Church Art Research Articles

Problems of Digital Perceiving and Preservation of Living Cultural Heritage in Bulgarian Christian Religious Practices

Contemporary technological mediation of the perceiving of Christian religious practices raises new questions of cultural interpretation, related to re-conceptualisation of participation in church life and belonging to Bulgarian traditional confessions. Unpopularity of cultural value of documenting of living religious heritage creates polemics about the opportunity of photographing and filming in sacred spaces, exposing of observed church events in media and direct transmission from sacral sites also during creation of church art and practicing of other religious rituals. Therefore attempts to balance ethnic, confessional and liturgical dimensions with tourist and public interests in accordance to global development of that discussion and potential effects of stability or instability of emerging new traditions, deserve scholarly attention. Keywords: Digitalisation, Living Heritage, Christianity, Religious Practices, Heritage Perceiving, Heritage Preservation, Church Arts

The iconography and symbology of the dragon in Armenian manuscript paintings

Miniature paintings depicting the dragon (vishap) in its various symbolic and iconographic expressions as serpent-fish are shown in depictions of the ‘Baptism’, ‘Harrowing of Hell’, ‘Salvation of the Souls’, ‘The Last Judgment’, ‘Abraham’s Lap’, ‘Calming of the Storm’, ‘Enoch’s Vision’, ‘Jonah Being Swallowed by a Whale’, and more. In church art, the defeated and neutralised dragon and the disgraced serpent of paradise display a dual symbolic nature. As a symbol of wisdom, they appear on the staffs of the Catholicos, Bishops, and Archimandrites. The fish symbol is apparent in the symbolism of Catholicos’ crown. This fact suggests that dragon-serpent-fish have ancient and close ties to one another. Such symbolic incompatibilities confirm that the dragon-snake-fish symbolic unit did not arise in the milieu of Christian philosophy. With their ancient roots, together they represent a closely interconnected and continuous ideology-symbology, which is rooted in ancient pagan mythological understandings. In different situations, this unit expresses and symbolises the same important ancient deity or his various expressions. These expressions were neutralised by the new religion, in demonstrating or confirming Christ’s complete victory over this ancient deity. Subsequently, these ancient mythological, interrelated, and symbolic elements were transferred into the system of monotheism, where they adapted to the philosophical and symbolic needs of the new religion.

Srpska pravoslavna eparhija budimska i kultura

The historical and the contemporary status of the Diocese of Buda as a Serbian church organization on the territory of today's Hungary is analyzed throughout the article. The starting point is the general historical context and the eras (from the early Middle Ages until nowadays) in which the Serbs inhabited this territory, passing through many changes, state and political establishments, as well as different phases of integration. The Serbs have - through their exponents - significantly contributed to the entire society and culture, managed to survive until today, and gained the status of one the most organized communities outside the motherland. The Diocese of Buda, acting through its institutions: monasteries, parish churches, church art collections (museums), libraries and archives, is the best representative of the Serbian cultural identity and heritage in Hungary and contemporary Europe.

Plots of “Sundays of Pentecost” in iconostasis cycle painted by Luka Dolynskyi: symbolics and iconography

The main object of the research is a selected group of the religious paintings belonging to the iconostasis created by Luka Dolynskyi for several churches in Lviv and Pochayiv from 1770s to 1820s . This investigation is the part of the great case study of the art heritage of Luka Dolynskyi in the comparative context of the Central European late Baroque ecclesiastical art. Although the analyzed paintings were linked to the Sundays of Pentecost cycle, depicting the special period of the liturgical year they were not commonly used in Ukrainian iconostasis until the end of 17th century. These motives complemented the Twelve Great Feasts iconic cycle which was the essential part of the Ukrainian iconostasis from the 16th century.While working on the iconostasis of the mentioned churches, Dolynskyi modified the traditional range of topics and introduced some new compositions into them. Among the themes that were constantly encountered in the artist’s works were the themes of the Sundays of Pentecost. Such Gospel events as “Healing a blind”, “Healing a paralytic”, “Christ and Samaritan woman” or “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas” were distinctly connected with substantial issues of the faith and piety actualized by Uniate higher clergy after the Zamoyskyi Synod of 1720.Symbolics and iconography of the selected paintings and their interdependence with Uniate clergy intentions to influence church art of the 18th century are researched. It should be mentioned that changes in the general principles of church decoration and transformation of the traditional composition of iconostasis had significantly limited the motives. The iconographical peculiarities of the Pentecost weeks cycle in general aspects, as well as the special Uniate theological background of the Dolynskyi artworks are analyzed.The following study of these paintings in a specific local context has revealed the symbolic meaning of the Gospel topics depicted in ecclesiastical art. The relevance of the article is supplemented by a comparative context for the identification of mutual influence in Western and Eastern iconography of the scenes of “Sundays of Pentecost”. Keywords: cycle of “Sundays of Pentecost”, theological basis, iconographic program, symbolics of motives

The Modern Religious architecture and monumental painting: synthesis (on the example of Russia and the Republic of Mordovia)

Currently in Russia the development of church architecture poses many problems associated with the revival of the national school of monumental religious painting. The article analyzes the main features of the development of monumental decoration of church buildings. It also emphasizes importance of an integrated approach to the solution of the architectural and artistic ensemble of the cult construction. The synthesis of national religious architecture and monumental church painting is the object of research and its features аt the present stage is the subject. The goal of the article is the identification of the main tendencies of integrated approach to the religious architecture, both for Russia and the Republic of Mordovia. The empirical material of the work is the religious architecture and monumental church painting of Russia and the Republic of Mordovia. The research is based on observation, descriptive and comparative methods of analysis. The article is based on the published research on the church art of Russia and the Republic of Mordovia. The turn of the 21st century represents the active practice of creating a modern church decor. This is characterized by a complex multistage process of collective creativity, characterized by specific architectural environment of the building, development of the design of the decor and the means of monumental painting. The turn of the 21st century represents a new step in the development of religious architecture and monumental painting in Russia. It makes a conclusion that at the turn of the century the use of the artistic experience of the past is the leading tendency in the development of modern monumental church painting. The necessity of achieving the synthesis of the architectural building and its monumental and decorative solution is empasized.

Liturgical sacral text in the medieval and modern European cultural paradigm

The purpose of the research. The aim of the article is to create a coherent picture of the transformation of the forms of liturgical texts as representatives of the sacredness from the Middle Ages to the Contemporary Period in the context of the medieval and modern its paradigms. Research methodology is a combination of historical, cultural, comparative, liturgical, contextual methods, with the help of which the specificity of the liturgical texts of various Christian denominations from the Middle Ages to the present as representatives of the sacral was characterized. Scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that in Ukrainian science for the first time the mechanisms of transformation of the forms of sacred texts in liturgical music from the Middle Ages to the Modern and Contemporary Period were shown. Conclusions. In the Middle Ages the sacred text of the divine service appears as a syncretic unity of the verbal and transcendent, where the latter is represented through the aesthetic component. Religious communication in medieval divine service is accomplished through the transcendental dimension of the sacrament of the Eucharist, in which the prayer-meditative function is a priority, and the proclamation of the Word of God is in the background. The anthropocentric dimension of the culture of the Modern Period has modified the form of the manifestation of the sacredness in the church art, which led to the separation of the verbal component from the transcendent and, accordingly, from the aesthetic. In the new Protestant churches the modification is associated with the rejection of the sacrament as a transcendent dimension of the rite and is marked by the strengthening of the verbal factor through the proclamation of the Word of God in the sermon. In traditional churches, while maintaining the classical sacramental theology, there is a two-vector approach to the use of liturgical texts, where during the XVII–XX centuries actual become services alternately either in sacral or in national languages.

A Model for Vibration Monitoring of Immovable Art in Churches: Reflections on Monitoring as a Tool for Preventive Conservation

ABSTRACT During construction of a 6 km long railway tunnel close to historic churches in Stockholm, a preventive monitoring model was applied for ensembles of large-scale immovable ecclesiastical artworks. Construction work such as blasting and pile-driving took place during five years under or very close to these immovable works of art. In Sweden, risk assessment related to construction work is focused on risks associated with the building; meanwhile, there is no common approach for protecting the immovable historic works of art and architectural surfaces. This paper discusses how a preventive model for vibration monitoring on immovable artworks was developed and used as well as how the preventive purpose was perceived by different stakeholders during and after the tunnelling work. Experience from this project concludes that monitoring that includes uniform visual inspection becomes crucial for being able to protect the artworks. The concept of vibrations standards relying on fixed numbers of critical vibrations levels for mitigating the effects of vibration on immovable art can be questioned based on experiences from this project.

Temple Art and Icon Painting at The Universities - the Spiritual Formation of Students in Russia

This article shows the results of the research of the term "icon". The importance of icons in the Orthodox Church is shown. The main aspects of the methodology of making icons, traditions and modern problems in church art are described. The main aspects of the methodology of making icons, traditions and modern problems in church art are described. Information on achievements in the field of icon painting at the Lipetsk State Technical University is adduced. (FSEI HE «LSTU»)

Marienbild und Militanz in Friedrich Schillers Die Jungfrau von Orleans. Longue durée, Nachleben und Aktualisierung barockkatholischer Schlagbilder im Zeitalter der Revolutionskriege

Abstract This essay demonstrates how Baroque Catholic motifs of an aggressive and militant Virgin Mary are envisioned in Friedrich Schiller’s tragedy Die Jungfrau von Orleans – motifs which seem to be anachronistic with regard to the late medieval setting of the Joan of Arc story as well as with regard to the date of origin of Schiller’s play (1800 –1801). But precisely this anachronism can be read as a symptom of the times around 1800: namely as a return of repressed stocks of images from the age of confessionalization which gained explosive force for different reasons in the first decade after the French Revolution. In the eighteenth century these visual and verbal images of the Virgin Mary had only been cultivated by late Baroque church art and within a popular religious longue durée, which had been criticized and neutralized by enlightened Catholicism and which had been attacked by revolutionary iconoclasm. At the turn of the century, they started a peculiar Nachleben and were – in the sense of Aby Warburg’s Revenants – remembered again, being reactivated and refreshed as Schlagbilder.

Prilog proučavanju delatnosti slikara Dičića - ikonopis u crkvi Svetog Nikole u manastiru Končulu kod Raške

The study of the icon paintings in the Končul monastery is part of the research and attempts to attribute works of the church art in the Raška-Prizren Eparchy, which are brought into connection with the Dičić's family. Famous painter Avram Dičić, who was popular throughout the Balkans, was often engaged in the Raška-Prizren Eparchy between 1870 and 1876 and at the very beginning of the 20th century. He worked in 1901 and 1902 near the Končul monastery, in Novi Pazar, Štitare, Štitkovo, Mitrova Reka, Lukovo, and Vračevo. A large number of icons in these churches, along with iconographical details and painters inscriptions, indicate a multitude of painters. For the church of St Nicholas in Končul near Raška, in the early 20th century, most probably in 1902, members of the Dičić family painted icons for the iconostasis, icon of the Holy Trinity, the altar cross, and the figures of the Holy Archangel Michael and St Basil the Great in shallow niches above the entrance to the nave. Inscriptions such as 'Avram Dičić with sons' in Štitare, and 'Dičić's brothers' in Štitkovo, suggest that brothers are actually sons of Avram. It is known that Avram learned painting from his father Dičo, as well as his brother Spiridon, with whom he decorated the church in Donje Korminjane. They had 6 more siblings, but we had no records of their engagement in church art. Avram himself had four children, out of which we can only say for Krsta that he was a painter. He lived until 1939, signed his name as Krsta Avramov Dičić, and was often engaged in southern Serbia. His works indicate great resemblance with his fathers' work, as well as the same iconographic patterns. Dičić brothers also signed icons in several villages in south Serbia, which is why there is a reasonable assumption that another of Avram's children was involved in the family business. This assumption could also be applied to the children of Avram's brothers, but we know nothing about them.

Евангелисты В. Л. Боровиковского как образец для церковных росписей XIX века в Тверской области

Vasily Borovikovsky is famous for his icons of Evangelists in the central iconostasis of the Holy Gates of the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, in St. Petersburg. It is well-known that the imprints of the icons were published in 1819 and served as a popular pattern for church art. Nevertheless, the nature and the scale of this phenomenon have not been duly researched so far.Vasily Borovikovsky is famous for his icons of Evangelists in the central iconostasis of the Holy Gates of the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, in St. Petersburg. It is well-known that the imprints of the icons were published in 1819 and served as a popular pattern for church art. Nevertheless, the nature and the scale of this phenomenon have not been duly researched so far.The study of the previously unknown church murals in the north-eastern Tver region revealed that the Evangelists were a very popular pattern in wall-paintings throughout the 19th century. The Evangelists became the first Russian academic prototype among the plenty of German engravings — also very popular prototypes for wall-painting. The images of Evangelists and their important role in iconographic programs remained since the ancient times till the beginning of the 20th century.The devices of the original imprints transference from the graphic images to the monumental form of murals are indicative of the painters’ craftsmanship. The analysis of the changes made by the regional painters in the metropolitan patterns allows us to value the artists’ degree of freedom and their deep understanding of the murals tasks.The life-cycles of the prototypes in different stylistic directions during the 19th century and the kinds and the peculiarities of Classicism and Eclecticism in wall-painting art have been analyzed. The present study of the icons by V. L. Borovikovsky permits us to demonstrate the variety of regional monumental artistic means of that time.

Lioz—a Royal Stone in Portugal and a Monumental Stone in Colonial Brazil

Lioz is a Cretaceous, microcrystalline limestone which occurs in Portugal and outcrops in Lisbon and neighboring counties. The rock color is usually ivory and, less commonly, pink among others. Its fossiliferous content imprints a unique pattern to the rock, contributing to its decorative application. The rock has been used in Portugal as a good quality material for construction for a long period, from the sixteenth century to the present. Along the eighteenth century, its wide use in monuments and official buildings gave it the recognition as the “Royal Stone” in Portugal. Lisbon has the best display of lioz as a fundamental stone in several monuments of different ages, official buildings, and many churches. Among the latter, the Jesuit Church of Sao Roque is a special example, in which interior chapels expose a rich variety of inlays (embutidos), inspired on Italian churches. Not far from Lisbon, Mafra exhibits a monumental architectural set of three integrated constructions built in the eighteenth century by King D. Joao V using lioz limestone. Along the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the rock was carried to some Portuguese colonies, mainly as ballast of boats and used at the destinations as construction material. Salvador in Bahia, Brazil is the best example, where lioz is beautifully used in monuments and as true art in many churches of Portuguese and Italian influences. These facts make the Portuguese lioz as the most representative Heritage stone present in Portugal and its old colonies abroad.

A Celebration of God’s Creatures as seen in historic Philippine church art

A Celebration of God’s Creatures as seen in historic Philippine church art

Иконописная культура России в контексте секуляризации социума в ХХ–XXI веках

<p>В статье анализируются особенности бытования иконописной культуры в условиях секуляризации российского, а затем советского и постсоветского общества в ХХ — начале ХХI в. Среди структурных элементов православной традиции иконопись является системообразующим и придает православной культуре необходимую целостность.</p><p>Автор анализирует духовно-эстетические искания и коллизии в искусстве, в том числе иконописи в XX в., поднимает вопрос о размежевании этики и эстетики, насаждения «культуры безобразного». Однако эпоха XX в. рассматривается и как время сохранения и передачи, часто под страхом ссылки и даже смерти, иконописных традиций России. Именно благодаря таким подвижникам сейчас можно говорить о возрождении и развитии иконописания, а значит, и возобновлении национального стиля мышления и духовно-нравственных и культурных традиций в нашей стране.</p><p>Одной из острых проблем современности называется противостояние церковного искусства эпохе постмодернизма, стремительно набирающей обороты, с ее сомнительными бездуховными и бесчеловечными ценностями, распространению культуры поп-арта и общества потребления.</p><p>Сделан вывод, что изучение и возрождение иконописной традиции обретает не только религиозный, духовно-нравственный, искусствоведческий, но и практический интерес. В современном агрессивно коммерческом мире церкви необходимо защитить иконописное искусство от мирского меркантильного, популистского подхода. </p>

THEORY AND HISTORY OF ART TUITION AT SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN THE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURIES

Introduction. The increasing level of technicalization of life and the interest increase towards art highlight a teaching problem in modern Russia of the subjects connected with development of the heritage left by masters of last eras and works of modern writers. It is necessary to provide both new forms and methods of teaching, and judgment of the ways of conducting educational process existing earlier. The aim of the research is to identify specific features of academic subject formation patterns, in particular, the forms and stages of transitioning from random aesthetic knowledge acquisition («perception of beauty») towards more comprehensive curricula saturated with visual and factual information; and the nature of subject-specific tuition. Methodology and research methods involve the retrospective analysis of the archival materials, documents and other sources concerning the declared subject; generalization and projection of experience of the past to modern realities. Results and scientific novelty. The problems of studying of art tuition are considered at the earliest stage of teaching – in the 19th and early 20th century. Educational processes in various educational institutions as secular (Academy of Arts and universities), and religious are described (theological academies and seminaries). The materials of the first congresses of architects and artists, programs of art and pedagogical circles of the beginning of last century and the content of works of certain researchers are analysed. Basic changes in the relation to use of additional illustrative material are shown. Repeatedly expressed public requirements about familiarizing of pupils with art in voluntary to a facultative form are noted. Gradually developing orientation of educational process to teaching history of art is reflected. Poorly studied process of development of works of art within the subject «Church Archaeology» in spiritual academies and seminaries is presented and investigated. Existence of interest towards the monuments of church art in spiritual educational institutions and its earlier denied consecutive development is revealed. Practical significance. On the one hand, the contradiction between the increasing content of teaching history of art, its ambiguity, diversity is formulated; on the other hand, opportunities of perception of so complex material by pupils. The question of need of permission of this contradiction inherited by modern programs from the teaching methods existing earlier which are still used in specialized and non-special educational institutions is raised.

The dramatization of the Holy Week in Švėkšna church in the first half of the 19th century

The article for the first time analyses the decoration parts of the Christ’s tomb of the second halfof the 18th century found a few years ago in Švėkšna church. The Christ’s tomb from the oldchurch was transferred to the new church, which was built in 1804 and used until the 4thdecade of the 19th century. On the basis of the sources and remained fragments we can statethat this was a complicated structure of the Paschal decoration designed under the Europeanbaroque scenery principles. It was composed of the paintings on boards and canvas and mis-cellaneous accessories. The Christ’s tomb paintings are characterised by a symbolic allegoriccontent and artistry. The prophets of the Old Testament and characters the New Testamentreflecting the Paschal Triduum liturgy were depicted in the decoration. The survived outlinepaintings of Adam and Eve in Paradise, Noah waiting for the Saviour, and Angels Lamentingover the Death of Jesus are the exceptional iconography images in the Lithuanian church art.The decorations of the Christ’s tomb were created by the professional masters who decoratedthe churches in Samogitia in the second part of the 18th century. The images of suffering anddead Jesus used in the figuration of the Paschal Triduum influenced the spread of the Passionscenes. This is supported by an interesting archival fact about the shrine with a group of sculp-tures depicting the tomb of Christ in the Švėkšna churchyard.The fragments of the Paschal decorations in the Švėkšna church are important baroque scen-ery exhibits, which are valuable for the history of the Lithuanian church art and scenography.The investigation of the Holy Week figuration in the Švėkšna church is a valuable illustrationof this multidimensional cultural, religious and artistic phenomenon.

On the chanting space and hymns that were sung in it. Searching for chanting-architectural connections in the middle ages

The search for the unexplained interactions of domestic medieval liturgical music and sacred architecture of the Moravian style has not been the subject of interdisciplinary study so far. A reflection on the potential relationg between church chanting and architecture is absent from the largest part of the existing literature on the development of medieval sacral art. The scarcity of written historical sources, and especially musical ones, made it particularly difficult to define the connection between the chanting circumstances and the changes in the architectural form of the late Byzantine period, which is almost a standardized Moravian architectural form. The earliest preserved bilingual - Greek-Slavic neumatic manuscripts, mentioning both the names of the first famous Serbian medieval composers, and the more or less well known late Byzantine musicians who had actively participated in the earliest religious services of the Serbian Church, confirm that the culmination of the chanting art in Serbia occured precisely at the turn of the 15th century and then until the fall of Serbia under Turkish rule. Comparing the available data, with a general insight into the migration flows that led to the Byzantinization of Serbian culture in that period, showed that after the reconciliation of the Serbian Patriarchate and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, in 1374, the world-class building tradition was adopted, which until then was sporadically seen on the Serbian soil. The architectural form of the Moravian style would become recognizable by the singing apses in the axis of the transept, in the middle of the already adopted form of the inscribed cross from the early 14th century. Within the framework of the overall church, political and cultural transformation that was visible in Serbian society, the chanting practice of the Serbian Church, or more precisely the greater affirmation of the liturgical art and the increase in the number of the chanters, certainly had a share both in acceptance and in the consistent implementation of the architectural solutions of the Moravian style. Future research should focus on the holistic analysis of the Moravian cultural heritage, in order to map the movement of the known and unknown Serbian Greek melods and determine the scope of their activity. The existing knowledge of the architectural features of the Moravian sacred buildings will thus receive a significant addition, from the liturgical and religious service in which each form of church art is individually represented as part of a much more complex artistic ensemble with which the Kingdom of Heaven on the Earth is iconized.

Zie de mens

This article analyzes the photo-exhibition Ecce Homo (1998) by Swedish artist Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin. In Ecce Homo, which depicts twelve moments from the life of Jesus Christ, traditional church art is mixed with the themes and symbols of contemporary LGBT-culture. In the article it is investigated, through a queer focus, whether Ecce Homo has the potential to destabilize the rather strict oppositional pairing of religion and homosexuality in contemporary debates in post-secular societies like Sweden. Based on a discussion of three works (The Annunciation, Palm Sunday and Calvary) it is argued that Ecce Homo connects traditional Christian motives such as the love for one’s neighbor, (self)sacrifice and charity to queer concepts such as the instability of gender and sexuality and the destabilizing potential of ‘darkness’ as an aesthetic theme. As queer and Christian concepts inform each other they are given meaning in relation to each other, thus indeed (for the most part) suggesting that queer and Christian themes are relevant to one another and sometimes overlap.

Joanna Cannon, Religious Poverty, Visual Riches. Art in the Dominican Churches of Central Italy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 2013 ; Caroline Bruzelius, Preaching, Building, and Burying. Friars and the Medieval City, New Haven/London: Yale University Press 2014

Joanna Cannon, <i>Religious Poverty, Visual Riches</i>. <i>Art in the Dominican Churches of Central Italy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries,</i> New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 2013 ; Caroline Bruzelius, <i>Preaching, Building, and Burying</i>. <i>Friars and the Medieval City,</i> New Haven/London: Yale University Press 2014

THE PROBLEM OF CANON IN US MODERN ORTHODOX ART ON THE EXAMPLE OF KORDIS‟S WORKSHOP

The article is devoted to the specific features of interpretation of canon in the frescoes painting of Orthodox churches on the territory of the United States and the other foreign countries. The problem of canon in the Orthodox art of the 21th century is investigated on example of meanings offered by different specialists and the work of icon-painting art studio led by Georgios Kordis there are regarded the approaches to canon that are practiced by the contemporary icon-painters. Also there are characterized the reasons why the basic means of organization of fresco ensemble that were worked out in the Byzantium church art are frequently used at the beginning of the 21th century. There is emphasized that choice of origin that is used as handmark by G. Kordis and his work team is based on elegance and completeness of plastic language of the Byzantium monumental art. From the other side there is revealed the clearly defined individuality of master who is the leader of team of icon-painters and determines the choice of stylistic source and in one or another fresco. As well as that, it is paid attention to the problem of authorship in the Orthodox Church art. There are priest‟s point of view about this issue.