The Cross of Prayer John Bell Ornament Deity Prayer Saviour Christ Kingdom of heaven Divine will Angel Bread Hungry Evil Flaming
Depictions of the Cross within the Orthodox Church are numerous and often highly ornamented. Some carry special significance. The Tri-Bar Cross, as seen to the right, has three bars instead of the single bar normally attached. The small top crossbar represents the sign that Pontius Pilate nailed above Christ's head. It often is inscribed with an acronym meaning “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”; however, It is often replaced or amplified by the phrase "The King of Glory" in order to answer Pilate's mocking statement with Christ's affirmation, "My Kingdom is not of this world". There is also a bottom slanting bar. This appears for a number of reasons. Evidence indicates that there was a small wooden platform for the crucified to stand on in order to support his weight; in Jesus' case his feet were nailed side by side to this platform with one nail each in order to prolong the torture of the cross. Evidence for this comes mainly from two sources within Holy Tradition, the Bible (in order to cause the victim to die faster their legs were broken so they could not support their weight and would suffocate) and iconography (all early depictions of the crucifixion show this arrangement, not the later with feet on top with single nail). It has also been pointed out by some experts that the nailed hands of a body crucified in the manner often shown in modern secular art would not support the weight of the body and would tear through. A platform for the feet would relieve this problem. The bottom bar is slanted for two reasons, to represent the very real agony which Christ experienced on the cross (a refutation of Docetism) and to signify that the thief on Christ's right chose the right path while the thief on the left did not. Other crosses associated with the Orthodox church are the more traditional single-bar crosses, budded designs, the Jerusalem cross (cross pattée), Celtic crosses, and others.
Size: 3363px × 5025px
Photo credit: © 19th era / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -fashioned, 1800, 19th, 2d, academic, age, ancient, angel, antique, antiquity, bell, black, book, bread, bw, bygone, carry, century, christ, church, classical, copy, cross, cut, cutout, deity, depictions, divine, drawing, duplicate, embossed, empire, engrave, engraved, engraver, engraving, etching, evil, expression, figure, flaming, formal, front, frontispiece, graphic, ha, hand, heaven, heritage, highly, historic, history, hungry, illustration, image, imperial, john, kingdom, late, lifelike, majesty, margin, master, monotone, national, nineteenth, notable, numerous, obscure, obsolete, olden, original, ornament, ornamented., orthodox, paper, period, pictorial, picture, portrait, praye, prayer, pre, press, print, printed, printing, prior, proof, publication, publicity, queen, rare, real, realism, realistic, reference, relief, replica, represent, representation, repro, reproduce, reproduction, retro, review, romantic, saviour, significance., social, special, standard, steel, studio, style, subject, teach, time, title, tool, topic, topical, tract, tri-bar, true, unusual, victoria, victorian, visual, white
