Novgorod School of Icon Painting
Icons, Mural Paintings: Russian Medieval
Art.
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Novgorod School of Icon Painting
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Novgorod School of Icon Painting (&
murals)
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EVOLUTION OF VISUAL
ART ST PETERSBURG FINE
ARTS MODERN ART IN RUSSIA |
An outstanding centre of Christian art, the Novgorod school produced so many panel paintings of such high quality, between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, that its output deserves to rank with the finest and most important in the history of icon-painting. Certain Byzantine icons, it is true, such as the Virgin of Vladimir (c.1131), may surpass any produced by the Novgorodian school; but there are many individual masterpieces of Russian art, while there are insufficient Byzantine icons in existence to enable us to form a just idea of the general standard reached by Byzantine painters in any given period. Until more Byzantine art is uncovered, the Novgorodian school of icon-painting must therefore be accepted as the richest and most prolific. (Please see also: Christian Art, Byzantine Period.) Many of Novgorod's products rank alongside the finest medieval painting of the 14th century Italian Primitives - such as the Sienese School of painting, or the accomplished examples of Biblical Flemish painting. |
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ROMANESQUE ART IN
EUROPE
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Icon Painting 1300-1400: A Spiritual Approach The fundamental approach of the icon painter is, however, distinct from what we see in the West, and an early fourteenth-century icon from Novgorod showing the prophet Elijah clearly indicates the attitude of medieval Russian artists to religious painting. For Novgorodian painters set out to kindle man's faith by using his eyes as the road to his mind and soul. The prophet is therefore depicted as a man entirely concerned with the spiritual, and the icon is purposely devoid of the embellishments and refinements likely to render it attractive. Instead its intensity is overwhelming. A good deal of its force is due to the absolutely plain, flat, bright-red background which somehow escapes crudity, which does, in fact, attain distinction by appearing as the reflection of the fierce light illuminating the prophet's inflexible eyes. Icon Painting 1400-1500: Greater Use of Line and Colour In the fifteenth century the spirituality of this approach remained as pure, and as inspired as in the fourteenth, but it found expression in finer composition, in a flowing linear rhythm, in a superb balancing of new proportions, and in an unsurpassed loveliness and sureness of colour - see, for instance, the Melchisedek fresco painting (1378) by Theophanes the Greek in the Cathedral of the Transfiguration, in Novgorod. These characteristics appear today as the school's finest achievements. They are well to the fore in an icon showing the Descent from the Cross (c.1430), formerly in the Ostrukhov collection and now in the Tretyakov Gallery. Novgorodian painting is characterized by an intense elongation of the figures. In this icon it is to be seen in the superb line of the bowed figures and the elegance of the curve of Christ's lifeless body. These forms are emphasized by the clear-cut, rectilinear outlines of the great cross, which rivets the eye by its size, but leaves the mind free to respond to the rhythmic conception of the scene. The severely symmetrical background counteracts any pliancy inherent in the curved line in the same way that the expressionless faces of the mourners place the central subject on a level entirely its own. As Christ's associates, the mourners remain conscious of their unique position and, regardless of their all-too-human propensity to grief, they have recourse to more rigid self-control than that given to ordinary people. Thus, although they experience pain like any layman, their suffering is depicted in the abstract, and is expressed by a prescribed grouping and posture, and a rhythmic linear effect, instead of by individual, grief-stricken gestures. |
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The
Creation of Rhythm This tempera
icon is virtually the only surviving example of medieval Russian decorative,
as opposed to traditional Byzantine, composition, but it is such
an accomplished piece of work that it is difficult to believe that it
was as unique in its day as it is in this. It is interesting to compare
it with the practically contemporary Early
Renaissance battle-piece - The
Battle of San Romano (1438-55) by Paolo
Uccello. The latter shows us an Italian artist Pskov and Tver Nereditsa Murals |
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The conventional scenes occupied the spaces prescribed by Byzantine tradition. Thus the Pantocrator appeared in the dome, the Virgin Orans and the Communion of the Apostles on the east wall, with the Last Judgement on the west wall. A portrait of the donor, Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich, was also included, as was sometimes done in Constantinople, and frequently in Serbia, Bulgaria and Cyprus, though examples in these areas are mostly of a later date. The iconographic peculiarities of the Nereditsa fresco paintings are important, but since iconographic details are more interesting to scholars than to art-lovers, only four instances are cited here. Thus, first, the Virgin is shown bearing a medallion of Christ on Her breast. The earliest example of this type so far known is that at Bethlehem, dated to 1169; it only became usual in Russia, according to Myasoedov, the restorer of these paintings, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Secondly, the scene showing the prophet Elijah being fed by ravens follows a variant which became typical of fourteenth-century Serbian art. Thirdly, the scene of the earth giving up its dead is here included in the Last Judgement. Finally, the popular Russian saints, Boris and Gleb, appear for the first time so far recorded. Myasoedov has traced seven main styles in these paintings. The prevailing style, akin to that of the fine murals at old Ladoga, was local. Another, which Myasoedov defined as the archaic, recalls in its cruder colours and sweeping lines the ninth and tenth-century icons at Sinai; a third, in which modelled effects were created, is reminiscent of the mosaics in St. Sophia at Salonica. Work of the pure Constantinopolitan style appeared side by side with a heavier Eastern style, recalling the frescoes in the church of St. George at Ani. A still heavier Syrian manner was also represented, and Western influence was apparent, especially in the treatment of some of the drapery and in certain faces which resembled some in the frescoes in Santa Croce in Gerusalemme at Rome; other faces recall those in the paintings of the church of the Quattro Coronati, also at Rome. Thus, apart from the predominating Novgorodian influence - and it should be noted that, except for one instance, all the inscriptions on these murals were in Slavonic - the restorer found only a few traces of Constantinopolitan influence, but much from Syria, Asia Minor and the West. This ceases to be surprising when we recall that on the one hand the ruler of Novgorod, Prince Yaroslav's wife, Maria, was Caucasian by birth, and that on the other Yaroslav signed Russia's first treaty of friendship with Germany in 1199 - the very year to which the church is dated. Such blending of foreign and national elements was entirely in accordance with the Russian practice, yet regardless of the profusion of styles to be discerned at Nereditsa, its frescoes did most definitely present a single, essentially Russian entity. Frescoes at Mizhorski Monastery The slightly earlier frescoes in the Church of the Saviour in the Mizhorski Monastery at Pskov (1156) were less cosmopolitan. Until quite recently it was believed that Pskov represented no more than a subgroup of the Novgorodian school of painting. However, recent discoveries have revealed considerable differences between the two. As so often happens in the case of a provincial town, Pskov was far less sophisticated than Novgorod, and although she used much the same ingredients, she mixed them in a different way, and the influence of the locality tended to be preponderant. As a result native trends are more in evidence at Pskov, and the spiritual approach is purely Russian. It is based on the belief that saints and holy men, although superior to laymen, are essentially human. As such they suffer pain and happiness like their fellow-men, differing from them only in their reactions. This conception permeates Pskov's painting, investing it with an appealing intimacy and sincerity. In the fifteenth century it was expressed with great technical skill. A new linear rhythm intensified the spiritual earnestness by imposing severe restraint on pose and gesture. Nevertheless it is at Pskov perhaps more than anywhere else in Russia that Byzantine austerity is tempered by that humanism which we regard as characteristic of Russia, though it appears in the Byzantine icon of the Virgin of Vladimir. Novgorod's superb colour schemes were perhaps as responsible as anything else for the unity and loveliness of the Nereditsa frescoes. Pskov shared this colour sense, but expressed it rather differently. Thus at Mizhorski the faces were heavily modelled in deep, intense colour pigments, an olive-green predominating, with the highlights ranging from ochre to white, and with the eyes, nose and hands outlined in reddish-brown. Whereas Novgorod placed its figures against a light ground, preferably white or pale ochre, Pskov preferred setting them against one of deep bright blue, and liked to see the dim green or pale yellow outlines of a landscape in the far distance. Bright drapery, as for instance white or green with shadows laid on in pale blue or in two shades of green, or white with yellow shadows, were the favourite complements to such backgrounds. Murals at
Snetogorski Monastery Greatest Exponents of the Novgorod School of Icon Painting The wealth and variety of Novgorodian painting are infinite, but practically all the creators of these numerous masterpieces have remained anonymous, and the names of only the three greatest Old Masters stand out as by-words among lovers of Russian art. In Russia, as in the West, practically all exponents of medieval Christian art were monks who worked for the glory of God and their monastery rather than for personal notoriety. These medieval artists rarely signed their panel paintings, and the three men whose names are in repute throughout Russia made no exception to this practice, but they were artists of such outstanding merit that their genius brought them fame in their own day and renown in ours. For more details, see: • Theophanes the Greek (c.1340-1410) • Andrei Rublev (c.1360-1430) • Dionysius (c.1440-1502) Works reflecting the style of the Novogorod school of painting can be seen in some of the best art museums in Russia, including the Vladimir & Suzdal Museum, the Novgorod Museum, the Museum of Western and Oriental Art, Kiev (also known as the Bogdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum of Art) and the Tretyakov Gallery. |
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• For the meaning of important medieval
murals and panel paintings, see: Famous
Paintings Analyzed.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ART HISTORY |
