christ in glory, which was used first in the apses of churches
in the Christian world. It was formed under the influence of liturgy as a pictorial counterpart
of the transcendental content of the Christological mystery of Revelation (Theophany) as
well as the presence of Christ in Eucharistic offering.

In the Early Christian art representations were also known of the triumphal Cross, conceived
as a variant of the image of Maiestas Domini (replacing of the figurę of Christ by the sign of
the Cross). In the West this Maiestas Crucis appears in the manuscripts and bindings of the
Gospels and then on the other liturgical objects. In the churches of Nubia this image appears
in monumental mural compositions what constitutes an evidence of the non-liturgical cult
of the Cross. The iconographical program of Maiestas Crucis was based on the definition of
the Cross worded by Irenaeus of Lyon (f ca 202): "Et ipse habitus crucis fines et summitates
habet ąuinąue, duos in longitudine et duos in latitudine, et unum in medio, in quo reąuiescit qui
clavis affigilur." In this definition the Cross is connected with the idea of the bloody sacrifice
of Christ as an instrument of the Passion (= crux passionis) and, at the same time, it is a symbol
of the theophany of Christ (crux gloriaej. The symbolism and iconography of the Cross resulted
from the fact that the theologians have transferred the idea of the all-embracing Creator to
the person of Christ; this occurred in the Prologue of the Gospel of St John and in the Epistles
of St Paul. In the exegesis of John the incarnate creative Logos — Christ embraces in Himself
all creature2 and in the texts of St Paul the cosmos is repaired in the body of Christ3.

The Early Christian art visualized this double aspect of the doctrine in the image of Christ
crucified and embracing the whole world4. In this act the cosmic symbolism of the Cross, this
instrument of the Passion installed in the centrę of the world, was introduced as well as that
of the heavenly Cross, which is the scaffolding of the axis of the world5. The exegetic union
of the Cross and the cosmos refers to the formuła of St Paul in the Epistle to Ephesians: "...ut
possitis comprehendere cum omnibus sanctis, quae sit latitudo et longiludo et sublimilas et pro-
fundum"*.

1. For the ampler discussion of thcse problems see my article under the same title in the Rocznik Muzeum Narodoweg o w War
szawie, XVIII, 1974, p. 215—308.

2. John I, 1—18; R. Schnackenburg, Das Johannesetangclium. I. Einleitung und Kommentar zu Kap. 1—4, Freiburg, 1967,
p. 197—207: Einfiihrung in der Prolog, p. 257—290: Herkunft und Eigenart des johanneischen Logos-Begriffes.

3. Ad Colossenses I, 16—20; see L. Cerfaux, Le Christ dans la thćologie dc Sani Paul, Paris, 1951.

4. G. A. Maloney, SJ., The Cosmic Christ. From Paul to Teilhard, New York, 1968, in the chaptcrs III and IV deals with
the cosmic Christology of Greek Fathers before and after the CounciI of Niceu (with bibl.).

5. Ph. Rech, Inbild des Kosmos. Eine Symbolik der Schópfung, I, Salzburg 1966, p. 475—548: III Kreuz und Kosmos 1.
Weltmitte und Weltgestalt, 2. Weltachse und Himmelsleiter.

6. Ad Ephesios, III, 18; J. Danielou, ThMogie du ludio-Christianisme, Paris — New York — R orne, 1958, p. 199—315:
Mysterium Crucis 1. La croix de gloire. La typologie de la croix. La croix cosmique.

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