불교와 기독교 초기 미술에 나타난 붓다와 하나님의 상징표현 고찰 ‒붓다의 발자국과 하나님의 손을 중심으로‒

Abstract

This writing contemplated the religious sensibility that is reflected in two symbols by focusing on Buddha’s footprint and God’s hand among symbolic expressions shown in the earliest buddhist and christian art. First of all, in chapter Ⅱ and Ⅲ, we examined the symbol of Buddha’s footprint and the role of God’s hand expressed by the art. Buddha’s footprint was described as one pair or one foot with a background of sacred book’s anecdote in Indian stupa from 2C BC to AD 3C. It is expressed as the image of getting worship in the screen, and it symbolizes migration·travel, stage of mental·physical completion, and great man’s lucky omen depending on the context. As the independent footprint was produced in the anecdote, we could get a sense of the first degree of religion that worshiped the symbol of Buddha itself. On the other hand, God’s hand established an intimate relation with a sarcophagus for funeral in Rome between 4C and 6C and Bible’s particular anecdote related to the salvation on mosaic in Catholic church, and it was always described as one hand on the top of the screen. It symbolizes the powerful authority as the subject of salvation and absolute authority that gives the authority to Jesus, saints, and kings, but it was not expressed as the image of being worshiped in the screen. In chapter Ⅳ, to draw the implications of two symbols, it examined the context that expressed Buddha and God as a symbol, sacred book’s prohibition about Buddha’s and God’s embodiments, and the method of describing the footprint and hand in sacred book. Also, the footprint’s and hand’s locations and status on the screen were related to people’s understanding and appreciation of Buddha and God. The former saw that the enlightened one’s Buddha-nature and sentient beings’s characters are the same in terms of the essence, and the latter strictly sorted God’s attributes and creatures’ characters. As this kind of recognition is reflected in the art, the carved location of the mark that is subject to Buddha who walks barefoot for humankind’s happiness is not fixed in the screen, and its mark gets the devoted worship from characters. On the other hand, it was visualized that God stays at nearby location to a degree that his finger can be visible, but as the location of God’s hand is always fixed in the sky, it reveals the gap and the hierarchy between God and creatures, which can’t be narrowed. Because the mark and hand accord with Buddha and God’s attribute, we confirmed that they were used as Buddha and God’s symbol for a long time.