Denis Jolshin Meander Motif in Décor of the Old Rus’ Church Masonry

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://dx.doi.org/10.18688/aa155-3-32
Title Meander Motif in Décor of the Old Rus’ Church Masonry
Author email denis.jolshin@gmail.com
About author Jolshin, Denis Dmitrievich — PhD, researcher, curator. The State Hermitage Museum, 34 Dvorzovaia embankment, 191186 St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
In the section The Harmony of Classical Antiquity under the Vaults of Old Russ DOI10.18688/aa155-3-32
Year 2015 Volume 5 Pages 304–312
Type of article RAR Index UDK 72.023; 7.033.2 Index BBK 85.11
Abstract

The paper is focused on the use of the meander motif in décor of the Old Rus’ church masonry from 11th to early 13th century. Attention is drawn to compositional peculiarities and the diversity of patterns in meander frieze on church faзades in Kiev (St. Sophia, Dormition and Saint Michael’s Golden Dome Monasteries, and The Saviour Church at Berestovo), Chernigov (Transfiguration and Saint Parascheva Piatnitsa Churches), and Polotsk (The Saviour Church in the Convent of Saint Euphrosyne). Comparing these with the contemporaneous phenomenon in Byzantine and Transcaucasian architecture, the author comes to a conclusion that from the first half of 11th century the simple non-directional П-shaped patterns and more complicated variants characteristic of the Constantinople builders’ style were used in parallel. Meander’s place in the façade composition in all the Old Russian churches was meant to disclose the internal structure of buildings. 
Keywords
Reference Denis Jolshin. Meander Motif in Décor of the Old Rus’ Church Masonry. Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art: Collection of articles. Vol. 5. Eds: Svetlana V. Maltseva, Ekaterina Yu. Stanyukovich-Denisova, Anna V. Zakharova. St. Petersburg, NP-Print Publ., 2015, pp. 304–312. ISSN 2312-2129. http://dx.doi.org/10.18688/aa155-3-32
Publication Article language russian
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