Man of Sorrows; Visual Arts; Middle Ages; Eucharist

Článek se zabývá zobrazením Bolestného Krista v umění střední Evropy ve 14. a 15. století jako specifický ikonografický typ reflektující svátek Božího těla.

The article deals with the image of the Man of Sorrows in Central European Art of the 14th and 15th centuries as a specific iconographic type closely related to the Feast of Corpus Christi. The Man of Sorrows served as a suitable motif for expressing the central dogma of the Corpus Christi feast - the praesentia realis Christi in the Eucharist. Besides visualisation of the complex theological ideas on the two substances of Christ´s body and his presence, the motif allowed greater emotional involvement of the believer in devotion of the new feast. The artists of the Late Middle Ages dedicated to this visual theme great attention not only from an iconographical point of view but also in the purely formal manner of its representation. They often used an illusionistic, naturalistic or even corporeal artistic style that was designed, on the basis of empirical experience, to visualise to corporeal eyes the mystery of the Eucharist, unreachable otherwise by either the intellect or the senses