We publish here an excerpt from an article by M.Ya. Libman, which introduced the collection of articles by I.E. Danilova (1984) [Libman 1984, pp. 7–11]. This article summarizes the main range of I.E. Danilova’s professional interests, the main research methods and characteristics of her creative achievements in the context of those of contemporary colleagues. M.Ya. Libman’s evaluation is especially significant, since he was a long-term close colleague and scholarly collaborator of Irina Evgenievna at the State A.S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and at the State Institute of Art History.

The uniqueness and complexity of the composition on the pectoral examined here, a piece gold jewelry from the Scythian burial mound Tolstaya Mogila, С. 4 BC, encouraged researchers to assume it held exceptional significance in Scythian culture, and the idea emerged that the pectoral belonged to a Scythian cult role, and this view has been developed in most studies. However, we do not have any information confirming ritual its use. The pectoral was found in the mound, but outside the burial itself. The plot of the main narrative depicted can be correlated with an ancient legend about the origin of the dynasty of the Macedonian kings, the Argeades. Its style and technical features do not rule out identification of the place of manufacture as Macedonia or Northern Greece. The “Scythian tradition” in modern scholarship allows for the exchange of Royal gifts, as well as military trophies, between Scythian and Macedonian (Greek) rulers. Still, many things remain unclear. The pectoral has no analogues either in the Scythian world, or in the Greek. Despite the correspondence of its elements and techniques with those of other works, the pectoral remains an exceptional and individual work of art, still unsurpassed in the complexity of its design and the quality of its workmanship.

The paper is dedicated to the earliest formative stages of Annunciation imagery. Although it was widely spread in the Middle Ages, only a few examples of the scene survive from the early Christian period. Judging by the existing material evidence, it can be argued that the image of the Annunciation acquired recognizable and fully-fledged form only in the fifth century. Early examples reveal distinct formative stages of the iconography and the gradual introduction of additional features, enriching the content and visual rendering of this highly significant visual theme. This paper analyzes the influence of Apocrypha, as well as of the early theological tradition, on the development of the Annunciation scene and reveals the importance of this material to the study of the cult of the Mother of God.

The article discusses the images of St. Jerome in the historiated initials in Latin Bibles. The iconographic variability of illustrations to the Jerome Prologues to the books of Holy Scripture, in 12^th – 13^th century manuscripts, demonstrates the lack of unified iconographic schemes for their themes during the period discussed. At the same time these illustrative sources show the processes of change in the formation of iconography: the traditional iconographic schemes used in medieval illuminated manuscripts (portraits of the author, dedication scenes) and their further transformation in new contexts, reveal such major themes as the connection of images with text and the functions of the image and the initial in the book.

The paper aims at clarifying the meanings of early Italian painted polyptychs. The rationale behind the genesis of this particular type of altarpiece, which spread rapidly in the 1260s–1320s and became very popular in the churches of the Dominicans and Franciscans, has received only partial explanation in existing scholarship. A new perspective in its study can be advanced through consideration of the mission of early polyptychs in the context of eschatological expectations of the era, which were largely defined by the prophecies of Joachim of Flores. These expectations shaped the mendicant orders’ narratives of their own missions, which found explicit expression in their art only much later. By confronting the early polyptych with the later orders’ pieces reflecting their identity, the author argues that early mendicant altarpieces served primarily as visual representations of each order’s mission, which largely determined their popularity.

The Regional Museum of Messina possesses four fragments of monumental mosaics originating from local churches. Their dating, as suggested in research literature, varies between the second half of the 13^th century and the first third of the 14^th. А question remains open concerning the roles that the authentic Byzantine and/or local Sicilian masters played in their creation.
Messinian mosaic fragments show familiarity with methods of rendering faces which were not crystallized in Byzantine art before the origin of the mosaics in Kariye Camii (1316–1321). In the opinion expressed here, they were all produced during the first third of the 14^th century, by local craftsmen who were guided by Constantinople models, although a manner they worked in was more simplified in comparison with metropolitan one. An exception is a mosaic depicting the archangel Michael, which could have been created by a visiting Byzantine master who had metropolitan training.

The Sinai icon from the collection of Porfiry Uspensky, which was preserved in the Museum of Church Archaeology at the Kiev Theological Academy and was lost during the Second World War, contained the images of the Descent from the Cross and Lamentation. As far as can be judged from two black and white photographs from the archives of G.I. Vzdornov and M.V. Alpatov, it was created in the second half of the XIV century. Rather, it can even be attributed to the third quarter of the century, as evidenced by the parallels from murals and icon painting. Its style is close to the painting of Constantinople. The closest parallel among the icons preserved in the monastery of St. Catherine on Sinai seems to be a polyptych with scenes of the Descent from the Cross and the Entombment.

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.

Created by Benozzo Gozzoli, the picturesque setting of the Magi Chapel (Chapel of the Magi) in the chapel of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi (1459–1460, Florence) includes about one hundred and fifty images of people, among which the artist himself is represented. In the Russian literature devoted to this fresco cycle, only one self-portrait of Benozzo is mentioned, which is dressed in a red cap, on which his name is indicated. He is among the escort of the youngest Magus, which mostly consists of the Medici, the unofficial rulers of the city, and their entourage. Meanwhile, on the opposite wall of the chapel, the master has painted himself again twice. This paper analyzes the three self-portraits in terms of the artist’s psychological features, of the growth of his artistic self-consciousness and of their compositional arrangement and the meanings conveyed through such variations.

Artistic life in the Rome of the late Cinquecento was affected by a gradual departure from the Renaissance idea of a master who set his personal example on the work of his assistants. The concept of an artist as the head of a large workshop, who determined everything related to its life and work, now increasingly merged into an idea of a collaboration of creative equals. Girolamo Muziano’s interaction with his assistants was partly a continuation of the ideal examples of Roman workshops in the first half of the 16th cent. However, in this case, the type of interaction underwent an unexpected development, as the teacher began to use the graphic ideas of his students. This article examines the continuity and mutation of traditions and innovative creative methods in the workshop of Girolamo Muziano.

Georg Pencz’s picturesque portraits represent one of the brightest stages of development in the master’s work. In the 1540s, after his second Italian trip, the artist became the leading portrait painter of the Nuremberg nobility and turned to the type of monumental large-format portrait that included elements of genre painting. Pencz depicted the rich entourage surrounding a patron with the attention to nature inherent in German Renaissance art. It was a demonstration not only of the social status and affluence of his patron, but also of the artist’s skill. At the same time, the image was endowed with an inherent aesthetics of mannerism, in which notional and optical allusions, among other things, indicated the enlightenment and subtle taste of the portrayed individual. Illusion and reality combined to create a symbolic field, within which a picture should be interpreted. This trend continued into XVII century painting.