The article studies the question whether bishop Caesarius of Arles (503–542) could be the owner of a leather belt with an ivory buckle from the Museum of Antique Arles. The issue is the absence of narrative sources directly proving that idea. High price of the object did not match the bishop’s ascetic reputation. Still that did not preclude that someone from the closest circle of his associates or supporters could make that gift to Caesarius. The article studies the ornament of the movable ring of the buckle and the iconographic type of the plot of the Resurrection of Christ carved on its surface. Some parts of the belt, its decoration and manufacturing techniques find parallels with various artifacts (buckles, sarcophagi, diptychs) stored in other museums or discovered during archaeological excavations in Gaul. A review of the elements of the liturgical vestments of the clergy of Late Antiquity led to the conclusion that the belt could not have a liturgical status. On the basis of narrative sources related to the life and work of Caesarius, the author makes assumptions about the possible extra-liturgical contexts of wearing such a belt. The data presented in the study make it possible not only to attribute the belt to the period of bishop Caesarius’s life, but also to consider the latter as the most likely owner of the thing.

In the paper, witchcraft beliefs in the modern world are considered within the framework of the ethological and structural-functional approaches, the concepts of “moral panic” and “the image of a limited good”. The author analyzes the ethological foundations and social functions of witchcraft beliefs and demonstrates that the idea of witchcraft turns out to be a function of social relations, communication needs and creative abilities (one might say, a side effect of those universal human needs and abilities). The article consistently demonstrates how, in the hunter-gatherer and early farming communities, witchcraft beliefs and related practices become an important cognitive tool and mechanism of social regulation, and how, as society grows and becomes more complex, those ideas and practices become a symptom of social distress (when persecution begins and whole groups of demonized fellow-countrymen begin to be persecuted). The author shows that the witchcraft belief, which remaining latent in collective consciousness, are getting stronger in situations of social upheaval and economic crises, and the persecution of alleged witches may resume today. Up-to-day cases from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Russia demonstrate such state of affairs.

The article examines the practices associated with the veneration of the portrait of the Rybnitser Rebbe (Chaim Zanvl Abramovich, 1902–1995) that are currently common among natives of Rybnitsa (now Transnistria). The study is based on field research in Rybnitsa in 2011–2019, as well as on the analysis of hagiographic literature in Yiddish and Hebrew, published in the United States after the death of the rebbe. The ambivalent attitude towards the depiction of the tzaddik is studied in the context of general ideas concerning portraits of rabbis in Hasidism. In many oral narratives, the motive of the constant justification of the practice of referring to the portrait of Chaim Zanvl remains. The image of the rebbe, a portrait printed on canvas, is kept in almost every family that remember the Rybnitser rebbe. The portrait was given to the people of Rybnitsa by the rebbe’s widow, who in the early 2000s collected materials for writing a hagiographic book about her husband. The photograph for the portrait was made in the classical style of rabbinical portraits of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Rebbe is depicted sitting over a holy book, in ritual dresses such as tallit with tefillin on his head, looking straight at the viewer. Despite the fact that it is not customary for Jews to have icons, pictures, etc., the interviews reveal the fact that the portrait of the tzaddik functions precisely like holy image. People talk to the portrait and pray to it; they hang it in a significant place at their homes; they keep it as a card in a wallet or as a small picture on key chains, in cars and on phone screensavers. In addition, for people from Rybnitsa the portrait of Chaim Zanvl becomes an icon of Jewish identity, a tool of social connection within the community and beyond.

The article discusses four key principles of demonstrating the inner space in Russian iconography. The first three techniques are different variations of framing the characters with an architectural or geometric ‘border’. These are: placing the figures against the background of buildings that in such case themselves play the role of a frame that bringing the characters inside the depicted house; a ‘retractable’ architectural element– a colonnade or wall that frames the characters from behind and brings them into the interior space; finally, the nutrovye palaty (inner chambers) – a frame that ‘cuts’ the building with high arches and allows the painter to show both the interior of the building and fragments of its exterior. Similar principles of ‘cutting’ the composition with frames, ‘bordering’ a number of characters with a geometric line, were used to demonstrate scenes related to another time or space (visions, events of the past or future, etc.). The fourth technique was the partial overlap of the depicted figure with an architectural element (a person looking out from behind a column, from a window, from a doorway). It is based on the impression of an outside observer and refers no longer to the conventional, but to realistic techniques in painting. As shown in the article, all four variants coexisted in Russian iconography and could easily complement each other in a composition. The paper demonstrates the functioning of each of those techniques based on the corpus of Russian icons and miniatures.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Crucifixion from the Parliament of Paris – a painting that decorated the Great Hall of the Royal Court from the beginning of the 15th century until 1904. The author focuses on the political and legal meanings that were embedded in the Crucifixion. From this point of view, the main characters of the retablo, their appearance and attributes, as well as the general structure of the picture are studied. The author comes to the conclusion that the foreground of the retablo was intended primarily for educated people who are familiar not only with the history of the Passion of Christ or the martyrdom of St. Dionysius, but also with the Christian doctrine of redemption and the separation of powers. The background of the retablo, on the contrary, was intended for the common people. For each group of viewers, the artist used special symbolism and understandable markers. Nevertheless, the purpose of the Crucifixion remained the same – to emphasize by all means that the Parliament of Paris is the highest Royal Court of France, the place of judicial power par excellence, which is equal for everybody: the representatives of the nobility and the church, the high-ranking courtiers, the persons of the Royal blood, the ordinary people.

The article focuses on the engraving “The Triumph of Our Lady” from the Book of Hours by Geoffroy Tory, 1531, kept in the collection of the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. That woodcut precedes the Hours of the Virgin Mary section, and complements the main row of images, most of which are related to the Mariological theme. An attempt is made to study possible sources for the rare iconography. Both Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (The dream of Poliphilus) by Aldus Manutius, Venice, 1499 and The Triumphs (I Trionfi) of Francesco Petrarch are considered. The author also takes into account the printed products of Tory himself, such as: “Champ fleury” (Flowery fields), 1529, Triumphal Entry of Eleanor of Austria, 1531. The iconography of the engraving displays the elaborately developed in Italian painting and drawing scheme of Roman triumphs of emperors and pagan gods. It also includes the visual impressions of theatrical and religious ceremonies, solemn entrances that Tory could witness. But those patterns were transformed and given a new Christian subject matter related to the glorification of the Virgin Mary. That corresponded to both the type of a prayer book (BVM) and the section the engraving preceded.

A number of researches in recent years have been aimed at revealing the factors that influenced the iconographic program in the apses of the basilicas in Rome as well as at a new, deeper understanding of the semantics of the depicted themes. The paper is focused on the mosaic compositions in Roman apses; it is intended to demonstrate three typical aspects (liturgical, stylistic and political) of the visual papal strategies that are reflected in the encrypted “messages” of the pontiffs in different times. Both iconographic models and inscriptions within the composition – liturgical texts, quotations from scripture – are studied in the connection with the liturgics. In the context of the stylistic analysis, the author considers the pictorial tools used by the Roman artists, thus trying to reveal their appeal to the heritage of the past. A manifestation of such a reference was reflected, particularly, in the widespread adoption of paleochristian models and schemes, which succeeded the reform of the Church, proclaimed by Gregory VII, and also were connected with the concept of Ecclesia primitiva. The political aspect of visual communication is represented in the selection of images of the Roman Church that appeared in the apse. The author seeks to understand the causality associated with the chosen iconographical program and the historical and political situation.