Taxisul iconografic euharistic: rit și contemplație
The Eucharistic Iconographic Taxis: Rite and Contemplation

Summary/Abstract: The link between iconography and sacramental praxis is a fact. The victory of the iconodules was a turning point in the development of Byzantine iconography, architecture and liturgy. The augmentation of the posticonoclastic iconographic program created the perception that iconography and architecture would have a significance of their own, separate from the liturgical rites. At the same time, the Byzantine liturgy began to be perceived as a theodrama, a string of icons depicting moments of the history of salvation. On the one hand, one effect of this understanding was the symbolization of the practical acts of the rite, which led to increased ritualism. On the other hand, iconographic symbolism became increasingly narrative. Iconography, however, should not be seen as a deduplication of the rite, but as an expression of the central sacramental act, that is the Eucharist. The paper discusses four themes of the posticonoclastic Eucharistic iconographic taxis: the image of the Pantokrator, the Communion of the Apostles, the Heavenly Liturgy and the Etoimasia, which are analyzed from a liturgological perspective. Reaffirming the centrality of Eucharistic and eschatological iconographic formulas could focus the attention of the faithful on the essential mystagogical meanings of the Eucharistic sacramental act, reducing the historical-narrative sequences in favor of a figurative with harmonious proportions, which can express a variety of meanings.

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