1. The stanzas relating to the visions are translated and discussed by Samuel Cioran in his book Vladimir Solov'ev and the Knighthood of the Divine Sophia (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Lauricr University Press, 1977), 48–49.

2. Ibid., 268, 272. Cioran's summary of the controversy between the church and Bulgakov (247–272) is excellent. See also Bulgakov, Sergei N., The Wisdom of God: A Brief Summary of Sophiology (New York: Paisley, 1937)Google Scholar.

3. In June of 1987 the State Russian Museum, Leningrad, had no Wisdom icons on display and only six in its archives, while the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism in Leningrad had one on display (as part of a larger piece) and six of various types in its archives. The Moscow Kremlin churches had on display live Wisdom icons (including one fresco). Only one was on display at the Holy Trinity Monastery in Zagorsk (on the iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral); none was on display at the museum in Novodevichii Monastery; and only one was on display in the Andrei Rublev Museum. At the last site, I was told by A. A. Sallykov that of 5,000 pieces in their holdings, no more than four or five are Wisdom icons. In their Katalog drevnerusskoi zhivopisi (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1963), V. Antonova and M. Mneva described 1,053 icons (eleventh to seventeenth centuries) in the Tret'iakov Gallery, of which only twelve were Sophia icons. The foregoing somewhat impressionistic evidence indicates a relative scarcity of Wisdom icons, though the total in the Soviet Union must be several hundred. I want to express my gratitude to the above-named museums as well as to the scholar Gerol'd Vzdornov, for giving me special assistance on short notice, and, in the case of the first two museums for giving me access to their archives. I was also assisted unofficially in the summer of 1988 by the I. E. Grabar Restoration Center in Moscow; in particular I want to thank Evgenii Logvinov for discussing the topic of Sophia with me for several hours, for lending me books owned by the center, and for giving me a place to work.

4. Excellent articles on Sophiology include the following: Cruni, Winston, “Sergius N. Bulgakov: From Marx to Sophiology,” St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly 27, no. 1 (1983): 3–25 Google Scholar; Newman, Barbara, “Sergius Bulgakov and (he Theology of Divine Wisdom,” St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly 22, no. 1 (1978), 39–73 Google Scholar (with an excellent bibliography); Averintsev, S. S., “K uiasneniiu smysla nadpisi nad konkhoi tsentral'noi apsidy Sofii Kievskoi,” Drevnerusskoe iskusstvo: Khudozhestvennaia kul'tura domongol'skoi Rusi (Moscow: Nauka, 1972): 25–49 Google Scholar (a detailed history of Wisdom theology from Pallas Athena to the time of Kievan Rus', with a full list of sources); Walker, Anselm, “Sophiology,” Diakonia 16, no. 1 (1981): 40–54 Google Scholar; Horsely, Richard A., “Spiritual Marriage with Sophia,” Vigiliae Christiannae 33, no. 1 (1979): 30–54 Google Scholar; and Goehring, James E., “A Classical Influence on the Gnostic Sophia Myth,” Vigiliae Christiannae 35, no. 1 (1981): 16–23 Google Scholar.

5. See Meyendorff, Jean, “L'Iconographic de la Sagesse Divine dans le tradition Byzantine,” Calriers Archéologiques 10 (1959): 263–265 Google Scholar. with black and white illustrations of these and other early Sophia icons. One such icon is derived from Luke 15:8. Small images of Sophia depicted as a woman were sometimes fixed to the top point of crucifixes.

6. See Florenskii, P. A., Stolp i utverzhdenie istiny (Moscow, 1914; reprint, London: Gregg, 1970), 384 Google Scholar. In early Byzantine culture, it was customary for churches called St. Sophia to be dedicated to the Logos (see Antonii, Mitropolit Leningradskii i Novgorodskii, “Iz istorii novgorodskoi ikonogralii,” Bogoslovskie Trudy [Izd. Moskovskoi Patriarkhii, 1986], 27: 62).

7. A line drawing of the Sophia-Martyr icon appears in various podlinniki, including the Icon Painter's Handbook of the Slroganov Family School (Willets, Calif.: Eastern Orthodox Books, [1974]). based on a German printing of the original Russian edition of 1869. A fifteenth century icon of Sophia and her daughters is in Nikolaeva, T. V., Early Russian Paintings in the Zagorsk Museum (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1977), p. 1.118 Google Scholar; and a fresco of the same appears in a high window well on the inside west wall of Our Lady of Smolensk Cathedral, 1544, Novodevichii Monastery. See also an icon of the first half of the sixteenth century, Novgorod School, described by Antonova and Mneva, Katalog drevnerusskoi zhivopisi 2: 120 (no. 356). At least three other Sophias have been canonized: the Roman martyr (beheaded in Egypt) usually shown with Irina, 18 September; the Russian princess and miracle worker of Suzdal', 16 December; and the Byzantine saint under Justinian, dedicated to the Incarnate Word of God, 22 December. The nameday for women named Sophia is September 17.

8. A twelfth century manuscript of St. John Climacus in the Monastery of St. Catherine, Mt. Sinai shows an illustration with Christ above three angels. Some see the central angel as Sophia; others see all three angels as the three cardinal virtues emanating from Wisdom (see Jean Meyendorff, “L'Iconographie de la Sagesse Divine,” 267–269).

9. Lists of both Byzantine and early Russian churches dedicated to Holy Sophia are to be found in Pavel Elorovskii, “O pochitanii Solii, Premudrosti Bozhici v Vizantii i na Rusi,” Trudy piatogo s″ezda russkikh akademicheskikh organizatsii za granitsei, part I (Sofia, 1932), 486; and in A. Nikol'skii, “Sofiia Premudrost’ Bozhiia,” Vestnik archeologii i islorii, vyp. 17 (1906), 101–102. The Russian churches include those in Kiev, Novgorod, Vologda, Tobol'sk, Moscow, Grodno, and Polotsk, most being cathedrals. The major Byzantine churches include those in Constantinople, Salonika, Nicaea, Slivno, Vis, Sardica (modern Sophia), Ochrid, Trebizond, Mistra, Beneventa, Narda, Nicosia, Jerusalem, Korsun, and Kherson—all but the final three are cathedrals. Further evidence of the important role of Divine Wisdom is that the icon for Wednesday was once Sophia. See the late sixteenth century sedmitsa icon in the Tretiakov Gallery, inv. n. 24870.

10. See discussion by Grabar, Andre, Byzantine Painting, trans. Gilbert, Stuait (New York: Rizzoli, 1979), 97 Google Scholar (originally published in 1953 in Geneva by Skira.) The icon is illustrated in color on 91; Grabar believes it to be a Wisdom icon.

11. For a discussion of these festivals, see Florovskii, “O pochitanii Sofii,” 486–489. Metropolitan Evgenii [Bolkhovitinov] of Kiev mentions that the Sophia cathedrals of Vologda, Tobol'sk, and Moscow also celebrated their titular feast day on 15 August. See his book, Opisanie Kievosofiiskogo sobora i kievskoi ierarkhii (Kiev: Kievopecherskoi Lavry, 1825). 19. Also, Aleksandr I. Uspenskii, Perevody s drevnikh ikon, sobrannye i ispolnennye ikonopistsem i revstavratorom V. P. Gur'ianov (Moscow: Snegireva, 1902), 32, cites the official explanation that Gennadii chose Assumption as the titular feast day of St. Sophia Cathedral, Novgorod, because its icon was the “final one in which Christ had appeared with all His disciples in the flesh.” That is, Christ rather than Mary is emphasized. In the same place Uspenskii notes that the Eastern church had long celebrated the feast day of Sophia on Pentecost “because this was the last day that Christ [as the Holy Spirit] and His disciples had gathered together.” Uspenskii also reminds his readers (p. 42) of a remarkable depiction of Divine Wisdom in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the Benedictine Monastery at Monreale, Sicily. Built between 1180 and 1194, this very large Lombardo-Norman church contains many tiers of glass mosaics. Though chiefly Byzantine in style and content, these mosaics mostly bear Latin inscriptions. One of them shows a woman in prayer (orant) with hands raised to shoulder height. The figure is titled Sapienlia Dei. Undoubtedly this interpretation of Sophia appearing in an Assumption church had a strong influence on those who would later regard the Bogomater’ to be the true embodiment of Wisdom. (I have not been able to find an illustration of the Monreale Sophia.)

12. For a list of churches in old Russia named for the Feast of the Assumption, with a discussion of their connections to Sophia, see Nikol'skii, “Sofiia Premudrost’ Bozhiia,” 102 and Florovskii, “O pochitanii Sofii,” 489.

13. This icon is reproduced in color in Weitzman, Kurt et al., The Icon (New York: Knopf, 1982), 192Google Scholar; and in black and white in Popov, G. V. and Rydina, A. V., Zhivopis’ i prikladnoe iskusstvo Tveri, XIV-XVI veka (Moscow: Nauka, 1979), 323 Google Scholar. Although there are no Russian icons similar to this type, Metropolitan Antonii, “Iz, istorii novgorodskii ikonografii,” 63, describes a thirteenth century Novgorod seal depicting Our Lady of the Sign (Znameni) in which the Cyrillic inscription on the halo of the Christ child spells “Sofi.”

14. See discussion by Ouspensky, Leonid and Lossky, Vladimir, The Meaning of Icons, trans. Palmer, G. E. H. and Kadloubovsky, E., rev. ed. (Crestwood, NY.: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1982), 193 Google Scholar. A duplicate of ligurc 2, also in color, is to be found in Ouspensky and Lossky, 191. A similar Russian icon, although of the sixteenth century, is reproduced (in color) in Lazarev, V. N., The Double-Faced Tablets from the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1977)Google Scholar, pl. I7L. A painting of Mid-Feast appears in a fresco at the Church of St. Theodore Stratilates, Novgorod.

15. Meyendorff, “L'Iconographie de la Sagessc Divine,” 265–266, with black and white illustrations. Although Prepolovenie is not often celebrated by the Orthodox church today, it is the day of consecration of the Russian Church of St. Sophia in the New Skele Monastery, New York, and the church icon (which is similar to figure 1) also is commemorated on this day. For this church, Mid-Feast thus retains association with Divine Wisdom. In addition, the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sophia in Washington, D.C., which has recently replaced its cathedral icon (New Testament Trinity) with one similar to figure 1, has decided to cease celebrating its titular feast day on Pentecost and is considering instead either Mid-Feast or 14 September—the Elevation of the Cross.

16. See Diehl, Charles, L'Art byzantin dans I'Italie meridionale (Paris: Librairie de l'art, 1894), 96 Google Scholar, not illustrated. Diehl's dates may be wrong; see Aman, A. M., “Darstellung und Deutung der Sophia im vorpetrinischen Russland,” Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 4 (1938): 144 Google Scholar, where the fresco is dated as twelfth to thirteenth century. This is the last Byzantine icon to be discussed here. From the fourteenth century on, virtually all Wisdom icons are Russian.

17. Meyendorff, “L'Iconographie de la Sagesse Divine,” 267, black and white; discussion, 266–269. See also Podobcdova, O. I., Moskovskaia shkola zhivopisi pri Ivane IV: Rabon v Moskovskom kremle 40-x–70-x godov XVI v. (Moscow: Nauka, 1972), 63 Google Scholar.

18. Russian variants are discussed by T. A. Sidorova. “Volotovskaia freska ‘Premudrost' sozda sebe dom’ i ee otnoshenie k novgorodskoi eresi strigol'nikov v XIV v.,” Trudy otdela drevnerusskoi literatury Inslituta russkoi literatury ANSSSR 26 (Leningrad: Nauka, 1977): 212–231; this work is illustrated and has an excellent list of sources. Thirteenth and fourteenth century Macedonian and Serbian variants in which Sophia is presented as a winged angel are discussed by Meyendorff, “L'Iconographie de la Sagesse Divine,” 271–273. with black and white illustrations. Both Meyendorff (261) and Sidorova (222) remark on the fact that no Byzantine source is known for icons illustrating Prov. 9: 1–5.

19. According to Evseyeva, L. M. et al., Zhivopis’ drevnei Tveri (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1983), 32–34 Google Scholar. The colors of the Sign of Wisdom may vary, for example, dark green alternating with light green. Occasionally Wisdom is shown without this sign. The first use of it dates from 500 AD. (codex of Rosano). See Popov and Rydina, Zhivopis’ i prikladnoe iskusstvo Tveri, 315. Illustrated in A Haseloff, Codex purpureus Rossunensis (Berlin, 1898), pl. 14.

20. See Sidorova. “Volotovskaia freska,” 215; for a discussion of the face of Sophia being similar to that of Emmanuel, see ibid., 223.

21. For all three Volotovo paintings of Sophia with Matthew, Mark, and Luke, see Alpatov, M. V., Freski Iserkvi Uspeniia na Volotovom pole (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1977). pl. 85–87Google Scholar (black and white). Popov and Rydina, Zhivopis’ i prikladnoe iskusstvo Tveri, include black and white illustrations of the following, with Sophia as muse: Luke (same as figure 4), 181; Matthew, 438; Matthew with Sophia standing behind, 182; and a duplicate of the Matthew painting at Volotovo, 314. Textual commentary appears on 177–184 and 312–317. The earliest appearance of the Muse type is in a Greek New Testament of the sixth century. A brief list of images of Sophia in both Byzantine and Novgorod miniatures from the sixth to the fourteenth centuries is given by G. I. Vzdornov in “Miniatiura iz Evangeliia popa Domki i cherty vostochno-khristianskogo iskusstva v novgorodskoi zhivopisi XI–XII vekov.” Drevnerusskoe iskusstvo: Khudozhestvennaia kul'tura Novgoroda (Moscow: [skusstvo, 1968), 204–205. (Most of these are the Muse type; see figure 4.)

22. Church of St. Luke, Opochka, Pskov region; reproduced in color in Pskov An Treasures and Architectural Monuments, 12th-17th Centuries (Leningrad: Aurora, 1978) 2: pl. 38.

23. Podlinnik ikonopisnyi, ed. A. I. Uspenskii, (Moscow: Izd. S. T. Bol'shakov, 1903), second supplement 6. The manual has no model for Sophia, but does contain an interpretive note on Divine Wisdom (13–15). It tends to equate Wisdom with virginity and with the Virgin Mary. This interpretation and others similar to it from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are discussed by Florovskii, “O pochitanii Sofii,” 495–496.

24. Formerly in the Harm collection, the icon reproduced in figure 5 could be a forgery. If so, it is nevertheless an excellent reproduction of an early work. It is not surprising that Samuel Cioran chose this illustration as the frontispiece for Vladimir Solov'ev mill the Knighthood of the Divine Sophia; it was virtually the only one of this type available at that lime (and until about 1985). He assured me in a telephone conversation in 1986 that there was no mention of a Sophia icon in any of Solov'ev's writings, especially as a possible inspiration for his visions. The Schweinfurth reproduction is duplicated in Tamara Talbot Rice, Russian Icons (London: Spring, 1963), pl. 20, but the color is poor. A late sixteenth century example of the type appears in black and while in Antonova and Mneva, Katalog drevnerusskoi zhivopsi, ill. 28. and several others are described. Another, also black and white, appears both in Meyendorff, “L'Iconographie de la Sagesse Divine,” 276 and in Andre Grabar, “Iconographie de la Sagesse Divine el de la Vierge.” Cahiers archéologique 8 (1456): 256. An excellent color reproduction of the seventeenth century Sophia icon from the main iconostasis of St. Sophia Cathedral, Novgorod, appears in Nowgorod: Architektur- and Kunstmäler 11. bis 18. Jahrhundert (Leningrad: Aurora, 1984). pl. 17. (Also in English, probably also in French, see also pls. 16, 128, 147.) An interesting variant of the type has been published in color in Bogoslovskie trudy, 27 (Moscow: Izd. Moskovskogo patriarkhii, 1986), facing 64. It pictures two Novgorod bishops (one being Nikita) kneeling in the foreground and four Moscow metropolitans (Petr, Iona, Aleksei. and one other) in the left and right margins of the icon. This political composition was aimed at conciliating Moscow and must be from the sixteenth century, though no facts about it are given with its illustration in Bogoslovskie trudy. (Iconologist E. Logvinov, Grabar Restoration Center, provided me with the above information.) Another remarkable variant, very late, appears as a fresco above the altar of the Church of Il'ia the Prophet, laroslavl', 1697. Shown in color in V. G. Briusova. Russkaia zhivopis’ 17 veka (Moscow: Iskusslvo, 1984). pl. 171, it replaces Mary with John the Theologian. Other examples of this unusual type are mentioned by G. Filimonov, “Ocherki russkoi khristianskoi ikonografii: L. Softia Premudrost’ Bozhilia,” Vestnik Obshchestva drevnerusskogo iskusstva pri Moskovskom publichnom muzee (1874) 1–3:5. A number of other Novgorod-type icons are stored in the archives of museums throughout the Soviet Union. Relatively few are on display; but there are more Angel-of-the-Lord icons than any other Wisdom type.

25. P[rotopop] L[ebedints]ev, “Sofiia Premudrost’ Bozhiia v ikonografii severa i iuga Rossii,” Kievskaia slarina 10 (1884): 558. Florovskii, “O pochitanii Sophii,” 493, avers that this icon is not known before the sixteenth century.

26. Newman, “Bulgakov and the Theology of Divine Wisdom,” 71.

27. Artsikhovskii, A., “Izobrazhenie na novgorodskikh monetakh,” Izvestiia Akademii nauk SSSR. Seriia istorii filosofii 5 (1948): 99–106 Google Scholar.

28. A. M. Aman. “Darstellung und Deutung der Sophia,” 144. Also Nikol'skii “Sofiia Premudrost' Bozhiia,” 102. Kondakov, Nikodim P.. The Russian Icon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1927), 105 Google Scholar. believes that this icon type “arose from an ancient interpretation taken from a [Greek] psalter explained with illustrations: it shows an Angel within a church holding up its roof, a fiery angel sits upon a throne, with the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Baptist before him.”

29. Lebedintsev, “Sofiia Premudrost’ Bozhiia,” 563; G. P. Fedotov, The Russian Religious Mind, ed. Meyendorff, The Middle Axes: The Thirteenth to the Fifteenth Centuries (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966) 2: 192; Aman. “Darstellung und Deutung der Sophiia,” 120–156; and Meyendorff. “L'Iconographie de la Sagesse Divine,” 259–277.

30. For a discussion of the Angel perceived as the Theotokos. see Newman. “Bulgakov and the Theology of Divine Wisdom,” 71. and Florovskii, “O pochitanii Sophii,” 496–497. Filimonov, “Ocherki russkoi khristianskoi ikonografii,” 6. tends to see the angel as symbolizing Wisdom alone.

31. Filimonov, “Ocherki russkoi khristianskoi ikonografii,” 5; Florenskii. Stolp i utverzhdenie istiny, 273.

32. Identification of certain details and suggested biblical sources are derived from descriptions by the following interpreters, so as to provide the best composite explanation: Filimonov, “Ocherki russkoi khristianskoi ikonografii,” 5–6; Lebedintsev, “Soliia Premudrost’ Bozhiia,” 555–556; Florenskii, Stolp i utvenhdenie istiny. 372–376. Most other descriptions tend to be based on these three sources.

33. Sometimes the wings are golden; see, for example, the Wisdom icon in the worship tier of the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Assumption. Holy Trinity Monastery, Zagorsk. This nineteenth century icon represents the third overpainting of the same Wisdom figure; it was first executed in the sixteenth century, making it the oldest icon in the monastery. (Information is based on “core samples.”) Sometimes the feet of Sophia are red, along with wings, face, and hands; see the seventeenth century icon on the iconostasis of the Church of the Twelve Apostles, Nikon's Palace, Moscow Kremlin. In some later variants Wisdom holds a stall in the left hand and appears lo be giving a blessing with the right—like Jesus Christ in the Pantocrator icon.

34. The only Novgorod-type icon I have seen that fully conforms to all the details of all the golden “stars” is one dated 1917 in the archives of the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism. Probably it was influenced by Florenskii.

35. According to Trubetskoi, Evgenii N., Icons: Theology in Color, trans. Vakar, Gertrude, reprint ed. (Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1984), 52 Google Scholar. (This work is based on essays lirst published in 1915, 1916, 1918.)

36. Encyclopedia Britannica (1959), s.v. “Logos.” A seventeenth century Wisdom icon making thematic use of crimson cherubim and seraphim is shown in Ivanov, Vladimir, Russian Icons (New York: Rizzoli, 1988), pl. 86Google Scholar. Cherubim in particular have been thought lo be symbolic of Divine Wisdom, according to Ferguson, George, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954), 97 Google Scholar.

37. Filimonov, “Ocherki russkoi khristianskoi ikonogralii.” 5.

38. Trubetskoi. Icons, 51–52.

39. Filimonov, “Ocherki russkoi khristianskoi ikonografli,” 6; Florenskii, Slolp i utvenhdenie istiny, 314.

40. See discussion of this image by Felicetti-Liebenfels, Walter, Geschichle der russischen Ikonenmalerei in den Grundzüf-en dargestellt (Graz: Akademischer Druek, 1972), 170 Google Scholar. A late sixteenth century Sophia icon in the B. Oehry collection, Zurich, shows the scroll clearly. Color photographs are available. See also a black and white illustration of a nearly identical icon in Bunt, Cyril, A History of Russian Art (London: Studio, 1946), 115 Google Scholar.

41. See discussion of this interpretation by Newman. “Bulgakov and the Theology of Divine Wisdom,” 71. Florovskii observes, “O pochitanii Sophii,” 496, that interpreting the Angel as a symbol of virginity (hence of the Virgin Mary as well) is a result of western (especially German) influence. Metropolitan Antonii, “Iz istorii novgorodskoi ikonografii.” 65 and 77, n. 4, recognizing that the Angel's face is no more female than male, suggests that the figure may be the angel of the Kabala, which appears now as male, now as female (see Zohar 1 :232).

42. Antonova and Mneva, Kalalog drevnerusskoi zhivopisi 2: ill. 126, with discussion on 361 (no. 862). Florenskii, Stolp i utverzhdenie istiny. reproduces this icon on 374, with comments on 375–376. Another icon approximating this variant is that in the feast day tier of the iconostasis of the Church of the Deposition of the Garments in the Moscow Kremlin. Still another is on display, as part of a larger icon, at the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism.

43. Antonov and Mneva, katalog drevnerusskoi zhivopisi 2: 44–45. describe a series of border pictures on an Old Testament Trinity icon of the sixteenth century that “testify to the belief of the iconographer that Divine Wisdom was incarnated on earth as the Mother of God.”

44. Earlier in this article I used the same passage to support the idea of a winged angel identified with Christ. The fact is, the passage is ambiguous; both Jesus and John are messengers; which is meant? Over the centuries, this passage has been read both ways. In any case, icons showing John the Baptist with wings are common. It should be kept in mind also, at a simpler level, that any iconic personage given wings is thereby honored as being “worthy to be among the angels.”

45. Filimonov, “Ocherki russkoi khrislianskoi ikonografii.” 10. A seventeenth century icon similar to this fresco (but without reference to Christ) is shown as a drawing in A. I. Uspenskii, Perevody s drevnikh icon, ill. 15; discussed on 30–31. Both John the Baptist and Mary are winged. John holds not a scroll, but a disk with the lace of a female figure called Chistaia Dusha, which seems to have altributes of both Wisdom and the Virgin Mary. In some other icons of this type John holds a sun disk.

46. Because two psalms were combined into one early in the Book of Psalms and the headings of psalms were numbered as verses, the Russian equivalent of this passage is Psalm 44:2–6.

47. Antonova and Mneva. Katalog drevnerusskoi zhivopisi 2: 482; not illustrated. This icon type, incidentally, is sometimes identified by Ps. 45:9, which includes the words, “upon thy right hand did stand the queen… . ” The Icon Museum in Recklinghausen refers to this theme as “Die Kraut steht rechts von dir” in identifying its seventeenth century icon of the Stroganov School (inventory no. 315). This very interesting icon is illustrated in black and white in Gerhard, H. P., World of Icons (New York: Harper and Row, 1971), pl. 61 Google Scholar.

48. See, for instance, an uncataloged icon of the second half of the seventeenth century (Vologda), Treliakov Gallery, inv. no. 12914, with a cross inscribed in the angel's halo.

49. Described by Filimonov, “Ocherki russkoi khristianskoi ikonografii,” 15.

50. One anomalous variant of the otrygnu type is illustrated in Saltykov, A. A., Muzei drevnerusskogo iskusstva im. Andreia Rubleva (Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1981). pl. 130Google Scholar (color). Sophia here is a wingless female figure dressed in rich dark blue, with a gold crown and a gold omophorion. No part of the ligure is painted red. This depiction would seem to be Wisdom in her Old Testament aspect One other unusual variant of the otrygnu type is displayed on the iconastasis ot the Church ot the Twelve Apostles, Moscow Kremlin. At the bottom of the icon is a large medallion enclosing the Virgin, standing, with the Child; behind them is an eight-pointed Sign of Wisdom. The portion of the icon reserved for Mary has the name Bogomater’ Neopalitnaia kupina (Exod. 3:2), The burning bush is regarded by biblical scholars to be an Old Testament typos of the Virgin Mary. Icons of this type date at least to the sixteenth century. The icon under discussion obviously intends to link Mary with Divine Wisdom: and this connection is remarked upon by Filimonov, “Ocherki russkoi khristianskoi ikonografii,” 10. (See also discussion in this article, below.)

51. The line drawing depicting this general lype appeared in Filimonov, “Ocherki russkoi khristianskoi ikonografii,” facing 16. It is reproduced in Florenskii, Stolp i utverzhdenie istiny, 377. Details of the description are taken from these sources; from Ihe former, 15–17, and from the lalter, 376–379. The icon is sometimes called the Kholmogory type or the Iaroslavl’ type, after well-known examples from those cities. Filimonov, “Ocherki russkoi khristianskoi ikonografii,” identifies it as the Novgorod type. His drawing relates to an icon from the Church of the Elevation of the Cross in lur'ev Monastery, Novgorod. Perhaps this accounts for the occasional choice of 14 September, the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross, as Ihe feast day for Sophia.

52. Described by Florenskii, Stolp i utverzhdenie istiny, 378. In the archives of the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism are two excellent examples of the Crucifix type; one was painted at the end of the nineteenth century, the other in 1906–1907.

53. Kondakoy, The Russian Icon, 105, states that this icon (or the Kiev type in general) is “clearly a copy of a Greek original, spread in south Russia under the influence of the Moldavo-Wallachian school.” However that may be, western elements in it seem obvious. The drawing of ligure 8 was first published by Filimonov, “Ocherki russkoi khristianskoi ikonografii,” facing 18. It was reprinted by Florenskii, Stolp i utverzhdenie istiny, 380. Details of the description are based on these two sources; 17–18 in Filimonov and 379–381 in Florenskii.

54. See Lebedintsev, “Sofiia Premudrost’ Bozhiia,” 566. and Metropolitan Evgenii. Opisanie Kievosofiiskogo sobora, 22. One known difference between the drawing and the early Kiev icon is that Mary's head in the latter was encircled by a crown of twelve stars.

55. See Aman, “Darstellung und Deulung der Sophiia,” 148–155, for a detailed discussion of the cryslalization of the Russian Wisdom type finally in the Virgin Mary and the influence of the Roman Catholic west on this iconography. The titular feast day of the Kiev cathedral was 8 September—the Nativity of the Virgin.

56. florovskii, “O pochitanii Sophii,” 498–499. Wisdom iconography after the fourteenth century is virtually unknown in the west.

57. So slates Lebedintscv, “Sofiia Premudrost' Bozhiia.” 567; he appears to reflect the majority opinion.

58. Information on dating is from Gerol'd Vzdornov, who also obtained a photograph of the icon for me. He reports that iconologists at the St. Sophia Museum Cathedral are certain of the history of the icon (see note 63).

59. In Opisanie Kievosofiiskogo sobora, 11. Metropolitan Evgenii describes the cathedral icon (not the drawing as such) in great detail on 19–24. The only library I could find that has this book is the United States Library of Congress, which has two copies. One of the copies circulates, but the drawing has been lost from it; the noncirculating copy still has the illustration The drawing bears the caption, “A Portrayal of the Wonder-Working Icon of Divine Sophia. Wisdom of God, in the Cathedral of St. Sophia. Kiev.“

60. No later type is mentioned in the literature, as far as I can determine. All the recently painted Wisdom icons I have seen were clearly repetitions or minor variants of established types. The Kiev types I have seen in museum archives were all like the final cathedral icon of St. Sophia-Kiev, though in one instance the ambo had only six steps, perhaps following the description of King Solomon's throne in 1 Kings 10:19.

61. Metropolitan Evgenii, Opisanie Kievosofiiskogo sobora, 24.

62. The ornamental casing of the icon hides the bottom step, David, and two angels at the top.

63. A color reproduction of this setting, with the Byzantine mosaic ot the Virgin oranl behind, appears in Derzhavnii arkhitekturno istoricheskii zapovidnik “Sofiiskii muzei” (Kiev: Mistetstvo, 19X4), pi. 50. The formerly three-tiered iconostasis was constructed in the 1740s; it was reduced to one tier in 1853.

64. For a famous example of this type (Great Panagia, laroslavl'. 1218), see Maslenitsyn, S.I., larostavskaia ikonopis’ (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1983)Google Scholar. pl. 5 (color), with a good discussion, 10–12, concerning the type as a symbol of wisdom. For a detailed commentary on the eleventh century mosaic of the Virgin orant in the apse of St. Sophia Cathedral, Kiev, sec Averintsev. “K uiasneniiu smysla,” 25–49. The Greek inscription on the outer arch of the apse in which the Bogomater’ is displayed is Ps. 46:5 (Russian 45:6): “God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that right early.” The apse with its mosaic was known as the Indestructible Wall, and the Virgin was perceived as the guardian of the city and, presumably, also as the embodiment of Wisdom (but the latter is not exactly proved by Averintsev, though it seems reasonable). Florenskii, Stolp i utvenhdenie istiny, 382, sees the wall as symbolic of the church—which is also the house of Sophia, Wisdom of God. (See also the last part of note 11.)

65. See Grabar, “L'Iconographie de la Sagesse Divine,” 258–261.

66. Evseyeva et al., Zhivopis’ drevnei Tveri, 32–34, discusses the eternity symbolization. An apparent exception to the observation that the sign is used only with the persons of the Trinity, the Virgin, or Wisdom is the prophet Balaam, who appears, for instance, with ten other prophets in a fifteenth century icon, “Exaltation of the Virgin” (see M. V. Alpatov, Drevnerusskaia ikonopis’ [Moscow: Iskusstvo, I978], pl. 118). Each prophet is given his own symbol, such as a ladder or a house. To Balaam is given, poised above his head, a red and blue-green sign of Wisdom. The same sign, now with Emmanuel in its center, appears in a depiction of Balaam with his talking ass and the Angel of the Lord (given in Russian in Num. 22:22 as Angel Gospoden’) on the sixteenth century portal of the Cathedral of the Annunciation, Moscow Kremlin (see Art Treasures of the Moscow Kremlin [Moscow; Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1980], pl. 71). The source of Balaam's symbol lies in Num. 24: 17, as the prophet speaks of the Almighty: “I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him. but not nigh: then shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel… .” Because the star of Jacob is taken to be a prophecy of Jesus Christ, its representation by an eight-pointed sign of Wisdom may be regarded as appropriate. The prophecy is thought to be confirmed (among other verses) in Rev. 22: 16: “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you… . I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” Thus, the sign of Wisdom relates not to Balaam as such but to Jesus Christ.

67. See Alpatov, M. V., Drevnerusskaia ikonopis’ (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1978), pl. 113Google Scholar.

68. See the sixteenth century Trinity icon from the Monastery of Dečani. Serbia, in Weitzman et al., The Icon, pl. 339 (color). An unusual New Testament Trinity icon (late fifteenth or early sixteenth century) shows both Sabaoth and the dove crowned with the red and green nimbus of Wisdom: see L. Maxym, ed., The History and Art of the Russian Icon, from the X to the XX Centuries (Manhasset, N. Y.: Siamese Imports, 1986), pl. 33.

69. See Alpatov, Drevnerusskaia ikonopis', pl. 133 (color).

70. See Maxym, History and Art of the Russian Icon, pl. 111 (Palekh, nineteenth century). The same type is to be found in the dome of the side chapel of Saints Cyprian and Justina of Nicomedia, of the Cathedral of Vasilii the Blessed. A variant of the type includes David and Solomon on the left and right, to emphasize the connection with Wisdom (or with a type of Wisdom icon); see Ivanov, Russian Icons, pl. 112. The basic ground plan of the Cathedral of Vasilii consists in two overlapping squares, as in the sign of Wisdom. See architectural drawings in Brunov, N. I., Khram Vasiliia Blazhennogo v Moskve: Pokrovskii Sobor (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1988), 113 Google Scholar.

71. Ouspcnsky and Lossky, Meaning of Icons, 73, report that this type is found in frescoes at the Church of Kovalevo near Novgorod (1380) and in a Greek illuminated manuscript of 1242. See also Icons of the Ukraine (Washington, D.C.: Chopivsky Family Foundation, 1988), 24.

72. Lazarev, V. N., Russkaia ikonopis’ ot istokov do nachala XVI veka (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1983), 92 Google Scholar. Examples of the type are known from at least 1425; see Nikolaeva, Painting in the Zagorsk Museum, pl. 2.

73. Ouspensky and Lossky, Meaning of Icons, 73, and Rozanova, N. V., Rostovo-Suzdal' skaia zhivopis’ XII-XVI vekov (Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1970), note to pl. 24Google Scholar. An example of a Pantocrator icon that presents Christ enthroned against a very large and obvious eight-pointed glory, with the addition of a variety of elements taken from Wisdom iconography, is to be found in the ceiling of one of the secondary domes of the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, Moscow Kremlin. A quaint late eighteenth century icon of a winged Christ with a large red and green Wisdom crown circumscribed by a golden halo is illustrated in Ivanov, Russian Icons, pl. 109. It is known as Redeemer Blessed Silence.

74. A general article on Divine Wisdom, which I have not seen, appeared in Nuukti i religiia 4 (1989).