RU 
Images of the Spiritual Ladder in Icons of the Presentation of the Lord: On the History of Iconography of the Feast
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.37816/2073‑9567‑2026‑80‑242‑255
- УДК / UDC: 75.046
- Publication Type: Research Article
- For Citation:
Gubareva, O.V. “Images of the Spiritual Ladder in Icons of the Presentation of the Lord: On the History of Iconography of the Feast.” Vestnik slavianskikh kul’tur, vol. 80, 2026, pp. 242–255. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.37816/2073‑9567‑2026‑80‑242‑255
- Abstract: There are relatively few studies dedicated to the iconography of the Presenta‑ tion of the Lord. In academia, there is a prevailing view that it changed very little and was thematically limited to two aspects: the meeting of the Old and New Testaments embodied by the Gospel participants of the event, and the theme of Christ's future sac‑ rifice, typologically presented as a liturgical offering. The paper demonstrates that of these two aspects, the Eucharistic one was the most significant and underwent develop‑ ment in iconography during the 14th century within the context of Hesychast theology. The liturgical interpretation of the image of the Presentation within a broad soterio‑ logical perspective led to changes in iconography during the era of the development of Hesychasm and subjective soteriology. These changes primarily affected the depictions of the Prophetess Anna and Simeon the God‑Receiver. The saints began to be under‑ stood as pre‑Christian ascetics who were granted a meeting with God thanks to their ascetic struggles of fasting, prayer, and love for God. The study reveals personal spiri‑ tual struggle of the Old Testament righteous in relation to The Ladder of Divine Ascent by St. John Climacus (St. John of Sinai). By the 14th century, this book had become the primary guide for the ascetic ascent to God, and the image of the ladder had become the most important allegory of asceticism. Beneath the feet of Simeon and behind the back of Anna, in traditional iconography where the main theme was the liturgical offer‑ ing, ladders began to be depicted. In the 15th century, a completely new iconography emerged in Rus', in which the ladder beneath Simeon's feet became one of the central compositional and semantic elements. From the end of the 16th century, with the decline of the monastic ideal and the development of rationalism, the symbolism of the Ladder completely disappeared from icons of the Presentation.
- Keywords: Ladder, ascetic theology, hesychasm, ascetic ascent, iconography of Candle‑ mas, encounter with God, subjective soteriology
- Funding Sources: The work was carried out with financial support of the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 22‑18‑00005‑П)
- Страницы / Pages: 242–255
- Received: December 08, 2025
- Approved after Reviewing: November 24, 2026
- Publication Date: June 25, 2026