RUSSIA - The holy princes Boris and Gleb. Icons of the Novgorod school (late 15th century) - Novgorod, church of the same name.
contact with the art of the Western countries, particularly with Romanesque art. The architects of Novgorod found themselves faced with the problem of roofing with wooden trusses and adopted the same solution as their Western colleagues, namely roofing with barrel vaults and clustered pillars; the exterior walls were divided by pilasters and blind arcades and adorned with elegant hanging arches. The churches of Novgorod and Pskov showed a tendency toward the Gothic only in the 15th century. The oldest church in Novgorod is the cathedral of St. Sophia (1045–52). The work of Byzantine masters, it was known for its three bronze doors, of which the “Korsunskaja” was the work of a master from Magdeburg, as is shown by the inscriptions. Many local master architects also distinguished themselves, among them Pietro, Mironez, and others. There is also mention of an Andrea Romano who is said to have erected the church of the Nativity of the Virgin.
The architecture of Novgorod reached its greatest development in the 14th century, with the erection of the celebrated churches of St. Theodore (1360) and the Transfiguration (1374), frescoed by the Byzantine master known as Theophanes the Greek. Pskov introduced certain variations: the widespread construction of covered galleries around the central body of the church, and a greater organic unity and heaviness of form.
Architectural development was accompanied by a genuine revival of painting and the decorative arts. For centuries Russian paintings displayed the stylistic and iconographic characteristics of Byzantine art; only later did they draw upon the fertile source of Italian art, namely on the occasion of the Fourth Crusade, when Europeans reached southern R. Italian art spread through R. by way of Dalmatia, Serbia, and Poland, particularly in the 16th century. Theophanes the Greek created a broad school of painting at Novgorod, from which emerged a luminary of Russian religious painting: Andrea Rublev, who influenced northern Russia and also the art of Vladimir-Suzdal. The frescoes of the monastery of Ferapont (1500), executed by the master Dionysius and his sons, with their rich iconographic cycle, recall the distinguished works of the Italian artists of the 14th century, especially those of Giotto, Duccio Boninsegna, and Simone Martini. At the end of the 16th century, Muscovite art dethroned the Novgorod school of painting, while at the same time becoming its heir.
The first religious buildings arose in Moscow from the end of the 14th century and were perfected during the reign of Ivan III (1462–1505), who sought to restore uniformity to religious buildings and supervised the civil ones. His marriage to Zoë Paleologa, educated in Rome under the protection of Pope Sixtus IV, provided the occasion for Italian architects and artists to be summoned to Moscow. They adorned the city with splendid architectural monuments, the finest of the period between the second half of the 15th century and the first half of the 16th century, among them the famous Kremlin. However, the Italian artists had to bend their genius to the demands of the patrons, who required that the churches be constructed according to the prototype of the cathedral of Vladimir: rectangular in plan, with many apses, and surmounted by five or more domes. Under this inspiration, in fact, Ridolfo Fioravanti, nicknamed in R. “Aristotle,” built the famous cathedral of the Assumption in Moscow (between 1475 and 1479), while introducing important innovations in the portals and exterior decorations and lavishly applying rich Italian ornamentation everywhere. It was the Italian masters who taught the Russians to use bricks, to prepare mortar, and to employ iron beams in joining the walls. The use of bricks intensified the taste for ornament. Alvisio Novi, known as the “master of walls,” fully introduced the artistic tendencies of the Renaissance when constructing the cathedral of the Archangel Michael in Moscow. He also built the famous “Terem” Palace, which served as the prince’s residence. Churches built of wood, in the most varied architectural forms, nevertheless remained a characteristic feature of Russian sacred art.
As regards painting, Muscovite art inherited the tradition of the Novgorod school; later it sought new elements and created the so-called “Stroganov style,” named after the great patrons of northern origin. A kind of “workshop” of artists and artisans was formed, which set itself the goal of achieving richness of detail and ornamentation. The formal aspect became exclusive. The power and force characteristic of the primitive paintings of Novgorod and Pskov disappeared, as did the unity and organic coherence of the whole; illustrative and narrative content prevailed. Later the government sought to regulate its manifestations directly, entrusting the clergy with the compilation of technical manuals and obliging artists to observe the corresponding canons.
While Moscow’s national religious painting was in full decline, and before the rise of Peter the Great, who allowed Western culture to penetrate freely into R., there was a brief but brilliant interval of renewal for Russian national art at Rostov and Jaroslavl. From 1620 onward, no fewer than forty stone churches were built at Jaroslavl; they formed a group apart, while preserving the customary rectangular plan. Their dimensions, however, increased, and the interior was made more cheerful by the greater luminosity obtained, as in the early Christian basilicas, through broad windows and the rich flowering of frescoes in the naves and apses. Artistic production assumed a collective character. The painters worked in teams directed by master builders obliged to adhere to the canons prescribed by the ecclesiastical authorities. One source of inspiration for the painters of Jaroslavl was the collections of German and Dutch prints, which supplied Russian painting with Western iconographic elements. Among the churches that arose at Jaroslavl, those of the prophet Elijah (1647–50), St. John Chrysostom at Korovniki (1649–54), and St. John the Baptist at Tolchkovo (1671–81) were particularly distinguished. Near Jaroslavl, at Romanov Borisoglebsk, the church of the Resurrection was erected, a powerful example of Byzantinism with reminiscences of Western Romanesque in its galleries around the central body of the building, in the hanging arches, and in the geometric decoration.
From the beginning of the 13th century, Rostov had enjoyed the reputation of a Russian Montecassino, on account of the grandeur of its churches and monasteries and the richness of its libraries. Having lost its political independence in the 14th century, it nevertheless remained the cultural and religious center of all northeastern R.; its bishops wielded the power of true sovereigns. The famous metropolitan Jona Sisoith, who governed Rostov for almost forty years (1652–90), gave
great impetus in every field, including that of the fine arts; he had the Rostov Kremlin built, a monastic fortress and testimony to the times in which religious authority was also invested with civil powers. Of the five churches inside the Kremlin, all flanked by two lateral towers, the oldest is that of the Resurrection (1670), richly adorned on the exterior with majolica and bricks set edgewise. The church of St. John the Evangelist offers an example of greater technical maturity. In the church of the Savior, interior fresco decoration predominates, inspired by subjects from sacred history; these frescoes are enclosed within floral ornamentation of Eastern origin. Rostov’s golden period was brief; the reforms of Peter the Great deprived Rostov of many of its resources, and, in 1788, the transfer of the metropolitan’s see to Jaroslavl marked the beginning of its decline. The art of Jaroslavl and Rostov brought the truly national period of Russian religious art to a worthy close. Foreign influence, already strong in Moscow after 1650, became powerful with the foundation of the new capital, Petersburg, which marked the beginning of a new era and the emergence of new problems for an art of a predominantly secular character. - Vedi tavv. LXXXIX-XCII.