DOI article:
Dąb-Kalinowska, Barbara: Ikonowa rzeczywistość
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19644#0336
shows a transfigured world. Furthermore, it is not historical reality nor a resemblance to the archetype that creates
an icon. To use Palamas' words, the icon should show man in the process of divinization. That is why the physical,
bodily world of the icon is dematerialized, timeless and extramundane. It is a reality which is constant and
unchanged, a reality which reflects the metaphysical character of icons. The constancy of iconographie types serves
to emphasize the special character of the icon. The events depicted on icons are, therefore, simultaneously real,
lasting and beyond empirical understanding. In order that it present an Evangelical realism, the icon cannot show
anything in symbolic terms. The only symbol that is acceptable in iconic art is the real symbol, originating from
a symbolic perception of the world as a tangible symbol of everlasting divine reality, divine energies. Palamas
explicitly warned against introducing into the art of painting icons any elements based on abstract and empirical
reasoning, for they —just as philosophy and the secular sciences — permitted only a partial cognizance of things
divine.
Thanks to Hesychast doctrine, icon painting defended the synergism between God and Man. Palamite beliefs,
expressed in their meditations on the light of Tabor, presented the possibility of carnally perceiving and
contemplating divine energies through the mediation of icons, which were at the same time a testimony to this unity.
The dogma of the divinization of man became the principal "meaning" of the icon. In recognizing Palamite doctrine
as the official doctrine of the Orthodox faith, the Orthodox Church defined quite strictly the limits which art could
not transgress to remain still the art of the Church.
an icon. To use Palamas' words, the icon should show man in the process of divinization. That is why the physical,
bodily world of the icon is dematerialized, timeless and extramundane. It is a reality which is constant and
unchanged, a reality which reflects the metaphysical character of icons. The constancy of iconographie types serves
to emphasize the special character of the icon. The events depicted on icons are, therefore, simultaneously real,
lasting and beyond empirical understanding. In order that it present an Evangelical realism, the icon cannot show
anything in symbolic terms. The only symbol that is acceptable in iconic art is the real symbol, originating from
a symbolic perception of the world as a tangible symbol of everlasting divine reality, divine energies. Palamas
explicitly warned against introducing into the art of painting icons any elements based on abstract and empirical
reasoning, for they —just as philosophy and the secular sciences — permitted only a partial cognizance of things
divine.
Thanks to Hesychast doctrine, icon painting defended the synergism between God and Man. Palamite beliefs,
expressed in their meditations on the light of Tabor, presented the possibility of carnally perceiving and
contemplating divine energies through the mediation of icons, which were at the same time a testimony to this unity.
The dogma of the divinization of man became the principal "meaning" of the icon. In recognizing Palamite doctrine
as the official doctrine of the Orthodox faith, the Orthodox Church defined quite strictly the limits which art could
not transgress to remain still the art of the Church.