Although authority and power have become almost interchangeable words in our times, in Roman and Medieval times they had a very distinct and meaningful complementary relationship. In this sense, one of the aspects of Right and Left in this image becomes the representation of the authority and power of Christ. His iconography became linked with Roman imperial typology because the Pantocrator is Christ as Lord of Lords. In order to understand this relationship of the left and right hands, we must never forget that the Pantocrator is an image of a Judge and a Ruler. Here again we have the right hand as an image of the center, whereas the left hand is an image of periphery. It also suggests the “physicality” of law rather than the more “spiritual” logos. The book on the other hand suggests the “roundabout”, the “indirect”, the fixed outer guard of law. One can only receive a blessing from a person, not from a book, just as the notion of “logos” suggests the very act of speaking. Both the address and blessing suggest “directness” of influence. That a gesture of address would be transformed into a blessing should not surprise those who that have been following my articles on the left and right hand symbolism.
4th century mosaic of the Tradition Legis from Milan The emperor Titus with a scroll and a gesture of address. In the same manner, the fact of holding a book or scroll in the left hand is usual in Roman art. In fact, if we look at the earliest Christian art, we see how it is precisely this gesture Christ is making in those first images of him in a position of glory, of power or as a philosopher.
The blessing gesture of Christ has a long history in Christian art, and it seems pretty clear it is a development of the Roman gesture of “address”, the gesture used in Roman art to denote that a figure is speaking. In this Icon, Christ is represented as the great Judge. With his right hand he blesses and in his left hand he holds a book, a book that is properly seen as the Gospels, but which can sometimes be interpreted as “the book of life” found in the book of Revelations. The most obvious image of this type is the Pantocrator, that image so common in Orthodox liturgical life. One of the aspects of Right/Left symbolism that is so usual in iconography it can almost go unnoticed is how Christ and the saints will be seen holding a book or scroll in their left hand, while blessing, pointing, showing, addressing with their right hand.
Part one: Mercy on the Right, Rigor on the Left, Part two: St-Peter on the Right, St-Paul on the Left Jonathan Pageau examines the recurrence of left and right hand symbolism in traditional art and how they create a pattern of engagement in the world.
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