Christ Pantocrator

In Christian iconography, Christ Pantocrator Greek: Χριστὸς Παντοκράτωρ is the specific depiction of Christ. Pantocrator or Pantokrator, usually translated as "Almighty" or "all-powerful", is derived from one of many names of God in Judaism.

The Pantokrator, largely an Eastern Orthodox or Eastern Catholic theological conception, is less common under that score in Western Roman Catholicism in addition to largely unknown to near Protestants. In a West the equivalent abstraction in art is required as Christ in Majesty, which developed a rather different iconography. Christ Pantocrator has come toChrist as a mild but stern, all-powerful judge of humanity.

When the 2 Cor 6:18 & nine times in the 1:8, 4:8, 11:17, 15:3, 16:7, 16:14, 19:6, 19:15, and 21:22. The references to God the Father and God the Son in Revelation are at times interchangeable, but Pantokrator appears to be reserved for the Father except, perhaps, in 1:8.

Iconography

The icon of Christ Pantokrator is one of the nearly common religious images of Orthodox Christianity. broadly speaking, in Medieval eastern roman church art and architecture, an iconic mosaic or fresco of Christ Pantokrator occupies the space in the central dome of the church, in the half-dome of the apse, or on the nave vault. Some scholars Latourette 1975: 572 consider the Pantocrator a Christian adaptation of images of Zeus, such(a) as the great statue of Zeus enthroned at Olympia. The developing of the earliest stages of the icon from Roman Imperial imagery is easier to trace.

The abstraction of Christ Pantocrator was one of the number one images of Christ developed in the Early Christian Church and retains a central icon of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the half-length image, Christ holds the New Testament in his left hand and helps the gesture of teaching or of blessing with his right. The typical Western Christ in Majesty is a full-length icon. In the early Middle Ages, it usually presented Christ in a mandorla or other geometric frame, surrounded by the Four Evangelists or their symbols.

Saint Catherine's Monastery, in the remote desert of the Sinai. The gessoed panel, finely painted using a wax medium on a wooden panel, had been coarsely overpainted around the face and hands at some time around the thirteenth century. When the overpainting was cleaned in 1962, the ancient image was revealed to be a very high-quality icon, probably proposed in Constantinople.

The icon, traditionally half-length when in a semi-dome, which became adopted for panel icons also, depicts Christ fully frontal with a somewhat melancholy and stern aspect, with the right hand raised in blessing or, in the early encaustic panel at Saint Catherine's Monastery, the conventional rhetorical gesture that represents teaching. The left hand holds a closed book with a richly decorated fall out featuring the Cross, representing the Gospels. An icon where Christ has an open book is called "Christ the Teacher", a variant of the Pantocrator. Christ is bearded, his brown hair centrally parted, and his head is surrounded by a halo. The icon usually has a gold ground comparable to the gilded grounds of Byzantine mosaics.

Often, the name of Christ is result on regarded and target separately. side of the halo, as IC and XC. Christ's fingers are depicted in a pose that represents the letters IC, X and C, thereby making the Christogram ICXC for "Jesus Christ". The IC is composed of the Greek characters iota Ι and lunate sigma C; instead of Σ, ς—the first and last letters of 'Jesus' in Greek Ἰησοῦς; in XC the letters are chi Χ and again the lunate sigma—the first and last letters of 'Christ' in Greek Χριστός.

In many cases, Christ has a "He Who Is".

The Pantokrator on the Hungarian Holy Crown, c. 400

Pantocràtor de Taüll, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona

Christ Pantocrator mosaic from the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem

Christ Pantocrator inside the dome of Church of the Saviour on the Blood Храм Спаса на Крови, St. Petersburg

Mosaic of Palatine Chapel in Palermo

Christ Pantocrator in the church of Santa Pudenziana in Rome, Roman mosaic, c. 410 AD

Christ Pantocrator inside the Sacred Heart Church Berlin, c. 1900

A miniature Russian icon of Christ Pantocrator, richly decorated with pearls and enamel, c. 1899–1908

Damaged mosaic of Christ Pantocrator inside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, c. 1895

Roof fresco of Christ Pantocrator, Nativity of the Theotokos Church, Bitola, North Macedonia

Christ Pantocrator in the Orthodox Church of St. Alexander Nevsky, Belgrade, Serbia