Derzhavnaya bogoroditsa?

[Allan, Kenneth]

As an art historian, though certainly not an expert in this area, I would tend to opt for the "Mother of God" over the "Virgin" label, for the same reasons that Michele Berdy outlines below. Translation, ideally, shouldn't remove what is unique to the original concept and tradition in favour of easy communication. 

 

Regarding objectivity and neutrality in the art history field, it is problematic to equate the power of the centre with neutrality. So if the Met prefers "Virgin," that merely tells us its preference and what it feels comfortable with as an institution addressing an audience more familiar with the Western European Catholic painting tradition. (Exhibition catalogues tend to address non-specialist audiences.) But because Orthodox icons seem to function quite differently than do Catholic paintings, using the dominant Catholic terminology can confuse the distinctions between them.

 

Best,

Kenneth Allan

 

University of Lethbridge


________________________________

From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list on behalf of Michele A. Berdy
Sent: Thu 10/29/2009 9:10 AM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Derzhavnaya bogoroditsa?



This is very interesting. And sorry to beat a dead horse, but... I still don't
agree. I think language and religion are being confused. "Virgin" "Virgin
Mary" "Our Lady of" etc are common Catholic names of religious paintings;
"Mother of God of..." is a common Orthodox name of an icon. The former is
more familiar to an English-speaking audience, but that's just because there
are more Catholics in the US/UK than Orthodox. Mother of God doesn't sound
"foreign" to English-speaking Orthodox.



When you translate Bogomater' as "The Virgin Mary" or "The Virgin," you are
not just switching languages, you're switching religious traditions. I think
it's inappropriate to add Catholic associations/connotations to an Orthodox
icon, as it is also inappropriate to add Orthodox associations/connotations
to a Catholic religious painting when translating into Russian. I'm not sure
that this is a big deal (despite my nattering on about it), but I'm sorry
the art world is doing it (on both sides). Why not just translate literally?
Accurate translations would seem a bit odd or cumbersome to audiences raised
in different religions and religious environments, but in time they'd get
used to it.

My two (perhaps overly sensitive) cents



----- Original Message -----
From: "William Ryan" <wfr at SAS.AC.UK>
To: <SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 9:15 PM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Derzhavnaya bogoroditsa?


>I absolutely agree with this.
>
> For many words, titles, names, expressions etc there is no such thing as a
> 'correct' translation, only an appropriate one, and that may depend on
> such variables as context, stylistic register, and convention. And even
> within specialist areas (e.g. specific religious communities, or the world
> of art and culture) there may be considerable variety of usage.
>
> The comparative Google searches which I quoted in my previous posting may
> not have been very scientific but they were very illuminating - I
> recommend a little browsing.
>
> Will Ryan
>
>
> Margaret Anne Samu wrote:
>> Since Russian icons and liturgical images started moving into the art
>> world about a century ago, let me chime in from the art historian's
>> viewpoint.
>>
>> The standard name used by art historians is the Virgin (Virgin of
>> Vladimir, etc.) almost regardless of the image's country of origin. There
>> are notable exceptions with famous images whose historical names stuck,
>> such as Raphael's Alba Madonna (National Gallery of Art, Wash., D.C.).
>> You will see this usage in most art history publications, including ones
>> with objects from diverse countries, such as the catalogue from the
>> Metropolitan Museum of Art's recent exhibition, Byzantium: Faith and
>> Power, which included an entire gallery of Virgins--many from Russia. I
>> see the Met as a standard of scholarly  neutrality, which may or may not
>> be the goal here.
>>
>> Some publications dealing exclusively with Russian and Byzantine objects
>> do aim for linguistic accuracy by using the term Mother of God, such as
>> the catalogue for the traveling exhibition The Gates of Mystery. This
>> exhibition had a very different aim, it seems to me, from the Met's. The
>> Gates of Mystery (as its title implies) was very much about creating an
>> aura of foreignness around the art, giving the visitor access to a
>> mysterious Russian spiritual world, while the Met's Byzantium exhibition
>> tried to place late Byzantine (including Russian) images in a broader
>> context that visitors would readily understand.
>>
>> The main problem with using the phrase Mother of God is that it the extra
>> preposition can get unnecessarily bumbly when you are trying to create a
>> readable sentence, since most of them are "of" something or somewhere,
>> and you are usually dealing with attribution (by) and place of origin
>> (from). But it is used sometimes, especially when the images' liturgical
>> aspects are being emphasized.
>>
>> Similarly, art historians usually use "Christ" (figure of Christ, infant
>> Christ, Christ Pantokrator, etc.) instead of the liturgical Jesus (baby
>> Jesus, etc.) or Savior--not that the latter never appear, either.
>>
>> Meanwhile, I hope the original question about sources on the image under
>> discussion has been answered.
>>
>> Margaret
>>
>> ======================
>> Margaret Samu
>> Ph.D. Candidate in Art History
>> Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
>> 1 East 78th Street
>> New York, NY  10075
>>
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