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Iconography and Liturgy at St Mark's
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2008
Extract
Some of the most explicit statements in early Christian and medieval sources about the functions of visual images in churches are notable for their silence regarding the liturgical significance of wall decoration. There is talk of imagery of the Old and New Testaments instructing the laity so that they should know ‘the high deeds of the servants of God and may be prompted to imitate them’, or at least to remember them. Images might be said to ‘decorate with beauty the house of the Lord’, but it is difficult to find it stated anywhere that the monumental cycles that still arrest our gazes in many of the churches were executed to ‘illustrate’, or to ‘represent’, or to ‘dramatize’ the liturgy that was celebrated in those sacred edifices
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References
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