Refutatio et Eversio 1 part 12/21

That these outlandish words belong to the utmost folly of all, and to an irrational and deranged mind, I think no one possessing understanding would dispute;

and I do not know whether this thunderstruck man ought to be condemned for ignorance and blindness, or rather those who accept his words as a strong law and an inviolable canon;

for these things have been handed down to us from the beginning; and sight itself is a teacher, as is the multitude of the things depicted, and the countless number of the divine houses, and the vast length of time, which is the strongest proof of all things;

for the visible facts confirm this, as does the acceptance of the faithful, and the setting-up of images continuing even to the present;

but they, arraying themselves against all creation and the whole inhabited world, do not blush with shame.

Now, against the icon of the Savior, this abominable man does not for the present here dare to utter anything blasphemous — perhaps it escaped him — but against the saints he sheds all restraint and openly abuses them;

At any rate, for their other witnesses, the notion that Christ appeared in manifold forms became the ground of their phantasmal doctrine;

but for this man, what manifold form or diversity of appearance of each of the saints will be discovered, seeing that one and the same form inheres in each according to the distinguishing marks proper to him, so that on this ground the not-depicting of them might be established? Or will 'the uncircumscribed' be set up as their defense here too? But it is not unclear that, just as they are the most hostile enemies of Christ's Economy, so also they prove to be the most ill-disposed toward the saints, so that they may again be insulted together with the insulted Christ — just as before they suffered together with him when he suffered for us — and that they may again be glorified together with him, being martyrs both among the living and in icons.

These things, then, are in no way characteristic of a Christian who loves the martyrs.

How could it be otherwise, even if they pretend to put forward reverence for their virtues as an excuse? For so oppressive to them is Christ, even when beheld in an icon, and the saints too are things to be shunned and rejected even when shown in their likenesses.

But since the senseless do not understand the discordance and incompatibility present among their own witnesses — for they even dare to adduce the sayings of our divine fathers as falsified or wrongly understood — come, let us set the genuine sayings of these fathers over against them, so that from no other source than this we may dissolve their united front, and henceforth show them to stand convicted of derangement and folly;

For behold, they stand at the doors — not as advocates, but as accusers — striking with words of truth and openly exposing the deceits of the transgressors and their hypocrisy;

crying out in a loud voice how they received these things and had seen them, and how they were led to hand them on to others;

and let the great John, high priest of the imperial city — John Chrysostom — lead the way, saying such things as these in his discourse on Job:

'...the sufferings depicted in painting, and a wall stands narrating the contests of the martyr, and the hands of painters display in procession the remembrance of his virtue — thus also here in this case.'

And similar things have been expressed by him also in his work on the garment of the priest:

'I too have loved the encaustic image, filled with piety;'

'for I saw an angel in an icon driving away clouds of barbarians;'

'I saw the tribes of the barbarians being trampled underfoot, and David proven true;'

'O Lord, in your city you will bring their image to nothing.'

Such things also may be discerned as having been said by him concerning the holy Meletios, archbishop of Antioch:

'You did not conceive so great a longing for his name alone, but also for the very shape of his body;'

'what, then, you did with his name, this you also did with regard to his icon;'

'for indeed, on the bezels of rings, on drinking-cups, on the walls of chambers, and everywhere, many engraved that holy icon of his, so that they might not only hear his holy appellation, but also everywhere behold the shape of his body, and have a certain twofold consolation for his absence.'

How our sacred teacher himself held the imprints of the saints in great honor will be shown to us also by what is written in his own divinely-inspired Life, which runs something like this:

'Now the blessed John greatly loved the epistles of the most wise Paul;'

'He also had the image of the apostle Paul in an icon, where he used to rest a little because of the weakness of his body (for he was sleepless beyond nature); and whenever he went through his epistles, he gazed intently upon it, and gave attention to it as if he were before the living man himself, calling him blessed, and kept his whole mind fixed upon him in contemplation, and conversed with him through this contemplation.'

'And when Proclus stopped speaking, having gazed intently at the icon of the apostle and having seen his likeness resembling the one who had appeared to him, he made a prostration to John, and pointing at the icon with his finger, said:'

'The one whom I saw speaking with you resembles this one;'

'and as I suppose, it is indeed he himself.' Let the divine Basil also join his voice with these, and give instruction to the painters, and command them to arise and, illuminating the scene by their own arts and colors, to magnify the martyrs and their contests.

'yet let him also not fail to confess that his own words are surpassed by this art.'

These things which he wrote concerning the holy martyr Barlaam, we have come to know; did he not then receive [this tradition]? Or, as one who had received it, does he hand it down to those after him to do likewise, acting in a manner worthy of his own virtue and of the honor due to the martyrs, and now indeed also for the glory of the God of the martyrs? And what is written runs thus:

Arise for me, O brilliant painters of athletic achievements;

magnify with your arts the mutilated image of the general;

illuminate all around, with the colors of your wisdom, the crowned victor who was painted more dimly by me;

let me depart, defeated by you in the depiction of the martyr's valorous deeds;

today I rejoice, being defeated by such a victory of your power;

let me see the hand's struggle against the fire painted more precisely by you;

let me see the wrestler painted more radiantly upon your image

let the demons weep even now, struck by the martyr's valorous deeds as shown in you;

let the hand, once again ablaze and victorious, be shown to them;

let Christ, the judge of the contests, also be inscribed upon the panel, to whom be glory forever;

It is clear, then, that this great teacher makes evident that the things painted by the art of painters somehow show forth the truth of the events more vividly, even though those whose understanding has been led astray foolishly turn to allegories and are carried off toward the phantasms of myth-making, having departed both from sound mind and from faith alike, and being led far from the teacher's true intention, misinterpreting such expressions figuratively, as though they were dream-wanderers.

being disposed like the patriarch Abraham, let him indeed also say:

I have often seen in a painting an image of the passion, and I did not pass by the sight without tears, the art vividly bringing the narrative before my eyes

Isaac lies before the very altar, having knelt down upon his knee, with his hands drawn back behind him;

and he who stands over the boy from behind at the bend of the elbow, having with his left hand bent the boy's hair back toward himself, bows his face pitifully toward him as the boy looks up at him, and, armed in his right hand with the sword, directs it toward the slaughter; and already the edge of the sword touches the body, and then a voice comes to him from God, forbidding the deed

This same father, in his homily on the holy martyr Theodore, sets forth the following:

He, then, who comes to a place like this one where our assembly gathers today, where there is the memory of a righteous man and the relics of saints, is first delighted in soul by the magnificence of what is seen, beholding a house adorned splendidly as a temple of God, both by the greatness of the building and by the beauty of its decoration;

where the carpenter has shaped the wood into the semblance of living creatures, and the stone-carver has polished the slabs to the smoothness of silver

and the painter, too, has laid on the flowers of his art, having depicted in an image the martyr's valorous deeds, his steadfastness, his sufferings, the bestial outrages of the tyrants, that flame-fed furnace, his most blessed consummation, and the imprint of the human form of Christ, the judge of the contest;

having, as it were, crafted all things for us through colors as in a certain speaking book, he has clearly recounted the contests of the martyr, and has adorned the shrine like a radiant meadow;

for painting, even though silent, knows how to speak upon a wall and to be of the greatest benefit;

and the composer of the mosaic tesserae has made the floor that is trodden upon worthy of the narrative

and he who has thus delighted his sight with these sensible works of art then desires also to draw near to the reliquary itself, believing the touch to be a sanctification and a blessing

and if it is also fitting to carry off the dust lying upon the surface of the resting-place, the dust is always taken as a gift, and the earth is treasured up as a keepsake;

for how much-desired it is, and a gift of the highest prayer, to touch the very relic itself, should some fortunate occasion ever grant the opportunity—those who have experienced it and have been filled with such power know;

for those who behold it embrace it as though it were a flourishing body, applying to it their eyes, their mouth, their hearing, all their senses, or else pouring forth the tear of piety and of feeling;

as to the martyr, whole and manifest, they offer their supplication for intercession, calling upon him as God's bodyguard, invoking him as one who receives the gifts whenever he wishes

In agreement with these things, he also relates the following concerning the holy martyr Basiliscus, saying:

As for the things concerning the man's endurance, whatever pertains to the narrative, these we know;

which things I myself have often seen painted on a wall, terrifying, even before the experience, those who are ignorant of the ordeal, and showing, through the experience of the torment, its unbearableness;

for painting, even though silent, knows how to speak and to be of the greatest benefit

Let Gregory, surnamed 'the Theologian,' now come forward;

this man, having extolled the great Basil with the most numerous and greatest encomiums, and having exhausted the power that comes from words, and having confessed himself to be overcome by the greatness of nature and virtue of the man, resolved to honor him with an image, thereby setting forth more clearly the expressions of his longing;

and having dedicated it to him, he also adorned it with heroic hexameters and elegiac couplets, addressing the one depicted as though he were still living;

of these we shall set forth the final verses, and leave the rest to those who wish to peruse them and to learn once more the glory of the saints

Hail, O Basil, even though you have left us; this is Gregory's epitaphic inscription. And may that discourse which you used to love be owed to you as a debt, O Basil, and also a most desirable gift of friendship.

I, Gregory, O Basil, have dedicated to your image this dozen of epigrams, O divine one

Having become bishop, marvelously composing that description as though making music, uttering, as one might say poetically, a lily-sweet voice—let him also again gaze upon that sacred painting of the all-praised martyr, and let him marvel at the art of the painters, and let him try to raise his own [art] to greatness, and let him set his words beside that art, [to show] that the remedies of the votaries of the Muses are not inferior, and let him begin his discourse, which runs somewhat as follows:

Recently, O men, I had in my hands the formidable Demosthenes, and those [passages] of Demosthenes in which he assails Aeschines with bitter arguments;

and having spent much time on the speech and having become dense of mind, I needed some relaxation and a walk, so that the labored part of my soul might be relieved a little;

and having gone forth from my chamber, and having walked a little with acquaintances in the marketplace, from there I arrived at the sanctuary of God, intending to pray at leisure

and having obtained this too, as I was walking through one of the covered halls, I saw there a certain painting, and the sight utterly captivated me;

You would have said the work was that of Euphranor, or of one of those ancient masters who raised the art of painting to greatness, producing panels that were almost alive

Come then, if you wish—for there is indeed leisure now for a narrative—I shall describe the painting to you;

for we, the children of the Muses, possess colors that are by no means at all inferior to those of painters

A certain holy virgin woman, having consecrated her unblemished chastity to God (they call her Euphemia), when once a tyrant was persecuting the pious, very readily chose the danger unto death;

and the citizens and fellow-adherents of the religion for which she died, having marveled at the virgin as both courageous and holy, built her tomb near the sanctuary, and having laid the coffin there, perform honors to her, and make the yearly feast a common and public festival

The hierophants of the mysteries of God, then, always honor her memory with speech as well, and diligently instruct the assembled peoples how she accomplished the contest of endurance;

and the painter, being himself pious too, having through his art depicted, to the best of his ability, the whole narrative upon a cloth, dedicated a sacred spectacle somewhere there around the tomb

And the work of art is as follows:

A judge is seated on high upon a throne, looking bitterly and hostilely at the virgin (for art can grow angry, even in lifeless materials, whenever it wishes), and there are bodyguards of the magistracy and many soldiers, among them the clerks of the records bearing tablets and styluses;

one of whom, having lifted his hand from the wax [tablet], gazes intently at the woman being judged, having turned his whole face aside as though urging her to speak more loudly, lest, straining to hear, he write down mistaken and blameworthy things

And the virgin stands in a grey tunic and cloak, signifying her philosophy, comely also in appearance, as it seemed to the painter, but, as it seems to me, adorned in soul with the virtues

Two soldiers lead her toward the ruler, the one pulling her forward, the other pressing on from behind

The virgin's character is a blend of modesty and firmness; for she inclines her eyes toward the ground as though blushing at the sight of the men, yet she stands undaunted, suffering nothing terrible with regard to the contest

As for me, up until now I used to praise the other painters, whenever I beheld the drama of that Colchian woman, how, being about to bring the sword upon her children, she divides her face between pity and wrath;

and one of her eyes reveals anger, while the other betrays the mother sparing and shuddering; but now I have transferred my admiration from that conception to this painting;

and I greatly admire the artist because he blended the character even more skillfully within his colors, mingling together modesty and courage, passions that by nature contend with one another

As the imitation proceeds further, certain executioners in short tunics, already stripped bare, were beginning the work;

and one, having seized her head and bent it back, was offering her face, ready for the punishment, to the other, while the one standing by knocked out her teeth;

and a hammer and a drill appear as the instruments of the punishment

the suffering cuts short my discourse;

for the painter colored the drops of blood in such a way that you would say they truly poured forth from her lips, and one would depart having lamented

and again the virgin sits solemnly alone in her grey garments, stretching out both hands toward heaven and calling upon God as helper amid her sufferings

and as she prays, the sign appears above her head, which it is indeed the custom for Christians to venerate and to inscribe upon themselves—a symbol, I think, of the suffering that awaited her

Then, immediately and shortly after, the painter kindled a fierce fire elsewhere, giving bodily form to the flame with red color shining forth on this side and that, and he sets her in its midst, her hands spread out toward heaven, showing no distress upon her face, but on the contrary, rejoicing, because she was departing to the incorporeal and blessed life

Up to this point both the painter has stayed his hand, and I my discourse;

and now it is time for you, if you wish, to complete the painting yourself, so that you may see precisely whether we have not fallen far short of the description

What do you say to these things? Are the witnesses summoned together on your side advocates for one another? Or is it not rather the case that what has been made known to us by the God-bearing fathers stands in the utmost opposition to what the citation of your own ordained Judaizing-minded Theodotus produces? Which of these two, then, to choose, let it rest upon your folly;

For among the sensible it becomes evident that the likenesses of the saints existed from the beginning and have been received in the Church by Christians, among whom especially the abundant longing for the saints and reverence has flourished.

He, then, who has not received it, is not even a Christian, and this impious and foolish man senselessly rages in vain.

Though many and countless arguments could be stated, which would establish for us both the acceptance and the honor of what has been said, we shall be content with those already assembled by us, and shall proceed to the next words of the Christ-fighter.

"But," he says, "we have been taught to impress their virtues, as it were, like living images, through what is declared about them in the Scriptures, being thereby stirred up to a zeal like theirs."

He appears to be wholly a Jew, clinging to the old letter.

For his manner of thinking so is shown by his designation, drawn from what is declared in the Scriptures concerning the saints, of those about Abraham perhaps, and Moses, and the prophets (for he would not otherwise have taught doctrine contrary to what seems right to the teachers of the Church, unless overpowered by the custom of the Jews), for whom it was of old legislated that one must not make any image of a likeness of whatever is in heaven and on earth and in the waters.

For to what end does he lay down that he has been thus taught to impress the virtues of the saints through what is written, yet refuses that their forms be painted, unless he clings to the grossness of the Law and the shadow of the letter? And thus one shall know this.

For if the virtues of the saints are shown through what is written as, so to speak, living images, how much more justly ought the bodies that accomplish the virtues to be depicted according to their forms — inasmuch as the body is more necessary and more honorable than the deed, the former being active, the latter being effected, the former accomplishing, the latter being accomplished, the bodies being causes and prior, and the deeds being caused and secondary? If, indeed, this were not so, then a house, a ship, and a bed would be more honorable than the builder and the carpenter who constructed them.

And the virtues, being as it were deeds occurring around the bodies, indicate their equity and practical character, whereas the forms manifest to us the very bodies, that is, the saints themselves, what sort of men they happened to be, and how they possessed manliness and nobility.

These things are shown forth as very reality itself, as though they themselves were present and contending in the arenas, displaying each of their several feats and deeds, and the struggles they raised up on behalf of piety.

But if the majority of men, having accomplished but some small thing in life regarding wars and having distinguished themselves in other feats of valor — and some of these perhaps vile and godless — have sometimes been set up in monuments with dyes and colors and splendid mosaics, how is it not more just that the deeds of the saints, which surpass reason and nature, and the saints themselves, be painted in the same manner? Do not these paintings, then, likewise rouse those who behold them to zeal and imitation? Certainly so, one might say.

Let the great Basil once more set his seal upon the argument (and let them again be refuted by those whom they themselves regard as their advocates), expounding as follows in his encomium on the Holy Forty Martyrs:

Since indeed both writers and painters often signify the valorous deeds of wars, the former adorning them with speech, the latter engraving them on panels, and both have roused many to courage.

For what the account of the history has sketched in words, this the silent painting shows through imitation; and it is quite evident that the same subject-matter stands beneath both, and that they share in the same principle.

Who, then, upon beholding the image of a saint, both from the name and from the sight, does not immediately rush into remembrance of the deeds by which he prevailed against the power of the evil one, and ascend in mind to the God who strengthened and cooperated with him, and send up thanksgiving and doxology, and gain the greatest benefit therefrom? From all these things, then, it becomes evident that it is indeed worthy that the forms of the saints be depicted in images.

It is, then, utterly senseless to set oneself in opposition to the very nature of things and to truth itself.

For to think and speak such things is the most fitting mark of a damaged and deranged mind, and of the monstrous absurdity of the Law.

And on account of these things this man will justly be reckoned a Jew, and will be driven out from the court of the Christians as a stranger.

It is evident, then, that those who are trained in such things regard, together with the forms of the saints, both their bodies and their relics as abominable, trampling them ignominiously underfoot and delivering them to the flame.

For concerning their intercessions, what need is there to speak to those who already know how, turning away from them, they also bring no small accusations against those who request them? But for what reason, coming to the remembrance of images at all, does he spit with contempt upon the images properly so called (for this term might reasonably be applied also to artificial images), from which also the so-called "as it were living images" spoken of by him have derived their very designation, while he attends to these latter zealously? And yet from such an argument no refutation whatsoever of those artificial images appears; rather, indeed, a certain relation between them is thereby introduced.

For that which has been named by transference from something else certainly possesses that former thing as previously proclaimed.

For thus also we know the saints to be called, in Scripture, "living temples."

"For you know," it says, "that you are the temple of God" — the term evidently presupposing and pre-existing the inanimate temples, just as one might also say "a living body," the inanimate already being co-implied.

"But," he says, "this is because we have not received it as tradition."

But your hostility toward the saints has been exposed through your own advocates, and your deceit and thievishness have been paraded in triumph.

Among the advocates, however, Asterius, being brought forward from the opposite side, declares that painters produce panels that are, as it were, almost living.

What arbitrary principle, then, decides that the "as it were living" images are approved, while the images that are truly such are excluded? This is not the mark of a sound mind, to set up the one and pull down the other, when they stand upon the same subject-matter and principle, and differ in no other way than by the designation "inanimate" and "as it were living" — so that the unholy man even falls into contradiction with himself.

For he who grants the "as it were living" will certainly also grant the inanimate, so that even unwillingly he establishes the very things he attempted to overthrow.

The painter, having wrought with colors as though with a speaking tongue, has clearly proclaimed all things concerning the martyr.

And indeed also that: "A silent painting on a wall knows how to speak and to benefit greatly."

Since, then, it has been shown that the painting of them is just and their reception worthy, let us proceed to the remaining arguments of the Jewish mindset.

Let those who erect such forms declare, then, what benefit they might derive from these, or to what spiritual contemplation they are led up by the remembrance of them.

Again, let us refute their error and overturn their rash arguments from no other source than those whom they themselves bring forward — not as advocates but as adversaries — and let us set forth how much benefit there is from the erection of these sacred forms.

The divine Basil, then, wishing to establish for his hearers the common benefit derived from the remembrance of the martyrs, and proposing that the feats of the saints be engraved as it were in colored painting, and determining that the power derived from speech be made equal to the sight derived from what is painted — so that the things resounding in the ear might not fall short of the things apprehended by sight, these being as much more manifest and vivid as deeds are more vivid than words — says that what is engraved on panels is able to accomplish the same as what is adorned by speech.

"For what the account of the history sets forth, this the silent painting shows through imitation."

Wherefore those who pursue each of the two arts know how to rouse many to courage, both through the deeds of valor described in writing and through those depicted in painting.

And the great Gregory does not even endure to keep silent about the affair concerning that Polemon of old, but, regarding it as a marvel — one indeed among many marvels, his marvels being surely numerous — he sets forth also how it benefited the woman who plied the courtesan's trade, in these very words, as follows:

Nor will Polemon, for my part, be passed over in silence.

For indeed the marvel is among those greatly spoken of.

This man was formerly not among the sober-minded, and indeed a most shameful servant of pleasures.

But when he was seized by love of the beautiful, having found a counselor (I cannot say who — whether some wise man, or himself), he was suddenly seen to be so far above his passions, that I shall set forth one of his marvels.

A certain intemperate youth summons a courtesan; and she, as they say, when she came near the gateway — above which Polemon was looking down in an image — having seen this (for it was awe-inspiring), departed at once, overcome by the sight, ashamed before the painted figure as though he were alive.

But I think it timely to say that let, at least, the image of Polemon put the senseless to shame, and let them revere it, since they have determined to spit upon the image of Christ.

Further, let the holy Gregory of Nyssa record the benefit derived from this; for he does not pass by without tears when he beholds the depicted scene of Abraham's sacrifice.

"A silent painting," he says, "also knows how to speak and to benefit greatly."

And the great John determines that a certain twofold consolation is provided, both from the name being heard and from the form of the body of the holy Meletius being beheld.

For what reason, then, did such a man of such holiness love the wax-poured painting, and know it to be filled with piety, unless he perceived the benefit derived from it? What then? Was not the image of the great Paul beneficial, upon which he gazed intently and attended as though it were living, imagining that very man himself through this sight, and conversing with him as though present? Let Asterius, once more, rise like a shining star and brighten our argument, and let him proclaim beforehand to the lover of martyrs that, if you should chance upon the sufferings of the martyrs being depicted, you would certainly depart in tears.

Let these things, then, be said from the witnesses adduced by them themselves.

It is recorded in the martyria of the saints (for it would be a long and difficult undertaking to enter into particulars and to expound the account concerning these at length).

For to those who read diligently and with love of God, the great works of God would become well known, as well as the incomprehensible benefits which, on account of his ineffable love for mankind, and providing for the human race even by this means, he was pleased to have accomplished.

But of him perplexedly saying:

"To what spiritual contemplation are they led up by the remembrance of these?" What is more irrational or more brutish than this question? For how does this senseless man not perceive that he overturns his own arguments, nor has he seen that what we take in by ear through the sacred writings, this very thing we also call to mind by beholding this painting? For it introduces to us the very same subject-matter.