The Icon of the Resurrection of Christ
By Photios Kontoglou
By Photios Kontoglou
In Orthodox iconography, the type of the icon of the Resurrection is the one upon which the image of this book cover was made, and it bears the title “Resurrection” or “The Descent into Hades.” In the center is depicted Christ, of greater stature than the other figures, within a radiant “glory.” With forceful movement He steps upon the shattered gates of Hades, which opens beneath His feet like a dark cave, strewn with locks, keys, and broken bars. With His right hand He pulls Adam, and with His left Eve, drawing them out of the tombs. On His hands and feet are visible the marks of the nails.
On the right and left surrounding their Redeemer and standing in amazement are the “righteous,” that is, those who were pleasing to God from the foundation of the world until the Incarnation of Christ: Enoch, Noah, Moses, Elijah, David, Solomon, and the others. First on the right appears Saint John the Forerunner, because, after he proclaimed beforehand to the world the coming of the Lord, he was beheaded and descended into Hades in order to announce also to “those bound from ages past” that the Redeemer would descend to free them from the bonds of Hades, “and as a forerunner to the faithful in Hades.”
This type of the icon of the Resurrection also has variations, yet without departing from the meaning it expresses. In the more ancient icons, Christ holds Adam with His right hand and with His left holds the Cross, the instrument of victory over death. Death is depicted as an old, fierce-faced man bound with chains and crushed beneath the doors upon which Christ stands. Often an Angel is also painted, who binds Death in chains as it lies face down.
This icon of the Resurrection depicts through painting what Orthodox hymnography chants, saying: “Those who were held fast in the bonds of Hades, beholding Your immeasurable compassion, hastened toward the light, O Christ, with rejoicing steps, celebrating the eternal Pascha,” or “You descended into the lowest parts of the earth and shattered the eternal bars that held the captives, O Christ….” The Redeemer is depicted as “He who despoiled Hades and raised up man,” “He who crushed the bars and gates of Hades.”
Hymnography and iconography always express the same thing in the Orthodox Church — the one with words and chant, and the other with sacred and symbolic forms and with mystical colors. This true icon of the Resurrection, which will, alas, surprise many Greek Christians, depicts nothing other than what the Paschal troparion says, which young and old alike chant: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs granting life.”
This was the icon of the Resurrection in our religion for centuries, until recent years when we gradually abandoned our deep and meaningful tradition and adopted from the West the painting (not icon) of the Resurrection, in which Christ is depicted naked and plump, holding a banner, and which reveals, by its theatrical appearance, the fleshly, irreligious, and anti-spiritual mindset of those who fashioned it with their worldly imagination.
Source: From the book Ekphrasis tis Orthodoxou Eikonographias / Expression of Orthodox Iconography. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
This icon of the Resurrection depicts through painting what Orthodox hymnography chants, saying: “Those who were held fast in the bonds of Hades, beholding Your immeasurable compassion, hastened toward the light, O Christ, with rejoicing steps, celebrating the eternal Pascha,” or “You descended into the lowest parts of the earth and shattered the eternal bars that held the captives, O Christ….” The Redeemer is depicted as “He who despoiled Hades and raised up man,” “He who crushed the bars and gates of Hades.”
Hymnography and iconography always express the same thing in the Orthodox Church — the one with words and chant, and the other with sacred and symbolic forms and with mystical colors. This true icon of the Resurrection, which will, alas, surprise many Greek Christians, depicts nothing other than what the Paschal troparion says, which young and old alike chant: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs granting life.”
This was the icon of the Resurrection in our religion for centuries, until recent years when we gradually abandoned our deep and meaningful tradition and adopted from the West the painting (not icon) of the Resurrection, in which Christ is depicted naked and plump, holding a banner, and which reveals, by its theatrical appearance, the fleshly, irreligious, and anti-spiritual mindset of those who fashioned it with their worldly imagination.
Source: From the book Ekphrasis tis Orthodoxou Eikonographias / Expression of Orthodox Iconography. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.