Cultural View on the Scheme of the Dome and Altar Painting of the Orthodox Church

Abstract

The purpose of the work is to show the difference and interdependence between the schemes of paintings of the dome and the altar of the Orthodox Church and their purpose as the most sacred spaces. The research methodology consists in the application of a number of approaches. The analytical method is used to comprehend the literature on the topic of the article; the interdisciplinary method helps to comprehensively study the factual material and obtain new knowledge; and the systemic approach with a whole range of methods (semiotic, culturological, iconographic, field (namely, collection of visual material), hermeneutic, descriptive, comparative, and theoretical generalisation). The scientific novelty of the study is that for the first time the dome and the altar of the Orthodox Church are considered as identically sacred parts of it and at the same time as the most sacred temple spaces, which is reflected in the schemes of their paintings. Conclusions. In the inner space of the Orthodox Church, religious ideas about the ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ world, about the sacred and profane space are concretised with the help of architecture and sacred images recorded in the monumental church painting. In the temple, which is sacred in its purpose, however, there are differences in the expression of holiness. These differences from the point of view of the cultural approach can be marked by the binary opposition "sanctus – sacer". Thus, both the domed and the altar space of the Orthodox Church reflect the main church dogmas and doctrinal truths, which emphasises their sacredness in the sense of sanctus. At the same time, the painting of the sacred space of the dome reflects the Orthodox teachings open to every Christian, while the painting of the altar emphasises that this place of service of the "initiates" is available only to priests, performers of church rites, mainly the Eucharist.

Key words: sacred space, temple painting, dome, altar, temple painting scheme, sacred, iconographic theme.