Mystagogy of the painted image of the Crucifixion

This article by the Polish Orthodox theologian and painter Jerzy Nowosielski offers a mystagogical meditation on the Byzantine icon of the Crucifixion. Beginning with a survey of art history — from the triumphant Christ to Grünewald's Crucifixion — the author shows that the Byzantine iconographic tradition constitutes the most accomplished synthesis of this representation, as it unites in a homogeneous vision apparently irreducible tensions: triumph and horror, death and resurrection, humiliation and glory. The central idea is that the icon of the Crucifixion operates a transformation of human sensuality: it transfigures the suffering and nudity of the mortal body into a figure of divine glory. On the theological level, the article illuminates the unique status of this image in Orthodox liturgy and its mystagogical function, comparable to a form of communion with the Body of Christ.