“Prototypes, Variations & Artistic Innovation: The Iconography of St John Vladimir on the Interplay Between Frescoes, Icons, Metalwork and Copperplate Engravings.” (original) (raw)
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In this paper first part I present a hitherto unpublished icon of St. John Vladimir. On the basis of the analysis if its technique, iconography and style I suggested a late 17th-early 18th century dating and an Epirote workshop. In the paper’s second part, I am developing an iconographic typology of St. John Vladimir’s imagery on the grounds of four critical attributes of St. John Vladimir’s iconography. I discerned four principal iconographic types of the saint’s iconography based on the setting in which he is represented (Type A: On horse; Type B: On the ground; Type C: In reliquary; Type D: On throne), some of which are divided in two sub-types depending on the saint’s cephalophoria, i.e. on whether or not the saint bears his head. The portion of the body portrayed (full or in-torso) was used as a criterion for an iconographic variant, while the variety of objects borne (or not) by St. John Vladimir (various combination of the Cross, a palm branch and/or a sword, all of which are either mentioned in the saint’s life or of symbolical significance) became the criterion for distinguishing sub-variants.
Through the discussion of two practical "case studies'; the authors deal with a classical theme of iconographicaI studies, thatis the complex relationship between text and image. The two examples explain in particular how the"intention"of the artist or patron, and so the deeper meaning of the pictures, are not revealed by the exact correspondences between text and image, but emerge mainly from the recognition of the differences. Often this gap between text and image can be originated from the liturgy or can be explained by the links with ritual practices, in which the pictures are involved. Catholic prelates from Kotor were able to commission such artists who could paint the fresco programmes of town churches mostly based on models found in Byzantine art because such solutions offered them possibilities of forming their own programme based on the liturgy of the Catholic Church. In the case of the Olivuccio di Ceccarello's Dormitio, from Sirolo, the semi-liturgical rituality of the assault on the properties of the Jews, accepted by the Church, justifies the scars on the image of Jews and clarifies the reason of the selection of episodes made by the painter on the basis of the Legenda aurea, with the intention to highlight the negative role of the Jews, as opposed to the positive one played by the incredulous Apostle Thomas.
ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 3 (13). P. 71-85, 2017
The present paper deals with the relationship between the visual image and the poetic text in the emblematic message of the hagiographic art of baroque. Specifically two different traditions of the 17 th-18 th centuries, namely the Cretan and the Russian, were studied by the typical examples of the icon "Μέγας εἶ, Κύριε" ("Great Art Thou, O Lord") by Ioannis Kornaros and the iconographic type of the "Living cross". The comparative analyses of the function of the poetic text-the homonymous prayer of St. Sophronius of Jerusalem and the religious poem of Silvestre Medvedev-on these icons revealed that in spite of the obvious differences there are certain common features which correspond to the general trends of the changing role of the icons in the European spiritual and social context.
Icon as Chora. Spatial Aspects of Iconicity in Byzantium and Russia
A. Lidov. Icon as ‘Chora’: Spatial Aspects of Iconicity in Byzantium and Russia. In “L’icône dans la pensée et dans l’art.” Eds. Kristina Mitalaité et Anca Vasiliu // Brepols Pub. n. v. : Turnhout, Belgium, 2017, pp. 423-447, 2017
A new view of the icon has been developing in recent years, which differs significantly from our customary approach. When talking about icons, we typically think of a flat schematic representation of a religious subject matter, depicted usually on a wooden board. This stereotype is deeply unsatisfactory, because in the Byzantine world icons were understood as spatial images functioning as mediators with the divine realm. An ideal icon was thus not a flat representation, but a spatial whole constructed according to a different set of rules. In this paper we shall try to elucidate some of these rules with the help of case studies. To begin with, we shall examine a spatial icon formed in the Kievan St. Sophia Cathedral by a mosaic image of Christ Pantocrator in the main dome, which has been shown to have a matching 'reflection' on the bottom of the chalice used in this cathedral. Then we shall see how the golden smalt used by Byzantine masters worked to create an aura of glistering light in the space surrounding the mosaic icon of the Virgin. Further on, I will argue that spacial aspects of iconicity can be understood through a notion of "chora", a mysterious platonic formative space-matter, notoriously difficult to comprehend in terms of Western rationalist thinking. Being a meeting ground of dialectical opposites, "chora" unites the ideal with the material, the abstract with the concrete, the holy with the mundane. We shall then turn to the icon of Divine Light in the Hagia Sophia church in Constantinople as an important example of such a spatial icon, defying positivist methodology. We shall also critically examine some misconceptions about icons, such as those related to the role of 'pattern-books' and the reverse perspective. Last but not least, a more general notion of 'iconicity' and its manifestations in various artistic forms within cultures with Byzantine roots shall be discussed.
2008
Western culture is marked by iconoclasm. This controversial statement made by Gilbert Durand-one of the most renowned French symbologist and philosophers can be understood better if we differentiate it from the phenomenon which took place in the 7 th century in Eastern culture. One can say that Eastern doctrine iconoclasm was rooted in Jewish and Muslim legalism, which strived to maintain the purity of symbol and the depth of its mysterious sense at any cost. Western iconoclasm on the other hand is a result of overuse of image which lead to disappearance of its value and 'evaporating' of its symbolical sense. Looking at European art Durand found orthodox icon, which 7 th Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 784 A.D. described as anamnesis, as the most 'symbolically intensive' phenomenon within the course of history. Thus orthodox icon isn't God's image, but is a visible proof of His existence. However, in Western tradition since orthodox icon and Romanesque art one can observe that significance of symbol gradually deteriorated accompanied by increase of pragmatism and empiricism overtaking philosophical thought, and strive for realism or stressing decorative and mimetic role of image. The most clearly it can be observed in sacral art, which original purpose was to reveal transcendental presence. As icons undoubtedly fulfilled this role, sacral images in Western culture gradually were brought to the role of genre painting. They lost their epiphanic power, power of leading into the world inaccessible to humans and transforming them into the image which they revealed. Significance of image was disappearing, and what goes with it-its role in culture.
Enigmatic Motifs in Medieval Russian Icons
Enigma in Medieval Slavic Culture. Volume of proceedings of the Enigma in Medieval Slavic Culture Symposium 14 – 16 November 2019. University of Cologne, The Slavic Institute / Sense, Matter, and Medium: New Approaches to Medieval Material and Literary Cultureseries of the German publisher, Walte..., 2024
A direct correlation between word and image existed throughout the entire Middle Ages. The image was not merely an illustration of the text, but its direct reflection. Yet almost every icon contains a character or a detail that is free for interpretation, because of the loss of the original written source or the proper context; but often the “non-literary” motifs are related to other principles of medieval culture. The most important is the principle of likeness that could endow a character with unique traits that reflect its role as prototype. The other line of images was determined The other principle is that of antinomy, whereby imagery and symbols of religious culture o illustrate the ultimately incomprehensible nature of the main dogmas. The latter phenomenon has given rise t numerous mysteries and enigmatic images even in the most canonical scenes. The article focuses on three enigmatic motives that appear in Rus and receive their interpretation in a rather narrow historic context. The first and highly unique image is the depiction of Nonna’s (the mother to St. Nicholas) vision of the Lamb with halo, which is present in two Pskov icons of the Nativity of St. Nicholas. Another enigmatic image is the dove, bound with red string, in the icons of the Mother of God Hodegetria, which was known in Russia as the Konevskaia icon, because of the geographic origins of the iconographic depiction. The third motif is the white sash on the armor of St. George, which is bound diagonally on his chest. This element can be found in a group of Novgorod icons of the Miracle of St. George and the Dragon