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Document Details :

Title: Hagiografie in woord en beeld
Subtitle: Boris en Gleb, twee Oudrussische heiligen
Author(s): RIJTMA, Annette , VAN AALST, Victoria
Journal: Journal of Eastern Christian Studies
Volume: 48    Issue: 1-2   Date: 1996   
Pages: 23-48
DOI: 10.2143/JECS.48.1.2003124

Abstract :
Hagiography in pictures and text: Boris and Gleb, two Old Russian Saints
The icon of the Holy Boris and Gleb († 1015) with scenes from their lives (Tretjakov Gallery, Moscow, no. 28757; see p. 25) is discussed as an art-historical source on the basis of one of the literary sources, the Life of the Saints, as it is found in the medieval historical context of the Russian Primary Chronicle, the Povest’ vremennych let (‘the Tale of Bygone Years’).
Unlike men in modern times, men in the Middle Ages were used to ‘reading’ and understanding the iconographical language of pictures. In order to make the meaning of the ‘source in pictures’ more accessible to the observer nowadays, it is treated together with the‘source in words’.
The present article offers a Dutch translation of the Old Russian text alternated with comments on iconography.