Vera Podkovyrova
The Library of the Russian Academy of Science, Russia
Iconography of several cycles of miniatures in Russian Apocalypse manuscripts, formed by the end of the 16th century, is based primarily on Russian, then on Western European and only in general terms on Byzantine and post-Byzantine sources. Western models for the Russian 17th century mural cycles of Apocalypse are widely known and described in literature (primarily engravings of the Piscator’s Bible and related publications). However F. I. Buslaev already observed that some compositions in a certain cycle of Russian miniatures had been replaced by similar or parallel scenes from engravings of the “September” Luther Bible. Furthermore, the Western 16th century engraved editions influenced some details of Russian Apocalypse iconography (Yu. A. Gribov, G. P. Chinyakova). The paper will review both trends of Western influence. Miniatures from the earliest extant Russian illustrated Apocalypse (mid.-16th century) based on Russian murals and icons will serve as the “Russian canon”. In comparison with it, the “foreign” layers in later cycles of miniatures to Revelation can be clearly identified, allowing us to examine formation of such cycles through the prism of Western European book engraving.