Les images abîmées : entre iconoclasme, pratiques religieuses et rituels « magiques »

• Main Author: Simona Boscani Leoni
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Centre d´Histoire et Théorie des Arts 2006-01-01
• Series: Images Re-Vues
• Subjects: devotion; iconoclasm; power of images; attack to pictures
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/imagesrevues/231

The contribution focuses on the phenomenon of the manipulated, or even degraded, images in the Alpine regions. In these territories we can find at least three categories of damaged images: the first concerns images damaged and concealed for religious motives; the second, manipulation of the image by scratching or writing on the layers of paint, a phenomenon indicating the believer’s intention of recording his presence in the church and at the same time a sort of ritual physically appropriating the image; in the third type the image is repainted or readapted (for instance, the Counter-reformation’s “prudish vandalism” or the reproduction of the same image in a more modern style). The cases of repainting and integrating paintings in more recent ensembles are evidence of the interest of those commissioning them for their parish, as well as a respect for “effective images”. Studying degraded paintings makes it possible to approach the man/image relationship problem according to an original perspective and to highlight the complexity of the visual arts’ impact in the Christian West throughout many centuries.