The image of Wisdom on the Holy Gates

Abstract

The tradition of depicting the personification of divine inspiration, which has been well studied in relation to facial images in manuscripts and wall paintings, has not hitherto been a focus of attention among researchers on the Royal Gates. It was presumed to have been sparsely distributed among the visual programs of iconostasis doors and considered to have been preserved only in two examples from the 15^th century, the left gate leaf (in The Central Andrey Rublev Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art) and a fragment of the right gate from the collection of V.A. Prokhorov (in The State Russian Museum). However, it can be traced in other works of the 16^th–17^th centuries, particularly on Royal doors and on fragments of them. While miniatures depicting personifications of Wisdom are known in Byzantine art, the custom of decorating the gates of the altar gates with such figures is not seen in Byzantine monuments. On the other hand, it became established in Russia. The surviving works manifest great variety in the types of Wisdom on gates from the 15^th to the 17^th centuries, of which there are analogues in miniatures and frescoes. In addition to a type of “active conversation” is also known a variant of the image of Sophia behind the Evangelist, with Sophia sometimes whispering a text in the Evangelist’s ear. Differences appear in the inscriptions above the figures (“Wisdom”, “Holy Spirit”), in clothing, and in the shape of haloes. This article attempts to systematize the iconography of the Royal gates with respect to the personification of divine inspiration.