THE TREE OF THE RUSSIAN STATE — A RARE VISUAL PLOT IN RUSSIAN ILLUMINATED BOOKS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

JATS XML:

XML
BibTEX:

BIB
Research Information Systems Citation Format:

RIS
Category: Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature: Issue 24
Full text:

PDF
Abstract:

The article examines the tree of the Russian State — a rare visual story in Russian illuminated books of the 17th century. The diversity of book miniatures’ plots requires a special study of each thematic group in order to correctly determine its place and role in the intellectual and visual culture of the last century of the dominance of the manuscripts in Russia. The article examines book illustrations depicting the tree of the Russian state — a symbolic genealogy of the grand knyazes and tsars. This plot is not found in Russian illuminated books before the 17th century. But even for this century, it remained extremely rare, although it was widespread on icons and frescoes. Currently, three book miniatures depicting the dynastic tree of Russian sovereigns are known: in two monastery sinodiks (gk. synodicon) and a copy of the Book of Royal Degrees. Compositionally, all these images go back to the iconography of the Tree of Jesse (Genealogy of Christ) common in Christian medieval art. In Russian illuminated books of the 17th century, it is found in the Gospels written and illuminated by order of members of the royal family or persons close to it. The images of the Russian state tree in book miniatures are associated with the same circle of customers. At the same time, the iconography of princely/royal trees is quite diverse, since each time its compilers were guided by different goals and objectives.
Keywords: Russian culture of the 17th century, manuscript, book miniature, image and text, tree of the Russian state.
Author: Lyudmila B. Sukina
Information about the author:

Lyudmila B. Sukina, DSc in History, Head of the Department of Training highly qualified personnel, The Program Systems Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Petra Pervogo St., 4A, 152021 Pereslavl-Zalessky, Veskovo, Russia.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7692-2085

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For citation:

Sukina, L.B. “The Tree of the Russian State — a Rare Visual Story in Russian Illuminated Books of the Seventeenth Century.” Germenevtika drevnerusskoi literatury [Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature]. Issue 24. Ed.-in-chief O.A. Tufanova, sci. ed. M.V. Kaplun. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2025, pp. 705–722. https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2025-24-705-722 (In Russian)
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/HSGQCC
UDC: 7.03+821.161.1.0
Publication Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2025-24-705-722
Received: 14.01.2025
Approved after reviewing: 11.03.2025
Date of publication: 13.07.2025

REFERENCES

  1. Antonov, D.I., and M.R. Maizuls. Demony i greshniki v drevnerusskoi ikonografii: semiotika obraza [Demons and Sinners in Old Russian Iconography: Semiotics of the Image]. Moscow, Indrik Publ., 2011. 376 p. (In Russian)
  2. Gribov, A. Russkie litsevye rukopisi XIV–XIX vekov. Ocherki istorii [Russian Illuminated Manuscripts of the 14th–19th Centuries. Essays on History]. Moscow, Gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii muzei Publ., 2024. 440 p. (In Russian)
  3. Gulina, I. “Sinodik iaroslavskogo Spasskogo monastyria 1656 g. (k formirovaniiu ideologii rossiiskoi vlasti v XVII v.)” [“Synodicon of the Yaroslavl Spassky Monastery, 1656 (on the Formation of the Ideology of Russian Power in the 17th Century)”]. Smutnoe vremia v Rossii v nachale XVII veka: Poiski vykhoda [The Time of Troubles in Russia at the Beginning of the 17th Century: Searching for a Way Out], ed. V.N. Kozliakov. Moscow, ZAO “2K” Publ., 2012, pp. 231–247. (In Russian)
  4. Kachalova, Ia. “Stenopis’ galerei Blagoveshchenskogo sobora Moskovskogo Kremlia” [“Murals of the Galleries of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin”]. Drevnerusskoe iskusstvo [Old Russian Art], vol. 17: Balkans. Rus’. Saint Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin Publ., 1995, pp. 411–437. (In Russian)
  5. Kozhina, A. “Odno iz khudozhestvennykh techenii v russkoi zhivopisi XVI–XVII vv.” [“One of the Artistic Trends in Russian Painting of the 16th–17th Centuries”]. Russkoe iskusstvo XVII veka [Russian Art of 17th Century]. Leningrad, Academia Publ., 1929, pp. 63–84. (In Russian)
  6. Lobanov-Rostovskii, B. Russkaia rodoslovnaia kniga [Russian Genealogical Book], vol. 1. St. Petersburg, Tipografiia A.S. Suvorina Publ., 1895. 467 p. (In Russian)
  7. Pripachkin, I. Ikonografiia Gospoda Iisusa Khrista [Iconography of the Lord Jesus Christ]. Moscow, Palomnik Publ., 2001. 151 p. (In Russian)
  8. Rybakov, A. Vologodskaia ikona. Tsentry khudozhestvennoi kul’tury zemli Vologodskoi XIII–XVIII vekov [Vologda Icon. Centers of Artistic Culture of the Vologda Land of the 13th–18th Centuries]. Moscow, Galart Publ., 1995. 484 p. (In Russian)
  9. Sirenov, V. “Kontseptsiia dinasticheskoi monarkhii v Rossii XVII — pervoi poloviny XVIII v.” [“The Concept of Dynastic Monarchy in Russia in the 17th — First Half of the 18th Century”]. Drevniaia Rus’ posle Drevnei Rusi: diskurs vostochnoslavianskogo (ne)edinstva [Old Russia after Old Russia: Discourse of East Slavic (non)unity], ed. A.V. Doronin. Moscow, Politicheskaia entsiklopediia Publ., 2017, pp. 345–357. (In Russian)
  10. Sirenov, V. Stepennaia kniga i russkaia istoricheskaia mysl’ XVI–XVIII vv. [Book of Royal Degrees and Russian Historical Thought of the 16th–18th Centuries]. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Alians-Arkheo Publ., 2010. 552 p. (In Russian)
  11. Solodkin, G. “O datirovke i khronologicheskoi strukture Novogo letopistsa” [“On the Dating and Chronological Structure of the New Chronicler”]. Drevniaia Rus’. Voprosy medievistiki, no. 3 (17), 2004, pp. 39–46. (In Russian)
  12. Sukina, B. Voobrazhaemoe drevo: kak pervye Romanovy izobretali dlia sebia tsarskuiu rodoslovnuiu [An Imaginary Tree: How the First Romanovs Invented a Royal Family Tree for Themselves]. Moscow, Prospekt Publ., 2022. 128 p. (In Russian)
  13. Sukina, B. “Tsikl illiustratsii tsarskogo rodosloviia v Stepennoi knige pod’iachego Fedora Postnikova-Parfen’eva 1670 g.” [“Cycle of Illustrations of the Tsar’s Genealogy in the Book of Royal Degrees of Podyachy Fyodor Postnikov-Parfenev, 1670”]. Germenevtika drevnerusskoi literatury [Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature]. Issue 23. Ed.-in-chief O.A. Tufanova. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2024, pp. 500–517. https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2024-23-500-517 (In Russian)
  14. Chiniakova, P. Drevniaia Rus’ i Zapad. Russkii litsevoi Apokalipsis XVI–XVII vekov. Miniatiura, graviura, ikona, stenopis’ [Old Russia and the West. Russian Illuminated Apocalypse of the 16th–17th Centuries. Miniature, Engraving, Icon and Murals]. Moscow, BuksMArt Publ., 2018. 368 p. (In Russian)