Instytut Historii Sztuki <Posen> [Hrsg.]: Artium Quaestiones (3.1986)

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B. DĄB-KALINOWSKA

40-u.es of tlhe 19th century and dte reception of the wortes always and only consti-
tuted a component of the perceived experience of the sovreign. The europeani-
zation of Russia left the Orthodox Chiurcih in an extremely difficult situation;
already the changes of She rites brought about by the reforms of t'he patriarch
Nikon, seemingly insignifiiciant, caused however a departure from the many hundred
years old tradition, and the new forms of religious thinking appearing in the later
periods, moved even further away from :i,t. And because the Orthodox ChiurCh had
to appeal to the existing score of tradition generating the whole religious life,
more than other religions, the Orthodox Church accepted these changes and cre-
ated from them a tradition generating the whole religious life, in the initially vio-
lent conditions, and lated slow changes. The Orthodox Church accepted these chan-
ges and created from them a tradition which is acknowledged as its own. The
creation of this new, European culture did not bring about, however, the auto-
matic and complete rejection of the authoritativness of the heritage of the past,
but through its stylization in the spirit of the new needs is attempted at connecting
it with the new tradition. The integral part of this tradition is made up by icon
painting, and until a discrepancy between its canons and the imposed foreign
form appeared the icons which could constitute an indispensable part of the liturgy
and cult, existed.

Translated by I. A. Sankiewicz