Title of the article:

IN THE TRADITIONAL CULTURE OF THE ORTHODOX PEOPLES OF RUSSIA”: EXHIBITION OF THE RUSSIAN MUSEUM OF ETHNOGRAPHY TO THE 520^TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GENNADY BIBLE (JANUARY — MARCH 2021)

Author(s):

Lubov G. Ganina

Elena L. Madlevskaya

Aleksandr B. Ostrovskii

Information about the author/authors

Lubov G. Ganina — Research Fellow, Federal State Budgetary Institution of Culture, The Russian Museum of Ethnography, Inzhenernaya St. 4/1, 191186 St. Petersburg, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7093-646X
E-mail: lg1selena@gmail.com

Elena L. Madlevskaya — PhD in Philology, Leading Research Worker, Federal State Budgetary Institution of Culture, The Russian Museum of Ethnography, Inzhenernaya St. 4/1, 191186 St. Petersburg, Russia.
E-mail: madlevska@mail.ru

Aleksandr B. Ostrovskii — DSc in History, Senior Research Worker, Federal State Budgetary Institution of Culture, The Russian Museum of Ethnography, Inzhenernaya St. 4/1, 191186 St. Petersburg, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-3175-0248
E-mail: ost-alex@yandex.ru

Section

Theory and history of culture

Year

2023

Volume

Vol. 69

Pages

pp. 145–167

Received

August 03, 2022

Approved after reviewing

October 10, 2022

Date of publication

September 25, 2023

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37816/2073-9567-2023-69-145-167 

Index UDK

39; 069.9

Index BBK

63.5; 79.2

Abstract

The paper reveals the intention and its implementing through a museum exhibition. Based on thematically selected monuments of traditional and everyday culture, the exhibition touches on events, images of Christian historical memory. First of all, it is Annunciation, Christmas, Crucifixion and Resurrection, as well as a number of Old Testament stories — the Creation of the World, Noah's Ark, the Judgment of Solomon. The various thematic sections of the exhibition depict such significant images as the paradise tree of life, the lion, the archangels, as well as fish — the early Christian symbol of Jesus Christ, grapes (the symbol of the Church of Christ).

The presented groups of objects are diverse in their place in folk life: ritual paraphernalia, nativity scene, house carvings, interior decoration items— ceramic products (plates, tiles), wooden painted utensils, woven and embroidered towels, decorative bone products, jewelry of the Eastern Slavs and Finno-Ugric peoples. The selecting of exhibits took into account that the ornamentation of objects of traditional and everyday culture had its source not always directly from the plots set forth in biblical texts, but also their folklore processing in the form of legends, beliefs; a number of sections display apocryphal Christian texts that were widespread among the people.

The exhibition gave an idea of the integration of a number of key biblical subjects and images, especially the New Testament, into the worldview of Orthodox peoples. The fixation of certain images for specific categories of objects that had a specific purpose in everyday life created a single visible fabric of national Orthodoxy.

Keywords

Biblical Images, Orthodox Peoples, Traditional Culture, Russian Museum of Ethnography, Museum Exhibition, Symbolism of the Lion, Fish, Grapes.

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