The Virgin’s heavenly rapture as a theme in Yaroslavl art of the late 17th and early 18th centuries

Abstract

In its heydays, Yaroslavl art expanded its range of literary sources. The composition of Ioanniky Galyatovsky “Nebo Novoe” (“New Heaven”) was very popular. The miracle of St Thomas Becket of Canterbury, in which the Virgin tells him of her rapture in Heaven, became an iconographic subject. In Yaroslavl art this theme can be found in several versions, both in icons and in monumental painting. It is believed that the theme appeared and was developed in the school of Yaroslavl icon painter Feodor Ignatiev. Currently, this plot has not been identified in other centres of art.