Reprezentările zodiacului în artă

Abstract

Zodiac representations are found in the great cultures and civilizations starting from Antiquity, crossing the Jewish sphere and then reaching the area of Byzantine and Eastern Christianity. The zodiac is the term used to describe the circle with twelve divisions of celestial longitude. The term zodiac derives from the Latin zōdiacus, which means „circle of animals;” although it also contains the image of a woman (Virgo), a man (Aquarius) and two children (Gemini). The only zodiac that is represented only by animals is the Chinese zodiac. Among the examples we note: The carved zodiac called Dendera, the Tallaras zodiac, mosaic from the fourth century, d. In Greece, the pavement mosaic in the Church of San Savino in Piacenza, the Parisian Cathedral, and other churches such as the one known as the Waltham Abbey Church, the Great Lavra of Mount Athos, the Lesnovo Monastery of the fourteenth century, the Sucevița Monastery of the sixteenth century, the Probota Monastery of the sixteenth century, the Living Pilar Church in Georgia dating from the seventeenth century. Representations of the Macedonian zodiac can be found in the narthex of the Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Lesnovo (1349), the Church of the Holy Archangels in Kucheviste (1591), and they can also be seen on the arch in the narthex of the Church of St. George in the Poloshko monastery (1608/9). In all three examples, the Zodiac appears in the illustration of Psalm 148. The theme of the zodiac is present in the masterful composition The Last Judgement and we find it in the exterior painting or on the façade of the Bukovina monasteries, such as: Probota, Voroneț, Moldovița, Humor and Sucevița. The signs are dropped, perhaps as a symbol of the end of time or of the ages when the judgment will take place. In classical, medieval or modern writings, the inscribed illuminations present the Zodiacal Man - Homo Signorum or „The Man of Signs”, or Alphonse Mucha, Zodiac, 1896, lithograph. Finally, we consider that the signs have been rendered in art, since the beginnings of artistic creation, they have been assimilated by the great cultures and have expressed man’s concerns towards the spiritual ones, transposed into signs, symbols and iconic scenes.