Abstract

This article is based on a comparison of graphics of Russian deesis images of the 15th-16th centuries. A detailed analysis of a large number of tracings of Deesis icons that date from different times and places leads to the assumption that their authors widely used a set of the same graphic elements repeated from icon to icon regardless of who or what is depicted, the Savior or Theotokos, an angel, an apostle, a prophet, a martyr, a bishop or a saint; regardless of whether this image is half-length or full-length; regardless of the postures and gestures of the depicted figures and their attires. These patterns are especially noticeable in drawing robes, draperies and fabrics in general. The use of these typical elements is almost mandatory, although their combination varies from image to image. The same blocks of elements can also differ slightly from icon to icon in terms of proportions, relative sizes of particular images, and the curvature of the lines. A block can be partly concealed by an element not belonging to it or used twice; its part can be mirrored, rotated at some angle, clockwise or counterclockwise, shifted or removed, while the structure of the block remains the same. An experienced eye will easily identify each block in a wide variety of icon images. This phenomenon allows us to significantly modify the idea of the strategy medieval icon painters adopt, i.e. a Deesis icon drawing was not often literally copied, at the same time, it was not invented completely anew. To a greater or lesser extent, the images were constructed from already available ready-made blocks, and some of the figures consist of them almost entirely.