II. Historical Development
1. WITHIN the historical parameters of this development, during which, as we have said, the language of Orthodox iconography was lost, the Latin type gradually came to prevail in depictions of the Resurrection.
• This type was created in the eleventh century in the West and became familiar through Giotto (Giotto di Bondone, 1266-1337), although
its different forms, especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, vary quite widely:
“The Lord is represented holding a banner of victory as He is raised in the air as if by a vigorous jump from a sarcophagus tomb, whose slate covering is raised by an angel, obviously to permit Him to exit, while the guards are shown fallen upon the ground’; ‘[T]he Western type showing Christ jumping out of the grave was imposed upon Orthodox iconography during the Turkish domination (especially from the 17th century6) through the influence of the West. It became practically the prevalent Icon of the Resurrection, when in essence it is a type not only untraditional but unorthodox.”7
2. WESTERN GRAVURES,8 which became a source for the borrowing of new iconographic compositions, contributed significantly to the spread of Western-style iconography and its direct influence on Orthodox painters, from the sixteenth century onwards.
• “The Western depiction (in terms of iconography and technique) of the Resurrection was a subject especially dear to Cretan iconographers in the seventeenth century and to artists of the so-called Heptanesian School in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I believe that this preference for the Western-style rendition of the Resurrection is due, inter alia, to the influence of pilgrims to the Holy Places, since above the entrance to the All-Holy Sepulchre there was a similar (Western-style) Icon of the Resurrection, which was reproduced on a variety of souvenirs for pilgrims and thus became a model for many artists.”9
3. HOWEVER, according to the Byzantine iconographic type, the Resurrection—as early as the eighth century—is portrayed primarily by the Descent of the Savior into Hades.
• “This iconographic type represents the Lord in Hades surrounded by a radiant glory; He is trampling upon the demolished gates of Hell and bears in His left hand the Cross of the Resurrection, while with His right hand He raises from a sarcophagus Adam, who represents the human race.”10
4. The so-called Byzantine type became very popular and was never called in question, and was in fact promoted by ecclesiastical authority, by Fathers and synods, in both practice and theory.
a. “In Byzantine art, the composition of the Descent into Hades crystallizes during the tenth and eleventh centuries, while in the Palæologan period it is enhanced with new details. In the same period, there emerges a fixed composition with many variations.”11
b. Famous representations of the Descent into Hades, which attest to the homogeneous and uniform Tradition of Orthodoxy regarding the subject in question, include those in the Monastery at Daphni, in the Monastery of Hosios Loukas, in the mosaics and frescoes of the Palæologan era (e.g., in the Church of the Holy Apostles, in Thessaloniki, and in the Monastery of Chora [Kariye Camii], in Constantinople), those found in monasteries, and those featured in numerous portable Icons.
c. It should be noted that
“all traditional depictions [of this type], whether in manuscripts, frescoes, or portable Icons, bear the inscription THE RESURRECTION. Such inscriptions as ‘The Resurrection of Christ’ or the ‘Descent into Hades’ are rare.”12
5. IT IS very striking that St. John of Damascus (680-749) knows only one Icon of the Resurrection, which he considers consonant in every respect with the ecclesiastical tradition up to his time, and which he describes:
“We have received Her [the Holy Church of God] from the Holy Fathers thus adorned, as the Divine Scriptures also teach us: to wit, with the Incarnate Œconomy of Christ,... the Annunciation of Gabriel to the Virgin, etc., the Nativity, etc....; and likewise, the Crucifixion, etc... ; the Resurrection, which is the joy of the world—how Christ tramples on Hades and raises up Adam.”13
• The Saint subsequently addresses these points in greater detail: “Suppose an unbeliever [who comes from a pagan milieu and says to you: ‘Show me your faith, that I, too, might believe’] asks: ‘Who is this that is crucified? Who is this that has risen and is trampling on the head of that old man?’ Do you not [O man], teach him from the Icons, saying: ‘This crucified man is the Son of God, Who was crucified to take away the sins of the world. This man that has risen is He Who raised up with Himself Adam, the forefather of the world, who fell through disobedience. He is trampling on Hades, which held Adam for so many years bound in unbreakable fetters and bars in the nethermost regions’? In this way you gradually bring him to the knowledge of God.”14
6. IT SHOULD be especially emphasized that the Synodikon of Orthodoxy mentions the Icon of the Resurrection in terms similar to those of St. John of Damascus:
“For in the Icons we see the Suffering of the Master for our sake, the Cross, the Tomb, and Hades deadened and despoiled.”15
• It is noteworthy that in the foregoing text the words “the Resurrection and the egress from the Tomb” are not added, because Holy Tradition has always regarded “trampling on Hades and raising Adam” as a representation of the Resurrection.16
7. ONE authoritative contemporary theologian, with this entire set of issues in mind, assures us that
[T]he Church decided to regard the Descent into Hades as a true Icon of the Resurrection.... The quintessential Icon of the Resurrection of Christ is considered to be His Descent into Hades.... To be sure, there are also Icons of the Resurrection which depict Christ’s appearance to the Myrrh-bearing women and the Disciples, but the Icon of the Resurrection par excellence is the shattering of death, which took place at the Descent of Christ into Hades, when His soul, together with His Divinity, went down into Hades and freed the souls of the Righteous ones of the Old Testament, who were awaiting Him as their Redeemer.17
