Sub specie mortis: Ruthenian and Russian last judgement icons compared

Abstract

This article deals with the iconography of the sixteenth–eighteenth century Orthodox Last Judgements. The vertical and horizontal hierarchies of its composition that are fairly standard still leave much room for local preferences and innovations. Using the Ruthenian icons as cases in point and Russian exemplars as controls, the author attempts to discern similarities and differences and to identify, where possible, the sources of change. In the focus of analysis are three compositional elements of the Last Judgement iconography, i.e. ordeals (mytarstva), images of death, and the figure of the Alms Giving Fornicator. The article concentrates on the meaning of its presence vs. absence, placement and typological selection. It allows conclusions to be made about the influence of the Union of Brest (1596) on the shifts in religious mentalities and the reasons for artistic change.

Notes

A longer version of this article was published in the Kievan journal Socium, 3 (2003), pp. 209–40. I wish to thank Prof. John‐Paul Himka from the University of Alberta for his enormous help in preparing this paper.

The term ‘Ruthenian’ in an iconographical context may provoke consequent discussions, since for several years another definition was in historical use, ‘Carpathian icons’. This term encapsulated basically the artefacts of Carpathian Mountains provenance, mainly from the present South Eastern Poland, Eastern Slovakia, Western Ukraine and part of Moldavia. The term has been introduced by Janina Kłosińska and was happily accepted by a number of art historians in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia (for example, the term ‘Carpathian’ is widely explored in the well‐known studies of W. Białopiotrowicz, B. Puskas and H. Skrobucha). However, recently it met several objections from Ukrainian art historians as well as from their Polish colleagues (see V. Ovsiichuk's review on J. Kłosińska, Icons from Poland, Warszawa, 1989, in Zapysky Naukovogo Tovarystva Imeni Shevchenka (hereinafter: ZNTSh), vol. 227, Pratsi Sektsii Mystetsvoznavstva, L'viv, 1994, pp. 417–78. It seems, therefore, that the definition ‘Ruthenian icon’ is more adequate in such a terminological jumble.

This problem has been studied from the artistic point of view in the recently published article of the famous Ukrainian art historian Vira Svencyc'ka, ‘Pro dejaki ikonographichni analogii ta paralelli v zobrazhenni Strashnogo Sudu v Zachidnoukrajins’kych ikonach XV‐XVI stolit' ta ikonach hudozhnykiv Novgorods'kogo kola', ZNTSh, vol. 236, Praci Komisii Obrazotvorchogo ta Uzhytkovogo Mystectva, L'viv, 1998, pp. 85–93.

R. Fabritius, Außmalerei und Liturgie. Die streitbare Orthodoxie im Bildprogramm der Moldaukirchen, Düsseldorf, Herman Verlag, 1999. Review, C. Mach, Zeitschrift für Siebenbürgische Landeskunde, 25(1) (2002), pp. 153–55; C. Peters, ‘Mural Paintings, Ethnicity and Religious Identity in Transylvania: The Context for Reformation’, in M. Craciun, O. Chitta, eds, Ethnicity and Religion in Central and Eastern Europe (Cluj, 1995), 44‐63; E. Greceanu, ‘Spread of Byzantine Tradition in Medieval Architecture of Romanian Masonery Churches in Transylvania’, Etudes byzantines et post‐byzantines, 1 (1979), pp. 197–238; V. Dragut & P. Lupan, Moldavian Murals from the 15th to the 16th Century, Bucharest, 1982.

See, for example a study of the icons coming from the Pech Patriarchate territory, Sr. Petkovich, Zidno slikarstvo na podruchu Pechke Patrijarshije, 1557–1614. Matica serpska, otdelen'je za likovne umejetnosti, Novi Sad, 1965, p. 77. On pages 163, 166, 171, 174, 176, 178, 179, 182, 186, 194, 195, 197, 201 there is a brief annotated description of the Serbian Orthodox Last Judgment frescoes from the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries.

See A. Bozhkov, Blgarskata ikona, Sofja, Izdatelstvo Blgarski khudozhnik, 1984.

Recent bibliography of comparative methods in Central European arts in literature is published in W. Deluga's article ‘W kregu sztuki koscioła wschodniego. Metoda porównawcza w studiach nad rytownictwem i malarstwem XVI i XVII wieku’, in St. Stępnień, Polska‐Ukraina Polska‐Ukraina, 1000 lat sąsiedstwa, vol. 2, Studia z dziejów chrześcijaństwa na pograniczu kulturowym i etnicznym, vol. 2, Przemyśl, Poludniowo‐Wschodni Instytut Naukowy w Przemyślu, 1994, pp. 327–33.

M. Jugie, ‘La doctrine des fins dernières dans l’Eglise greco‐russe', Échos d'Orient, 17 (1914/1915), pp. 17–22.

B. Brenk, Tradition und Neuerung in der Christlichen Kunst des Ersten Jahrtausends. Studien zur Geschichte des Weltgerichtsbildes. Mit 95 abbidungen auf 83 Tafeln und 25 Figuren im Text, Wien, 1966, pp. 65–75. For the extensive study of the Orthodox Last Judgment iconography, see also, D. Milosevic, Das Jüngste Gericht, Recklinghausen, 1963.

R. Polacco, La Cattedrale di Torcello, Venice/Treviso, 1984, pp. 66–67; M.K. Garidis, Etudes sur le Jugement dernier post‐Bizantin du XVe à la fin du XIXe siècle. Iconographie‐esthetique, Thessalonoke, 1985; G. Voss, Das Jüngste Gericht in der bildende Kunst des frühen Mittelalters. Eine kunstgeschichtlische Untersuchung, Leipzig, 1884, pp. 64–71. The traditional Catholic Last Judgement iconography in comparison with the Orthodox (Byzantine) lacks several characteristic elements: Hetimasia, the river of fire, the scroll of the skies and the sea delivering up its dead. See L. Reau, Iconographie de l'art Chrétien, Vol. 2 : Iconographie de la Bible, part 2, Nouveau Testament, Paris, 1957, p. 736.

The Hetimasia notion originates from St. John Apocalypse (20:11). It can also be found in St Matthew's Gospel (25:31; 19:28). See Th. v. Bogyay, ‘Thron (Hetimasia)’, Lexikon der christlichen Ikonografie, hrsg. von E. Kirschbaum, SJ, Rom–Freiburg–Basel–Wien, 1990, pp. 306–13.

Alternation of light and dark colours here means interchange of day and night; see V. Lazarev, Russkaja ikonopis' ot istokov do nachala XVI vieka, Moscow, Iskusstvo, 1994, pl. 48. D. Goldfrank states that emblem in this Last Judgement icon also has a representation of the twelve months that comprise ‘astrological heaven’. D.M. Goldfrank, ‘Who put the Snake on the Icon and the Tollbooths on the Snake?—A Problem of Last Judgment Iconography’, in N. Sh. Kollmann, D. Ostrowsky, A. Prigov & D. Rowland, eds, Harvard Ukrainian Studies. Rhetoric of the Medieval Slavic World. Essays presented to E.L. Keenan on his 60th Birthday, vol. XIX, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1995, footnote 19.

On this element in Ukrainian Last Judgments, see J.‐P. Himka, On the Left Hand of God: ‘Peoples’ in Ukrainian Icons of the Last Judgment in J. Duzinkieuicz, et al. eds., State, Societies, Cultures East and West: Essays in Honor of Jaroslaw Pelenski, New York, Ross Publishing Inc. 2004, pp. 317–349.

L. Nersesyan, ‘Voznesenije monahov i padenije angelov. Ob odnom ikonographicheskom motivie v Russkich ikonach ‘Strashnogo Suda’ XVI vieka’, Iskusstvoznanije, 2 (1998), p. 265.

V.K. Tsodikovich, Semantika ikonografii ‘Strashnogo Suda’ v russkom iskusstvie XV–XVI vekov, Uljanovsk, 1995, pp. 21–22, 49–50.

D.Goldfrank, op. cit., pp. 192–99. For the source basis of this opinion, see D. Goldfrank's introduction to The Monastic Rule of Iosif Volotsky, ed., trans. and intro. by D. Goldfrank, 2nd revised edn (Cistercian Studies Series: no. 36, revised edition), Kalamazoo, MI–Spencer, MA, Cistercian Publications, 2000, pp. 98–99.

Ibid., pp. 182, 187.

A. Alekseev, ‘Siuzhet ‘zmieja mytarstv’ v kompozitsii russkikh ikon ‘Strashnogo Suda’, Tserkovnaia arheologiia 4, St Petersburg, 1998, pp. 13–17 idem, Pod zankom kontsa vremion. Ocherki russkoi religioznosti kontza xiv‐nachala xvi vekov, St. Petersburg, 2002, pp. 85–97.

L. Nersesyan, Videnija Proroka Daniila v Russkom Iskusstve XV–XVI vekov (forthcoming).

N. Pokrovski, ‘Strashny Sud v pamiatnikach vizantijskogo i russkogo iskusstva’, in Trudy VI Archeologicheskogo sjezda v Odessie (1884), vol. 3, Odessa, 1887, pp. 372–73. A.L. Yurganov analysed the symbolism of punishments during Ivan IV oprichnina times and came to the conclusion that it had much in common with animal representations of sins in Orthodox iconography and literature. The Tsar’s murders signified not just a fight for power but also a struggle for believers' souls, characteristic of helliastic expectations; see A.L. Yurganov, Kategorii russkoj srednievekovoj kultury, Moscow, MIROS, Open Society Institute, 1998, pp. 365–67.

Among the most representative examples in Polish art are the frescoes on the northern wall of the Bejśce presbytery, depicting women sitting on animals inscribed as seven deadly sins. Invidia is associated with a dog, fox or wolf, Luxuria is equated with a pig, whereas Acedia with a donkey. Polish Gothic Last Judgment frescoes supply a variety of such illustrations. More examples can be found in the miniatures from the Toruń Crusaders' Apocalypses, as well as on the fresco from St John Church in Toruń (fourteenth century). On the latter painting the famous Biblical Arbor Vitae is enriched from both sides by allegories of virtues and vices in the form of animals, among which it is possible to define a deer, a horse and a donkey. See Zd. Kliś, Paruzja. Przedstawienie Sądu Ostatecznego w sztuce Europy Środkowo‐Wschodniej, Kraków, 1999, p. 167. For the analysis of ‘animal‐sin’ images in Western art and literature, see M.V. Bloomfield, The Seven Deadly Sins. An Introduction to the History of a Religious Concept, with Special Reference to Medieval English Literature, Michigan, 1967, pp. 246–49; J. O'Reilly, Studies in the Iconography of the Virtues and Vices in the Middle Ages, New York–London, 1988, pp. 1–45; A. Katzenellenbogen, Allegories of the Virtues and Vices in Medieval Art. From Early Christian Times to the Thirteenth Century, 2nd edn, New York, 1964; J. Hall, Illustrated Dictionary of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art, John Murray, 1994, pp. 200–01 (contains a list of Seven Deadly Sins with animal attributes most frequently met in Western medieval art); J. Houlet, Les Combats des Vertus et des Vices, les Psychomachies dans l'Art, Paris, 1969.

R. Biskupski, ‘Malarstwo ikonowe od XV do pierwszej polowy XVIII wieku na Lemkowszczyznie’, Polska Sztuka Ludowa, 39(3–4) (1985), p. 61.

It is of note that there is no image of a human soul in this picture, which proves that equation of the ordeals with Purgatory does not have a basis in Orthodox iconography.

J. Kłosińska, op. cit. p. 41.

According to D. Goldfrank, in the late Byzantine theological manuals there is no mention of the tollbooths. See D. Goldfrank, ‘Who put the Snake on the Icon and the Tollbooths on the Snake?’, Harvard Ukrainian Studies, 187, footnote 23.

V. Sakharov, Eschatologicheskiie sochinieniia i skazaniia v drevnierusskoi pismiennosti i vliianiie ich na narodnyie duchovnyie stikhi, Tula, 1879, pp. 148, 166. Ukraiins'ka literatura XIV‐XVI stolitt'. Apokrify, agiografiia, palomnytski tvory, istorychni tvory, polemichni tvory, perekladni povisti, poetychni tvory, Kyiv, Naukova Dumka, 1988, p. 527; S.G. Vilin'ski, Zhtiie Sv. Vasiliia Novogo v Russkoi Literature, part 2: Teksty Zhitiia, pervaia Russkaia redaktsiia, Odessa, 1911; A.S. Demin, ‘Puteshestviie dushi po zagrobnomu miru’, Rosskijskii literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, 5 1994, p. 367; S.V. Alekseev, Problema dobra i zla i eschatologicheskaia ideia v religioznych sistemah Ievrazii, Moscow, 1995; Srednievekovoie pravoslaviie ot prikhoda do patriarkhata, Volgograd, 1997; E. Patlagean, ‘Byzance et son autre monde: observations sur quelques récits’, in A. Vauchez et al., eds, Faire Croire: modalité de la diffusion et de la réception des message religieux du XIIe au XVe siècles: table ronde, Rome, 22–23 juin 1979, organisée par l'école français de Rome, en collaboration avec l'Institut d'histoire médiévale de l'Université de Padoue, Rome, Ecole français de Rome; Torino: Bottega d'Erasmo, 1981, pp. 201–21.

Zhitiie prepodbnogo otza nashego Vasiliia Novogo, Ukrains'ka literatura XIV–XVI stolittia, p. 49. Cited here after the English translation in G. Every, ‘Toll Gates on the Air Way’, Eastern Churches Review. Journal of Eastern Christendom, 8(2), Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1976, p. 145.

F. Batiushkov, Spor dushi s telom v pamiatnikakh srednievekovoj literatury. Opyt istoriko‐sravnitelnogo issledovaniia, St Petersburg, 1891, p. 82. Another source for the ‘mytarstva’ concept is the so‐called Sermon on the… Celestial Powers (twelfth century). Its extended version contained the Word on Soul's Departure sometimes attributed to St Cyrill the Philosopher. The fullest text was published by S. Shevyriev in Izvestiia Imperatorskoi Akademii nauk po Otdelu Russkogo iazyaka i slovesnosti, vol. 9, St Petersburg, 1860, pp. 182–92. The number of ordeals in this text was reduced to twenty. According to the majority of its students, the Celestial Powers became the literary standard for the Russian Last Judgement iconography. See D. Goldfrank, ‘Who put the Snake on the Icon and the Tollbooths on the Snake?’, Harvard Ukrainian Studies, 190; A.N. Alekseev, ‘Slovo ob ischodie dushi Kirilla Filosofa’, Opyty po sitochnikoviedieniiu. Drevnierusskaia knizhnost', paleografiia, kodikologiia, St Petersburg, 1999, pp. 8–16 contains The Word on Soul's Departure in the fifteenth‐century Russian version.

This opinion is also present in J. Kłosińska, op. cit., 41.

Cf. K. Studyns'kyi, Polemichne pysmennytsvtvo v r. 1608 (Lviv, 1911), p. 22.

Ibid., p. 22. Actually, such an equalisation of Orthodox ordeals and Catholic Purgatory had the right to exist. The notion of the posthumous weighing of the soul, which was very popular in Catholic literature and art, could be regarded from another point of view: it was not primarily an unequivocal assessment of the individual's mortal worth, but rather a contest between angels (like the usual Archangel Michael) and the Devil for possession of the soul—indeed a kind of extension of the struggle that had been waged at the moment of death. Such an explanation shows a lot of common features between the Catholic and the Orthodox ‘small’ eschatologies. Moreover, Archangel Michael thus appeared in the Catholic conception not as the impartial ‘weigher of souls’, but rather as ‘the champion of man against the Devil’. There was no need for Christ's Judgement after death, because man's destiny was decided during the contest between angels and devils. See, S.G. Brandon, The Judgment of the Dead: A Historical and Comparative Study of the Idea of a Post‐Mortem Judgment in the Major Religions, London, 1967, p. 124.

N.V. Pokrovsky, op.cit., p. 89.

The form ‘saligia’ appears for the first time in the works of the thirteenth‐century theologian Henry from Ostia (d. 1271). Some historians, however, tend to connect the spread of this term with the Counter‐Reformation processes and Jesuit activity. See M.W. Bloomfield, The Seven Deadly Sins: Introduction to the History of a Religious Concept, with Special Reference to Medieval English Literature, Michigan, 1952, p. 86.

An interesting study made by Prof. Ács Pál from Budapest on the differentiation between adultery and fornication in sixteenth‐century Hungarian Protestant literature was recently published in: Pál Ács, ‘“Thou shall not commit adultery”, “Ne paráználkodjál”. The metaphor of adultery/paráznaság as applied in the literature of the Reformation’, Der Mythos von Amor und Psyche in der europäischen Renaissance, hrg. von József Jankovics und S. Katalin Németh (Studia humanitatis, 12) Budapest, 2002, pp. 7–10.

In the Catholic tradition there is a clear division between the sins that lead to Hell and those that can be expiated in Purgatory. The former are called ‘the major and hence the hardiest sins; they will not be dissolved by fire’. The latter are ‘very slight, minor sins’, those built of wood of straw will be dissolved. But the petty sins will be destroyed after death only if the good actions of the sinner in this life warrant such destruction. The quoted passages belong to the ‘last father of Purgatory’, as Jacques Le Goff has called St Gregory the Great: J. Le Goff, Le naissance du Purgatoire, Paris, Editions Gallimard, 1981. English translation, J. Le Goff, The Birth of Purgatory, trans. A. Goldhammer, Chicago, 1984, p. 91. See, also R. Ombres, OP, ‘Images of Healing: The Making of the Tradition Concerning Purgatory’, Eastern Churches Review, Journal of Eastern Christiandom, 8(2) (Oxford, 1976), pp. 128–38.

Cf. G. Every, ‘Toll Gates on the Air Way’, Eastern Churches Review, p. 147.

Published in O.A. Derzhavina, ‘Velikoie zertsalo’ i iego sud'ba na russkoi pochvie, Moscow, 1965); I. Dergatchova, Stanovlieniie povestvovatielnych nachal v drevnirusskoi literaturie XV–XVI vekov (na materialie sinodika), München, 1990, p. 150.

The story describes the vision of a ‘saint monk’ who saw the soul of a dead slanderer with an extremely long tongue. Since this tongue was dragging on the ground, it made the poor soul suffer and ‘whip like a wolf.’ Finally, it became clear that it was a punishment for evil speaking. Ye. Petukhov, Ocherky iz literaturnoi istoriii Sinodika, part 2, St Petersburg, 1895, p. 179.

Among the preserved Ruthenian Last Judgments there is an example, which in a way opposes this argument. An icon from Pohorilivka village from the eighteenth century is designed in an original, even extraordinary manner. Its lower tier, depicting hellish sufferings, consists of multiple dwellings each containing a sinner's figure. Even rectangles are placed along the four main lines. Here one can find a variety of personages, starting with different craftsmen and ‘unmerciful rich men’, finishing with the picturesque genre scene in a tavern. It is full of card players and non‐sober visitors, lying on the floor near the feet of an innkeeper. Meanwhile, the most original feature of this composition is the classification of sins according to their gravity. On the uppermost tier the painter has depicted the so‐called ‘the seven basic sins’. An Orthodox iconographer has modified the established saligia list. Instead of idolatry he depicted a symbol of greediness, adding also the figure of an untidy, dirty woman, who did not keep her house clean. A brief description of this icon can be found in P.M. Zholtovs'kyi, Ukrains'kyi zhyvopys XVII–XVIII st. Kyiv, 1978, p. 85.

On the basis of such observations, a Ukrainian historian makes a conclusion on the ‘essence of the Ukrainian mentality. Its entire history proves no doubtful fact: Ukrainian spirituality has always tended to develop in a Western direction as an inseparable part of European cultural entity’, I. Paslavs'kyi, ‘Uiavlennia pro potoibichny svit i formuvannia poniattia chystylysche v ukraiins’kii seredniovichnii narodnii kulturi', ZNTSh, vol. 228, Praci Istoryko‐Filosofs'koii Sektsii, L'viv, 1994, pp. 348, 356.

It is a debatable statement, since among the earliest preserved Ruthenian icons is that from Vanivka (third quarter of the fifteenth century), where the figure of Alms‐Giving Fornicator is depicted as well.

The pioneer study in this field, J. Le Goff, op. cit. See also K. Moisan‐Jabłońska, Obraz czyśćca w sztuce polskiego baroku : studium ikonograficzno‐ikonologiczne, Warszawa, Semper, 1995.

K. Moisan‐Jabłońska, op. cit. p. 38; St Bylina, ‘Obraz zaświatów w chrześcijaństwie zachodnim u schyłku średniowiecza’, Kwartalnik Historyczny, 1 (1986), p. 13. Compare also, J. Eustachiewicz, ‘Fresk z kaplicy św. Krzyża przy kościele Dominikanów w Lublinie’, Rocznik Humanistyczny, 7(4) (1958).

See the catalogue in V. Tsodikovich, op. cit.

F. Buslaev, ‘Izbrazhenije Strashnogo Suda po russkim podlinnikam’ in idem, Istoricheskije ocherki russkoj narodnoj slovesnosti i isskustva, vol. 2, Drevnierusskaja literatura i isskustvo, St Petersburg, 1861, pp. 140–41.

Kniga Izmaragd Riekomy, poluustav, 1518, Sinodalnoie Sobraniie, Gosudarstvennyi Istoricheskii Muzei Rossii, Moscow, fond 765, (GN, fond 230), pp. 131–32v.

Izmaragd (Emerald), an anthology of about 150 homilies of such authors as SS. John Chrisostom, Basil the Great, Gregory I, Theodosius of the Caves, and Cyril of Turov. There are approximately 200 copies of the Izmaragd manuscripts. It was undoubtedly the favourite book of devotional readings for the Russian laity for approximately four centuries. Although nothing is known of its author, it is a common opinion of scholars that he must have been a Russian who lived in the fourteenth century, the date ascribed to the oldest manuscripts. See, A.I. Klibanov, Duhovnaia kultura srednievekovoi Rusi, Moscow, 1994; V.A. Iakovlev, K literaturnoi istorii drevnierusskih sbornikov. Opyt issledovaniia ‘Izmaragda’, Odessa, 1893. For the extensive study of Izmaragd ethics and moral teaching, see G.P. Fedotov, The Russian Religious Mind, vol. 2: The Middle Ages the 13th to the 15th centuries, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1966.

Prologue (Prologumenon) is a collection of Saints’ Lives and sermonic texts arranged according to the liturgical calendar from 1 September to 31 August. See V. Adrianova‐Perets, ‘K voprosu o krugie chteniia drevnierusskogo pisatielia’, Trudy Otdela Drevnierusskoi Literatury (TODRL), vol. 27, Moscow, 1974, pp. 3–29.

I am grateful to Prof. J.‐P. Himka for assistance in discovering these manuscripts.

ASP‐69, fond 77, op. 1, 56 passim.

ASP‐27, fond 77, op. 1, 497v.–498v. For the other possible sources of the Alms Giving Fornicator, see A. Alekseev, op. cit., p. 133.

J. Kłosińska, ‘Dwie ikony Sadu Ostatecznego w zbiorach Sanockich. Ze studiow nad ikonografia’, Materialy Muzeum Budownictwa Ludowego w Sanoku, no. 6 (grudzien, 1967), p. 38.

J. Delumeau, Un histoire du Paradis: Le Jardin du Délices, Paris, Librarire Arthème Fayard, 1992. Cf. English translation, J. Delumeau, History of Paradise: The Garden of Eden in Myth and Tradition, Urbana and Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 2000, pp. 28, 34.

Ibid., pp. 32–38.

‘Avraamlie lono Tsarsvo Niebiesnoie menit, idezhe pravednych dushi vodvoriaiutsia’, Kniga glagoliemaia Zlatoust, Pochaiev, 1795, pp. 160v. This passage is literally repeated in the Izmaragd collection. See Kniga Izmaragd Riekomy, p. 130. To compare it with Catholic teaching, it is worth mentioning the Polish Jesuit Peter Skarga's opinion that after the Descent to Limbo, Christ annihilated the Abraham Bosom. P. W.Ks. & S.J. Skargi, Kazania na niedzielie i święta calego roku, vol.2, Lipsk, J. Bobrowicza, 1843, p. 155.

An interesting account of the Abraham's Bosom interpretations in Western European iconography is a recent monograph by J. Baschet, Le sein du pére: La paternité dans l'Occident médiévale, Paris, Gallimard, 2002. A French historian applied a ‘serial’ method to the study of iconographical sources. He traced the development of the Abraham Bosom motif from two points of view, as a theological and visual implementation of fraterna concordia (otherwise called ‘an ecclesiastic fraternity’ or ‘bodily brotherhood’) and as part of the Otherworld. For our purposes the most important is the third chapter of the book, entitled ‘Abraham as a Paradisal Patriarch’, in which the author answers the question of why the motif of the Abraham Bosom as a separate element disappears from Western European art in the mid‐thirteenth century; afterwards it was replaced by the image of Paradise—a ‘Heavenly yard’. On the ‘serial’ method in art studies, see J. Baschet, ‘Inventivité et sérialité des images médiévales: pour une approach iconographique élargie’, Annales, HSS, 51(1) (Paris, 1996), pp. 93–133.

See more detailed analysis of this problem in L. Berejnaïa, ‘Le thème de la mort dans le sermon et la littérature polémique Orthodoxe Ukraïno‐Biélorusse de la fin du XVIe au XVIIe siècle’, in M.Derwich, ed., Śmierć w Dawnej Europie. Zbiór studiów, Wrocław, 1997 (Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis, no. 1863. Historia, CXXIX), pp. 169–81.

Zd. Kliś, op. cit., p. 19.

The icon from Mala Horozhanka (sixteenth–early seventeenth century) now on permanent exhibition at the Oles'ko Castle Museum (branch of the L'viv Art Gallery), contains a variety of foods and drinks on this table, with plant decorations beyond the prophets. The inscription on the table states that it is ‘endless and everlasting dining’ (‘nieoskudievaiemaia i nieskonchajemaia trapieza’).

Among recent studies of Ruthenian art in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries under the influence of Western and Eastern Christian traditions, see W. Aleksandrowycz, ‘Ukraińskie malarstwo religijne drugiej polowy XIV–XVI wieku: spotkanie Wschodu i Zachodu’, Między soba. Szkice historyczne polsko‐ukraińskie, pod. red. T. Chynczewskiej‐Hennel i N. Jakowenko, Lublin, 2000, pp. 56–83.

The icon is preserved in the Lviv National Art Museum. The lower part of it is missing, therefore it is hard to affirm that there was no figure of death in it. However, the sixteenth‐century icon from the Cosmas and Damian Church of Lukiv‐Venecija, where there is no figure of death, exactly repeats the Vanivka model, which allows visual reconstruction of the lower part of the earliest known icon (I would like to thank Oleh Sydor from Lviv National Art Museum for this valuable information). Although D. Goldfrank assures us that the Vanivka‐Lukiv‐Venecija type with death missing is an exception, it is more likely that the figure of death appears only on later variants. See D. Goldfrank, ‘Who put the Snake on the Icon and the Tollbooths on the Snake?’, Harvard Ukrainian Studies, p. 185, footnote 16; S. Hordynsky, The Ukrainian Icon of the 12th–17th Centuries, trans. W. Dushnyck, Philadelphia, 1973. pl. 141; St. Tkac, Ikony, zo 16.–19. storocia na severovychodnom Slovensku, Tatran, 1980, pl. 58, p. 47; H. Skrobucha, Icons in Czechoslovakia, London–New York, Hamlyn, 1971, pl.23.

For the possible prototypes of death figures in Polish art, see Z. Kochowicz, Człowiek polskiego baroku, Łódź, 1992, pp. 332–49; A. Nowicka‐Jeżowa, Pieśni czasu śmierci: Studium z historii duchowności XVI‐XVIII wieku, Lublin, 1992 (KUL, Zakład Badań nad Literaturą Religijna, 20), p. 190; eadem, Homo viator‐mundus‐mors: Studia z dziejów eschatologii w literaturze staropolskiej, vols 1–3, Warszawa, 1988; eadem, Sarmaci i Smierć: O staroposkiej poezji żałobnej, Warszawa, 1992): J. Chrościcki, Pompa Funebris. Z dziejów kultury staropolskiej, Warszawa, 1974.

H. Kos, ‘“Strashny Sud” v ukrains’komu malarstvi', Kyivs'ka tserkva, p. 107.

Some art historians regarded this scene exclusively from the social point of view. For them, the image of death portrayed near the dying rich man indicated a direct critique of the upper strata of society. See P. Zholtov'skyi, Ukrains'kyi zhyvopys XVII‐XVIII st., pp. 288–89.

J. Myslivec, Pocatky didaktickych nametu w starem ruskem malirstvi, Cestam Umeni. Sbotnik praci pocte sedesatych narozenin Antinina Matejcka, Praha, 1949; G.H. Hamilton, The Art and Architecture of Russia, Harmondsworth, 1954 (Pelican History of Art, 6), pp. 101–02; L.S. Retkovskaia, O poiavlenii i razvitii kompozitsii ‘Otechestvo’ v russkom iskusstvie XIV‐nachala XVI vekov in Drevnierusskoje iskusstvo XV–nachala XVI vekov, Moscow, 1963, p. 256. W. Los traces analogies between the icon ‘Jedinorodny syn’ and the image of the Holy Trinity from the Toruń Poliptich 1360: W. Los, ‘Program ikonographiczny kwatery Świętej Trójcy Poliptyku Toruńskiego’, in J. Poklewski, ed., Sztuka Torunia i ziemi chelmińskiej (1233–1815). Materiały sesji naukowej zorganizowanej dla uczczenia jubileuszu 750‐lecia Torunia w dniach 18–20 kwietnia 1983 r., Warszawa–Poznań–Toruń, 1986, pp. 132–34.

Both woodcuts are published in F. Buslaev, Istoricheskiie ocherki russkoi narodnoi slovesnosti, 2 vols, St Peterburg, 1861; A.N. Sobolev, Mifologia slovian. Zagrobny mir po drevnierusskim predstavleniiam (literaturno‐istoricheskii opyt issledovaniia drevnierusskogo narodnogo mirosozercaniia), (St Petersburg, Izdatelstvo ‘Lan’, 2000, pp. 45, 63.

Among them, the icon reproduced in V. Briusova's album, Russkaia zhivopis' 17 vieka (Russian painting of the seventeenth century), Moscow, 1984, from the Assumption Church in Tipnitsi, now in the collection of the Karelia Fine Arts Museum. The icon is enhanced by additional elements, such as the dead rowing the boat, ‘the righteous souls in the light place’, ‘the sinful souls in the dark place’.

R.P. Dmitrieva, Povesti o sporie zhizni i smerti, Moscow–Leningrad, 1964; V. Briusova, op. cit., pp. 163–64.

L. Sukina, Ocherkovyie miniatury russkich rukopisnych Apokalipsisov i Sinodikov 2 poloviny 17 vieka, Moscow, 1998.

This icon is reproduced in M. Garidis, op. cit., pl. 38. See also A. Avinov, Collection of George Hann, Carnegie Institute Catalogue, 1944, p. 229.

See multiple examples in D. Tschizewskij, Paradies und Hölle. Russische Buchmalerei, Recklingshause, Aurel Bongers, 1957, pl. 10, 13, 16, 19, 21, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35.

M. Garidis, op. cit., p. 104.

G.D. Schmidt, The Iconography of the Mouth of Hell: Eighth‐Century Britain to the Fifteenth Century, London, Associated University Press, 1995; C. Davidson & T. Seiler, eds, The Iconography of Hell, Early Drama, Art, and Music series, 17, Kalamazoo, MI, Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1992; E. Gardiner, Medieval Visions of Heaven and Hell: A Sourcebook, Garland Medieval Bibliographies, vol. 11; Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, vol. 1256, New York, Garland, 1993.

St Bylina underlines that ranging sins in Hell presupposed a mixture of social and ethic categories. Candidates for eternal sufferings were tested according to seven deadly sins, five senses, as well as the famous list from the First Epistle to Corinthians, 6:9–10 (i.e. fornication, idolatry, adultery, effeminacy, theft, drunkenness, covetousness, falsehood, extortion) and to their social attribution. St. Bylina, op. cit., p. 99 and passim. According to J. Sokolski, the fullest and best systematised old Polish literary account of sinners' posthumous tortures is Katownie więżenia piekielnego. This treatise is by the Jesuit Giovanni Battista Manni. It was translated from Italian in 1695 and included in the second edition of K. Bolesławiusz's poem Przerażliwe echo… trby ostateczney. The text consists of thirteen brief chapters enriched by a set of illustrations. Along with K. Bolesławiusz's work, this treatise gained immense popularity and went to several editions. See J. Sokolski, Staropolskie zaświaty, Wrocław, 1990, pp. 140–47.

A. Karłowska‐Kamzowa, Malarstwo Śląskie 1250–1450, Wrocław–Warszawa–Kraków–Gdańsk, 1979, p. 18.

I wish to thank Prof. Michael Flier from the Harvard University for this remark.

Similar inscriptions are placed on the icons from Lipie (first half of the seventeenth century) in the collection of the Sanok Historical Museum in Poland; and on the icon from Przemyśl region (sixteenth–beginning of the seventeenth century) held at the National Museum in Kraków.

This element is also found on the icons from the villages of Volosianka (Hájásd) (seventeenth century), now in the collection of the Budapest Museum of Ethnography; Roztoka (eighteenth century), Transcarpathian region, Church of the Representation of the Theotokos; Lipie (first half of the seventeenth century) in the collection of the Sanok Historical Museum in Poland; Dobroslava (second half of the seventeenth century) from St Paraskeva Church in Slovakia; Plavie (Skolyvschyna) (seventeenth century) in storage at the L'viv National Museum.

Cf. Zd. Kliś, op. cit., pp. 161–62. Recently a group of Czech art historians undertook research into the iconography of another Bohemian Last Judgement from Prague city church (1604). The particular feature of its iconographic structure is the absence of the Virgin. Art historians interpret this phenomenon as a Calvinist influence. See M. Sronek, J. Rohacek & P. Danek, ‘Vaclav Trubka z Rovin—studie o mestanskem mecenatu v Rudolfinske Praze’, Umeni, 47 (1999), pp. 296–308.

A. Jasińska, ‘Drzwi z kostnicy dawnego cmentarza przy kościele Mariackim w Krakowie’, Śmierć w kulturze dawnej Polski, p. 107. For an extended study of the Polish Dance Macabre images, see M. Nalgez‐Dobrowolski, ‘Tańce śmierci w polskiej sztuce’, Tygodnik Illustrowany (1924) No. 7, pp. 102–03; No. 8, pp. 116–17; No. 9, pp. 11, 168–70.

An analysis of the exceptional example of the anti‐Uniate religious polemics in Ruthenian iconography is provided in ks. M. Janocha, ‘Unia Brzeska a malarstwo ikonowe z XVII wieku. Dialog wyznań czy dialog kultur?’, in Sztuka i dialog wyznań w XVI i XVII wieku. Materiały Sesji Stowarzyszenia Historyków Sztuki, Wrocław, listopad 1999, Wrocław, 2000, pp. 399–415; idem, Ukraińskie i białoruskie ikony świąteczne w dawnej Rzeczypospolitej, Warszawa: Neriton, 2001.

See, for example, L. Berezhnaya, ‘Sin, Fear, and Death in the Catholic and Orthodox Sermons in the XVIth–XVIIth Century Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (An Attempt at Comparison)’, in M. Derwich & M. Dmitriev, eds, Etre Catholique—être Orthodox—être Protestant: confessions et identités culturelles en Europe médiévale et moderne, Wrocław, Lanhcor, 2003, pp. 253–84.

P.M. Zholtovs'kyi, Khudozhnie zhyttia na Ukraiini v XVI‐XVIII st., Kyiv, Naukova Dumka, 1983, pp. 48–53.

Ibid., pp. 55–59.

V. Aleksandrovych, L'vivsk'ki maliari kintsia XVI stolittia, L'viv: ‘Misioner’, 1998.

P. Zholtovskyi emphasises that usually painters were the last to be mentioned in the list of servants and those who accompanied nobles and the Church hierarchs on their trips. More information about the painters' material and social status can be found in the contract agreements normally signed between an iconographer and his commissioners (the latter were represented either by church communities, Cossack starshina or noblemen). Until the mid‐eighteenth century iconographers usually received their payment in natural products. P.M. Zholtovs'kyi, Khudozhnie zhyttia, pp. 60–61.

Cf. ibid., p. 60. My translation.