Big altar cross in Russia in the 17th – 18th centuries

Abstract

The article deals with the phenomenon of creating new shrines in the form of large altar crosses and their cult in Russia in the 17th – 18th centuries. The work was carried out within the framework of the problematic of visual history associated with the study of the relationship between “symbolic forms” and various social and cultural “languages” of society (J.-C. Schmitt). The big cross was present in the temple interior and religious rituals of Old Russia from the first centuries of Christianization. But creating original, and not just copying Byzantine samples, monuments of such a type is associated with the activities of Patriarch Nikon. As comparatively recent studies show, the autocratic tsarist government also took part in that. Particular attention is paid to the two crosses, being the most interesting and well-preserved and famous of the newly created in the era of the first Romanovs, they however, were not considered in the same historical and cultural context. Those are the Cross of Kiy-Island of Patriarch Nikon and the “Korsun Cross” from the St. Nikolas Monastery in Pereslavl-Zalessky. The first is at the origins of a new tradition, the second completes its formation already at the beginning of the 18th century. Both recreate the image of the victorious Cross of Constantine, but go back to different models – the sacred prototype of the Cross of the Lord (Cross of Kiy-Island) and the legendary Korsun shrine of Prince Vladimir (the cross from St. Nikolas Monastery). An analysis of the history of their origin and unique iconographic programs shows the variability in the veneration of the Holy Cross in Russia in the 17th – 18th centuries.