Tra Roma e Bisanzio: il nuovo statuto dell’immagine = Between Rome and Byzantium: the new status of the image

The attempt of the article is to identify, in the period between the beginning of III cen. A.C. and the Year 1000, how Christianity detaches itself from the aniconic tradition of the Abrahamitic family, and develops its own peculiar relationship with the image and the gaze, that is the fruitt of synthesis between the late ancient philosophical and pictorial heritage, the Jewish matrix, and the encounter with the "barbarian" cultures. What role does the dogma of incarnation play in the elaboration of this new status of the image? What solutions are developped to make the image licit and to domesticate the gaze? The hypothesis of the article is that within Christianity, once the image is accepted, two different solutions are enucleated, wich will give rise to two forms of seriality. The key moment of this double split is the outcome of the two iconoclastic wars, similar to the last fierce Christological quarrel. A result that will generate precisely the two forms of seriality that the article tries to outline: the Byzantine/Orthodox and the Roman/Catholic.

本文旨在厘清公元前3世纪初至公元1000年这一历史时段内，基督教如何脱离亚伯拉罕系宗教的无偶像传统（aniconic tradition），并逐步形成自身独有的图像与凝视关系——这一关系乃是晚期古代哲学与视觉艺术遗产、犹太教母体以及与蛮族文化接触交融的产物。道成肉身教义（dogma of incarnation）在塑造偶像的全新地位过程中发挥了何种作用？为使偶像获得宗教合法性并驯化视觉凝视，究竟有哪些解决方案被提出？本文的核心假说认为，在基督教体系内，一旦偶像被接纳，便会提炼出两种截然不同的解决方案，进而催生两种不同的序列性视觉形态。这一双重分裂的关键节点，乃是两场圣像破坏运动（iconoclastic wars）的结果，其性质可与最后一次激烈的基督论争辩（Christological quarrel）相类比。这一结果恰恰催生了本文试图勾勒的两种序列性形态：拜占庭/东正教（Byzantine/Orthodox）与罗马/天主教（Roman/Catholic）体系。