This project is a coursework assignment by a student of the HSE Art and Design School or a research project by a faculty member of the HSE Art and Design School. This project is non-commercial and serves educational purposes.
From Sacred to Demonic
How cinema strips religious art of its color, posture, and iconography, transforming the sacred into a source of fear.
Horror does not invent a language of fear from scratch. It borrows recognizable forms from religious art—gold, red, frontal figures, the martyr’s body, the image of the Mother—and preserves them while changing their meaning. Thus, the sacred is frightening not because it disappears, but because it remains recognizable.
Chapter 1. The Sacred: The Color of the Icon
In the icon, color does not describe the subject matter; it indicates its place within the world’s hierarchy. The chapter’s material consists of three Roman icons of the Mother of God: «Madonna Arachle,» «Madonna del Monasterium Tempuli» (also known as «Madonna di San Sisto»), and «Madonna del Sorbo.»
