And throwing up her hands, she was stunned Lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt in Russian art of the second half of the 16th - 17th centuries

Abstract

The article discusses for the first time an issue of actualizing the motif of the transformation of Lot's wife into a pillar of salt in the Russian culture of the late Middle Ages. It defines a connection of such occurrences historical events and cultural transformations taking place at that time. The main tasks of the author were the reconstruction of the meaning and emotional content in some of the most vivid among surviving images of Lot's wife and the study of methods of their artistic expression methods in the iconography and frescoes. The study attempted to identify the interpretation specifics of that episode in the Western and Eastern Christian culture of the Middle Ages and early modern times. In particular, that concerns the image of Lot's wife's gestures at the moment when she violates the prohibition not to turn back and not to look at the dying Sodom.

The author comes to the conclusion that the image of Lot's wife in Russian art of the 16^th - 17^th centuries, who was stunned with her arms raised and closed above her head, should be interpreted in an eschatological way and understood as a symbol of a person who could not make the right spiritual choice in time and so hesitating in the choice between values of the earthly existence and heavenly bliss.