Culture banner. Meaning of the peace banner symbol. New and old

Banner of individualism If the closedness of the second age (Monkey) and the seventh age (Boar) was, rather, a temporary deepening into oneself during a general movement outward, then the closedness of the Snake is the beginning of a global process of pupation, collapsing the space around

On April 15, 1935, an extremely important event for the whole world took place - in New York, in the presence of US President Roosevelt and representatives of all countries of South America, the Peace Pact (Roerich Pact) was signed - an agreement on the protection of cultural property during wars and armed conflicts. It is significant that this Pact, as well as its distinctive sign - the “Banner of Peace” - was proposed by the outstanding Russian artist, thinker, and public figure N.K. Roerich (1874-1947). “The proposed Banner,” said Roerich, “has three connected amaranth Spheres on a white background in a circle as a symbol of Eternity and Unity.”

In 1954, at the Hague Conference, the Roerich Pact was signed by representatives of 37 states, and in 1968 there were already 59 (including the Soviet Union).

N.K.ROERICH

Banner of Peace

They ask to collect where there are signs of our Banner of Peace. The sign of the trinity turned out to be spread throughout the world. Now they explain it differently. Some say that this is the past, present and future, united by the ring of Eternity. For others, the explanation is closer that this is religion, knowledge and art in the ring of Culture. Probably, among the numerous similar images in ancient times, there were also all sorts of explanations, but with all this variety of interpretations, the sign as such was established throughout the world.

Chintamani - India's oldest idea of ​​​​the happiness of the world - contains this sign. In the Temple of Heaven in China you will find the same image. The Tibetan “Three Treasures” talk about the same thing. In the famous painting by Memling, the same sign is clearly visible on the chest of Christ. It is also present in the image of the Strasbourg Madonna. The same sign is on the shields of the Crusaders and on the coats of arms of the Templars * . Gurda, the famous Caucasian blades, bear the same sign. Can't we distinguish it in philosophical symbols? He is also in the images of Geser Khan and Rigden-Dzhapo. It’s also on Tamerlane’s Tamga. It was also on the Papal coat of arms. It can also be found in ancient Spanish paintings and in a painting by Titian. He is also on the ancient icon of St. Nicholas in Bar. The same sign on the ancient image of St. Sergius. He is also in the images of the Holy Trinity. It is also on the coat of arms of Samarkand. The sign is in both Ethiopia and Coptic antiquities. He is on the rocks of Mongolia. He is also on Tibetan rings. The Horse of Fortune on the Himalayan mountain passes bears the same sign, shining in the flame. He is also on the chest brooches of Lahaul, Ladakh and all the Himalayan highlands. It is also on Buddhist banners. Following into the depths of the Neolithic, we find the same sign in pottery ornaments.

That is why a sign was chosen for the All-Unifying Banner that has passed through many centuries - or rather, through millennia. Moreover, everywhere the sign was used not just as an ornamental decoration, but with a special meaning. If we collect together all the imprints of the same sign, then perhaps it will turn out to be the most widespread and oldest among human symbols. No one can claim that this sign belongs to only one belief or is based on one folklore. It can be especially valuable to look into the evolution of human consciousness in its most diverse manifestations.

Where all human treasures should be protected, there should be such an image that will open the hiding places of all human hearts. The prevalence of the sign of the Banner of Peace is so great and unexpected that people sincerely ask whether this sign was reliable or whether it was invented in later times. We had to see sincere amazement when we proved the prevalence of this sign since ancient times. Now humanity, in horror, is turning to troglodytic thinking and is planning to save its property in underground vaults and caves. But the Banner of Peace speaks precisely of the principle. It asserts that humanity must agree on the universality and nationality of the achievements of human genius. The banner says: “noli me tangere” - do not touch - do not offend the Treasure of the World with a destructive touch. **

* Members of the Catholic spiritual-knightly order, founded around 1118. Abolished in 1312.

** Roerich N.K. Diary sheets. M., 1995. T. 2. P. 206-207.

Everywhere - this is what N.K. Roerich called his article dedicated to the sign of the Banner of Peace. Indeed, this sign, proposed by him for the protective Banner, is unusually widespread in the art of different times and peoples. Finding it in various images, N.K. Roerich wrote down his observations. The first list was small: “A copy of the ancient icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker has been sent... approved for printing by Metropolitan Anthony. A photograph was sent from other places from the publication of the printing house of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra of the sixtieth year - Service to St. Sergius, Abbot of Radonezh the Wonderworker. A photograph is sent from Spain with the image of Saint Domingue from the “Silos” (Archaeological Museum of Madrid). Also from Spain is sent an image of Saint Michael, by Bartolomeo Vermejo (1440).”

What he saw in Beijing awakened a whole series of other images: “In the Temple of Heaven there was also a sign of the Banner. Tamerlane's tamga consists of the same sign. The sign of the three treasures is widely known in many countries of the East. On the chest of a Tibetan woman you can see a large fibula, which is a sign. We see the same brooches in Caucasian finds and in Scandinavia. The Strasbourg Madonna has this sign just like the saints of Spain. The icons of St. Sergius and the Wonderworker Nicholas have the same sign. On the chest of Christ, in the famous painting by Memling, the sign is depicted in the form of a large pectoral brooch. When we go through the sacred images of Byzantium and Rome, the same sign connects Sacred Images around the world. On mountain passes the same sign remains indestructible. To express speed, haste, and necessity, the sign is carried by the White Horse. Have you seen the same sign in the dungeons of the Roman catacombs?

In 1935, during the Mongolian expedition, N.K. Roerich again encountered a familiar image: “The rock of the Shara Murena monastery is all dotted with blue signs of the Banner of Peace. The Circassian gurda blades have the same sign. From the monastery, from sacred objects to the combat blade, the same sign is everywhere. You can see it on the shields of the crusaders and on Tamerlane’s tamga, on old English coins and on Mongolian seals - the same sign is everywhere. Doesn't this ubiquity mean that it needs to be remembered everywhere? Doesn’t it mean that on top of individual folk designations there are unifying and reminder signs everywhere, just to be able to see them and remember them firmly? Both conditions: seeing and remembering are equally necessary.”

To “see” and reveal in its entirety the spatio-temporal existence of a sign is a rather difficult task. It is also not easy to “remember” and unite all the heterogeneous monuments of art with the sign of the Banner of Peace by some kind of semantic relationships. Relevant studies are still very few. Undoubtedly, scientists have a lot of work to do here. To some extent, the paintings of Nicholas Roerich himself can serve as a guiding star in this case. N. K. Roerich considered works with the sign of the Banner of Peace not only those where the sign is depicted in its full completion, but also without a bordering circle, and even when the three circles are spaced far enough apart, as on the icons of St. Nicholas or Sergius of Radonezh. In addition, in ancient Russian art there is also a fused image of circles in the form of a trefoil, the pedigree of which also has deep roots.
The sign of the Banner of Peace appears in the Stone Age. In Khakassia, in the settlement of Malaya Syya, whose radiocarbon dating is 34 ~ 32 thousand years, V. E. Larichev discovered a small stone plate. Three round holes are carefully drilled on it, forming a triangular composition. According to the scientist, in the initial period of the Upper Paleolithic, fairly accurate astronomical observations were made and this plate could be used for these purposes as a sight meter. Noteworthy is the use of the golden ratio in the production of this unique work.
On the bottom of a clay Neolithic vessel from Trypillia, three circles in the center separate the waning and waxing crescent of the moon. The different phases of the night star, interspersed with a series of dashes, apparently indicate counting according to the lunar calendar. The pattern on the outer border of thirty petals indicates a solar month.

A series of later works are associated with calendar ideas, which are also based on the sign of the Banner of Peace. The Proto-Indian “wheel of time” was a circle with six spokes, probably representing the number of seasons. Another designation of the year was the heart-shaped symbol. Dated to the third millennium BC. The seal depicts a tur - a unicorn, which marks the year, on whose shoulder is a lotus petal with three wheels. A heart-shaped amulet with three concentric circles conveying calendar information is also known.

Plaque of the 4th century. BC e. from Anapa consists of three large and thirty-one small hemispheres. The latter are distributed in rings in the amount of 12,13,13. The chronological algorithm was, presumably, quite universal. The left ring made it possible to record the earth's year by month.
In a similar bronze plaque from the Transylvanian group of the Scythian-Sarmatian period, three large circles are surrounded by twelve small ones. In total they amount to fifteen - half a month. However, here each large circle is dissected by two arcs, as a result of which it becomes possible to add and subtract not only whole numbers, but also half-integers. This way you can get the number 31 and the number 29.5 - the value of the lunar synodic month.
Slovenian Novgorod plaques of the first half of the first millennium AD. e. consist of only three hemispheres, but each of them is surrounded by a cuff with notches. Sometimes four such plaques are combined into one complex composition with a central hole.

Wonderful decorations of the same Slovens - lunnitsa - are made in the form of a crescent moon with three circles in the center, each of which consists of three small hemispheres. The lunnitsa from Starosiversky is bordered by thirty small hemispheres, and the ornament of small dots apparently also contains numerical information.
It is surprising that among some Hungarian finds from medieval times there was a heart-shaped figure that almost exactly replicates the pro-Indian symbol of the year. The plaques of the Tyukhtyat culture in Khakassia of the 1st-10th centuries have the same shape.

In rock art, the sign of the Banner of Peace also appears from the Stone Age. Thus, a circle with three points and three connected circles were carved in Mongolia on stone slabs in Arshan-khad and Tsagaan-airig back in Mesolithic times. A circle with three points, according to E.A. Novgorodova, can be compared with anthropomorphic figures of the Paleolithic era, reminiscent of female and male symbols. The sign of the Banner of Peace can be found among the Amur images of Sakachi-Alyan of the Neolithic period and the Angara petroglyphs of the Bronze Age.

A.P. Okladnikov, who found a similar sign on Mount Tebsh in Mongolia, described it as “three rings connected together and forming a kind of triangle, similar to the symbol of the Roerich Pact.” It is these images that N. Roerich reproduces in his paintings “Holy Stones. Mongolia" (1935~ 1936) and "Mongolia. Horsemen" (1935-1936). Genghis Khan in the painting of the same name (“Genghis Khan (Horseman. Mongolia).” 1937) has the same three circles on his chest.

Normal and inverted images of the sign with a central circle at the bottom, called masks in archeology, were reflected in N. K. Roerich’s painting “The Earthly Spell” (1907). The artist reconstructs one of the most mysterious rituals of antiquity, associated with masks, and archaeologically accurately reproduces the petroglyphs of Sakachi-Alyan and Fort Rupert (USA). A strikingly close plot confirming the accuracy of Roerich’s reconstruction was recently discovered in the Mugur-Sargol tract (Tuva). Here, on the rocks protruding from the Yenisei, a man is carved out in a strange half-bent position with a staff, walking among anthropomorphic faces. As M.A. Devlet, a researcher of Yenisei petroglyphs, notes, this composition can be partly associated with a group of dancing men in the petroglyphs of Karelia and small sculptures of the Baltic states. A huge three-cup mask is visible among the clouds in N.K. Roerich’s sketch of the scenery “The Great Sacrifice” (1910) for I. Stravinsky’s ballet “The Rite of Spring”, as well as in the canvas “The Way of the Giants” (1910).

To interpret the three connected circles in the petroglyphs of Sakachi-Alyan and Mount Teshb, A.P. Okladnikov draws on legends existing in Asia, which speak of three suns. Two of them are killed by the space shooter, one remains. I. T. Savenkov called the so-called “third eye” on the Okunev steles of the Bronze Age the symbol of the midday sun or the celestial eye. There he, together with two ordinary eyes, forms a composition similar to the sign of the Banner of Peace. Proto-Slavic brooches and bracelets of the 7th century also go back to solar symbolism. BC e. On the bronze bracelet from the Radolin treasure there are three solar disks, two of which are accompanied by swan necks. Three suns, believes B. A. Rybakov, express the idea of ​​​​the movement of the luminary: the rising sun - morning, noon and evening of Russian fairy tales. The very combination of the solar theme with the theme of swans is found quite widely in art and mythology. How the Banner of Peace with rays looks like the sun on the shamanic drums of the Altai people of the late 19th - early 20th centuries.

We discovered in Altai three circles carved in a ring from the Kuilyu Grotto, dating back to the end of the Stone Age, perhaps representing a symbolic image of the soul.
The most recent images of the Banner of Peace appeared in Altai in 1975. Then, in March, E. Velikanov’s group, descending from the newly discovered Roerich Pass (the second name is the 30th Anniversary of Victory Pass) towards Lake Kucherlinskoye, left this sign on the rock as a landmark. That same year, in July, a group under my leadership made the first ascent to Roerich Peak from the west. At the top of the peak, three participants painted three signs of the Banner of Peace with red paint. At that moment we saw a wonderful sight - an avalanche from Belukha.
In decorative and applied arts, the sign of the Banner of Peace in Neolithic times appears as a compositional principle on Elamite ceramics and as a patterned motif on the rim of a Machan vessel of the Yangshao culture. In China, the sign continued to be used in the early period of the Western Zhou dynasty of the 1st-10th centuries. BC e. and is depicted on a bronze figurine of a deer in the V-III centuries. BC e.

Three circles of three concentric rings decorate items from the Koban burial ground of the 10th-7th centuries. BC e. The sign of the Banner of Peace was widespread in Scythian-Sarmatian times among the monuments of the Transylvanian and Potis groups, including on an elegant gold earring from the excavations of V.D. Kubarev. The motif of three hemispheres is used on a monument from Panticapaeum (IV century), on a bronze Celtic bracelet and as a decorative element of the La Tène style.
In the monuments of the Middle Ages, the sign of the Banner of Peace can be found among the objects of the Lyadinsky burial ground (ancient Mordva, 1X-11th centuries), on the jewelry of the Vym culture of the Kama region, as well as among the inventory of monuments of the Molchanovsky type of Finno-Ugric people. The sign continues to appear in ceramics at the beginning of the 2nd millennium in Armenia and Georgia.
In the 18th century A Danish spinning wheel is painted with a three-point pattern, and later multi-colored spheres appear on a decorative panel from Mongolia.

N.K. Roerich in the article “Everywhere” mentions Circassian combat blades with the sign of the Banner of Peace, but this sign existed back in the Bronze Age in the Trialeti culture of Dagestan, in a fibula from Mingachevir, in jewelry of the Scythian-Sarmatian period from North Ossetia, in an amulet from Mokraya Balka VII-VIII centuries.
As for Tamerlane's tamga, it had its predecessors in Central Asia among products from Margiana of the 4th-1st centuries. BC e. and the Markhamat complex from Fergana 1-4 centuries. n. e.
Speaking about ancient English coins, N.K. Roerich, presumably, had in mind the grout of King Edward I, issued in 1279, with a spectacular repetition of three circles in four sectors of the circle. An even more ancient monetary sign in Europe was a Celtic gold coin of the 2nd century, the so-called rainbow cup with three circles and a bordering half-ring. Remembering Celtic antiquities, N.K. Roerich creates a sketch of Isolde’s costume for R. Wagner’s opera “Tristan and Isolde” (1912). In the upper right corner of the sheet, the artist gives a close-up of a detail of the decorative decoration of the costume with a strict outline and three circles characteristic of Celtic art.

On B. A. Tverskoy’s dengue (1460), schematically depicting the duel of Hercules with the Nemean Lion, there are the same three circles. In general, in ancient Russian art there are many examples of the use of the sign of the Banner of Peace. Indeed, as N.K. Roerich mentions, we find it on the icons of the Wonderworker Nicholas and St. Sergius. Dionysius draws a sign on the image of Gregory the Theologian and Kirill Belozersky. Therefore, it is no coincidence that N.K. Roerich himself also has a sign of the Banner of Peace on two versions of the painting “St. Sergius” (1932, Tretyakov Gallery, ICR).

On icons of the 14th century. Three circles mark the hats of Saints Boris and Gleb. An earlier tradition of putting a sign on clothing apparently dates back to ancient times, for example, to the Bosporan pelike of the 4th century. BC e. from Panticapaeum. The sign of three dots marks the clothes of the Virgin Mary on the Novgorod royal gates of the 13th century. Then the same pattern is found on an ancient Bulgarian icon of the 14th century. In N. Roerich’s painting “The Works of the Madonna” (1931), the cloak of the Holy Intercessor is also decorated with an ornament of three elements in a triangular composition.
In the early Byzantine paten dish, three circles acquired semantic fullness and temporal subordination. The idea of ​​resurrection through suffering and death is expressed through three gospel stories. The reading of the composition begins from the lower right circle with the scene of the Crucifixion, then goes to the left circle with the Holy Sepulcher and ends with the upper circle with the Ascension.

In the brilliant “Trinity” by Andrei Rublev, there is a circle, as if invisibly present, symbolizing the trinity of the Divine. N.K. Roerich in his painting “The Sign of the Trinity” (1932), identifying this circle and bringing the halos of angels closer together, obtains a clear compositional formula. The sign of the Banner of Peace is revealed here through the sign of the Trinity. According to mythological ideas, at the top of the world mountain, where N.K. Roerich places the Trinity, there is the House of God. Shining against the backdrop of heavenly Jerusalem, the Sign of the Trinity - the Sign of the Banner of Peace with the cup of Christ glorifies the harmony of the Higher Powers and the Highest Love in its sacrificial feat.
The Highest Wisdom in ancient Russian art is also marked with the sign of the Banner of Peace. It is on the book held by Christ in the Novgorod De-Jesus of the 15th century. from the National Museum of Stockholm.
The vault in the Church of the Archangel Michael “on Skovorodka” is painted with a pattern of three dots and intersecting sinusoids.

The sign of the Banner of Peace is present on the omophorions of Russian saints: for example, in the 16th century icon. Moscow saints - Metropolitans Peter, Alexei, Jonah or on a wooden bas-relief of the 17th century. with the image of the Solovetsky elders Zosima and Savvaty. However, most often Nikola Mozhaisky or Nikola Zaraisky are dressed in such an omophorion. The last artist of the Italian Renaissance, J. Tintoretto, also depicts St. Nicholas with three golden balls - a symbol of good deeds.
Two masters of the 15th century. - Russian Ambrose and Jan van Eyck from the Netherlands - place the Mother of God on a pedestal with three circles.

In general, the entire early Northern Renaissance and the legacy of international Gothic are saturated with the sign of the Banner of Peace. The so-called Gothic trefoil of three circles is present in almost all Gothic cathedrals as the main decorative element of walls and stained glass windows. It adorns the western façade of Notre Dame Cathedral and the western façade of the Church of Saint-Nicaise in Reims. The lancet windows of Gothic cathedrals usually end with a trefoil. The same small window is depicted by Jan van Eyck in his famous Ghent Altarpiece. Artists of illuminated Gothic manuscripts drew three fused circles in gold. On the chest of Uta from Naumburg Cathedral, a six-pointed star has three hemispheres at its ends.

However, in Western art there is also an unfused image of three circles. In this version they are present on the Brussels tapestries of the early 16th century. “The Story of the Swan Knight” and “The Legend of the Sablon Madonna.”
The Banner of Peace was consecrated in 1931 in Bruges, where the town hall itself is decorated with a Gothic trefoil. In the same year, N.K. Roerich created a series of works reflecting the meaning and purpose of the protective cloth. These are his famous poster paintings “Glow” and “Banner of Peace. Pax cultura." In the triptych “Fiat Rex!” the sign is drawn twice: on the hilt of the sword and on the warrior’s shield. Apparently this is a crusader. (Let us recall Roerich’s remark about the signs on the shields of the crusaders.) This is clearly not an ancient warrior, although at that time there was also a sign of the Banner of Peace on the shields. It can be seen on a black-figured Attic jug from Olbia in the 6th century. BC e.
“Banner of Peace” (1931), on a mountain top among a panorama of snowy peaks, expresses its involvement in the white heavenly highlands, crowned with “the exploits of the best seekers of truth.”

The reflection of Leonardo da Vinci’s art is reflected in “Madonna Oriflamme” (1932). Here everything, as in Renaissance images, is filled with admiration and the human appearance of the Goddess and the opening cosmic distances. The Oriflamme - the scarlet battle banner of the French kings - here calls not for battle, but for the protection of all the beauty of the world. The maforium on the head of the Lady is marked with three circles, as artists of the 15th century, in particular Jean Fouquet, usually decorated the crown of the Mother of God.
"Madonna Protector" (1932) spread her cloak, guarding temples, palaces and cathedrals around the world. N.K. Roerich here transforms the image of Our Lady of Mercy, popular during the Renaissance (for example, a work by the 15th century French artist A. Carton). On the chest of the Protectress there is a large fibula with the sign of the Banner of Peace, like that of Archangel Michael in “The Last Judgment” by Rogier van der Weyden. It is interesting to note that in each circle there are three more small circles.

“Sophia the Wisdom” (1932) no longer traces its origins to Catholic images, but to Orthodox ones, although here Roerich, instead of a calm and solemn image of icons, creates a work that is unusually dynamic and expressive. His Sophia flies on a horse, as is customary to depict the warrior Archangel Michael - the leader of the forces of light. Here, instead of Sophia's halo, the disk of the sun is depicted. According to tradition, Sophia keeps a closed list and “in it are the unknown and hidden secrets of God.” N.K. Roerich reveals the list. On it is the Banner of Peace and the ancient word meaning “holy” repeated three times. In the artist’s book “The Power of Light” in 1931 it was written: “Let now the woman - the Mother of the World - say: “Let there be Light!” What will the Light be like? And what will the fiery feat consist of? “In raising the banner of the Spirit, on which will be inscribed – Love, Knowledge and Beauty.” Applying these thoughts to this painting, one can read the scroll as follows: “Holy is Love. Holy Knowledge. Holy Beauty." Apparently, the time has come for people to realize and protect these highest spiritual and evolutionary values. After all, the cornerstone of the future Culture will rest on them, and a new world will come through them. In the fire-torn sky, Sofia soars above the symbolic world city, surrounded by a common Kremlin wall. The entrance to it comes from the well-known Chinese Tower.

On the themes of the East, N.K. Roerich wrote several works with the sign of the Banner of Peace. The painting “Tibet” (1933) can be considered a kind of epigraph to them. The lines of mountains diverging from the heavenly focus seem to overshadow the monastery with the highest light - a symbol of earthly wisdom. The semantic center of the canvas is indicated by the Tibetan banner, which depicts a horse with three burning circles - the treasure of the Chintamani world. The legend of Chintamani, captured by someone on a block of stone, was transferred by N.K. Roerich to his canvas in the painting “White Stone” (1933).
The artist revives this plot in his canvases “Signs of Chintamani” (1937) and in the early version of “Treasure of the World. Chintamani" (1924).
The image of a horse with the treasure of the world is also drawn in an open scroll in N. Roerich’s painting “Rigden’s Order” (1933) - Mighty and flaming, with a golden crown of three spheres, Rigden sends his fiery messengers into the world.

A similar crown was crowned on the Byzantine molyvdovul of the 7th century. Constant II with his son. A pattern of three pearls adorns the crown and cloak of the Frankish Emperor in the painting Charlemagne (1840) by the French artist Meissonnier. A circle with three multi-colored circles: yellow, blue, red is held by the hero of N.K. Roerich in the painting “Bhagavan” (1931. Riga, Art Museum).
N. Roerich’s painting “From There” (1936) depicts “a Tibetan woman sitting on a rocky river bank, dressed in a robe decorated with three circles of the sign of the Banner of Peace.” In the painting “Fiery Thoughts” (1934), on the heroine’s chest is a fibula with three circles, like Tibetan women wear; a tall female image with a fiery bowl against the backdrop of the sacred Kanchenjunga, as if pushing aside the dark clouds creeping over the world with its spiritual energy.

It should be noted that long before N.K. Roerich proposed a security banner, this sign was already present in the artist’s works. In addition to the “Earthly Conjuration”, in the same 1907 N.K. Roerich painted the sign of the Banner of Peace on the cloak of Archangel Michael on the icon from the iconostasis for the Kamensky family church in the convent in Perm. Apparently, N.K. Roerich continues a certain artistic tradition here. In Western iconography, it is visible in the above-mentioned images of Saint Domingue from Silos, Saint Michael Bartolomeo Vermejo and Rogier van der Weyden, as well as Saint Mauritius the master from Moulins. Among the Old Bulgarian monuments there are three white

The dots on the red cloaks of the Archangels can be found on the 16th century icon. “Savior Emmanuel with the Archangels”, as well as on the icon of the 17th century. "Archangel Michael". In the sketch “Queen of Heaven” (1910) for the painting of the Talashkino Church, Roerich decorates the throne with a border of three circles in a semicircle. In 1912, N.K. Roerich wrote sketches of scenery and costumes for A.N. Ostrovsky’s play “The Snow Maiden” on the stage of the St. Petersburg Reineke Drama Theater. The Snow Maiden's costume is decorated with large circles and small ones, united in threes and ending in a curl. The same decorative motif frames the coat of arms of Siberia from the Charter of 1690.

The sign of the Banner of Peace, in its complete completion with the outer circle, appeared on the buffoon costume written by N.K. Roerich for A.P. Borodin’s opera “Prince Igor”, in the sheet “Buffoons Skula and Eroshka” (1914). The Priest's costume from the ballet “The Rite of Spring” (1912) is also decorated with an ornament of three red rings.
These circles in N.K. Roerich’s early works on Russian themes, of course, did not appear by chance. Indeed, even in the Neolithic era, on the Russian plain from the Kama to the Baltic, the Volosovo culture flourished (the name from the village of Volosovo in the Volga basin), in which circle patterns, including three circles, were widespread. The same pattern of three circles can be seen on pottery during the Andronovo era in Siberia. Roerich himself, exploring the origins of Russian costume, wrote that the plain of Russia and Siberia bears in its depths “the most unexpected layers.”

Sometimes N.K. Roerich uses famous masterpieces of world art for his images. In the triptych “Joan of Arc” (1931), he takes the famous stained glass window of the Chartres Cathedral (here the same thick blue and red tones) as the basis for the central composition “Eternal Mother”. The design of the crown of the Mother of God includes in this picture three red circles forming sign of the Banner of Peace.
In the painting “Sword of Peace” (1933), the hero of N.K. Roerich resembles a statue of a warrior from the Alley of Spirits - the burial structure of the Ming emperors Shisanling near Beijing in the 15th-17th centuries. The artist draws the sign of the Banner of Peace on the warrior’s helmet, the sword in a horizontal position, and his hands in a gesture of prayer. N.K. Roerich created here an image filled with enormous inner strength and spiritual power, aimed at the good of the world. It is characteristic that in ancient Russian art three circles are often combined into a trefoil. It is most clearly depicted in the bordering circle by Andrei Rublev in the Gospel of the Andronikov Monastery. This very ancient symbol appears on the ancient Egyptian sky goddess Hathor of the 14th century. BC, on a Fayum portrait of the 2nd-3rd centuries. n. e., on the robe of St. Demetrius in a Byzantine mosaic of the 7th century. It is appropriate to recall here one of the earliest images of a trefoil in the East on a sculpture of a priest from Mohenjo-Daro of the 3rd millennium BC. e. and its repetition on men's clothing from the Meringue Click of the Middle Ages. On the shoulder of Roerich’s “Yaroslav the Wise” (1941) there is the same trefoil sign, united from three circles.
Also on the costumes of Japanese actors from the early 18th century. monas in the form of a ring with three circles inside were used as an accusatory sign.

The ideas of the “Roerich Pact” and the Banner of Peace inspire other brush and chisel artists. First of all, the portraits of N.K. Roerich himself, painted by his son S. N. Roerich in the 30-40s, are significant. XX century Among them there are those where the author of the Pact is depicted next to the Banner of Peace.
In one of the portraits, N.K. Roerich appears against the backdrop of the Himalayas next to a stone where a horse is drawn with the Treasure of the World. Stylistically, this folk primitive is close to the Celtic model of the 1st millennium BC. e., and that in turn - to an even more ancient monument of the 2nd millennium BC. e. from French territory. In Russia, a similar plot - a horse with three circles on its back - is known among shamanic images of the 11th-12th centuries. n. e., belonging to the Permian animal style. Among the monuments of this type, a silver plate is striking - like a Banner of Peace, resting on a square pedestal. The square is framed by thirty and seven small circles. The Znamenny triad is surrounded by circles, which also add up to the number 30. All this, presumably, indicates the calendar meaning of the product.
In 1937, an interesting sculpture “Madonna of the Banner of Peace” was created. Its author is a sculptor from Lithuania D. Tarabildene.

Among the works of recent years with the Banner of Peace, noteworthy is the painting by the Tuvan artist Saaya Saryg-Ool “The Expedition of N.K. Roerich in Central Asia” (1978), as well as the monumental mosaic panel by the Novosibirsk artist V.P. Sokol “Soviet Siberia”.
So, even based on the examples considered, we can conclude that these images, graphically corresponding to the sign of the Banner of Peace, were extremely widespread from the very early stages of human history. This symbol unites the cultural traditions of different peoples, reflecting their “aspiration to the Highest.” The most sacred images bore a sign corresponding to the Banner of Peace. Different religions, different peoples marked their warriors for truth, great Saints and great Teachers with the sign of the triad. People associated and associate hope for the future with their deeds, with their arrival. Therefore, it is quite natural that the sign of the Banner of Peace in the philosophy of Living Ethics is a symbol of a new era.