The Akathistos Aniconically : Meditations on Unsettled Seeing
(2025) In New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture p.313-323- Abstract
- As poetry the Akathistos has spurred a whole strain of iconography. The song, however, heaps image upon image, creating a shaky landscape, one which yields an ecstatic kind of seeing. With a form that frequently approximates sound poetry, it complicates a stable gaze.
The icons usually feature 24 narrative scenes neatly representing the 24 stanzas of the hymn. While much kontakion hymnography has a clear narrative layout, the poetic Akathistos actually lacks a narrative development, depending much more on spatially flourishing imagery as it slings itself out in intertwining scrolls. This chapter argues that the icons contribute to a domestication of an otherwise wild and sprawling metaphorical growth, focusing the viewer’s gaze on... (More) - As poetry the Akathistos has spurred a whole strain of iconography. The song, however, heaps image upon image, creating a shaky landscape, one which yields an ecstatic kind of seeing. With a form that frequently approximates sound poetry, it complicates a stable gaze.
The icons usually feature 24 narrative scenes neatly representing the 24 stanzas of the hymn. While much kontakion hymnography has a clear narrative layout, the poetic Akathistos actually lacks a narrative development, depending much more on spatially flourishing imagery as it slings itself out in intertwining scrolls. This chapter argues that the icons contribute to a domestication of an otherwise wild and sprawling metaphorical growth, focusing the viewer’s gaze on a humanoid stability absent in the Akathistos Hymn. The Akathistos tradition, then, sprouts with a tension between the aniconic, almost apophatic, darkness of the chairetismoi and the sanitizing pull of the icon scenes. The poetry, ultimately, takes the reader to a place where the iconography hesitates to go.
Having discussed this tension, the chapter turns to the “dark Mariology” of the hymn; the salutations associate the Theotokos with landscapes and fields, an overshadowed meadow, and downplay anthropomorphic forms, giving way to a much more dispersed Marian imagination, connecting her to the rich soil and the fertile earth. (Less)
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https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/0925da17-b6a1-4d38-959b-a7cd669a2d1a
- author
- Arentzen, Thomas LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Akathistos, Theotokos, intermedial studies, dark mariology
- host publication
- The Akathistos Hymnos and Intermedial Compositional Processes in Later Byzantium : Sung, Written, Painted - Sung, Written, Painted
- series title
- New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture
- editor
- Díaz, Jon C. Cubas
- pages
- 11 pages
- publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105004230840
- ISBN
- 9783031627873
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-031-62788-0_11
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 0925da17-b6a1-4d38-959b-a7cd669a2d1a
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-12 13:38:46
- date last changed
- 2025-08-18 09:39:54
@inbook{0925da17-b6a1-4d38-959b-a7cd669a2d1a,
abstract = {{As poetry the Akathistos has spurred a whole strain of iconography. The song, however, heaps image upon image, creating a shaky landscape, one which yields an ecstatic kind of seeing. With a form that frequently approximates sound poetry, it complicates a stable gaze.<br/><br/>The icons usually feature 24 narrative scenes neatly representing the 24 stanzas of the hymn. While much kontakion hymnography has a clear narrative layout, the poetic Akathistos actually lacks a narrative development, depending much more on spatially flourishing imagery as it slings itself out in intertwining scrolls. This chapter argues that the icons contribute to a domestication of an otherwise wild and sprawling metaphorical growth, focusing the viewer’s gaze on a humanoid stability absent in the Akathistos Hymn. The Akathistos tradition, then, sprouts with a tension between the aniconic, almost apophatic, darkness of the chairetismoi and the sanitizing pull of the icon scenes. The poetry, ultimately, takes the reader to a place where the iconography hesitates to go.<br/><br/>Having discussed this tension, the chapter turns to the “dark Mariology” of the hymn; the salutations associate the Theotokos with landscapes and fields, an overshadowed meadow, and downplay anthropomorphic forms, giving way to a much more dispersed Marian imagination, connecting her to the rich soil and the fertile earth.}},
author = {{Arentzen, Thomas}},
booktitle = {{The Akathistos Hymnos and Intermedial Compositional Processes in Later Byzantium : Sung, Written, Painted}},
editor = {{Díaz, Jon C. Cubas}},
isbn = {{9783031627873}},
keywords = {{Akathistos; Theotokos; intermedial studies; dark mariology}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{313--323}},
publisher = {{Palgrave Macmillan}},
series = {{New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture}},
title = {{The Akathistos Aniconically : Meditations on Unsettled Seeing}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-62788-0_11}},
doi = {{10.1007/978-3-031-62788-0_11}},
year = {{2025}},
}