Author: Hieromonk Dositei Gorbachevskiy (Diocese of Huși)
Keywords: iconography, painters, Byzantium, West, Pskov, synod, Moscow, Tsar, Metropolitan Macarius
Abstract:
Large-scale painting led to a decline in quality and deviations from traditional iconography, which developed after the Christianization of the Russians in the painting schools of Kiev, Vladimir, Suzdal, Novgorod and Pskov of the pre-Mongolian Russia. The Mongol invasion and vassalage to the Horde (1250-1480), as well as the breaking of ties with Byzantium between 1204-1261 and Western influences contributed to this situation. Even in Novgorod, influenced by the Mongol invasion to a lesser extent than in the other Russian principalities, there is already in the second half of the 13th century both an activation of the “earthy” folkloric beginning in iconography, and Romanesque influences specific to the Western Church. Nevertheless, the icon possessed an artistic expressiveness akin to the art of the eastern periphery of the Byzantine Empire, which proves that the author was familiar with Syrian and Cappadocian masterpieces. Basically, one observes an archetype, a necessary and sufficient minimum, formed in the Christian art, without which the face ceases to exist. This archetype was reborn in times of crisis (the iconoclastic period in Byzantium, the Mongol invasion of Russia) allowing the iconography to be further transmitted. In the mid-16th century iconography became a more complicated issue, with the appearance of redactions that were not well known to the tradition of the Moscow School. All these changes were due both to the “spirit of the age” with borrowings from the East and West, and to the influence of the art of Novgorod and Pskov represented by the craftsmen of these two cities invited to Moscow after the Fire of 1547 to repaint the “Annunciation” Cathedral in the Kremlin. The growing interest in theological matters in general and in Holy Scripture, the writings of the Holy Fathers and liturgical texts in particular, led to the appearance of some complex and controversial iconographic works at that time, which represented the written text, being practically an image of the biblical, patristic or liturgical reference. The latter phenomenon led to criticism on the grounds of non-canonicity by some people close to the Tsar against the icons painted by the Pskovite craftsmen Ostana, Yakov, Mikhail, Orushka and Symeon, also called the “High Word for the Cathedral of the Annunciation from Kremlin”. All these criticisms were dismantled by the Synod of 1554, especially by Metropolitan Macarius, himself an iconographer. As for the requirements for painters, it goes without saying that with the decline in society’s morals and the level of education, which the Synod strongly opposed, the moral and professional quality of painters also diminished.
Pages: 69-86