The Pictorial Code in F. M. Dostoevsky’s Novel “Demons” (“Sistine Madonna” in S. T. Verkhovensky’s Fate)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the picturesque plot in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Demons,” built around the canvas of the Italian master Raphael Santi, “Sistine Madonna,” in its semantic and symbolic dynamics — the inner spiritual relationship with the fate of Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky. The image of Raphael’s Madonna is the most significant element of the ethical and aesthetic system of the character’s worldview, defining the way of thinking and behavior of the character. At the same time, in the conceptual space of the novel, the Sistine Madonna acquires the features of a spiritually ambivalent image: inspiring Stepan Trofimovich to a high way of thinking, she, nevertheless, turns out to be powerless to transform his life. The article analyzes the theological content of the canvas in the context of the Russian tradition (Zhukovsky, Karamzin, Dostoevsky, Bulgakov), which makes it possible to decipher the pictorial code in the fate of Verkhovensky’s father. Spiritual healing and the near-death transformation of the hero become possible thanks to two symbolic and semantic transitions carried out by the Verkhovensky’s father in the final part of the novel: from the Western Catholic “Sistine Madonna” to the Russian Mother of God, from the Western way of thinking and life to the Russian “soil” and Orthodox spirituality.

Keywords

• f. m. dostoevsky
• “demons
• ” “sistine madonna
• ” the mother of god
• s. t. verkhovensky
• orthodoxy
• anti-catholicism
• man-godliness