Perception Precedes Contemplation
When going about our daily lives, we tend to rely heavily on what we see. Not always based on a wider appreciation, but often on a funneled, shallow perception of things right under our noses. Our attention spans dwindle to mere glances and scans, and we cease to engage in deep contemplation. Many tourists going to old cathedrals and religious sites, particularly in Europe, try to see as much as possible, but without spending the time to understand and appreciate what they see. In order to truly see both the visible… and the invisible… we need to change how we perceive.
The worship of religious objects, such as relics or altarpieces, is a form of veneration that makes it possible to engage with them as something greater — “icons.” Jean-Luc Marion explains, “Icon here designates a doctrine concerning the visibility of the image, more exactly, concerning the usage of the this visibility” (59) and therefore, “The icon is given not to be seen but to be venerated, because it thus offers its prototype to be seen” (60). Once viewers appreciate this crucial distinction, their perception will transform and allow them to contemplate rather than to “solve” the art. To perceive the art, we must get rid of the hermeneutic tendencies and our desire to be seen by others in a favorable light. Marion elaborates, “The icon does not expect one to see it, but rather gives itself so that one might see or permit oneself to see through it” (61). This change of perspective opens a new world, a new way of “seeing” religious pieces, allowing us to be impacted by them, and changing our lives with the encounters.
Altarpieces might not be the most famous form of religious artwork, but they are certainly among the most impressive. The Ghent Altarpiece is a beautiful example, and one that clearly required much care and time in its creation. With our reborn perception, there is more to see than meets the eye. McNamee points out that “The whole composition was meant to be a vivid reassertion of the validity of the Mass as a sacrifice and the reality of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist” (117). These invisible connections point to a deeper reality, ready to be entered into when we have a better understanding of the icon. Another example of this type of art is the Firescreen Madonna altarpiece. One might think that this piece was made as an act of divine worship, and it was, but Williamson urges that if you look deeper, there is no indication of a specific location or liturgical feast in the piece, “But that is precisely the point. The painting does not pin down any specific reference to time, nor does it identify any particular reference to place…it allows, an open, multivalent reading of the image by leaving these connections and references to be made in the mind of the viewer and not on the surface of the painting. It would seem that this openness was built into the image in its production and that the viewer was expected to make leaps of imagination during private meditation on the image and its implications” (404). Our experience with the Ghent and Firescreen Madonna altarpieces transcends the beauty of their artwork, inviting us to consider what they are telling us, making us feel, making us think, connections between our lives and the art.
Altarpieces are not the only type of religious artwork that we can look at with a transformed perception and new way of “seeing.” Perhaps what most people commonly think of as “religious art” are frescoes, particularly the Florentine frescoes. While hermeneutics for the sake of “solving” a piece is not the correct way to “look” at a piece Reddaway suggests recognizing aspects of the piece for the sake of further contemplation, “A theological hermeneutic for interpreting images must…be aware of and refer to this physicality…As ‘incorporated images,’ frescoes have a particular physicality associated with being embedded in their locations and the nature of the sacred space both around and within the images…” (24–25). These icons can bring a presence to the viewer if the viewer has the perception to see it. For Reddaway we must allow images to reveal themselves to us in order to see our own lives in relation to the images. And this important point reveals why veneration, part of the worship in our liturgical lives, is the key to changing our perception so we can have these impactful encounters and “conversations” with the art itself.
Verdon also makes this point well in his writing, “Liturgical prayer, which builds a bridge between past and future remaining in the present, transmits from the past a humanity straining forward toward fulfilment and yet able to accommodate joys and sorrows. ‘We are not made of stone’: how obvious! But obvious become true, and as every adult knows, it is often hard to grasp obvious truths. Joys and sorrows require times, have to be understood in the light both of past and future — indeed, to fully understand them one needs a whole lifetime” (136). Acquiring this perspective and seeing what is present in the relic, altarpiece, fresco, or other religious piece allows us to “see” and undergo this deeper contemplation and devotion, seeing it as the Eucharist relived every time in the Mass, and even beyond to devotion of created order. Evdokimov continues this idea, that icons placed in the home make it into a “‘domestic church’” and the life of a Christian becomes one of prayer and a continuous interiorized liturgy. On entering the house, a visitor first bows in front of the icon thus placing himself in God’s visual presence, and then greets the master of the house. We begin by honoring God, and then afterwards we honor men. The icon is a target, the point which centers the whole household on the brilliant shining forth of the beyond. It is never simply a decoration” (Paul Evdokimov, A Theology of the Icon). Seeing more than it actually depicted, is parallel to Christians seeing God in Jesus, the invisible in the visible. We could never cross this threshold if we devote ourselves to worship, because it is through veneration that we find a new way of understanding icons for more than their images.
