LECTURES TIMETABLE

This short course offers you an opportunity to examine the foundations of traditional Eastern Christian iconography and to look at some of its peculiar features. We will examine images of Byzantine and medieval Ukrainian art and make an attempt to understand the relationship between their theological/spiritual content and artistic form in which this content is expressed. We will address the question: why some images of church art look so strange that you involuntarily want to correct them? Conventional answer to this problem has been: ancient artists did not understand the rules of composition and human anatomy. Such an answer, however, looks very naïve and superficial, especially when the given work of art is distinguished for its high artistic quality. What if these ‘mistakes’ and ‘distortions’ are intentional and are a part of a certain artistic language based on the laws of our visual perception?

The lectures will deal with this special language of Eastern Christian art that was developed and perfected over many centuries. The original intentions of ancient authors become evident when different aspects of their images are analyzed and viewed as a single unified whole.
Each lecture of this course will add new facets to our understanding of this ‘iconic language’, building upon the previous ones. We will gradually see how different aspects of this artistic language are arranged: the forms of bodies and objects, space, materiality, time and light. In the end, there is a surprise – through the ancient art we will find a new way to understand artistic languages of different periods: from ancient Egypt and Greco-Roman art to the Renaissance, impressionism and modern cartoons. This is what was developed by the ancient Church art and given as a gift to the world – through form, time, space and light. The course will be attuned to the needs of those who are just familiarizing themselves with church art and for those who have long known and loved it.

There are two opposites in the title of the course. Abyss is a depth without a bottom, emptiness, darkness and death. Christmas is the epiphany and fullness of Joy, the Salvation of the world, the birth of Christ - the Light and the Word. These poles create the imagery of the altar space through the centuries. What was the way from one pole to the other?

Architectural and visual forms are always associated with their archetypes in world-view, philosophy and theology. To understand these connections today means to see the meanings and mysteries of theology that were originally built into simple art forms and have always been there. To see these connections means to feel the altar as an integral and wise space where the Sacrament of salvation is being performed. I invite you to a journey from the darkness of the cave to the light of Christmas, so that you see the altar space through different eyes.