Icon and Devotion
Sacred Spaces in Imperial Russia
Oleg TarasovIcon and Devotion is the first extensive presentation in English of the making and meaning of Russian icons. Oleg Tarasov shows how icons have held a special place in Russian consciousness, and also looks closely at how and why icons were made.
Icon and Devotion is the first extensive presentation in English of the making and meaning of Russian icons. The craft of icon-making is set into the context of forms of worship that emerged in the Russian Orthodox Church in the mid-seventeenth century. Oleg Tarasov shows how icons have held a special place in Russian consciousness because they represented idealised images of Holy Russia. He also looks closely at how and why icons were made. Wonder-working saints and the leaders of such religious schisms as the Old Believers appear in these pages, which are illustrated with miniature paintings, lithographs and engravings never before published in the English-speaking world.
By tracing the artistic vocabulary, techniques and working methods of icon painters, Tarasov shows how icons have been integral to the history of Russian art, influenced by folk and mainstream currents alike. As well as articulating the specifically Russian piety they invoke, he analyzes the significance of icons in the cultural life of modern Russia in the context of popular prints and poster design.
Icon and Devotion is the first extensive presentation in English of the making and meaning of Russian icons. Oleg Tarasov shows how icons have held a special place in Russian consciousness, and also looks closely at how and why icons were made.
Icon and Devotion is the first extensive presentation in English of the making and meaning of Russian icons. The craft of icon-making is set into the context of forms of worship that emerged in the Russian Orthodox Church in the mid-seventeenth century. Oleg Tarasov shows how icons have held a special place in Russian consciousness because they represented idealised images of Holy Russia. He also looks closely at how and why icons were made. Wonder-working saints and the leaders of such religious schisms as the Old Believers appear in these pages, which are illustrated with miniature paintings, lithographs and engravings never before published in the English-speaking world.
By tracing the artistic vocabulary, techniques and working methods of icon painters, Tarasov shows how icons have been integral to the history of Russian art, influenced by folk and mainstream currents alike. As well as articulating the specifically Russian piety they invoke, he analyzes the significance of icons in the cultural life of modern Russia in the context of popular prints and poster design.
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. . . richly illustrated, making available much popular iconographic material generally unfamiliar to Western readers . . . a fascinating contribution to the cultural history of Russia.
'Times Literary Supplement
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Both the techniques and the meaning of the long history of icons are explored here the core meaning residing, according to Mr Tarasov, in the icons role as idealised image of Holy Russia. Much of the imagery has never been previously published in the English-speaking world. A treasure trove awaits.
'Art Newspaper
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. . . invaluable . . . this remarkable book should be required reading for anyone with a desire to understand imperial Russian culture at a more than superficial level.
'Slavonica
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Is it possible to explain a people on the basis of its religious art? Anyone who has explored the concept of Holy Russia or lidée russe will find an answer to that question in Oleg Tarasovs study of icons and devotion in imperial Russia . . . this book is immensely rewarding and will interest cultural, art, and political historians as well as the general reader.
'Renaissance Quarterly
Foreword by Robin Milner-Gulland
Introduction
PART ONE: THE ICON AND THE WORLD
1. Venerated Image: The Sacred in the Everyday
—The Burden of Numbers
—The Details of Ritual
—Miracles
2. Dispute about Signs, Dispute about Faith
—The Ambivalence of Symbols
—The Complications of Renaming: A Tract Concerning the New Devotion
3. In a World without Grace
—The Shadow of Antichrist
—The Sacralization of the Icon Painter
—The Theology of the People
PART TWO: THE ICON AND POPULAR CULTURE
4. East and West
—Face and Countenance
—Landscape
—Word, Emblem, Heraldry
—The Portrait Icon
5. The Middle Ages Delayed
—Concealed Montage
—Myth and Mystification: Self-Awareness in the Icon-painting Experience
6. Icons and Popular Art
—The Aesthetics of Sensibility
—The Spirit of Religious Tradition
—The Projection of Signs: Icon, Lubok, the Avant-garde
References and Editorial Notes
Bibliography
Index
Oleg Tarasov is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Cultural History of the Institute of Slavic Studies (Russian Academy of Sciences), Moscow. He is the author of Icon and Devotion (2002) and Framing Russian Art (2011), both published by Reaktion Books.
