Word: icons
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Dates: during 1960-1960
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Among the Romans, where power was frequently the only truth, superficial appearance was reality. Christianity restored the art of transcendent hidden meanings. With impressive erudition, Malraux traces the sacerdotal role of cathedral, mosaic and icon and the evolution of Christian art from the austere, stylized Byzantine Pantocrators to the benign, handsome "Beau Dieu" in the central portal of Amiens Cathedral. Despite the growing intrusion of realistic detail, Giotto, as late as the 14th century, "did not copy the sky men see, but transmuted it into a sky charged with Christ's presence." But a century later Botticelli plunged into...