Clemena Antonova

The paper considers the little known influence of Theosophical notions of visuality on Pavel Florensky's (1882-1937) theory of iconic space. What is probably the most insightful aspect of Florensky's position on the pictorial space of the medieval image in his essay "Reverse Perspective" (1919) cannot be understood outside his Theosophically-derived notions of vision in an earlier work, Smysl idealizma (The Meaning of Idealism, 1914). The importance of the icon for Florensky lies exactly in its ability to provide a model of vision at a higher level of existence. To use Florensky's own terminology, the  “supplementary planes” of the medieval image can be interpreted as a visual analogue of “synthetic vision.”

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