11. Representing the Divine: Visual Arts

Question 1

Terms:

Answer 1

Latin imago: in ancient Rome, the wachs mask of the ancestor, which was exposed and made present in the house.
o Sanskrit terms:
KLAUSUR!! § pratimā,“reflection”,“representation”,“imitation”
No Klausur: § rūpa,“embodiment”
§bimba,problematicetymologybutmeaning“reflection” § arcā,“icon”,culticimage
§ mūrti,“divinecoagulation”,“manifestation”
___________
o Broadlyspeaking,“image”points to all visual objects, whether or not imbued with
esthetic qualities. It is inseparable both from the materiality of its support, but also from its nature as an object endowed with agency, set in a given spacial and ritual context, and embedded in complex socio-religious dynamics.
o InSouthAsia,“the term ‘image’ covers a wide range of sacred objects and that the boundaries between ‘images’ and other ritual objects are fundamentally fluid” (Granoff and Shinohara, 2004, p. 3).

Question 2

Typology of images

Answer 2

Cultic images - representing the divine:
NOT MUSEUM OBJECTS- ARE ALIVE
– These can be man-made or of “non-human” origin, self-manifested (svayaṃvyakta)
embodiments of the gods.
– In the case of man-made images, enlivened by a complex ritual that led them to be endowed with the divine presence (pratiṣṭhā, ceremony involving the “open of the eyes”).
– These can be figurative or non-figurative (e.g., the liṅga, the buddha’s footprints”)

Narrative images
– Aim at representing specific events and persons.
– Often embedded within a series of scenes belonging to a broader visual narrative.
– Characterised by varied and complex relationship with literary narratives, when these
are extent.
- they may surround a cult image

Ornamental images

Question 3

A network of relationships

Answer 3

™image – texts
™image – images
™image – donor(s)
™ image – place (architectural and environmental setting of the image)
™ « mise en scène » & narrative constructions (the image as a sum of choices, as a reinterpretation)

Question 4

Dialogue of Text and Image

Answer 4

newer academic focus:
Images are sources in their own right for the cultural and religious historian, in medieval Europe as in South Asia.

Since images, unlike texts […], do not speak, their meaning is necessarily implicit

Question 5

The slow emergence of a figurative representation of gods and liberated ind–ividuals in Indian religions

Answer 5

™ In Vedic times, gods and their cult are highly mobile, centered on the sacrificial fire.
– The body of gods is “made of words”
Ø Strong connection between mantras and the divinity, which will remainvery strong even in later periods. (Mantras make the god present)
™ Early Buddhist and Jaina art do not represent anthropomorphically their founders until the 1st century CE.
– Relics, stūpas, and symbols pointing at the Buddha’s presence are the centre of early Buddhist cult.
™ What will become “Hinduism” will only develop a cult centered on permanently established temples hosting an image of the deity much later, with a boom in the 3rd/4th century CE.

Question 6

Non-figurative representation of the Buddha

Answer 6

Tree
Footprints
Pillar of fire

Question 7

slow antrophormation of images

Answer 7

Problem of Limitation of the Buddha through image

Question 8

Relics and Icons

Answer 8

Dead Body Relics
Mummifications of famous masters inside a statue (until today)