San Pablo

  1. Santiago Manzarbeitia Valle 1
  1. 1 Universodad Complutense de Madrid
Journal:
Revista digital de iconografía medieval

ISSN: 2254-7312

Year of publication: 2015

Volume: 7

Issue: 14

Pages: 39-61

Type: Article

DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Revista digital de iconografía medieval

Abstract

Paul of Tarsus (also called Saulo) is an important character at the beginnings of Christianity during the apostolic period because he was the first theologian that synthesized the Christian doctrine, which then spread from Jerusalem and Asia Minor to Rome. He was a Roman citizen and a Jewish Pharisee from the city of Tarsus in Cilicia, where he was born on the year 5-10 d.C. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles presents him as someone who persecuted the Christians of Jerusalem, and as someone who witnessed the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7, 57) towards the year 33. His sudden and radical conversion (metanoia) took place on the road to Damascus after experiencing an encounter with the risen Christ (Acts 9, 1-9; Acts 26, 12-18; 1 Cor 15, 8; Gal 1, 15-16). After being baptized by Ananias (Acts 9, 10-19), he began his preaching and was later on persecuted for it being forced to leave Damascus hidden in a basket. Because of his Greek education, together with Barnabas, he supported the Christian Hellenistic trend against the Jewish one represented by Peter and James. It is for that reason that he was called the Apostle of the Gentiles as a consequence of the Council of Jerusalem that met in the year 48, where the incorporation of the Pagans (proselytes) to Christianity was approved exempting them from the Jewish law (Acts 15). Through long missionary journeys across the Eastern Mediterranean, he founded numerous Christian communities in Asia Minor, to which he subsequently sent various apostolic letters that now form, together with that sent to Rome, the so-called Pauline Corpus, historical testimonies that make Paul the main protagonist and responsible for the introduction of the Gospel message in the Hellenistic world. Imprisoned at least in two occasions, the last one in Jerusalem, he was sent to Rome. During the journey to Rome, the boat shipwrecked on Malta, where the episode of the bite of the snake took place but he finally survived. Once back in Rome, he was beheaded during the persecution of Nero between the years 63 and 67. Following this brief biography, the article discusses the iconography of St. Paul by structuring it thematically: its name, its appearance, characterized by baldness and beard; its status as a preacher in his gestures; his status as philosopher and writer, in his attire and in the book or scroll that identifies him from the beginning; a martyr, carrying the sword, instrument of his martyrdom with which he is subsequently connected; as an example of conversion in its main thematic cycle, and finally in other iconographic themes that, in addition to being anecdotal, underline his consideration as an apostle of Christ and his subsequent ecclesiastical symbolism.

Bibliographic References

  • BARTOLOMÉ, Juan José (2004): Pablo de Tarso. Una introducción a la vida y a la obra de un Apóstol de Cristo. Editorial CCS, Madrid.
  • BELTING, Hans (2009): Imagen y culto. Akal, Madrid.
  • BOL, Marie Paule (1968): Enciclopedia de la Biblia (versión española de Elseviers Encyclopedie van de Bilbel). Afrodisio Aguado, Madrid.
  • BUCARELLI, Ottavio; MORALES, Martín María (eds.) (2011): Paulo apostolo martyri. L’apostolo San Paolo nella storia, nell’arte e nell’archeologia. GBP, Roma.
  • CAPPELLETTI, Lorenzo (2009): “Oh Timoteo!, guarda el depósito”, 30 Días. Disponible en línea: http://www.30giorni.it/articoli_id_20483_l2.htm (consulta de 2/10/2015).
  • CARDINALI, Marco (2009): La Biblia carolingia dell’Abbazia di San Paolo fuori le Mura. Edizzioni Abbazia San Paolo, Ciudad del Vaticano.
  • CARMONA MUELA, Juan (1998): Iconografía cristiana. Guía básica para estudiantes. Istmo, Madrid.
  • CASTIÑEIRAS, Manuel; CAMPS, Jordi; DURAN-PORTA, Joan (2008): El Románico en las colecciones del MNAC. MNAC – Lunwerg, Barcelona.
  • DAVIS, Lisa Fagin (2013): “The Epitome of Pauline Iconography: BnF Français 50, The Miroir Historial of Jean de Vignay”. En: CARTWRIGHT, Steven R. (ed.): A Companion to St. Paul in the Middle Ages. Brill, Leiden-Boston, pp. 395-424.
  • ENGEMANN, Josef (1993): “Paulus. Apostel. III. Ikonographie”. En: Lexikon des Mittelalters. Artemis, Múnich-Zúrich, vol. 6, pp. 1821-1822.
  • FILIPPINI, Cristiana (2003): “Riforma gregoriana e arte. La presenza dei santi Pietro e Paolo nei cicli pittorici medievali a Roma”, I quaderni del MAES, nº 6, pp. 107-127.
  • Hechos apócrifos de los apóstoles. Edición de PIÑERO, Antonio y CERRO, Gonzalo del (2013): Hechos apócrifos de los apóstoles (Hechos de Andrés, Juan, Pedro, Pablo y Tomás). BAC, Madrid, vol. I.
  • HADDAD, Elise (2009): “Semiologie de la symbolique romane - problematisation à partir de l’exemple de Vézelay”. En: Recherche dans les arts : présentation des travaux en cours – EHESS, Oct 2009, Paris, France. 2010. Disponible en línea: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00670727 (consulta de 4/12/2015).
  • HEIN, Ewald; JAKOVLJEVIC, Andrija; KLEIDT, Brigitte (1997): Cyprus. Byzantine Churches and Monasteries. Mosaics and Frescoes. Melina-Verlag, Ratingen.
  • HUSKINSON, J.M. (1982): Concordia apostolorum. Christian Propaganda at Rome in the 4th and 5th Centuries. A Study in Early Christian Iconography and Iconology. BAR, Oxford, 1982.
  • IACOBONE, Pasquale (2009): “Il martirio di san Paolo nell’iconografia medievale italiana”, Annali della Pontificia Insigne Accademia di Belle Arti e Lettere dei Virtuosi al Pantheon, nº 9, pp. 387-415.
  • KESSLER, Herbert Leon (1977): The Illustrated Bibles from Tours. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
  • KESSLER, Herbert Leon (1987): “The Meeting of Peter and Paul in Rome. An Emblematic Narrative of Spiritual Brotherhood”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, vol. 41, pp. 265-275.
  • LAPINA, Elizabeth (2005): “Les peintures murales de Berzé-la-Ville dans le contexte de la Première Croisade et de la Reconquista”, Journal of Medieval History, nº 31, pp. 309- 326.
  • LEAL LOBÓN, Manuel (2011): “El primer arte cristiano. El sarcófago de Junio Basso”, Isidorianum, nº 39, pp. 521-554. Disponible en línea: http://www.sscc.es/pdf/articulo_isidorianum.pdf (consulta de 23/9/2015).
  • MARGARET, Lindsey (2002): “The Iconography of St. Paul in Medieval Malta”. En: HOURIHANE, Colum (ed.): Insights and interpretations. Studies in celebration of the eighty-fifth anniversary of the Index of Christian art. Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, Princeton, pp. 140-155.
  • MÉNDEZ, José Antonio (2013): “Guía bíblico-arqueológica. En Turquía, tras las huellas de Pablo: ante su fiesta, 29 de junio”, Alfa y Omega, nº 839. Disponible en línea: http://alfayomega.es/documentos/anteriores/839_27-VI-2013.pdf (consulta de 3/10/2015).
  • NICOLAS, Fernand (2005): Les peintures murales à la Chapelle des Moines de Berzé-la Ville. Académie de Mâcon, Mâcon.
  • OURSEL, Raymond (1980): La pintura románica. Encuentro, Madrid.
  • PALAZZO, Éric (1988): “L’iconographie des fresques de Berzé-La-Ville dans le contexte de la réforme grégorienne et de la liturgie clunisienne”, Les Cahiers de Saint-Michel de Cuxa, nº 19, pp. 169-182.
  • PEDRO, Aquilino de (1990): Diccionario de términos religiosos y afines. Verbo Divino – Ediciones Paulinas, Estella.
  • PIÑERO, Antonio (2010): Apócrifos del Antiguo y del Nuevo Testamento. Alianza Editorial, Madrid.
  • POFFET, Jean-Michel (2001): I cristiani e la Biblia. Gli antichi e i moderni. Milán.
  • RÉAU, Louis (1ª edición 1957): Iconografía del arte cristiano. Tomo II, volumen 5. Iconografía de los santos. P-Z. Ediciones del Serbal, Barcelona.
  • RICCIOTTI, Giuseppe (1950): Pablo Apóstol. Biografía e introducción crítica. Conmar, Madrid.
  • ROLLIER-HANSELMANN, Juliette (2007): “La Chapelle-des-Moines de Berzé-la-Ville: image du monde chrétien médiéval”, Annales de l’Académie de Mâcon, serie 5, vol. 1, pp. 13-19.
  • ROLLIER-HANSELMANN, Juliette (2011): “La Traditio Legis de Berzé-la-Ville: entre tradition et innovation”, Hortus Artium Medievalium, vol. 17, pp. 275-287.
  • RUSSO, Daniel (2000): “Espace peint, espace symbolique, construction ecclésiologique. Les peintures de Berzé-la-Ville (Chapelle-des-Moines)”, Revue Mabillon, n.s. 11, t. 72, pp. 57-87.
  • SANTIAGO DE LA VORÁGINE (h. 1264): La leyenda dorada. Traducción de MACÍAS, José Manuel (1998). Alianza Editorial, Madrid, vol. I.
  • SCHIRÓ, Giuseppe (1992): Monreale. La ciudad del templo de oro. Mistretta, Palermo.
  • VELMANS, Tania; KORAC, Vojislav; SUPUT, Marica (1999): Bizancio. Lunwerg, Barcelona.
  • VOUAUX, Léon (1913): Les Actes de Paul et ses lettres apocryphes. Letouzey et Ané, París.
Data source: Dialnet