engleski

Depicting Sinners and Heretics as Others in Western European Medieval Art. Two Examples from Istria

In Western visual tradition there existed a number of special signs that enabled the audience differentiate evil personages, sinners, heretics and enemies as “the others” setting them apart. Different markers - attributes, colors, positions, clothes, animals, representatives of other races, Biblical and historical persons, mythological monsters and sometimes hardly visible symbols - were widely used by artists in all media. The markers not only helped viewers better understand the composition but also make them refer to different conventional cultural norms and canons. Pragmatics of such signs is important as in a certain context they could play different role: visualize features of “other” or being a tool to highlight the evil essence of a person or denote a person led by a sin. The variety of figures united by these markers formed the complicated “image of the other” or “image of the enemy” in medieval iconography. There is a difference in representing these subjects between urban centers and so called “high culture or art” and provincial environments and periphery. Whereas elaborated programs of the high culture were based upon literary sources and “knowledge” the rural representations drew upon tradition, folklore and superstition. This paper focuses on a few artistic examples from the rich patrimony of the north Adriatic medieval fresco cycles and their connection to the Italian and central European centers in comparison of the models and modes of the representation of others in different cultural circles and spheres of influence. The presentation will be focused on different markers of the “others” in the representation of mainly sinners, heretics and enemies of the faith that worked in medieval iconography as well as the contexts and peculiarities of their implementation.

iconography, the others, sinners, heretics, Istria, wall painfings, middle ages

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