The Vertical Form - the Iconological Dimension on 2oth Century Russian Religious Aesthetics and Literary Criticism.

Abstract

This article develops an iconological framework for interpreting both sacred and secular art through twentieth-century Russian religious aesthetics. Komkov begins from Orthodoxy’s persistent division between church art, especially the icon, and other artistic forms, arguing that the tradition’s deeper resources can support a broader theological aesthetics. Drawing on Pavel Florensky, Sergei Bulgakov, Ivan Ilyin, and Alexei Losev, he treats image or icon not merely as an artifact but as a category of religious consciousness: a living form through which divine being is revealed and apprehended. Ilyin’s “vertical” model relates aesthetic matter, poetic image, and the “poetic object,” while Florensky’s eidos-face-mask trichotomy describes degrees of ontological disclosure. Komkov acknowledges the limitations of Florensky’s hierarchy, particularly its suspicion of Western and secular art, yet proposes that its categories can illuminate works by Pushkin and Gogol. The article then examines Losev’s “absolute symbolism,” positioned between absolute apophatism and religious rationalism. On this account, created things symbolically mediate divine energies without collapsing God’s transcendence; aesthetic form can therefore bear realities beyond itself. Finally, Komkov interprets Ilyin’s “contemplation of the heart” as an existential condition rather than a merely intuitive method. Contemplation transforms the person, enables participation in being, and grounds artistic creation and reception. Ilyin’s readings of Bunin, Remizov, and Shmelev demonstrate how differing existential objects shape imagery and style. This synthesis also identifies questions about relationships among artists, artworks, audiences, and interpretation. Together these concepts offer a Christian method for evaluating diverse art while preserving distinctions between aesthetic experience, liturgical icons, and salvation.