Orthodox Christianity: The Architecture, Icons and Music of the Orthodox Church by Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

Author:Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev [Alfeyev, Metropolitan Hilarion]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780881415049
Publisher: St Vladimir's Seminary Press
Published: 2015-04-23T00:00:00+00:00

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Russian Icons

Iconography in Rus’. Theophanes the Greek

“Angel with Golden Hair.” Icon. Novgorod. 12th c.

RUSSIAN CHURCH PAINTING of the eleventh through thirteenth century was closely connected with Byzantine painting. Numerous masters from Byzantium worked in Rus’ in the pre-Mongol period, creating icons, frescoes, and mosaics. In the second quarter of the eleventh century a group of Byzantine masters worked in Kiev’s Saint Sophia Cathedral. In the 1080s another group adorned the Dormition Cathedral of Kiev Caves Lavra. A disciple of the Greeks was Saint Alypius, the iconographer of the Kiev Caves who is mentioned in the Kievan Caves Patericon (Discourse 34).1 Greek masters and their disciples also worked in Novgorod. An iconography studio was managed by Olisey Grechin at the end of the twelfth century. Byzantine influence is felt in the murals of Novgorod’s Saint Sophia Cathedral (1108), the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Theotokos of Saint Anthony Monastery (1125), Saint George Church in Staraya Ladoga (last third of twelfth century), and also Mirozhsky Monastery in Pskov (40s of the twelfth century). The earliest of the existing Russian icons are marked with the clearly expressed influence of Byzantine iconogrpahy. This is seen primarily in the Novgorod icons “Savior Not-Made-By-Hands” and “Angel with Golden Hair” which both date to the twelfth century. The faces on both icons are noble—enormous eyes, outlined with dark lines and gazes fixed to the side of the viewer.

During the period of the crusades the cultural links between Byzantium and Rus’ were weakened, but in the first half of the fourteenth century they again became intense, and artists from Greece once again became guests in the Russian lands. In 1338 Isaiah Grechin created murals for Novgorod’s Church of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, and it is supposed that in 1363 Greek masters participated in the creation of wall paintings of the Church of the Dormition on Volotovo Field. The last quarter of the fourteenth century is marked by the activity of Theophanes the Greek.

In art history it is conventional to speak of several “schools” of Russian iconography: Novgorod, Pskov, Rostov-Yaroslav, Tver, and Moscow. The concept of school in the given case is used in an extremely conditional sense. Mostly, we are talking about several local traditions formed by the fourteenth century which gave icons, originating in one or another region, particular characteristics. The conditionality of the “school” concept is strengthened by the fact that, based on different indicators, a given icon may be consigned by some scholars to one school and by other scholars to another school. Nevertheless it is evident that the development of iconographic arts in Rus’ took place around the large cities which were gaining significance as spiritual and cultural centers.

One of these centers was Tver. The principality of Tver emerged as an independent principality in the middle of the thirteenth century. In 1271 an episcopal throne already existed in Tver and in 1285 the construction of Holy Transfiguration Cathedral began—the first stone church in Rus’ under the Tatar-Mongol yoke. Holy Transfiguration

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