4 5 Byzantine aesthetics

The concept of Byzantine aesthetics reflects the development of aesthetically artistic ideas in the territory of the Byzantine Empire IV-XV centuries The preservation of ancient cities led to the preservation of ancient culture and education on the lands of the former Eastern Roman Empire, although Christian ideals influenced the understanding of beauty and understanding of its essence late IV c, in the time of the emperor Theodosius I, Christianity was the only one to allow the religion of the empire to be Helena. Byzantine theologians developed, bringing to its logical conclusion, a number of ideas indicated in labor ah Stoics, the Gnostics, the early Christians, the Neoplatonists neoplatonіkіv.

Byzantine aesthetics - the synthesis of two ideological tendencies: Christian and ancient The second was not mainstream, but thanks to it a significant number of monuments of ancient artistic and philosophical co-aesthetic heritage remained. The Christian ideological system was dominant. It led to the formation of the peculiarity of Byzantine artistic thinking. and questions of the psychology of perception and aesthetic experience of veriri symbols.

According to two cultural-historical orientations, researchers propose the division of Byzantine aesthetics into four main periods: early Christian (I-III) early Byzantine (IV-VII centuries) iconography (VIII-IX centuries), after iconoclastic (XI-XV centuries) [From , from 11] early Christian (pre-Byzantine) period many ideas were born, which later became the main ones in Byzantine aesthetics. In the early Byzantine period, the basic concepts and categories of Byzantine aesthetics were formed. Whose thinking High development reaches artistic culture, in particular in the period of the golden age - age of Justinian (VI c) During the period of iconoclasm, theories of image and symbol were actively developed, the categories of Byzantine aesthetics Pislya and Conbor are time the dogmas of atisation of the main categories and positions of aesthetics, as well as the growth of interest in the ancient heritage of the ancient world to the ancient to ancient.

Byzantine Christianity as an ideology and its aesthetic principles were affirmed on the basis of the ideas of ancient Neo-Platonism and early patristics. Byzantine aesthetics arose from the developed direction of August reddish aesthetics Patristic aesthetics — the main direction of Byzantine aesthetics — consisted in the 4th-7th centuries on the basis of the ideas of Greco-Roman and biblical aesthetics Representatives- big to appadokytsi (a group of Christian theologians, writers and scholars of the second half of IV c): Basil the Great (330-379), Gregory Nazianzen (330-390), Gr Gory of Nyssa (335-394), as well as John Chrysostom (3 47-407) A special role in the development of the philosophy and aesthetics of Byzantium was the "Areopagitics", works containing the treatises On the divine names , On the celestial hierarchy , Secret Theology their date is not lower than the second half of V in Signed Areopagitics in the name of the first Athenian bishop Dionysius Areopagite (V - beginning of VI centuries) Hence their name, although science doubts about the reliability of av the authorship of this creator is in the science of sums of perceptions of authorship RU.

The aesthetics of the church fathers were created on the basis of the idea of ​​non-proportionality of the real world and the ideal. It was an attempt to express the language of concepts a deep contradiction of life phenomena immense by the human mind, even though it was cognition. It is this problematics that forms the basis of Areopagitic epistemology, on the basis of which Byzantine aesthetics was formed Pseudo-Dionysias , realizing NOT the proportionality of man and God, I note the shaft: God is above all knowledge and above all existence, therefore its intellectual cognition is impossible [3, p. ] The place of speculative experience is occupied by the mystical experience : Higher knowledge is achieved as a result of abandoning all knowledge, affirmation through denial [3, p 38] Unlike Neo-Platonism, Pseudo-Dionysius claims that above essential deity in each of their various manifestations, there is at the same time everything completely “united disconnected, multiplied.” Investigating the problem of name and definition, Pseudo-Dionysius, referring to Gregory of Nyssa and Plato, justifies the opinion that only a combination of many names is capable of it umoosyazhny essence of deity [3, 39] It combines and katafatichni (affirmative) and apophatic (negative) Bogverdzhuvalnі names) th apofatichnі (zaperechnі) іmena God.

The path to truth in the system of Byzantine knowledge of God is based on mystical, liturgical and artistic knowledge. The connection of epistemology and aesthetics is determined by the nature of the Byzantine faith, where the goal is not God’s knowledge as such, but the idea of ​​saving each individual person. Knowledge is the source of faith and the means of moral purification and perfection. - attention to the moral and mental state of each individual person antinomism limited the further development of conceptual thinking, but actively sp He singled out the transfer of psychic energy and cognitive activity to the sphere of emotional-aesthetic and artistic thinking. With this, it is obviously worth linking the "depth, richness and diversity of the forms of artistic thinking of the Byzantine and, more broadly, of the entire Eastern Christian world" [3, 43 ] The analysis of the general education svitogl of the positions of Byzantine Christianity is necessary in order to comprehend the sources of its originality, in particular the wide development of artistry and the display of Christian ideas and symbols of faith and In our midst, we have an artistic-figurative language of art of Movi Mistchevt.

Especially important for the affirmation of the creeds in the feelings of believers should be the liturgy. She appeared for the Christian consciousness not only as a ceremony, but also as a “living and living philosophy of Orthodoxy" [3 3, 48] In the liturgical action prose and poetic verbal forms organically combined with singing - the melodic musical form John Chrysostom noted the influence of music on the human soul: Nothing does not bring the soul, nothing inspires it, does not see it from the earth, does not free it from physical bonds, does not instruct in philosophy and doesn’t It can achieve complete contempt for living objects, as the melody and divine chants, controlled by rhythm, are coordinated. "[12, 114-115] Music in the Byzantine cult appeared to be a carrier of particular information in an uneasy way (" philosophy in melody ", according to Gregory Niss Whom) the Byzantine church, where the divine service took place, became a special sacred space, in which the contradiction between the transcendental and immanent spheres was eliminated. The pictorial we were just as important, which set the believers in the sphere of transcendence Enthusiastic, giving sensually-comprehensive images of the supernatural The whole aesthetic theory of the Byzantines was introduced into their theory of cognition of the root cause, and called for the preservation of the living and the efficacy of this latter theory [3, 56], said the famous Byzantine aesthetics researcher V Bychko Dotal Vizantіysko i estetiki V. Bichkov.

The main aesthetic problems developed by the Byzantines - image, symbol, sign, light, beauty, canon. All of them are epistemological loads, besides - form the basis of the Byzantine theory of its knowledge [W, p. 56] Pseudo-Dionysius considers artistic images above natural phenomena and even the church order, placing them between the levels of being and superbeing, along with church sacraments. Researchers see five levels of the functioning of the visual arts in Byzantine epistemology: didactic, symbolic, sacral mystical, liturgical and proper artistic [3, p. 58] All of them are closely connected with each other.

The ideal of Byzantine aesthetics is transcendental: God is the source of beauty and as such surpasses all of its manifestations. The universum constitutes a system of images, symbols and signs pointing to the root cause — God ceases in the natural world, in the works of human hands, in particular in works of art (verbal, musical, figurative images) - these are symbols and images of the primary cause, design of the form of its manifestation. Beauty and beauty in all their modifications arise from the leading categories of Byzantine aesthetics. So, Pseudo Dionysius in the treatise On the divine names , considering the idea of ​​beauty in Plato's treatise Pir , remarks: H aysuttevicho, the beautiful is called beauty because it gives everything to its own, its own beauty, different for everyone, and it is the cause of coherence and brilliance in everything that exists, like light, and it radiates its deep rays to all objects, creating beauty and as if calling for everything, so it is called beauty, and gathers everything in itself [8, p 333-334] Pseudo-Dionysius p three ontological s the beauty of beauty: firstly, the absolute divine beauty (truly beautiful), secondly, the beauty of celestial beings - the ranks of the celestial hierarchy, thirdly, the visible beauty, the beauty of objects and I am superior to the real world. They are all united by the presence of essential - spiritual beauty ( each according to its own degree (kozhne v_dpovіdno to its miri).

The attitude of Byzantine thinkers to sensual beauty is ambiguous. On the one hand, it is considered a source of sin, therefore it causes a negative attitude towards oneself. On the other hand, beauty in the material world and in art is highly valued as evidence of manifestations of absolute divine beauty, like Plotinus, in art only imitation of the visible to the world, but the semantic essence of which nature itself consists. The purpose of perfect images is to enhance the human spirit, Byzantine aesthetics focus He pays special attention to the psychological aspects of the perception and experience of perfect artistic images, and the aesthetic and ethical images are considered to be an inseparable pistilist, in a way in which the beautiful can only show itself.

Basil the Great pays special attention to the role of visual images during the perception and experience of beauty, as well as to the mechanism of influence of the beautiful on the person. The beautiful is comprehended not only in connection with the prediction and image quality, but also due to the influence on the perceiving subject in the structure of the work it is important given its harmonizing effects on the human soul that Basil the Great belongs to express his opinion, which became the cornerstone during the confrontation between the iconoclasts and the icon nnikov: Image - a book for the illiterate, the smart ones."

A new stage in the development of patriotic aesthetics is associated with the time of the iconoclastic controversy (18th-9th centuries). The theory of the image and the symbol, the theory of the image and prototype in the visual arts is being developed. The outstanding aestheticists of this period were John of Damascus (? -753) and Fyodor Studite (759-826 ) In the 9th century (second half), the formation of the canons of patriotic aesthetics was completed. The development of the category "symbol" was dictated by Asya in the affirmative-negative (Antinomic) manner of absolute perfection. The idea of ​​Pseudo-Dionysius about the Goding of God the symbol is one of the ways of removing the antinomianity, because in every word, image, in a living thing the transcendental essence of God highlights the symbol in the Areopagitic appears to be the most nautical philosophical category Category symbol is subjective, it has a purely emotional coloring, Oskol ky It is based on light and beauty. Beauty is not external, but spiritual - the personification of the beauty of a transcendent God. It is in extra-conceptual sensory images that the source and means of eliminating antinomicism and ascent from image to truth and Archetype The idea of ​​figurative knowledge of truth was angular in Byzantine aesthetics. The image theory developed in the 5th-6th centuries deepens in the direction of canonizing the techniques of thin writing while creating iconographic images during the period of iconoclasm (6th-9th centuries). The iconic image is not viewed as "similar". to the transcendental archetype, and as an image of God, embodied in human form. Around the idea of ​​the sensual incarnation of God, sharp disputes developed in the mentioned period. The Iconoclasts "tried to clear the cult of coarse fetishism , sought to preserve for his deity Essen spirituality Icon-worshipers, referring to Pseudo-Dionysius, argued that with the help of sensual images, man goes back to spiritual contemplation Fyodor Studite, denying the iconoclasts, who don’t recognize the connection between and in the first way, he writes: But how could he (God - In M) be described if he didn’t have the significance of the first-image Confessing that Christ could be described, you, of your own will, agree that he is the first-image of his image, just as every man is a first-image of his own kind I [7 337ya s tim, scho vіn - Perche image Svoge image, yak i just in Person of Je-Perche vlasnoї image similarity" [7, p. 337].

The concept of image and prototype appear to be the subject of reflection not only in the period of early patristic and iconoclasm, but also during the post-iconoclastic period. This period is characterized by the development of interest in anti-Russian philosophy, literature, ancient artistic culture. There was an active rewriting manuscripts of ancient authors, thanks to which they reached our time. Encyclopedically educated people belonged and, in particular, Fotius (second half of the 9th century) and Mikhail Psello (1018-1096) This idea reveals: I am generally a fan of icons, but one of them especially affects men with extraordinary beauty, like a lightning strike, it deprives me of feelings and takes away my strength in earthly affairs and my mind. I'm not quite sure what it is the image is like its supernatural original, but I firmly know that mixing colors reflects the nature of the flesh "[7, pp. 338-339 the nature of flesh" [7, pp. 338-339].

Of particular interest to iconographic images, including the creation of iconographic canons, caused by the understanding of the consecrated iconographic image as ultimate reality compared to the transient world of phenomena and the Icon in popular consciousness also acquired the value of the archetype and energy of the prototype. An interesting monument of Late Byzantine aesthetics is a treatise Herminia (Guide to pictorial art) He gives ideas about the aesthetic ideal of Byzantine painters, reveals the laws of the artistic image of Christ, God Mothers, Saints. This contains tips on the material of art, means of painting, etc. The main thing in the c m of the treatise is the doctrine of the first image and prototype In the third part of the treatise, in particular, it is noted: We worship not colors and works of art, as the enemies of our church evilly say, Lord in our Jesus Christ, who exists in heaven, for honoring icons goes to the first-image [11, from 223 heralding of the icon to switch to the first-person image ..." [11, p. 223].

Thus, the aesthetics of Byzantium - a bright embodiment of the ideas of Christian Neo-Platonism in artistic creativity, designed to reveal the hierarchical steps of beauty as a reflection of the idea of ​​divine perfection. Byzantine aesthetics developed a distinctive theory of aesthetic categories, deepening the ancient tradition. This is the theory of the image, the first image, symbol, light, canon. became her backward in the theory of aesthetic perception and mental experience of perfect images, which cause an uplift of feelings and set the mind to comprehend The experience of the perfection of the world and the divine primordial image of the ethical ideas of Byzantium directly influenced the culture of medieval Europe, Asia, and Kiev RusRus.