Polina Maier
The University of Wurzburg, Germany
This paper explores the problem of the iconographical borrowings in the late Russian icon painting. The study intends to reveal the sources of a rare iconography “Christ the Great Hierarch with the Crucifix”, which emerged in the middle of the 17th century. Iconographical analysis confirmed the argument that the Western European iconographic type of so-called “Quinitas”, which was created for the altar in the Church of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Torun about 1390, exercised a significant influence on Russian icons with the multiple images of Christ. Using an iconological approach, the author analysed the Western European prototype within its historical cultural and theological context.
The study pays special attention to the genetic relationship between this iconographical scheme, which is known only in a few icons from the 17th–19th centuries, and the iconographical innovation in the Novgorod icon painting in the middle of the 16th century. The author illuminates genesis and iconographic evolution of the iconographic types with the multiple images of Christ, explores their semantic proximity and the notional invariance, and describes the degree of adaptation of the original Western European motifs in Russian art. As a result, it is concluded that the concept of visualisation of an abstract idea and of creating a picture as a theological sentence by using several conventional schemes is what connects both iconographical types — “Quinitas” and “Christ the Great Hierarch with the Crucifix”. The apologetic treatise with commentaries which was found in the State Historical Museum explains the theological perception of the icons with the double and triple images of Christ. This approach becomes a theoretical basis in the icon painting school of the metropolitan Makary. Studying an original Russian iconological reflection in the middle of the 16th century and the iconographical scheme, the author sets up a typology of the metahistorical images of Christ.