Parsuna – The First Secular Representation of The Traditional Russian Icon
Abstract
The second half of the 15th century in the Russian Church history marked a strong decline of spiritual life, which naturally found its reflection in the icon painting. The feeling of integrity of an image, its depth were lost. At the same time, the weakening influence of the Orthodox Balkans and the Byzantine Empire gave way to the influence of the Catholic West with its profoundly different principles of religious art.
In this transitional period of the Russian cultural life, characterized by the transformation of the medieval worldview and the formation of new artistic ideals, appeared parsuna (a rough Russian transliteration of the Latin word “persona”) - an early secular portrait of a lay person in the iconographic style that represents an important transition in Russia’s art history. The first pasruna were painted, most probably, by the iconographers of the Moscow Kremlin Armoury in the 17th century. The painters of these portraits were usually monks that tended to be anonymous, showing a humility.
Although the stylized forms used in parsuna reveal a lack of concern with preserving the actual features of a person, but rather their overall image (special attributes and signatures allow to define represented), it still can be viewed as one of the very first attempts to look at person not only through the rigid iconographic canons, but also through a prism of psychological interpretation. Thus, this transitional image may be concerned as the initial fundamental step on the way to the further introduction fo the European portrait tradition in Russia.
In this study, we would like to consistently trace how parsuna, thanks to its completely new stylistic value, can be considered one of the earliest stages on the way to the secularization of the Russian art in the early 17th century, which led to the separation from the strict iconographic religious canons and, consequently, to the rapprochement with the European art.
Full text article
References
Ahlborn, Richard E., Beaver-Bricken Espinola. (1991). V. Russian Copper and Crosses from the Kunz Collection: Castings of Faith. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 85.
Busi, G. (2001). La bellezza del Cristo nella tradizione iconografica. Milano, La Bellezza. p. 258- 263.
Ivanova, I., Demina, N. (1966). Rubljov. Milan, Fratelli Fabbri Editori.
Krasnobaev, B.I. (1983). Russkaja kul'tura vtoroj poloviny VII - nachala XIX v. [Russian culture of the second half of the 17th – the beginning of the XIX centuries]. Moskva, Moskovskij Gosudarstvennyj Universitet.
Leonov, A. I. (1945). Simon Ushakov, 1626-1686: russkij hudozhnik XVII veka. [Simon Ushakov, 1626-1686: Russian artist of the XVII century]. Leningrad, Iskusstvo. p. 10
Lifshitz, L.I. (2007). Istorija russkogo iskusstva. Iskusstvo X-XVII vekov. [History of the Russian art. Art of the X-XVII centuries]. Moskva, Trilistnik.
Ovchinnikova, E. S. (2000). Portret v russkom iskusstve XVII veka [Portrait in Russian art of the XVII century]. Moscow, 1955. Translation of Daniel C. Waugh.
Pivovarov, J.S. (2006). Russian politics in its historical and cultural relations. Moscow, «Rossijskaja političeskaja enciclopedia». p. 95-97.
Sarab’janov, D.V. (1989). Istorija rossijskogo i sovetskogo iskusstva [History of Russian and Soviet art]. Moskva, Vysshaja shkola. p. 78-82.
Authors
Copyright (c) 2019 Resourceedings
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
- The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
- Attribution: other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
With the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
- The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a pre-publication manuscript (but not the Publisher's final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access). Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
- Upon Publisher's request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author's own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
- The Author represents and warrants that:
- The Work is the Author's original work;
- The Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
- The Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
- The Work has not previously been published;
- The Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
- The Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
- The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author's breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 7 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher's use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.