Acheiropoieton
The acheiropoíeton or (modern pronounced) the achiropíiton is a cult image or icon in the image theology of antiquity and Eastern Orthodoxy , which according to tradition was not created by humans, but was given by God . Healing powers are often ascribed to such objects in popular piety .
The term is used more often in the plural Acheiropoíeta or Achiropíita (Greek since New Testament times ἀχειροποίητον, "not made with hands", "not made by human hands"; Latin non manufactum , Russian не-руко-творный). Another name is Vera ikon (from Latin vera , "true" and Greek εἰκών , "image").
History and Development
The concept of an acheiropoieton already existed in ancient literature, but the corresponding term was still missing; the Christian Acheiropoieton corresponds here most closely to the Greek Diipetes (also Diopetes or Iovis proöes ).
A report about such an Acheropita picture relates to the year 574 and comes from the Middle Byzantine historian Georgios Kedrenos (around 1100), who writes about such finds in Kamulia ( Cappadocia ) and Apamea ( Syria ); here we are talking about theo teukton eikona (“a god-made image that does not come from human hands ”). It is often assumed that Kedrenos adopted the formulation from a late antique source. Also as Acheiropoieta the Sinai icons from the fifth valid until the 7th century St. Catherine's Monastery . The Mandylion of Edessa, whose first mention can be traced back to the 6th century , also achieved fame .
Examples of well-known portraits that are viewed by certain groups as acheiropoíeta are the handkerchief of Veronica , the Turin shroud , the veil of Manoppello and the images of Abgar and Luke . The miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City is sometimes viewed as an acheiropoieton .
Modern
The Turin Shroud was photographed by Secondo Pia in 1898 and by Giuseppe Enrie in 1931; the photographs show a “picture of Christ” “which was much clearer than the only shadowy outline on the shroud. This discovery gave the shroud a new theological meaning, the possible authenticity of which was confirmed by photography. The shroud itself could be viewed as a sensitive surface on which a body was depicted through direct contact. ”(Frizot 1998: 283; cf. also P. Vignon, Le Linceul de Christ; étude scientifique. Paris 1902). At that time, when the boundaries of photography were even less clearly defined than today and micro- and astrophotography as well as X-rays were discovered, people also believed that they could record the “light vibrations of the soul” photographically, and spoke of a “spontaneous one Iconography ”(Hippolyte Baraduc, L'Ame humaine , 1896; cf. also nature self-printing ). An acheiropoietic character was ascribed to photography itself.
- Portraits that are sometimes viewed as acheiropoieta
Veronica's handkerchief, copperplate engraving, master of playing cards
Abgar image or mandylion of Edessa, icon
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literature
- Ludger Alscher : Acheiropoieta. In: Lexicon of Art. Architecture, fine arts, applied arts, industrial design, art theory. Emphasis. Volume 1: A - F. Seemann Verlag, Leipzig 1973, p. 12.
- Albert M. Ammann: Due imagine del cosidetto "Cristo di Edessa". In: Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia. Rendiconti. Ser. 3, Vol. 1, 1921/1923, ZDB -ID 203801-8 , pp. 185-194.
- Hans Belting : image and cult. A history of the image before the age of art. Beck, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-406-37768-8 (5th edition, ibid. 2000).
- Martin Büchsel: The Origin of the Portrait of Christ. Visual archeology instead of visual hypnosis. 2nd Edition. von Zabern, Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-8053-3263-7 .
- Paolo Di Lazzaro (Ed.): Proceedings of the International Workshop on the Scientic approach to the Acheiropoietos Images 2010, International Workshop on the Scientific Approach to the Acheiropoietos Images. 4 - 6 May 2010, Frascati, Italy. ENEA, Rome 2010, ISBN 978-88-8286-232-9 .
- Heinrich W. Pfeiffer : The Roman Veronica. In: Frontier Areas of Science. Vol. 49, No. 3, 2000, ISSN 1021-8130 , pp. 225-240.
- Blandina Paschalis Schlömer : The Veil of Manoppello and the Shroud of Turin. Resch, Innsbruck 1999, ISBN 3-85382-068-9 .
- Joseph Sauer : The oldest pictures of Christ (= Wasmuths Kunsthefte. H. 7, ZDB -ID 251971-9 ). Wasmuth, Berlin 1920.
- Daniel Spanke: The Mandylion. Iconography, legends and image theory of the "images of Christ not made by human hands" (= monographs of the Icon Museum Recklinghausen. Vol. 5). Ikonen-Museum, Recklinghausen 2000, ISBN 3-929040-48-4 .
- Nikolaus Thon : Icon and Liturgy (= Sophia. Vol. 19). Paulinus-Verlag, Trier 1979. ISBN 3-7902-1403-5 .
- Gerhard Wolf : veil and mirror. Traditions of the image of Christ and the image concepts of the Renaissance. Fink, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-7705-3632-0 (also: Berlin, Humboldt University, habilitation thesis 1995: Vera icon and verum corpus. ).
