Ele se vestiu de Pastor, mas o revestiram de imperador: representações de poder e resistência a partir da arte cristã na Antiguidade tardia

Abstract

The Christian art, symbolic and biblical in its origins, assumed traces that show power issues. The shift from the secluded space of the catacombs, Shepherd’s hut, to the basilicas, authorized new artistic representation in well-known forms destined to the imperial rites and associated with the Christ Pantocrator. The iconographic-iconological method verified the artistic depictions in their respective concerned areas, in an interdisciplinary relationship that took into account History, Philosophy, and Religious Anthropology. In order to adequately respond to the so-called signs of resistance or prophecy in the monumental art, as well as the meaning and also the incidences of such forms in Christians lives and in the various ways the Church engenders its relationships, whether intern or externally , the study confronted the archeological and historical data collected by André Grabar with Michel Foucault’s critique of the pastoral power and José Comblin’s theological reflection. Pope Francis’s proposal for “a Church which goes forth” presented in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium also insisted on the return to the image of the shepherd who takes on the “smell of the sheep”. Such proposal and return are presented as a prolific ethical-esthetical foundation to build contemporary life and liturgical art, constituting one of the theoretical framework adopted in the present study, eminently bibliographical. Through the iconographic analyses of Late Antique Art, it was possible to realize at least two overlapping visions of the world: One that stands radically opposed to a standard behavior common to the Roman Empire, before the Constantinian era, and another that adapts itself, establishing ways of including and, at the same time, excluding people, both supported by Constantine. In light of these developments, as the study comes to an end, the liturgical space is understood in its symbolic power, renewed by means of art inspired by the image of the Good and Beautiful Shepherd as the counterfeit image of the Pantocrator, who may only find His true royalty, not with the power which oppresses and excludes, but in the power which assumes, cares for and values the uniqueness of each sheep, particularly that which fulfills its prophetic vocation, challenging the whole Church to do the same