Vadim Maiko
The Institute of Archaeology of Crimea, Russia
In the art of medieval Soldaja a special place is occupied by pieces of fresco paintings of different buildings in the city. Every survining fresco of Soldaja presents a unique phenomenon. A fresco painting partly survided only in “Temple with an arcade”. There are archive materials about painting in the temple of the Twelve Apostles, in chapels on the lower storey in the so-called Georgievskaja and Dozornaja towers and Consular fortress. Fragments of fresco paintings were discovered in a temple on the area of Barbakan, in chapels on the first tier of the tower of Jacopo Torsello, in the temple on the south-west area of Posad, in the temple of Paraskeva, in the monastery of St. Panteleimon on the south slope of mountain Perchem, and in the monastery in the natural boundary of Dimitraki. Among the surviving frescos of Genoese Soldaja, related to the painting of the Italian Renaissance, we will mention the following.
The fresco of “Temple with an arcade” was discovered in 1958 during repair work. In spite of its debatable character, it is possible to consider that the fresco is related to traditions of Italian painting of the 14th and first half of the 15th centuries.
A fresco painting of the chapel on the lower storey of the Georgievskaja tower is preserved only in a few small fragments. It is possible to assert from the archival data that an image of Deisis and a medallion with an image of Lamb with a labarum were placed here.
A fresco on the arch in the court of the Consular fortress was revealed during restoration in the 1970s. At present, it is not very clear. Judging from the archival data, it was an image of Christ, sitting on a throne.
The fresco of a chapel in the cistern of the Dozornaja tower is now preserved in a few small fragments. According to archival data, the image of the Mother of God of Mercy was probably placed here.
Frescos of the church of the Twelve Apostles were known from the beginning of the 19th century and are interpreted as the “Last Supper”. Already by the middle of this century they were poorly distinguished and their reconstruction, undertaken by D. M. Strukov, is no more than a hypothesis.