The Tsar and the “Angel of the Tzar”: the problem of image-related interpretation of historiosophical conceptions of the 16th century in the miniatures of the convolute from Chudov monastery of the 1560s

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the iconographic program of the miniature "Word for the Conception of St. John the Baptist" in the manuscript from the Chudov Monastery dated 1560s (Russian State Library. F. 98, Collection of E.E. Egorov. No 1844, fol. 132 v. – 186). Its elaborate composition combines the image of the tsar sitting on the throne surrounded by His entourage, God the Father and Christ, sending the young John the Baptist into the world, and the image of paradise with the Old Testament saints (f.151v – 155). The miniature program visualizes the ideas of the publicists of the 16th century about the role and purpose of the Moscow Kingdom and the Russian tsar in world history. It reflects the historiosophical ideas popular in this era of the translation of the Roman Empire into Russia, the concept of "royal sacrifice", as well as topical issues of the correlation of personal freedom of a citizen and the boundaries of autocratic power over him. It also clearly indicates the place of the cult of the "angel of the sovereign" in the formulated system of the ideology of the kingdom, its inspiring and teaching role in the process of his moral education.