Text and Image Reception on the Example of the Old Believer Synodicon of the XVIII century: on the Question of the Semantics of Thanatological Representations

The study of the semantics of images and colors found in the Old Believer miniaturist helps to better understanding and revealing the meaning of thanatological representations of this confessional group. Special role belongs to the text that accompanies the miniature and often becomes a source of interpretation of certain symbols. The purpose of the article is to reconstruct the reception of the image through the text and the semantics of illustration colors by a representative of the XVIII cent. as a bearer of semiotic and semantic codes of historical and cultural tradition.

The article reveals the external ideas of the Old Believers about the afterlife through the description of the plot of the sinner’s soul in hell depicted on the miniature and represents an attempt to read and reveal the semantics of the images found in the miniature. An important place in the publication belongs to the study of color perception and its role in the description of images.

The author provides a brief overview of pre-revolutionary, Soviet and modern historiography devoted to interdisciplinary intersections in this issue, thereby actualizing the problem field under consideration, as well as forming the theoretical foundation of this research.

The article also describes the miniature contained in the manuscript, the plot and compositional basis is revealed, the characters are highlighted, and the connection of the handwritten miniature with the book tradition of Ancient and Medieval Russia is revealed.

When comparing the source under study with other sources (22 archival Old Believer manuscripts: 7 of them are Synodica, 7 are Collections of teachings, words, etc., the remaining ones include the lives of saints, apocalypses, etc.), the author tries to make correlation between the use of color in certain images and its meaning. Based on such a comparison, the semantics of colors is revealed: red is the color of saints and sinners, white is the color of the spiritual and bodily, the role of green and black is shown in preserving the book tradition and the depiction of animals. The conclusions of the article include highlighting of colors/images and patterns in their use. 

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