Architectural framing in the iconostasis as an instrument of commenting on the sacred image

Abstract

Before the seventeenth century, the icons in the Ukrainian iconostasis did not have frames as an arch or a blind arcade. The epistyles with images of Deesis of fourteenth – sixteenth century have not frames at all or the figures are divided by the rectangular pictorial frames. However, from the beginning of the seventeenth century, the icons of apostles in a Deesis row had already framing by carved frames like as the blind arcade. This practice quickly spreads and becomes the rule for the representation of apostles at the iconostasis throughout the seventeenth century. The Christian origins of tradition to decorate sacral images by blind arcade to be continue from Byzantium. It is very important that this design of the icons is characteristic of the Byzantine templons. The epistyles of templons from the twelfth – fifteenth century are mostly framing by blind arcade. The same principle of decoration is passed to the Balkans, where the blind arcade also is fixed in the design of the Deesis row. I argue that the blind arcade in the Ukrainian iconostasis in the design of the Deesis row comes from the Balkans The introduction of frames in the form of a blind arcade for icons of the Deesis row created compositional parallels between Ukrainian iconostasis and the iconostasis of the Balkans. This unity of the used compositional formulas reinforced the relationship of the Ukrainian iconostasis with the Balkan, and visually showed its Byzantine origins. On the basis of artistic and written sources, I demonstrate that blind arcade emphasized the eschatological meanings of the Deesis row. It was also a kind of marker that indicated the presence of this row in the multilevel structure of the monumental Ukrainian iconostasis of the seventeenth century.