Christ Pantocrator

Christ Pantocrator The Old Testament proscription against creating depictions of the god Yahweh lost some of its importance with the coming of the Son of God. On the pages of the New Testament, Christ is called the Word Incarnate equivalent to the Father, the image of the Invisible God (John 14:9-10; Colossians 1:15). The unity and equivalence of the Father and Son justified creating his depictions. This is why, according to the canons of the art of the Eastern Church, God was to be represented exclusively as Christ. The oldest images of the Saviour included the depictions of the Omnipotence and the Divine Nature of Christ, called the Almighty, in Greek - Pantocrator. In the 4th-6th c., the Saviour as the Ruler of All began to be portrayed like an earthly ruler, with all the insignia of imperial dignity. The always front-facing figure of the Saviour was placed on the domes of temples which symbolised the heavens. Over time, the portrayal of the Pantocrator took the central place in the depictions of Deesis, with the figures of the Mother of God and John the Baptist revering the enthroned Saviour and interceding on behalf of the human race. The image of Christ as Pantocrator also appears in the Sovereign tier of an iconostasis. There are three variants of the Christ the Almighty image. His full figure can be depicted standing, he can be shown sitting on a throne, and, in later iconography, he is more often shown as a half-figure. The fingers of the right hand, raised to the level of the chest, are usually arranged in the shape of the monogram IC XC, signifying the name of Christ. The alignment of the fingers can, at the same time, be read as a symbol of the dual divine-human nature of the Saviour and the Holy Trinity. The scroll or open book in the left hand of the Saviour signifies the mission of teaching. This can be seen on the displayed icon, decorated with a metal riza which repeats the outline of the painted figure. Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967