The Folklore of Icon-Painters and Art Historians: Legends about the Elder in the Iconography of the Nativity of Christ

Abstract

The article focuses on the legends that surround the figure of the elder in Eastern Christian iconography of the Nativity of Christ. The records of the 17th–19th cc. show that several Russian icon painters believed the character to be a sinner and tried to associate him with various characters of the New Testament history. In the 20th century, a new idea took hold: the seated Joseph is tempted by a “demon” or “the devil in the form of an old shepherd.” This legend that spread successfully in scientific texts was based on the work by Evgeniy Trubetskoy Two Worlds in Russian Icon Painting published in 1916. Since then the idea has been shared by many authors of iconographic commentaries and popular literature, by lecturers, guides, and icon painters. In the second half of the 20th century, new interpretations appeared that associated the shepherd with the Jew who doubted the immaculate conception of Mary. The research of the Byzantine-Russian iconography of the Nativity reveals the original semantics of this figure (the old shepherd, not originally associated with Joseph) and the reasons why legendary interpretations spread among Russian icon painters and researchers. The article presents a detailed analysis of the “mythological biography” of the old shepherd — legends about the sorcerer (a demon or a man) that circulate in oral and written texts. The work demonstrates, furthermore, how legendary information penetrates scientific texts and functions in them, replacing evidence and sources.

Keywords

• legends
• folklore
• iconography
• nativity
• old shepherd
• demon
• demonology
• false interpretations of visual motifs.