Veselov, Fedor N. Tsar’s Nativity and the Prophet’s Blessing: Sources for Miniatures of Russian Copies of the Alexander Romance

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://dx.doi.org/10.18688/aa2414-3-21
Title Tsar’s Nativity and the Prophet’s Blessing: Sources for Miniatures of Russian Copies of the Alexander Romance
Author email f.veselov@spbu.ru
About author Veselov, Fedor N. — Ph. D., associate professor. Saint Petersburg State University, Universitetskaia nab., 7/9, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russian Federation; SPIN-code: 7413-2374; ORCID: 0000-0002-2445-6497; Scopus ID: 56641623800.
In the section Medieval Russian Art DOI10.18688/aa2414-3-21
Year 0 Volume 14 Pages 275–286
Type of article RAR Index UDK 75.056(47).04 Index BBK 85(2)
Abstract

The article presents preliminary findings of studies on the cycles of miniatures of Russian illuminated manuscripts of the Serbian Alexander Romance. It can be stated with a reasonable degree of certainty that the existing manuscripts originate from several different illuminated archetypes. Their illustrations were created without reference to the developed iconographies of the earlier versions of the Alexander Romance. However, they have connections with general compositions of Biblical scenes and iconographies of Biblical characters that are characteristic of Christian art. The artists responsible for the Old Rus illuminated protographs of known codices were careful enough in following the illustrated text, which is evident when comparing them with South Slavonic manuscript copies. At the same time, it became apparent that Russian miniaturists were preoccupied with subjects, connected with the role of Alexander the Great figure and his tsardom in the Providential Christian history. It is our perspective that this focus can be attributed to the exceptional significance of the Serbian version of the Romance, whose protagonist personifies the image of the ideal ruler, for the Russian culture during the epoch of the Moscow Great Principality and the formation of the tsardom.

The research is supported by the Russian Science Foundation project Nr. 21-78-00050.
Keywords
Reference Veselov, Fedor N. Tsar’s Nativity and the Prophet’s Blessing: Sources for Miniatures of Russian Copies of the Alexander Romance. Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art: Collection of articles. Vol. 14. Eds A. V. Zakharova, S. V. Maltseva, E. Iu. Staniukovich-Denisova. — Lomonosov Moscow State University / St. Petersburg: NP-Print, 2024, pp. 275–286. ISSN 2312-2129. http://dx.doi.org/10.18688/aa2414-3-21
Publication Article language russian
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