Percy Brown, Indian Painting under the Mughals, Oxford, 1924, p. no. This is not the only point of resemblance between Russian and Indian art at that time.
44
After N. P. Kondakov, Iconogr. of Our Saviour, lith. 9. Inscr. above, ‘Holy Trinity, Father, Son, the Lord of Sabaoth, IC. XC’: below, Obraz Otechestvo, ‘Icon of Paternity’. ZnamyaVasiliya ïKondakova Usoltsa, ‘drawn by Basil Kondakov of Usolye’.
45
I added this to the author’s selection of plates because it illustrates the ways of icon-painters and affords an example of perhaps the most important composition which he had not included. E. H. M.
46
Kondakov, Athos, p. 105, Pl. xiv. This icon seems to be that seen in the eleventh century by the Nóvgorod pilgrim Antony among the holy things of Constantinople: he calls it ‘Nicholas split forehead’, from the damage it has suffered: another copy of the same type is at Vich in Catalonia: ib., p. 108, f. 50; Mon. Piot, vii, 1900, p. 95, Pl. XI.
47
For these vestments see A. Fortescue, The Orthodox Eastern Church, pp. 405 sqq. The felón’, paenula, is the chasuble at first made of soft stuff: when made of stiff material it was for convenience short-ened in front instead of being cut away at the sides as in the West. A special variety oí felón’ was entirely covered with a pattern of crosses (polistávri); this was reserved for bishops: the sakkos is of the shape of a Western dalmatic, i.e. slit up the sides and with sleeves; originally peculiar to the patriarch, it is now worn by all bishops; but it does not commonly appear upon early icons; it is worn by S. Alexis in the seventeenth century. The actual sakkos of S. Photius is figured by Millet, ap. Michel, Histoire de l’Art, III. ii, p. 957. Our author appears to use sakkos in the sense of polistavri, the vestment in which nearly all bishops are portrayed.
48
One of the differences between Greeks and Latins was the position of the fingers in blessing: the earlier Greeks folded down the thumb, fourth and fifth fingers and by extending ‘two fingers’ (dvupérstie), the index and middle finger, symbolized the dual nature of Christ, cf. Mon. Piot, vii (1900), pp. 95, 96. The Latins put thumb, index and middle to-gether to typify the Trinity. The Greeks later adopted a pose whereby the four letters were formed by the five fingers; this was called imenoslóvnoe, ‘name-word’. In the seventeenth century Nicon, Patriarch of Moscow, finding that many errors had crept into the Slavonic service books reformed them to the norm of the contem-porary Greek, but in many cases, such as this of the blessing, the Russians had preserved the more ancient usage. The innovations caused a great schism in the Church and were only forced upon it by the power of the State. The Old Believers who refuse still to accept them, had a special reverence for ancient icons, and to them is due the preservation of many most important examples (see infra).
49
It is hardly necessary to recall that the basis of the painting is a layer of gypsum and glue (gesso) spread upon the wood: Dionysius gives directions. Sometimes the wood is first covered with linen: cf. Theophilus, I. xix. See the editions by Hendrie (1847) and Ilg (1874), with English and German translations.
50
As I read it, the membrana (Hendrie reads membrina) or first coat was of yellow burnt white lead, natural white lead, and cinnabar or red ochre: if the face was ruddy, more red; if white, more white; if pale, prasinum was added. While the shadows were put in over this with posch, a mixture of membrana with prasinum, burnt red ochre and a little cinnabar. Next the rosy tints were applied, and after-wards lumina for the highlights by an admixture of white. E. H. M.
51
The Greek Painters’ Guide: This guide to the practice on Mount Athos gives a wonderfully full account of both technical processes and iconography: it is translated in Didron, Manuel d’Iconographie Chrétienne, 1845, Eng. trans, omitting technical first part, 1886: under the influence of the monks and of the famous forger Simonides, Didron referred the guide to the fourteenth or fifteenth century and Manuel Panselinos, who is quoted as the model artist, to the twelfth. Bayet, Rev. Archéologique, iii. 3 (1884), pp. 325-34, makes it probable that he worked in 1535 and that the guide, as we have it, belongs to the eighteenth century. See (modern Greek) preface to the best text published by A. Papadopoulo-Kerameus, St. P. 1909, to which I always refer; cf. Diehl, Manuel, p. 854; Dalton, Byz. Art, p. 649. But it gives a much more ancient tradition, as is shown by its frequent agreement with Theophilus. Our author says it existed in the fifteenth century and may go back to the fourteenth.
52
Sóchnÿya, lit. juicy, Fr. juteux.
53
This is from the root of bêly ‘ white’ and suggests ‘ white showing through’.
54
Kondakov, Iconography of B.V.M., i (1914), pp. 321-3.
55
Salazaro, Studî sui Monumenti d’Italia Meridionale, 1871, Pls. x-xv.
56
In Russian the root kras – confuses inextricably the ideas of ‘red’, of ‘paint’ and of ‘beauty’.
57
Zélen in Russian is ‘green colour’: pra is a rare prefix suggesting antiquity.
