Tarasov's second book -- kovcheg

Thu May 10 15:37:46 UTC 2012

Thanks, I appreciate your and Raoul Smith’s reference to the museum site. It looks excellent and informative. I would think, however, that the definition of kovcheg as “the center of an icon” needs further expansion, more in line with your earlier email, because of the seeming complexity of the term, and commonly used word more generally. Just dealing with that definition though, I would understand the center of an icon to be a point rather than the broad recessed field in which most of the sacred image is found.

Best,
Kenneth Allan

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From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] on behalf of Kent Russell [kentrussell at MUSEUMOFRUSSIANICONS.ORG]
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 8:45 AM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Tarasov's second book -- kovcheg

I would refer to the on line dictionary that the Museum of Russian Icons is developing to attempt to both clarify and standardize the vocabulary related to icons. The dictionary is under Icon Studies main tabs on our web site. We appreciate any and all in put into this important program. Kent Russell, Curator Museum of Russian Iocns

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Allan, Kenneth
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 9:29 AM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Tarasov's second book -- kovcheg

Thanks very much. That clarifies things significantly. But it also suggests that one could say “inside or behind the kovcheg, the kovcheg serves as a kovcheg for the kovcheg, upon which is depicted the kovcheg,” which makes things quite confusing unless there’s some notification that different usages are in play.

As noted in your last paragraph, in the English version there is written: “In the Russian language the word kiot or kivot (‘casing’) has a double meaning. It can mean a box or a frame within which an icon is placed. It can also be applied to the biblical Ark of the Convenant”. [152]

Perhaps using specific variants of the words ark or container could have been useful to readers when indicating the different meanings of kovcheg that aren’t conveyed in a literal translation.

Best,
Kenneth Allan

________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] on behalf of R. M. Cleminson [rmcleminson at POST.SK]
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 2:39 AM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Tarasov's second book -- kovcheg

Having glanced at the book, I suspect that the confusion is due to the polysemy of the Russian word ковчег.  Its primary meaning is, literally, "ark", and it is used both for Noah's ark (ὁ κιβωτός τοῦ Νῶε, Ноев ковчег) and for the Ark of the Covenant (ὁ κιβωτός τῆς διαθήκης, ковчег завета).  However, ковчег, like κιβωτός, regularly also refers to boxes of other kinds, and particularly to shrines and reliquaries.  Tarasov's point is that the margins of an icon can function as a container for the image - and, in that sense, as a ковчег.

This is what he means in one of the passages cited: “This is clearly seen if we take the example of the curtain or veil (a symbolic ‘frame’) of the sacred image. The medieval icon was veiled (in an ark or under cladding) in the same way that authentic existence or beauty were concealed and inaccessible to human imagination.” [51] (In Russian: "Это отчетливо видно на примере изменения функции завесы (символической «рамы») священного образа. Средневековая икона была скрыта за завесой (в ковчеге, в окладе) подобно тому, как истинное бытие и красота были скрыты и недоступны человеческому воображению." [55] I should say that I have never heard of an icon being completely enclosed in a shrine, as opposed to partially covered by the оклад.)  He makes the poi!
 nt explicitly, in respect of the mediaeval icon, on p.65 of the Russian edition: "раньше живописная рама играла роль ковчега-реликвария." He is thus using the word interpretatively or metaphorically, and not as part of standard terminology.

Unfortunately this is completely lost in translation.

If that were not complicated enough, the Russian word кивот (but not ковчег) can also be used to mean a frame or container for an icon, i.e. something separate from the icon itself, in which the icon may be placed, frequently glazed and with a lamp attached.  I don't know whether the Greeks call this also κιβωτός.
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