Abstraction and ineffability in the central middle ages. Visual culture and the intersubjective apophatic imagination: a first approach

Abstract

Abstract and quasi-abstract motifs were widely used in the religious images of the central Middle Ages. In many cases, these were certainly not simple ornamental devices but, on the contrary, they functioned as cognitively challenging semiotic devices affected by complex theological ideas. As this article will suggest, the miniatures discussed here — produced in the Byzantine, Insular, Carolingian, and Ottonian contexts — were created in accordance with apophatic spirituality, using nonfigurative representation to emphasise God’s ineffability. Thus, visual culture from the late seventh to the early eleventh century established an intricate transregional network in which iconic and symbolic contents were communicated rhizomatically. This phenomenon will be described here as the intersubjective apophatic imagination. The aim of this notion is to reflect the influence of important authors, whether closely or distantly associated with the via negativa, such as Pseudo Dionysius Areopagita, Kosmas Indikopleustes, Bede, and Ioannes Scotus Eriugena. Taking these elements into account, the article will argue that the aesthetic and semantic singularities of the images in question would have sought to avoid the presentification of meaning as a way of capturing the incomprehensibility of the divine essence.