On the sacralization of the monarch's image in Russia during the 18th - early 19th centuries

This article is devoted to an examination of the phenomenon of sacralization of the monarch in synodal Russia from the point of view of potestarian imagology. The contamination of Russian emperors in the 18th century with ancient pagan deities seems no less significant a reflection of this phenomenon than the interpretation of their images by Christian theology. The conjugation of the image of Peter I with the ancient gods and heroes, well known from the descriptions of the triumphal gates, looks excessive. This deliberate “many-sidedness” of Peter I leads to a kind of “erosion” of sacredness in the images of the characters contaminated with him. The phenomenon under consideration reaches its highest point of development under Catherine II. The name of the sculptural image of Catherine II, formulated as “a goddess in the image of an empress”, can be replaced with another name for the same statue, indicating “an empress in the image of a goddess.” It is appropriate to compare the cult of Catherine II with the ancient Roman imperial cults. The completion of the practice of depicting Russian monarchs in the form of pagan deities is associated with the production in 1814 by F. P. Tolstoy of a medal portrait of Alexander I in the image of the Slavic pagan god Rodomysl. The Russian phenomenon of the sacralization of the monarch finds its expression in the likening of his portrait to a Christian icon. On the whole, the phenomenon under consideration is seen as a distorted reflection of the Christian idea of the deification of man, perceived in a peculiar way and no less peculiarly described in the specific conditions of absolutism.