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Going into the Sign

The Sense of Tradition and Canon in the Byzantine Culture

Author(s): Michał Janocha
Subject(s): Media studies, Studies of Literature, Communication studies, Theory of Communication, Theory of Literature, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Byzance; art; theology; icon; canon; tradition
Summary/Abstract: Considering the category of the Byzantine canon Yuri Lotman remarks that, looking from the historic point of view, it is not the transition from one sign to another, but going deeply into the sign. The new text remains always the new-discovered old text. Byzantine art is generally sacral art, and it’s strictly connected with the experience of orthodox faith. The art finds its expression in the canon. The faith finds its expression in the dogma. Therefore the histories of Byzantine art and of Byzantine theology are related. Their turning-point is Iconoclasm, that concludes the period of formation of Christian dogma and of iconographic canon. After the last Council (787) and the Triumph of Orthodoxy (843) the dogma of faith and the dogma of art is generally configurated. It is the period of consolidation and contemplation the dogma and the canon, the period of “going deeply into the sign”.

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