The Engraving «Burning Bush, View of the Monastery of St. Catherine, Sinai» is a Unique Masterpiece from The Moscow Theological Academy Museum

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to prove the uniqueness of the woodcut «Burning bush, View of the monastery of St. Catherine, Sinai» from the collection of the Museum of the Moscow Theological Academy. In connection with the purpose tasks are set: by heuristic’s method in the known catalogues and the Internet to reveal identical sheets in other collections. For research of uniqueness of dating of sheet and its description we have applied methods of engraving science. In addition to attempting to date and describe the sheet, a detailed iconographic analysis was carried out, presenting a range of related monuments. For a semantic analysis of the engraving’s subject, we identified studies by art historians and theologians who had studied the issue. In addition, a search for citations in an electronic database of Greek texts was conducted in order to identify the earliest mentions and interpretations of the miracle of the Burning bush by the holy fathers. An attempt was made to conduct a comprehensive study of the monument, its history, pictorial and technical peculiarities of its making, attribution, history of its use, semantics of the image and iconography of the image. The monument blends in with a number of related specimens which contributed to the genesis of the iconography of the subject which is traditional for the Byzantine art with the addition of original «local» inclusions such as a view of the Sinai monastery and the images of Saints of Sinai. It was possible to confirm the uniqueness of a sheet of prints not found in other world collections in terms of antiquity.