Christian imagery in the art of different eras. Early Christian art

Candidate of Cultural Studies

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The first Christians, it must be said, did not have any art, because the apostles who walked with Christ did not create anything. We do not have any images, and even when we call the Apostle Luke the first icon painter, this is a legend. Not a single icon survived from the Apostle Luke. But this does not mean that the early Christians had no art. On the contrary, for three centuries, while Christianity was persecuted, Christians could not build churches, could not create any monumental things, amazing art matured within Christian culture. Because the Christian worldview itself is very figurative. After all, “in the beginning was the Word,” and this Word became flesh, and the invisible God comes to us in the form of the God-man, Who can be seen and depicted. As John of Damascus would later say: “He whom we have seen, we can portray.” But images of Christ did not appear immediately.

The art of the catacombs, Christian refuges, which served as Roman, Neapolitan and other cemeteries, give us amazing art, which, like a grain thrown into the ground, ripened and then gave amazing fruit in the form of Christian art, which developed over the following centuries.

The catacombs give us amazing art that was born in cemeteries, but speaks about life. As a matter of fact, the fact that the catacombs are cemeteries, on the one hand, gave Christians the opportunity to hide from persecutors, on the other hand, to perform divine services, and on the third, to see how death was truly overcome. They bury their martyrs or simply loved ones and at the same time believe that everyone is alive. And it is this belief in the resurrection that is depicted on the walls of the catacombs. The belief that Christ came and conquered this death. The belief that He gave His Body and Blood, with which Christians partake and enter the kingdom of eternity. All these themes are depicted on the walls of the catacombs.

The first evidence of Christians in the ancient world belongs to the famous writer Pliny the Younger, who wrote to Emperor Trajan that certain Christians had appeared, strange people who gather at the cemetery and sing Christ as God. It would seem a strange thing, but it says a lot. Firstly, they sing; secondly, they praise Christ as God. That is, they glorify the One who conquered death. If we look at what is depicted on the walls of the catacombs, we will also see all this: Eucharistic symbols, Christ in the form of a fish - the first symbol of faith, because the word “ichthyos”, in Greek “fish”, literally means the phrase “Jesus Christ of God” Son the Savior." We see birds on tree branches - a symbol of the soul in paradise, images of meals, etc. From these seemingly very simple images is born the Christian symbolism that will form the basis of the early Christian images of Christian churches, mosaics and, ultimately, icons.

Indeed, a grain that fell into the ground, and the catacombs are underground, suddenly sprouted through ancient culture and gave an amazing fruit. After the Edict of Milan in 313, when Emperor Constantine gave freedom to Christians, they were no longer persecuted and could build their own temples; everything that was accumulated in the catacombs literally poured out onto the walls of the temple. That is, for three centuries, while Christianity was persecuted and Christians could not create anything big, Christian art was suddenly born from these small images.

Religion, which overcame death, faith in the Risen Christ, became a powerful force in order to form a new figurative language, a new symbolic series, a new art, which was very different from the ancient one. And the first Christians are interesting to us because in conditions where, it would seem, art should not have existed: what art and what beauty is there in persecution? Nevertheless, reflections on paradise, reflections on the resurrection, the very reading of the Gospel, the divine service itself, the liturgy - from all of this the art of the first Christians grew.

Here we directly see how religion is connected with art, because it was created against the backdrop of a completely different life. The first Christians lived in the ancient world, during the period of the collapse of the empire. If we look at the official art of the Roman Empire, it is completely different - powerful, strong, imperial. And here are small sprouts, but these small sprouts defeat this art and displace it.

Priest Boris Mikhailov, rector of the Church of the Intercession Holy Mother of God in Fili (Moscow), candidate of art history.

Christian art has existed for almost two thousand years, and it began to be studied relatively recently - in the middle of the 19th century. We are talking about scientific study: collecting material, its systematization, analytical study of features, generalization and conclusions, on the basis of which the study, as a rule, acquires a more voluminous and methodologically updated character. But first it must be said that the actual scientific study of Christian art was preceded by a significant period of amateur interest in it. We are talking about collecting and collecting Christian antiquities.

Already in the XI-XII centuries. The first Christian shrines ended up in the storerooms of banking houses in Italy. Crusades at the beginning of the 13th century. and the export of many Christian shrines from the Orthodox East contributed to this process, although, of course, most of what was brought by the crusaders retained its sacred meaning and did not find secular use.

The pre-Renaissance interest in ancient antiquity that arose in Italy led to the discovery of the catacombs, which became accessible to the public in the 15th century. In the 16th century The cemetery of St. was opened. Priscilla, after which the research became systematic and led to the creation of a fundamental work on early Christian archeology - the book “Underground Rome” by Antonio Bosio (1634).

In the 18th century Giovanni Bottari supplemented this inventory of the catacombs with the book "Sacred Sculpture and Painting Extracted from Roman Cemeteries", the purpose of which was to highlight the tombs and prayer rooms, describe and study the meaning of hieroglyphs, record images, inscriptions, epitaphs and other things worthy of attention things that could give an idea of ​​the early Christian Church. It is clear that Christian antiquities are for this author not only a shrine, but also a source of historical knowledge.

The European Reformation of the 16th-17th centuries was of great importance in the matter of collecting and subsequent study of Christian art, which led to the formation of Northern Europe Protestant world. It was at this time that Christian shrines: the relics of saints in reliquaries (reliquaries), sacred vessels, revered icons, statues of saints and their vestments, altar crosses and Gospels - were not only desecrated, but also ended up in collections (later museums) of urban and rural communities, rich or noble citizens as monuments of desacralized culture.

At the end of the 18th century. the confiscation of church relics took place in France. As a result of the French Revolution, thousands of cathedrals, monasteries and parish churches were looted. Hundreds of thousands of church items ended up in museums and formed the main fund for scientific research in the 19th century.

Thus, we can conclude that one of the conditions for the emergence of the science of Christian antiquities was the de-churching of religious consciousness and the formation of a new attitude towards them - no longer as shrines, but as monuments of history and culture.

In Russia, similar processes occurred at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries. and are associated with the reforms of Peter I, as a result of which, already at the end of the 18th century, two parallel existing cultures were formed in Russia: folk, medieval, which, strictly speaking, was formed a long time ago, but from the time of Peter the Great began to occupy a different, subordinate place in the new cultural space, and the secular, humanistic culture that rose to the top and took a dominant position.

What is culture and what are its historical types?

Orthodox cultural studies defines culture as “a system of life values ​​of a person and society, which reveals itself in their creative activity. Culture is what a person and society consider vitally important and necessary for themselves” (M. Dunaev).

Christ’s Sermon on the Mount says: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matt. 6:19-20). Here the innermost essence of two understandings of the meaning of human life is defined, as well as two worldviews, two various types thinking, two types of cultures. Culturologists define them as soteriological (from the Greek “soterio” - salvation) and eudaimonic (from the Greek “eudaimonia” - happiness).

The transition from the first to the second in European history was the Renaissance, which revived close attention to earthly treasures and the person for whom they began to come first. The ideology of the Renaissance - humanism precisely expresses this process of transforming a person into a self-sufficient value, a process when God is, as it were, imperceptibly taken out of the picture and moved to the periphery of cultural life.

At the level of ordinary consciousness, we usually confuse humanism with humanity, but in essence these are very different things. Humanism is a very rigid ideology of a gradually emerging theology of man, the destructive consequences of which will affect both man and culture much later.

In Russia Orthodox culture was influenced by European humanism already in the 17th century, but in our country its degeneration lasted for centuries. Literature and art in Russia were secular in their forms and content back in the 19th century. continued to retain religious overtones. The events, characters and aspirations of their heroes were still illuminated in our country by the light of the Gospel.

And yet, already at the end of the 18th century, the enlightened part of Russian society had an understanding that the Russian Middle Ages had become a thing of the past, that it could be a subject not only of worship, but also of study, as if from the outside. So, in 1809-1810. The government equipped a special historical and archaeological expedition to sketch and describe ancient things in some cities and monasteries of Russia. The initiative belonged to the President of the Academy of Arts and Director of the Public Library A.N. Olenin, who was interested in monuments of Russian artistic history. Mosaics from the 11th century were painted in Kyiv. Cathedrals of St. Sofia and St. Michael's Monastery, in Staraya Ladoga - frescoes of the 12th century. St. George's Church. Four large albums with drawings, drawings and commentaries then entered the Public Library and became a rich source for familiarization with the material and artistic monuments of Ancient Rus'.

During the 18th century. The handwritten book was actively replaced from everyday life by the more convenient printed book. Thanks to this, by the beginning of the 19th century. Several private collections of ancient manuscripts were formed, including liturgical manuscripts, from monastic and church book depositories. It was church books that were usually decorated with miniatures, which, unlike icons, were not covered with linseed oil, did not darken, and were almost not copied; their colors remained as pure and fresh as they were hundreds of years ago. Thus, facial manuscripts turned out to be an important and reliable source in the study of ancient Russian art.

Interest in the past of our fatherland was significantly boosted by the events of 1812. When Russian troops in Paris were still preparing to return to their homeland, the first eight volumes of N.M.’s “History” were published. Karamzin. Three thousand copies sold out in one month. “Everyone,” wrote Pushkin, “even secular women, rushed to read the history of their fatherland, hitherto unknown to them.” Since then, interest in national history and its monuments has become an integral feature of Russian culture. By the middle of the 19th century. the idea of ​​icons as national art took shape, which deserves deep and comprehensive research.

The first attempt to understand the vast material of church art was made in the 1840s. THEM. Snegirev. For him, icons are not only a church shrine, but, above all, works of art that can serve as evidence of the state of art in the Middle Ages. They also have historical significance as material monuments of certain events and archaeological value.

The cultural nature of collecting icons by F.I. Buslaev notes among the Old Believers: “Revering the icon as a shrine, (they) at the same time know how to explain to themselves its artistic merits, so that their technical and archaeological observations can provide material for the history of Russian church art.”

Fyodor Ivanovich Buslaev (1818-1897), a professor at Moscow University, created a complete picture of the artistic life of the Russian Middle Ages and laid a solid foundation for the entire modern science of artistic antiquities of Eastern Europe and Byzantium. An artistically gifted person, after graduating from university, he was invited as a home teacher to the family of Count S. Stroganov and spent two years with her in Italy. “It’s no secret,” he recalled half a century later, “that I loved visiting Roman churches and learned and studied them in more detail than those in Moscow... out of an insatiable desire to enjoy their artistic decoration, to walk under their high arches, through their chapels... admiring those around me me from all sides with elegant works of painting, mosaics and sculpture. Then the temple turned for me into a museum of artistic rarities, and in the interests of science I enriched my stock of information with new facts on the history of art and antiquities." His remarks about the peculiarities of Catholic worship are interesting: “I loved to be present at church rites and magnificent ceremonies, and the more I was carried away by their unusual novelty, the clearer the conviction became for me that Catholicism differs from our Orthodoxy not so much in its theological dogmas, but in its indulgence in human weaknesses.” and whims, ensnaring the superstitious flock in their nets with the delights of fine arts in the decoration of churches and various empty ideas of elaborate ceremonies.<...>An artistic, pictorial and musical religion!"

In contrast to Catholic, “the most important property of Russian icon painting,” believed F. I. Buslaev, “is its religious character.<...>The primitive attitude towards objects of church art as sacred things runs through all centuries of our history, prevails even in the 16th and 17th centuries, equally in all classes, and even in later times constitutes the cherished national identity of the vast majority of the Russian population. "This is indeed so, however, as we will see later, just towards the end of the 19th century, a different attitude towards church shrines was being formed in the educated part of Russian society.

From this understanding of the uniqueness of Russian antiquity followed the main thesis of F.I. Buslaev as a scientist: the essence and significance of ancient Russian painting is not in artistic execution, but in iconographic subjects, which are bequeathed to it by Church Tradition. “It replaces beauty,” he wrote, “with nobility,” understanding “nobility” as an expression of spirituality, holiness, and ideal purity of thoughts. “Despite all its shortcomings, which naturally revealed the ignorance and backwardness of our ancestors of the 16th century, our ancient icon painting has its undeniable advantages over Western art already because fate saved it during this critical period from the artistic revolution known as the Renaissance, and thus contrasted the primitive purity of iconographic principles with the depravity of morals, with that stupid materialism and with that senseless idealization that has dominated Western art from the half of the 16th century until the beginning of this century.” An extremely accurate description of Italian art of the Counter-Reformation era, that religious academic painting that nevertheless overtook our culture since the time of Peter the Great's reforms.

The highest achievement of ancient Russian icon painting is F.I. Buslaev did not consider icon painting as such, but the front icon painting original: “This great monument, this enormous work of Russian icon painting is not some kind of separate icon or mosaic, not an exemplary creation of a brilliant master, but a whole icon painting system as an expression of the activity of masters of many generations, the work of centuries, a carefully thought-out system, firm in its principles and consistent in applying general principles to individual details, a system in which science and religion, theory and practice, art and craft were combined into one whole.”

An iconographic original is a collection of sketches arranged in the sequence of the church calendar, with a description of the features of the image and color; for many, accustomed to dealing with the work of art itself, this is a secondary, auxiliary material that has cultural, but not aesthetic value.

If F.I. Buslaev was the founder of the Russian science of art, then his student N.P. Kondakov (1844-1925) became the founder of national Russian archeology. His main merit lies in the study of the Russian artistic heritage against the general background of Eastern Christian and Byzantine antiquity. He turned out to be a pioneer in the study of the artistic heritage of Byzantium. Long scientific trips abroad, work in repositories of Greek manuscripts with book miniatures as the most accessible material of ancient culture, bore fruit in the form of a gradually created history of Byzantine art and iconography based on miniatures of Greek manuscripts. Based on this material, in 1898, in his report “On the scientific tasks of the history of ancient Russian art,” he was able to correctly assess Russian art in the first centuries of its development as an “original artistic type,” a major historical phenomenon that developed through the interaction of local, Greek and eastern elements. He defined church archeology as an auxiliary discipline that supplies material for the history of art. Of particular importance in this case is N.P. Kondakov emphasized the iconographic method of research, this “ABC of church art,” which, in his opinion, no researcher of medieval painting can ignore. However, the iconographer’s field of view includes the content of an ancient work, regardless of its artistic form, and therefore the iconographic method turned out to be an insufficiently effective tool for studying church art. Hence the serious shortcomings of the science of that time as a whole: almost all scientists of the 19th century. It was believed that the Russian icon began to develop in the 14th-15th centuries, and its real heyday came in the 16th and 17th centuries, although in fact this was a time of exhaustion of the liturgical art of the Church, which was entering a phase of overripe diversity of forms and decline.

And gradually, at a time when the Russian science of art was taking its first steps, the icon began to come into the field of view of the educated part of society, valued for completely different properties. In a sense, the beginning of this process was laid by the Russian pavilion at the World Industrial Exhibition in Paris in 1867, the art-historical section of which was filled with the best monuments of antiquity. True, Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow spoke about the inappropriateness of sending Orthodox shrines from monastery and church sacristies to a commercial exhibition, but only the painted copies of frescoes and icons, as well as icons from private collections, created a sensation in Paris.

Otherwise, exhibitions were organized in Russia, where icons were exhibited not as exotic, but as art in the true meaning of the word. This was the exhibition dedicated to the VIII All-Russian Archaeological Congress in 1890. In the Historical Museum, in eleven spacious halls, icons, sewing, manuscripts and church items from official and church-archaeological museums, private collections and individual Moscow and provincial sacristies were presented. Everyone who cared about the Russian icon flocked here. Common people, people from the street, merchants, Old Believers, icon painters and clergy mixed into one crowd with aristocrats and scientists. Collectors tried not to lose sight of the best specimens, collectors-traders were looking for buyers - everything here corresponded to the unbridled pace and scope with which the sale and purchase of church objects was carried out back in the 70s and 80s. Society of Art Lovers in 1896 and 1897 organized two exhibitions of images of Christ and the Mother of God, which, as a matter of course, presented originals and copies from a number of leading museums and private collections. Student N.P. Kondakova Professor of Kazan University D.V. At the 1896 exhibition, Ainalov gave special lectures, the interest in which was so great that the Society’s hall could not accommodate everyone.

At the beginning of the 20th century. They began to make the first clearings of ancient boards and compile the first collections, already focused on the purely artistic merits of icon paintings. Such, for example, is the famous collection of I.S. Ostroukhov, which contained real masterpieces of cleared icons of the 15th century, which later entered the Tretyakov Gallery (for example, the famous “Descent from the Cross”). On his own initiative in 1904-1905. Rublev's "Trinity" was partially revealed in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and in 1913 the first exhibition of ancient Russian art took place, organized on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov.

Since that time, the understanding of the icon as a work of art has become predominant among art historians in Russia. With this approach, in 1914, in the magazine “Sofia” and the collections “Russian Icon,” one of the representatives of the new generation of art historians first expressed the following point of view: “The main current of artistic life is found not so much in the iconographic, but in the stylistic side of art.”

Style, artistic form, art as such, which found themselves at the center of the interests of society and science at the beginning of the 20th century, are associated with the predominance of those cultural values ​​that have already been mentioned: it is not the work of our salvation that becomes more expensive, but the enjoyment of life. The icon turns from an object of worship into an object of aesthetic experience. The historian D.P. wonderfully described the mood of that era. Konchalovsky in his book “From Humanism to Christ,” written in exile in 1971. “Then,” he writes, “in connection with the general tendency of civilization, the goal of life was seen in happiness, and the latter consisted in the undisturbed enjoyment of earthly goods, in their entire totality, starting from the highest spiritual and to the rather base material ones, which, however, were skillfully ennobled by general culture. In essence, the whole process was felt as a source of pleasure and joy; these pleasures were very diverse: scientific and artistic creativity for the elite, and for cultural and educated masses - enjoying their fruits in popularizations, theatre, art exhibitions, art publications and reproductions, tourism, sports, local history, up to such sensual pleasures as restaurants, cafes, bars with their refined cuisine, comfort, elegant women and music Life was pleasant and easy, and it was especially pleasant to realize that with every decade and even year this pleasantness and ease increase in degree and expand to an ever larger circle of people until - as was dreamed of - they become the property of everyone."

This is the eudaimonic mood of the era of the first decades of the 20th century. expressed, among other things, in a new attitude towards art. In the area of ​​art history that interests us, it was formulated by the philanthropist and esthetician K. Fiedler (1841 -1895) in his programmatic work “Modern Naturalism and Artistic Truth”: “If from ancient times two great principles have been arguing among themselves for the right to express the essence of artistic activity: imitation and transformation reality, then, it seems, the resolution of this dispute is possible only by putting a third one in place of both of these principles - the principle of the production of reality.<...>Only in this way is artistic activity understood free.<...>Only in this way art does not follow any laws other than the laws of its own internal nature."

The understanding of art as the highest value of existence is called aestheticism and is the development of the fundamental attitude of eudaimonic culture, focused on human happiness as the main value in life.

From the understanding of the sovereignty of art comes the main thesis of formal art criticism, which was put forward by Fiedler’s follower G. Wölfflin (1864-1945). He considered his main task the development of a strictly scientific methodology for the study of art and developed a consistent system of approach to the study of a work of art as an “objective fact”, which should be understood primarily from itself, from the plastic form, concentrating attention on the formal structure of the work. It is no coincidence that the material for Wölfflin’s first book, “Renaissance and Baroque” (1889), turned out to be architecture, the elements of which - composition, rhythm, spatial solutions - were amenable to precise fixation and definition. Wölfflin introduced his famous five pairs of contrasting concepts: linear and pictorial, flat and deep, closed and open form, multiplicity and unity, absolute and relative clarity, which, I hope, we will have to deal with when we move on to art-historical material .

In Russia, the achievements of German art history were first presented before the First World War by N.I. Romanov: “I would like to show with my course,” the Russian scientist told the university audience, “that only by trying to penetrate into the essence of the general laws of art, we can feel the mysterious charm of art as a self-sufficient beautiful phenomenon, the roots of which go back to historical soil, but the flower rises above historical facets into the realm of the universal.<...>It is necessary to study not only the history of artists (Kunstlergeschichte), but also the history of art (Kunstgeschichte), the change of artistic styles and its causes."

The emergence of a new stage in the national science of art came at a very inappropriate time for free academic studies. Initiative groups of the early 20s, such as the seminar on theory and history of art at the Rumyantsev Museum, did not exist for long, and government agencies, like the State Academy of Artistic Sciences, in the early 30s. turned into ideological institutions. And yet we managed to do something.

Thus, in 1921, one of the most talented scientists P. P. Muratov (1881 -1950) proposed to distinguish between work of art three points: theme, concept and composition. The theme does not yet make the artist; the composition is already established art. The concept, the initial moment of creativity, which is an element of the picture, represents the moment of origin of the artistic form, the dynamic aspect of its internal formation. From this thesis follows, firstly, an understanding of artistic form as a process that reveals its unity with the culture that gave birth to it and thereby overcomes the limitations of the formal research method. And secondly, understanding an artistic form as the dynamic development of its irrational core reveals the secret of connoisseurship, which just at that time received recognition, dissemination and became an effective tool for scientists in the dating and attribution of a work of art.

Art criticism is called an artistic science, and its artistry really lies in the fact that an art historian must have certain qualities of an artist, a connoisseurship culture, an attunement to the “internal ringing” of an artistic object, to that invisible rhythmic flow that forms a form and is characteristic of a particular artist, for example only for Rembrandt, but not for any of his students.

It was with this approach that young scientists began to study ancient Russian art. The Soviet era saw the most active phase of the study of ancient Russian painting, especially in the field of practical work, which, however, is not without serious contradictions. For the summer, autumn and winter of 1918-1919. Commission on Preservation and Disclosure ancient painting previously inaccessible iconostases of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Kremlin and the Trinity Cathedral in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God from the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin, frescoes of the Assumption Cathedral in Zvenigorod, frescoes of the Dmitrov and Assumption Cathedrals in Vladimir, and the Bogolyubskaya icon (12th century) were cleared. , Maksimovskaya (XIV century), Vladimir (XV century) Mother of God, Dormition of the Mother of God and St. Kirill Belozersky from the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. In 1919, an expedition took place to Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Tolga, Novgorod, in 1920 - to the Northern Dvina and the White Sea, in 1921 - to the Vologda Territory. And everywhere there are exciting discoveries and discoveries. The commission for the acceptance of church property under the People's Commissariat for Education for the period from 1918 to 1922 registered 15 thousand objects of art in Kremlin churches alone, and in total, not counting Moscow, about 30 thousand. However, along with this, as a result of the confiscation of Church property, thousands of thousands of icons were kidnapped, destroyed, sold abroad, many churches were destroyed, devastated, left without supervision. It is not known what blocked: the discovery of ancient Russian art or its destruction. And if in the 20s. scientific work was still simmering, then in the 30s many “Old Russian scientists” found themselves behind bars or out of work, government institutions were closed, and scientific work was curtailed.

The situation changed after the war: the State Institute of Art History was opened, classes at Moscow State University resumed, and the largest museums returned from evacuation. However, there was no point in thinking about a full study of religious art. The traditional interpretation of the icon as a work of ancient Russian painting was allowed. Academic and university science has restored its ranks. Issues of collecting, restoration and storage of monuments, their dating and attribution, the use of archival material and achievements of foreign art history, new hypotheses and creative overcoming of established ideas - all this became the work of the younger generation of scientists, who came to science mainly in the 60s and significantly enriched it their achievements in the 70-80s.

Deep immersion in the material and understanding of the fundamental significance of its religious specificity caused a breakthrough in the 90s. It became obvious to specialists that almost all Orthodox art in varying degrees associated with worship. Interest in this topic grew from year to year and became one of the main directions in the science of medieval art. Thus, secular science about the liturgical art of the Church, which deliberately shied away from the substantive side of its subject at the beginning of the 20th century, recognized its scientific significance at the end of the century.

But, of course, adequate comprehension of Christian art is possible only in the depths of the Church. After the dogmatic Definitions of the Seventh Ecumenical Council of 787 on the nature of Christian art and icon veneration, the Church had no need to return to this issue. It arose in response to a tangible crisis in church art in the 19th century. and in the face of aggressive pseudo-religious and extra-aesthetic practices of the 20th century. Just as in the ancient Church, when heretical storms threatened to sink the church ship, Ecumenical Councils were convened to raise the sails of undamaged doctrine, so in the 20th century the need arose to testify to the world about the heavenly nature of the discarded art of the Church.

This task was brilliantly accomplished by our compatriots: N.A. Berdyaev (1874-1948), prot. S. Bulgakov (1871-1944), priest. P. Florensky (1882-1937), prot. G. Florovsky (1893-1979), prot. V. Zenkovsky (1881-1962), prot. A. Schmemann (1921-1983), G.P. Fedotov (1886-1951), N.A. Struve and a number of other scientists who found themselves in exile and with a small army defeated a formidable enemy.

A special place among them is occupied by Leonid Aleksandrovich Uspensky (1902-1987), a nobleman, mobilized in 1918 Red Army, he then went through a path typical of forced emigrants: going over to the side of the whites, serving in the Kornilov artillery, leaving the Crimea, the Gallipoli camp, working in Bulgaria, France, at a salt factory, road construction, a coal mine, and in vineyards. Since 1929, he began to study painting at the Russian Art Academy in Paris, became close to members of the stauropegic brotherhood in honor of St. Photius, who remained faithful to the Moscow Patriarchate, - theologian V.N. Lossky and artist G.I. Around, with whom in the late 30s. He left painting for the sake of icon painting. Since 1944 he became a teacher of icon painting at the Theological Institute. As a result, his fundamental work “Theology of the Icon of the Orthodox Church” appeared, the value of which is so great that if a person found himself with this book on a desert island, then all the most important things about Orthodox art could be learned from it. This is the only work that should be recommended as a reference book for serious acquaintance with the liturgical art of the Church.

Magazine "Parish" No. 5,6 2004

(Art, Christian). Christian art has the right to be called Christian insofar as the work of art follows the artistic criteria of the Lord's peace and is imbued with the spirit of holiness, declaring that our created existence is damaged by sin and must find peace with God in Jesus Christ.

Inspired art in history. Already in early biblical times, the Lord assigned a place on earth to dancers (Exodus 15:20), sculptors (Exodus 25:940), jewelers (Exodus 31:111), psalmists (Psalm), composers of music (2 Chron 5:1114), storytellers ( Judgment 2720; Christ with His parables), poets (see Isa. 40) and the most skilled artisans different professions(1 Kings 7:1322). They all noisily and joyfully glorified the Lord with their art. They were not afraid to violate the Sinai prohibition against creating absurd images, which could become a temptation for people and turn them into idolaters. Despite the fact that ancient eloquence (Gen. 4:2324) and architecture (Gen. 11:19) are symbols of godless vanity, artistic creativity from the very beginning was a gift that the Lord bestowed on man (see Adam’s poetic words about Eve in Gen. 2:23 ). God wanted creativity to carry a charge of obedience and morally strengthen a person through the material, sounds, forms, sights, words, actions of everything that God gave us for use.

Catechetical art and iconoclasm. By the time Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity (313) and the Church became the dominant force in the world, there was already debate about whether every image serves as an impetus for idolatry (Clement of Alexandria) or whether the image represents a completely acceptable textbook picture for the illiterate (Gregory Nyssa). This was the beginning of a centuries-long debate about the fine arts.

Byzantine painting of Constantinople (after 330) embodied early trends in Christian art, characterized by rich ornamentalism and low-figure compositions. Painters (probably inheriting the artistic ideas of Syrian Christians), Crimea in the 6th century. commissioned to paint the churches of Ravenna, opening a new era in art. The monumentality of Greco-Roman temples and the illusionism of the image, typical of Hellenistic mimesis, gave way to the modest splendor of mosaics, in all their mysterious perfection. The visible images captured by Christian artists, whether they were Magi with gifts or ideal characters in pastorals symbolizing the new world, carried and affirmed an as yet invisible reality. Even the zoomorphic symbols of the evangelists (angel, lion, calf and eagle), which are of Coptic origin, represented a kind of joyful beginning, surpassing in the power of influence any didactic task. The subjects and images in Ravenna are imbued not only with piety, but even more with a liturgical spirit.

Pope Gregory I the Great (590604) believed that it was useful to use artistic images in Christian instructions; he was later supported by Charlemagne (80014). However, the Byzantine Emperor Leo III took the opposite position, prohibiting the worship of artistic images. His son, Constantine V (74175), pursued a harsh, openly iconoclastic policy, rejecting even images of the Virgin Mary. However, at the Second Council of Nicaea (787), the legitimacy of artistic images received direct doctrinal confirmation, based on the fact that John of Damascus clearly distinguished between the “veneration” (proskynesis) of images and the “worship” (latria) of the food God. Although until 867 the Church had a negative attitude towards images of God, over time folk traditions received the necessary doctrinal justification to allow the use of images when reading the Bible. Moreover, in accordance with the Neoplatonic views of Pseudo-Dionysius, which was adopted by John of Damascus, they began to see a source of grace in sacred images. Icons, especially those with the image of Christ, which came to earth visible, in the flesh, fell in love with believers, helping them mentally imagine the object of their faith and concentrate entirely on it. Through icons, communication took place between ordinary believers and God, and in this capacity, icons received the approval of the Church.

Church art and the Reformation.

The internally contradictory nature of monastic reforms in the West in the 22nd century, when the Cluny reform, designed to strengthen the role of the Church in society (luxus pro Deo “greatness for God’s sake”), came up against the mystical detachment of the Cistercians and later Franciscans, had a controversial impact on the development of art. Romanesque architecture created a clearly defined space, impenetrable to the outside world. Gothic cathedrals with their arched buttresses and stained glass windows embodied the principles of scholastic theology, in accordance with the Crimea, reason gives harmony and harmony to faith and everything soars to heaven in a single impersonal impulse. The increasing number of Andachtsbilder ("reverent images"), gargoyles suggestive of mortal remains, sculptures of the grieving Mother of God indicate that the disturbing fascination that a person experiences before the reality of death, invisibly following life, has become increasingly individualized.

The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, the graphic arts of Holbein, Dürer, Cranach, Lucas van Leyden, and the Huguenot psalmody of the Reformation are filled with a different spirit. The delight of existence, the joy of earthly life in the face of the Lord are expressed here in living, energetic language, when religious faith no longer strives to comprehend divine secrets, but rather paves the way through the joys and sorrows of historical upheavals. Unlike the brilliant allegories of the "Divine Comedy" itinerarium mentis ad Deum ("the path of the soul to God"), in Chaucer we see a kaleidoscope of scenes from the life of society, in which persistent piety alternates with obscene laughter; people make their own journey, but this journey is clothed in flesh and blood, they can even get angry. Luther's church reforms led to the North. Europe was the heyday of engraving, etching and woodcuts. Unlike sculpture and frescoes, an image on paper loses the indispensable stigma of an idol: you can pick it up and enter into dialogue with it anywhere, and not just within the confines of the church. Luther's hymns, new melodies for psalms, written by Louis Bourgeois and other Genevans, produced a real revolution in music. All those who had no musical training in Gregorian chant and its vocal ornamentation could now easily sing hymns, in which there was a single sound for each syllable and the stanzas were repeated. Thus, religious hymns entered the life of ordinary people just as firmly as folk songs.

The Council of Trent (154563) confirmed the priority of church art in all its mannerist, baroque splendor as an instrument of Christian instruction. Nevertheless, a public need arose for art that would be imbued with the Christian spirit, but would not be in a subordinate position to the Church, in accordance with the basic principle of the Reformation. In the 17th century The paintings of Rembrandt, Vermeer and many other artists prompted us to see the gift and glory of God in the most ordinary things, in familiar landscapes, in the sky and water. Thanks to the great poet J. Milton, the Reformation movement underwent significant changes. The convictions of the Protestant Independent (see Milton's treatise on divorce and his Areopagitica) were combined with classical and Christian humanism, based on extraordinary education. Milton's works, embodying a double vision of life and the world, are an attempt by reason to “justify the ways of God to people” (“Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Regained”). On the other hand, J. Bunyan became the herald of a truly childish biblical faith; in his religious life he was content with pilgrimage, the ultimate goal of which was not earthly Canterbury, but the Heavenly City.

Confessional art in the secular post-Enlightenment era. In the 18th century cultural dominance in society passed from Christianity to Western civilization and the life of Europeans began to be determined by the rapid development of mathematical and empirical sciences, the philosophy of the encyclopedists, aggressive mercantilism with their inherent deep secularization tendencies. K. Wren's disciples still erected exquisitely majestic churches in England; I. Watte and the Wesley brothers continued to write hymns, the simple quatrains of which carried gospel consolation ordinary people. Pietism, which flourished in Germany, did not allow Christians to get lost among the splendor of art, but at the same time could not serve as a guiding force in these subtle matters. However, in young America, the mixture of neoclassical rationalism with the transcendental idealism of Emerson could not suppress the original Puritan spirit aimed at combating the diabolical darkness that revealed its existence in the exquisite novels filled with symbolism of N. Hawthorne ("The Scarlet Letter", 1850) and G Melville ("MobyDick", 1851).

The process of industrialization finally shifted traditional cultural priorities. The spirit of positivism, along with innovations such as the photographic apparatus (c. 1830), relegated art to the level of recording bare fact. Christian artists (for example, the Pre-Raphaelites of the 19th century) defended a conservative direction in painting, the old illustrative manner with its most accurate depiction of the details of everyday life and adherence to pious religious and literary subjects. Paintings such as H. Hunt's The Light of the World were something like Victorian icons of reflections, mirrors designed to awaken personal piety in the viewer. W. Morris's initiatives are more aimed at the future: he aimed to transform ugly urban landscapes, giving special meaning good design and the use of handcrafts; however, the Arts and Crafts movement's program smacked of a medieval spirit, even when it limited architectural forms and decorative finishes to ordered lines. If Christian artists do not seek to define the cultural realities of today, but look for corresponding artistic norms and examples in the past, then their works either focus on the theme of religious faith within the framework of their art, or their works bear the stamp of obsolescence.

Christian art in a pragmatic society. During the First World War, social idealism suffered a severe blow. Moreover, back in the days of European Dadaism and American jazz of the 20s. A thick mixture of avant-garde euphoria and a merchant spirit arose, and a technocratic and commercialized interest in art grew. Professional artists found themselves in a crisis situation: either to follow the path of popular art for a mass audience (television and tabloids), or to enclose art in an esoteric ghetto (such, for example, as the world of art galleries in New York). In conditions where everything is determined by pragmatism and monopolism, art , retaining vitality and at the same time truly glorifying God's providence in history, is relatively rare and distinguished by exceptional artistic merit, otherwise it will occupy a marginal position in Christian communities, outside the confines of the dominant, distinctly secular public consciousness.

Engravings and paintings by J. Rouault return us to the Byzantine tradition; horrified by the inhuman crimes of our days, they, like stained glass windows, are filled with gloomy, truly biblical seriousness; Whether they depict kings, harlots or the passion of Christ, in their composition, color, and bold style they breathe the compassion inherent in truly Christian art. Poetry of G. Mistral, received in 1945. the Nobel Prize, recreates for us Franciscan holiness; her gentle ringing voice fills the description of girlish dreams, forgotten captives and even bird’s nests with the light of peace. The work of the Canadian artist U. Kurelek combines a love for Bruegel's world of the bottom with the Catholic conviction of the worthlessness of everything that is achieved outside of connection with the Cross; the images of bright and pure happiness are imbued with existential anxiety before the nuclear apocalypse, and the attentive viewer cannot remain indifferent. The most important thing in such diverse manifestations of Christian art, born of the Catholic spirit, is its non-churchishness, universality, and responsiveness to any misfortune.

The more hidden, *autonomous, even indirect expression of biblical faith in the art of the 20th century also deserves attention. The powerful call of the German E. Barlach for the reconciliation of man with God and his neighbors was embodied in the harsh angular forms of wooden and metal sculptures; it is no coincidence that they aroused the ire of the Nazi authorities, destroyed most of them. New York Jew A. Rattner not only created a huge stained glass window with apocalyptic symbolism for the main Chicago synagogue, but again and again in his painting he enters into a duel with the Crucifixion, trying to free the Jews from both Calvary and Auschwitz. Columbian writer G García Márquez, who won the Nobel Prize for his fiction in 1982, takes the theme of corruption in a small South American town to fantastic proportions, with angels, generally supernatural forces and the funny quirks of weak people coexisting.

The passionate evangelical spirit of Negro spirituals awakened again in the melodies and poems of M. Jackson, who was born into a simple Baptist family. Jackson's religious roots were prophetically embodied in the harmonious rhythms and wonderful melodies of his songs. H. Kruger's paintings, prints and designs are direct reminiscences of the Bauhaus and German Expressionism, distilled into energetic, carefully finished forms and skillfully chosen colors. Kruger's work is an artistic embodiment of the principles of the Reformation: man in his Everyday life called upon to answer every moment before God and find salvation by sharing earthly sorrow, laughter and hope.

New starter and changing categories. Anglo-Catholics continue to update the age-old vocabulary of the art of worship. Indigenous peoples, such as Indians and Eskimos of the North. America, many African tribes, thanks to the missionary work of the Church, began to confess Jesus Christ as Lord; their current generation chooses their own, non-Western path to embody their biblical faith in art. Mennonites and various "holiness communities" are looking for ways to express themselves in Christian art, because in the means mass media There are no longer any attempts to move away from traditional artistic solutions. At the Christian liberal arts colleges of the North. America began to form its own small communities, developing alternative, Christian traditions in poetry, painting, music and theater. The Nashville industry continues to categorize Christian songwriting as a marketable style of music; But there are also such large-scale events as the Greenbelt Festival in England, where up-and-coming pop rock bands demonstrate a clear desire to turn to a truly new and inclusive Christian art.

The old categories of “sacred” and “secular” art are unacceptable, otherwise art would first of all be “natural” or “neutral”, and only then would it qualify as “sacred”. Of course, real art can have a specific purpose, limited by the needs of the Church (worship), the state (monumental art), and business (advertising). But art as such, be it a novel, a musical concert, a ballet, or a theatrical performance, at its very core expresses either loyalty to Christ or commitment to atheism. The sacredness of art is not determined by a chaste theme, instructions or the presence of church blessing. When we understand that Christian art is artistic creativity, truly imbued with the Holy Spirit, in contrast to art, in which the Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim or secular-humanistic spirit subtly breathes, glorifying the creations of human hands, we will grasp its very essence and see that it is the high goal of gifted artists belonging to the Body of Christ, and the fruit of their humble labor for the good of the world.

Incomplete definition ↓

In the 1st century AD e. With the spread of Christianity, a grain fell on the soil of ancient culture, which gave rise to a new art, special in its nature and external form. In Christianity, as is known, very early images appeared that aimed to symbolically express the love of Christ (images of the good shepherd). The reproduction of the Cross as a symbolic sign or later - as an image of the Savior suffering on the cross, and then pictures of biblical events helped the Christian to imagine Christ, Calvary events. Since then, for twenty centuries, the Christian religion and art have walked side by side.

According to the self-awareness of Christians, the nature of the Church is different from that of the earthly world. Its essence is spiritual, sublime, and its mission on earth is the salvation of the world and its reconstruction for the coming Kingdom of God. This supra-mundaneity of the essence and purpose of the Church imparts special forms to all external manifestations of its life, which are not at all similar to “worldly” images. Starting from the appearance of the temple and ending with the smallest items of church use. Therefore, special, symbolic forms are used in church art. The unusual forms seem to remind a person that there is another world with its own special laws, and our earthly life is only a prelude to eternal life.

With the adoption of Christianity in Rus', stone monumental architecture began to develop. The main type of church was the cross-domed one, which arose in the 6th century. in Byzantium. In plan, this temple forms a square, which is divided inside by four pillars into naves (inter-row spaces from east to west), forming a cross in plan. On these pillars, connected in pairs by arches, a “drum” (cylinder) was erected, ending in a hemispherical dome. The ends of the spatial cross were covered with vaults. The upper part of the wall in the form of a semi-cylindrical vault was called zakomara. Inside and outside the temple had a cross-domed composition. In the west was the main entrance to the temple, in the east in a semicircular ledge (apse) there was an altar. In the western part there were choirs - a balcony for the prince and his family during worship.

The temple is a symbol of the earthly sky, an ark (ship) of salvation for believers amid the storms of the sea of ​​life. The cross in the plan is a symbol of Christianity.

The dome of the temple, the head is held by Christ the Pantocrator (Almighty). The neck of the temple (light or dull drum) is held by the apostles, disciples of Christ. The four pillars symbolize the four gospels. The temple is strictly oriented from west to east. The main sanctuary faces the east - the altar in the apse - a symbol of the cave where Christ was born, Golgotha, where he was crucified, the heavenly throne - paradise, where he was resurrected. The altar is separated from the worshipers by an ambo - an elevation, and since the 14th century. continuous partition of the iconostasis.

With the adoption of Christianity from Byzantium, new types of monumental painting came to Rus' - mosaics and frescoes, as well as easel painting (icon painting).

Mosaic is an image or pattern made from pieces of colored smalt (painted opaque glass), stone, marble, attached to a layer of cement or mastic. Of the mosaic works, the images of Our Lady Oranta in the altar apse and the chest-to-chest image of Christ Pantocrator in the central Cathedral of St. Sophia of Kyiv are especially significant. Our Lady of Oranta is one of the iconographic types of the Mother of God in a prayer pose, with her hands raised up. " An unbreakable wall“The people of Kiev called this image and considered it a defender of the city from enemies.

The walls of the temple were decorated with frescoes. A fresco is painting with water paints on freshly applied, damp plaster. The subjects of fresco painting are scenes from the life of Christ, the Mother of God, images of holy preachers, martyrs.

The church's paintings were supposed to convey the basic tenets of Christian doctrine and serve as a kind of “gospel for the illiterate.” Mosaics and frescoes of St. Sophia of Kyiv allow us to imagine the painting system of a medieval temple. Mosaics covered the most symbolically important and most illuminated part of the temple - the central dome, the space under the dome, the altar (Christ Pantocrator in the central dome and Our Lady Oranta in the altar apse). The rest of the temple is decorated with frescoes (scenes from the life of Christ, the Mother of God, images of preachers, martyrs, etc.).

In addition to mosaics and frescoes, many icons hung on the walls of temples. The remarkable Russian philosopher E.N. Trubetskoy (1863-1920) has a work “Speculation in Colors”, which gives a holistic historical, theological and at the same time artistic interpretation of the ancient Russian icon. Trubetskoy writes: “Iconography expresses the deepest thing that exists in ancient Russian culture; Moreover, we have in it one of the world’s greatest treasures of religious art.”

In Orthodoxy, an icon (from the gr. eikon - image, view, image, portrait) means a pictorial depiction of Christ the Savior, the Mother of God, angels, saints, as well as scenes from sacred history.

An ancient icon is an integral part of Christian church life. The icon was considered as a visible symbol of the invisible world; it was called “speculation in colors.” A rigid system of writing icons (iconographic canon) was developed. According to legend, the oldest Christian icons appeared either miraculously (“The Savior Not Made by Hands”), or were painted from life (the image of the Mother of God by the Evangelist Luke, the image of the first Christian saints by artists who personally knew and remembered their appearance). Therefore, the Orthodox Church never allowed the painting of icons from living people or from the imagination of the artist and demanded strict adherence to the iconographic canon, which reinforced those features of iconographic images that separated the “high” (divine) world from the “down” (earthly) world. The convention of writing was supposed to emphasize in the appearance of the persons depicted on the icon their unearthly essence and spirituality. For this purpose, the figures were painted flat and motionless, and a special system of depicting space (reverse perspective) and time relations (timeless image) was used. The conventional golden background of the icon symbolized divine light. The entire image on the icon is permeated with this light and the figures do not cast shadows, for there are no shadows in the Kingdom of God.

The flourishing of ancient Russian art is associated with the name of the greatest artist - Andrei Rublev, who was a monk of the Trinity-Sergius and Spaso-Andronikov monasteries. He participated in the painting of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, created the most beautiful manuscript with miniatures - the Khitrovo Gospel, painted the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir (the Last Judgment fresco), painted the iconostasis of the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. But even one, the only unique icon “Trinity” would be enough for the immortality of the name of Andrei Rublev.

The content of Andrei Rublev’s “Life-Giving Trinity” is divine life in endless mutual sacrificial love. The subject of the silent conversation of the three angels is God's eternal advice on the salvation of the world and man. The colors and lines of Rublev’s brush sound like strings or the voice of a singer. The strength of his work lies not only in the extraordinary talent of the artist and craftsman, but also in his special gift for visually revealing the content of Orthodox dogmas, the ability to capture the eternal beauty of the Divine Truth in unforgettable images.

So, church art is subordinated to a higher goal - to glorify the Christian God, the exploits of the apostles, saints, and church leaders. If in pagan art “flesh” triumphed over the “spirit” and affirmed everything earthly, personifying nature, then church art sang the victory of the “spirit” over the flesh, affirmed the high feats of the human soul for the sake of the moral principles of Christianity.

Religious fine art, including Christian painting, of course, was not limited to icon painting (although for quite a long time these concepts almost coincided). For many centuries, the Bible served as a source of subjects for all genres of fine art (painting, sculpture, decorative and applied arts, etc.). Great European masters often turned to the Gospel and found in it themes and plots that have an enduring universal meaning.

The image of Christ, his earthly path, full of trials and suffering, his sermons and, finally, death on the cross in the name of the salvation of mankind, the images of the Mother of God, Christian martyrs received timeless philosophical depth in works of art. In addition, using images of biblical heroes, artists talked to their contemporaries about the most important problems of its time.

For example, many Renaissance artists were attracted to biblical subjects and Christian motifs. For example, Michelangelo Buonarotti owned the painting of the vault of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and the statue of “Moses”, depicting the biblical Old Testament prophet who gave people the Ten Commandments. The Last Judgment fresco on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel is one of the greatest works of world art. Michelangelo also supervised the construction of St. Peter's - the main Catholic church in Rome.

At the same time, the Italian painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, and engineer Leonardo da Vinci was working with Michelangelo. “The Last Supper” - a fresco in the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan is one of the most famous works of the great painter. The entire work is built on the finest calculation: the figure of Christ - the logical center of the narrative - occupies the main place in the composition. The master placed Christ against the background of the window, thus separating him from the apostles. The apostles are depicted at the moment when Christ utters the words: “One of you will betray me.” Leonardo was the first to interpret a well-known religious theme as a universal one, relevant at all times - the exposure of betrayal.

The words of Christ, spoken in silence, evoke a storm of emotions among the disciples. Young Philip (to the left of Christ) reacts especially impulsively to the words, turning to the Teacher with a perplexed question. Jacob Sr. threw up his hands in indignation and leaned back a little. Thomas raised his hand up, as if trying to understand what was happening. The other group (to the right of Christ) is imbued with a different spirit. She is distinguished by restraint of gestures. Judas, in a sharp turn, convulsively clutches the purse of silver and looks at Christ with fear.

Another Italian painter and architect of this time, Raphael Santi, became famous for his images of the mother of Christ - the Virgin Mary, who in Catholicism is called the Madonna. One of the artist’s best works is the “Sistine Madonna,” which was intended for the monastery of St. Sixta. Before us is as if a wonderful vision had suddenly appeared in the heavens from behind a curtain pulled back by someone. Surrounded by a golden radiance, solemn and majestic, Mary walks through the clouds, holding the infant Christ in front of her. To the left and to the right are kneeling St. Sixtus and St. Varvara. In the image of Madonna, touching purity and innocence are combined with determination and heroic readiness to sacrifice.

Let us turn to Russian art of the 19th century, the “golden age” of Russian culture, and consider Nikolai Ge’s interpretation of the plot of “The Last Supper.” The painting was painted by the artist in 1863. It depicts a simply furnished room. Here Christ and his disciples gathered for their last meal. In the twilight of the room, Christ himself, John, Peter, Judas are clearly visible. Judas is opposed to everyone. The black deed of treason is embodied by his dark figure, illuminated from the back. Light unites a group of like-minded people. With this interpretation of the biblical story, Judas turns out to be not only the personification of evil, but also the antipode of light, goodness, and fidelity. United by light resist the idea of ​​evil, betrayal, and darkness.

The most important image of religious art is the image of Christ. Let us note that in Russian art of the New Age two directions emerged, each of which had its own specifics. The first direction is religious painting for church interiors. The second is secular painting based on gospel subjects. In Russian secular painting of the 19th century. The image of Christ was the embodiment of the highest morality, moral fortitude, and endless love for people. His self-sacrifice, loyalty, and devotion to the idea especially attracted artists. Christ was the personification of the moral problems that faced the Russian intelligentsia. As an example, we can name the paintings “The Appearance of Christ to the People” by A.A. Ivanova, “Christ in the Desert” by I.N. Kramskoy, “What is Truth”, “Calvary” and other paintings by N.N. Ge.

The artists' appeal to eternal themes, plots and images is perhaps a kind of search for a foothold in the modern world. Of course, this search is not necessarily carried out only in religious ideas, plots and forms. But this search, varied in style and imagery, is creatively fertilized by a religious principle. The sacred and secular are combined in it and constitute a significant layer of modern artistic culture.

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First the story

Early Christianity is a relative name. The period from the appearance of the first monuments of Christian art to the formation of barbarian kingdoms (approximately III-VI centuries) is also called by art historians “ancient Christian”, “Christian antiquity”, etc. This phenomenon is also very narrow geographically - it extends only to the territory of the Roman Empire. The peculiarity of the culture of these territories is that for them Antiquity is not a myth and not a distant model for reproduction, as for the rest of the Christian world, but a living, immediate past, ties with which have never been severed. Therefore, Italy stands apart in the history of art in Western Europe.

These three centuries were perhaps the most turbulent in the history of the Empire. Having celebrated the 1000th anniversary of the founding of Rome in 248, she managed to survive the famous “crisis of the 3rd century”, when for 50 years not a single emperor died a natural death, under Emperor Aurelian (270-275) she changed the social system - moved from principia to dominat (a form of autocratic rule, from the self-name of the emperor dominus - master), from the persecution of Christians under Diocletian (284-313) to the recognition of their official status under Constantine (313). In 330, the empire received a new eastern capital - Constantinople, which was to become the heir of Rome and maintain the status of the capital great Empire for more than a thousand years. In 394, the Roman Empire finally disintegrated - Theodosius the Great divided it between his two sons Arcadius and Honorius. Arcadius gets the eastern part, which is more advantageous from all points of view, Honorius gets the western part, constantly attacked by barbarians. Barbarian raids become more frequent; in 378, at Adrianople, the barbarians inflict a decisive defeat on Rome. The residence of the emperor was moved to the north-west, to Milan, by 340, and in 402 - to the east of the Apennine Peninsula, to Ravenna, surrounded by malarial swamps. Throughout the 5th century. Rome is threatened at least six times by barbarians - in 405, when the general Stilicho, the tutor of Honorius, manages to stop the Visigoths led by Radagais at Florence, in 410, when the Visigoth Alaric occupies Rome for the first time, despite the fact that only three years ago, the Romans paid a ruinous ransom, 5 years later Rome was sacked for the second time by its commander Ataulf. Among the captives is the sister of the emperors, Galla Placidia. In 450, the most terrible of the barbarians - the Huns, led by the “Scourge of God” - Attila, approached Rome. It is characteristic that it is not a representative of secular power who comes out to meet him, but the Pope, Leo the Great, who manages, by the power of eloquence and at the cost of a huge ransom, to stop the Huns under the walls of the city. When, 5 years later, the Vandals led by Geiseric approached Rome, Pope Leo again came out to meet them, but this time he only managed to limit the plunder of the city to two weeks and ensure that the Vandals did not touch the main churches of Rome.

In 476, the history of the Western Empire ends - the military leader Odoacer removes the last emperor - the young Romulus Augustulus (who, ironically, bears the names of the founder of Rome and the first emperor), but is not crowned himself (as any Praetorian would have done 150 years ago in his place), and sends signs of imperial power to Constantinople, to Emperor Zeno, with the words “there is one sun in the sky, one emperor on earth.” Ravenna was occupied by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric in 492 and made it the capital of his kingdom.

After this, the Eternal City was besieged and occupied several more times - in 536 by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, 5 years later by the Goth Witigis, and then by Totila, who took hostage and killed the entire Senate. This continues until the end of the 8th century, when Rome is already threatened by the Lombards, but the early Christian period for Western Europe ends, perhaps, with the arrival of the Byzantines in Italy. By the 6th century in Europe there are a number of already fully formed barbarian kingdoms.

This time was no less turbulent in the history of Christianity. Along with the East, Rome is involved in the fight against heresies and the search for a unified formula for the confession of a new faith. At the ecumenical councils in Nicaea, Ephesus and Chalcedon, the heresies of Arianism (326), Nestorianism (432), Monophysitism (451) were condemned, primarily concerning the dual unity of the human and divine natures in Christ and the issues of the relationship of the persons of the Divine in the Trinity. However, Western Christians are not as sensitive to issues of heresy and are not as committed to theological subtleties as Eastern ones, and the main problem of the West is the widespread spread of Arianism - a doctrine that affirms primarily the human nature of the Savior, without the fullness of the Divinity - He is recognized as a perfect Man, on whom The moment of Baptism the Holy Spirit descends. Christ, from being “of one essence” to the Father, is recognized as “similar in essence” (in the Greek words “omousios” and “omoyousios” only one letter does not match - iota, hence the expression “not to change one iota”). Empress Helena herself and her son Emperor Constantine, although they patronized the holding of councils (Constantine personally greeted the confessor-bishops who arrived at the Council of Nicaea with a kiss of peace), did not remain indifferent to this temptation, and naturally, the vast majority of barbarian tribes accepted Arianism at baptism , more accessible and understandable to them.

And now about art

The dates of the beginning of the Middle Ages for historians and for art historians do not coincide. Historians believe that the Middle Ages began with the Edict of Milan - the official recognition of Christianity as one of the religions of the Empire in 313 under Emperor Constantine. Tradition says that the sudden conversion of the emperor is the result of a miraculous vision, after which he commands that the initials of Christ (the so-called chrisma - xr) be inscribed as an “alexeme” (gr. “protection”, “talisman”) on military banners and shields of legionnaires , legalizes Christianity, but he himself is baptized only 25 years later, on his deathbed. However first Christian images appear a century earlier, at the beginning of the 3rd century (a hundred years ago, researchers believed that even in the middle of the 1st century). Thus, Christian art is experiencing the so-called. the “catacomb” period, extending from approximately 200 to 350, when Christians did not have their own large-scale architecture, monumental sculpture and painting, and the range of monuments was limited, in fact, to tomb decorations and decorative arts. The beginning of the Catacomb period was a time of sharp protest by the Church against any images within its walls; its end was marked by recognition of their necessity and reflection on what they should be.

Second period of early Christianity- approximately from 350 to 600 - time from its final approval as the only religion empire (except for the four-year reign of Julian the Apostate in the 360s), the time of the appearance of real Christian church architecture, monumental painting, decorating it - primarily frescoes and mosaics. The main problem of this period was the search for models for buildings and pictorial compositions. For both, examples are found in Roman art and architecture - both the early Christian basilicas and the first mosaics depicting Christ and saints borrow the most common type of public building in Rome and the typology of the imperial portrait. Long narrative series, such as the reliefs of Trajan's Column or the illuminated manuscripts of the Aeneid and Iliad, become prototypes for Old and New Testament cycles of mosaics, frescoes or miniatures.

The dying Empire leaves its heirs in the West - the barbarian kingdoms - a huge layer of information - not only the entire corpus of ancient science, not only the formulas of the Christian faith forged in painful disputes, but also a myriad of visual images and their meanings, which the barbarians will have to comprehend and enrich their language with. of his young art.

Catacomb art

The “Catacomb” period of early Christianity was the time of its illegal existence, when periods of persecution were followed by periods of relative loyalty to it, but Christianity did not have the status of an official religion. What happened during these three “illegal” centuries with Christian art?

For a long time it was generally accepted that the first Christian images date back to the middle of the 1st century AD, i.e. during the stay of the Apostle Peter in Rome. However, by now the opinion has been established that they appear around the year 200. Where - in what places and under what circumstances - could Christian painting and sculpture develop? We know, firstly, that during this period there is practically no special Christian architecture - the first Christians held their “meals of love” in private premises purchased or provided for this by wealthy members of the community (such as the “house-church” in a small Parthian town Dura-Europos, mansion on the Esquiline in Rome: a specially built temple-aedicule on the site of Peter’s grave is only the exception that confirms the rule. Secondly, the attitude of the first Christian authors to any kind of decoration is not just cautious (which would be natural given the constant threat of idolatry in the midst of pagan Rome), but clearly negative. They are against any images in the homes and places of meeting of Christians. However, the very persistence and categorical nature of these prohibitions suggests that such images existed. The Christians of Rome automatically used their familiar language of painting to convey new truths, just as they used their native Latin, giving familiar words (amor, caritas, virtus - love, mercy, virtue) a new, Christian meaning. The pagan painting of Rome was, first of all, decoration - the floor or wall of a villa, a private house - the Christian world rejected this side of it. The first monuments of Christian art that have come down to us were not the decorations of meeting houses, but frescoes and marble reliefs intended for tombs. It is a mistake to think that the first Christians invented the catacombs (a word from Greek meaning “near a breach” or “near a depression”) - tombs carved into soft rock - tufa - outside the city walls of Rome. This type of burial was widely used among people of average income in pagan Rome; pagan and Christian tombs often coexist in the catacombs (for example, on Via Latina), just as in the 3rd century a pagan and a Christian could well be members of the same family. True, in the Christian catacombs, instead of the popular ones in ancient world loculi - niches for urns - arcosolia - niches for sarcophagi, or cubiculi (square vaulted halls with sarcophagi in the middle, illuminated through light wells - lucernaria) became more widespread. This is due to the gradual abandonment of cremation among Christians professing the doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh. Stylistically between pagan and Christian frescoes have much in common, perhaps they were often made by the same master.Compared with Pompeii painting, with the secular “ground” painting that decorated homes, these are rustic, careless, often almost unprofessional sketches.

However, what they have in common with the masterpieces of Roman painting is a commonality of manner - lightness of outline, ineradicable memory of the laws of human anatomy, freedom of posture, gesture, and rotation of the figure. The difference between the pagan and Christian layers of monuments is primarily in the themes. Popular among pagans are stories that either represent death as a sweet eternal sleep (Selene and Endymion) or glorify courage in facing it (The Suicide of Cleopatra). It is clear that such topics are clearly contrary to the Christian view of death. There is, however, a plot that Christians were able to borrow from the pagans - Hercules leading Alcesta, the wife of King Admetus, from Hades, Hercules the conqueror of death ( Via Latina ). In fact, the connection between ancient Roman and young Christian culture is more serious and deeper - borrowing occurs not at the level of a specific plot, but at the level of an image-symbol or sign. This is how the most popular of the catacomb subjects - the Good Shepherd - comes into the repertoire of Christian art (it is surprising that it appears not as a seemingly obvious illustration of the Gospel parable, but as a symbol of humanitas - humanity, long known in the ancient world) (Moschophorus). Orants figures come the same way - images of the dead themselves or biblical characters standing before God with raised hands. This posture is a typical outward form of piety in Ancient Rome. In turn, Christ with the apostles is depicted in the same way as Aristotle and his disciples have long been depicted. Christians brought into the catacombs symbols and signs of their own invention - a vine, which from a Roman decorative motif became the most capacious and significant of symbols of this kind - a symbol of the sacrificial blood of Christ and communion, a cross, a fish (ixtus - an anagram of the words “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Savior"), an anchor - a symbol of hope, etc. Already from this list it is clear that the similarity of style and even themes does not negate the revolution that took place at the level of the meaning of the image - from now on, “any picture” is no longer a decoration of the room, but, first of all, , bearer of meaning.

The art of Christian catacombs sets itself a new task, unknown to antiquity - choosing from a huge range of new subjects - the Old and New Testaments - the most revealing and suitable. The traditional idea of ​​history as a circle must be replaced by a linear picture of the world, where history has a beginning, an end and a culmination - the Resurrection. Therefore, the first “narrative cycles” in the catacombs consist of only two scenes - the Fall and the Adoration of the Magi or the Fall and Baptism. These are a kind of marks on the coordinate axis - the beginning of the history of fallen humanity and the beginning of the Redemption (the birth of the Savior or the beginning of His earthly ministry). The painting of the catacombs is a set of such culminating scenes that speak of the miraculous salvation of the righteous - Old and New Testament prototypes of the coming resurrection. These examples were selected based on the text of the funeral prayer of St. Cyprian of Antioch (which, in turn, goes back to the Jewish prayer): “Save, Lord, his soul, as You saved Jonah from the belly of the whale, three young men from the fiery furnace, Daniel from the lion’s den, Susanna from the hands of the elders... and I ask You ,...who opened the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf, who healed the paralytic, who raised Lazarus..." Jonah, Three Youths, Daniel, Miracles of Christ are the most popular subjects of catacomb frescoes. Each scene is presented "shorthand" - with a minimum number of characters and details. The catacomb fresco does not retell the event, but conveys its essence - for example, in the scene of the Healing of the bleeding wife from the catacombs of Peter and Marcellinus, only two are represented - Christ and a woman, while according to the Gospel text of this miracle, the author of the fresco combines two different moments - the touch of a woman clothes of Christ and their dialogue. So, catacomb art moves away from decorativeness, the desire for effects, and fidelity to nature, in order to become a means of conveying the hidden meaning of events. It reflects that aspect of Christianity that was clearly incomprehensible to the world of Antiquity, which sought obvious beauty and clarity in everything - “the certainty of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

The catacombs were active cemeteries until the 5th century, but continued to be revered as the burial place of early Christian saints until the sack of Rome and its cemeteries by the Lombards in the 8th century. By the 7th century There was even a kind of guide to the catacombs for pilgrims. At the beginning of the 9th century. the remains of the martyrs were transferred to the crypts of Roman churches.

Architecture

Early Christian architecture

Where did the first Christians worship? What were the first temples like? These two questions refer to completely different subjects and periods. The first services - first agapes - meals of love, then liturgies - were held in the so-called. “church houses” or “titles” - premises purchased by the community or donated by its wealthy members. This is the miraculously preserved “house of prayer” in the small fortress of Dura Europos on the Parthian border, combining the functions of a church and a baptismal shrine. Most often, divine services take place in private homes, in rooms specially adapted for this purpose, where a mensa is installed - a liturgical table - and a bishop's chair is placed, because the service during this period could only be performed by the bishop or in his presence. Small baths were often turned into churches - for example, the home baths in the house of Senator Pudentius were turned into a church, called Santa Pudenziana .

The first buildings specially erected by Christians - not yet temples, but a kind of monuments, called “martyriums” - “testimonies” - mark places significant for Christians. Thus, services were performed in the catacombs on the tombs of saints. Terrestrial martyria appear from the 2nd-3rd centuries. at the place of execution, burial or glorification of a saint. They were surrounded by a fence or marked by a small chapel. This is the “trophy of Guy” of the 2nd century. - a small two-columned canopy-aedicule over the supposed tomb of the Apostle Peter, which later became part of the Constantinian building. The word "trophy" is a military term meaning "badge of victory" - the Roman army often left a cruciform structure at the site of a battle, decorated with the armor and weapons of the enemy. The Christian “trophy” was erected next to the circus, in which Guy, one of the first Roman bishops, once suffered martyrdom.

With the legalization of Christianity in 313, the question of church construction arose. There are already buildings for parish services, and the so-called ones are being built. “station” churches intended for the gathering of the entire community of Rome on holidays. These were large-scale buildings designed for several thousand people. The model for them was Roman basilicas (from the Greek word “basileus” - king) - secular buildings - reception halls or courtrooms, ending in a semicircular protrusion - an apse, inside which stood the imperial throne or the tribunal and there was an image of the emperor - the guarantor of the validity of the decision made by the court . The latest of the secular basilicas of Rome - Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine (306-312) in the forum, a building with two apses, in one of which stood a 15-meter statue of the emperor (nowadays its ruins are stored in the courtyard of the Capitoline Museum). The early Christian basilica retains the typology of the Roman one, but is covered with rafters, not vaults (vaults are too expensive and complex a technique for Rome in the 4th-6th centuries), and is divided into longitudinal “corridors” - naves - by rows of columns, taken, as a rule, from destroyed pagan buildings. The central nave was wider and higher than the side ones (there could be 3 or 5 of them, less often 1), and in the upper part there were windows that illuminated the entire building. The apse, where the altar was now located, was separated from the naves by a transverse sleeve - a transept - and a triumphal arch. As a rule, the wall between the colonnade and the windows, the apse and the triumphal arch were decorated with frescoes or mosaics. The basilica building was preceded by a church yard with a colonnade - the atrium, and a kind of vestibule - the narthex, intended for the catechumens - those preparing for baptism (and preparation often lasted for more than one year) and those who were repentant and therefore were temporarily excommunicated from communion. Both of them could be present only during the first part of the liturgy - the Liturgy of the Catechumens, after which they were supposed to, with the deacon’s exclamation, “Doors, doors!” leave the church building (hence the expression “running like a catechumen”). The altar apse in Constantinian buildings faces west, following the model of Solomon's Temple, where the sanctuary was in the west and the porch in the east, so that the high priest, going out onto the porch for morning prayer, would face the rising sun. However, already in the 5th century. the apses are oriented to the east, the traditionally revered sacred side of the world.

Constantine simultaneously begins the construction of martyrium basilicas in the Holy Land (at the site of the Holy Sepulcher, in Bethlehem, Nazareth, Gethsemane, etc.) and in Rome. The first basilica built in Rome and for a long time which had the status of a cathedral - Lateran (313-319). Constantine, not yet a Christian himself, deliberately built it not in the center of the city, near the Forum with its pagan shrines, but on the outskirts, almost at the very city wall, near the mansion of the Lateran family, turned into an episcopal palace, and the former praetorian barracks. Thus, this construction could, without irritating the pagan Senate and dignitaries, have the status of a personal gift to the Christians of Rome from the emperor as a private person. It was extensively rebuilt in 1657 by Carlo Borromini, and we can restore its previous appearance only from a fresco of 1651. Next to the basilica, a baptistery - baptistery - is being built - an octagonal building with an octagonal font inside. Baptism in those days was performed only on adults, after long preparation, only on Easter night and only in the Lateran Baptistery.

Under Constantine, two main martyrium basilicas were erected in Rome - basilica of st. Petra (320-329) on the site of his supposed tomb, marked by a 2nd century building, and basilica of st. Pavel outside the walls (rebuilt under Theodosius in 386-402). Basilica of St. Thanks to the popular veneration of the tomb of the apostle, Peter will have to “take away” the status of a cathedral from the Lateran. By the first half of the 5th century. are small Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill, decorated inside with the so-called. “Opus Sectile” - elegant marble inlay from the fragments of columns of pagan buildings, and the first church dedicated to Our Lady - Santa Maria Maggiore on the Esquiline , founded during the reign of Pope Liberia after a miraculous snowfall in August 352. It contains the manger of the Nativity brought by Helen from Bethlehem. By the 5th century "station" - festive services with the participation of the entire city community - are distributed among at least 20 churches in Rome, which shows us the density of its church buildings. Christmas is celebrated in the Basilica of St. Peter, Easter in the Lateran, Assumption in Santa Maria Maggiore, etc.

Basilicas and baptisteries were also built in other cities of the Western Roman Empire. At the Emperor's residence

from the 5th century - Ravenna - two octagonal baptisteries are being built in succession - the so-called. " Orthodox Baptistery " 450 (with the same success it can be called “Catholic”) and, in contrast to it, “ Arian Baptistery » 500, built by the Ostrogoth king Theodoric, who professed Arianism (see Introduction). By the first half of the 6th century. There are also two basilicas of St. Apollinaria in Ravenna - Sant'Apollinare Nuovo , built under Theodoric, and Sant'Apollinare in Classe (in the harbor), built already under the Byzantines. They differ from the Roman ones, first of all, in that the columns separating the naves are no longer ancient, but were made in the same 6th century. - they lost all the characteristic features of the classical order, became thinner, lighter, acquired simple trapezoidal capitals and special cushion-imposts, further emphasizing the fragility of the trunk.

Another problem with early Christian buildings is the use of mausoleums for church purposes. Mausoleum-rotunda of Constantine ( ) - sisters of Emperor Constantine - built around 330 on the Nomentan road - began to be used as a church building, and the sarcophagus

the deceased was moved from the space under the dome to a niche opposite the entrance, and a throne was placed under the dome. However, worship in a round building is complicated by the fact that with this position of the throne, the congregation stands not in front of, but around the altar, which violates the already accepted “west-east” hierarchy. Another mausoleum - the sisters of the emperors Arcadius and Honorius, who divided the Empire between themselves in 395 - Gauls of Placidia - is located in Ravenna. This cruciform domed building (here the dome, as in the baptisteries and mausoleum of Santa Costanza, is not visible from the outside, but is hidden under a 4 or 8 pitched roof), decorated with exceptional quality mosaics of the first quarter of the 5th century, did not, however, become a church. Now she is in the yard churches

San Vitale in Ravenna , consecrated in 547, after the capture of the city by the Byzantine emperor Justinian. San Vitale is a kind of double octahedron (plan), where, unlike all other centric buildings, a special place appears, separating the apse from the under-dome space - the so-called. presbytery - the place of the presbyter, where the altar is located, and the place under the dome, surrounded by through airy two-tiered exedra, is freed up for the flock. Interior of San Vitale - classic example Byzantine “anti-tectonics” - a masterly disguise of the structure, thanks to which it seems that the high spacious dome is supported not by powerful triangular pillars, but by thin columns of exedra. A similar technique was used in the almost contemporary San Vitale building of Constantinople - the famous Hagia Sophia.

So, by the 6th century, the Eastern and Western architectural traditions had already diverged enough to make it obvious that by the time of Justinian’s conquest in early Christian Italy, the basilica had become the usual type of church building, and the West would finally choose this option until the end of the Middle Ages. Centric buildings in the West would rather be the exception, while for Byzantium the basilica would be the exception and the centric building the rule.

In the process of filling.

Sculpture

Early Christian sculpture 200-350

We will not find any monumental statues or large-scale reliefs among the monuments of Christian sculpture of this period - there was simply no place for them in small church houses and cramped chambers of tombs. However, we must not forget that in parallel with Christian art at this time there was also real monumental pagan art - first of all, the imperial portrait, gradually losing the features of a concrete human face and turning into a mask, a sign of power, an abstract bearer of a sacred function. The pagan and Christian layers in sculpture at this time almost did not overlap, with the exception of those cases when emperors, who were tolerant of Christians, included Christian images in their lararia - home sanctuaries. Alexander Sever was the first to do this. Gallienus' treasure, along with a portrait of the emperor himself, includes alabaster figurines: Jonah disgorged by a whale and the Good Shepherd.

The most common type of Christian sculpture - as in painting, of a funerary nature - is the relief of sarcophagi. The tradition of burying the dead in stone sarcophagi persisted until the 6th-7th centuries. and was only partially replaced by burials under the floor of the church. The front wall and ends of the sarcophagi, which could be rectangular or oval in plan, were decorated. A medallion with a portrait of the deceased was often placed in the center (there are examples of sarcophagi prepared “for future use” with empty medallions in the center). The reliefs could be frieze-like, but we will not find here the usual Roman unity of time, place and action: instead of a traditional battle ( Ludovisi sarcophagus ) or bacchanalian procession. Before us is a series of completely different-time events that form a program that generally repeats the meaning of the catacomb painting. Here is an example of such a series: Expulsion from Paradise - miracle at Cana - healing of a blind man - resurrection

Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus

Lazarus, from the beginning of the path of sinful humanity to the prototype of the Resurrection of Christ and the general resurrection. The most complex in composition and perfect in execution can be called sarcophagus of Junius Bassus , city prefect of Rome, found during the reconstruction of the Basilica of St. Peter under the altar in the first years of the 17th century. In 10 elegantly framed architectural cells there are scenes of miraculous salvations (Abraham and Isaac, Job, Daniel) known to us from the painting of the catacombs, the Passion and the Transmission of the Law to the Apostles - an image of a young beardless Christ handing over the scrolls with the New Testament to Peter and Paul. This image of the young Christ was called Emmanuel (according to Isaiah’s prophecy about the Virgin who was to give birth to the Child, who would be called this name, meaning “God with us”). However, the Roman Christians probably proceeded not from the ancient prophecy, but from their own criteria of beauty - Christ the perfect Man in their eyes was a blooming ephebe youth, the bearer of “ideal appearance” in their minds. Under the feet of the Savior is an old man with a cloth stretched over his head - this is an image of the Cosmos, the universe that is about to hear the Good News. The tradition of placing a figure in an architectural cell is also Roman (remember that there was a statue in each arch of the Colosseum). Sarcophagi could contain only symbolic images - such are the sarcophagi with chrisms, which naturally appeared after 313. On one of these sarcophagi, a medallion with chrism is carried by angels, repeating the popular theme of the Roman triumphal arch - flying goddesses of victory - victoria, carrying a crown with a portrait of the emperor . By the V-VI centuries. more appear simple circuits- birds at the source of life, lambs and a cross, etc.

In addition to sarcophagi and figurines, there were many monuments of small forms - primarily ivory reliefs. These are consular diptychs (a kind of “certificate” of the consul taking office), where there are images of pagan deities ( Nicomachean diptych ) or the emperor on the throne with two consuls behind him is replaced by Christ on the throne, behind whom are the apostles Peter and Paul. No less popular are folding tablets (diptychs) with Gospel scenes - for example, Milanese diptych with Christ , not ascending, but ascending from the Mount of Olives onto a cloud, where the Right Hand of the Father pulls him with force. Things of the 4th century differ from later ones in the very high quality of carving and the ancient liveliness of figures and scenes. These are reliefs from the Brescia Stavroteca - reliquary boxes, covered on five sides with reliefs of exceptional diversity - both the portrait genre is represented here (images in medallions of Christ and the apostles), and a kind of “still life” - a fish-sign of Christ, reminiscent of Roman “kitchen” still lifes, and the story of Jonah, Susanna , Passions, etc. Such works show us that the era of total significance of any image has come. A hundred years ago, Tertullian considered every “picture or picture” an idol; now, in any case, both in monumental and in the most intimate and insignificant things, it is the bearer of the most serious meaning.

Monumental painting

Monumental painting of early Christianity

There is no clear answer to the question of what the decoration of a Christian church should be like by the time the first Christian buildings appeared. We know that throughout the 4th century. a serious change is made in the attitude towards images - from a restrained recognition of their right to exist (Eusebius to Constance in response to a request to send an icon of the Savior: “Which icon of Christ are you looking for - true and unchangeable, or His nature, which He accepted for our sake, as clothes of a slavish appearance? The contemplation of the first is impossible to bear, and the second is not worth writing."(Mango, C., The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 312-1453 (Sources and Documents) New Jersey 1972 p.20)

Eusebius of Caesarea on the first images:

“In the Palestinian city of Paneas there is a sculpture depicting Christ and the Bleeding Woman, erected, according to legend, by the bleeding wife herself and subsequently destroyed by Julian the Apostate. In reality, we are probably talking about the statue of Hadrian with the personification of Judea at his feet or the Greek god of medicine Asclepius with his daughter Panacea: “they say that this statue is a portrait (eikona) of Jesus, and it is not strange that the pagans even in old times, when The Savior was their benefactor, they did similar things, for we also learned that the appearance of Peter, Paul and Christ Himself was preserved in painting (tas eikonas). The ancients seem to have had the custom, as is customary among the pagans, to give such honors to all those whom they revered as liberators,” before thinking about what exactly and in what order should be depicted in the church. The temple decor was, apparently, primarily picturesque; sculpture, especially monumental, immediately became very unpopular in the church - both because of its resemblance to pagan idols and because of its high cost (in Ravenna and Northern Italy only small stucco reliefs are found ). The only example of a large-scale sculptural ensemble is the so-called. Lateran fastigium - an altar barrier with wooden silver-plated statues of the apostles, destroyed already in 410 during the capture of Rome by Alaric. Traditional Roman painting techniques - mosaics and frescoes - by the middle of the 4th century became almost a mandatory part of any church interior.

What exactly and how should be depicted in the temple? The Roman painting tradition was primarily decorative, and even enlightened Christians for a long time believed that it was appropriate to depict in a church approximately the same thing as on the walls of, for example, a country villa - flowers, fruits, scenes of the grape harvest, birds, etc. These are mosaics of the vaults of the mausoleum of Santa Costanza middle of the 4th century However, they can also be interpreted in the spirit of Christian symbolism - the vine surrounding the portrait of the deceased can be equally a symbol of the blood of Christ, and a simple decorative motif, the same with birds, fruits and green branches - potential symbols of the Garden of Eden.

The first truly meaningful images in churches must immediately be consistent with the concept of church space as a hierarchy of places. Since the era of Constantine, the decoration of the basilica

Three zones of painting are distinguished: the apse, the triumphal arch and the middle zone of the wall of the main nave - between the tiers of supports and windows. The most significant places - architecturally and symbolically - are the dome (where it exists) - the image of heaven - and the apse - the place where the sacraments of the Eucharist are performed. The earliest domed compositions - the unpreserved frescoes of the Lateran Baptistery and the dome of Santa Costanza - are still almost ornamental, with small scenes from Scripture framed by floral decorations; the apse of the Lateran Baptistery is also occupied by acanthus curls, but very quickly the so-called domes and apses are fixed. theophanies (Epiphanies) - dogmatic scenes in which Christ reveals His divine nature. It is clear that such images should not be constructed arbitrarily, but on the basis of some schemes consecrated by tradition. Christ in these scenes is depicted as the emperor was traditionally depicted - the place and

the outer frames of the most significant images of the interior of the Roman basilica are preserved intact, receiving new content in the interior of the Christian temple. These are the first apse compositions in Santa Costanza - , where Christ is depicted in the pose of an emperor addressing the people with a speech, and , where Christ is depicted seated on the sphere of the world. This image corresponds to one of the titles of the Roman emperor - Cosmocrator. The light range, the subtlety of color nuances, white backgrounds, the absence of outline - everything in the style of these mosaics speaks of the still-uneradicated principles of Roman decorative mosaics, designed for good lighting, a flat surface and viewing at close range. Placed on a dimly lit, concave surface, they lose greatly. Over the next 200 years, mosaics would undergo major stylistic changes in order to adapt to the new position in the interior and the nature of lighting.

Mosaics of both domes Baptistery in Ravenna (Arian Baptistery and Orthodox Baptistery) (450 and 500), represent scenes of the Baptism of Jesus (Epiphany, according to the second name of the holiday) in central medallions surrounded by images of the procession of the apostles (and in the Orthodox Baptistery - another outer ring depicting the twelve apostolic thrones ). Jesus is presented completely naked, in accordance with ancient ideas about heroic nudity, on the shore is John pouring water on Him, and in the river is the personification of Jordan, a river god with a head decorated with a crown of crab claws.

A remarkable example of a completely preserved program is given to us by mosaic decoration of the small mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna (second quarter of the 5th century). This building was part of the ensemble of the palace church of the Holy Cross and was apparently dedicated to the martyr Lawrence. This was the tomb of Galla herself, the daughter of Theodosius the Great and sister of Arcadius and Honorius, and her son. The mosaics were made by Constantinople masters, brought to Ravenna by Galla Placidia. They are maintained in the best traditions of ancient painting, with big amount tones, an exquisite range built on a combination of cold blue and pale scarlet, masterfully conveyed in a complex mosaic technique with depth

spaces (even in ornamental frames!) and colored shadows. The ensemble's program is based on allegorical images of Christ (the last echo of the catacomb frescoes) - in the dome it is a cross against the background of a starry sky surrounded by a tetramorph, in the lunette above the entrance - the Good Shepherd among his sheep in a rocky Greek landscape - the same as a shepherd could be depicted on Hellenistic reliefs 3-2 centuries BC, and only the cross-shaped staff and halo indicate His divinity. Opposite the entrance is the scene of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence, walking towards the red-hot grate with a cross and the Gospel - also symbols of Christ. This scene is an example of the rare coexistence of a completely medieval convention of composition and still completely ancient persuasiveness in the execution of every detail. It is clear that the scene of the execution of Lawrence took place completely differently, before us is not a report, but a symbol, but every fold of clothing, the free, almost ballet step of the martyr, the shadows of the flames dancing along the blue wall, the neat cabinet with the four books of the Gospels - all these are carriers features of living ancient illusionism. In the side lunettes, Christ is personified by images of a source of living water, to which doves and deer are approaching - symbols of righteous souls - and by windows - sources of light, symbolizing the Light of Christ. It is to these windows that Peter and Paul are depicted four times.

Galla Placidia Martyrdom of St. Lawrence

But, of course, the most common compositions with dogmatic content are found in the apses, the main liturgical area of ​​the basilica. Unfortunately, the mosaics of the apses of the Constantinian basilicas in Rome, especially St. Peter and St. Paul outside the walls. About apse mosaics of the late 4th-5th centuries. we can judge only from the church of Santa Pudenziana in Rome and from two poorly preserved apse mosaics in the Milan church of San Aquilino.

Santa Pudenziana , a small basilica, which, according to legend, grew out of the chamber of the baths in the house of the Roman senator Pudentius, is decorated with beautiful quality mosaics depicting Christ and the apostles in the Heavenly Jerusalem. Along with the high quality of painting (a variety of types of appearance, poses, gestures, rich

palette, subtly conveyed light and shadow effects, convincing alternation of plans) a plurality of meanings also appears here, requiring a consistent reading of the image as a text, which was impossible and unnecessary in Roman pagan painting. The lower tier of the mosaic - completely “portrait” images of the apostles and Christ, as well as two women crowning Peter and Paul - they are sometimes called Mary and Martha, and sometimes - personifications of the Church and the Synagogue - is given to the first, “historical” meaning of the composition - in front of us, probably the upper room of the Last Supper, because behind the walls of the courtyard is a panorama of Jerusalem as it was in the time of Constantine, with the rotunda of the Church of the Resurrection, the colonnaded street and other attractions. However, one tier higher we see Calvary Hill with a standing

on it with a golden cross. This immediately takes us beyond the “literal” meaning, because Before us is not just the cross of the Crucifixion, but also a monument - this is the golden cross with gems that Empress Helena placed on Calvary at the beginning of the 4th century. Four huge animal figures of an apocalyptic vision are flying towards this cross across the sky, covered with multi-colored, pearly dawn and sunset clouds - an eagle, a calf, a lion and an angel, which later became symbols of the 4 evangelists. Thus, the first plot - the Last Supper - is placed next to the vision of the Apocalypse, and automatically “moves” in our consciousness from earthly Jerusalem to heavenly, also described in the Revelation of John. Christ turns from a Teacher into a Judge, and the Calvary cross above His head is a direct indication that the One who was crucified on the cross will sit on the throne of the Judge. Such a gradual multiplication of the meanings of an event - characteristic the theological thought of the era, which, starting from Origen and ending with Augustine, is built on the conviction that every event of Sacred History has not one, but two, or even four meanings. Gradually, by the 8th-9th centuries, the theory of the 4 meanings of Holy Scripture took shape.

The mosaics of Santa Pudenziana remain the most complex and perfect in terms of both style and iconography of the surviving early apse compositions. Later, in the 5th-6th centuries, the apses will be decorated mainly with images of Christ with those coming - this is mosaic c. St. Cosmas and Damian in the Roman Forum (526-530), rebuilt from the reception hall of the Roman city prefect. Against a deep blue background, colored by bright sunset clouds, Christ is presented in the pose of an emperor addressing the army. He is depicted high above the earth, and one can say with equal confidence that this is Christ ascending or Christ of the Second Coming. On both sides of Him are the apostles Peter and Paul in white robes, leading the saints to him. doctors Cosmas and Damian, bearing martyr's crowns. In the corners of the apse are depicted St. Theodore and the founder of the church, Pope Felix IV. Thus, a kind of hierarchy is built from the center to the periphery, depending on the significance of the images. In the lower register the same theme is presented, but allegorically - a string of lambs is directed from both sides to the Lamb standing on a stone from which four rivers of paradise flow - Christ. The composition became simpler, the colors sharper, the contours more rigid, the faces similar, belonging to the general oriental type, the meaning simpler and more distinct.

For the middle of the 6th century. Another important topic is the already very significant divergence of the paths of East and West, which is evident from a comparison of two mosaics of the same time - the mid-6th century. and on the same plot - Transfiguration. One of them is in the monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai, the other in the center. WITHant Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna. If in the first, Byzantine, the only important thing for the author is the human figure - it presents only 6 figures in white on a golden background - an exquisite combination inaccessible to later mosaics - then in the second, Western, the same theme is presented as a kind of riddle, a rebus - in bright - against the green background of a low, “toy” garden of evergreens, Christ is depicted as a sphere with a cross, the apostles as lambs lost among the trees, and only Moses and Elijah are the most “unreal” of all the characters - and St. Apollinaris in the orant pose is depicted by people. At this time, the sacred significance of human appearance for Eastern Christian culture and the symbolic, instructive function of art for Western culture are already clearly visible.

If dogmatic scenes are placed in the apses, then the painting of the nave and triumphal arch is predominantly narrative. The Romans had experience with monumental narrative cycles - these are, first of all, the reliefs of Trajan's Column, telling the story of the emperor's campaign against the Dacians. Around 400, Emperor Arcadius erected similar columns in Constantinople. The first surviving Christian cycle of this kind is a pictorial one. This mosaics of the nave of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (430-440) - a series of panels that show only a small part of the Old Testament history - scenes from the life of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,

Joseph, Moses, Joshua. The narrative is built on the principle not of history, as on the continuous strip of relief of Trajan's Column, but of several biographies, of which the most detailed is that of Moses. In the scene of the adoption of Moses by the daughter of the pharaoh, a scheme is used to depict the court reception of the empress - the daughter of the pharaoh herself and the court ladies are dressed in 5th century fashion, and the 3-month-old baby Moses is presented as at least 10 years old. One of the most famous scenes is the Hospitality of Abraham, where within the same composition Abraham is depicted three times - meeting the angels, giving orders to Sarah regarding the treat, and then, looking over his own shoulder, treating the angels. The mosaics are made in a very free, contourless, rich manner, with a predominance of a bright (although sometimes already golden) color spot, with rather subtle color shades, although the height at which they are located does not allow the viewer to fully appreciate them.

Mosaics of the triumphal arch c. Santa Maria Maggiore were made at the same time, but by a different team, in a somewhat more ceremonial, solemn manner, corresponding, however, to their place. If the nave is given over to Old Testament scenes, then on the triumphal arch are placed New Testament scenes, which relate exclusively to the period before the birth of Christ and His early childhood - from the Annunciation to the Massacre of the Innocents. Scenes of the Adoration of the Magi, the Annunciation and others are given with a special emphasis on the royalty of the Mother of God and the Child - they are depicted in royal robes, on thrones, and the apocryphal story of the fall of idols from the walls of the Egyptian city of Iliopolis as St. approaches it is also drawn in. families. This choice, strange at first glance, is explained by the fact that painting here begins to play a role that was previously unusual for it - the role of argument in a theological dispute. The fact is that the mosaics were created shortly after the Council of Ephesus in 431-432, which condemned the heresy of Nestorius, which disputed the Motherhood of Mary, and argued that “it is absurd to worship a two-month-old Deity” or “to say that God fed on his mother’s milk.” It is this Child, whose worship is approved by the cathedral, that is depicted in the mosaics of the triumphal arch, emphasizing the royal dignity of Him and His Mother. Below, at the heels of the arch, two main cities are depicted in the form of small Roman fortified castrum camps gospel history- Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

The two dead, known only from watercolors from the 17th century in the pictorial cycle of the basilicas of San Pietro and San Paolo Fuori le Mura, date back to the time of Pope Leo the Great (440-461). In them, one side of the nave is already occupied by Old Testament scenes, and the other by New Testament scenes, but there are no direct pairs yet. Unfortunately, both

cycle are known from incomplete copies of the 16th-17th centuries, and we can only assume that on the middle cross opposite the Crucifixion there was a Copper Serpent - a parallel proposed by Tertullian. The theme of “types” in the Old Testament already appears quite clearly at the beginning of the 5th century. in the treatises of Bl. Augustine, who, for example, compares the story of Jonah, swallowed by a whale, with the three-day death and resurrection of Christ, the story of Joseph the Beautiful, sold by his brothers and subsequently exalted - with the story of the betrayal, death and resurrection of the Savior, etc. For the first time, direct pairs of plots appear in mid. 5th century V reliefs of wooden doors c. Santa Sabina in Rome , where the panel with the miracles of Moses was apparently placed next to the miracles

Christ, and the Ascension of Elijah, who used the composition of the apotheosis of the Roman emperor, corresponds to the Ascension of Christ. All R. 6th century V reliefs of the throne of Bishop Maximian of Ravenna the story of Joseph and the Passion of Christ will also be contrasted with each other. This is how a linear perception of history is born, very different from the ancient cyclical one, and main point on this straight line becomes the Incarnation, which casts numerous shadows - “prototypes” into the past - Jonah, Joseph, the Bronze Serpent, etc.

In Ravenna in the 530s, under the Ostrogothic king Theodoric, it was decorated with mosaics nave of the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo . Initially she was

Arian, after the arrival of the Byzantines it was rededicated to Martin of Tours, “the hammer of heretics” (and only in the 9th century to St. Apollinaris). The middle zone of the wall of the main nave is decorated with two processions - martyrs on the right and martyrs on the left. These are rather uniformly interpreted figures, whose faces and gestures are unified - they all bear their crowns (signs of martyrdom) to Christ on their covered hands, the golden background conceals the volume, piercing the clothes of the martyrs, and they can be distinguished from each other only by the inscriptions, and sometimes by attributes (the little lamb of St. Agnes, and the purple cloak of St. Martin leading the procession of martyrs). The measured procession repeats the rhythm of the basilica's colonnade, the martyrs go to Christ, whose image is located in front of the apse, the martyrs go to the Mother of God after the Magi in oriental clothes. However, for some reason, the procession of martyrs comes out of Theodoric’s palace (in reality, located, by the way, next to the basilica), and the procession of martyrs comes from the Old Harbor - a charming landscape with a boat on stormy waves. This unexpected historical specificity is explained by the fact that what we are looking at is not a genuine mosaic from the era of the Ostrogothic king, but an alteration from the time of Bishop Agnello (560s). He

destroyed the original portrait images of the king with his retinue, and the queen with the ladies of the court, turning them into a procession of saints.

Between the windows of the nave of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo there are figures of the prophets, and the upper zone of the central nave of the same basilica is decorated with an incomparably more complex cycle - between decorative mosaic compositions - niches and doves - panels with scenes of miracles and parables (on the right) and the Passion and miracles of the Resurrection on the left are inserted . Christ in the scenes of the Passion is depicted as long-haired and bearded, with an appearance that goes back to the ideal appearance of the Greek Zeus, and after the Resurrection - Emmanuel, young and beardless (it was previously accepted to divide early images of Christ into the “Zeus type” and the “Apollo type”). This opposition of subjects is explained by a new force, which by the 6th century was already playing a real role in the formation of images - this is the liturgy itself. Before us is a set of Gospel readings for Great Lent and the preparatory weeks (on the right) and Holy Week and the post-Easter time (on the left).

The same principle operates in the Byzantine mosaics of the eastern part of the c. San Vitale in Ravenna (547, this cycle, like the mosaics of the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, can rightly be considered to belong to Byzantine art) - here the semantic and physical center coincide - this is the throne itself, on which the transubstantiation of gifts takes place, and with the theme of communion and

The entire environment is connected to the desired sacrifice - starting from the apse, where Christ the Cosmocrator on the azure sphere of the world receives the gifts of St. Vitaliy - the martyr's crown - and Bishop Ecclesius - the model of the church of San Vitale. In the vault of the presbytery - the room for the altar - the Sacrifice itself is depicted - the Lamb, lifted up by angels among the curls of the acanthus. On either side of the presbytery are two scenes indicating a new, non-historical approach to depicting the event. On the right is the Sacrifice of Abel and Melchizedek. These two Old Testament righteous men are separated by many centuries, but are connected in this composition (where Abel emerges from a straw shepherd’s tent, however, with an antique pediment, and Melchizedek emerges from a basilica, personifying the church of his city of Salem), where, according to the logic of history, next to Abel should Cain’s presence is again a topic that pleases,

a sought-after and accepted victim. It is interesting that both of them bring gifts (Abel - a lamb, Melchizedek - bread and wine, which they once presented to Abraham) not to the Hebrew stone altar, but to a quite correctly depicted church altar. On the left is the meal of Abraham and the three angels and the Sacrifice of Isaac - again the theme of the Eucharistic meal and the claimed sacrifice. And finally, the program is completed by two “group portraits” in the lower part of the apse - this is the Emperor Justinian himself, who conquered Ravenna in 540, with his commander Belisarius, his son and guardsmen holding shields with chrysum, and opposite - his wife Theodora, a far-sighted and intelligent woman who went from a circus performer to an empress, with the wife and daughter of Belisarius and the ladies of the court. Royal

the spouses (and they are depicted with halos on the model of the Roman emperors; in fact, they were canonized, naturally, after death) bring their feasible sacrifices to the church - a precious dish and a cup. Thus, by the 6th century, the liturgy itself had become such a significant force that it was able to influence, pushing aside directly ancient models, both the architecture of the building and the composition of the program. No less significant changes occur with the style of painting - the colors become bright and local, the contours - clear, the compositions - simple and built in the foreground, but the echo of ancient freedom and vital energy remains in this painting - Hellenic in essence - in the purity and depth of color , the types of faces that freely become full-fledged portraits of historical characters, the sophistication of decorative details.

The 6th century—the time of the “Justinian synthesis”—brings to Italy the pure Hellenic stream of Byzantine painting, which, having acquired the full measure of convention of the medieval style, did not lose its living connection with Antiquity.

Miniature

Early Christian manuscripts

For the Middle Ages, a book miniature was not just an illustration of a text, but an indicator of very significant phenomena - changes in the role of the image in general, the connection between word and image, as well as a carrier of iconographic stable patterns - after all, transporting a manuscript is much easier than transporting entire teams of painters to look at mosaics or frescoes. Special “educational” manuscripts, “books of samples,” unique guides for painters, are known no earlier than the 11th century; before, their functions were apparently performed by the copies of the Old and New Testaments themselves. It is not for nothing that the Christianization of any remote territory at the beginning of the Middle Ages began with the arrival of the Roman mission - preachers, who certainly brought with them illuminated manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures.

The first Christian books on the technique of copying and illumination are the direct heirs of pagan books. By the 4th-5th centuries. the dominant type of manuscript was no longer a papyrus scroll, but a parchment codex (the transition from a scroll to a codex began in the 1st century AD)

Fast growth parishes and the development of the liturgy create an urgent need for liturgical books, first of all, a complete Latin translation of the Old and New Testaments, which was completed under Pope Damasus in the 380s. bl. Jerome of Stridon (this translation is called the Vulgate - that is, the “folk” translation; the previous translation of the beginning of the 3rd century - the so-called Itala - was incomplete). Just as images of the events of Sacred History are placed on the walls of basilicas, they are also transferred to the pages of manuscripts, but in a manuscript the possibility of accurate, almost word-for-word illustration of the text is much greater. Examples of such illustrations survive among the pagan manuscripts of the Aeneid and Iliad—a principle that dates back to the scrolls. So, in the so-called Vatican Virgil 5th century Each page must have an illustration, and if, for example, the dialogue between Dido and Aeneas takes 5 pages, then they will be depicted talking 5 times.

This type of illustration also carries over into Christian manuscripts - just as many early authors (Nonnus, Dracontius, Avitus and many others) retold the books of the Holy Scriptures in hexameters.

Quedlinburg Itala - Saul and Samuel

Very few early (before the 7th century) Christian manuscripts have survived, most of them in very poor condition. The earliest of them is at the turn of the 4th-5th centuries, the so-called. apparently containing 4 books of Kings. Only one sheet has survived, where four cells contain illustrations of the story of Saul and Samuel in a very cursory, almost sketchy manner. These 4 illustrations come from 20 verses of the text (1 Samuel; 15:13-33). They are equipped with two types of signatures - a “draft” instruction for the miniaturist and a “ceremonial” explanatory inscription for the reader.

Another famous manuscript is Greek. This is the so-called Book of Genesis by Lord Cotton , made in Alexandria in the 5th century. It was destroyed in a fire in the owner's library in 1731; about 150 fragments and only 2 watercolor copies made shortly before the fire remained. These miniatures reflected how common features ancient painting - say, the days of Creation are depicted as figures of angels, the Creator sends the soul-Psyche into the mouth of Adam in the form of a winged man, and

the influence of Alexandrian theology, for example, the Creator is depicted beardless and with a cross-shaped halo - he is associated with Wisdom, Logos - the Word, and therefore with Christ, who was eternally with the indescribable Father. The density of illustration is such that, apparently, there were about 330 miniatures per 300 pages. This manuscript gave rise to a whole wide tradition in monumental painting and in miniature, in particular, and was repeated in abbreviation at the beginning of the 13th century. in the mosaics of the Venetian Cathedral of San Marco.

Three Greek manuscripts from the 6th century. — , And - were executed on purple parchment, which is a sign of an imperial order. Here the image is no longer inserted into the text immediately before the desired passage, but is placed at the bottom of the sheet and consists of several scenes where we often encounter details that are missing in the text. So, for example, next to the prison of Joseph the Beautiful stands Potiphar’s wife, who has repented of her deeds; next to the scene of Joseph’s seduction, scenes from the life of a virtuous woman are depicted - raising children, housekeeping. These details are from the books of Midrashim - a Jewish commentary on the Torah, which came into the Christian manuscript from Jewish textual and, apparently, illustrated sources. It is interesting that the text is significantly shortened, and the illustrative series becomes much more detailed. In the Gospel texts, the image plays the role of a commentary on the text - for example, the Last Supper and the multiplication of the loaves and fishes are presented as the traditional Eucharist, next to them are prophets with scrolls who predicted the event. The miniatures of the purple codices were influenced, in addition to Jewish ones, by Greek sources - for example, in the “portrait” of the evangelist his “Muse” appears - the personification of Divine Wisdom, and next to Joseph going to his brothers - the “genius loci” - an angel hiding behind a column .

In a Latin manuscript from the 6th-7th centuries. — — miniatures now occupy separate sheets next to the text. They are divided into multi-colored registers, making it easier for the viewer to “read” the scenes. This is one of the most mysterious early Christian manuscripts - its geographical location ranges from North Africa to Northern Italy - with undoubted Hebrew influences (for example, from such an apocryphal source the tradition of depicting Adam and Eve, expelled from paradise, sitting in huts, etc., came and became established in Christian art). Her fate is indicative - at the beginning of the 9th century. she ends up in Tours, where she becomes a model for the fresco cycle and miniatures of the so-called. Tours bibles of the 9th century.

Finally, a Syriac manuscript from the late 6th century. - so-called — in miniatures on separate sheets, presents the main scenes of the New Testament - the Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost, etc., along with “portrait” miniatures depicting the evangelists and church fathers.

So, by the 6th century. There is a final separation of illustration from the text - the ancient principle of their fusion and interaction gives way to the independent role of the image as an option for interpreting the text and commentary on it.

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