Christ in Prison: Western European Origins and the Russian Provincial Tradition in the Light of Monuments from the Saratov Volga Region

Abstract

The article examines the formation and development of the iconographic image “Christ in Prison” (Midnight Saviour) within Western European and Russian provincial traditions of sacred sculpture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Drawing on a corpus of wooden sculptures from the collections of the Radishchev Museum and the Saratov Regional Museum of Local Lore, it analyses the specific modes of reception and visual interpretation of this motif in the parish churches of the Saratov Volga Region. Particular attention is paid to the transformation of the Western types “Ecce Homo” and “Homo Dolorum” as they are adapted to the Orthodox theological perspective, and to the role of provincial workshops in shaping stable yet highly variable models of the Midnight Saviour. The article investigates the sculptural language, the treatment of the body and gesture, the symbolism of nakedness and vesture, and the practice of “dressing” the statues in actual liturgical textiles, documented in F. Kitavin’s watercolours. It is argued that the Saratov material reveals a complex dialogue between East and West, traces the mechanisms by which Baroque iconography was reinterpreted within Orthodox visual culture, and illuminates specific features of popular religiosity in the Russian provinces of the modern period.

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