This essay discusses how Orthodox Christianity and Mahāyāna Buddhism understood the acts of both seeing and being seen by the divine, and how such ideas affected the making and use of icons in these two religious traditions. I focus on the visual culture of the Byzantine and Russian Orthodox churches between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, and that of the East Asian Pure Land and Esoteric schools between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, respectively. I interpret the function of the iconostasis as an enduring remnant of the Jewish veil used to obstruct God’s vision. Here, Jacques Lacan’s concepts of the gaze and the screen provide a thought-provoking rationale. In turn, I investigate the mandala and icon in Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, in which both seeing and being seen by the divine were deemed spiritual blessings granted by the divine being. This thematic comparison brings to light the less discussed aspects of Christian and Buddhist visual experiences.

本文讨论东正教基督教和大乘佛教如何理解神的看见和被看见的行为，以及这些思想如何影响这两种宗教传统中圣像的制造和使用。我专注于11世纪和15世纪之间的拜占庭和俄罗斯东正教教堂的视觉文化，以及9世纪和14世纪之间的东亚净土和神秘学校的视觉文化。我将圣障的功能解释为犹太面纱的持久残留物，该面纱用于遮盖上帝的视线。在这里，雅克·拉康（Jacques Lacan）的注视和屏幕概念提供了令人发人深省的理由。反过来，我研究了日本佛教中的曼陀罗和圣像，在其中，被神所见和被看见都被认为是神所赐予的属灵祝福。这种主题比较揭示了基督教和佛教视觉经验中很少讨论的方面。