E-mail: volfs@mail.ru
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PhD (Philology), head of Folklore and Folk Art Department, State Institute of Art Studies of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
The article deals with a problem of similarity of the representation of Christian personage and events happening to him/her in spiritual verses and those depicted in icons. The author has choosen “Salvation in mountains” — the episode from the big verse about Egoriy the Brave as research object. The episode appears in the consolidated group of variants obtained from the Russian North, which have been recorded in Pomorye and along the Pinega River. A question of the multifaceted image of George — Egoriy the Brave in the Russian culture is discussed.
The author examines А. V. Rystenko’s hypothesis, who has supposed to search sources of the salvation episode from the apocryfal Protevangelium of Jacobi (Infancy Gospel of James). After analysis of its chapters and fragments of resounding texts and icons, the author concludes that usage of the corresponding plot (episode) in the Northern Russian version of the Big Verse about Egoriy the Brave results in unusual connection of two legends — about St. John the Forerunner and the Baptist and George the great martyr. Such a connection was possible because of “symbolical parallelism” — a specific type of thinking which was typical for Christian art. Events, that were interconnected in their essence, could be represented side by side and even substitute each other. Therefore the time of appearance of the specific kind of a verse about Egoriy the Brave, including “Salvation in mountains” — the episode, in the Russian North can be correlated with expansion of iconography, dealing with the plot of salvation of Elizabeth and her baby John in mountains). Special attention is paid to icons of “northern paintings” with episodes based on the corresponding chapters of the Protevangelium of Jacobi.
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