Introduction What is sacred Christian art? Illuminated Manuscripts in Christian Art What are the foundations of Christian art? Sacred buildings The Sanctuary The Sacred Image The Function of the Icon The Decadence of Christian Art The Renewal of Christian Art

slide 7 of 10 What is the tradition of the sacred image? "The Word is not merely the pronouncement, at once eternal and temporal, of God, it is equally His image, as St. Paul said; that is to say, It reflects God on every level of manifestation. The sacred image of the Christ is thus only the final projection of the descent of the Divine Word to earth." "Among the prototypes generally handed down in Christian art, the most important is the acheiropoietos ('not made by human hands') image of Christ on the Mandilion. It is said that Christ gave His image, miraculously imprinted on a piece of fabric, to the messengers of the King of Edessa, Abgar, who had asked Him for His portrait...As for the usual traditional representations of the Christ, its authenticity is confirmed by a thousand years of Christian art, and this alone is a powerful argument of that authenticity, for, unless reality is denied to everything of that order, it must be admitted that the Spirit present in the tradition as a whole would soon have eliminated a false physical representation of the Savior."