Город Владимир Путешествие по древним городам Владимирской земли Старый Владимир Old Russian Towns Памятники архитектуры Музеи Музеи, экспозиции

Город Суздаль История Суздаля Герб суздаля Архитектура Суздаля Музеи Суздаля

Досуг и развлечения Где поесть во Владимире Где поспать во Владимире Что можно посмотреть во Владимире Где поесть в Суздале Где поспать в Суздале Что можно посмотреть в Суздале

Let us now enter the cathedral. We are reminded of the original building by the cruciform pillars, the impos­ing semi-circles of the apses and the small burial niche in the north wall. However, the interior as a whole is that of a building belonging to the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. It is remarkably light and spa­cious. The walls are not broken up by pilaster strips and their smooth surface heightens the impression of spatial unity. The supporting arches rest on moulded consoles set into the walls and on the broad two-tiered cornices of the pillars. The arches bearing the dome are higher than the vaulting of the side aisles, thus creating the impression that the body of the cathedral is soaring up­wards and also providing excellent illumination through the windows of the drum. This arrangement of the vault­ing is also reflected in the building's tiered roof referred to above.

The beauty of the interior is enhanced by the well-preserved frescoes which have been restored by Soviet experts with the sole exception of those on the vaulted ceilings. The frescoes were commissioned by the Pa­triarch Joseph in 1647-1648 and are the work of a group of "royal icon-painters" from Moscow led by Mark Matveyev who had previously decorated the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Moscow Kremlin. They are one of the earliest specimens of Russian murals in which the new artistic tastes of the seventeenth century found clear, forceful expression: the delight in exu­berant, brightly coloured painting, the passion for a wealth of narrative detail and objects taken from every­day life. The frescoes also show that their painters were acquainted with a wide variety of ecclesiastical litera­ture.

The portal of the west door, decorated with brightly coloured patterns, gives one a foretaste of what is to come. The cathedral's murals are arranged in several tiers divided up into separate blocks of compositions. Since space does not permit us to describe all of these, we shall concentrate on the main ones only. At the top of the central apse there is a large composition showing a very complex interpretation of the doctrine of the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. The sacraments are being carried by a procession of angels, which is why this composition is also called the Great Procession. The artist has used this subject to create a colourful scene with a multitude of figures. Lower down on the left and right of the apse we find the Last Supper. Other paintings in the sanc­tuary illustrate stories from the Prologue, a collection of edifying stories and accounts of the lives of the saints. On the front of the altar arch is a large fresco of the Dormition of the Virgin to whom the church is dedicated. Other scenes connected with the Virgin are to be found on the south wall, in the third tier of which begins a series of symbolic compositions and paintings of mira­cles depicting the Acathist. Here we find many fascinat­ing details which show the painter's somewhat naive understanding of the subject matter. Among the frescoes on the pillars there are some interesting paintings of the princes of Vladimir, including Andrei Bogolyubsky on the north face of the southwest pillar. The corner cross vaults are covered with large paintings of Christ, the Lord of Hosts, and Our Lady of the Sign, and the main vaults under the dome show the twelve great festivals in the Russian Orthodox calendar.

The most impressive composition, however, is the Last Judgment on the west wall. We have already seen fragments of the same subject in the twelfth and thirteenth-century frescoes of the cathedrals of St. Dmitri and the Assumption where it was divided into separate sections on the vaults of the choir-gallery, the arches and the pillars. There is no choir-gallery in this cathedral, however, and the painters had a vast expanse of smooth wall at their disposal for this awe-inspiring subject. The resulting frescoes show that these highly skilled artists took full advantage of the opportunity offered them. Under the window, encircled by winged seraphim, we see Christ sitting in judgment on a sumptuous throne. On either side of him surrounded by swirling clouds are the apostles, also enthroned, and the angelic host. Adam and Eve are kneeling at Christ's feet interceding on man's behalf. Below them are the angels of judgment and at the very bottom, just over the west door, is the tiny naked figure of a human soul lost in the awe-inspir­ing throng.

The lower section of the wall shows scenes in Hell and Paradise. In the right-hand section of the fresco we see a huge, writhing, scaly serpent with a crowd of sinners condemned to eternal torment enmeshed in its coils. The condemned include a group of foreigners in West-European and Oriental dress, who were not only "cursed Lutherans" and Mohammedans, but also the dangerous competitors of the Russian merchants and manufacturers, which was more than enough to seal their fate. Behind them in a disk we see the resurrection of the dead. The four beasts symbolising the four king­doms are in the opposite left-hand corner by the door and also in a disk. The section representing Hell is sur­rounded by a bright band of eternal flames, and the various infernal torments are illustrated most vividly in a series of special round medallions. The thin body of the serpent is ringed with white paper coils bearing the names of the seven deadly sins, murder, robbery, anger and so on, which were intended to be read by the con­gregation. In the right-hand corner is Hell itself full of winged devils. The left half of the lower wall shows a group of the righteous being led by the apostle Peter into Paradise, scenes which we have already met in the other cathedrals. The gates of Paradise are seventeenth-century in design with small, tent-shaped turrets on either side (111. 39). Above them, in a circular frame, is the Virgin Mary seated on a throne with two angels. In the corner we see Abraham taking the righteous to his bosom and the gardens of Paradise with its foliage spreading onto the window sill.

The complexity of the subject is dealt with very effec­tively by the artists, who have produced a clear, com­posite work capable of being easily comprehended by the congregation and containing many explanatory in­scriptions as well. Like the rest of the cathedral's fres­coes, this composition is also remarkable for its purely artistic qualities. Its colours are exquisite - purply mauves, crimson reds, greenish blues and gold. They are matched by the excellent composition and precise lines, the rich patterns, the multitude of superbly drawn real and fantastic figures, and the delicate, slightly mannered poses of the human figures and saints who give the im­pression of being full of awe. The frescoes harmonise beautifully with the spacious, light interior of the cathe­dral and convey a sense of earthly joy, rather than monastic gloom. We shall see similar paintings in Suzdal.

Leaving the cathedral we turn right to the Church of St. Nicetas the Martyr. The square in front of the church has now been turned into public gardens and its eastern side follows the line of the old ramparts of the New Town running from the Golden Gates. The old Irina Gates used to stand at the point where the road turned left down Nikitsky Hill to the River Lybed. At one time dense forest came right up to the earth ramparts and we are reminded of this by the names of the streets here - Great Forest Street and Little Forest Street (Bolshiye Remenniki and Maliye Remenniki).

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