Kunt Ernő szerk.: Kép-hagyomány – Nép-hagyomány (Miskolc, 1990)

I. RÉSZTANULMÁNYOK - Marina Peltzer: A lubok - az orosz vallásos népi fametszet - a 18-19. század fordulóján: avagy a látomások és látásmódok változásáról

are embroidered: their rather solemn character is replaced here by emotion. The expression „pictures which save the soul" is still used by an artist from the beginning of the 20th century, born in an illiterate social environment; it is as eloquent as the place they are given in their home: next the „red corner", reserved for holy pictures.

32 The memoirs of the famous picture publisher I.D. Sytin (1851-1934) confirm these data with more down-to-earth arguments. According to him, satirical images played only a minor part in the villages for the peasant „is very tight-fisted. . . The purchase of Nicolas-the-Thaumaturge, of the Last Judgment or of the Saviour is another matter. These pictures can be hung in the isba next to the icons. Given that the choice of the picture in the village was always the preserve of the father, i.e. the old man", the preponderance of religious pictures can be understood.

33 It is true that from the 17th century onwards, testimonies-among others that of patriarch Joachim - reflect a certain amount of indignation in face of the coarseness of pictures made by non-professionals which stray from conventionalism. However it appears to me that one is entitled to think that this did not affect in the least popular religious sentiment: we know of the reaction against patriarch Nikon who ordered in 1654 a serf of Novgorod to have the face repainted on his icon which was not judged to conform to the canon; people resented this incident as a profanation of a holy object. The observation of Paul of Aleppo, nephew of patriarch Macarius of Antioch, and a contemporary witness, confirms these assumptions about the cult Russians had for their icons, whatever the technique or the style: „all icons are the same for them-beautiful or hideous - they revere them all equally and bow before them even if the icon is only a sketch on paper or a child'sdrawing".

34 That is the reason why it seems to me that we should consider with caution Joachim's observation, denouncing on the one hand the prolific and excessive consumption by ordinary people, of crude forgeries on paper of holy icons, with the sole aim of „looking nice"

, and on the other hand the custom of tearing them to pieces and throwing them away after use. It does not appear to me that these religious pictures on paper, such as they were, were inherently different from the painted icons, either in their function or in their interpretation or even in their material aspect, despite their possible divergence from the iconographie canon. They are a confirmation of the eschatological concerns of the Russian people from the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th century. The study of the religious and of the secular goes hand in hand. It seems to me that the decorative element holds as important a function as the message. Russian popular imagery differs from that of the rest of Europe by specific aesthetics one can perceive in the stylisation of the characters and setting. This decorative effect has struck most observers.

35 Space was rendered by a decorative structure obeying conventions which were not submitted to a set of themes and which changed with new techniques of engraving. The greatest sobriety can be observed in the woodcuts whose stylistic variations appear to be hallmarks of workshops or picture - makers. This had already been observed by Stasov, followed by Duchartre,

36 and it is even possible to retrace a stylistic development of these woodcuts by grouping them together in formal categories such as archaic, classical and baroque, without considering them as a dating criterion, but in terms of various options of visualization which overlap each other chronologically. Characters, in the most outstanding woodcuts, show a technique dependent on sculpture in the round. And so, pictures, such as the famous Dance of Baba-Jaga with the Mujik (ill. 14), are noteworthy not only because the rendering of the dance is done with very restricted means but also because the freedom and fluency of the lines manages to give depth and volume and makes the eye of the beholder revolve around the characters. The modernity of the lubok, its avant-garde rôle, the