**2. Beauty and the categories of saints**

arguments to upgrade and strengthen their belief. The first register of the painted program of any Byzantine church, which encompassed a gallery of represented saintly figures, was the one closest to the beholder and therefore most valuable in regard to their self-recognition in terms of ideological and religious perception and comprehension. Belonging to different categories, established according to the diverse roles they have played in the process of development of the faith and its institutions, these saints gained their specific place and function within the painted ensembles of the religious edifices (angels usually guard the entrances, apostles support the vaulting structures, bishops fill the sanctuary, holy warriors decorate the pillars, etc.). Hence, they became constitutional members of the great assembly of Christian characters, mandatory for embellishment of the lowest zone of the painted church decoration. Represented in larger-than-life dimensions, depicted in full frontal positions, and marked by the characteristic features of their personal contribution to the faith, the saintly figures have become the closest "collaborators" of the believers in the continuous process of religious upbringing of the

In order to meet the emotional and spiritual needs, as well as expectations of the faithful in the process of the religious interaction, the saintly images had to express a certain amount of aesthetic energy in order to "attract" believers' attention and fulfill their didactic function of supreme and unchallenging role models. Therefore, a catalog of saintly images was established in the frames of which diverse characters have gained different aesthetic features in regard to their place in the history of the Christian church [1]. Their social background, religious function, and cultic implications were also encompassed in this aesthetic design in a form of visual configuration that reflected not only their physical appearance but also the overall charisma [2]. In that manner, the typological structure of the different categories of saintly images could be expressed through their portraiture, corporeality, and emotional expression appropriate to their deeds done for the faith, as well as adequate to their educational mission for the believers. This "functional beauty" of the Byzantine saints was due to the canonic background of their aesthetic concept established on their sustainable spiritual roles played in the ceremonial story of salvation [3–5]. However, besides the significance of their historical acknowledgment, their sustainable function for the congregation was much more important if one bears in mind the power of their visual appearance over the vigilant senses of the worshippers in the mystical ambience of the Christian church. Reflecting the inner spiritual charge through a set of carefully drafted visual features [6]that should act as a silent, yet powerful PR, the physical appearance of the saintly figures became a painterly matrix of spiritual beauty of the depicted characters which grew into a luxurious catalog of

Although the category of beauty as a visual determinant of someone's physical appearance within the fresco ensembles was never in the focus of Byzantine scholars, some attempts to analyze its structural core have been made recently [7]. These efforts spring from the notion of the unavoidable visual determination of a saint or a category of saints as a prerequisite for their successful intercession between the believers' expectation and the higher power of ultimate soteriology. In that regard, the wholehearted angels, the resolute apostles, the wise bishops, the brave soldiers, the dedicated healers, the self-denying martyrs, the devout

congregation.

18 Perception of Beauty

pure and undisputed sacred portraiture.

Since each category of saints is marked by its own aesthetic code which reflects the inner psychical status, that is the personality, as well as the outer physical appearance, that is the visual attractiveness of the saintly images, each one of them radiates with several distinctive typological determinants of sacral look in the sphere of physical beauty. Hence, each category is characterized by an artistic code of likeness which encompasses two components: (1) the canonical matrix of saints' visual aspects dependent on the iconographic samplers and (2) the inventive configuration of saints' distinctive traits inspired by the imaginative expression of Byzantine painters. The first component was determined by the strict rules prescribed by painterly guidebooks mandatory for all iconographers and fresco painters, while the second one was due to the magnitude of artists' personal painterly idiolects permeated with creative energy, genuine impulse, and unrestrained fantasy. The unity of the two components is actually the artistic product which at the same time reflects the normative boundaries, yet radiates with power and passion of artistic illumination. This unity respects the iconographic cannons, but ennobles them with the illustrative manners of painterly expression characteristic of diverse time periods, different artistic trends, and various painters. Of course, we have to keep in mind that each saintly category had a different spiritual significance for the believers built upon their historic and ecclesiastic background, thus the images had to radiate with the specific visual energy characteristic of each category individually. Accordingly, the eight categories of saints found in the fresco arrangements of sacral edifices from the Byzantine period (sixth to fifteenth century): angels, apostles, bishops, martyrs, holy healers, holy warriors, hermits, and female saints have been marked by eight clusters of aesthetic signatures, resulting in eight different painterly labels of saintly beauty. Each of them will be analyzed in the following subchapters.

#### **2.1. Angels**

As inhabitants of the celestial heights and messengers of God, the angels occupy a special place in the visual gallery of saintly characters due to their heavenly origin, as well as their supernal nature. Sensual and light-weighted, vibrant and graceful, the supernatural angelic individuals are marked by the features of superiority, charity, compassion, benefaction, and kindness. As intermediaries between heaven and earth and representatives of the superb power of godly intentions for the faithful, the angels are blessed with the virtues of purity and grace, physical seductiveness, and spiritual intensity. As the most exotic of all saintly characters, the angelic creatures can float and hang in the air, balance in the imaginary horizons, as well as be stable and earthbound as much as any other member of the "pantheon" of Christian saints. Originated in the heavenly spheres of the eternal Kingdom, the angels emanate facial features of perfect harmony, composed of round shapes and oval contours with almond-like eyes, rosy cheeks, and juicy lips, and ornamented with luxuriant locks of long, curly hair. Their facial expression is gentle and calm, illuminative, tender, and radiant. Tall and skinny, long-legged, and attractive are the basic features of angels' corporal appearance which, encompassing their appealing bodies, as well as their elegance, refer to the most desirable form of beauty in the world of saintly characters. The postures of the represented angels are noble and elegant, classy and glamorous, radiating with superior lightness and aerial exuberance. With energetic charge composed of celestial sparkles that permeate the figures with ceremonial motions, the angels look like cosmic voyagers who have come down to earth from the most exotic spheres of the universe. Dressed in white garments made of light fabrics, or, occasionally, in exclusively ornamented costumes with militant or aristocratic insignia, the heavenly messengers, warriors, and landlords astonish with their graceful appearance, imposing elegance, as well as stylish impression.

From the dignified stances of the pretentiously handsome angels in the Basilica of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna (executed in the period between 556 and 569) [9] to the powerful and vigorous angelic figures from the Kariye djami in Istanbul (1321) [10], the angels have gone a long way through the horizons of physical beauty in Byzantine painting. In that regard, one should mention the suggestively portrayed and aristocratically dressed angels from the church of Dormition in Nicaea (Turkey) represented with vivid, almost humanlike facial expression [11], as well as the womanly elegant figure of the archangel from the decorative program of the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople [12], both from the second half of the ninth century. Among the many beautiful angelic representations from the mid-Byzantine period, the one decorating the eastern wall of the church of St. George at Kurbinovo in Macedonia (1191) is, by all means, the most attractive (**Figure 1**). Tall and slender, sophisticated and weightless, with long extremities and a feminine portrait, the archangel Gabriel from the Kurbinovo temple is one of the most alluring saintly characters of the twelfth century. The energetic pose of the angel, the temperament gesture full of inner self-confidence, the rhythmically conducted pace, and the dynamic unrest of the light draperies, as secondary traits of the Kurbinovo angelic depiction, are characteristic enough of a jubilant "top model" in the world of saintly characters. The thirteenth century introduces more manly traits in the representation of angels in regard to the corpulence of their figures, as well as the accentuated attention to the design of their costumes, as shown Animae Pulchrae: Depiction of Saintly Images in Byzantine Mural Painting http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69265 21

**Figure 1.** The church of St. George at Kurbinovo, Archangel Gabriel.

by the representations in the church of the Virgin Peribleptos in Ohrid (1295) (**Figure 2**). In the fourteenth century, the angels have become breathtaking male individuals with delicate complexion and athletic figures who accompany historic personages, as in the naos of the Lesnovo monastery in Macedonia (1342–1343) [13], or safeguard the entrance to the temple, as in the church of St. Andreas near Skopje (1388–1389) [14].
