I keep this Christ Pantocrator on my laptop desktop, to keep me honest...frankly, some days when I turn on my computer the image is so lifelike at first glance that it startles the stuffing right out of me. The face is rendered asymmetrically -- Christ's left, our right, portrays Christ the Righteous Judge, while his right side, our left, portrays Christ the Compassionate Savior. That raised eyebrow has readjusted my attitude more than once; on the other hand, when I've had a miserable day, I see, "I know. But it' s going to be okay. Trust me." And...every once in awhile I'm sure I detect a little smile.
6 comments:
This is a wonderful icon. Thank you for posting it.
It is a very cool Pantocrator.
Also it reminds me of how Spock often raised one of his Vulcan eyebrows, on Star Trek. :-)
I see the resemblance too, Anonymous. And in fact, even though The CEO has suggested more than once that human linear thinking isn't all it's cracked up to be, he's whispered "Highly illogical" in my ear more than once.;-) (Actually it was more like, "Hey -- don't be stupid" -- but you get the point.)
In case anyone is wondering, this particular icon is from St. Catherine's monastery on Mt. Sinai and is dated to about the 6th century. I find the dimensionality of it very striking compared to most other icons...that and its age. For any readers interested in iconography, click on Come and See Icons in my list o' links...they have some really nice ones.
My Spiritual Director has that one in her room...not a hope of evading the corners of myself that I might have hoped to gloss over with those eyes gazing at me.
Hmmm...wish I had a spiritual director...I mean, other than my four-legged one.;-)
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