2025 № 2
Articles
Elena Koniavskaia. On the History of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God
Abstract
The article is devoted to the history of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, its return to Smolensk in 1456. Various versions of the «captivity» of the icon are considered. Based on the analysis of various sources, the conclusion is made that the most likely is the arrival of the icon in Moscow together with other gifts of Vytautas to Sophia Vitovtovna. During the numerous military conflicts of Vasily Vasilyevich with Yuri Dmitrievich Zvenigorodsky, and then with his children, the icon was in the possession of Yuri and his heirs and then returned to the possession of the Moscow princely house.
Keywords
Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria, Sofia Vitovtovna, Yuri Dmitrievich Zvenigorodsky, Moscow, Annunciation Cathedral, the dynastic war in Russia of the 15th century.
Abstract
The icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria comes from the collection of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. It can be placed among the little-studied works of medieval painting. For centuries, an integral part of the revered image has been the precious setting. The icon was richly decorated with chased silver, golden crowns, tsatаs, necklaces, earrings, pearl decoration, supplemented with a hanging shroud and kept in a painted case upholstered with gilded silver. A multi-piece headdress, giving the unique historical appearance of the shrine was dismantled during the last restoration. This headdress has almost fallen out of sight of researchers. Meanwhile, its scientific and historical value is obvious. The article is devoted to the study of the precious headdress, its composition and origin, the determination of scientific and historical significance. Materials from documentary sources are involved, first of all, these are the inventories of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery of 1641, 1701, 1735, 1737, 1859, 1908, the archive books of the Monastery. The study of archival materials made it possible to identify the historical appearance of the icon frame, its changes and losses over the centuries. In its preserved form, the setting was formed no earlier than the second half of the 16th century. At the same time, some fragments, for example, cast figures on the basmen tsata, should be dated to an earlier period, the 15th century. As part of a new piece of jewelry archaizing forms of cast relief images from the silver reliquary of the Radonezh princes of the 15th century were included. The complex headdress of the late Middle Ages also included a goldchain decoration made by European masters of the 16th century.
Keywords
Icon, Mother of God Hodegetria, Trinity-Sergius Monastery, documentary sources, Kuchetsky family, precious oklad, dating, attribution
Abstract
The subject of this study is the icon "The Savior in Majesty" from an unknown iconostasis, currently housed in the Andrej Rublev Museum. In museum publications, the icon is dated to the early 16th century and is attributed to the Central Russian artistic tradition. In this article, the author aims to use iconographic and stylistic analysis to determine the specific artistic tradition of the monument. A comparison of the icon with a wide range of other works reveals that its iconography follows the "Rublev" or Moscow type. Stylistic analogies allow to conclude that the icon was painted by a master who was trained in the Moscow artistic tradition and continued to work within the stylistic paradigm of the icon painters of the Dionysius era in the early 16th century.
Keywords
Icon, iconostasis, icon painting, Deesis, Savior in Majesty, Rostov tradition, Moscow tradition, iconography, symbols of the Evangelists, Dionysius era.
Abstract
This article proposes a new identification of the donor of the veil St. Nicholas (“Velikoretsky”) (State Russian Museum), which originated from the Trinity Cathedral in Pskov and is dated 7064 (1555/56). Epigraphic and prosopographical analysis reveals the identity of the donor. The proposed identification allows us to reject the hypothesis that Princess Shuiskaya was involved in the making of the veil and to reconsider the history of a family closely connected to the grand-princely house. Particular attention is paid to the iconography of St Nicholas on the veil. It is shown that the embroidered image does not literally reproduce either the hagiographic Velikoretsky type that became established after the solemn transfer of the newly glorified icon to Moscow in the spring and summer of 1555, or the Pskov sculptural prototypes. Rather, it represents an original synthesis combining features of both St Nicholas (“Mozhaisky”) — the city in the saint’s hand — and St Nicholas (“Zaraysky”) — the blessing gesture of his other hand. It is noted that the veil may have been produced before the mass replication of the “Velikoretsky” icon, at an early stage in the formation of its cult. The donor might have had access to firsthand information about this new veneration. The study refines the provenance of the object, revises the chronology and geography of the spread of the cult of St Nicholas (“Velikoretsky”), and outlines directions for further research into the artistic and technical characteristics of several examples of pictorial embroidery.
Keywords
Veil, pictorial embroidery, St Nicholas (“Velikoretsky”), St Nicholas (“Mozhaisky”), Pskov, Fedorov–Chelyadnin family, prosopography, iconography, sixteenth century
Ivan Rumiantsev. On the Architecture of the Church of the Savior in Balakhna
Abstract
In the 17th century, Balakhna became a major trade centre. Economic prosperity contributed to the intensification of stone construction in the local posad. One of its most influential residents was Grigory Dobrynin, who became the customer of Balakhna’s most elegant stone church, the Church of the Savior, built in 1667. The Church of the Savior belongs to the circle of churches that follow the Trinity Church in Nikitniki, and the churches of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi and the Nativity of the Virgin in Poyarkovo near Moscow became likely examples for its artistic language. The Church of the Savior represents a metropolitan "guest" who was unexpectedly brought to the Volga region by the will of a local rich merchant who wanted to bring artistic motifs of the capital to his native village. At the same time, it is endowed with a number of specific qualities, the analogues of which can be traced in Nizhny Novgorod architecture. But despite this, the capital still dominates the appearance of this monument. However, the very meeting of the capital and something regional is important for Balakhna architecture. The Church of the Savior influenced the artistic language of subsequent Balakhna monuments and established a small local architectural tradition here.
Keywords
The Church of the Savior, Balakhna, Nizhny Novgorod land, "uzorochye", Russian architecture of the 17th century, architecture of the posad.
Abstract
Alexey Kvashnin's work is сurrently represented in the Russian Museum's collection only by triptych with the The Mother of God of Jerusalem and selected saints of 1711, originating from the Dedenevo village. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, there was another icon of this iconographer, earlier considered as work created only by Kirill Ulanov. This article introduces archival materials about Alexey Kvashnin's biography and explores some aspects of his artistic style. The folding icon from Dedenevo complements the picture of the Dedenevo's rich artistic life during the era of its owner Vasily Petrovich Golovin, a collector of holy relics and an admirer of icon painting. He acted as a customer of icons created by the masters of the Armory Chamber during the gradual displacement of the cultural center to the new capital. The painting of triptych contains features that may indicate that Alexey Kvashnin knew the Dedenevo's The Mother of God of Jerusalem, which was painted for the Golovins in 1706 by Kirill Ulanov. Both the style and the archival materials suggest that Alexey Kvashnin maintained connections with icon painters from Kostroma while working in Moscow. The Kostroma context is also important for understanding the circumstances surrounding the creation of the icon Triodion, which was painted by Alexey Kvashnin and Kirill Ulanov in 1700–1701.
Keywords
The Mother of God of Jerusalem, Saint Titus the Wonderworker, Alexey Kvashnin, Kirill Ulanov, Dedenevo, Vasily Petrovich Golovin, Armory Chamber, 1711
Denis Kriukov. On West European Sources of the Sculptural Ensemble Podmoklovo Rotunda
Abstract
In the article the author is collating a village sculptural ensemble of the Theotokos Nativity church in Podmoklovo with Western European graphic works of late 16th century – and early 18th century. A conclusion is drawn that Podmoklovo artisans used as samples a set of engravings mostly made of Agostino Carracci apostolic engravings. It is supposed that Russian artisans had at their disposal the later, more likely Dutch re-engravings. Other authors’ printed graphics were also used. A fact is established that there was also usage of engravings based on Carracci inventions by a Sicilian sculptor Ignazio Marabitti for the statures of Apostle Peter and Paul in Syracuse. This fact allows to view Podmoklovo sculptures interesting for both Russian national and European cultural and historical context.
Keywords
Podmokovo Rotunda, sculpture of Petrine era, Images of Apostles, Western European engravings, printed specimen, Agostino Carracci, Ignazio Marabitti, prince G. F. Dolgorukov.
Abstract
Some parts of the collection of Nikolai Likhachev, which were transferred from the Russian Museum to the State Hermitage in the 1920s and 1930s, are well known in scientific publications. These are works by Italian masters, Byzantine and Italo-Greek icons, which replenished the funds of the departments of Western European art and the East. However, the collections of the former State Museum Fund and the History and Everyday Life Department, which formed the basis of the Department of the History of Russian Culture of the State Hermitage Museum, established in 1941, are still poorly studied. In the process of researching the collection of late Russian icon painting, two icons of the 19th century were identified. "The Prophet John the Baptist" and "The Image of Edessa", which were accepted for permanent storage in 1959 from unsystematic material previously held in the Museum Collection of the State Hermitage Museum. The published monuments expand our understanding of the activities of the Moscow icon painters of the Transfiguration Poorhouse of the 1820s, as well as the work of antique craftsmen in the second half of the 19th century.
Keywords
Nikolai Likhachev, pre-revolutionary iconographic collections, State Museum Fund, "Transfiguration" letters, neo-Stroganov icons, Old Believers, "ancient" icon-painting, imitation icons.
Absract
The paper examines the epigraphic monuments of the 1670s, which testify to the participation of women in the organization of the building of temples. The first section examines a stone plaque (created in 1676) with the epitaph of the Abbess of the Il'insky Monastery in in the Zapskov'ye and a chronicle record of the building of the cathedral of Elijah the Prophet in this monastery on her initiative. The second section is devoted to the reconstruction of the inscription created in 1675 on the building of the church of Michael and Theodore of Chernigov in Zamoskvorechye. The section concludes that the temple was built on the initiative of Ul'yania, the widow of Andrey-Malyuta Filimonov's son, a member of the Cloth Hundred. These epigraphic sources indicate the occasional participation of women in the organization of the building of monastic and parish churches. It is obvious that the activities of the temple builders, as well as those of the temple builders, reflected not only their personal piety, but also, to a lesser extent, the traditions of memorial culture.
Keywords
Russian architecture of the 17th century, temple building, women temple builders, Pskov, the monastery of Elijah the Prophet in the Zapskov'ye, Moscow, the Church of Michael and Theodore Chernigovsky in Zamoskvorechye, Cloth hundred, memorial culture, synodic, epigraphy of Moscow Russia, Corpus Inscriptionum Rossicarum
Abstract
The article attempts to recreate, based on fragmentary information from archival sources, the history of the construction of the Descent of the Holy Spirit Church in the Novodevichy Monastery and its pre-altarpiece iconostasis in the 17th century. To present the activities of stone and wooden carvings by masters of the Stoneworks Prikaz and Kremlin Armoury, goldsmiths of the Palata, to provide evidence of icon painting. The analysis of the documents made it possible to show a number of features of the architecture and decoration of the temple complex, as well as the design features and structure of the iconostasis of the Descent of the Holy Spirit Church. Based on the documents, the stages of the "life" of the monument in subsequent centuries were studied, when the repairs and updates of the temple, on the one hand, preserved the main volume of the building, on the other — changed its completion and "environment", resumed or completely changed the decoration outside and inside. In the process of field research and on the basis of archival sources, the time of the construction of the iconostasis currently standing in the Descent of the Holy Spirit Church has been established and the stages and results of renovations and alterations have been determined. A special interest in the iconostasis of the Descent of the Holy Spirit Church is associated with its re-creation for the 500th anniversary of the Novodevichy Monastery.
Keywords
Descent of the Holy Spirit Church, Novodevichy Monastery, 17th–21th centuries, construction of the temple, creation of the iconostasis, field studies.
Ilʼia Antipov, Anastasiia Gosteeva. Yury Lvov’s “Novgorod Album”: Continuation
Abstract
The article introduces into scientific circulation a set of visual materials dating back to the lost drawings of the artist Y. P. Lvov, identified in the collection of the State Public Historical Library of Russia. Of particular value are the images of monuments lost in the 20th century: icons, objects of applied art, as well as monumental paintings. The album's materials are the most important source for the reconstruction of Novgorod's lost heritage and the study of its documentation history.
Keywords
Yury Lvov, graphic documentation, Novgorod, Old Russian art, lost monuments, icon painting, objects of applied art, monumental painting, 19th century.
Exhibitions
Alexei Gul’manov. Exhibition “Icon Painting of Rostov”: a curator’s view
