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In the last few years of their lives Rublev
and Daniil lived in the Andronikov
Monastery. They returned to it to decorate the new stone Cathedral of the
Savior, presumably built in 1420-1427. The Cathedral is one of the most
remarkable monuments of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture of the 12th century.
Several rows of "Zakomar," with their pointed arches, arranged in
receding and diminishing tiers, form a beautiful pyramid which supports a
large, tall, single drum and a Byzantine-type cupola. The builder is unknown.
Information about the iconographers who covered the entire inside walls with
frescoes exists, though it will need further research and clarification as to
the second artist who, together with Rublev, participated in the work. Pakhomii
Lagofet, a Serbian monk who went to Russia sometime before the middle of the
15th century and became its first professional writer, speaks of Andrei the
iconographer as the man who decorated the cathedral "With his marvelous
hands." However, Chety-Miney Chronicle, when it narrates the life of Saint
Sergius, mentions that Andrei Rublev and Simeon Chernii painted the frescoes.
The question is: Who is Simeon? Some historians say he was Daniil's brother,
the others would like to see that "Simeon" (Semen) is just a mistake
made by the chronicler and that we have just one Chernii and not two. But the
name Simeon was also mentioned among the painters who decorated the church of
the Nativity in the Moscow Kremlin. So there would have to have been not one
but two mistakes make by two different historians, and this makes the error
look more improbable. Some Soviet authors went even further in complicating the
conjectures about Simeon's mystery by simply assuming that the elder Prokhor
from Gorodets is nobody else but Daniil Chernii, who changed his name to Daniil
when he became a monk. The skeptics profited by the confusion of names to cast
some doubts even about Rublev's existence. At any rate, the monk-painters never
sought publicity, and probably not even thanks; they voluntarily withdrew from
the world and Did not expect history to commemorate them.
We have no idea how the original frescoes in the Cathedral of the Savior
looked. First, they were restored several times and completely destroyed during
the final "restoration" in the last century. There are just a few
very small ornamental fragments in the windows that survived and they are too
small to help estimate the overall appearance. The Andronikov monastery was
closed after the revolution and neglected for years. The churches of which
there were seven prior to 1917, were turned into workshops or used for housing.
Some of them were so dilapidated that they had to be torn down. Now most of the
remaining buildings house the Museum of Ancient Russian Art, named after Andrei
Rublev. The strange thing is that the exhibited icons come from various parts
of the country, and none was painted by Rublev. There are a few copies of his
works, including the very successful reproduction of his "trinity"
icon. Of interest are several icons by unknown artists. Among them is "The
Virgin of Tikhvin," salvaged from the dilapidated monastery, which carried
the same name and was located near the town of Tiknvin, once famous for its
church builders and icon painters. The icon was painted in 1680. Around the
Virgin and infant Christ there are twenty four "Kleima" - panels with
individual pictures that show the major holidays and events in the history of
the Monastery, from the building of the first wooden church to the defeat of
the Swedish army which invaded the region in 1613. Rimsky-Korsakov lived for
some time opposite the Monastery, which he often visited.
By the end of his life Andrei Rublev had become an esteemed artist and his
icons and frescoes were highly praised by everybody. For almost two centuries
they served as models to generations of Russian iconographers but Russian
artists have never been able to repeat the beauty of his masterpieces. When in
the middle of the 16th century the Stoglav Council was convened to denounce
pagan tendencies in the old customs and beliefs, it recommended to the icon
painters to take Rublev as example for their work. These facts speak strongly
about the fine artistic taste that most of the high clergy and boyars had at
that time. It is true that Lenin and the Bolsheviks picked Rublev too as a
model for their socialist realism in art. In their ukhaz of July, 1918, Rublev
was the first on the list of men declared meritorious and deserving of a
monument erected in their honor. Since then Rublev has been accepted as
painter-realist and advertised very much as such, particularly after the
nineteen sixties when the Soviet government decided to let all Russian ancient
art take its rightful place in the history of the cultural development of the
people. However, its religious meaning has been completely eliminated, and
today they speak of icons primarily as products of art. Surprisingly enough,
quite often we learn now that another Rublev icon was discovered somewhere.
From just a few before the revolution, by now their number has increased to
over thirty. Not all precautions were taken in each instance, and if this trend
continues, this case may become similar t those of Matisse and Renoir, and many
other famous painters, who allegedly painted about five hundred paintings in
their life-time, and yet just in the museums throughout the world there are
over three thousand of their "Original" canvases.
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