Russian Foolishness and Images of Fools in the Museum of Icons in Recklinghausen

Abstract

Images of ascetics, which to a certain extent derive associations with Byzantine asceticism, can be found in Western European icons and murals. These are images of Fools-for-Christ. Images of persons clad in short-skirted garments, occasionally with symbols of their specific activities, such aspublic executioners, grave-diggers, and “the halt and the blind” are rare, although not unique. The similarity of garments and extraordinary symbols correlates with icons depicting “secular Fools-of-God,” although carrying a wider emotional and semantic load. The surviving images of “odd-looking” characters in Western European sacred art of the 12–17th centuries can be included in an individual established category known as “Kehricht der Welt” and presented as an outstanding phenomenon within the icon-painting repertoire of Christian artistic heritage. The article is devoted to the study of the image of Procopius and John of Ustiug Fool-for-Christ, who is one ofthe most popular old Russian saints, as well as the image of Saint Christopher Cynocephalus- the most famous Byzantine saint. Information about these blessed ones came to Russia as a result of the spread of literacy. Legends about various saints were brought by travelers and traders who regularly visited Constantinople and other countries. Attention to these saints led to writing about their lives lives and the creation of icons of saints. This situation is typical for Russian art of the Middle Ages 12–17th centuries. Information about monuments of Russian and Cypriot icon-painting of the 15–17th centuries from the Recklinghausen Museum of Icons (Germany) is introduced.