Conceptual Explanations of Sign (Hieratic) Painting
Sign (Hieratic) painting is the result of comprehension of Byzantine and Old Russian painting, its sign base.
The internal problem of sign painting is the experience of mysticism of communion with God and its material¬ization in the Divine language of signs, revelation of the invisible in the visible.
Material world is a hierarchical system of signs, in which the information is ciphered about the eternal and in-finite, about the destination of the world and its Creator.
Through the hierarchical system of signs the eternity is opened, it is a special state: the revelation of the Holy Spirit to the human soul.
It is not a recollection of past events and it is not an imagination working out the future, but the channels and bridges, created between the two spheres of existence - terrestrial (in space and time) and spiritual (eternal).
Sign is a form of Spirit, and Spirit is the content of Sign.
Sign is the link and the means of interaction between material and spiritual, temporary and eternal, created and uncreated, limited and absolute.
Ancient people considered sign to be not only the means of expression, but the mystery of life.
Sign is ambiguous and many-sided, it has a constant and firm character.
Through sign, sign systems we come in touch with the existence of spiritual world, with abyss of Spirit, with the abyss of Divine Life.
Through the systems of signs the inclusion of a person into the life of spiritual world occurs, the contact with it through the depths of personal spirit, which is beyond the reach of reflection.
The perfection of sign is determined by the mystic depth and beauty, which is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit on the physical plane.
For mysticism the main thing is not the form, but the content, the feeling of love and unity with God.
Sign has the vivacity of being and inviolability of entity, it elevates the consciousness of a person from the per-ception of the world to spiritual "prabasis" of life.
Sign can be completely understood only in eternity, when the target plane of universe, its dynamic structures, energy essences and images-ideas will be revealed, i.e. sign can be understood only at a glance, thrown from the future into the past, and in this life it is only possible to fix the sign, but not to solve its hierographic problem. Thus the explanation and decoding of signs are of secondary significance.
The main task is the contact with the life of spiritual world.
Sign is a counterbalance for the lost spirituality of the antique cult of beauty and other pathological emotional states.
Afterthe fall of man and deformation of macro and micro world disintegration and decay entered it, human abil-ities to commune with God and to know Him were deformed, therefore signs are revealed from the common pic¬ture of the world as the surviving parts of the damaged building..
Sign form gives the opportunity and ability to touch in art upon the ultimate questions of universe. It installs con-fidence that art opens an eye to the universe of essences (hidden through visible), the way opens to understanding the truth. In visible forms the mystery of universe can be guessed.
In the construction of sign form all achievements and discoveries, made in the contemporary painting, partici-pate, although itself it has prehistoric roots.
We see not the world, as it exists in the very essences of objects, but only properties, actions and the energies, which depend on the possibility of the mechanism of our perception.
Thus, it is impossible to speak about reality (i. e. adequacy) outside the sign systematics.
Sign is the key to truth. Beyond sign and sign systems the human thought would hover in the spiritual world in emptiness or in the sphere of human notions, based on the metaphysical lie of fallen spirits (fetish of material, magic and idolatry).
In sign the proper name is ciphered, invoked from the Abyss of Nonexistence and keeping its secret, the mys-tery of covert knowledge, and the sign form is the language, modeling its own name, the name which is given birth in the infinite change of metamorphoses and transformations in the burning boiler of Love, Beauty and religious feel-ing.
Thus, sign is the spiritual expression of the essence of Love and Beauty.
Beauty marks the creation of the Holy Spirit, testifies the authenticity of birth and is the wreath of Truth and
If spiritual foundations are devalued in art, then it disappears from the life of this world "as not wanted". We find the marks of this disintegration in the present day, where the human vector of life makes way to Abyss.
In accordance with the patristic tradition Anatoliy Chashchinskiy