hieratic representations of stories/pictures

English translation: Greek "hieros" = priest

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

English term or phrase:	hieratic
Selected answer:	Greek "hieros" = priest
Entered by:	Deb Phillips (X)

00:41 Aug 27, 2002

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Art/Literary

English term or phrase: hieratic representations of stories/pictures

The most important innovations of content and form in art, inspired by faith full of emotion, were intended to enable the spectator to become devoutly involved in the scene represented. This purpose could be achieved, first of all, by scenes into whose spirit and reality he could enter, above all by the Passion, the story of the most human sufferings of Jesus, with the events awakening compassion. A similar role is played by the Virgin's maternal joy and sorrow. But the two prevailing principal types of religious painting up to the fourteenth century - namely the narrative or hieratic representations of stories - did not satisfy the spectator who was not interested in the sequence of biblical events, and did not want to admire God from a distance but desired to identify himself emotionally with a particular scene. This demand had motivated the transformation of pictures of the traditional type into devotional ones. This principle was applied to narrative compositions by singling out and stressing a single moment in the original sequence of events, and then emphasizing its emotional rather than its historical overtones. (See this process in Christ Carrying the Cross by Master Thomas.) Thus the unapproachable, timeless and hieratic pictures become imbued with universal human emotions, and create in them an atmosphere in which the spectator can submerge himself and meditate contemplatively upon the emotional impact of the scene before him. Compositions produced in this way could be adapted - by an exchange of motifs or a shift of emphasis - so that variants of the same theme are often totally different in their impact and implications.

hieratic

Part of Speech adjective
Definition 1. of, pertaining to, or used by priests; priestly or sacerdotal.
Crossref. Syn. ecclesiastical
Definition 2. of or designating a simplified form of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Related Words clerical

Derived Forms hieratical, adj.

sacerdotal
Part of Speech adjective
Pronunciation sae sEr do tEl
Definition 1. of, pertaining to, or functioning as a priest or as a mediator between God and humanity.

Related Words clerical , spiritual

Derived Forms sacerdotally, adv.

ecclesiastical
Part of Speech adjective
Definition 1. of or related to the church and clergy.
Example ecclesiastical garments.
Synonyms cleric , churchly , spiritual (4) , hieratic (1) , ecclesiastic , hierarchal {hierarch} , clerical (2)
Similar Words pastoral , priestly , religious , holy

Related Words pious

Can anyone help me to understand what this means?
hieratic representations of stories/hieratic pictures.
Does hieratic translate here as religious, in which case I don't understand the juxtaposition to narrative representation.

Deb Phillips (X)

Essential

Explanation:
I think answers 1 to 3 go progressively further in explaining this, and maybe I can continue the trend. "Hieratic" is from Greek "hieros" = priest, and is the adjectival form, roughly "priestly". What hieratic means here is representations which are intended to encapsulate the essence of a character or event.

Your text seems to delineate four stages of development of representation. First there were simple representations. Then came narrative representations, and then the "unapproachable, timeless and hieratic" representations. This was however not enough (it says) for those wanting to get emotionally involved, and there came a fourth stage which should fulfil this desire.

This third stage, the "hieratic", thus consists of representations which are neither simple representations, nor narrative, but also not yet providing the function of involving the observer emotionally. They are images in which the essence of a character, event or idea is expressed, for the purpose of facilitating prayer.

I just got through translating a book on a 13th C saint, so I am a bit in practice with this stuff. :-)

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Note added at 2002-08-27 05:14:47 (GMT)
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Looking back on it, I am not so sure I have really added anything to Irene´s answer.

Selected response from:

Chris Rowson (X)
Local time: 09:25

Grading comment

Thank you!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

3 +4

highly stylized and formal

Kim Metzger

4 +3

Essential

Chris Rowson (X)

a form of hieroglyphics

Libero_Lang_Lab

essential NOT

Christopher Crockett

3 +1

revealing theological meaning

Irene Chernenko

Fixed by Religious Tradition

Christopher Crockett

Answers

11 mins confidence:

a form of hieroglyphics

Explanation:
Hieratic script was a basic writing form used by the Egyptians for everyday communication.

the link below gives more detail.

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Note added at 2002-08-27 00:53:52 (GMT)
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Hieratic is the cursive form of Hieroglyphic writing which the Egyptians used for everday writing. Hieratic developed very early in Egyptian history, and remained in use for most documents until around 700BCE when it was replaced by Demotic. However, Hieratic was still used for religious documents on papyrus until the old priesthood was disbanded.

Hieratic, as the practical form of writing, was the first type of writing that the Egyptian scribes learned. Hieroglyphics were only taught to advanced students. As a result, many scribes could not read Hieroglyphic inscriptions, or only with difficulty. This is, of course, exactly the opposite of what occurs now - Hieroglyphs first, then Hieratic for a select few. Hieratic texts are now usually transcribed into Hieroglyphs in order to be studied.

Hieratic signs correspond exactly to the Hieroglyphic signs which would be used to write the same text. The same rules of spelling and arrangement of signs applies to Hieratic as to Hieroglyphic.

Over the course of its history, Hieratic changed. A major change occurred around 1300BCE, resulting in \"Ramesside\" style writing. What we shall be looking at here will be \"Middle Egyptian\" style Hieratic, used in the Middle Kingdom and 18th Dynasty. Most of the Hieratic signs will be taken from Papyrus Leningrad 1115, the Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor, since the scribe who wrote it had nice, clear handwriting.

Hieratic was written from right to left. In the earlier part of the Middle Kingdom, it might be written either in columns or lines, however later it was only written in lines. The individual signs were drawn starting from the top left of the sign, which is easier for right-handed people. Horizontal lines were generally drawn from left to right; verticals from top to bottom.

Reference: http://home.prcn.org/~sfryer/Hieratic/introduction.html

Libero_Lang_Lab
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:25
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in pair: 137

20 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

highly stylized and formal

Explanation:
One definition given my Merriam Webster's is highly stylized and formal. I think this may apply to your text.

"But the two prevailing principal types of religious painting up to the fourteenth century - namely the narrative or hieratic representations of stories - did not satisfy the spectator who was not interested in the sequence of biblical events, and did not want to admire God from a distance but desired to identify himself emotionally with a particular scene."

Kim Metzger
Mexico
Local time: 01:25
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 2249

39 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

revealing theological meaning

Explanation:
I think, given your extensive references, "hieratic" here means opening up the theological significance of a biblical story - as opposed to simply telling the story. So hieratic painting would be revelatory but still, perhaps, emotionally distanced from the spectator, such as the stylised representation in icons of significant saints.

Irene Chernenko
Russian Federation
Local time: 10:25
Native speaker of:

English,

Russian
PRO pts in pair: 4

3 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

Essential

Chris Rowson (X)
Local time: 09:25
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 243

Grading comment

Thank you!

18 hrs confidence:

Fixed by Religious Tradition

Explanation:
Seems to me that Kim is on the right track with "highly stylized and formal," but part of the problem is that Art Hysterians sometimes use this 8-bit word without really knowing *what* it means, eggsactly.

The O.E.D., as usual, comes to the rescue with :

"1.c. Applied to a style of art (esp. Egyptian or Greek), in which earlier types or methods, fixed by religious tradition, are conventionally adhered to. Also fig."

though the instances of use it quotes are so old as to be not particularly helpful in the context of Kim's quote :

--1841 W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl; I. 176 Art in all its stages, from the rudest of the archaic or hieratic paintings to the finest design and finish of the Macedonian times.

--1846 C. Maitland Ch. Catacombs 240 The intaglios of Kamai, almost the best hieratic work in existence.

--1877 A. B. Edwards Up Nile xxii. 710 Sculptured in what is called the hieratic attitude; that is, with the left arm down and pressed close to the body.

All three of these quotes are typical of the way the word is frequently mis<i/>used, istM, becomming simply a descriptive synomym for "stiff" or something of the sort.

(I note that the OED needs to add this definition.)

I'd say that the essence of the concept is "Fixed by Tradition," which, in the case of Deb's text refers to the extremely conservative --one might also properly say "archtypical"-- nature of medieval style and iconography.

Kim's "Highly Stylised" is thus close to the mark, but somewhat ambiguous.

Chris' return-to-the-roots effort is worthwhile, but what we're dealing with here is (and I am too lexicographically challenged to know the proper term of art) the transmutation of the meaning of the word away from the first, nearly literal, meaning of it

("Pertaining to or used by the priestly class" --OED),

which was based upon its etymology

("L. hieratic-us, a. Gr. ieratikoj priestly, sacerdotal, devoted to sacred purposes, f. *ierat-oj vbl. adj. from ieraomai to be a priest.")

to an associative meaning

("fixed by religious tradition").

Of course, Medieval Art --or that very tiny portion of it which has survived down to our own benighted epoch-- is overwhelmingly "religious" or "priestly" and therefore, by definition, "hieratic."

But the sense of Deb's passage goes beyond that tautology and relates to the conservative "stylisation" (if you like) of both Iconography and Style which also characterized the art of the whole 1,000+ year period.

The change in the art of the Late M.A. which is capsulized in Kim's quote relates to the change in the consciousness of Late Medieval Europeans, itself at once something of a rejection of the more detached forms of representation which had satisified their fathers for so many centuries and the intense searching/yearning for another, more direct and personal, interaction with the Numinous through artistic expression.

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Note added at 2002-08-27 19:26:29 (GMT)
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My apologies for cluttering my already convoluted text up with html tags; I\'m still getting the hang of this site and thought that they would \"read\" properly on the page.

Christopher Crockett
Local time: 03:25
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 128

1 day 15 hrs confidence:

essential NOT

Explanation:
The only problem with this suggestion is that "hieratic" does NOT mean "essential" in the two sentances where it appears in your text :

"...namely the narrative or hieratic [essential??] representations of stories..."

"Thus the unapproachable, timeless and hieratic [essential??] pictures"

Moreover, I'd be interested to see *any* art historical text where "hieratic" is (correctly) used in the sense of "essential" --much less any dictionary reference which offers this definition.

Christopher Crockett
Local time: 03:25
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 128

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