Iconographic Tradition Research Articles

The image of the luminosity of the divine nature of Christ in the Western European temple decoration of the IV-VIII centuries.

The main subject of this research is the tradition of visual representation of the luminosity of the divine nature in Western European Christian art of the IV-VIII centuries. The objects of study are fragments of monumental temple decorations containing images, both literal and symbolic, of this divine phenomenon, as well as written sources related to the interpretation of these images. The focus of the research is on the Western European artistic tradition of depicting the halo of Christ and its change during the period under review. The purpose of this work, which is the first part of the study, the chronological framework of which covers the period from the IV to the XIII centuries, was to compile a holistic view of the development of the iconographic tradition of representing the theme "I am the light of the world", the luminosity of the divine nature of Christ in the context of the study of the visual language of Western European medieval religious art of the IV-VIII centuries. The visual sources of this work are Christian churches that have preserved the monumental decoration of the IV - VIII centuries, which are located on the territory of Rome, Ravenna, Milan, Naples and surrounding areas. The methodology on which this research is based is represented by typological, iconographic and formal stylistic methods of analysis. The novelty of the present study is a detailed analysis and systematization of various visual representations of the luminosity of the divine nature of Christ, first of all, variants of the image of the halo and their transformation over time. Based on the studied sources, the author has compiled a certain classification picture, which allows forming a holistic view of the formation and development of the artistic tradition of representing this topic.

The Convergence of Slobozhanska Iconography in the Discourse of Western European Baroque

Based on the analysis, generalization and systematization of documents, some well-known to researchers and others not so much investigated, this article studies the influence of Western European Baroque art on the iconography of the region of Slobozhanska (Ukraine) during the 17th and 18th centuries. It is argued that the use of Western European religious themes by Slobozhanshchyna icon painters, in combination with previous iconographic traditions and their transformation to the spiritual and religious features of the region, contributed to the development of a regional iconographic art, a process that could be regarded as a unique phenomenon in the history of Ukrainian culture. As the text will highlight, the stylistic program of Slobozhanshchyna iconography of the Baroque period was influenced by symbolic and emblematic Western European collections that inspired icon painters to create new iconographic subjects. To that aim, the article analyses the artistic and figurative system of iconography, considers its characteristic stylistic features, and draws attention to the borrowing of elements of Western European painting and graphics in Orthodox iconography.

Imagining women working stone: the ancient sculptor Marcia in Boccaccio’s De mulieribus and responses in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century art literature

This article confronts the widespread stereotype of the supposedly natural inability of women to work stone through an analysis of the iconographic tradition of the ancient sculptor Marcia. A small corpus of fifteenth-century manuscript illuminations shows the ancient artist at work. This case study allows us to trace the memory of a woman artist working in stone that was already circulating at that time. The textual basis for the iconography under discussion was introduced by Giovanni Boccaccio in his biography of Marcia, part of his De mulieribus claris. Boccaccio’s text was received by subsequent generations of authors and reprinted in an Italian version four years before Giorgio Vasari published his account of the life of Properzia de Rossi in his Lives. The article introduces a fresh perspective on the relationship between Boccaccio’s Marcia and Vasari’s Properzia and provides new evidence for connections between the querelles des femmes and sixteenth-century art literature.

The Portrayal of the Holy Convicts from the 5th Step of the Ladder of John Climacus in the Russian Art of the 16th Century

In the art of Rus’ of the Late Middle Ages there is a certain number of scattered pieces of art that share an iconographic cycle of the Monastic Feats — images of different sorts of self-torture that are described in the 5th logos of the Ladder of John Climacus. This chapter of the Ladder was copied not only as a part of the whole treaty, but on its own as well and inspired a ramified iconographic tradition first in the Byzantine Empire and then, since the 16th century, in Rus’. These monks resort to the mortification of the flesh for their ultimate absolution. In the article, all the examples of the Monastic Feats iconography which survived from the 16th century are taken to examination and analysed. As a result, two new attributions are proposed, one for the illuminated manuscript of the Ladder from the collection of the riznitsa of Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius and another for the vita icon of John Climacus from the Rybinsk Museum Reserve. From their analysis within the relative artistic context stems a suggestion of their Novgorod origin. In addition, a different and more early dating is proposed for the Rybinsk icon in relation to its identification with an image mentioned in the inventory of the Antoniev monastery in Novgorod. Some ideas are expressed about the choice of the subject of the Monastic Feats for the galleries of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin that were repainted after the fire of 1547. The conclusion of the article is that the spread and development of the iconography of the Monastic Feats should be ascribed to the art of Novgorod at the era of archiepiscopacy Macarius or soon after. Therefore, it is the Novgorod art that played a decisive role in the creation of the visual representation of the 5th logos of the Ladder, one of the most expressive and impactful pieces of text in the Slavic literacy.

КОНЦЕПТ ФОРТУНИ У ЗБІРЦІ БІОГРАФІЙ «DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ILLUSTRIUM» ДЖОВАННІ БОККАЧЧО

The cult of the goddess Fortune dates back to ancient tradition. In the Middle Ages the allegorical image of Fortune remains popular in literature and everyday life. Authors such as Augustine of Hippo, Boethius, Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio used in their works the allegorical image of Fortune, which has special verbal and visual characteristics. The main attention in this paper is focused specifically on the study of Fortune symbolism in the collection of biographies «De Casibus Virorum Illustrium» by G. Boccaccio. In the preface to the collection the humanist outlined the task he set for himself. It consisted in depicting the misfortunes, difficult and fatal fates of legendary and famous figures in history from Adam and Eve to the writer Fr. Petrarch he was contemporary with. In the biographies it is constantly emphasized that Fortune can be unpredictable. The text of «De Casibus Virorum Illustrium» is full of negative characteristics of Fortune, which repeatedly emphasize her fickleness and treachery. The visual representation of Fortuna also has negative connotations, which creates a formidable halo around the allegorical figure. In G. Boccaccio’s description, Fortune appears as a tall woman with a stern look and a gloomy face. On miniatures of the 15th century the goddess is depicted with closed eyes, wings (sometimes multi-armed), a staff, the Wheel of Fortune (Rota Fortunae) or a ship’s rudder. It is important that the characteristics of the humanist do not include the attributes of the goddess of fate. They appear later on miniatures for translations of G. Boccaccio works, which indicates the process of formation of iconographic tradition around the image of Fortune (by the 15th century the Wheel became its main attribute). The collection «De Casibus Virorum Illustrium» was supposed to serve as a warning about the changeability of fate for influential contemporaries of G. Boccaccio and subsequent generations. In the system of that time ideas, following the cardinal virtues of Christian theology (prudence, justice, courage, temperance) guaranteed the favor of Fortune.

ОБРАЗ НІМЕЦЬКОГО СОЛДАТА ТА ОБРАЗ ВОРОГА У ГРАФІЦІ АРТУРА КАМПФА (1914–1917)

The important role which visual media play in modern armed conflicts calls for studying the subject in its historical context. This article examines the construction of the image of the German soldier and that of the enemy during WWI through the example of graphic works by Arthur Kampf – one of the most prominent academic artists of the Wilhelmine period and an «official war artist». Contemporaneous printmaking techniques allowed for the creation and dissemination of a large number of artworks which represented various aspects of wartime experience, as well as reflecting changes in official propaganda and public sentiment. For that reason graphic works from WWI merit special attention on the part of scholars. The source materials include separate prints, reproductions of the artist’s other graphic works in the press, and his illustrations to the collection of sermons «Ein feste Burg» («A Strong Fortress»). The study draws on the concepts used in different fields of contemporary humanities (representation, substitution, image of the enemy) and methods of art history proposed by Erwin Panofsky. The author demonstrates that the subject works reflect the moral ideal of the German soldier rather than the actual experience of the participants in WWI. In Kampf’s pieces from 1914 German soldiers appear as physically and mentally strong superheroes. During and after his trip to the frontline in the winter and spring of 1915, the artist focused on creating individualised portraits of combatants, along with depicting the hardships of their daily life and the pain of being separated from their families. Although the pieces from this period are arguably more realistic, the artist overlooked the immediate experience of industrialised warfare or its traumatic impact on soldiers’ physical and mental health. Kampf represented the enemy as a complete opposite of the German soldier, an embodiment of unrestrained aggression and unprovoked violence. Due to their allegorical nature and references to established iconographic traditions the works depicting the enemy transcend the historical situation in which they were created. Kampf’s pieces reflect the major trends in the representation of WWI in German visual culture over the course of the conflict. Constantly appearing in visual media, such images – emotionally-charged and often devoid of internal contradictions – possessed an ability to shape the recipients’ perception of the nature and objectives of the war, which was portrayed as a clash of cultures. To some extent they were able to replace the first-hand traumatic experience of the combatants and their relatives.

Zatrzymać czas

To Stop Time An analysis of a poem Zegary w Trewirze (Clocks In Trier) by Stefan Napierski from his 1933volume Obrazy z podróży (Travel Pictures). The interpretation includes on one hand thecontext of the only novel by Napierski, Rozmowy z cieniem (Conversations With A Shadow),in which the clocks play an important role, on the other hand the iconographical tradition ofthe time measuring in Trier, based mostly on the monography of that subject by ChristlLehnert-Leven (Uhren in Trier. Geschichte, Gedichte und Bestände des Museums Simeonstift14 S. Napierski, Z powodu „Diogenesa w kontuszu” Wacława Berenta, „Ateneum” 1938, nr 2 s. 31. Trier, 1992). There is also a discussion of the allusions to Heinrich Heine and Rainer MariaRilke, both in Napierski’s poem and in his novel, as well as a presentation of two MiddleAges legends: about the founding of the town of Trier by the king Trebeta and about the life-story of St. Simeon, an eremit buried alive in the town’s gates, which help to explain thedeeper meaning of Napierski’s poem.

An Underground Rock-Cut Shrine near Amatsya, Judean Foothills, Israel

This article presents our documentation of a previously unidentified subterranean complex located near Amatsya, Israel. The study revolves primarily around an examination of the architecture, decorations, and letters carved on the walls of an underground rock-cut hall. The layout of the hall bears a striking resemblance to sacred architecture prevalent in the region since the Middle Bronze Age, while its decorative elements are linked to earlier artistic traditions dating back to the Iron Age, as well as the aniconic characteristics found in Idumean, Canaanite, Phoenician and Nabatean art of the Persian and Hellenistic periods. According to paleographic analysis, the Aramaic lapidary inscriptions, which possibly mention two deities, El and Adon, are tentatively dated to the 5th-4th centuries BCE. Our main thesis is that this hall functioned as a private shrine, possibly a funerary shrine adjacent to a rock-cut burial complex. We propose that both the shrine and the adjacent tomb were utilized by an Idumean landowner, showcasing influences from Phoenician / Canaanite iconographic traditions. Consequently, the site assumes significant importance, as it offers novel insights into the field of study by presenting, for the first time, a relatively well-preserved underground Idumean shrine from the Persian and Hellenistic periods. These finds contribute to a deeper understanding of the religious and cultural practices of the Idumeans during that specific era.

REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN STONE SCULPTURAL ART AND ICONOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT KASHMIR

Throughout its history Kashmir has experienced an art life very much its own as well as accepting and absorbing influences and imported from neighbouring areas. The sculptural masterpieces that have survived in the valley have attracted the attention of art-historians and the scholars in the allied disciplines from time to time and have always been praised for their fine workmanship and iconographic features. Sculptors have not created the images only for the religious purpose but in the images are added subtle human moods and sentiments and have captured various states of emotions and feelings. Artists have captured the rhythm of life of all living beings in general and represented women in particular on the surfaces of the temples and in images. The aesthetic aspect of the sculptural motifs of the temple and images depends upon the religious canons of measurement in art. The carving approach of Kashmir's ancient and early medieval temples Goetz (1951) and Goetz (1969) includes a significant number of female images. Women from various cultures are portrayed in sculptures. Women can be seen here in a variety of subjects. The sculptures show representations of many feminine beauty ideals. This essay aims to shed light on the representation of women in Kashmir's early sculpting and iconographic traditions.

TWO LEAVES WITH THE OLD TESTAMENT SCENES IN THE CONTEXT OF CURRENT STUDIES OF MODELS AND COPYING PROCESSES IN RHENO-MOSAN ART OF THE 12th CENTURY

Th e Library of the University of Liege (Université de Liège. Biblio-thèque, Ms. 2613) and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (Victoria and Albert Museum, Ms. 413) have two leaves created c. 1150–1170 and produced in the Meuse region. Although the question of the purpose of the leaves is under discussion, these two oeuvres of Romanesque book illumination have not yet received special scholarly attention. Th e leaves have a similar layout: each side contains two compositions based on stories from the Book of Genesis, and there are no inscriptions or biblical quotations. Th e Old Testament episodes included in the pictorial program of the leaves do not form a consistent narrative cycle. Th us, the scenes of the sacrifi ce by Cain and Abel and the murder of Abel by Cain in the leaf from the Victoria and Albert Museum are followed by an episode of the meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek. Th e leaf from Liège begins with the scene of the sacrifi ce of Isaac. Th e cycle does not contain a number of scenes with a fairly consistent iconographic tradition (for example, the story of Noah). Such narrative heterogeneity can be interpreted through the prism of the purpose of the pictorial series. Th e Sacrifi ce of Abel, the Gift s of Melchizedek and the Sacrifi ce of Isaac by Abraham are mentioned in the Eucharistic Canon of the Sacramentary of Pope Gelasius I and have been used in iconographic programs since the era of early Christianity as the main liturgical prototypes. Th e back of the leaf from the Library of the University of Liege contains another subject which alludes to the typological parallelism of the Testaments – the Blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh by Jacob. Th e designated subjects can be found in a number of contemporaneous works of decorative and applied arts and book miniatures of the Rhine-Meuse region, which are compiled on the basis of typological logic in the arrangement of stories. Th e selection of stories, as well as the stylistic and iconographic analy-sis of the range of oeuvres with typological iconography, suggests that the leaves could have been fragments of a model book and probably served as models in the process of the spreading of the compositional and iconographic techniques which were characteristic of the Rhine-Meuse region.

TRADITION AND MODERNISM IN THE SACRED ART OF IGOR ZILINKO

The article explores the directions of contemporary Ukrainian sacral art in the work of the painter I. Zilinkо, his contribution to the development of sacred art of the temples of Ternopil region. The main directions of stylistic orientation in the formation of modern sacral art, the evolution of paintings from realistic tendencies of Ukrainian sacral painting of the seventeenth century to experiments with stylization of iconic figures in search of greater spirituality of the face, the introduction of our own modern iconography, based on tradition. The article explores the directions of contemporary Ukrainian sacral art in the work of the painter I. Zilinkо, his contribution to the development of sacred art of the temples of Ternopil region. Sacred art is the object of study of many scientists, historians, archivists, art historians, local historians, journalists. Among them, in particular, D. Stepovyk, M. Golubets, K. Moskalets, V. Sventsitska. However, the issue of the development of the modern sacred art of Ternopil region (1990–2018) requires additional study. The purpose of the article is to highlight the main directions in the work of Igor Zilinka, to specify the formation of the sacral and artistic environment of the churches of the city of Ternopil, to study the temples with modern interiors, to analyze the observance of traditions in icon painting and the search for modern aesthetic forms. After the revival of the Ukrainian Church, the construction of new temples began. The construction of churches led to the search for masters who could carry out their interior decoration. Famous Ternopil painter Igor Zilinko has become a “sacred” artist who has been successfully working in this field for many years. One of the first works of Igor Ivanovich was the decoration of the church of the Sacred Heart of Christ in the village of Veluky Gai, Ternopil district (1920). The murals of the church are classic paintings that date back to the works of the famous master of Ukrainian icon painting of the seventeenth century Ivan Rutkovych. It is the only church that reflects the realistic trends of Ukrainian sacral painting of the seventeenth century. Here the traditions of folk art are combined with creative bold search for new content and form. Next was the work on painting the temples in the villages of Petrykiv, Pronyatin, Kupchintsy, in the Ternopil region. On the initiative of Fr. Pavel Repely, the parish priest of the church of the village of Petrykiv, the painter was oriented to the heritage of Byzantine-Ukrainian icon painting. It is the first church in the Ternopil region that depicts the Eastern traditions of icon painting. Igor Zilіnko later managed to form his own style in the contemporary Ukrainian icon, following the Byzantine iconographic tradition. Particularly noteworthy is the iconostasis created by Igor Ivanovich for the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael in Ternopil in 2007. The artist very responsibly approached the choice of plots, taking as a basis the traditional composition of Ukrainian iconostases. The author has preserved the foundations of Ukrainian church traditions and has reflected the saints of the Ukrainian Church. An interesting development in the decoration of the spatial environment of the temple is the Church of St. Sophia of the Wisdom of God in Ternopil. For the decoration of the church, the parish priest Fr. dr. Vitaliy Kozak invited the already known master of sacral painting Igor Ivanovich Zilinko, who at that time developed his own iconographic style. The figures of the saints are exaggerated, unnatural in height, reflecting the idea of an invisible celestial world, without a realistic image. Creativity of Igor Zilinko is one of the most striking pages of contemporary Ukrainian art culture, evokes joyful aesthetic experiences, encourages contemporaries to creative pursuits to create monumental images that combine tradition with the actual spiritual needs of modern society.

The Witch’s Body as a Narrative and Symbolic Tool

"This paper aims to propose an exploration of the corporeality of witches insofar as it has been used as a medium or nexus for narratives, or as a symbolic sign in various artistic forms and arrangements. The starting point is the highlighting of an antithesis, which is permanently nuanced and overcome in the long evolution of culture, namely between the beauty of young witches and the ugliness of old ones. A first section of the article focuses on painting, looking at works by Baldung Grien, Salvator Rosa, Frans Francken, Luis Ricardo Falero. A second section looks at the corporeal duality that characterizes witchcraft and its resolution in synthesis in Vasile Voiculescu’s short story Magical Love. The last section is devoted to cinematographic works and how they have incorporated in their complex visual and textual narratives an ancient representational and iconographic tradition with roots in Renaissance and Baroque painting and in the literature of Greco-Latin Antiquity. Keywords: witches, body, narration, symbolic, visual arts, literature, cinema. "

L’Iconographie du ‘Lancelot-Graal’. Par Irène Fabry-Tehranchi et Catherine Nicolas

Although the iconographic cycles which illustrated medieval books are of great importance for a holistic understanding of the texts they were designed to illustrate, they are often neglected by scholars. Obstacles to accessing the original manuscripts preserving these cycles, in conjunction with the difficulty of conceptualizing a given cycle of illustrations as a unitary entity (especially in long works in which illustrations may be widely scattered, or in works where the relation of text to image is unclear), have fed the need in medieval studies for examinations such as that presented by the present volume. Here, two eminent Arthurian scholars, Irène Fabry-Tehranchi and Catherine Nicolas, provide a detailed commentary of a complete iconographic cycle illustrating the Lancelot-Graal (or Vulgate) cycle of Old French prose romances. This cycle comprises five units or books, all dating from the thirteenth century: the Estoire del Saint Graal, Merlin and the Suite Vulgate, the prose Lancelot, the Queste del Saint Graal, and the Mort le Roi Artu. This cycle was extremely popular, being preserved for us today in over 180 manuscripts from the thirteenth century to the fifteenth, as well as in numerous early printed editions. In order to produce this study, the authors have examined a wide range of extant manuscripts; the results of their survey are presented in a concise and informative Introduction, which in addition contextualizes the Lancelot-Graal and provides summaries of its constituent parts. The authors focus in particular on six manuscripts created between the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, all of which contain the full cycle of texts and are richly illustrated. They note that it is difficult to speak of a definitive, fixed iconographic cycle for the Lancelot-Graal, for exemplars are characterized by a high degree of variety; much higher than image cycles designed to accompany contemporary but more conventional texts, such as books of hours. For this reason, rather than struggling to justify the selection of any one manuscript on the grounds of the superior representative quality of its illustrative cycle, the authors have chosen to reproduce the complete cycle as found in Paris, BnF, MS fr. 344, as representing the most suitable entry point for studying the iconographic tradition associated with this text as a whole. The reproductions in black and white of the 348 illustrations in MS fr. 344 are arranged in order of books and chapters, and are accompanied by detailed commentary, as well as by brief descriptions of the corresponding illustrations in the other manuscripts. Brief descriptions of illustrations from these other manuscripts are similarly included for chapters left unillustrated in MS fr. 344. This excellent research tool is supplemented by a comprehensive bibliography and a synoptic table that allows researchers to compare at a glance the iconographic programmes of all six manuscripts. Following a detailed index, this volume is crowned by an appendix of full-colour reproductions of the iconographic cycle from MS fr. 344, helpfully cross-referenced with the commentary. Arthurian studies will long be indebted to this thorough guide to the iconographic tradition of the Vulgate cycle.

Kaluga icon painting: on the issue of the integrity and boundaries of the artistic phenomenon

As the title implies, the article provides a general overview of the Kaluga iconography as a unique regional iconographic tradition that formed in the 2nd half of the 18th century. The primary parameters of this phenomenon are identified, including technological, iconographic, and stylistic factors. Based of archival data and historical evidence, Kaluga’ icons are defined a number of monuments executed in the technique of tempera painting in a specific stylistic manner, for the most part inheriting of artistic direction named “zhivopodobie”. The main iconographic features of the products of the Kaluga icon painters are revealed, in particular, the iconographic renderings of Christ the Almighty and the Mother of God "The Life-Giving Spring" common in Kaluga. It also provides a classification of the main stylistic lines in the Kaluga icon painting, which took shape at the end of the 18th century. The question of the chronological boundaries of the phenomenon is considered. Based on the analysis undertaken, Kaluga iconography is determined to be a full-fledged center of regional icon painting that forms part of a broader context of late iconography. On the one hand, Kaluga's iconography aligns with general trends, with its unique writing style appearing in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, overtly influenced by significant European styles, and experiencing artistic decline in the second half of the nineteenth century. On the other hand, the Kaluga iconography distinguishes itself through its singular stylistic and iconographic peculiarities, sufficient to demarcate it as a distinct artistic center.

Classical topomythopoiesis. Survival of the pagan gods during the Christian Middle Ages

The gardens of the Renaissance are well known for being populated by the gods and settings of Classical mythology — an iconographic tradition that originated in the cult sanctuaries of Ancient Greece and transplanted to Hellenistic and Roman gardens; a tradition of place-making that I term Classical topomythopoiesis. But, what happened in-between? Gardens from the Middle Ages are not often associated with the pagan myths, but rather with Christian symbolism. This article provides a survey of the survival of Medieval Classical topomythopoiesis. It discusses various ways in which Christians received the gods, and how the language of mythology continued to shape the beholder’s share in viewing landscapes. It traces the origins of the garden of love to show how it opened the gate for the gods of love to become baptised within later Medieval garden culture. The article then provides a novel reading of the Narcissus-fountain episode in the Roman de la Rose as a hypothetical exemplar of how the myths in gardens were evoked through a process of interpretation that echoes Medieval biblical exegesis. The article concludes by arguing that Boccaccio’s liberation of the mythical garden as an imagined, sensual setting signals a shift towards a Neoplatonic approach to topomythopoiesis.

Главная улица Твери в XVII — середине XVIII в.

The main street of Tver originates in the far Middle Ages, but a relatively clear idea of this “highway” may be traced only starting from the 17th century, when the development and urban planning structure of the Russian city, in accordance with peculiar views of reality, were reflected in the works of icon painters, as well as foreign travelers. The era of Peter I strengthened the documental use when depicting the layout of a late medieval city, yet the fixation of urban planning structure was largely spared from instrumental survey, since domestic cartographers of the first quarter of the 18th century, as a rule, preferred to focus on the iconographic tradition. Residential, religious and other urban objects are represented in these materials in quite a schematic and sometimes generalized way. The situation changed by the middle of the 18th century, but this period (the second quarter — the middle of the 18th century) in the cartographic heritage of Tver still remains a blank spot. For this reason, it is currently quite difficult to outline the route of the city’s main highway in the pre-Catherine era, since in the mid-1760s the direction and configuration of the main street of Tver were changed by the initiative of Catherine II. Nevertheless, this study attempts to reconstruct the location of the pre-Catherine “highway”, as well as to present the nature of almost completely lost urban development associated with this street in the late Middle Ages and in the first half of the 18th century.

Iconography of Buddhism: The Tradition of Depicting the Old White Man

The Old White Man is a local deity revered by Buddhists in Russia. His image, based on textual traditions and Buddhist iconography, prompted the name — the Old White Man, now widely accepted. In the written sources he is also known as the “Conqueror and subduer of the [master spirits] of earth and water”. The early images appeared in Mongolia under the influence of the Chinese traditional pictures of Tú Dì, ancient deities associated with localities, while later they were influenced by traditional images of Shòuxing, the deity of longevity. At an early stage of the iconographic tradition, the Old White Man is depicted as a priest or a high official; his functions are rendered via the characters of his companions, the host spirits of mountains (sabdaks) that have the features of man and animal or animals, such as a pair of deer, chained leopard (wolf), as well as ritual objects, including a carved staff or a dragon head staff. At a later stage, there may be symbols associated with the giver of longevity and fertility (bald phallic head, cave, and peach). The text of the “Sutra of the Old White Man” includes the description of his appearance (a white-bearded, bare-headed old man in a white robe), attributes (a dragon head staff) and an allegorical landscape of a mountain and fruit trees. Neither early nor recent Mongolian and Buryat pictures fully correspond to the description. Much closer to it is the Kalmyk iconographic tradition. The Old White Man’s image of the Kalmyk nomads goes back to the ancient mythological idea of the deity as the keeper of domestic animals. Due to transformations in the religious sphere, the keeper of domestic animals becomes the Old White Man, the lord of all living beings and all earthly space. Traditionally, he is presented as a standing old man, bare-headed and his long gray hair gathered in the form of a triratna. He is dressed in a belted robe, with another swinging robe thrown on it. In his right hand, he holds a staff with a dragon’s head and a rosary in his left. There are no companions or animals. The symbolic landscape serves to enhance the grandiose figure of the old man. The details of the attire and the landscape refer to the former Chinese influence.

КУЛЬТ ЧЕТЫРНАДЦАТИ СВЯТЫХ ПОМОЩНИКОВ И ЕГО РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦИЯ НА ТЕРРИТОРИИ ГЕРМАНИИ И АВСТРИИ В XIV-XVI ВВ.

The Fourteen Holy Helpers (Vierzehn Nothelfer) are a group of fourteen holy martyrs revered in Western tradition as protectors from disease and death. The article focuses on questions of appearance and popularization of cult of Fourteen Holy Helpers in Germany and Austria from 14 to 16 centuries. The author examines a historical context of origins and spreading of this group of saints and iconographic tradition of representing the image of Fourteen Holy Helpers. Hypotheses are put forward that consider the dependence of the image of the Fourteen Holy Helpers on historical events, social issues and territorial features.

Glass Icons in Transylvania (Romania) and the Craft of Painting Them as Cultural Heritage Resources

The craft of painting icons on glass developed in the 17th century in Transylvania (Romania) following the spread of the news about the wooden icon of the weeping Mother of God in the church of Nicula. This news turned Nicula into a pilgrimage centre, and requests for reproductions of the icon led to the locals becoming glass painters. Because of the surplus of icons, some of the Nicula painters set up new icon-painting centres along the road to Brașov (to the south) and the other main trade routes of Transylvania. In order to highlight the potential for sustainable development associated with this craft and to stimulate the painting of icons in the traditional way, we conducted documentary research on the subject of icons on glass. This research revealed the local peculiarities of the icon painters’ workshops and their importance to the identity of the Romanian peasants in Transylvania. We also conducted a participatory observation carried out in Brasov, which revealed that the iconography courses in popular schools of arts and crafts were both a viable way of managing the relationship with the iconographic tradition and a means to capitalize on religious painting on glass as a cultural heritage resource. The research highlighted the way in which, to preserve the traditional dimension of the craft, it is useful to encourage students to use anonymous glass icons as models and to have limited involvement in model restoration.

From sacred body to waste

There are many factors at work in the iconography of human remains. Some of those frequently discussed are aesthetic criteria, iconographic traditions and specific contingencies, whether political (for example in war paintings), symbolic (essential for transi images) or cultural. There is, however, one factor that is rarely mentioned, despite its centrality: the regime of value associated with corpses. Christ’s body is not painted in the same way as that of a departed relative or that used in a human dissection. Artists choose a suitable iconography depending on how the remains are perceived. This criterion became absolutely crucial in contexts such as nineteenth-century France, when attitudes to corpses underwent major changes.