Delivering the sacred: Representing Translatio on the Trier Ivory
Само за регистроване кориснике
2018
Поглавље у монографији (Објављена верзија)
,
Routledge
Метаподаци
Приказ свих података о документуАпстракт
For medieval viewers, representations of translatio demarcated a liminal space that permitted a mystical exchange between the earthly realm and the heavenly sphere as found on the Trier Ivory. Translatio was a process in which bodies that could no longer move themselves were circulated due to a belief in their being imbued with a divine agency that survived material death. Medieval representations of the ritual of translatio documented the circulation of relics both within and between medieval cultures. Reliquaries themselves functioned as framing devices that transformed abject human remains into vehicles of divine agency. Representations of translatio similarly framed the movement of relics in a manner in which this abject-precious, man-god, dead-living uncertainty is preserved and productively deployed in order to produce an affective response in the viewer. Dating from the sixth century, the Trier Ivory was cut from a single piece of material (13.1X 26.1 cm) and shows a scene of th...e translation of relics within an elaborate architectural setting. Its composition evokes liminal, underscoring the fluid border between internal and external space, and between presence and absence. The details of the ivory also generate transitional spaces in both primary and multiple, secondary, framing structures. This structure of layered encasement resonates with the progression from microcosm to macrocosm demonstrated by the architectural imagery. The designer has nestled a sequence of spaces one inside the other, moving from the reliquary, to the church, to the courtyard and finally to the city outside the gates, each space sitting inside the other like a series of Russian dolls. I argue that the indeterminate nature of the contents of the reliquary casket being transported in the Trier Ivory - the uncertainty of its containing fragments of a dead material or a living relic - reflects a fundamental problematic of all representations of translatio: An image of an immobile body is visually indistinguishable from a dead one. That no iconographic convention was developed to signify the ambivalent life-in-death status of the relic is telling. The ambivalent status of the relic was a key feature of both the ritual of translatio and its representations. One should not, therefore, view the absence of such a sign as a lack, but rather an indicator that this very ambivalence was an integral part of the efficacy of these sacral objects. This is to argue that this absence of a sign is being used to signify by conveying the indeterminacy that sat at the heart of the translatio ritual itself. Thus, scenes of translatio reproduced in material form, the social experience of these objects and ceremonies themselves: one had to believe, despite a lack of visual evidence, that the contents of the casket or on the bier was a true, immutable substance endowed with supernatural powers and not merely a piece of decaying flesh encased in gold. The liminal framing structures of the Trier Ivory powerfully evoke such an encounter with the dialectics of presence and absence, evidence and belief.
Кључне речи:
Relic / translatio / Trier ivory / ceremony / ritual / reliquaryИзвор:
Perceptions of the Body and Sacred Space in Late Antiquity and Byzantium, 2018, 106-123Издавач:
- London : Routledge
Финансирање / пројекти:
- Традиција, иновација и идентитет у византијском свету (RS-MESTD-Basic Research (BR or ON)-177032)
Институција/група
Византолошки институт САНУ / Institute for Byzantine Studies SASATY - CHAP AU - Milanović, Ljubomir PY - 2018 UR - https://dais.sanu.ac.rs/123456789/14160 AB - For medieval viewers, representations of translatio demarcated a liminal space that permitted a mystical exchange between the earthly realm and the heavenly sphere as found on the Trier Ivory. Translatio was a process in which bodies that could no longer move themselves were circulated due to a belief in their being imbued with a divine agency that survived material death. Medieval representations of the ritual of translatio documented the circulation of relics both within and between medieval cultures. Reliquaries themselves functioned as framing devices that transformed abject human remains into vehicles of divine agency. Representations of translatio similarly framed the movement of relics in a manner in which this abject-precious, man-god, dead-living uncertainty is preserved and productively deployed in order to produce an affective response in the viewer. Dating from the sixth century, the Trier Ivory was cut from a single piece of material (13.1X 26.1 cm) and shows a scene of the translation of relics within an elaborate architectural setting. Its composition evokes liminal, underscoring the fluid border between internal and external space, and between presence and absence. The details of the ivory also generate transitional spaces in both primary and multiple, secondary, framing structures. This structure of layered encasement resonates with the progression from microcosm to macrocosm demonstrated by the architectural imagery. The designer has nestled a sequence of spaces one inside the other, moving from the reliquary, to the church, to the courtyard and finally to the city outside the gates, each space sitting inside the other like a series of Russian dolls. I argue that the indeterminate nature of the contents of the reliquary casket being transported in the Trier Ivory - the uncertainty of its containing fragments of a dead material or a living relic - reflects a fundamental problematic of all representations of translatio: An image of an immobile body is visually indistinguishable from a dead one. That no iconographic convention was developed to signify the ambivalent life-in-death status of the relic is telling. The ambivalent status of the relic was a key feature of both the ritual of translatio and its representations. One should not, therefore, view the absence of such a sign as a lack, but rather an indicator that this very ambivalence was an integral part of the efficacy of these sacral objects. This is to argue that this absence of a sign is being used to signify by conveying the indeterminacy that sat at the heart of the translatio ritual itself. Thus, scenes of translatio reproduced in material form, the social experience of these objects and ceremonies themselves: one had to believe, despite a lack of visual evidence, that the contents of the casket or on the bier was a true, immutable substance endowed with supernatural powers and not merely a piece of decaying flesh encased in gold. The liminal framing structures of the Trier Ivory powerfully evoke such an encounter with the dialectics of presence and absence, evidence and belief. PB - London : Routledge T2 - Perceptions of the Body and Sacred Space in Late Antiquity and Byzantium T1 - Delivering the sacred: Representing Translatio on the Trier Ivory SP - 106 EP - 123 UR - https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_14160 ER -
@inbook{ author = "Milanović, Ljubomir", year = "2018", abstract = "For medieval viewers, representations of translatio demarcated a liminal space that permitted a mystical exchange between the earthly realm and the heavenly sphere as found on the Trier Ivory. Translatio was a process in which bodies that could no longer move themselves were circulated due to a belief in their being imbued with a divine agency that survived material death. Medieval representations of the ritual of translatio documented the circulation of relics both within and between medieval cultures. Reliquaries themselves functioned as framing devices that transformed abject human remains into vehicles of divine agency. Representations of translatio similarly framed the movement of relics in a manner in which this abject-precious, man-god, dead-living uncertainty is preserved and productively deployed in order to produce an affective response in the viewer. Dating from the sixth century, the Trier Ivory was cut from a single piece of material (13.1X 26.1 cm) and shows a scene of the translation of relics within an elaborate architectural setting. Its composition evokes liminal, underscoring the fluid border between internal and external space, and between presence and absence. The details of the ivory also generate transitional spaces in both primary and multiple, secondary, framing structures. This structure of layered encasement resonates with the progression from microcosm to macrocosm demonstrated by the architectural imagery. The designer has nestled a sequence of spaces one inside the other, moving from the reliquary, to the church, to the courtyard and finally to the city outside the gates, each space sitting inside the other like a series of Russian dolls. I argue that the indeterminate nature of the contents of the reliquary casket being transported in the Trier Ivory - the uncertainty of its containing fragments of a dead material or a living relic - reflects a fundamental problematic of all representations of translatio: An image of an immobile body is visually indistinguishable from a dead one. That no iconographic convention was developed to signify the ambivalent life-in-death status of the relic is telling. The ambivalent status of the relic was a key feature of both the ritual of translatio and its representations. One should not, therefore, view the absence of such a sign as a lack, but rather an indicator that this very ambivalence was an integral part of the efficacy of these sacral objects. This is to argue that this absence of a sign is being used to signify by conveying the indeterminacy that sat at the heart of the translatio ritual itself. Thus, scenes of translatio reproduced in material form, the social experience of these objects and ceremonies themselves: one had to believe, despite a lack of visual evidence, that the contents of the casket or on the bier was a true, immutable substance endowed with supernatural powers and not merely a piece of decaying flesh encased in gold. The liminal framing structures of the Trier Ivory powerfully evoke such an encounter with the dialectics of presence and absence, evidence and belief.", publisher = "London : Routledge", journal = "Perceptions of the Body and Sacred Space in Late Antiquity and Byzantium", booktitle = "Delivering the sacred: Representing Translatio on the Trier Ivory", pages = "106-123", url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_14160" }
Milanović, L.. (2018). Delivering the sacred: Representing Translatio on the Trier Ivory. in Perceptions of the Body and Sacred Space in Late Antiquity and Byzantium London : Routledge., 106-123. https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_14160
Milanović L. Delivering the sacred: Representing Translatio on the Trier Ivory. in Perceptions of the Body and Sacred Space in Late Antiquity and Byzantium. 2018;:106-123. https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_14160 .
Milanović, Ljubomir, "Delivering the sacred: Representing Translatio on the Trier Ivory" in Perceptions of the Body and Sacred Space in Late Antiquity and Byzantium (2018):106-123, https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_14160 .