God the Father in Western art

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Christ, Pieter de Grebber, 1654. Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent. The orb, or the globe of the world, is almost exclusively associated with the Father in depictions of the Trinity.[1]

For about a thousand years, in obedience to interpretations of specific Bible passages, pictorial depictions of God in Western Christianity had been avoided by Christian artists. At first only the Hand of God, often emerging from a cloud, was portrayed. Gradually, portrayals of the head and later the whole figure were depicted, and by the time of the Renaissance artistic representations of God the Father were freely used in the Western Church.[2]

God the Father can be seen in some late Byzantine Cretan School icons, and ones from the borders of the Catholic and Orthodox worlds, under Western influence, but after the Russian Orthodox Church came down firmly against depicting him in 1667, he can hardly be seen in Russian art. Protestants generally disapprove of the depiction of God the Father, and originally did so strongly.

Background and early history

Early Christians believed that the words of Book of Exodus 33:20 "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see Me and live" and of the Gospel of John 1:18: "No man hath seen God at any time" were meant to apply not only to the Father, but to all attempts at the depiction of the Father.[3]

Ascension from the Drogo Sacramentary
, c. 850

The

bath Kol (literally "daughter of a voice") or voice of God,[4]
similar to Jewish depictions.

Historically considered, God the Father is more frequently manifested in the Old Testament, while the Son is manifested in the New Testament. Hence it might be said that the Old Testament refers more especially to the history of the Father and the New Testament to that of the Son. Yet, in early depictions of scenes from the Old Testament, artists used the conventional depiction of Jesus to represent the Father,[5] especially in depictions of the story of Adam and Eve, the most frequently depicted Old Testament narrative shown in Early Medieval art, and one that was felt to require the depiction of a figure of God "walking in the garden" (Genesis 3:8).

The account in

Creation to the single figure of God, in Christian terms, God the Father. However the first person plural in Genesis 1:26 "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness", and New Testament references to Christ as Creator (John 1:3, Colossians 1:15) led Early Christian writers to associate the Creation with the Logos, or pre-existing Christ, God the Son. From the 4th century the church was also keen to affirm the doctrine of consubstantiality confirmed in the Nicene Creed
of 325.

It was therefore usual to have depictions of Jesus as Logos taking the place of the Father and creating the world alone, or commanding Noah to construct the ark or speaking to Moses from the Burning bush.[6] There was also a brief period in the 4th century when the Trinity were depicted as three near-identical figures, mostly in depicting scenes from Genesis; the Dogmatic Sarcophagus in the Vatican is the best known example. In isolated cases this iconography is found throughout the Middle Ages, and revived somewhat from the 15th century, though it attracted increasing disapproval from church authorities. A variant is Enguerrand Quarton's contract for the Coronation of the Virgin requiring him to represent the Father and Son of the Holy Trinity as identical figures.[7]

One scholar has suggested that the enthroned figure in the centre of the apse mosaic of Santa Pudenziana in Rome of 390-420, normally regarded as Christ, in fact represents God the Father.[8]

In situations, such as the

Dura Europos synagogue, seems to have been borrowed from Jewish art
, and is found in Christian art almost from its beginnings.

The use of religious images in general continued to increase up to the end of the 7th century, to the point that in 695, upon assuming the throne,

Christ were preferred over Old Testament shadows and figures.[10]

The beginning of the 8th century witnessed the suppression and destruction of religious icons as the period of

Byzantine iconoclasm (literally image-breaking) started. Emperor Leo III (717–741) suppressed the use of icons by imperial edict, presumably due to a military loss which he attributed to the undue veneration of icons.[11] The edict, which the emperor issued without consulting the Church, forbade the veneration of religious images but did not apply to other forms of art, including the image of the emperor, or religious symbols such as the cross.[12] Theological arguments against icons then began to appear with iconoclasts
arguing that icons could not represent both the divine and the human natures of Jesus at the same time. In this atmosphere, no public depictions of God the Father were even attempted and such depictions only began to appear two centuries later.

The end of iconoclasm

Virgin Mary and Jesus, Westphalia
, Germany, late 15th century.

The

Byzantine iconoclasm and restored the honouring of icons and holy images in general.[13] However, this did not immediately translate into large scale depictions of God the Father. Even supporters of the use of icons in the 8th century, such as Saint John of Damascus
, drew a distinction between images of God the Father and those of Christ.

In his treatise On the Divine Images John of Damascus wrote: "In former times, God who is without form or body, could never be depicted. But now when God is seen in the flesh conversing with men, I make an image of the God whom I see".[14] The implication here is that insofar as God the Father or the Spirit did not become man, visible and tangible, images and portrait icons can not be depicted. So what was true for the whole Trinity before Christ remains true for the Father and the Spirit but not for the Word. John of Damascus wrote:[15]

If we attempt to make an image of the invisible God, this would be sinful indeed. It is impossible to portray one who is without body: invisible, uncircumscribed and without form.

Calvary hermitage, Alcora, Spain, 18th century.

Around 790

Western Church
, images were just objects made by craftsmen, to be utilized for stimulating the senses of the faithful, and to be respected for the sake of the subject represented, not in themselves.

The

Council of Constantinople (869) (considered ecumenical by the Western Church, but not the Eastern Church) reaffirmed the decisions of the Second Council of Nicaea and helped stamp out any remaining coals of iconoclasm. Specifically, its third canon required the image of Christ to have veneration equal with that of a Gospel book:[16]

We decree that the sacred image of our Lord Jesus Christ, the liberator and Savior of all people, must be venerated with the same honor as is given the book of the holy Gospels. For as through the language of the words contained in this book all can reach salvation, so, due to the action which these images exercise by their colors, all wise and simple alike, can derive profit from them.

But images of God the Father were not directly addressed in Constantinople in 869. A list of permitted icons was enumerated at this Council, but images of God the Father were not among them.[17] However, the general acceptance of icons and holy images began to create an atmosphere in which God the Father could be depicted.[citation needed]

Middle ages to the Renaissance

God the Father with His Right Hand Raised in Blessing, with a triangular halo representing the Trinity, Girolamo dai Libri c. 1555.

Prior to the 10th century no attempt was made to represent a separate depiction as a full human figure of

Western art.[3]
Yet, Western art eventually required some way to illustrate the presence of the Father, so through successive representations a set of artistic styles for the depiction of the Father in human form gradually emerged around the 10th century AD.

It appears that when early artists designed to represent God the Father, fear and awe restrained them from a delineation of the whole person. Typically only a small part would be represented, usually the hand, or sometimes the face, but rarely the whole person. In many images, the figure of the Son supplants the Father, so a smaller portion of the person of the Father is depicted.[18]

By the 12th century depictions of God the Father had started to appear in French

Meister Bertram, continued to use the old depiction of Christ as Logos in Genesis scenes. In the 15th century there was a brief fashion for depicting all three persons of the Trinity as similar or identical figures with the usual appearance of Christ
.

Baptism of Christ, by Verrocchio
, 1472.
The Ancient of Days, a 14th-century fresco from Ubisi, Georgia.

In an early Venetian school Coronation of the Virgin by Giovanni d'Alemagna and Antonio Vivarini, (c. 1443) (see gallery below) the Father is shown in the representation consistently used by other artists later, namely as a patriarch, with benign, yet powerful countenance and with long white hair and a beard, a depiction largely derived from, and justified by, the description of the Ancient of Days in the Old Testament, the nearest approach to a physical description of God in the Old Testament:[20]

. ...the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. (Daniel 7:9)

In the Annunciation by

Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ in 1472.[21]

In Renaissance paintings of the adoration of the Trinity, God may be depicted in two ways, either with emphasis on The Father, or the three elements of the Trinity. The most usual depiction of the Trinity in Renaissance art depicts God the Father as an old man, usually with a long beard and patriarchal in appearance, sometimes with a triangular halo (as a reference to the Trinity), or with a papal tiara, specially in Northern Renaissance painting. In these depictions The Father may hold a globe or book. He is behind and above Christ on the Cross in the

instruments of the Passion.[22]

The orb, or the globe of the world, is rarely shown with the other two persons of the Trinity and is almost exclusively restricted to God the Father, but is not a definite indicator since it is sometimes used in depictions of Christ. A book, although often depicted with the Father is not an indicator of the Father and is also used with Christ.[1]

From Renaissance to Baroque

Representations of God the Father and the Trinity were attacked both by Protestants and within Catholicism, by the

Western Church, the pressure to restrain religious imagery resulted in the highly influential decrees of the final session of the Council of Trent in 1563. The Council of Trent decrees confirmed the traditional Catholic doctrine that images only represented the person depicted, and that veneration to them was paid to the person, not the image.[23]

Artistic depictions of God the Father were uncontroversial in Catholic art thereafter, but less common depictions of the

Throne of Mercy depiction, referring to the "Ancient of Days", but in 1786 it was still necessary for Pope Pius VI to issue a papal bull condemning the decision of an Italian church council to remove all images of the Trinity from churches.[24]

Separation of Light from Darkness, by Michelangelo, c.first half of 1512.

God the Father appears in several Genesis scenes in

Frari of Venice, long admired as a masterpiece of High Renaissance art.[25] The Church of the Gesù in Rome includes a number of 16th-century depictions of God the Father. In some of these paintings the Trinity is still alluded to in terms of three angels, but Giovanni Battista Fiammeri also depicted God the Father riding on a cloud, above the scenes.[26]

In both the Last Judgment and the Coronation of the Virgin paintings by

Rubens (see gallery below) he depicted God the Father in the form that by then had become widely accepted, as a bearded patriarchal figure above the fray. In the 17th century, the two Spanish artists Velázquez (whose father-in-law Francisco Pacheco was in charge of the approval of new images for the Inquisition) and Murillo
both depicted God the Father as a patriarchal figure with a white beard (see gallery below) in a purple robe.

While representations of God the Father were growing in Italy, Spain, Germany and the Low Countries, there was resistance elsewhere in Europe, even during the 17th century. In 1632 most members of the

Romish trend" (a term used to refer to Roman Catholics) that he considered best avoided in England.[29]

In 1667 the 43rd chapter of the Great Moscow Council specifically included a ban on a number of depictions of God the Father and the Holy Spirit, which then also resulted in a whole range of other icons being placed on the forbidden list,[30][31] mostly affecting Western-style depictions which had been gaining ground in Orthodox icons. The Council also declared that the person of the Trinity who was the "Ancient of Days" was Christ, as Logos, not God the Father. However some icons continued to be produced in Russia, as well as Greece, Romania, and other Orthodox countries.

Gallery of art

15th century

16th century

17th century


18th-20th centuries

See also

Notes

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-19-501432-4
    page 222
  2. ISBN 0-19-501432-4
    page 92
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-8192-2345-X
    page 2
  4. ^ A matter disputed by some scholars
  5. ISBN 0-7661-4075-X
    pages 167
  6. ISBN 0-7661-4075-X
    pages 167-170
  7. ^ Dominique Thiébaut: "Enguerrand Quarton", Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, 2007, [1]
  8. ^ Suggestion by F.W. Sclatter, see review by W. Eugene Kleinbauer of The Clash of Gods: A Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art, by Thomas F. Mathews, Speculum, Vol. 70, No. 4 (Oct., 1995), pp. 937-941, Medieval Academy of America, JSTOR
  9. ISBN 0-540-01085-5
  10. ISBN 1-879038-15-3
    page 27
  11. ^ According to accounts by Patriarch Nikephoros and the chronicler Theophanes
  12. ^ Warren Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society, Stanford University Press, 1997
  13. ISBN 0-679-60148-1
    page 1693
  14. ISBN 0-88141-245-7
  15. ISBN 1-879038-15-3
    page 29
  16. ISBN 0-8028-2888-4
    page 65
  17. ISBN 1-879038-15-3
    page 41
  18. ISBN 0-7661-4075-X
    pages 169
  19. Arena Chapel
    , at the top of the triumphal arch, God sending out the angel of the Annunciation. See Schiller, I, fig 15
  20. ^ Bigham Chapter 7
  21. ISBN 1-4179-0870-X
    page 32
  22. ISBN 0-313-24658-0
    pages 8 and 283
  23. ^ Text of the 25th decree of the Council of Trent
  24. ^ Bigham, 73-76
  25. ISBN 0-8262-0796-0
    page 222
  26. ISBN 0-8020-3721-6
    page 233
  27. ISBN 1-103-66622-3
    , (2009) page 229
  28. ISBN 0559376871
    , 2006 page 156
  29. ISBN 1-103-66622-3
    , (2009) page 230
  30. ISBN 1-86189-118-0
    page 185
  31. ^ Orthodox church web site

Further reading

  • Manuth, Volker. "Denomination and Iconography: The Choice of Subject Matter in the Biblical Painting of the Rembrandt Circle", Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, vol. 22, no. 4, 1993, pp. 235–252., JSTOR

External links

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