Mahmoud Zibawi

This article by Mahmoud Zibawi traces the evolution of the representation of the Passion of Christ in Eastern Christian art, from its origins to the post-Byzantine period. Proceeding through a historical and iconographic study, the author shows how early Christian art, initially reluctant to depict the crucifixion, gradually developed a visual vocabulary centered on the glorious cross before incorporating the figure of the Crucified. The central idea is that the Christian East constantly maintains the balance between the humanity and divinity of Christ: while the emphasis shifts from the divine to the human over the centuries, both dimensions remain inseparable. Unlike the Renaissance West, which veers into a dolorist humanism, Eastern iconography transfigures suffering without erasing it, preserving the theological tension between kenosis and glory, between death and resurrection, in accordance with the dogmatic affirmations of the Church Fathers.

This article by Mahmoud Zibawi offers a comparative study of Christian art in the East and West, from its origins to modernity. Adopting a historical and theological approach, the author examines the doctrinal foundations that distinguish the Eastern icon, a liturgical and sacramental art rooted in Chalcedonian theology, from Western religious art, confined to a didactic function since the Carolingian Books. The article traces the evolution of these two traditions: the stylistic unity of Byzantine iconography and its post-Byzantine transformations, followed by the break brought about in the West by Giotto, Masaccio, and the Renaissance. Faced with the contemporary crisis of sacred art in both traditions, the author considers the possibility of a "renewed icon" that would integrate the contributions of Western art without abandoning the theological foundations of the liturgical image. The contribution of the article lies in its bringing into dialogue the theologies of the image and the aesthetics that derive from them.

This article by Lebanese painter and art historian Mahmoud Zibawi focuses on the tradition of Arab-Christian icons, a little-known iconographic school originating from the Melkite communities of Syria and Lebanon. Drawing on historical and stylistic analysis, the article traces the evolution of this art from the earliest early-Christian representations of Antioch to the popular production of the nineteenth century. The central argument is that this tradition, whose revival asserted itself in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the Al-Musawwir family of painters from Aleppo, was initially grounded in fidelity to Byzantine canons before undergoing a gradual decline under the influence of Catholic missions and Western painting. The article makes a twofold contribution: it documents a largely overlooked iconographic heritage and shows how confessional and cultural pressures progressively distanced this school from its orthodox theological and aesthetic foundations.