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    STUDIA THEOLOGIA ORTHODOXA - Issue no. 2 / 2007  
         
  Article:   THE EVOLUTION OF THE STYLE OF EASTERN AND WESTERN CHURCHES AND THE POSITION OF THE ICONOSTASIS IN THEIR ARCHITECTURE.

Authors:  CRISTIAN BARB. 		 
       
         
  Abstract:  The Evolution of the Style of Eastern and Western Churches and the Position of the Iconostasis in their Architecture. In order to start our iconographic and dogmatic study of the iconostasis we highly need to clarify the architectural frame within which it came into being and in which the iconostasis developed beginning with the paleo-christian age up to the present days. In this study I tried to show the main forms of the iconostasis in the transition period from Basilican style to Byzantine style (both in the religious architecture and religious painting) – style common to the Orthodox East. Due to the apparition of the first iconostases, a three folded partition of the ecclesial space (the altar, the nave and the narthex). In the course of our study we tried to present the theological symbolism of the Byzantine Churches as explained by the Holy Fathers and to value the liturgical role and the dogmatic significance of the iconostasis. In the second part of our study we presented the evolution of the Basilican, Roman, Gothic and Renaissance style of the Western Churches. Unlike in the Byzantine Churches, where the Pantocrator Christ of the main cupola encompasses everyone, in the Western Churches the stress lies exclusively on the man’s ascent towards God. In our study we tried to show that the iconostasis in its undeveloped shape existed both in East and West but we have to add that the Western Church gave it up because as time passed the Western Church saw the iconostasis as an obstacle which separates the organic unity of the cult.  
         
     
         
         
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