The article considers of the structural-semantic, plot-forming and sense-generating functions of the elements of the composition of the “Harvest” – the episode of the temple painting “The Death of the Son of a Shunammite” (Nikitin, Savin, the temple of Elijah the Prophet in Yaroslavl) in the context of religious culture of the 17th century. The authors proceed from the hypothesis that this composition of the Elijah Church, an ensemble of the original monumental painting of the 17th century, was conceived by the creators of the temple painting not as a festive major and admiration for the holiday of labor, but as a way to shade with the help of iconic coloristic brightness and spectacular decorations of the painting eschatological motifs characteristic of the tragic worldview of a person of the 17th century, sharpened by the drama of the biographical context. The article examines the place of the composition “The Death of the Son of a Shunammite” in the temple painting of the order of the “Acts of the Prophet Elisha”, the reflection of the biographical context of the family of merchants-ktitors Skrypins in the themes and problems of this part of the “Eliseevsky cycle”, the intertextuality of the “Harvest” in the aspect of both direct borrowings (N. Piscator) and reception by Russian masters of experience European art (P. Brueghel, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Leonardo da Vinci). The article examines in detail the semantics of the diagonal composition of the painting, the Baroque allegory (sickle, ear, reaper) of the harvest, the semantics of poses and gestures, the allegory of clothing details, colors in the context of religious culture of the 17th century, the dynamics of the plot development in the context of the semantics of the composition of the work, when the episode of illness and death of the son of a Shunammite becomes the epicenter of the mortal leading idea. The article concludes that the semantic richness of the episode “The Death of the Son of a Shunammite” of the Elijah Church in Yaroslavl is due to its culminating role in the cycle of temple painting “The Acts of the Prophet Elisha”, and to increase the drama of the episode, artists actualize the experience of European fine art and religious allegory of their time, however, “prototypical” samples were reinterpreted by Russian artists in in the context of the proposed circumstances (the will of the customer, the place in the temple), which led to the creation of a bright, original work that reflected the worldview of a person of the 17th century.
Keywords: manor church, Ilya the Prophet, ktitor, merchants Skrypins, G. Nikitin, S. Savin, monumental painting, death, harvest
DOI: 10.22250/20728662_2022_3_129
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