B. A.

USPENSKY

'Left' and 'Right' in Icon Painting*

The following remarks are intended to confirm the proposition that

mediaeval painting, and in particular icon painting, was oriented pri-
marily towards an INTERNAL viewer's position, that is, towards the point
of view of an observer imagined to be within the depicted reality and to
be facing the spectator of the picture. (Renaissance painting, on the
contrary, was understood as 'a window on the world' and hence was
oriented towards an EXTERNAL viewer's position, that is, towards the
position of the spectator of the picture who is, in principle, a non-partici-
pant in this world.1) The present article discusses the opposition of
'left' and 'right' in the icon.2 The study of icon painting is particularly
revealing of the language of pictorial techniques: this is not only because
of the canonic nature of the icon and the extreme semiotic weight of
its compositional structure, but also because of the availability of more
or less precise verbal descriptions of the pictorial representation (its
construction), which are in the nature of DOCUMENTARY evidence.

* First published in Semeiotike: Sbornik state]po vtoritnym modelirujuscim sistemam

(Tartu, 1973), 137-45. Translation by Ann Shukman.
1
For further details see our works: "O semiotike ikony", Trudy po znakovym
sistemam V (Tartu, 1971), 196ff.; "K issledovaniju jazyka drevnej zivopisi", in the
book: L. F. 2egin, Jazyk zivopisnogo proizvedenija (Moscow, 1970); Poetika kom-
pozicii (Moscow, 1970), Chapter VII. We are not concerned here with the possibility
of using an external point of view in mediaeval art on the periphery of the work (the
background, frames, or immediate front plane which can be opposed to the foreground
or basic plane).
2
The author is grateful for useful discussions with A. A. Saltykov who kindly
acquainted him with his as yet unpublished work on space-time relationships in
Byzantine and ancient Russian painting.

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34 B. A. USPENSKY

Such descriptions are, for example, to be found in the written manuals

(tolkovyepodlinniki), i.e., the traditional guides for icon-painters; these
written manuals taken together with the illustrated manuals (licevye
podlinniki) may be understood as a particular kind of bilingual text
that enables the language of the icon to be deciphered.
The icon-painters' manuals make it possible to state that in icon-
painting terminology the righthand part of the painting was thought of
as the 'left', and conversely the left part of the painting as the 'right'.
In other words the reckoning was not from our point of view (as specta-
tors of the picture), but from the point of view of someone facing us, an
internal observer imagined to be within the depicted world. Sometimes
this internal observer's position coincides with the central figure of the
picture (for example the Saviour in the Deesis composition) and in this
case it can be said that the 'right' part of the painting is on the right hand
of this figure, and the 'left' on his left. However, the same terms may
be used also when the central figure is absent.
For instance, referring to the 'Descent of the Holy Spirit', the icon-
painters' manual says that the Apostle Peter is represented On the
RIGHT hand' while in fact from the viewer's position Peter is in the
LEFT part.3
Analogously it says of the 'royal gates' that the Evangelist John is
depicted On the right side',4 which means the left half of the doors
when one looks towards the altar, and it is obvious that the position
adopted is that of someone looking from the altar.
In precisely the same way when referring to the Orthodox eight-
point cross, the lower cross bar (the foot-bar) is represented as sloping
from left to right:

the manual says that the foot-bar is depicted with 'right rising uphill
and left going downhill'. It is quite clear once again that the reckoning

3
See Podlinnik ikonopisnyj, published by S. T. Bol'Sakov and edited by A. I. Us-
penskij (Moscow, 1903), 15.
4
Podlinnik..., 16.

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'LEFT' AND 'RIGHT' IN ICON PAINTING 35

of left and right is made not from our point of view but from that of the
crucified Christ. Moreover the sides are interpreted symbolically:
Christ standing on the Cross ... lifted upwards His right foot so that the sins of
those believing on His name might be lifted and at His Second Coming be
taken up to meet Him in the air, — but he made heavy his left foot and pressed
it down so that the heathen who do not believe in Him might be made heavy
with their ignorance, accursed and losing their reason would go down into
Hell.5
Thus the right side of Christ is connected with belief and the left with
non-belief. At the same time the right side is connected with TOP and
the left with BOTTOM.6 The parallelism between the oppositions 'right —
left' and 'top — bottom' will be discussed below.
A particularly convincing example of the connection between right-
left and other spatial (and temporal) relations has been discovered by
A. A. Saltykov. He refers to a didactic composition of the seventeenth
or early eighteenth century from the Tret'jakov Gallery, which has the
following revealing inscription:
Mortal man: Fear what is above you. Put not your trust in what is before
you. You will not escape what is behind you. You will not avoid what is be-
neath you.
This inscription contains the key to the analysis of the spatial organiza-
tion of the picture. In its central part there is a human figure, 'mortal
man', whose face is turned to the viewer.
What is before him, according to the inscription, is a depiction of earthly
riches, which is placed in the left hand side (from the spectator's point of view)
5
Podlinnik..^ 12. Compare the same place in another edition (from the Stroganov
manual) in F. I. Buslaev's article, "Dlja istorii russkoj zivopisi XVI veka", in: F. L
Buskev, Sotinenija II (St. Petersburg, 1910), 294-95.
6
It is curious that in the well known book by loannikii Galjatovskij, Mesiapravdivyj,
published by the Kievo-Peoerskaja Lavra in 1669, on the reverse side of the title page
there is a MIRROR (in relation to the traditional depiction described above) image of the
eight-point cross:

Should this not be explained by the influence of western, Renaissance tradition which
was a real one in South-West Russia? It was not the depiction itself that was borrowed
(the eight-point cross is not typical in the West), but rather the system of orientation
(orientation on an outer, not an inner viewer's position), a system that determined the
understanding of left and right while retaining the general symbolism of that opposi-
tion.

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36 B. A. USPENSKY

of the picture. On the opposite, right hand, side the artist has placed the figure
of death with his sickle standing behind the man. All these three elements are
placed in the foreground .... What interests us is the fact that the human
figure is, as it were, the axis around which space and time rotate: what is in
front is moved to the left. What is behind to the right.7
Thus the 'right' part (from an internal point of view, i.e., for us the left
part) of the picture relates to the FRONT plane and the 'left' to the REAR.
At the same time the front plane, and hence the 'right' hand side, is
connected with the PRESENT, while the rear plane — the 'left' side — is
connected with the FUTURE. Compare the usual depiction in mediaeval
painting of the future on the rear plane while the front plane naturally is
concerned with the representation of the present.8 Hence incidentally
one might explain the fact that the flow of time in Christian art is as a
rule shown from left to right for the spectator9 and correspondingly
from 'right' to 'left' for the internal observer, in other words from his
present to his future (or, with a slide of the time axis, from the past to
the present).
Relics of this icon-painting tradition that treats right and left from an
internal point of view lasted until comparatively recently. In A. S.
Uvarov's work Risunok simvoliceskoj skoly XVII vekalQ there was
published a symbolic painting together with a contemporary explanation
of it which makes it possible to interpret in definite terms. The painting
is divided into two parts whose opposition corresponds to the opposition
7
A. A. Saltykov, "K voprosu o prostranstvennyx otnoSenijax v vizantijskoj i drev-
nerusskoj zivopisi" (ms).
8
S. V. Poljakova, "K voprosu srednevekovoj koncepcii nastojas£ego i buduScego",
Problemy ritma, xudozestvennogo vremeni i prostranstva literature i hkusstve:
Tezisy i annotacii dokladov na simpoziume (Leningrad, 1970), 56. This scholar connects
such an arrangement of episodes of the plot where "the future is not in front of the
present but follows it" with "archaic ... ideas of tangible, and hence spatial, time that
turns like a wheel. Its sections, as a result of the turning movement, alternate, so that
the position is possible where the present Overtakes' the future."
In general, on the identification in the mediaeval consciousness of spatial and
temporal relations, see A. Ja. Gureviö, Kategorii srednevekovoj kuVtury (Moscow,
19 2), 44, passim.
9
B. A. Uspensky, Commentary to p. 72 of L. F. 2egin, Jazyk zivopisnogo..., 123.
(The symmetrically organized compositions in which the time-flow is shown from the
periphery to the centre are a more complicated problem, ibid.) On this law in relation
to late European art see H. Wölfflin's investigation of the influence of this factor on
the psychology of the viewer's perception, in his article, "Über das Rechts und Links
im Bilde", and also, "Das Problem der Umkehrung in Rafaels Terpichkartons",
in: Heinrich Wölffiin, Gedanken zur Kunstgeschichte: Gedrucktes und Ungedrucktes
(Basel, 1947), 82-96.
10
In Arxeologiceskie izvestija i zametki 4 (izdavaemye imp. Moskovskim Arxeolog-
iceskimObscestvom, 1896).

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'LEFT' AND 'RIGHT' IN ICON PAINTING 37

of the Old and New Testaments. Naturally the symbols of the New
Testament are given on the right hand (from the internal point of view,
i.e., on our left) part of the painting, while the attributes of the Old
Testament are on the left (from our viewpoint, right) part. It is in this
way that Uvarov describes this painting, completely ignoring the point
of view of the external spectator but in full accord with the tradition:
On the right, or good side is Mount Sinai, on the left or bad side Mount
Lebanon. It is curious to note that on the right or good side the names are
written mostly in gold, while on the left side they are in black paint.
Orientation towards the internal position of the viewer is here again
quite obvious.
There is another interesting feature of this painting. While at the top
of the 'right' (our left) part of the painting the burning bush is shown to
denote the Virgin (Znamenie Bogorodicy), on the top of the 'left'
(our right) part there is shown the Church surrounded by a wall in the
midst of which Christ is seated. It is true that the wall is besieged by
the devil, but this only partially justifies the placing of this element in
the 'left' part. It would be correct to suppose that in this case the opposi-
tion between upper and lower is of more relevance than the opposition
between right and left. It can thus be stated that, in the upper part, the
opposition of left and right as symbolic conventions of the painting
is neutralized. In other words the oppositions right — left and top —
bottom are synonymic in icon painting, alternating in the general hier-
archy of symbolic values.11
In this connection the account in the Chronicles of the acceptance of
Christianity in ancient Russia is of particular interest. According to the
chronicler, the Greek philosopher showed Prince Vladimir a curtain
depicting the Last Judgement and showed him on the right the righteous
and on the left the sinners.12 All that we know about the iconography
of the Last Judgement makes us assume that the righteous were shown
on the LEFT of the spectator (i.e., of Prince Vladimir) and the sinners on
11
See the example given above of parallelism between the oppositions right-left and
top-bottom. See also ethnographic data on this parallelism in Vjao. Vs. Ivanov and
V. N. Toporov, Slavjanskie jazkovye modelirujuscie semiotiteskie sistemy (Moscow,
1965), 209.
12
See Povest* vremennyx let (year 6494): "He showed him a curtain on which was
painted the Last Judgement; and he showed him on the right the righteous proceeding
in joyfulness into Paradise, but on the left the sinners going to torment. Volodimer
having sighed said: 'It is good for those on the right, bad for those on the left*. But
he [the philosopher] said: 'If you want to be on the right with the righteous, be bap-
tized. '"

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38 B. A. USPENSKY

his RIGHT. It then follows, if one is to believe the chronicler, that Prince
Vladimir in discussing this picture accepted its system of internal orienta-
tion.
It should be added that the conclusions given above should in no way
be considered as a peculiarity characteristic only of Byzantine or ancient
Russian art. An analogous phenomenon of internal orientation can be
seen in western pictures of the Last Judgement,13 in paired depictions in
Romanesque sculpture and on Gothic tombs,14 and so on.
In fact one could boldly ascribe this phenomenon to pre-Renaissance
art in general, certainly to mediaeval art and to some extent to even
earlier art. It has been pointed out that light in Egyptian Fayum portraits
falls, as in icons, from the left (for us),15 that is from the right for the
internal observer. (It is typical of icon painting for the sun to be regularly
placed on the left and the moon on the right from the point of view of
the external spectator.16)
It is not impossible that this phenomenon may be discovered in still
more archaic forms. One could refer to forms of mirror depiction in
primitive cartographic drawing (where the object is depicted 'not as
the eye sees it but as it would appear in the surface of a mirror').17
Could one not in this way (at least in certain cases) explain the prepon-

13
Mieczyslaw Wallis, "Medieval Art as a Language", Actes du Verne Congres
International d'Esthetique (Amsterdam, 1964), 429.
14
M. X. Aleskovskij, "Russkie gleboborisovskie enkolpiony 1072-1150 godov",
Drevnerusskoe iskusstvo: Xudozestvennaja kuVtura domongolskoj Rusi (Moscow,
1972), 196, note 15.
15
A. I. Rogov, "Censtoxovskaja ikona Bogomateri kak pamjatnik vizantijsko-
russko-pol'skix svjazej", Drevnerusskoe iskusstvo, 320.
16
See, however, the opposite order on a drawing of the universe in the Tolkovaja
Paleja [Chronicle of the Old Testament] of the sixteenth century (see E. Redin, Tolko-
vaja licevaja Paleja XVI v. sobranja gr. A. S. Uvarova [St. Petersburg, 1901], 6, fig. 1),
an instance which may be seen as exceptional and which is explained in a particular
way. Redin writes: "The world is represented as a quadrangle around which flows
the ocean; at the bottom part of the quadrangle is dry land, while in the upper part,
in the form of a scroll, is the blue sky upon which, on the left, is a blue circle, the
moon, and on the right, a red one, the sun. Outside the quadrangle in an aureole of
circles is Christ holding a scroll and blessing." We should add that Christ is depicted
in the right upper corner of the page above the depiction of the world (the left upper
corner is filled with text). We would be right to think from the general composition of
the whole picture that the world is turned towards Christ, i.e., is depicted from His
point of view which, in this instance, is not internal but external in relation to this
picture. Hence the justification for placing the sun on the right and the moon on the
left (from the point of view of Christ).
17
B. F. Adler, "Karty pervobytnyx narodov" (St. Petersburg, 1907) (Izvestija imp.
Ob-va ljubitelej estestvoznanija, antropologii i etnografii pri imp. Moskovskom univer-
sitetat CXIX: Trudy Geograficeskogo otdelenija II), column 47.

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'LEFT* AND 'RIGHT' IN ICON PAINTING 39

derance of prints of the left hand in cave drawings?18 Indeed if one

treats this type of hand-print not as a SIGNATURE but as a DEPICTION19
then it can be noted that the depiction of the left hand of the artist
coincides with the depiction of the right hand of the subject depicted.
Such an explanation might be acceptable at least for those cases where
the depiction of one left hand may be seen as a reduction in comparison
with the fuller depiction of both hands (and both feet) symbolizing the
person to be presented.20 An explanation of this sort in no way excludes
the hypothesis of the symbolic significance of such a depiction as used
mostly, it seems, for the designation of a person belonging to the Other
world', a mythological figure or a dead one. The otherworldliness, in
the literal sense, of the personage depicted could necessarily condition
the switch of right and left in the system of representation.

18
Vjaö. Vs. Ivanov, "Ob odnom tipe arxai&iyx znakov iskusstv i piktografii",
Ronnie formy iskusstva (Moscow, 1972).
19
Ivanov, 1972: 111.
20
Ivanov, 1972: fig. 1, 2, 3 on pp. 120,121,123.

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