The image of Divine Wisdom, traditionally associated with the
Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, is an innovation of the fifteenth
century. The icon represents the winged, royal, red-faced Sophia
flanked by the Mother of God and John the Baptist. Although the
image has a contemporaneous commentary, and although it exercised a
profound influence on Russian cultural history, its meaning,
together with the dating and localisation of the first appearance
of the iconography, has remained an art-historical conundrum. By
exploring the message, roots, function, and historical context of
the creation of the first, most emblematic and enigmatic Russian
allegorical iconography, Depicting Orthodoxy in the Russian Middle
Ages deciphers the meaning of this icon. In contrast to previous
interpretations, Kriza argues that the winged Sophia is the
personification of the Orthodox Church. The Novgorod Wisdom icon
represents the Church of Hagia Sophia, that is, Orthodoxy, as it
was perceived in fifteenth-century Rus. Depicting Orthodoxy asserts
that the icon, together with its commentary, was a visual-textual
response to the Union of Florence between the Catholic and Orthodox
Churches, signed in 1439 but rejected by the Russians in 1441. This
interpretation is based on detailed interdisciplinary research,
drawing on philology, art history, theology, and history. Kriza's
study challenges some key assumptions concerning the relevance of
Church Schism of 1054, the polemics between the Greeks and the
Latins about the bread of Eucharist, and the role of the Union of
Florence in the history of Russian art. In particular, by studying
both well- and lesser-known works of art alongside overlooked
textual evidence, this volume investigates how the Christian Church
and its true faith were defined and visualized in Rus and Byzantium
throughout the centuries.
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