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Doc. Ivan Foletti, MA, Ph.D. 2016 MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA SEMINÁŘ DĚJIN UMĚNÍ Bc. Veronika Tvrzníková RITUAL, BODY AND PERCEPTION: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THE ORTHODOX BAPTISTERY OF RAVENNA Magisterská diplomová práce Vedoucí práce: doc. Ivan Foletti, M.A., Ph.D. 2016 Prohlašuji, že jsem magisterskou diplomovou práci vypracovala samostatně s využitím uvedených pramenů a literatury. …………………………………………….. At this point, I would like to express my humble gratitude to those who helped me to push my research forward, as well as to those who gave me much needed encouragement. In the first place, I am truly obliged to my tutor Ivan Foletti, not only for leading my steps through this thesis with enthusiasm and generous support, but especially for the many great opportunities he provided me with. I am obliged to the organizers and participants of the workshop Sensorial Experiences: Christian Initiation and Sacred Space, held in July 2016 in the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, for their remarks that helped me to organize my thoughts and find unforeseen perspectives. I would like to thank Ladislav Kesner, who guided me through the vast literature on cognitive science and enabled me to have a stab at an experimental research, and Ondřej Jakubec for his helpful approach in times of need. My thanks belong also to Adrien Palladino, who did not hesitate to give me a critical feedback during the formation of this thesis and gave me a hand with language corrections. Last but not least, a great portion of gratitude belongs to my family, for their unconditional support and patience during my studies, as well as to my dear friends, who were willing to discuss my ideas and doubts and encouraged me in times of desperation. Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 6 1. Specifying approach ..................................................................................................................... 9 1.1. Art historical background ................................................................................................... 9 1.1.1. Art and liturgy: performativity and hierotopy ........................................................... 9 1.1.2. Beholder-centred approaches: visuality and the senses ....................................... 11 1.2. Perception and cognition ................................................................................................... 13 2. Orthodox Baptistery of Ravenna: meeting the object ............................................................ 15 2.1. Architecture ......................................................................................................................... 15 2.2. Interior .................................................................................................................................. 17 2.3. Decoration ........................................................................................................................... 18 2.4. Perception ............................................................................................................................ 24 3. Ritual of baptism: transforming the space, activating the body .......................................... 28 3.1. Primary sources .................................................................................................................. 30 3.2. Catechetical instruction ..................................................................................................... 31 3.3. Easter Eve: revealing the mystery .................................................................................... 36 3.3.1. Undressing: question of nudity ................................................................................ 37 3.3.2. Apertio: Opening of the senses .................................................................................. 38 3.3.3. Pre-baptismal anointment ......................................................................................... 39 3.3.4. Renunciation of the devil and acceptance of Christ .............................................. 40 3.3.5. Entering into the Baptistery ...................................................................................... 41 3.3.6. Consecration of water ................................................................................................ 44 3.3.7. Immersion into the font ............................................................................................. 46 3.3.8. Dressing into white garments ................................................................................... 48 3.3.9. Unction of the head .................................................................................................... 49 3.3.10. Washing of the feet ..................................................................................................... 49 3.3.11. Perfectio: a spiritual sign ............................................................................................. 50 4. Perception and experience: looking through the body ......................................................... 51 4.1. Situated cognition: principles ........................................................................................... 51 4.1.1. Perception .................................................................................................................... 53 4.2. Embodied experience ......................................................................................................... 54 4.2.1. Implications ................................................................................................................. 56 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 59 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 61 ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................................................................................................... 75 Introduction “But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged. […] If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.” William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1790 The nature and origin of our mind and its relationship with the body to which it is bounded is an issue that has been troubling humankind for thousands of years. Ranging from the ascetic approach of Plotinus, who was ashamed of having his soul grounded in a material body evincing an impure appetite, to the Manichean freewheeling acceptation of one’s corporeality, the world of Late Antiquity was not an exception in this long-standing struggle. Early Christian theologians were somehow wedged in between those two poles. The effort to free one’s soul from the sinful tendencies of the sensual body was weakened by the inherent worthiness of its corporeal aspect, permeated by the divine spirit as the whole of the Creation. Consequently, a certain compromise has been sought, issuing in the utilization of one’s bodily senses as a means of proper awakening of the spiritual capacities. This belief was mirrored in many aspects of Christian life, of which the liturgy – as a ritual practice within which the believers’ spiritual engagement was most desired – can be considered its genuine manifestation. On the following pages, we will be exploring the fifth-century Orthodox Baptistery of Ravenna, a monument conceived for the performance of the ritual of baptism. As the title of this thesis suggests, we will do so through the lens of a different perspective. We will be focusing on the transformations of the Baptistery’s space in relation to the ritual staged within its walls and, at the same time, examine how its conceptors made use of the initiates’ senses while seeking to evoke a transformative spiritual experience. According to Ambrose, bishop of Milan (374–397), the mystery of baptism was supposed to be transmitted to the new members of Christian community primarily through the ritual experience itself and rationally explained only secondarily. This prevalence of experience over explanation, which, as we will see, is traceable also in other Early Christian liturgical texts, will serve as the point of departure of the present analysis. We will explore the Orthodox Baptistery of Ravenna as a space to be experienced, for I believe that the specific kind of effect that was sought to be evoked – at once physical and spiritual transformation of the participants – is a formational principle determining its conception. Since the space was created with the intention to be animated by a certain ritual setting and meant to be perceived in carefully staged conditions by a specific type of beholder, the baptisand, we will 6 be examining the Baptistery and its decoration as revealed through the lens of the liturgy that was performed within its walls and, simultaneously, through its perception by the initiates. This idea is based on two assumptions. Firstly, as we will see, the ritual setting of baptism was formed by means of a synergy of numerous constitutive elements that affected all of the baptisand’s senses – the decoration being only one of them, although presumably a crucial one. Therefore, we will conceive the interior decoration
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