The Sight of Loving Eyes

Art History Thesis (circa. 2017)

Deanna Ansaldo

Dr. Kabala

Byzantine Art

The Transfiguration:

The Sight of Loving Eyes

Within Byzantine Art

            A work of art has always represented a form within reality using two mechanisms; light and shadow. From a purely philosophical stand point, our knowledge of reality is comprised of the things we can perceive through our senses and experience within our mind. Visually speaking, everything around us is perceived as “real” or existing, because light and shadow create form and the fact that we can interact with these forms in some way. Art is a fine example of a language because it communicates through symbolic thought. Symbolic thought is “a type of thinking that uses symbols or internal images to represent objects, persons, places and events that are not present (Hall).” Through arranging combinations of symbols artists convey meaning to anyone experiencing their artwork, while additionally representing a kind of reality. Light and shadow combinations are what make up the world of form that we see before our eyes but also within our psyche, it plays a role in the narrative we construct as “life.” People often connect shadows with the unknown, the undetermined and sometimes even fear itself, due to shadows being on par with darkness. The connection to fear that darkness portrays is almost certainly attributed to the fact that we have no knowledge of what lies in the dark, making “the dark” itself a symbol for information that appears to be unattainable. Knowledge has provided us with the keys for surviving among nature as well as with each other inside our variety of cultures. For humans to be faced with the thought that there is knowledge that is indefinitely unattainable, fear is a logical and practical response. Light, on the other hand is often the symbol of knowledge, of divinity and everything that is ‘good’ within the world as we know it. It is often coupled with the idea of love, hence the common phrase “Light and Love.” In the presence of light all things that have the potential to hide, are seen and this “sight” is then correlated with the mechanism required for “knowing.” This correlation exists because anything that is in the dark would otherwise remain unknown, if it were not for a light to uncover its presence. Knowledge has always been associated with the divine, and throughout history, it is debated whether “true” knowledge is genuinely within the reach of mere mortals. The idea that humans have the ability to “see” such divine information (or simply comprehend information that lies beyond the material world) and have the privilege of certainty that inevitably comes with the package of “knowing,” has always been a human being’s biggest dream come true. Because if we have this ability, then we hold the mechanism for Truth. This is important to every human being, because we all strive to live a fulfilling life that has experienced more moments full of love and peace of mind, than fear and confusion. For some reason we often think that to learn the truth of things will somehow lead us to create permanent solutions to our questions. Often our resilience and ability to be reborn from challenging times is what continues to get us through them.

The Transfiguration is a visual representation of the perceptual process of “seeing” and thus, “knowing,” the truth of what lies behind the apparent imagery of the human body. Given the assumption that we are spiritual beings, the human body is simply life incarnate and being the life that animates the body, our minds use the body as the means for communication and connection. All symbolic thought uses connection in order to convey the meaning it intends. To “transfigure” a person, is to participate in seeing that person beyond just their physical form. Everything we see around us are reflections of light, our eye is the receiver of this light. I suspect that the transfiguration is actually not an example of a superhuman, physical transformation of Jesus Christ into light, but a perceptual one that is experienced by those who knew him. The transfiguration is an example of seeing a person through loving eyes which enables the viewer to bear witness to a person’s soul/ light, and therefore, their personal divinity. This does not mean the human body is not worth reverence or any value since the body is still very much a part of who we are, how we live and nature itself. I suggest that what our naked eyes bear witness to on a daily basis are merely containers for the divine or a living energy. I propose in order to truly see divinity in another person (this paper will be written under the assumption that Jesus Christ is a symbol for every man and woman on earth) one must be open to loving a person. Love will be defined as an awareness and acknowledgement of connection. Whether, ‘connection’ be used as a synonym for communication or defined as a link from one being to another, I would request that both interpretations of its meaning be kept in mind, throughout the course of this paper.

I will be referring to St. Catherine’s Transfiguration the most. St. Catherine’s is a monastery located at the base of Mount Sinai, which is the mountain that several transformational events happened on, including but not limited to: Moses and the burning bush, the Transfiguration, and the receiving of the Ten Commandments. I will analyze my interpretation of two crucial symbols used in St. Catherine’s Transfiguration: the placement of Jesus Christ within the mandorla and the meaning of the mandorla. I will additionally make connections to John the Baptist and Moses from my interpretations of Christ and the mandorla. One could look into this apsidal lunette and perceive an ‘eye’ that the composition of this piece creates when we consider how each part makes up the whole image. There does not seem to be much known written evidence proving that this was intentional, however, take into consideration the emphasis on the concept of sight accompanied by the Transfiguration event and icon, in addition to Mount Sinai itself, then painting the transfiguration inside an enlightened eye of god would be entirely reasonable.

If one looks closely to the mandorla, they may see its similarities to the iris and the pupil. The mandorla is often depicted as an oval or circle shape and has 2-3 layers of colors that range from dark in the center to light along the outer edges. According to Cirlot, the geometric symbol for earth is the square or cube, and the symbol for heaven is the circle or sphere. “The union of the two worlds, or the zone of intersection and interpenetration (the world of appearances), is represented by the mandorla an almond-shaped figure formed by two intersecting circles.” The intersecting circles represent “the left [circle] (matter) and the right [circle] (spirit),” which create the iconic oval- almond shape in the center where the two circles overlap. This section is where Jesus is often painted within. Jesus Christ is one of the best symbols to place in this location due to his duel representation of human and god. Jesus Christ is the intersecting point between god and man, and the mandorla is the intersection between the unobservable and the observable world. Our bodies are the observable expressions of unobservable forces. Our bodies are seen through the fact that there is light present around us and can reflect off our surfaces. But how are our spirit’s seen? Jesus might answer, “with love.” It’s important to note that within St. Catherine’s Transfiguration, the space around the apostles and Jesus seems to have implications of an inverse mandorla present. At the bottom of the apse there are rays painted with the same color pattern as the mandorla. I emphasize that it’s the dark layer that is on the outside, and people are painted within the lighter layer which engulfs the whole scene. This is congruent with the idea that the apostles (being seen by the viewer as bodies in comparison to christ) are within the material world, and outside them, is the darker layer that symbolizes something much deeper, and beyond what is perceptible. This can serve as a representation for the vastness and darkness of space, that holds the stars and planets, which is historically referred to as “the heavens.” Jesus is placed in the center of this dark layer that is in the mandorla’s center. If the center dark layer is the heavens, then it is implied that the center of Jesus may be the heavens, too. Remember, the heavens are something that is not readily apparent to our eyes that are used to looking on only that which light is reflected against. The apostle’s faces are shocked, and in awe of being able to see the heavenly side of Jesus that before climbing the mountain, they had not really payed much mind too.

The luminous and heavenly nature of Christ is discussed in the Andreapoulos’ Metamorphosis. This nature is often highlighted by the presence of the mandorla around Jesus’ body. The oval mandorla is what was used in St. Catherine’s Transfiguration. The darkest and largest layer being the one in the center where Jesus is located within it. Three concentric layers are what makes up the oval mandorla. John Chrysostom wrote that the apostle’s eyes “were darkened by excessive radiance.” Physically, the darkest part of an eye, the pupil, gets smaller when it is exposed to large amounts of light in order to shield our eyes from being damaged by it. Chrysostom’s statement is what leads me to believe it was written based upon a metaphor that combines our understanding of the immaterial and material worlds.  For their eyes to have “darkened,” the pupil must have grown larger, taking up more space within the iris; this only occurs when our eyes are taking in as much information as they can by the means of the pupil expanding in order to take in more light. There is not an absence of light within our pupil despite its apparent darkness. If more light is received by the eye then more information can be detected and perceived. Pseudo- Dionysius proposed that the closer we get to the divine, the darker our perceived world would be because we are not able to perceive or know god. Interestingly enough, our pupils tend to naturally dilate due to two reasons: either we are in a dim or dark setting, or we are looking at someone we love or really want to know. In both scenarios, our pupils instinctively expand in order to take in as much information as possible. Like a camera lens it expands, focuses and re-focuses receiving all information that it is open too. Dionysios and other Neoplatonist’s explain the arrangement of the layers inside the oval mandorla; “whereas the entire universe was described in terms of God-sent illumination, its center and source of light was dark not in the sense of the absence of light, but in the sense of a strong light that overwhelmed natural vision and was perceived as darkness. (Metamorphosis, pg. 92).” This luminous darkness was expressed as a “cloud of unknowing” that correlates with our journey through the stages ascending to God. St. Catherine’s Transfiguration seems to mimic the set-up of an eye, and the philosophical contributions pertaining to light and thus sight by Pseudo-Dionysus helps create a stronger possibility that this particular Transfiguration represents the “eye of God” so to speak.

 Plato founded the idea that everything created by God has a flicker of god within it, and if God is the source of light, then everything he created has light within. The idea that light can be found within god’s creations further supports the idea that Jesus’ Transfiguration was a perceptual one because this god-like essence is not physically observable and it is found within Jesus; not outside of him. Logically, for the apostles to see Jesus’ glory they first had to have some familiarity with this essence to be able to recognize it when it was presented to them. The apostles also loved Jesus like a brother, of course they were open to bearing witness to the divine side of Jesus because they were open and willing to look upon him with no judgement; accepting him, as he is for what he is. The idea that Jesus may not have been the only one that was transfigured is present, or at least implied, by stories about Moses, and John. Moses saw the light of God as fire burning a bush, this fire did not consume the bush turning it into ashes, but instead stoically contained its power for as long as was needed, for God to communicate through it. This makes me wonder, is the human body any different?

The human body may be the container for the divine, as much as a symbol is a representation of thought. Both are physical images that contain something meaningful. John the Evangelist is a great example of symbolism that is multi-layered. John is not only a symbol for man- since he is one- he is associated with the Eagle, and the Eagle represents “height, the spirit of the sun, and of the spiritual principle in general.” (Cirlot, p.91.) This is related to divinity because cross culturally, the sun is consistently associated with God or a life source. The sun is a significant light source in the world we live in, without it we would not be able to visually process anything in the world around us. Additionally, the eagle’s ability to reach great heights is correlated with untouchability and oversight. The eagle also was known to be “the conductor of souls into immortality.” The Eagle can fly close to the sun and not be blinded by its radiance. If the eagle is John and the sun is god, ultimately John could look at the overwhelming and radiant light of God, not be consumed by it, and still remain merely mortal. This entire notion of continuity of life despite mortal appearances, is even present in Christ’s resurrection when his body is utterly destroyed, but his inner radiance still miraculously continues on. The purpose of his crucifixion was to show people that the body is only one part of us and definitely not the essential part. Containers for the divine are found in so many things that humans create. In art, and in language alike, we continue to make representations of things that are not readily observable to us. The specific representation of divine essences within a container of some sort are found in the symbols of the mandorla, the chora and even the medallion/ clypeus. All of these are circular in form and represent a divine essence or at the very least symbolic thought. The idea of the resilience and power that our created symbolic thought conveys, undoubtedly is attributed to being the living intersection point of two dimensions; the material and immaterial worlds. The general public is often shocked or in awe of this realization.

Reality seems to be composed of these seemingly dualistic aspects. Often what we perceive holds at least two potential interpretations: two dimensions- one that speaks through a physically observable plane and another that is speaking through an intuitively detectable plane. As shown by the transfiguration these dualistic aspects may actually be unified within the living, and simply show themselves in each other when we are most un-judging, curious and loving of our fellow human beings. Being so, creates reconciliation. Non-judgment and curiosity creates a recipe for an honest receiving of the object or subject that we are exploring. To see with loving eyes, is to become conscious of the intersection of the body (object) and the soul (subject) of another being. To love someone is to blend, and thus balance, the internal and external worlds that we all share every second of our lifetimes. These combinations bring about understanding and meaning behind what we experience. So the veil between seeing Jesus the man, and Jesus, the son of god, was lifted once the apostles were brought atop the mountain. Climbing a mountain requires intention and effort due to the challenges of surviving adverse limitations within the world. Is not to actively love any different?  Jesus’ and the apostles’ teachings speak of loving one another consistently. Why would the Transfiguration be exclusive from this teaching? If love is the acknowledgement and awareness of connection, then what occurred that day was vision restoration. Where once existed a blindness to the love and light within man, now lay sight for a glimpse into another reality. Miracles are thus a swift shift in perception and love is a willing and conscious connection.