Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

In 2000, St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York City acquired a 19th-century icon of the Virgin Hodegetria, originating from the Tikhvin Monastery in Russia. The predominantly Romanesque architecture of the church clashes with the distinguished treatment of the icon, an object largely associated with Eastern Christianity. Demonstrating the Byzantine interior’s generally secondary status to the Romanesque architecture of the church is a crucial step in recognizing that the placement of the icon in the north porch chapel is anomalous. Centering on the significance of the icon’s visual prominence in the chapel, this paper contends that the icon is an evolving and plastic aesthetic image that resists interpretation as a static object relegated to the confines of a certain historical period. The icon points backward by resonating with the historical and present commitment of the church to catholicity. Analysis of the icon in the context of the church’s former and contemporary theological orientation thus reveals the icon as an object that recalls an ancient, undivided church. At the same time, the icon moves forward by linking the Romanesque and Art Deco features of the church. The icon artist’s treatment of the garments of the Virgin and Christ – which respectively feature nonfigural, flat, and geometric elements as well as figural, voluminous, and realistic components – demonstrates the capacity for the icon to embrace art movements that came many centuries after its emergence.