The Hand of our God / Manuscript

Brass sculpture
Ø:14cm
H:10cm
10cm*14cm*14cm
-
Manuscript
71*66*5 (with frame)

2022

“The Hand of God”, or Manus Dei in Latin, also known as Dextera domini, the "right hand of God", is a motif in Jewish and Christian art, especially of the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods, when depiction of Jehovah or God the Father as a full human figure was considered unacceptable.
The hand, sometimes including a portion of an arm, or ending about the wrist, is used to indicate the intervention in or approval of affairs on Earth by God, and sometimes as a subject in itself. It is an artistic metaphor that is generally not intended to indicate that a hand was physically present or seen at any subject depicted. In later Christian works it tends to be replaced by a fully realized figure of God the Father, whose depiction had become acceptable in Western Christianity, although not in Eastern Orthodox or Jewish art. Though the hand of God has traditionally been understood as a symbol for God's intervention or approval of human affairs, it is also possible that the hand of God reflects the anthropomorphic conceptions of the deity that may have persisted in late antiquity.

《The Hand of Our Gad》以11世紀西班牙的壁畫「上帝之手」(The Hand of God from Sant Climent de Taüll) 為原型，延伸出的黃銅雕塑。在這幅濕壁畫中，我們看到一隻右手從虛空的圓中伸出來。神的右手被視神聖的符號，有保護與指引。畫中三個圓形代表神聖（紫色）、天地（藍色）、愛（紅色）。其中手勢的為祝福手勢，三隻手指與兩隻手指合攏，三在此代表天主的「三位一體」，包含聖父、聖子、聖靈。在其他聖像畫中，可以看到耶穌也以此手勢昭示著自己的人神身分中世紀的繪畫中，神無具體形象，只有以一隻手的方式現身。上帝的手勢可以代表各種意思：干預、批准、祝福、給予、保護。神的長相為我們的投射，祂也因為我們的視覺經驗不斷轉化中。