Retablo and Iconostasis. Parallels in Composition Cover Image

Ретабло и иконостас. Композиционные параллели
Retablo and Iconostasis. Parallels in Composition

Author(s): Mariia Maksimovna Prokhortcova
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts
Published by: Издательство Исторического факультета СПбГУ
Keywords: retablo; iconostasis; Spanish painting; Russian icon; religious art; frontal (antependium)

Summary/Abstract: A Spanish retablo and a Russian iconostasis were finally formed at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. Different in location inside a church (an iconostasis is established in front of an altar, and a retablo is an image behind an altar), semantics (an iconostasis presents the image of the Heavenly world, and a retablo has only didactic and decorative functions), decorative facilities (in a retablo sculpture is used), these phenomena developed parallel to each other. Despite the obvious differences, these types of artworks have several common compositional and structural points. Like iconostasis, retablo is a fixed (unlike folding altars) small architectural form, which has a tendency towards expansion in width and height conserving a system of verticals and horizontals in composition, a distinct structure and a hierarchy. It seems possible to determine a frontal, or antependium, widely spread in Byzantium and Western Europe, as a common source for both retablo and iconostasis.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 22
  • Page Range: 35-40
  • Page Count: 6