“Light overflowing/Effervescence of light”: Russian Hodegetria Icons in Liturgic Poetry and History The present monograph examines liturgical poetry and homiletics devoted to the Mother of God, some of which were absorbed into Old Russian literature and others originated from it between the last quarter of the 14th and the 17th century. It considers the formation of church services to miracle-working icons of the Theotokos, that is to say of the most original part of the Russian liturgical canon. As its paradigmatic examples, it offers an analysis of the canon to Hodegetria and the “Service of praise of August 26th”, both of them first recorded around the turn of the 15th century. This study places a particular emphasis on the importance of Hodegetria the Educator as offering deliverance from captivity, from the darkness of reason and from the pitch darkness of death. The particular characteristics of texts devoted to the Mother of God point also to parallels in the development of icon-painting in the period between the 15th and the 17th centuries, from Dionisius to Simon Ushakov. The present study also offers a historical approach to the symbolism of Hodegetria and of miracle-working icons associated with her. While partly preserving an underlying connection to the catastrophes of Byzantine history, it came to be used in the Russian context to gather resistance to non-Christian menace, to further political ends and to assist in the consolidation of the power of the authorities and of the state. To better clarify the specific qualities of these Russian phenomena, the study compares them to cults of the Mother of God, similar in their manifestations and their historical significance, which sprouted on Italian soil in the context of the demise of the Eastern Christian Empire. It therefore makes an argument, in the light of the similarities and overlaps between these traditions, for applying the term of the “Marian Renaissance,” proposed by Italian researchers of the analogous period in Italian history, also to the Russian context starting with 1379-80 and up until the end of the Time of Troubles.
Kipenije sveta: Russkie Odigitrii v liturgiceskoj poesii i v istorii
PLIOUKHANOVA, Maria
2016
Abstract
“Light overflowing/Effervescence of light”: Russian Hodegetria Icons in Liturgic Poetry and History The present monograph examines liturgical poetry and homiletics devoted to the Mother of God, some of which were absorbed into Old Russian literature and others originated from it between the last quarter of the 14th and the 17th century. It considers the formation of church services to miracle-working icons of the Theotokos, that is to say of the most original part of the Russian liturgical canon. As its paradigmatic examples, it offers an analysis of the canon to Hodegetria and the “Service of praise of August 26th”, both of them first recorded around the turn of the 15th century. This study places a particular emphasis on the importance of Hodegetria the Educator as offering deliverance from captivity, from the darkness of reason and from the pitch darkness of death. The particular characteristics of texts devoted to the Mother of God point also to parallels in the development of icon-painting in the period between the 15th and the 17th centuries, from Dionisius to Simon Ushakov. The present study also offers a historical approach to the symbolism of Hodegetria and of miracle-working icons associated with her. While partly preserving an underlying connection to the catastrophes of Byzantine history, it came to be used in the Russian context to gather resistance to non-Christian menace, to further political ends and to assist in the consolidation of the power of the authorities and of the state. To better clarify the specific qualities of these Russian phenomena, the study compares them to cults of the Mother of God, similar in their manifestations and their historical significance, which sprouted on Italian soil in the context of the demise of the Eastern Christian Empire. It therefore makes an argument, in the light of the similarities and overlaps between these traditions, for applying the term of the “Marian Renaissance,” proposed by Italian researchers of the analogous period in Italian history, also to the Russian context starting with 1379-80 and up until the end of the Time of Troubles.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
