Ru
EnV. Pigulevskiy
L. Mirskaya
The miraculous as a problem of iconography
The miraculous seems to be a kind of beauty. The aesthetics of the miraculous takes shape in the Middle Ages. In the context of Christianity, it becomes one of the means of religious moralization. In art, it is identified with infernal, terrible, – as the opposite of beauty. The problem with the iconography of the miraculous is that the devil has a frightening appearance and, at the same time, is a seducer. In the dimensions of miraculous – horror or lust, – fantastic grotesque and symbol become forms of its embodiment. Historically, the miraculous takes shape in the space of religious myth. For romanticism, the miraculous becomes an expression of the symbolism of the spirit. In the era of decadence, reassessment of values, self-deepening of personality and intoxication with one’s own passion give rise to demonic sensuality – torment of the soul due to discord with the world and oneself, enjoyment of evil and suffering. The grotesque becomes symbolic in the iconography of horror and seduction “The Temptation of Saint Anthony”. Thus, in the process of amplifying the plot, the problem of the miraculous was developed through the aesthetics of the grotesque and the symbol of the infernal, eerie and erotic, attractive.
Key words
miraculous, myth, grotesque, symbol, temptation, horror, bestiary, iconography.
For citation
Pigulevskiy V., Mirskaya L. The miraculous as a problem of iconography // South-Russian Musical Anthology. 2022. No. 3. Pp. 44-54.
