THE IMAGE-PARADIGM OF JERUSALEM IN CHRISTIAN HIEROTOPY

Abstract

Image-paradigms are non-pictorial mental images of the sacred. They are engendered in the viewer’s imagination by means of organized ensembles of iconic, symbolic and typological elements of sacred spaces and emerge from a manifold of interrelating associations. In this paper I elucidate this complex notion by studying the example of one image-paradigm of fundamental importance, namely, the Holy City of Jerusalem, which appears to the religious imagination as the synthesis of an idealized historical city-relic and its celestial counterpart – the Heavenly Jerusalem. This Jerusalem is both the ‘navel’ of the world and a place of God’s immediate, living presence. The Church as a whole, as well as individual churches, are identified with Jerusalem, which reflects their primary function of serving as meeting places with God. While participating in the liturgy and integrating into the liturgical space, the faithful feel themselves to be in the midst of the Heavenly Jerusalem, a feeling which clearly cannot be reduced to or evoked by a simple two-dimensional picture. Generally, pictures are unable fully to represent a sense of being somewhere. They help to create ambiences, but they cannot represent them. It takes more than a pictorial representation to transport oneself, in the mind’s eye, to another place. This is what is involved in the concept of the image-paradigm. The image-paradigm works by means of a ‘spatial icon’, that is, a thoughtfully arranged spatial system of pointers, including architecture, an iconographic program, as well as the entire liturgical performance, including the very presence of the congregation absorbed in pious contemplation. An image-paradigm belongs to the religious tradition as a whole and takes shape in individual minds through a wide variety of religious experiences, including training, reading, prayer, liturgical life, mysticism, etc. An image-paradigm can be evoked in sacred spaces only because it is known beforehand to all the actors involved, both to those arranging them as well as viewers. In this paper, I begin with a brief review of iconographic strategies employed in conjuring the image-paradigm of the Holy City in Christian churches. In particular, the Celestial City can be represented in icons by means of earthly architecture including either recognizable motives of Constantinian Jerusalem or idealized and even fantastic patterns. Next, I move on to New Jerusalems, that is, Medieval re-constructions of the Christian Jerusalem, which were used as sites of virtual pilgrimage. Finally, I discuss possible links between Russian onion domes and the cupola of most prominent Jerusalem churches: the Holy Sepulcher and the Dome of the Rock. Particularly, I show how the famous cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed in Moscow was designed to represent Jerusalem as a city of multiple and diverse churches. In closing I turn to the Western tradition and provide a summary characterization of Gothic architectural icons of the Holy City and compare them to the Byzantine strategies.