Verbotene Bilder. Heiligenfiguren in Russland by Marianne Stössl (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 541 Alexander Benditsky's publication (0 Piatoi Simfonii D. Shostakovicha, Nizhny Novgorod, 2000) and laterused byManashir Iakubov inhis notes for the new edition of the score of the symphony by DSCH Publishers. There are some misprints and smaller mistakes in the bibliography: the names Barthes and Bakhtin are omitted on p 243; Fairclough does not mention the second volume of Sofia Khentova's Shostakovich: zhizn' i tvorchestvo (published in 1986) on p. 247; the name ofRussian musicologist Ogolevets is misprinted on p. 32. But all these details cast no serious shadow over the numerous achieve ments of the author. Fairclough's book is full of well-argued ideas and it is written with considerable analytical skills. Last but not least, it deals with Shostakovich's music, not just the political and social circumstances around thatmusic. The book also makes for interesting reading, which is stilla rarity in the academic world. Centre for RussianMusic Alexander Ivashkin GoldsmithsCollege,UniversityofLondon Stossl, Marianne (ed.). Verbotene Bilder. Heiligenfiguren in Russland. Hirmer, Munich, 2006. 271pp. Illustrations.Maps. Notes. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. 58.00. This beautifully-produced book leads us, its title suggests, into a world of 'forbidden images': that of sacred sculptural figures,whose surviving examples in Russia span more than 500 years. 'Forbidden' is here a somewhat startling and maybe contentious word, but justified in terms of thewell known Synod injunction against church sculpture of May 1722 (a time when the carving of iconostases, incidentally, was at its most elaborate, though attracting no censure). Irrespective of the decree, the works here copiously illustrated ? hardly familiar even in the context of Russian art history ? are arresting enough in themselves. The editor, Marianne Stossl, has assembled a baker's dozen of specialists ? some from Bavaria, most from Russia ? to examine various aspects of what emerges as a big subject, and herself contributes four sections of text: most crucially a long introductory conspectus to its second, specifically Russian part.With a thoroughness typical of the volume, thewhole first part is devoted to iconoclasm ? or rather aniconism ? in the major religions, and to the question of whether theOrthodox Church ever canonically banned religious sculpture (the answer, before 1722, is no). The massive, wood-hewn, polychrome, highly expressive figures with which this volume is concerned are quite numerous in Russian provincial art galler ies (there is a breathtaking collection at Archangel), and there are examples in a fine small church in theMoscow Kremlin, though few visitors seek itout. They were of course icons, venerated, draped with votive cloths and maybe paraded as such, generally (when in situ) boxed, enshrined or framed in iconic manner even if free-standing. Most of the early ones are more-or-less flattened or in low relief, intended to be seen only frontally, though some are 542 SEER, 86, 3, JULY 2008 sculptures in the round ? as are the later,post-1722 types of seated figures of a sorrowing Christ, showing Western 'popular Baroque' influence. Before that, standing figures of saints were represented ? not any old saints, but overwhelmingly a (semi-legendary) triowho had a particular resonance with in the popular belief-system: SS. Nicholas, George, and Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa. These are joined by the historically-authentic Russian holy man St Nil Stol benskii, the 'Russian Godlet' (16thc; his touchingly squat image isubiquitous in the Tver-Novgorod lands). Stossl has particularly detailed and intriguing accounts (pp. 62-69, 169-77) of the multiple ways in which each of these personages were held both to protect and to structure theOld Russian way of life. Where did this tradition come from? Its earliest securely dated manifesta tion seems to be the fine, fragmentary figure of St George ? exceptionally, carved in limestone and painted, though close in manner to four coeval figures inwood ? thatV. D. Ermolin set up, twinned with another warrior saint, above the Spasskii Gate ofMoscow in 1464. Such St Georges may be related to the rise of independent Muscovy. But a fine life-sized Nicholas ofMozhaisk (legendary defender of that city during theTatar invasion) may date from the century before. Behind these minatory sacred images stands not only a general Christian representational tradition, but other forms of wood-carving: reliquaries, sculpted tombs. Low relief carving...