This class fulfills my premodern requirement and is a prerequisite for many architecture history classes in the Art History department at NYU. I really enjoy it so far, and I think that as the semester progresses I will become more engaged with the works we are studying.
The Hands of God
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the religious text clearly states “You shall have no other gods beside Me. You shall not make for yourself any graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord Your G-d, am a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.” (The Bible) This passage can be found in the Old Testament book of Exodus, and is one of the ten central commandments the Israelites received from G-d at Mount Saini. In simpler terms, Jews and Christians are not permitted to create likenesses of G-d or worship any images. In spite of this command, humans often used symbols to represent G-d, and produced thousands of images of Jesus Christ himself, even though he is technically also G-d, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit. Because of this restriction, artists creatively used recognizable symbols to communicate the presence of G-d in their art to their audience, without creating a complete representation of Him and overtly disobeying one of the Ten Commandments. While many religious scholars debate the acceptability of this practice, it certainly occurred in artworks throughout history.
A common way for an artist to represent G-d without actually attempting to portray a complete humanoid form is through symbolic hands coming from the sky. The hands of G-d are typically included in scenes that follow a biblical narrative. Early Christians commissioned these types of works to make biblical stories and lessons more accessible to the largely illiterate populace they were attempting to convert. It also gave the artist some interpretive power over the biblical narrative, allowing them to showcase values they felt were most important and perhaps omit those aspects of the religious text that they disagreed with or did not connect to. This created an interesting ethical dilemma: because most people could not read the bible itself, their only knowledge of its teachings was via a human being, whether an artist or a member of the clergy. Learning this way imparts someone else’s interpretation of the text without fail, but all readings of the bible are interpretations regardless. If one truly believes, it would be impossible to completely understand what all of the text means and what that says about G-d. As a result, the stories of the bible cannot be represented with any sort of collective accuracy.
Culturally recognizable symbols and analogies in works of art made it simpler for the church to spread their message and appropriate Christianity into existing religious practice. This relative tolerance allowed individuals to comfortably shift to Christianity rather than have it thrust upon them. In many polytheistic religions such as the worship of Greek and Roman gods, it was extremely common to depict the gods in works of art. Because of this tradition, it is logical for artists to represent G-d symbolically. Hands coming out of the sky, typically performing some mystical act, are a relatively obvious way to convey that this act was performed by G-d. Other godly symbolism includes crowns, rays of light, thrones, and the scale of the figures. Any of these details could convey the presence of G-d to the audience of the work. These symbols are important because there is no true biblical description of what G-d looks like, other than that humans are “made in His image” and that the bible is written in gendered language that indicates that G-d is male. This is not without complications: made in his image could have a very loose meaning, and representing G-d as a regular human would be very problematic for those trying to convince the populace of His awesome and almighty power. Moreover, it specifically says not to represent G-d in the bible. Because hands may not constitute a complete representation, the faithful can argue that they do not constitute a “graven image” or “false idol”.
An excellent example of the use of hands coming from the sky to represent G-d can be found in the Dura Europos Synagogue. A work entitled “Moses and the Exodus from Egypt” from 244 CE depicts the Israelites escaping Egypt. This story comes from the Old Testament of the bible. This work includes the Egyptian soldiers chasing the Hebrews, the fish in the ocean, the Egyptian soldiers drowning in the sea, and the parted Red Sea. The sea is clearly being parted by some disembodied hands protruding from the cloudy sky in the work. Rather than disappearing into the clouds, the arms appear to have been cut off and suspended on the top of the image due to the geometric representation of the arm. The hands are shown only below the elbow, and appear slightly cartoonish. They lack bone structure, shadows, folds in the skin, and other imperfections present in real hands. They are spread apart and roughly follow the line where the sea is splitting. Anyone with knowledge of this biblical story in which G-d divides the sea to allow the Israelites to escape bondage in Egypt would immediately understand that the hands represent G-d’s direct intervention. This phenomena can be found directly in the text of a Pesach siddur, and the phrase “He freed us from Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” is represented literally in this work of art. Of course, there is no consensus among religious scholars on the acceptability of this practice as a whole.
In a later depiction, “Moses receiving the Law” from the Moutier-Grandval Bible in 830, another Old Testament narrative is portrayed. In this image, Moses recevices the law on a mountaintop. He stands on a relatively abstract, slightly orange mountain and reaches towards the heavens to receive the commandments. The Moses figure is stepping up higher onto the mountain and gazing upwards towards the sky. Two angels hang upside down from the sky, and between them protrudes a hand that passes the scroll to Moses. This hand is much smaller than the one depicted in “Moses and the Exodus from Egypt”. This shows only one hand, and the image only goes up to the wrist. Rays of light surround the hand and shine directly into Moses’ face. The placement of the hand (the fact that it is coming out of the sky, which no human could accomplish) and the rays of light both indicate to viewers that this hand represents G-d. As in the image from the Dura Europos Synagogue, the common knowledge of this Old Testament biblical story would also contribute to the collective understanding of the hand’s symbolism. Again, the presentation of only a hand conveniently somewhat skirts around the commandment to not create graven images, and even produces a type of irony: this painting itself is, arguably, a graven image of the receiving the very text that insists graven images should not be created.
While many symbols were used to represent a heavenly figure throughout history, the use of hands appears several times in various artworks. This symbolism can be found at Dura Europos Synagogue, where the hands of G-d protrude from the sky and part the Red Sea for the Israelites escaping slavery under the Egyptians. It can also be found in the Moutier-Grandval Bible, where G-d’s single hand delivers the law to Moses on a mountain top. The placement of these appendages in the sky and the rays of light emanating from them contribute to their mysical meaning and increase the likelihood that the imagery will be recognized as heavenly by the general populace observing the work. The use of symbolism to represent G-d stems from an attempt to follow one of the Ten Commandments that insists that humans should not create a “graven image” or worship false idols. Coming from a long history of the worship of idols, it is logical that ancient peoples would not be immediately prepared to cease all production of representations of G-d, especially in a society where few members could read and write. Often, these potentially rule-breaking images (along with word of mouth) were the only resource by which early Christians could learn about the stories in their religious texts. As a result, artists creatively evaded outright rule breaking and symbolically represented their higher power in their works.