Greek And Christian Ways Of Seeing

Taking the visuality of Greek thought,the audibility of Hebrew thought,and the uniqueness of Christian thought which is based on these two thinking as a starting point,this research studies how the Greek and Christian ways of seeing reflect in the paintings and the theory of art from Middle Ages to Early Modern.The Greek way of seeing is mainly about the interpretation of Plato’s theory of Ideas.It is an inner vision led by intellectual intuition.The Greek way of seeing distinguishes the Idea from the Becoming and the Archetype from the Image.It indicates that the Idea is the real Archetype,and the Becoming is just the unreal image that imitates the Idea.Intellectual intuition is a way of seeing that ensures that what is seen corresponds to the archetype,and this method can only be achieved through the presentation of the Idea in images of language and the inner memory of the soul.The Christian way of seeing was prominent in medieval iconography.It is a way of seeing led by listening to the word of God.The Christian way of seeing distinguishes between icons and idols in order to ensure that the viewer does not fall into idolatry.Among them,the theory about the image of Jesus is its core,and the image of Jesus is the Archetype image of all images that reject objectification.The Renaissance art neglected the theory icon,continued to follow the thinking of the theory of Ideas,and developed its artistic theory with the support of modern science and technology,resulting in the great achievements of oil painting and perspective,but in these two achievements,it is reflected in domination with the Greek way of seeing.The dimension of "listening" in Christian thought has been obscured,but it is still reflected in some religious paintings and early portraits.This research attempts to examine the confrontation between these two ways of seeing through the analysis of some typical works of art.In Greek thought,vision devalued hearing,and space ruled over time,while in Judeo-Christian thought it was the opposite.The subject-object dichotomy way of seeing caused by the visuality of Greek thought is an important reason for the emergence of the Age of World Picture,while the distinction between Archetype and Image and the pursuit of Idea leads to the End of Art.This research argues that the way to deal with these two problems can be found in the Christian way of seeing.Medieval icon theory and contemporary phenomenological interpretations of icons point out that listening is the key to distinguishing icons from idols and at the same time breaking the domination of the subject over the other.