Priscilla Hunt

Priscilla Hunt and Svitlana Kobets. Holy Foolishness in Russia: New Perspectives. Bloomington: Slavica Publishers, 2011. viii, 405 pp. Colour Illustrations. Bibliography. $36.70, paper.Holy Foolishness in Russia: New Perspectives, edited by Priscilla Hunt and Svitlana Kobets, is a collection of essays exploring the phenomenon of holy foolishness in Russia from the eleventh century to the present. From hagiography and hymnology to contemporary Russian performance art, the articles demonstrate the intimate relationship between the stories themselves and the historical contexts in which they were told. Of particular interest in this volume is the comparative analysis of how interpretations of holy foolishness and holy fools have changed over time. The enduring significance of certain texts to the interpretation of holy foolishness in various historical settings, such as the Vita of Andrew the Fool of Constantinople,1 is also evident through the combined efforts of these authors.It is i...

The article studies the polemical orientation of the hagiographical Life of the Archpriest Avvakum, Written by Himself in relation to the author’s earlier works, The Answer of the Orthodox, and other texts that were included together with the Life in the Pustozersk Collection. An analysis of the creative evolution of Avvakum’s thought will demonstrate that the Life’s appeal to holy foolishness at its narrative climax was its strongest ideological weapon against the new Church elite (the Nikonians). This appeal gave rise to an unprecedented emphasis on the author’s personal life experience that was meant to be proof of the “theoretical” arguments against Nikonian rationalism in the The Answer to the Orthodox. As a demonstration of a mystical-experiential approach to knowledge of God, his dramatized holy foolishness justified his choice to present his own biography as a publicistic hagiographical narrative.

... Confronting the End: The Interpretation of the Las Judgment in a Novgorod Wisdom Icon. Autores: Priscilla Hunt; Localización: Byzantinoslavica, ISSN 0007-7712, Vol. 65, Nº. 1, 2007 , págs. 275-326. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. ...

Abstract
The Wisdom Iconography of Light: The Genesis, Meaning and Iconographic Realization of a Symbol
By Priscilla Hunt
A star of eight points appears in Byzantino-Slavic iconography in the fourteenth century (Plate 12). Comprised of two overlapping rhombi at quarter angles within a circle or circles of light, it typically occurs around the head or body of Christ.1 Prior to this, at the end of the thirteenth century, a simpler image consisting of a single rhombus in the same circle(s) of light appears in analogous iconographic contexts (Plate 5).2 The circles of light around Christ, usually transected by rays occur from the beginning of Christian iconography in the fifth and sixth centuries (Plate 3). Although scholars have identified the star as a symbol of Wisdom, theophany and divinity, no one has adequately explained its meaning, where it came from or why it emerged into the tradition in the early fourteenth century.3 This study will show that the star and the single rhombus (proto-star) are
1 See T. Vel’man, “Le rôle de l’hésychasm dans la peinture mural Byzantine du XIVe et XVe siècles,” in Ritual and Art: Byzantine Essays for Christopher Walter, London: Pindar Press, 2006, 218-219. These circles could also be stylized as oval, or egg shaped. A. Andreopoulos in Metamorphosis: The Transfiguration in Byzantine Theology and Iconography, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, New York, 2005, esp. 228-242 analyzes the various forms this circle can take, and explains them in a cross- cultural Jungian perspective.
2This rhombus also could be stylized in various ways with curvatures on the sides and emphasis on the two interior triangles. L. F. Zhegin, Iazyk zhivopisnogo proizvedeniia, Moskva: Iskusstvo, 1970, 59, 66 relates these deformations to the non-Euclidean, “elliptical” or “spherical” organization of space relative to an internal central viewpoint.
3See Der Nersessian, S., “Notes sur quelques images se rattachant au theme du Christ-Ange, in Etudes Byzantines et Armeniènnes, Louvain, 1973, Imp. Orientaliste, 43-47, and D. Fiene, “What is the Appearance of Divine Sophia,” Slavic Review, vol. 48, no. 3 (Fall, 1989), 449-477, esp. 473-475, figures 3,4,6,10,11 and 12.
       
interrelated expressions of the hidden symbolic meanings of the circles of light in which they appear. All three iconographic motifs, the circle of light, the proto-star and the eight-pointed star are consecutive stages (1-3) of realization of the esoteric meaning of a numerical-geometrical symbol in the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite—a circle with expanding radii. The first part of this study investigates the Neo-Platonic and Neo-Pythagorean basis of Dionysius’ symbol and reconstructs its esoteric meaning as a hidden sphere of Light that signifies the multiplication of the One. This investigation suggests that each stage of the Wisdom iconography of Light models the action of the spherical continuum, specifically, of the cone, with increasing fullness and richness of implication..The second part of this study analyzes the iconographic contexts in which this Light symbolism occurs. We first examine four mid-fifth and sixth century compositions that exhibit stage 1, concentric circles of Light with rays. We then turn to four related iconographic subjects in the iconography of the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries that each exhibit an evolution from stage 2 to stage 3, from the protostar to the star. The similarities in the use of each respective stage of the iconography of Light suggest that 1) iconographers had a common perception of the meaning of each stage and 2) that they were inspired by a common agenda.. This analysis demonstrates that iconographers established their iconography of Wisdom-Light at a time when the esoteric traditions that informed Dionysius’ work and Dionysius himself were alive, in the mid-fifth and especially the sixth century.4 They developed it further from the late thirteenth century as part of the Church’s defense of its mystical theology against the inroads of humanism.5 The evolution of Light symbolism reflected the widespread tendency of the time to make theological premises more explicit and to find new ways to symbolize the hidden depth of Wisdom. The evolution of Light symbolism from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries testifies to a living but unwritten esoteric tradition about the sphere that was maintained throughout the ages. When cultural conditions called
4In The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition, p. 161 Louth places Dionysius in the late-fifth to sixth century. Dionysius’ hidden meanings drew on earlier tradition. St. Augustine in the fourth century made reference to the traditions. See Eco, Art and Beauty, 43.
5 See also J. Meyendorff, J. A Study of Gregory Palamas, London: the Faith Press, 1964, 42-62.
   
for renewed interpretations of the Light, new representations of the hidden sphere emerged. Finally, an understanding of all three stages of the Wisdom iconography of Light in iconographic context elucidates the concept of theophany that informs Byzantino-Slavic iconography.

Under the Metropolitan Macarius, a fresco program was produced in the Kremlin Golden Palace throne room and vestibule to express a rulership ideology appropriate for Ivan iv’s recent elevation from Grand Prince to Tsar. The images in the dome, based on a symbolic paradigm of “Wisdom’s house” from Proverbs (9: 1–5), show many innovative features. Most mysterious of all is a sun whose rays are the bodies of serpents, with the heads of serpents, lions and an eagle, above a rabbit fleeing from the devil. This study analyzes the origin, meaning and function of these heretofore undeciphered animal images. It shows that they are esoteric symbols of the Wisdom of the Cross which act as controlling metaphors for the whole program, including the Old Testament prototypes for present day Muscovy. They are directed at the sovereign as a mystical initiate who makes present the renewing power of the world’s beginning and end; they express the ruler’s Christ-like sovereignty and messianic calling t...

... The foolishness in the life of the archpriest Avvakum and the problem of innovation. Autores:Priscilla Hunt; Localización: Russian History, ISSN 0094-288X, Vol. 35, Nº. 3-4, 2008 , págs. 275-308. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. ...

... The Wisdom Iconography of Light: the Genesis, Meaning and Iconographic Realization of a Symbol. Autores: Priscilla Hunt; Localización: Byzantinoslavica, ISSN 0007-7712, Vol. 67, Nº. 1, 2009 , págs. 55-118. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. ...

... The Wisdom Iconography of Light: the Genesis, Meaning and Iconographic Realization of a Symbol. Autores: Priscilla Hunt; Localización: Byzantinoslavica, ISSN 0007-7712, Vol. 67, Nº. 1, 2009 , págs. 55-118. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. ...

This Russian language article investigates the polemical orientation of the hagiographical Life of the Archpriest Avvakum, Written by Himself in relation to the author’s earlier works, The Answer of the Orthodox, and other texts that were included together with the Life in the Pustozersk Collection. An analysis of the creative evolution of Avvakum’s thought will demonstrate that the Life’s appeal to holy foolishness at its narrative climax was its strongest ideological weapon against the new Church elite (the Nikonians). This appeal gave rise to an  unprecedented emphasis on the author’s personal life experience that was meant to be proof of the  “theoretical” arguments against Nikonian rationalism in the The Answer to the Orthodox. As a demonstration of a mystical-experiential approach to knowledge of God, his dramatized  holy foolishness justified his choice to present his  own biography as a publicistic  hagiographical narrative.

Вскоре после провозглашения в 1547 г. великого князя Ивана IV царем, по инициативе Митрополита Макария, Золотая Палата (тронный зал) Кремлевского дворца с примыкающими к ней сенями была расписана фресками. Настоящее исследование имеет своей целью показать, что эта художественная программа преследовала две различные цели, направленные на разные группы посетителей. Анализу влияния фресок на светских придворных посвящены исследовательские работы целого ряда ученых. Объект нашего исследования находится на более глубоком уровне, направленном на посвященных в мистическое богословие Божественной Мудрости. На этом уровне фрески воздействовали на верхушку новгородского духовенства, приближенного к молодому царю и на самого царя, воспитываемого этим духовенством. Настоящее исследование раскрывает сплетение ассоциаций подтекстов и структурных связей, превращающих поверхностные изображения в стройную парадигму священной власти царя, его обязанностей и провидческой роли во всеобщей истории. Эта парадигма восходит к главе 9, стихам 1-5 Книги Притч Соломоновых и развивает символику вселенской церкви как «Дома Софии», восходящую к новгородскому культу Софии-Мудрости.  Однако, эта парадигма привносит целый ряд нововведений, превращающих ее из чисто церковной доктрины в политическую теологию, освящающую правителя и государство.
Ключом к этому превращению является символика из животного мира. Сюда относится изображение солнца, чьи «лучи» суть тела змей, половина которых увенчана змеиными головами, а другая половина – львиными и орлиной головой. Непосредственно под этим изображением показан заяц, убегающий от дьявола. Оба эти изображения обрамлены створками большой двери, служащей входом в центральную часть палаты, где в центре купола расположено изображение Христа. Методом поэтического и культурологического анализа наше исследование раскрывает источник, значение и назначение этих до сих пор нерасшифрованных изображений. Мы предлагаем анализ метафор, на основе которых была построен весь цикл фресок как в самой палате, так и в сенях. Символизируя тайную Мудрость Креста, это средоточие метафор сопоставляет: 1) живущих и будущих царей с провидением, тем самым связывая прошлое с настоящим и будущим; и 2) Московию со вселенской церковью и народом-мессией («Новым Израилем»). На более глубоком уровне, цикл фресок сакрализирует историческое время настоящего и будущих царствований как постоянно обновляющийся мир, где Московия отражает преображенный вселенский город-храм (эсхатологический Новый Иерусалим). Иконография фресок представляет царя спасителем. Вопреки своему происхождению в верхнем слое общества и эзотерическим свойствам, идея этого цикла фресок кладет начало мифу о правителе, мифу, который, пройдя через целый ряд изложений более доступными средствами, пустил глубокие корни в сознании русского народа и надолго пережил Московское государство.

... Drawing heavily on David Miller's excellent 1979 analysis of the Book of Degrees of the Royal Genealogy, they assert that the Tsar embraced nationalistic and statist mythologies developed around the Muscovite legends concerning the Kievan ruler, Vladimir Monomakh. ...

This study addresses the influence of hesychasm on Wisdom iconography by examining a work whose symbols and structures expressed the new theological self-consciousness about the action of divine light: the “Wisdom Builds Her House” fresco of the Hrelyos Tower of the St. John of Rila monastery (1335). This fresco reflects knowledge of the same hesychast spiritual culture, fostered on Mt. Athos, that informed Gregory Palamas and his disciple, Philotheos in their defense of the doctrine of divine energies. We find that the single rhomboid of light around Christ’s head is a dominant organizing symbol for the composition. The fresco’s deep structure alludes to Wisdom as an implied sphere of light. It models an internal system of mirror reflections that symbolically embed the reciprocal interaction of divine energies and human mental ascent by which God knows himself in His creation, and manifests His self-identity in Trinity outside His essence.