Imago Mundi and Metaphysical Knowledge in Japanese Calligrams and Byzantine Icons

The present study tries to analyze the relation between written and visual image both in the Japanese calligram and the Byzantine icon, searching the possible meeting points between the two types of art. On the other hand, our research is meant to inquire the way in which the global meaning of these iconographic arts can be instantaneously deciphered through a hermeneutic and cultural semiotics approach, or whether it reveals itself gradually as the intuitive perception of the icon-replaced reality results in either a “spiritual painting” or a “sacred image”. Epiphanies of a world hidden under a veil of mystery and mystical communion, the Japanese calligram and the Byzantine icon are open to perpetual discovery. By renouncing the principle of representation of the visible structure of the world, they become metaphysical spiritual documents and means which reveal the absolute.

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