2015 Old Russian Art

Iconography of several cycles of miniatures in Russian Apocalypse manuscripts, formed by the end of the 16th century, is based primarily on Russian, then on Western European and only in general terms on Byzantine and post-Byzantine sources. Western models for the Russian 17th century mural cycles of Apocalypse are widely known and described in literature (primarily engravings of the Piscator’s Bible and related publications). However F. I. Buslaev already observed that some compositions in a certain cycle of Russian miniatures had been replaced by similar or parallel scenes from engravings of the “September” Luther Bible. Furthermore, the Western 16th century engraved editions influenced some details of Russian Apocalypse iconography (Yu. A. Gribov, G. P. Chinyakova). The paper will review both trends of Western influence. Miniatures from the earliest extant Russian illustrated Apocalypse (mid.-16th century) based on Russian murals and icons will serve as the “Russian canon”. In comparison with it, the “foreign” layers in later cycles of miniatures to Revelation can be clearly identified, allowing us to examine formation of such cycles through the prism of Western European book engraving.

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The paper examines one of the revered in Orthodoxy types of icons of the Virgin — the Virgin of Passion. The theme of the Arma Christi originates from Old Rus’ period (the reverse side of the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir). Probably in the 12th–13th centuries the theme of veneration of the Virgin was complemented with the theme of the Passion of Christ — figures of worshipping angels with Instruments of the Passion. This iconographic variant was actualized in the Italo-Cretan tradition of the 15th century, primarily in the works of Andreas Ritzos. I consider a legend (recorded in some late sources) about one of the copies of the Virgin of the Passion icon, which remained intact in the Moscow fire of 1547, saving one of the houses of the Kitay-gorod, and by the tsar’s command was put in the iconostasis of the Church of the Conception of St. Anna. Changes of the cultural context led to the spread of the subject.
Discovery of the revered replica of the icon resulted in well-known legend about the miraculous image from Nizhny Novgorod transfered to Moscow in 1641. After that a church was built and Strastnoy (Virgin of the Passion) monastery was founded (1654). In Western European tradition the cycles of Christ’s Passion and symbolism of the Instruments of the Passion were by that time very popular. The actualization of the Passion scenes in the middle — second half of the 17th century in Moscow is absolutely understandable. It is in tune with the basic principles of Baroque art, which penetrates into Russia with Ukrainian and Belarusian book culture. The Instruments of the Passion of Christ in different iconographic versions become usual elements of different objects (for example, metal crosses), in fine art (portrait engravings), and literary works. The theme of stoic resistance to the trials and tribulations becomes urgent, being associated with complex cultural environment of Mo­dern Time.

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Saint Christopher was considered in the West as one of the most popular saints, being included in the group of “the Fourteen Holy Helpers” — the defenders from plague epidemics. According to a Greek belief people who saw St. Christopher that day should not be afraid of a contagious disease and sudden death. A deliberately exaggerated image of the Saint and the Christ child on his shoulder was placed not only in the area of the temple, but also on its outer walls, city gates, so that everyone could see his saving face even from a distance and thus avoid trouble.
The image of St. Christopher appeared in Russia only in the middle of the 16th century and became widespread in the monumental and icon painting. He was portrayed in a typical anthropomorphic form as well as in an unusual form with a dog’s or, sometimes, horse’s head. Like in the West, in Russia he was revered as a healer and deliverer from disease and pestilence; however, in some regions like in the Russian North and the Perm land he acquired different functions inherent in the Russian traditions.
This report examines the main iconographic types of St. Christopher and especially the features of his veneration in some Russian regions in the middle of the 16th— early 18th centuries. These issues have been addressed in many publications by both Russian and Western researchers but the image of St. Christopher in the ancient Russian art still needs to be comprehensively studied and symbolically interpreted.

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Nobody doubts the important role of the use of western prints as examples for Russian art of the 17th century. As a rule they were albums of engravings on biblical themes (ouvrages), published in the end of the 16th–17th centuries in the Netherlands and Germany.
The report focuses on the little known issue of place and role of the albums on biblical themes in Western culture and arts. It was found out that the birth of the future samples of Russian art was associated with intense religious struggle in Europe in the second half of the 16th century. The initiators of the publications were free-religious dissidents (the Familists, the Remonstrants, the Mennonits), orthodox Calvinists, and Jesuits, which is directly reflected in the figurative and plastic language of illustrations.
These publications were actively used as models not only in Western Europe but also in Asia. Stained glasses, canvases and monumental paintings in churches of England, France, Germany, reliefs of Dutch houses, items of mass goods and even Chinese ink painting and engraving were based on these illustrations.
The comparison shows that the English post-medieval masters of the 16th century, Russian icon painters, and Chinese artists, reproducing the patterns from the newly discovered artistic system, used the same principles. They “converted” them into their own artistic system, including familiar realia.
Thus the facts collected by the author can significantly correct and even completely revise established views in Russian art criticism on Western engraved patterns as some minor monuments. They also allow to get some new insight into the process of dealing with the Western artistic experience in the 17th century Russia.

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This work is intended to help to get a better insight into content of the famous Russian ABC-book by comparing it with its predecessors from Western Europe: decorated alphabets of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance which contain either figural (i.e. composed of figures) or historiated letters. Some of these alphabets (as, for example, the alphabet of Mary of Burgundy) included texts for each letter, helping, without doubt, to have a more clear understanding of the content and the purpose of the work. Others (as is the case of the alphabet from Giovannino dei Grassi’s sketchbook or engraved letters of Master E. S.) could dispense with any words.
Karion Istomin’s ABC-book is unique because it included not only figural letters and rhymed poetic texts, but also multiple depictions of objects having the same first letter in their name and examples of various forms of writing this letter plus its phonetic analogues in other languages. While the object commentary serves a rather denominative purpose, the imagery of the figural initials suggests that the figures in the initials were not simply born of formal fantasies. Many of them were introduced with an edifying purpose that can be confirmed while comparing Istomin’s work with relevant Western artifacts or reading his verses that accompany each letter. Even though his style is extremely florid, the Christian basis of his pedagogical principles is shown very clearly. On the other hand, the ecclesiastical component (e.g. quotes from the Bible or liturgical texts) is almost nonexistent in the book whereas moralizing in the Christian sentiment and instruction in propriety prevail. The secular component is, however, proliferating, and it is represented on the pages of this ABC-book in very diverse and fascinating ways. In other words, this primer provides both instruction and edification while doing it in a playful manner.
Thus this artifact has a transitory nature since it appeared of the threshold of Modern Age when Russia in the 17th century was resolving challenges of a general cultural nature, partly analogous with those during the European Renaissance. This makes its comparison with Western illuminated alphabets of the 15th–16th centuries both justified and useful. The uniqueness of this artifact is enhanced due to the strong personalities of its creators, Karion Istomin and Leonti Bunin, as well as its special status, being a masterpiece created for Tsarevich Alexei.

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This research deals with the Russian archeology of art regarding its participation in transformation of knowledge about medieval Russian art into an actual science. The archeology of art in Russia appears in the first quarter of the 19th century when archeologists focused on studying the monuments of medieval Russian art. The study of this phenomenon helps to comprehend a mechanism of birth of scientific methods and directions inside history of medieval Russian art, which formed the further basis of future research.
The paper aims to discover an evolution in researching medieval Russian art, the ways of formation of science about it, since the 18th to the end of the 19th century, considering the role of art archeology in this process. In addition there are following aims:
• to examine the cultural and historical conditions of this method,
• to analyze main critical sources and publications which reflect the changes of views on medieval Russian art.
During this research the historiographic method of study was applied.
The pursuit of the aims selected above led us to focus on four main stages in analysing medieval Russian art, revealing a transition from art archeology to art history.
The first period lasted from the 18th century to the early 19th century and saw a transition from rejection of medieval Russian art to the birth of interest in it as a historical source; the second stage is the first quarter of the 19th century: at this time steady attention of researchers to medieval Russian monuments promoted emergence of art archeology; at the third stage, in the second quarter of the 19th century, the description of actual data prevailed, as well as publication of mo­numents.
At the fourth stage which began in the late 1850s, the first attempts of the analysis of artistic features of works of art were made, comparative-historical and iconographic methods of research were devised. Their development, as well as accumulation of descriptive material and assistance of the established archaeological societies, at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries created a base for studying the works of medieval Russian art as true art pieces. Finally, we draw a conclusion that art archeology played the role of a preparatory phase for the scientific analysis of medieval Russian monuments.

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The architectural monuments are considered in the new integrative scientific horizon as the works of culture. It is of great importance for understanding people’s history in general. In the research we proceed from the assumption that “history of art should be written as history of culture” (I. E. Grabar). Empirical field material was collected by the author during 34 expeditions. Archival and museum sources of Arkhangelsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vologda and Petrozavodsk of 1981–2014 have been analyzed. Wooden churches are preserved mainly in the Russian North. They are represented by different types: “four-frame type”, “tent roof”, “kub style”, “storied type”, “multidome” churches. The “four-frame type” churches are the most ancient of wooden churches preserved. They belong to the late 14th–15th centuries This research allows us to give a definition of the folk architecture. History of the Russian wooden architecture is to a large extent history of the wooden architecture of the Russian North. Folk wooden architecture, which is created by unknown masters in the most cases based on the common national architectural and building traditions as the reflection of individual and collective mentality of peasantry, is one of the universal dominants of the traditional culture of the Russian folk. Studying church architecture helps to understand integrity and essence of difficult historical and social features of the Russian culture in which monuments of national architecture are unique and, unfortunately, not numerous artefacts. But these monuments carry out continuity and national identification of traditional culture in the course of its formation and transformation.

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The Dormition Cathedral of the Holy Trinity — St. Sergius Lavra was modeled after the Kremlin Dormition Cathedral in 1559–1585 but was bigger in size. There have been two iconostases in the history of this stately church. The first one was a tyablo iconostasis, which existed until late 17th — early 18th century (?) according to different sources. The second iconostasis — a frame one to which this research is devoted, has remained in the cathedral up to now.
The second iconostasis has always drawn attention of researchers. For example, the professors of Moscow Theological Academy of the 19th century E. E. Golubinsky and the archpriest Alexander Gorsky, Yu. A. Olsufyev, V. P. Zubov and others wrote about it. T. Yu. Tokareva has carried out the reconstruction of the first iconostasis, being guided by the inventories of the monastery from 1641 and 1701.
While working with archival materials, we revealed existence of the images in cartouches on curbstones under the local tier of the iconostasis, which have not been seen so far. There are two drawings of the plan of the iconostasis found in RGADA archive, which tell about these images. But there are no researchers who have ever mentioned these images on curbstones in their works about the iconostasis of the Dormition Cathedral of the Holy Trinity — St. Sergius Lavra.
The iconostasis of this Cathedral is a magnificent monument including examples of the most widespread schemes going back to the 16th–17th centuries. But unfortunately the names of the masters and their origin still have not been found out or documentarily certified. They are still in the area of assumptions. The same problem concerns the attribution of both separate icons and the iconostasis in general. Only some of the icons of the local tier have been precisely attributed. As for the opinions of researchers about the time of the creation of the second iconostasis, they differ because of the multitude of the remaining layers (coats of paint).

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