The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

The article focuses on Ivan Turgenev’s understanding and portrayal of Christ in three of his works: “A Living Relic”, “Alms” and “Christ”. Since Turgenev defined himself as a secular non-believer, his interest in Christ was largely interpreted as part of the quest for the “historical Jesus”, which was a popular pursuit at the time. An analysis of Turgenev’s actual writing pertaining to this portrayal demonstrates a lack of intention to juxtapose a realistic image of Christ the man and the traditional image of Christ as a God-Man. In all of the three works, Turgenev portrays Christ in the context of mystical visions and revelations. In order to broaden the scope of the research, we have analysed the writings against the images of Christ found on mediaeval Russian icons and throughout paintings and sculptures produced in Turgenev’s Russia. This comparison method enabled by extensive application of iconographic, historical and aesthetic analysis is hitherto unprecedented. The research has identified instances of alignment between Turgenev’s portrayal of Christ and the images found on icons; it has also revealed the fundamental differences in form and substance between the image created by Turgenev and the one dominating works on the same subject by representatives of both the academic and the realist schools of painting (exceptions are uniquely rare). The research has also found that the most significant features of Turgenev’s Christ image reflect a number of religious, philosophical and theological definitions.