Сияющие святыни: промысел расхожей иконы и его аффордансы в XIX-XX вв.

Abstract

The article is devoted to the material aspects of the history of the craft of mass peasant icons and Soviet folezh icons in particular. In analyzing the transformations of various historical forms of the craft of mass peasant icons, the author uses the concept of affordance, that is, the possibility of the environment, a property of an object or the environment that allows it to be used in a certain way. The affordance of an icon craft is a factor that becomes a key opportunity for its birth, the development of its technological and market infrastructure, or subsequent important transformations. Such factors could be not only the inventions of key technologies and materials, but also important socio-political events, for example, colonization and late Christianization of the region, the network of roads or the peculiarities of nature management. The mass peasant icon of each of the historical stages of the craft is formed by its affordances: natural, commercial, industrial, confessional, ethnic, etc. Through consideration of the affordances, one can understand the elements of the history and socio-technological development of the phenomenon of the Soviet icon. The author of the article limits his analysis to several important subjects on the example of Vladimir-Nizhny Novgorod region: (a) natural affordances of the beginning of the icon craft, (b) the affordances of the period of its intensive spread during the Russian colonization of new lands (infrastructural, ethno-confessional affordances) and (c) some material and technological affordances of the late stage of the development of the icon craft, including the Soviet era. From the previous forms of icon craft, the masters of the Soviet icon borrowed the simplest technologies and cheap consumables, which were partially re-invented. Cheapness, simplicity, and mass production were also significant in the craft of the Soviet icon. In this regard, it is one of the common forms of icons. Besides, the Soviet icon was created in completely different, unique and extraordinary conditions: the pragmatics of its craft was not related to extracting benefits from mass production, “conveyor belt” or speed of production, it consisted in filling the shortage of ritual artifacts.