Drawing Conclusions: Presence and Absence in Ushakov’s Tree

• In Event: Visual Ambiguity in Early Modern Muscovy: Ruler and the Ruled in Context

Abstract

One hundred fifty years have passed since the first analytic study of Simon Ushakov’s most enigmatic icon was published in Moscow. Untitled at first, the work came to be known as “In Praise of the Icon of the Vladimir Mother of God” or “The Planting of the Tree of the Muscovite State” (hereafter Ushakov’s Tree) Over these many years this unusual creation has accrued considerable capital as an Orthodox paean to the political power and the spiritual glory of the tsars of Russia. New evidence obliges us to question that reading. The icon has been redated from 1668 to 1663 after a thorough cleaning revealed a numerical misreading of one of its inscriptions. No longer can this work be understood as a reaction to the Ecumenical Synod of 1667 that resulted in Patriarch Nikon’s ouster and the installation of Ioasaf II. Instead the icon was created in the aftermath of Patriarch Nikon’s self-exile from Moscow in 1658 and the failed Synod of 1660, a period of crisis. Additionally, recent research has identified “Prince Mikhail” in Ushakov’s Tree as Prince Mikhail Chernigovskii and not Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, a determination that undermines the notion of the tsars as thematic center of Ushakov’s composition. Michael Flier’s paper will subject Ushakov’s Tree to a semiotic reading of key elements, present and absent, that signal to a like-minded audience a message of concern about the Russian Orthodox church, its patriarchal crisis, and the uncertain future ahead.

Author

• Michael S. Flier, Harvard U