The Icon and the Axe

TEe extraordinary development of icon ^amtin^^d.-V-eneration in thirteenth-"and fo"urteenth^cenfury Russia-like the original developlmelatTn seventh-century Byzantium-occurred during a period of weakened political "authority. In both cases, iconolatry accompanied a growth in monas-ticism.59 The ommpresent holy pictures provided an image of higher authority that helped compensate for the diminished stature of temporal princes. In Russia, the icon often came to represent in effect the supreme communal authority before which one swore oaths, resolved disputes^jjBd marched into baffle""

But if the icon gave divine sanction to human authorit^_it_dso served to humanize divine authority. ThFbasic icon for the all-important Easter feast is that of a very human Jesus breaking down the gates of hell and emerging from the fires into which he had been plunged since Good Friday -a scene rarely depicted injhe Easter iconography_of_the West, where the emphasis was on the divine mystery oFresurrection from an Ijnipty tomb. The"^arT^-church had strenuously opposed the "Apollinarian" attempt to deny the reality of Christ's human nature, beating down this heresy at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Partly because there had been support for Apollinaris' ideas in the Western Roman Empire, Christians of the Eastern Empire came to equate the fall of Rome with acceptance of this heresy. Byzantium came to view sacred pictures as emblems of a Christendom still resplendent in the "new Rome" of Constantinople at a time when the West had plunged into barbarism and darkness. At the same time, the victory over the iconoclasts represented a triumph over indigenous Eastern inclinations (derived largely from Jewish and Moslem teachings) to view as blasphemous all human images of the divine. Byzantium brought the unifying force of ideology into its multi-national empire by rejecting the idea common to many Oriental religions and Christian heresies that human

salvation involved transforming one's humanity into something altogether different.60

The humanizing tendency of icon painting is noticeable in the images of the Virgin, which in twelfth-century Byzantium began to turn toward the infant Christ and to suggest maternity as well as divinity. Qne such icon, in which_a largeand composed Virgin presses her face_down_against tnat^OS§JiSi_b££ame tne most reveredoF all lcbnTlrTRussia;the_ Vladjmir Mother of God, or Our Lady of Kazan."1 The migration of this twelfth-century masterpiece from Constantinople to Kiev and thence to Suzdal and Vladynir even before the fall of Kiev symbolizes the northward movement of Russian culture. The cult of the Mother of God was considerably more intense in the North. The transfer of this icon to the Cathedral of the Assumption inside the Moscow Kremlin in the late fourteenth century enabled it to become a symbol of national unity long before such unity became a political fact. She was the supreme mother image of old Russia: at peace with God, yet compassionately inclined toward her infant son. Generation after generation prayed for her intercession within the cathedral dedicated to her entrance into heaven.

The history of this icon demonstrates the close collaboration between faith and "fighting, art and armament, in medieval Russia. Brought north by the warrior jrince Andrew Bogoliubsky, the icon was transferred to Moscow in 1395 expressly for the purpose of inspiring the defenders of the city against an expected seige byJTamerlane in the late fourteenth century. The name "Kazan" for the icon derives from the popular belief that Ivan the Terrible's later victory over the Tatars at Kazan was the result of its miraculous powers. Victory over the Poles during the "Time of Troubles" in the early seventeenth century was also attributed to it. Many believed that Mary had pleaded with Jesus to spare Russia further humiliation, and that he had promised to do so if Russia would repent and turn again to God. Four separate yearly processions in honor of the icon were established by 1520, moving within a few decades out of the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin across Red Square to St. Basil's (also called "Kazan") cathedral. This icon was also often used to sanctify troops setting off to battle, and "to meet" other icons or dignitaries coming to Moscow."2

In addition to the cult that dgxejoged around this^ icon, new poses of the Madonna began to appear in bewildering profusion. Most models were Byzantine; but there were uniquely Russian variations of this general type of "Our Lady of Tenderness^' in some of which the_Virgin bends her ~neck_ down beyond the point of anatomical possibility to embrace the Christ child. Some_fmr£Jmnd?M separate styles of representing the Virgin have been counted in Russian icons.63 Some of the most popular and original resulted