Love is Blind! in Byzantium. The Blind Cupid Figure in Byzantine Art Through The Middle Ages

Abstract

Eros -or alias Cupid or Amor- which is very popular in Roman art, portrayed usually as little chubby boys who’s playing adult roles in the form of putti images with wings or without wings, seen especially in circus-themed scenes and fighting or chase scenes, also while busy with all kinds of hunting varieties; in funerary art in the context of sarcopha-ge; they are depicted as mischievous children who turn dull ordinary and seasonal agri-cultural activities into joyful and exciting activities. It is seen that these aforementioned depiction practices continue in Byzantine art as well. In Byzantine artistic field, they were used sometimes in the context of euchariste in grape-harvesting season scenes; or taking part in the virtuous path to heaven within the scope of christological symbolism by being associated with the afterworld. The iconography of the Cupid figure in various Byzantine works from the Early Christian period catacombs to the end of the Middle Byzantine era, contains two concepts: The love of God and the earthly (or carnal) love. In accordance with its etymology in Byzantine Greek language, this word appears as a Christian adaptation; the word eros, which means love, did not divide this little Cupid figure into two, while trying to gain a religious or profane conceptual place in art; becau-se it is a quite familiar figure to people already as it was before Byzantium, even today, it represents all kinds of facets of love. However, in the Byzantine cultural environment shaped by the new religion Christianity, the concept of Eros penetrated the Christian texts and the concept of Θείος Έρως (Divine Eros) was used as a way of expressing the love between God and humankind. While this concept draws attention primarily in the philosophy of Pseudo-Dionysios Areapagite, and the hymnos of New Theologian Si-meon, also in addition the writings on morality by St. Gregory of Nazianzus, with the homilie of one of the Early Church Father Gregory of Nyssa and work of the scholar Origen of Alexandria were examined. The monastic practices have showed a symbolic approach to the cupid figure, revealing a rich religious text and extraordinary applicati-ons in religious art with its figurative content: the text of the work of Ioannes Clima-kos’s Divine Ladder and among the many manuscript copies provide valuable content. In secular literature, four Byzantine romances, whose main subject is love and the only Byzantine epic Digenes Akrites also a Byzantine Euripides Tragedy with Idyllles of Theocritus are showed a definition of eros with distinctive features and it is seen that this definition is in harmony with artistic productions in their periods. The depictions reflected on the examples of different product groups, such as metal, ivory, mosaic, ma-nuscript painting or fresco, dated to different periods of Byzantine art, reflect the con-ceptual dimensions of the figure. Although the blind Eros was never represented in Hel-lenistic and Roman art, the figure cupid shows an extraordinary example of blindness in Byzantine Art. This research paper is a study on the iconography of the artistic represen-tations of a figure bearing the memory of the polytheistic past, in accordance with the concepts undertaken in the process of maintaining the meaning of religion despite all its weight in the conservative Byzantine cultural environment.