Abstract:
According to the rationalist and scientist paradigm established
in modern European culture, such unfair notions are still used in the
assessment of the Middle Ages, such as backwardness, darkness, etc.
The point is that the scientific spirit has become the only unmistakable
factor in establishing the truth of the new time.
Our aim is to show that the medieval picture of reality is based
on the ontological preconditions by which that picture is conditioned.
Thus, the assessment of the Middle Ages from the position
of European rationalism is not entirely correct. This era is not an era
of intellectual crisis, as modern-day thinkers understand it. In the
medieval model of the relationship between man and reality, we find
brilliant examples of thinking, what is demonstrated is the doctrine
of John of Damascus about the “face-icon”. Nearly a millennium of “iconoclasm” has weakened some areas
of culture. In particular, the development of religious fine arts has
virtually ceased. But, it is this period that Byzantine culture should
be thankful for, the formation of the whole Eastern Byzantine aesthetic
theory.
Face-icon theory combined ontology, epistemology, religion, art.
The unification of all this was done on the basis of its aesthetic significance. The problem of the face-icon was also realized by the first
Christian thinkers, but the issue comes to the fore only after the official ban on religious images.
Iconoclasm was actively opposed by John of Damascus (675-749).
Damascus believes that every face is a manifestation and display of
everything hidden. Through the face man will know the world. The
cognitive capacity of the human soul is limited by material nature, he
can not clearly imagine the invisible, that’s why he thinks the face is
made up, to act as a knowledge guide as well as to reveal the hidden.
According to Damascus, “the divine nature is not described and
is not reflected”. It is impossible to reflect an invisible deity, but the
deity embodied in the human body must be reflected, this is also
necessary. The Icon is the face of worship, worship is a sign of fear,
obedience. The Icon is worshiped not its matter, but also the image
reflected in it – the archetype.
