Symbolic images and motifs are varied. They are subject to the “threefold classification” of I.B. Rodnyanskaya, who considers the symbolic image and motif depending on its objectivity, semantic generality, and structure (i.e., the relationship between the objective and semantic plans). The dominant role is played by superimages, constituting the framework diagram of the entire work, which resembles a graphic image of a triangle inscribed in a circle. Circle - art space, containing not only the geography of the Crimean town, but also the scale of all of Russia. This is also a philosophical-cosmic circle, which contains the entire universe. In the epic, it turns into a “circle of hell”, drenched in blood, a circle-loop, a circle-tangle. “The circle of hell” - the superimage of the epic - captivated and swirled the hero-narrator: “... I’m looking, I’m looking... The black, inescapable thing walks with me. It won’t leave until death.” Understatement, metaphorical semi-matter (“black is walking”) create subtext, causing an emotional response and a guess about the tragedy in the implicit reader. In the same chapter, a distraught old woman is “circling”, having lost her husband and son. The parallelism of destinies emphasizes the typicality of the situation.
Circle - Symbolizes infinity, perfection and completeness. This geometric figure serves to display the continuity of development of the universe, time, life, and their unity. The circle is a solar symbol, which is due not only to its shape, but also to the circular nature of the daily and annual movement of the sun. This figure is associated with protection (a magic circle outlined to protect against evil spirits, used in various traditions). The circle is one of the forms of creating space. Various architectural structures are circular in plan, and settlements are built in the shape of a circle. In most traditions, the cosmos, as an ordered space of life, appears in the form of a ball, graphically represented by a circle. The symbolism of the circle also reflects the idea of the cyclical nature of time (the Russian word “time” can be traced to the root with the meaning “that which rotates”; the zodiac, the personification of the year, is the “circle of animals”). Due to the fact that the circle is traditionally associated with the sun and is considered as the most perfect of figures, superior to others, dominating them, the supreme deity is also represented in the form of a circle. In Zen Buddhism, where there is no concept of God, the circle becomes a symbol of enlightenment as an absolute. The Chinese symbol of yang-yin, which looks like a circle divided in half by a wavy line, symbolizes the interaction and interpenetration of two principles of existence. In Dante, the Trinity is embodied in the image of three equal circles of different colors. One of them (God the Son) seemed to be a reflection of the other (God the Father), like a rainbow born of a rainbow, and the third (God the Spirit) seemed like a flame born of both of these circles (according to the teachings of Catholicism, the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and Son). In this context, the symbolism of the circle was established when fixing the idea of supreme power on earth (sphere-power, ring).
At the apex point of the triangle there are superimages of the sun, sky, and stars. “The sun of the dead” - summer, hot, Crimean - over dying people and animals. “This sun deceives with its brilliance. He sings that there will be many more wonderful days, the velvet season is approaching.” Although the author explains towards the end that the “sun of the dead” is said about the pale, half-winter Crimean. (And he also sees the “tin sun of the dead” in the indifferent eyes of distant Europeans. By 1923 he had already felt it there, abroad.) The image of the sun , the dominant one, who determined the oxymoronic title of the book, in its various guises “floods” the space of the epic. The frequency of mention of the sun in the epic indicates the author’s goal to create an image that is a vehicle for the idea of the universal unity of Death and Resurrection. Sun - the oldest cosmic symbol, known to all peoples, means life, the source of life, light. Such characteristics as supremacy, life-creation, activity, heroism, and omniscience are associated with solar symbolism. The solar cult is most developed in the Egyptian, Indo-European, Mesoamerican traditions. The image of a solar deity traveling in a chariot drawn by four white horses has been preserved in Indo-Iranian, Greco-Roman, and Scandinavian mythology. Solar deities and divine personifications of the sun are endowed with the attributes of omniscience and all-vision, as well as supreme power. All-seeing eye the solar deity embodies the guarantee of justice. It sees everything and knows everything - this is one of the most important qualities of the solar deity. In Christianity, the sun becomes a symbol of God and the word of God - life-bearing and eternal; bearers of the word of God have it as their emblem; the true church is shown clothed in the sun (Rev. 12). The righteous man shines like the sun (according to the tradition representing holiness, the spirit in the form of light). In the first part of the epic, the sun is mentioned 58 times (life is slowly coming to an end, it is still illuminated by the sun and is being incinerated by it). The second part, chapters 17-28, is a story about the survival of those who have not yet died. Winter, desert, darkness take over. The sun overcomes the darkness only 13 times, drawn by the author more often in metalogical images. In chapters 23-25, the final ones, ascending to the “end of ends,” the sun appears even less often - 9 times. But his special activity is noted in the last lines of the epic, which record a clear movement towards the Renaissance.
The coming collapse is also associated with the sun. Under it, in the mornings, days, and evenings, the living goes into oblivion, and the “eye” of the sun sees off life: “I look behind the beam: on the balcony the Peacock no longer meets the sun.” “And how many great ones are there now who knew the sun, and who go away in darkness!.” . But the sun, which carries a wide range of meanings in the epic, is most often narrowed down to the semantic unit “sign of departure”: “The sun laughs at the Dead,” “A stripe runs, runs... and goes out. Truly - the sun of the dead!” , "This is the sun of death."
The sun-symbol connects all the super-images of the epic into one framework diagram. “Revived” by the author, it “revitalizes” all the other symbolic peaks of the epic: “I will live in the rocks. The sun, the stars, and the sea...”.
Images of eternal cosmic nature: ( stars- the image is ambiguous. This is a symbol of eternity, light, high aspirations, ideals. In various traditions it was believed that each person has his own star, which is born and dies with him (or that the soul of a person comes from the star and then returns to it, a similar idea is present in Plato). The star is associated with the night, but also embodies the forces of the spirit that oppose the forces of darkness. It also acts as a symbol of divine greatness. In Sumerian cuneiform, the sign denoting a star acquired the meaning “sky”, “God”.
The symbolic aspects of the image are associated with the idea of multiplicity (stars in the sky are a symbol of an immense multitude) and organization, order, for the stars have their own order and destiny in the constellations. Individual constellations and stars in the “physical” sky are given their own meaning. The air element of the sky determines the fact that it is thought of as the soul, the breath of the world. Possessing the properties of inaccessibility and enormity, in the mythological consciousness it is endowed with incomprehensibility, omniscience, and greatness. Typically, the deity of the heavens is the supreme god. In the Indo-European tradition, the supreme deity is expressed by the stem deiuo, meaning "clear day sky"; hence the ancient Indian Dyaus, the Greek Zeus, the Roman Jupiter as Dyaus Pitar, Sky-father, etc. The idea of the supreme ruler goes back to the symbolism of the sky. Usually personifies the male, fertilizing principle (an exception is Egyptian mythology), and is perceived as a source of life-giving moisture and heat. The cosmogonic ideas of many peoples reflect the motives for the separation of heaven from earth and the marriage of heaven and earth. In Egyptian mythology, the sky goddess Nut marries the earth god Geb. IN Chinese mythology heaven and earth appear as the father and mother of all people: at the same time, heaven gave birth to men, and earth - women (from where the idea of two principles of nature and the idea that a woman should be subject to a man, like the earth to the sky, subsequently came from). IN Greek mythology Uranus-sky is ashamed of its monstrous children (titans, cyclops and hecatoncheires) and keeps them in mother earth.
Every divine being is represented as heavenly. Therefore, the gods of Sumer beamed with intense light, which is why later cultures adopted the concept of light as an expression of supreme greatness. The royal tiara and throne, according to the Sumerians, were lowered from heaven. In Chinese mythology, heaven (tian) appears as the embodiment of a certain higher principle that governs everything that happens on earth; the emperor himself rules according to the “mandate of Heaven.”
Heaven appears as an image of paradise, imperishable, unchanging, true, surpassing all conceivable oppositions of the absolute. The multi-level sky (an image common in all mythological traditions) acts as a reflection of ideas about the hierarchy of divine (sacred) powers. The number of celestial spheres usually varies in accordance with the numerical symbolism of a particular tradition) that attract the gaze of the producing consciousness - raise the work to a supermundane height, where everyday life and philosophical descriptions intersect, where ideological blocks are melted: suffering and space are united, but also far from each other . A moment of destruction on a small point on earth is nothing in comparison with the eternity of the world: “We are silent. We look at the stars, at the sea.” ; “I went out under the sky, looked at the stars...” The castel is golden, thicker than gray stone more … Sky- in a new autumn splendor... At night - black from stars... In the morning, eaglets begin to play in the sky. AND sea it became much darker. Dolphin splashes flash on it more often, jagged wheels…" ?
At the points of the other two corners there is an image of the sea and stone.
Sea- Means the original waters, chaos, formlessness, material existence, endless movement. This is the source of all life, containing within itself all potencies, the sum of all possibilities in manifested form, the incomprehensible Great Mother. It also symbolizes the sea of life that is to be crossed. The two seas, fresh and salty (bitter), are Heaven and Earth, Upper and Lower Waters, which were originally one; the salt sea is exoteric knowledge, the fresh sea is esoteric. In the Sumerian-Semitic tradition, the Akkadian primordial waters were associated with wisdom. All living things arose from fresh water - Apsu, and from salt water - Tiamat, symbolizing the power of the waters, the feminine principle and the blind forces of chaos. Among the Taoists, the sea is identified with Tao, primordial and inexhaustible, animating all creation without being exhausted (Zhuanzi). In Russian fairy tales, living (fresh sea) and dead (salt sea) water were used.
Having turned into an image-motive in Russian literature, I.S. Shmelev Sea takes on special features. The image-motive of the Russian sea is always a participant in human destiny, often standing above a person. In the epic this trait is taken to the highest degree. Having swallowed human labor, the sea freezes in inaction: “The Dead Sea is here: cheerful steamers don’t like it. Eaten, drunk, knocked out - everything. It’s dried up.” Different seas (the sea has devoured, the sea has died) - there is one sea, and therefore even more active. E.A. Osminina in the article “Song of Songs of Death” expresses the idea of creating I.S. Shmelev's myth about the Kingdom of the Dead. Ancient Cimmeria (now the Crimean land near the Kerch Strait) has risen from the ashes and requires new victims. Sacrifices are made in pits, ditches, ravines, and the sea. "I look at the sea.
And then the sun comes out for a moment and splashes out with pale tin. Truly the sun of the dead!" The window into the kingdom of death is the Crimean Sea: "It was not invented: there is Hell! Here it is and its deceptive circle... - the sea, the mountains... - a wonderful screen."
Stones and rocks are an integral part of the Crimean coastal landscape. Their role in a work of art may be limited to a decorative function, since the scene on which the action unfolds is a mountainous part of the Alushta region: “Every morning I notice how the spots creep higher, and there is more gray stone... A strong, fragrant bitterness sips from the mountains, mountain autumn wine - wormwood stone." There are numerous references to the gray stone in the epic. The “gray frame of stone” of all events in the work plays the role of the main background, setting the emotive tone. The stone is me is a symbol of the highest, absolute being, symbolizes stability, constancy, strength. Stones have long been used in magic and healing; they were believed to bring good luck. The stone is one of the symbols of mother earth. In the Greek myth, Deucalion and Pyrrha throw stones over their heads - the “bones of the foremother” (earth). Stones are also associated with the belief that they accumulate earthly energy; for this reason the stones were endowed magical power and were used in various rituals, and also served as talismans. At the archaic stages of the cult, the sacredness of stones is associated with the idea that the souls of ancestors are embodied in them. For example, the Bible mentions those who say to the stone: “Thou hast given birth to me.” In India and Indonesia, stones are seen as the residence of the spirits of the dead. A similar idea reflects the custom, widespread in various cultures, of placing stones carved in the form of a column near tombs. Thus, we can talk about the emergence of the idea that eternity, not achievable in life, is achieved in death through the incarnation of the soul in stone. In the Middle Ages in Rus', one of the most worthy deeds was to rebuild a wooden church into a stone one (in this case, additional connotations also arise: stone is opposed to wood, which is fragile and unproductive, and acts as an image of wealth, power and power).
The stone lives an epically diverse life. Of the highest power The metaphor (reification) is achieved in the words of the hero-narrator about the immensity of the depersonalization of a person before the enormity of the new power: “... I... Who is this - Me?! A stone lying under the sun. With eyes. With ears - a stone. Wait for someone to kick you. There's nowhere to go from here..." Stone-darkness, desert-darkness, winter-darkness, absorbing into their images all the chilling horror felt by the transmitting consciousness, hang over the space of the epic, relentlessly following the acting figures of the work. Stone at I.S. Shmelev is mythologized. By changing his face, he turns from a messenger of death into a savior. “Blessed stone! ... At least six people lost their lives! ... Stones will cover the brave.” The theme of God, complexly carried out by I.S. Shmelev, through the faces of Mohammed, Buddha, Christ, in one of the middle chapters touches on the still “dead” stone. With the name of Buddha in the doctor’s mouth, he comes to life: “A wise stone,” and I go down into it! I pray to the mountains, their purity and the Buddha in them!” .
The eye is a special image of the epic. Eye, eye of God: a symbol of vision, physical or spiritual vision, as well as observation, combined with Light - insight. The eye represents all the solar gods, who have the fertilizing power of the sun, which is embodied in the king god. Plato called the eye the main solar instrument. On the one hand, it is the mystical eye, light, insight, knowledge, intelligence, vigilance, protection, stability and determination, but on the other hand, it is the limitation of the visible. IN Ancient Greece the eye symbolizes Apollo, the observer of the heavens, the Sun, which is also the eye of Zeus (Jupiter). Plato believed that the soul has an eye, and the Truth is visible to him alone.
The author sees the eye of every object (animate, inanimate) included in the displayed system, and the life of these eyes is the life of the image as a whole. The eyes of the people being killed are eyes that change into grimaces of agony. The system of epithets and comparisons makes every mention of the human gaze tragically unique: “He begged with words, with eyes that were difficult to look into the eyes...”; “She tortures me with her eyes wide with anxiety”; "... eyes melting with tears!." ; "... with fading eyes he will look at the garden..." ; "...looks with strained, bloody eyes. Tortures them" ; "...his eyes, filled with glassy fear..." ;
Sits yellow, with sunken eyes - a mountain bird." A general meaning is given to the phrase - the result in the "dead part" of the book, made up of enumerations of deaths: "Thousands of hungry eyes, thousands of tenacious hands stretching across the mountains for a pound of bread..."?
The eyes of those “who go out to kill” are defined by epithets from antithetical-positive ones, which creates the effect of increasing hostility towards the depicted image (“clear-eyed executioners” [2; p. 74], “Sitting there... a poet, in appearance!. in the eyes - dreamy, to the point of spirituality! Something like this is out of this world! " [2; p. 122], to outright negative ones, revealing the author's position of rejection of the new government: "... dull-eyed, high-cheeked, thick-necked..."; "... looked around at his living eyes - strangers..." ; "Mikhelson, by name...green, evil eyes, like a snake..."; "...eyes heavy, like lead, covered in a film of blood and oil, well-fed..." [2; p.48]; "...sharp eyes , with a gimlet, grippy hands..." .
Animal and plant worlds those dying next to the person also look. The power of this silent gaze is majestic, which is achieved by the author’s utmost attention to the nature of color, form, and the nature of the phenomenon: The Cow looks “with glass eyes, blue from the sky and the windy sea.” “Your eyes are like a film of tin, and the sun in them is like tin...” - about the chicken[ 2; p.42].
Blood, according to E.A. Osminina, as a word, in the poem is “devoid of its physiological, naturalistic connotation.” However, the range of meanings of this lexeme is so wide that aspects excluded by the researcher are also strong in it. The image, filling the entire space of the closed circle of the framework diagram, seems to “flood” the whole of Russia, which is this circle. A topographic point - a dacha village - grows in this scheme to the size of the entire doomed country: “I strain my imagination, I look around all of Russia... ...Blood is gushing everywhere...”. Blood - Universal symbol; endowed with cult status. Many peoples understood blood as a container vitality, immaterial principle (something like the soul, if the latter concept has not been developed). In the Bible, the soul is identified with blood: “For the soul of every body is its blood, it is its soul” (Lev. 17), which is why the ban on eating blood and unbleached meat was associated. Initially, blood acts as a symbol of life; This idea is associated with such rituals of archaic cultures as smearing blood (or red paint symbolizing it) on the foreheads of seriously ill patients, women in labor and newborn babies. By blood all things are purified, and without shed blood there is no forgiveness, the Bible says. Blood is closely associated with sacrifice, the purpose of which is to pacify formidable forces and eliminate the threat of punishment. Payment in blood for the development of new spaces of existence and the acquisition of new degrees of freedom acts as an attribute of the existence of people throughout their history. The superimage of blood in the epic goes back to the apocalyptic symbol of the end of the world. Just as in the Apocalypse the earth is soaked in the blood of prophets and saints and all those killed, so in the epic Russia is drenched in the blood of the people: “Wherever you look, you can’t escape the blood... Isn’t it getting out of the earth, playing through the vineyards? Soon it will paint everything in the dying hills forests"
Death, contrary to the semantics implied in the title, does not become a superimage of the epic. The image of death is dissolved in every semantic segment of the work, but the word “death” is mentioned extremely rarely. In the scene last meeting between the hero-narrator and the writer Shishkin, the premonition of death is conveyed by the narrator in a “reverse” way: the strengthening of the subjective feeling is achieved by external rejection of this feeling: “And I don’t feel that death is looking into his joyful eyes, wants to play again.” Personification, with its inherent simplicity, best at the end of the work transforms death from a passive image, from a phenomenon generated by other objects, into an aggressive image and a self-acting phenomenon: “Death stands at the door and will stand, stubbornly, until it takes everyone away.” Death - Acts as an image of changing the current state of being, transforming forms and processes, as well as liberation from something. Death in the symbolic tradition is associated with the moon, dying and being reborn; with night, sleep (in Greek mythology Thanatos appears as the child of Nyx, night, and brother of Hypnos, sleep); with the element of earth, which receives everything that exists; with the property of invisibility (hades - formless); with white, black and green flowers. In various mythologies, death is described as the result of the fall of the first ancestors, as a punishment for humanity. Widely known
The allegory of death depicts her in the form of an old woman or a skeleton with a scythe, however, it is the latter that sets the possibility of a way out of the one-sided understanding of death as the end of life: the mown grass grows again even more luxuriantly, the cut ear will give rise to many new ones. Death participates in the process of the constant revival of nature: burial is sowing, the underworld is the womb of the earth, the god of the underworld is the guardian and lord of the wealth of the earth (this is Hades, who gives Persephone a pomegranate - a symbol of prosperity and fertility), In European languages the name of the deity of the underworld is indicated by a word indicating wealth; the deity of the dead was traditionally represented as the owner of countless treasures. Death can be considered as an accomplishment, the fulfillment of fate: only those who have completed their earthly journey are considered to have passed their destiny (in the ancient Egyptian “Harper’s Song” the deceased is designated as a person “in his place”). Unlike the gods, man is mortal, and it is the finitude of his existence that gives the specificity of his life as a complete whole.
The image of death was actively used in the mystical tradition; in Sufism, the concept of death acts as a symbol of renunciation of personal individuality and comprehension of the absolute. Death, the shedding of the external Self, only means birth itself, the acquisition by the spirit of true existence: “Choose death and tear the veil. But not such a death as to go to the grave, but a death leading to spiritual renewal in order to enter the Light” (J. Rumi). Death, as a way out of this world, is not given to man as an object of knowledge: “To look behind the lowered curtain of darkness. Our powerless minds are incapable. At the moment when the curtain falls from our eyes, we turn into ethereal dust, into nothingness” (Khayyam). Death is a threshold situation, located on the borders of individual existence; she is beyond classification. It appears as a phenomenon that is forcibly restrained and dangerous, since it can break out at any moment, and therefore, in various traditions, contact with death was perceived as desecration. Man has an inherent desire for destruction and self-destruction (manifesting mainly, although not exclusively, in the form of war), and he is tempted by the subtle charm of death. Its presence sharpens the perception of life: this is how the ancient Egyptians placed a skeleton in the feast halls, which was supposed to remind of the inevitability of death and stimulate the enjoyment of the joys of this world. There are many ways to convey the concept of “death” in the epic: from enlightened, everyday expressions containing an elementary comparison (“He died quietly. So the outlived leaf falls”), to allegorical ones.
The revival of Russia is possible only “on a religious basis, on a highly moral basis, the Gospel teaching of active love,” writes I.S. Shmelev in the article “Dead and Living Paths” (1925). The Russian Orthodox cross is a special symbolic image-motive in the epic. The image of the Cross, which arose in the hero’s imagination from the tangles of branches of a bushy hornbeam, is a special unit in the epic. "... the Cross will hum - howl - living nature itself - in the empty Blue Beam." The personification, which combines in one image mute nature (tree), animate nature (hum-howl), Christian faith (shape of the cross), comes out of the series of Orthodox attributes that fill the epic and becomes a symbol. The detail, the bottle on this cross, carries a different symbolic meaning: the bottle is a sign of the new government’s desecration of faith, shrines, and spirit. The cross in various cultures symbolizes the highest sacred values: life, fertility, immortality. The cross can be considered as a cosmic symbol: its crossbar symbolizes the horizon, vertical stand- axis of the world; the ends of the cross represent the four cardinal directions. The cross is a common image in Western tradition, this is equally due to both the influence of Christianity and the original meaning of the symbol. It plays an important role in religious and magical rituals; widely used in emblems; Many insignia (orders, medals) have the shape of a cross. The cross can act as a personal sign, signature; as a talisman, talisman; as an image of death and a sign of cancellation, deletion.
Just like everything that is described in reality by Shmelev always has the character of a symbol. What is unusual in the story is that animals and birds are described in more detail than people in the situation of fighting starvation. ( bird- a widespread symbol of spirit and soul in the ancient world, retaining this meaning in Christian symbolism. The bird is often depicted in the hands of the Baby Jesus or tied to a rope. Most often, this is a goldfinch associated with Christ by the legend that he acquired his red spot at the moment when he flew to Christ ascending Calvary and sat on his head. When the goldfinch removed a thorn from Christ’s eyebrow, a drop of the Savior’s blood splashed onto him. Birds, created on the fifth day of the creation of the world, are patronized by Francis of Assisi (about 1182-1226). The bird is a symbol of air and an attribute of Juno when she personifies air, as well as an attribute of one of the five senses - touch. In allegorical images of Spring, captured and tamed birds sit in a cage. In many religious traditions Birds communicate between heaven and earth. The image of the head of a deity or a person against the background of a bird has ancient traditions: the Egyptian god Thoth appeared in the form of an ibis, and kneeling believers were depicted with a feather on their heads, which testified to the transmission of instructions from above. The Roman Cupid (Cupid) was also winged. Thus, the peacock with its “desert cry” became a truly colorful animal character. The often mentioned chickens are also significant in the plot. It is they who, no matter how much their owner protects, guards and almost cherishes them, are potential victims of real vultures. An old pear tree, “hollow and crooked, blooms and dries for years” protects the chickens from birds of prey. everything is waiting for a change. The shift doesn't come. And she, stubborn, waits and waits, pours, blooms and dries. Hawks are hiding on it. Crows love to swing in a storm” [P.14]. Scares away Lala's predators with a wild cry. “How many people trembled over them, covered them when they went to take away the “surplus”... They covered them. And now they are afraid of hawks, winged vultures” [P.37]. These same unfortunate chickens are the coveted “food” of two-legged “vultures”: “Behind the hill below there live “uncles” who love to eat... And they love to eat chickens! No matter how they come for you, to take away the “surplus”... And the hawk is already guarded along the beams” [P.36. ] Further, in the context, everyday reality and its allegorical equivalent merge in a symbolic picture: “Now I know well how chickens tremble, how they huddle under rose hips, under walls, squeeze into cypress trees - they stand trembling, stretching out and retracting their necks, trembling with frightened pupils. I know well how people are afraid of people - are they people? - how they poke their heads into the cracks (who: chicken people?). The hawks will be forgiven: this is their daily bread. We eat a leaf and tremble before the hawks! The winged vultures are frightened by Lyalya’s voice, and those who go out to kill are not frightened even by the eyes of a child” [P.38]. Thus, the peacock and chickens move from the realm of everyday life into the sphere of allegorical depiction. Through the animalistic theme, a symbol expressive in its associative richness is implied , revealing the very essence of Shmelev’s ideas about the time of total fear in which his heroes live.
The listed motif images can be classified as individual (according to the system of I.B. Rodnyanskaya). “Individual images are created by the original, sometimes bizarre imagination of the artist and express the measure of his originality and uniqueness.”
The first Christian symbolic images appear in the paintings of the Roman catacombs and date back to the period of persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. During this period, the symbols had the character of secret writing, allowing fellow believers to recognize each other, but the meaning of the symbols already reflected the emerging Christian theology. Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann notes:
The early Church did not know the icon in its modern dogmatic meaning. The beginning of Christian art - painting of the catacombs - is symbolic in nature (...) It tends to depict not so much a deity as the function of a deity.
L. A. Uspensky associates the active use in the ancient Church of various symbols, rather than iconographic images, with the fact that “in order to little by little prepare people for the truly incomprehensible mystery of the Incarnation, the Church first addressed them in a language more acceptable to them than direct image." Also, symbolic images, in his opinion, were used as a way of hiding Christian sacraments from catechumens until the time of their baptism.
So Cyril of Jerusalem wrote: “everyone is allowed to hear the gospel, but the glory of the gospel is given to only the sincere Servants of Christ. To those who could not listen, the Lord spoke in parables, and to the disciples in private he explained the parables.” The oldest catacomb images include scenes of the “Adoration of the Magi” (about 12 frescoes with this plot have been preserved), which date back to the 2nd century. Also dating back to the 2nd century is the appearance in the catacombs of images of the acronym ΙΧΘΥΣ or the fish symbolizing it.
Among other symbols of catacomb painting, the following stand out:
- anchor - an image of hope (an anchor is the support of a ship at sea, hope acts as a support for the soul in Christianity). This image is already present in the Epistle to the Hebrews of the Apostle Paul (Heb. 6:18-20);
- dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit; · phoenix – symbol of resurrection;
- the eagle is a symbol of youth (“your youth will be renewed like an eagle” (Ps. 102:5));
- the peacock is a symbol of immortality (according to the ancients, its body was not subject to decomposition);
- the rooster is a symbol of resurrection (the crow of a rooster awakens from sleep, and awakening, according to Christians, should remind believers of the Last Judgment and the general resurrection of the dead);
- the lamb is a symbol of Jesus Christ;
- lion is a symbol of strength and power;
- olive branch - a symbol of eternal peace;
- lily is a symbol of purity (common due to the influence of apocryphal stories about the presentation of a lily flower by the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation);
- the vine and the basket of bread are symbols of the Eucharist.
Characteristics of the 35 main symbols and signs of Christianity
1. Chi Rho- one of the earliest cruciform symbols of Christians. It is formed by superimposing the first two letters of the Greek version of the word Christ: Chi=X and Po=P. Although the Chi Rho is not technically a cross, it is associated with the crucifixion of Christ and symbolizes his status as Lord. It is believed that Chi Rho was the first to use it at the beginning of the 4th century. AD Emperor Constantine, decorating it with a labarum, a military standard. As the 4th century Christian apologist Lactantius notes, on the eve of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD. The Lord appeared to Constantine and ordered to put the image of Chi Rho on the shields of the soldiers. After Constantine's victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, the Chi Rho became the official emblem of the empire. Archaeologists have found evidence that Chi Rho was depicted on Constantine's helmet and shield, as well as his soldiers. Chi Rho was also engraved on coins and medallions minted during the reign of Constantine. By 350 AD images began to appear on Christian sarcophagi and frescoes.
2. Lamb: a symbol of Christ as the Paschal sacrificial lamb, as well as a symbol for Christians, reminding them that Christ is our shepherd, and Peter ordered to feed his sheep. The Lamb also serves as a sign of St. Agnes (her day is celebrated on January 21), a martyr of early Christianity.
3.Baptismal cross: consists of a Greek cross with the Greek letter "X" - the initial letter of the word Christ, symbolizing rebirth, and therefore it is associated with the rite of Baptism.
4.Peter's Cross: When Peter was sentenced to martyrdom, he asked to be crucified upside down out of respect for Christ. Thus, the inverted Latin cross became its symbol. In addition, it serves as a symbol of the papacy. Unfortunately, this cross is also used by Satanists, whose goal is to “revolutionize” Christianity (see, for example, their “Black Mass”), including the Latin cross.
5.Ichthus(ih-tus) or ichthys means “fish” in Greek. The Greek letters used to spell the word are iota, chi, theta, upsilon and sigma. IN English translation This is IXOYE. The five Greek letters named are the first letters of the words Iesous Christos, Theou Uios, Soter, which means “Jesus Christ, son of God, Savior.” This symbol was used primarily among early Christians in the 1st-2nd centuries. AD The symbol was brought from Alexandria (Egypt), which at that time was a crowded seaport. Goods traveled from this port throughout Europe. That is why sailors were the first to use the ichthys symbol to designate a god close to them.
6.Rose: Holy Virgin, Mother of God, symbol of martyrdom, secrets of confession. The five roses united together represent the five wounds of Christ.
7. Jerusalem cross: Also known as the Crusader Cross, it consists of five Greek crosses that symbolize: a) the five wounds of Christ; b) 4 Gospels and 4 cardinal directions (4 smaller crosses) and Christ himself (large cross). The cross was a common symbol during wars against Islamic aggressors.
8.Latin cross, also known as the Protestant cross and the Western cross. The Latin cross (crux ordinaria) serves as a symbol of Christianity, despite the fact that long before the founding of the Christian church it was a symbol of pagans. It was created in China and Africa. His images are found on Scandinavian sculptures of the Bronze Age, embodying the image of the god of war and thunder, Thor. The cross is considered a magical symbol. It brings good luck and wards off evil. Some scholars interpret the rock carvings of the cross as a symbol of the sun or a symbol
Earth, whose rays indicate north, south, east and west. Others point out its resemblance to a human figure.
9.Pigeon: symbol of the Holy Spirit, part of the cult of Epiphany and Pentecost. It also symbolizes the release of the soul after death, and is used to call Noah's dove, a harbinger of hope.
10. Anchor: Images of this symbol in the cemetery of St. Domitilla date back to the 1st century, they are also found in the catacombs in the epitaphs of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, but there are especially many of them in the cemetery of St. Priscilla (there are about 70 examples here alone), St. Calixtus, Coemetarium majus. See Epistle to the Hebrews 6:19.
11.Eight-pointed cross: The eight-pointed cross is also called the Orthodox cross or the cross of St. Lazarus. The smallest crossbar represents the title, where it was written “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” the upper end of the cross is the path to the Kingdom of Heaven, which Christ showed. The seven-pointed cross is a variation of the Orthodox cross, where the title is attached not across the cross, but on top.
12. Ship: is an ancient Christian symbol that symbolized the church and each individual believer. Crosses with a crescent, which can be seen on many churches, just depict such a ship, where the cross is a sail.
13.Calvary Cross: The Golgotha cross is monastic (or schematic). It symbolizes the sacrifice of Christ. Widespread in ancient times, the cross of Golgotha is now embroidered only on the paraman and the lectern.
14. Vine: is the gospel image of Christ. This symbol also has its own meaning for the Church: its members are branches, and the grapes are a symbol of Communion. In the New Testament, the grapevine is a symbol of Paradise.
15. I.H.S.: Another popular monogram for the name of Christ. These are the three letters of the Greek name for Jesus. But with the decline of Greece, other, Latin, monograms with the name of the Savior began to appear, often in combination with a cross.
16. Triangle- symbol of the Holy Trinity. Each side personifies the Hypostasis of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All sides are equal and together form a single whole.
17. Arrows, or a ray piercing the heart - an allusion to the saying of St. Augustine in Confessions. Three arrows piercing the heart symbolize Simeon's prophecy.
18. Skull or Adam's head is equally a symbol of death and a symbol of victory over it. According to Sacred Tradition, the ashes of Adam were on Golgotha when Christ was crucified. The blood of the savior, having washed Adam’s skull, symbolically washed all of humanity and gave him a chance for salvation.
19. Eagle- a symbol of ascension. He is a symbol of the soul that seeks God. Often - a symbol of new life, justice, courage and faith. The eagle also symbolizes the evangelist John.
20.All-seeing eye- a symbol of omniscience, omniscience and wisdom. It is usually depicted inscribed in a triangle - a symbol of the Trinity. Can also symbolize hope.
21. Seraphim- angels closest to God. They are six-winged and carry fiery swords, and can have from one to 16 faces. As a symbol, they mean the purifying fire of the spirit, divine heat and love.
22.Bread- This is a reference to the biblical episode when five thousand people were fed with five loaves. Bread is depicted in the form of ears of corn (sheaves symbolize the meeting of the apostles) or in the form of bread for communion.
23. Good Shepherd. The main source of this image is the Gospel parable, in which Christ Himself calls Himself this way (John 10:11-16). Actually, the image of the Shepherd is rooted in the Old Testament, where often the leaders of the people of Israel (Moses - Isaiah 63:11, Joshua - Numbers 27:16-17, King David in Psalms 77, 71, 23) are called shepherds, but it is said about the Lord Himself - “The Lord is my Shepherd” (The Psalm of the Lord says, “The Lord is my Shepherd” (Ps 23:1-2). Thus, Christ in the Gospel parable points to the fulfillment of prophecy and the finding of consolation for the people of God. In addition, the image of a shepherd also had has a clear meaning to everyone, so that even today in Christianity it is customary to call priests shepherds, and the laity the flock, Christ the Shepherd is depicted in the form of an ancient shepherd, dressed in a tunic, in shepherd’s laced sandals, often with a staff and a vessel for milk in his hands; can hold a reed flute. The milk vessel symbolizes the Sacrament; the flute symbolizes the sweetness of His teaching (“No one ever spoke like this man” - John 7:46) and hope, this is the mosaic of the early 4th century. from Aquileia.
24.Burning bush is a thorn bush that burns but is not consumed. In his image, God appeared to Moses, calling him to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. The burning bush is also a symbol Mother of God touched by the Holy Spirit.
25.a lion- a symbol of vigilance and the Resurrection, and one of the symbols of Christ. It is also a symbol of the Evangelist Mark, and is associated with the power and royal dignity of Christ.
26.Taurus(bull or ox) - symbol of the Evangelist Luke. Taurus means the sacrificial service of the Savior, his Sacrifice on the Cross. The ox is also considered a symbol of all martyrs.
27.Angel symbolizes the human nature of Christ, his earthly incarnation. It is also a symbol of the Evangelist Matthew.
28. Grail- this is the vessel in which Joseph of Arimathea allegedly collected blood from the wounds of Jesus Christ during the crucifixion. The history of this vessel, which acquired miraculous powers, was outlined French writer beginning of XII century by Chrétien de Troyes and a century later in more detail by Robert de Raven on the basis of the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. According to legend, the Grail is kept in a mountain castle, it is filled with sacred hosts that serve for communion and give miraculous powers. The fanatical search for the relic by the crusading knights greatly contributed to the creation of the legend of the Grail, processed and formalized with the participation of many authors and culminating in the tales of Parsifal and Gilead.
29.Nimbus is a shiny circle that ancient Greek and Roman artists, depicting gods and heroes, often placed above their heads, indicating that these were higher, unearthly, supernatural beings. In the iconography of Christianity, the halo from ancient times became an accessory for images of the hypostases of the Holy Trinity, angels, the Mother of God and saints; often he also accompanied the Lamb of God and animal figures serving as symbols of the four evangelists. At the same time, for some icons, halos of a special kind were installed. For example, the face of God the Father was placed under a halo, which initially had the shape
triangle, and then the shape of a six-pointed star formed by two equilateral triangles. The Virgin Mary's halo is always round and often exquisitely decorated. The halos of saints or other divine persons are usually round and without ornaments.
30. Church In Christian symbolism, church has several meanings. Its main meaning is the House of God. It can also be understood as the Body of Christ. Sometimes the church is associated with the ark, and in this sense it means salvation for all its parishioners. In painting, a church placed in the hands of a saint means that this saint was the founder or bishop of that church. However, the church is in the hands of St. Jerome and St. Gregory does not mean any particular building, but the Church in general, to which these saints gave great support and became its first fathers.
31.Pelican, A beautiful legend is associated with this bird, existing in dozens of slightly different versions, but very similar in meaning to the ideas of the Gospel: self-sacrifice, deification through the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. Pelicans live in the coastal reeds near the warm Mediterranean Sea and are often subject to snake bites. Adult birds feed on them and are immune to their poison, but chicks are not yet. According to legend, if a pelican chick is bitten by a poisonous snake, it will peck at its own breast in order to give them blood with the necessary antibodies and thereby save their lives. Therefore, the pelican was often depicted on sacred vessels or in places of Christian worship.
32. Chrism is a monogram made up of the first letters of the Greek word “Christ” - “Anointed One”. Some researchers mistakenly identify this christian symbol with the double-edged ax of Zeus - “Labarum”. The Greek letters “a” and “ω” are sometimes placed along the edges of the monogram. Christianity was depicted on the sarcophagi of martyrs, in the mosaics of baptisteries (baptisteries), on the shields of soldiers and even on Roman coins - after the era of persecution.
33. Lily- a symbol of Christian purity, purity and beauty. The first images of lilies, judging by the Song of Songs, served as decoration for the Temple of Solomon. According to legend, on the day of the Annunciation, Archangel Gabriel came to the Virgin Mary with a white lily, which has since become a symbol of Her purity, innocence and devotion to God. With the same flower, Christians depicted saints, glorified by the purity of their lives, martyrs and martyrs.
34. Phoenix represents the image of the Resurrection, associated with the ancient legend of the eternal bird. The Phoenix lived for several centuries and, when the time came for him to die, he flew to Egypt and burned there. All that was left of the bird was a pile of nutritious ashes in which, after some time, a new life. Soon a new, rejuvenated Phoenix rose from it and flew off in search of adventure.
35.Rooster- This is a symbol of the general resurrection that awaits everyone at the Second Coming of Christ. Just as the crowing of a rooster awakens people from sleep, the trumpets of angels will awaken people at the end of time to meet the Lord, Last Judgment and inheritance of new life.
Christianity color symbols
Most significant difference"pagan" period color symbolism from “Christian” lies, first of all, in the fact that light and color finally cease to be identified with God and mystical forces, but become their
attributes, qualities and signs. According to Christian canons, God created the world, including light (color), but it itself cannot be reduced to light. Medieval theologians (for example, Aurelius Augustine), praising light and color as manifestations of the divine, nevertheless point out that they (colors) can also be deceptive (from Satan) and identifying them with God is a delusion and even sin.
White
Only white color remains an unshakable symbol of holiness and spirituality. Particularly important was the meaning of white as purity and innocence, liberation from sins. Angels, saints, and the risen Christ are depicted in white robes. White robes were worn by newly converted Christians. Also, white is the color of baptism, communion, the holidays of the Nativity of Christ, Easter, and Ascension. In the Orthodox Church, white is used in all services from Easter to Trinity Day. The Holy Spirit is depicted as a white dove. White Lily symbolizes purity, it accompanies images of the Virgin Mary. White has no in Christianity negative values. In early Christianity, the positive symbolic meaning of yellow prevailed, as the color of the Holy Spirit, divine revelation, enlightenment, etc. But later, yellow takes on a negative meaning. In the Gothic era, it begins to be considered the color of treason, betrayal, deceit, and jealousy. In church art, Cain and the traitor Judas Iscariot were often depicted with yellow beards.
Gold
Used in Christian painting as an expression of divine revelation. The golden radiance embodies the eternal divine light. Many people perceive the golden color as starlight descending from heaven.
Red
In Christianity, it symbolizes the blood of Christ, shed for the salvation of people, and, consequently, his love for people. This is the color of the fire of faith, martyrdom and the passion of the Lord, as well as the royal triumph of justice and victory over evil. Red is the color of worship on the Feast of the Holy Spirit, Palm Sunday, during Holy Week, on the days of remembrance of the martyrs who shed blood for their faith. The red rose indicates the shed blood and wounds of Christ, the cup that receives the “holy blood.” Therefore, it symbolizes rebirth in this context. Joyful events dedicated to Christ, the Mother of God and the saints were marked in red on the calendar. From church calendar We have come to a tradition of highlighting holiday dates in red. Easter of Christ in churches begins in white vestments as a sign of Divine light. But already the Easter Liturgy (in some churches it is customary to change vestments, so that the priest appears each time in vestments of a different color) and the entire week is served in red vestments. Red clothes are often used before Trinity.
Blue
This is the color of heaven, truth, humility, immortality, chastity, piety, baptism, harmony. He expressed the idea of self-sacrifice and meekness. The blue color seems to mediate the connection between the heavenly and the earthly, between God and the world. As the color of air, blue expresses a person’s readiness to accept for himself the presence and power of God, blue has become the color of faith, the color of fidelity, the color of desire for something mysterious and wonderful. Blue is the color of the Virgin Mary, and she is usually depicted wearing a blue cloak. Mary in this meaning is the Queen of Heaven, covering
with this cloak, protecting and saving believers (Pokrovsky Cathedral). In the paintings of churches dedicated to the Mother of God, the color of heavenly blue predominates. Dark blue is typical for depicting the clothes of cherubs, who are constantly in reverent reflection.
Green
This color was more “earthly”, it meant life, spring, the flowering of nature, youth. This is the color of the Cross of Christ, the Grail (according to legend, carved from a whole emerald). Green is identified with the great Trinity. On this holiday, according to tradition, churches and apartments are usually decorated with bouquets of green twigs. At the same time, green also had negative meanings - deceit, temptation, devilish temptation (green eyes were attributed to Satan).
Black
The attitude towards black was predominantly negative, as the color of evil, sin, the devil and hell, as well as death. In the meanings of black, as among primitive peoples, the aspect of “ritual death”, death for the world, was preserved and even developed. Therefore, black became the color of monasticism. For Christians, a black raven meant trouble. But black has not only such a tragic meaning. In icon painting in some scenes it means divine secret. For example, on a black background, signifying the incomprehensible depth of the Universe, the Cosmos was depicted - an old man in a crown in the icon of the Descent of the Holy Spirit.
Violet
It is formed by mixing red and blue (cyan). Thus, violet color combines the beginning and end of the light spectrum. It symbolizes intimate knowledge, silence, spirituality. In early Christianity, purple symbolized sadness and affection. This color is appropriated to the memories of the Cross and Lenten services, where the suffering and Crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of people are remembered. As a sign of higher spirituality, combined with the idea of the Savior’s feat on the cross, this color is used for the bishop’s mantle, so that the Orthodox bishop, as it were, is fully clothed in the feat of the cross of the Heavenly Bishop, whose image and imitator the bishop is in the Church.
Brown and gray
Brown and gray were the colors of the commoners. Their symbolic meaning, especially in the early Middle Ages, was purely negative. They meant poverty, hopelessness, wretchedness, abomination, etc. Brown is the color of earth, sadness. It symbolizes humility, renunciation of worldly life. Grey colour(a mixture of white and black, good and evil) – the color of ash, emptiness. After the ancient era, during the Middle Ages in Europe, color again regained its position, first of all, as a symbol mystical powers and phenomena, which is especially characteristic of early Christianity.
Symbolic images and their meaning in Blok’s poem “The Twelve”
Blok’s poem “The Twelve” cannot be considered a work dedicated exclusively to the October Revolution, without perceiving what is hidden behind the symbols, without giving significance to the issues that were raised in it by the author. Alexander Alexandrovich used symbols in order to convey deep meaning to the most ordinary, seemingly meaningless scenes. Blok used many symbols in his poem: names, numbers, and colors.
The leitmotif of the poem appears from the first bars: in the gap and opposition of “white” and “black”. Two opposite colors, I think, can only mean a split, a division. Black color is the color of a vague, dark beginning. White color symbolizes purity, spirituality, it is the color of the future. The poem contains phrases: black sky, black anger, white rose. I think that " black sky", hanging over the city, is akin to the "black anger" accumulated in the hearts of the "twelve". Here one can discern a long-standing resentment, pain, hatred towards the “old” world.
Anger, sad anger.
Boiling in my chest
Black anger, holy anger...
The color red also appears in the poem. It symbolizes blood, fire. Blok reflects on the possibility of human rebirth in the cleansing fire of revolution. Revolution for the author is the birth of harmony from chaos. The number twelve is also symbolic. Twelve is the number of the apostles of Christ, the number of jurors in court, the number of people in the detachments that patrolled Petrograd. The main characters of the poem are unthinkable in this era, the era of revolution. Twelve walkers, the beginnings of a new consciousness, are contrasted with the embodiment of the “old” world - “the bourgeois at the crossroads”, “the lady in astrakhan fur”, “the writer has a flair”. “The Twelve” symbolizes, I think, the revolution itself, striving to get rid of the past, moving rapidly forward, destroying all its enemies.
Revolutionary step up!
The restless enemy never sleeps!
Comrade, hold the rifle, don’t be afraid!
Let's fire a bullet into Holy Rus'...
“The hungry beggar dog” symbolizes the “old”, passing world in the poem. We see that this dog is pursuing the “twelve” everywhere, just as the old world is pursuing the new system, the revolution. From this we can conclude that supporters of the new time cannot yet get rid of the remnants of the past. Blok also does not make predictions about what the future will be like, although he is aware that it will not be rosy:
Ahead is a cold snowdrift,
-Who else is there? Come out!
Only a poor dog is hungry
He hobbles behind.
-Get off, you scoundrel!
I'll tickle you with a bayonet!
The old world is like a mangy dog,
If you fail, I'll beat you up!
The image of Christ is also symbolic in the poem. Jesus Christ is the messenger of new human relationships, an exponent of purity, holiness and purifying suffering. For Blok, his “twelve” are real heroes, since they are the executors of a great mission, carrying out a holy cause - a revolution. As a symbolist and mystic, the author expresses the holiness of the revolution religiously. Emphasizing the holiness of the revolution, its cleansing power, Blok places the invisible walking Christ before these “twelve”. According to Blok, the Red Guards, despite the spontaneity of their movement, were subsequently reborn and became apostles of the new faith.
So they walk with a sovereign step -
Behind is a hungry dog,
Ahead - with a bloody flag,
And invisible behind the blizzard,
And unharmed by a bullet,
With a gentle tread above the storm,
Snow scattering of pearls,
In a white corolla of roses -
Ahead is Jesus Christ.
Literary symbolism can subtly express the hero’s sympathy or personal view of something important. Blok uses it in its entirety. The poem “The Twelve” is full of mysteries and revelations; it makes you think about every word, every sign, in order to correctly decipher it. This work well illustrates the work of A. Blok, who rightfully takes his place among the symbolists.
Symbolic images and their meaning. A. Blok is wonderful, greatest poet, who was destined to live and create at a turning point, at the turn of two eras. He admitted that his life and creative path lay “among revolutions,” but the poet perceived the events of October much deeper and more organically than 1905.
Perhaps this happened due to the fact that A. Blok, having left the framework of symbolism, which had previously limited his work, came to the understanding that the old “ scary world” has outlived its usefulness, and the poet’s sensitive heart rushed in search of something new. “With all your body, with all your heart, with all your consciousness - listen to the Revolution,” called A. Blok. He knew how to listen, and we, living 85 years after the revolution, can hear it if we carefully read A. Blok’s poem “The Twelve.” This poem contains everything: the instability of the bourgeois world in the face of new forces, and the fear of the unknown, and the spontaneity underlying the revolution, and the expectation of future difficulties, and faith in victory.
Striving to describe the realities of that time as comprehensively and objectively as possible, Blok in his poem creates a number of bright and polysemantic images-symbols that allow him to convey his feelings even more fully, and for us to hear the “music of the revolution.”
One of the main symbols of the spontaneity, uncontrollability and all-embracingness of the revolution is the wind.
Wind, wind!
The man is not standing on his feet.
Wind, wind -
All over God's world!
This reflects both the cosmic nature of the coming transformations and the inability of man to resist these changes. No one remains indifferent, nothing is untouched:
The wind is cheerful
Both angry and happy.
Twists the hems,
Passers-by are mowed down...
Revolution requires sacrifices, often innocent ones. Katka dies. We don't know much about her, but we still feel sorry for her. Elemental forces also attract soldiers, former robbers, who indulge “on the sly” in ruthless robberies and robberies.
Eh, eh!
It's not a sin to have fun!
Lock the floors
There will be robberies today!
Unlock the cellars -
The bastard is on the loose these days!
It’s all the wind, and it’s not for nothing that in the end it develops into a terrible blizzard, which hinders even the Bolshevik detachment of twelve people, shielding people from each other.
The image of the old, dying world appears before us in the form of a sick, homeless, hungry dog that cannot be driven away, it is so annoying. Either he huddles from fear and cold to the knees of the bourgeoisie, or he runs after the fighters of the revolution.
- Get off, you scoundrel,
I'll tickle you with a bayonet!
The old world is like a mangy dog,
If you fail, I'll beat you up!
The contrasting color images that permeate the poem are also symbolic:
Black evening.
White snow.
The color black here has many meanings. This is a symbol of the dark, evil principle, and chaos, and the raging elements - both in the world and within a person. That is why before the fighters for new world darkness looms, above them - “black, black sky.” But the snow that constantly accompanies the detachment is white. It seems to cleanse the grief and sacrifices that the revolution requires, awaken spirituality, and bring it to the light. It’s not for nothing that at the end of the poem the main, brightest and most unexpected image appears, always former symbol purity and holiness:
With a gentle tread above the storm,
Snow scattering of pearls,
In a white corolla of roses -
Ahead is Jesus Christ.
This is A. Blok’s poem “The Twelve” - a unique, truthful and unforgettable chronicle of the 1917 revolution.
From the above it is clear that an artistic image is nothing more than a special means used not for copying objects, but for encoding generalized experiences. Consequently, it is a special sign (symbol), the meaning (meaning) of which is one or another generalized experience. In this regard, there is a fundamental similarity between a painting and a musical work. An expressive combination of graphic and color elements is as much a carrier of human experience as an expressive combination of sounds. Therefore, any artistic image in the field of painting (if it is truly artistic) has a kind of “musicality”. The famous American painter Whistler drew attention to this: “Nature conceals in its colors and forms the content of all kinds of paintings, like the key to all musical notes. But the artist’s task is to understand this content with understanding, select and combine, and in this way create beautiful - just as a musician connects notes and forms chords and thus creates great harmonies from the chaos of sounds." It has been written more than once about the “musicality” of lines: “When, by the will of the master of the Parthenon frieze, the clothes of the gods are folded into amazing lines, we experience something similar to as if we were listening to music: and here the inner experience follows directly the movement of the lines.”
And Muter, as if hinting at Schopenhauer’s erroneous opposition of music to painting, very clearly explained this side of the matter using the example of Böcklin’s work; noting that Böcklin “discovered the musical insight hidden in the colors.” He “created colorful symphonies, like the sounds of a stormy orchestra,” “the colors laugh, triumph, blissfully.”
From what has been said, it follows that not a single artistic image, be it the most “abstract” or the most “realistic,” as an integral formation, has an objective analogue in reality and therefore is neither a direct nor an indirect copy of any real object. So one of the founders of abstract painting of the 20th century. The Dutch artist Mondrian completely in vain boarded up the window of his Parisian atelier so that the beautiful view of Paris would not encourage him to “copy reality”: the synthesis of elements based on Gestalt, as a rule, gives something that does not exist in reality. At the same time, the most amazing paradox of artistic creativity is that the more accurately the elements and gestalt copy reality, the further, generally speaking, the result of their synthesis departs from this reality. A convincing illustration of this paradox is the symbolic images of Böcklin and the surrealistic images of Dali.
Contrary to popular belief, a realistic image is no less symbolic than an “abstract” one (not to mention classicism, romanticism, expressionism and surrealism). It is enough to refer to “Portrait of Bertin the Elder” by Ingres, the history of whose creation we know for sure. Ingres searched long and painfully for the most expressive composition of the portrait to accurately convey the feelings that the image of the powerful head of the French political press of the July Monarchy era evoked in him. To adequately express the emotional impression made by a person with such political weight, it was necessary to find a special combination of pose, posture, costume, hairstyle, head angle, facial expression, hand placement, etc., including the appropriate setting (background). After many unsuccessful attempts, Ingres found a combination in which the sitting pose of the person being portrayed (sitting, as it were, “on a throne”!) and the arrangement of the fingers of the right hand, reminiscent of the talons of an eagle, ready to plunge into the next victim, give special expressiveness to the image. Consequently, Bertin’s deeply realistic image turned out to be not a copy real person, but “an amazing synthesis of strictly thought-out and selected observations with a sense of freedom and naturalness in the interpretation of the model.” The portrait made a very strong impression on his contemporaries: everyone was amazed at the “resemblance” to the original. At the same time, no one has ever observed in the original a simultaneous combination of all those features mentioned above. In light of the above, it is easy to understand that the audience mistakenly took the special code for designating a generally valid feeling for a copy of the corresponding object.
Thus, being a code of an emotional attitude towards a certain object, an artistic image, thereby, encodes the object of an emotional attitude. Thanks to this, the image, in addition to its direct meaning ( emotional attitude) the indirect (the object of this relationship) also appears. Let us note that in the case of the specified object, again, it is not copying that takes place, but encoding. Therefore, the image of Bertin, as depicted in Ingres’s portrait, is by no means a more or less accurate copy of the real Bertin. Such an illusion arises only when one ignores the fact that this image appeared as a result of the synthesis of elements and gestalt. It would be a copy if the said synthesis did not take place. This is a very delicate moment, which once again shows that it is impossible to understand the essence artistic image, if you don’t know the general “mechanism” of its creation. If there may still be any doubts about such a “mechanism” in the absence of knowledge of the history of the creation of the painting in the case of “Portrait of Bertin,” then they lose all ground when we study the history of the creation of Courbet’s “Atelier.” Here, it would seem, is the most realistic genre scene is a product of the artist’s very complex creative imagination and, as the author himself reports, has a deep symbolic meaning.
We have already seen that there are four types of objects of emotional attitude (real, abstract, fantastic and meta-objects). Therefore, the symbolic functions of the image in relation to the object of emotional relationship are determined by the nature of this object. Since such objects are divided primarily into concrete (real and fantastic) and abstract (different degrees of abstraction), an artistic image in relation to these objects can appear in one of three forms: 1) isomorpheme; 2) metaphor; 3) allegory.
In the first case, we are dealing with a structural copy of an object. This means that the method of connecting the elements of the image and the method of connecting the elements of the object are the same, although the elements of the image and the object may differ very significantly. They say that the image in this case is isomorphic to the object. Ingres's Portrait of Bertin and Courbet's Atelier are classic examples of isomorphemes. 
Consequently, an image is an isomorpheme if it denotes: a) a very specific object (real or fantastic) and b) has structural similarity with the designated object.
One of the most expressive isomorphems in the history of painting is the use by artists in some paintings of the symbolic meaning of blindness. Perhaps the most profound images of this type were created in classical painting by P. Bruegel, and in modernist painting by Picasso. In P. Bruegel’s “Parable of the Blind,” a stunningly powerful expression, a chain of blind people led by a drunken guide into the abyss becomes a symbol of the spiritual blindness of humanity, moving, thanks to its vices and the vices of its leaders, towards a global catastrophe. On the contrary, in Picasso’s paintings of the “blue” period there are often images of blind beggars, whose blindness has the exact opposite meaning. Now this is a symbol not of spiritual blindness, but of spiritual insight - a kind of emotional clairvoyance that allows you to “look” into the very essence of things. Such physically blind people are in reality spiritually "sighted" and they are contrasted with the physically sighted who are in fact spiritually blind. Looking at the faces of such blind people, one gets the impression that they “... something is born in the depths of the spirit, perhaps that same “inner eye” (V.B.) painfully appears, for the sake of which it would not be a pity to go blind” (Dmitrieva N.A. Picasso. M., 1971.P.19). They are spiritually “sighted” because their experiences are connected not with the deceptive appearance of things, but with the essence of them. The physical blindness of such blind people expresses the idea that their gaze is directed not to the external, but to the internal. Their “eyelessness” is reminiscent of the “eyelessness” of Buddhist statues, in which it symbolizes a departure from outside world into oneself (self-contemplation). This sounds in unison with the legend about Democritus blinding himself so that one could escape from the vain “variegation” of phenomena and focus on their unobservable essence.
Apparently, having in mind precisely the emotional attitude towards essence, Picasso once expressed the seemingly monstrous idea that artists, like goldfinches, should gouge out their eyes so that “they sing better.” When an artist, choosing a sighted person as a gestalt, mentally “gouges out” his eyes, he creates a typical isomorpheme: the blind person becomes a structural copy of the sighted person. In the history of painting, more extravagant cases of isomorphemes are known. As such, we can cite genital isomorphemes in classical and modernist painting, traditionally symbols of erotic desires and devilish temptations. In these compositions, the structural similarity with the object of emotional relationship is more or less obvious, although it may require some effort from people with insufficient imagination.
If not only the elements, but also the structure of the image does not coincide with the structure of the object of the emotional relationship, then the image becomes what is commonly called a metaphor (“allegory”). The simplest manifestation of the latter is the representation of people in the form of animals, for example, a strong and brave person in the form of a lion, and a cunning and resourceful person in the form of a fox. Here the object of emotional attitude can be specific people. In more difficult cases the role of such an object can be a specific social institution or even an entire state.
There is a well-known story about how the Neapolitan king ordered the founder Italian painting Renaissance Giotto (1276-1337) painting that would have depicted his kingdom. 
To the great amazement of the king, instead of a wide panorama of his possessions, so to speak, from a bird's eye view with many cities and towns, Giotto depicted a donkey loaded with a heavy pack, at whose feet lay another newer pack. The donkey stupidly and lustfully sniffed at the new pack, clearly wanting to get it. And on both packs there was clearly a crown and a scepter. When the king asked what all this meant, Giotto replied that such is the state and such are its subjects, always dissatisfied with the old ruler and eager to get a new one.
Here the object of the metaphor is a real single object (the Kingdom of Naples). But the role of such an object may be an equally concrete, but fantastic object. A very striking illustration of such a more complex metaphor is one of the images of the devil in Bosch’s famous triptych “The Garden of Pleasures,” as well as the image of the “Last Judgment” in one of the frescoes of the same Giotto.
An empty bud with thorns with red berries emanating from it symbolizes one of the manifestations of the devil. The fact is that, according to medieval beliefs, an empty cavity (shell, hollow, etc.) serves as a prototype of Satan; red berries are a symbol of the devil's temptation that leads to sin, and thorns are a prototype of the danger with which this temptation and this sin are associated. So that the viewer has no doubt about who he is dealing with, the entire structure is crowned by an owl with a truly satanic look...
The image of the "Last Judgment" in Giotto's interpretation - in the form of an angel rolling up the heavens - has an absolutely stunning power of laconic expressiveness! It is difficult to come up with a more accurate, capacious and deep, both ideologically and emotionally, allegorical formula than the one proposed by Giotto. The emotional attitude towards the biblical image of the “Last Judgment” is extremely sparingly and at the same time deadly accurately characterized.
One should not think that metaphor is characteristic only of old-fashioned classical painting. A striking example of metaphor in modernist painting can be, in particular, the image of a burning giraffe in some of Dali’s compositions, which symbolizes the approach of the Second World War.
When an artistic image turns out to be a symbol of an abstract object, then it becomes what has long been called an allegory. At the same time, different degrees of abstraction of the object of emotional relationship provide food for allegories of varying degrees of complexity.
One of the oldest and simplest cases of using this concept is the allegory of, so to speak, “enlightenment” (in the figurative and literal sense), created by the poetic fantasy of the ancient Greeks. 
She represents Apollo - the god of knowledge and light - striking with his luminous arrows ("rays of knowledge", "light of truth") Python - a symbol of ignorance and darkness. It is not for nothing that Hegel mentioned this allegory in his Lectures on Aesthetics.
A more complex illustration of the concept of allegory can be found in famous painting Botticelli "Slander". Botticelli wrote it under the impression of the Roman historian Lucian’s description of a painting on a similar theme created by the famous ancient Greek painter Apelles.
There are 10 characters in the film, divided into 3 groups. On the right, Ignorance and Suspicion whisper something to the Ruler that should make him believe Slander. The central group represents Slander, pulling the hair of the Slandered One, led by Envy and accompanied by Lies and Deceit. Last group consists of gloomy Repentance and naked Truth, symbolizing the exposure of Slander. Thus, the plot of the picture is the history of Slander from its inception to its exposure (the potential appearance of Slander in the right group, its actual presence in the central one and its disappearance in the left).
It is easy to notice that the viewer is dealing here with a multi-stage allegory, which consists of a whole complex of elementary allegories. Only two characters out of ten symbolize people (the Ruler and the Slandered). Seven are abstract symbols human qualities and corresponding abstract actions (suspicion in general, envy in general, deception in general, etc.). Finally, the last character out of ten encodes a meta-object (truth). The synthetic allegory coincides with the plot of the picture. This is precisely the story of Slander (with a capital S!). However, the viewer would make a serious mistake if he identified this allegory with the actual content of the picture. From what was stated earlier it follows that the described allegory is only a code (sign, symbol) of the artist’s emotional relationship to a very subtle “abstract” object, which cannot be “depicted”, but can only be designated. We are talking about the history of slander (with a small letter!) as such, slander in general, that is, in fact, about the emotional attitude towards a certain pattern of human behavior operating in different eras and in different countries.
An analysis of Botticelli's "Slander" shows that one of the most suitable abstract objects that the allegory encodes are certain generalized qualities of a person. 
Thus, such transparent allegories of the 19th century Symbolists appear. as, for example, "Hope" by Puy de Chavannes and "Faith" by Burne-Jones. Nadezhda is depicted as a fragile girl with a young tree in her hand, and Vera as a girl with a lamp in her right hand, at whose feet a dragon is dying (“unbelief”), and a snake is crawling along her left hand (“doubt”). Changes in generalized human qualities can, as a kind of “abstract” events, in turn, provide food for new experiences and, thanks to this, become objects of special emotional relationships. Then the well-known "Broken Jug" Dream appears. The girl mourns the jug, but Diderot explains: “Don’t think that we are talking about the jug... Young girls mourn more, and not without reason.”
Thus, this elegant allegory, executed in the best traditions of the Rococo style, has as its object the “loss of innocence” as such, the “loss of innocence” in general. Allegories acquire a much more complex character in modernist painting (especially in surrealism), where they become mysterious puzzles that require special art historical analysis to be deciphered. For example, some of Dali’s portraits feature images of something like kebab or bacon, which at first causes complete bewilderment. However, from the comments of the artist himself, we can conclude that such images symbolize either “the desire to eat someone” or “the desire to be eaten by someone” (see, for example, “Gala with a kebab on the shoulder” and “Soft self-portrait with bacon ". 
In the first case we are dealing with an allegory of, so to speak, the “burden of love,” and in the second, the “burden of popularity.”
Finally, highest degree An allegory reaches complexity when the artistic image indirectly encodes a meta-object. We have already become acquainted with Veronese’s allegorical “depiction” of dialectics. From everything that has been said, it follows that the described allegory is a special code to designate the artist’s emotional attitude to such a meta-object as dialectics. Moreover, a meta-object is not amenable to any kind of “image”, but can only be designated (encoded). Dali went even further: he painted a picture that was supposed to convey his emotional attitude towards the irrational ("unconscious" in the sense of Freud), and considered in general view(irrational as such, irrational in general). Moreover, he decided to convey in the film an emotional attitude towards his own intention to “reveal” this irrational and make it accessible to the viewer. As a result, one of the few fairly transparent surreal allegories appeared: Dali the child lifts the “veil” (as if removing the “skin”), hiding the irrational in the form of a dog dozing under water (fig.). Of course, the “transparency” of this allegory is relative, because it depends on understanding the symbolic meaning of the key element - the dog. But if this element is deciphered, then it immediately becomes clear that this picture is an allegory of Dali’s entire life and all of his work.
As the history of painting shows, the symbolic structure of a rather complex artistic image is a very branched and intricate hierarchy of isomorphemes, metaphors and allegories. 
There are, for example, combined symbolic images that combine isomorpheme and metaphor or isomorpheme and allegory. An illustration of the first option can be the famous “Lady with an Ermine” (1483) by Leonardo, which is a portrait of the favorite of the Duke of Milan, Louis Moreau, Cecilia Gallerani. The very fact that the person being portrayed is holding in her hands, instead of a submissive cat, an animal with such a restless disposition as an ermine, is already somewhat alarming. Even more surprising is the strange similarity of the outlines of the ermine’s muzzle with the outlines of the face of the person being portrayed. However, if we take into account the “royal” nature of the ermine, the stern and cruel character of the Milanese ruler and the secular qualities of Cecilia, who repeatedly tamed the indomitable temper of the Duke not only with her love, but also with her enchanting playing of the harp, then the meaning of Leonardo’s elegant metaphor becomes completely transparent.
An equally effective illustration of the combination of isomorpheme and allegory is the portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, the favorite of the Florentine Duke Lodovic the Magnificent, by Piero di Cosimo. The viewer's attention is immediately drawn to the unusual snake necklace. 
It was this that apparently confused the famous Mannerist artist and the first historian of Italian Renaissance painting, Vasari, who decided that the painting depicted the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, who, as we know, committed suicide with a snake bite.
Meanwhile, there was some truth in this mistake. It was no coincidence that Cleopatra chose this particular method of committing suicide: according to Egyptian belief, a snake bite grants immortality. A snake biting its own tail has always been considered a symbol of eternity. From here it is not difficult to guess that in the image of a snake necklace we are dealing with a peculiar allegory of immortality - the immortality of the beauty that lived a very bright, but very short (23 years) life...
The viewer encounters a real bacchanalia of isomorphemes, metaphors and allegories when he begins to look at such grandiose compositions as, for example, “The Garden of Pleasures” by Bosch, “Flemish Proverbs” by P. Bruegel or “A second before waking up after a bumblebee flies around a pomegranate fruit” by Dali. The situation is further complicated by the fact that the differences between isoforme, metaphor and allegory are, generally speaking, relative and they can transform into each other. The same image in relation to one object can be a metaphor, and in relation to another - an allegory, and vice versa. For example, Botticelli's "Slander", as we showed earlier, is an allegory because it expresses an emotional attitude towards an "abstract" object. But a similar image of “Slander” by Apelles played the role of a metaphor, for Apelles expressed in his picture an emotional attitude to a very specific event in his life - his false accusation of high treason.
So far we have talked about the plot symbolism of the artistic image. Now it’s time to discuss the so-called formal symbolism of this image. The latter is a more subtle thing and less accessible to understanding even by a viewer with a well-trained eye. We will consider the symbolic meaning of the following formal components of the pictorial image: a) lines; b) forms; c) light; d) colors; d) prospects. The peculiarity of formal symbolism is that all of these components can acquire an independent conventional meaning, independent of their belonging to a particular object.
An excellent example of a purely conventional and therefore symbolic use of a line is given to us by Japanese artist XV century Shosshu in his famous landscape "Winter". Against the background of a winter landscape, a vertical zigzag line rises from the ground to the sky - like a crack in a transparent surface. The viewer seems to feel the “crackling frost” in the still air. Shosshu introduces this element into the composition as a kind of graphic accompaniment to a completely realistic depiction of the landscape. This is not like the unnaturally angular outline of the girl’s figure in Puy de Chavannes’s “Nadezhda,” which emphasizes the “fragility” of Nadezhda. In Chavannes, the line is part of the subject. In Shosshu it acquires an independent existence. A naive viewer may ask: “Why is this necessary? The line should be an element of the drawing!” The answer is: the mood created by a “non-objective” line is different from the mood initiated by a materialized line. 
Therefore, if the artist refuses an autonomous (independent) line, he conveys a different mood. So in order to get ahead of the first mood, it is necessary to learn to correctly perceive the “pointless” line, that is, to realize its conditional, symbolic meaning.
As for the form, here the symbolism has become even more widespread. For a long time, the quadrangle was considered a symbol of earthly life, the triangle - a symbol of heavenly existence as the antipode to earthly existence (in particular, as a symbol of the trinity), and the circle - a symbol of infinity and eternity: "Symbols supreme reality often perceived in geometric form. For example, the triangle has served since ancient times as a mystical and magic symbol and he... often aroused in the viewer a feeling of wariness and even fear." Perhaps the symbolism of these geometric forms was most vividly embodied in Kandinsky’s numerous “abstract” compositions. The function of the circle in Kandinsky as a symbol of the absolute and transcendental has been repeatedly noted in art history literature ( The One, Tao, etc.): The circle is the synthesis of the greatest opposites. It unites the concentric and the eccentric in a single form and in balance. Of the three primary forms (triangle, square, circle), it points most clearly to the fourth dimension... The circle is a link with space. In 1925, in one of his letters, Kandinsky speaks of the “romanticism of the circle.”
We have already noted in connection with the allegory of the Enlightenment and the image of Apollo the symbolic meaning of light as a source of truth. This ancient symbolism of light received further development V Christian tradition, acquiring a particularly refined form in the work of Rembrandt. Light began to be interpreted not only as a source of truth, but also as a source of “divine grace” (the so-called “ascetic truth”, or ideal). Therefore, Rembrandt moved from external illumination of objects to their internal glow. Objects in his paintings, as a rule, glow not with reflected light, but with their own light. This is achieved by two techniques: eliminating shadows (or reducing them) and the appearance of the most bright light within the boundaries of the subject. As a result, his objects emit “divine light sent to the earth and ennobling it with its presence.”
The symbolism of graphic elements paved the way for more complex and deep color symbolism. We encounter its simplest manifestation already in the coloring of the clothing of Raphael’s Madonnas, built on a simple combination of local red and blue colors. The red color symbolizes royal power in this case, and the blue color symbolizes the divine principle (" heavenly power"). The combination of red and blue thus becomes a symbol of divine power, which requires a reverent attitude. These colors acquire a significantly different meaning from Bosch in his “Garden of Pleasures.” The entire central part of the triptych is dotted with red and blue berries and buds. 
Here, the red color symbolizes voluptuousness (sensual love that leads to temptation), and blue symbolizes poison (spiritual “poisoning” that sensual love leads to).
This relatively simple symbolism takes on a more complex character in modernist painting. Thus, in Picasso’s paintings of the “blue” period, blue becomes a symbol of loneliness and sadness, melancholy and despair. A viewer with a realistic attitude is usually perplexed why the film has such an “unnatural” coloring. He may even think that the artist simply does not know how to use paints (a bad colorist). On the contrary, in Modigliani, in his piercing orange nudes, the viewer no longer encounters minor, but major symbolism of color: now the “unnatural” color symbolizes erotic passion. But, perhaps, the most sensational case of a purely conventional (symbolic) use of color was “The Tower of Blue Horses” by F. Marc and “The Bathing of the Red Horse” by Petrov-Vodkin.
One should not think that only realists considered it impossible for blue or red horses to exist. Even such a bold experimenter in the field of color as Renoir once authoritatively declared: “Believe me, there are no blue horses in the world!” In contrast to this, according to Kandinsky, the blue horse became a symbol of “heavenly energy” that determines the existence and evolution of the Universe. The red horse, as already noted, perhaps unexpectedly for the artist himself, became a symbol of the impending revolution in one of the largest countries in the world (The symbolism of color has a long tradition in religious art. Thus, the golden color of Buddha symbolizes the radiation of grace / goodness /, and the blue color of Krishna symbolizes his absorption of the world’s poison / evil/ to rid people of it. In line with the Christian tradition, red is interpreted as a symbol of the desire for good; purple - to evil; green is a symbol of being “beyond good and evil” /the color of paradise/. /see, for example, Florensky P.A. Collected works Paris: YMCA Press, 1985. T.1.S.59-62/).
Now we come to the most complex issue, which is associated with the symbolic meaning of the perspective used in the picture. As we have already seen, even the use of linear perspective does not aim to achieve a simple optical illusion of depth. Alberti already noted that it is necessary to use the laws of optics to achieve special expressiveness of the artistic image. Knowledge of the laws of optics is not necessary in order to turn painting into the science of representation: “Knowledge of the laws of optics can enable the artist to more effectively express his feelings.” 
It was Masaccio and Van Eyck, and then Leonardo and Dürer, who fully used linear perspective as an effective means of creating a special spirituality of artistic images to give mystical scenes illusions of reality.
The question arises, what is the specificity of that expressiveness that was associated with the illusion of depth. Here we need to distinguish between two tasks: 1) search effective means to convey the expressiveness of the human body; 2) search for an effective means of conveying the expressiveness of a person’s spiritual aspirations. The first problem was solved in the Renaissance (XV-XVI centuries), the second - in the era of romanticism (XIX centuries).
As for the expressiveness of the human body, it is significantly related to its movements. The latter require three-dimensional spaces to fully reveal their expressiveness (two-dimensional space significantly constrains freedom of movement and impoverishes the range of possible angles). That is why anyone who considered it necessary to show the expressiveness of the body had to resort to linear perspective. The importance that Renaissance artists attached to the expressiveness of the human body can be seen from the following episode. When Italian artist Signorelli's son died, the grief-stricken father tore off part of his son's skin in order to better examine the “beauty” of his muscles. This sounds monstrous from the point of view of a modern moralist, but it was quite natural in an era when the expressiveness of the body was elevated, one might say, into a religious cult. Contemplating the naked muscles of his dead son could be a consolation for the artist father. The fact is that it was Signorelli who brought to the end the art of linear perspective, showing to the fullest extent the connection between the expressiveness of the body and its movements. Since movement allows you to see the body from different angles, it becomes possible to choose from many angles the one that is most expressive.
It is not difficult to guess that the use of an artistic image with a linear perspective is associated with giving this image the character of an isomorpheme. Indeed, in this case, the perspective of the image coincides with the visible perspective of the real object, the emotional attitude towards which should be conveyed in the picture. But this means that the image turns out to be a structural (and only structural!) copy of the real object. This web-like "copy" is actually a symbol not only of the emotions aroused by the object, but also of the object itself. In other words, although the optical illusion of depth between the elements of the image coincides with a similar illusion of depth between the elements of the object, we should not forget that the elements of the image (in whole or in part) do not coincide with the elements of the object.
The difficulty of realizing the symbolic nature of linear perspective is associated only with the coding of a real object. If we are talking about coding fantastic or abstract objects, then there is no difficulty. When, for example, the famous Belgian surrealist Delvaux's nude beauties wander in mysterious solitude through the streets of deserted cities, it is immediately clear that here linear perspective only encodes the artist's emotional attitude to a dream or obsession, and therefore such a fantastic object as a dream or such abstract object as an obsession.
Thus, any difficulties in understanding the symbolism of linear perspective arise only on the condition that the image plays the role of an isomorpheme. When we use it as a metaphor or allegory, then the symbolic nature of this perspective is beyond any doubt. Can there be any doubt about the completely conventional (purely symbolic) character of linear perspective in Botticelli's "Calumina"?
As already mentioned, the romantics of the 19th century. gave linear perspective a new symbolic meaning, significantly different from the Renaissance one. 
It manifested itself with particular force in the work of one of the leaders of the German romantic painting K. Friedrich (1774-1840). In his landscape compositions, small figures of people are contrasted with the vast space with an endless horizon stretching into the distance.
They usually have their backs turned to the viewer and their gaze is romantically directed into the endless distance. As O. Spengler aptly noted, here the figure of a man is a symbol of his body, and the space into which the character’s gaze is directed is a symbol of his “Faustian” soul. Thus, linear perspective becomes a kind of code for the spiritual aspirations of the individual towards a distant and unattainable ideal. In other words, the third dimension ("depth") now takes on a completely new meaning - it symbolizes time. So, according to O. Spengler, in the image of the romantic landscape “Faustian Soul”, in the stream of all-consuming time, one tries to “embrace the immensity.”
If there are still possible doubts regarding linear perspective regarding its symbolic nature, then they are completely dispelled when we move on to such types of perspective as reverse and spherical (diagram 1(a) and (b)). As you know, a characteristic feature of reverse perspective is that the vanishing point of parallel lines (perpendicular to the surface of the picture), here, unlike linear perspective, is not behind the picture, but in front of it.
We encounter excellent examples of reverse perspective in Russian icon painting.
Almost reverse perspective manifests itself in the fact that an object is simultaneously visible from different sides, which contradicts the laws of optics. But an artistic image with a reverse perspective seems to say to the viewer: “So much the worse for these laws!” That's why art exists, to go beyond those disabilities that science provides, and to reveal such expressive possibilities that science does not dare to dream of.
The symbolism of reverse perspective lies in the fact that it encodes not the viewer’s aspiration towards the ideal (as is, for example, the case with linear perspective in a romantic landscape), but, on the contrary, the ideal’s aspiration towards the viewer. Linear perspective seems to “draw” the viewer into the space of the picture; the opposite “pushes” the characters towards the viewer - the viewer, as it were, becomes an accomplice of what is happening in the film. The purpose of such construction of an artistic image is to arouse in the viewer awe in relation to what is happening in the picture. If the elements of the image, according to the artist’s plan, have a magical character and that is why they are called upon to arouse the specified feeling in the viewer, then they should not obey the laws of ordinary (“earthly”) perspective: they should not be visible only partially, should not obscure each other, not should decrease with increasing distance to them, etc. Consequently, the use of reverse perspective, in particular in icon painting, was not a simple consequence of the inability to build linear perspective, but the inability to do this itself is explained by the reluctance to use it due to the fact that it was not suitable for expressing the corresponding feelings. To put it simply, it was inadequate to the prevailing mood of the era. The history of painting shows that when the need arose to express the feelings associated with linear perspective, artists have always mastered it. Suffice it to recall Anaxagoras and Agatharchus, who used this perspective back in the 5th century. BC. As for the spherical (planetary) perspective, in Bosch, for example, it symbolizes the anomaly of the earthly world in comparison with the divine: “The earthly world was only a crooked mirror (V.B.) of the divine world, its optical illusion.” It is curious that Bosch used spherical perspective only in scenes of earthly life; in scenes of heaven and hell, he resorted to parallel (axonometric) perspective with elements of linear perspective. Spherical perspective became quite widespread in modernist painting of the twentieth century, mainly in formism (for example, in the still lifes of Petrov-Vodkin) and expressionism (for example, in urban landscapes Gross).
The purpose of its use was to show the new expressive possibilities that the deformed earthly world contains. In particular, in expressionistic compositions it often symbolizes the feeling of an impending apocalyptic catastrophe. Thus, the expressiveness of paintings can be enhanced or weakened by moving from one type of perspective to another.
An analysis of the nature of an artistic image cannot be completed until a comparative analysis of artistic images with scientific images and symbols is carried out and it is shown how the former differ from the latter. This is a rather subtle and delicate issue that will require the reader's intense attention. The main differences between artistic images and symbols and scientific images and symbols are as follows:
1) As you know, a scientific sign (term) and the meaning of this sign (idea or concept) do not coincide. For example, the visual representation of a crystal has nothing to do with the word "crystal". An artistic image, as we have seen, necessarily represents some symbol. It follows that the coincidence of the image and the sign is a characteristic feature of the artistic image.
2) Due to the coincidence of the artistic image and the artistic symbol, this image cannot coincide with the meaning of the artistic symbol, in contrast to the scientific image, which coincides with the meaning of the scientific symbol. As was shown earlier, the meaning of an artistic symbol is experience (feeling, emotion). At the same time, a visual representation or an abstract concept appears as the meaning of a scientific symbol. Hence, artistic symbol unlike the scientific one, it has not a rational, but an irrational (emotional) meaning.
3) Artistic symbols, like scientific ones, are capable of generalization. But the nature of artistic generalization differs significantly from scientific generalization. If scientific symbols denote the general in objects or in ideas and concepts, then artistic symbols denote the general in emotions.
4) Scientific symbols are conventional, i.e. are the result of an agreement (“convention”) between specialists. One and the same scientific image, generally speaking, can be denoted by different symbols. As is well known, scientific terminology is not a matter of truth, but of convenience. In the case of artistic symbols, we are faced with a completely different situation. If between scientifically and the symbol denoting it does not have the necessary unambiguous connection (since we are talking about a convention), then there is a strictly unambiguous connection between the artistic image and the emotion it expresses. We cannot express the experiences encoded in Leonardo's Last Supper or Picasso's Guernica in any other way than those provided by these paintings. Changing the code in this case leads to a significant modification of the experiences themselves.
Thus, the specificity of artistic symbols is that they are not conventional, but unique. So in art we encounter a completely unusual and paradoxical situation from a scientific point of view - the non-conventionality of the sign. It is the uniqueness of artistic symbols that gives original works of art such value, as opposed to copies.
5) If the criterion for the truth of a scientific image is its correspondence, ultimately, to some real object, then the criterion for the “truth” (“authenticity”) of an artistic image will be the correspondence (“adequacy”) of the experience it expresses to the experience of the artist himself. In other words, the degree of “truth” of an artistic image is determined by the degree of its expressiveness. Consequently, “truth” in art means sincerity, and “error” means falsehood. Therefore, the criterion of truth in art differs significantly from that in science.
6) A scientific symbol by itself (as such) does not carry any rational information: such information is contained only in its meaning. So, for example, by studying the structure of the word “crystal”, one cannot learn anything about crystals. This is a consequence of the fact that the scientific symbol does not coincide with the scientific image. In contrast, an artistic symbol, coinciding with an artistic image, sometimes contains very valuable rational information.
On one fresco in one of the Scandinavian temples of the 11th century. a picture of a turkey was discovered. Based on this, it was concluded that Columbus was not the discoverer of America. IN seascapes Dutch marine painter of the 17th century. The ships were depicted so accurately and in such detail that Peter I taught Russian sailors in seafaring using these images. Based on paintings by an Italian artist of the 18th century. Canaletto, who depicted the historical center of Warsaw with great accuracy, restored many buildings in this center that were destroyed during the Second World War.
However, the specified rational information that can be extracted from an artistic symbol (image) has nothing to do with its true meaning- express the artist’s emotional attitude towards a certain object. It turns out to be, so to speak, a by-product (and, to a large extent, accidental) of such an expression. The rational information that an artistic symbol carries (as opposed to a scientific one) often masks its true meaning and gives rise to an unreasonable rapprochement between the artistic image and the scientific one, contributing to naturalistic illusions.