Tarasov's second book -- kovcheg

[Alexandra Smith]

Dear Allan,

I've read Tarasov's book "Ritorika obramleniia v russkom iskusstve"  
(2007) about a year ago or so. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of  
it right now. I do remember that in one of the chapters Tarasov talks  
about the disappearance of frame per se in Russian 20th-c. art  
(including icons produced by modernist artists). It seems that the use  
of the word "kovcheg" in a loose way to which you refer occurs in  
Tarasov's discussion of some 20th-c. icons, since the notion of  
framing was abandoned altogether.
I note that in one of the chapters from Tarasov's 2007 book (available  
on the internet) Tarasov  refers to the notion of "kovcheg" (ark) in a  
traditional sense, too. He writes about one 18th-c. icon thus:
"В следующем столетии линейная перспектива и картинная рама  
окончательно утверждают свои позиции в русском церковном искусстве. В  
житийной иконе святой Варвары (вторая половина XVIII века, ГИМ)  
средневековый ковчег исчез, а иконные поля превратились в тонкую  
живописную рамку — линейная перспектива и новая риторика образа  
заставили мастера пересмотреть концепцию рамы изображения."
See this page:

http://www.icon-art.info/book_contents.php?lng=ru&book_id=93&chap=6


Perhaps, you could tell us more about the passage of the book you have  
in mind? It would be useful to see it in order to understand why the  
word kovcheg is used in a different way.



All best,
Alexandra







--------------------------------------------
Alexandra Smith (PhD, University of London)
Reader in Russian Studies
Department of European Languages and Cultures
School of  Languages, Literatures and Cultures
The University of Edinburgh
David Hume Tower
George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9JX
UK

tel. +44-(0)131-6511381
fax: +44- (0)0131 651 1311
e-mail: Alexandra.Smith at ed.ac.uk





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