The Semiotics of Godot Compared with those of the Russian Icon

Abstract

Boris Uspensky, in his work, The Semiotics of the Russian Icon, demonstrates that the ancient Russian icon may be deciphered through the language of artistic devices that the artist uses in it to convey meaning. These are devices that simultaneously embody both the viewpoint of the artist and that of the viewer. Uspensky is able to do this by analyzing the icon’s composition, a pictorial construction dictated largely by canon, strict limitations on subjects, and the availability of models in Russian pattern books, but also influenced by changing conventions of perception. Through the study he makes, he uncovers a special system of symbolic representational means specific to the icon which he refers to as “language.” Believing that the system used in the pictorial work may be broken down into levels similar to phonological, semantic and grammatical levels of a natural language, he considers the most important level of analysis to be that of the means the icon artist uses to transmit spatial and temporal relations to the painting. This he compares to the phonological level of language. Another level of analysis he identifies is linked to the means and manner employed to depict certain objects.