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Embellishment of exterior church wall panels
with a combination of rich brick patterns and colored and glazed tiles was in
vogue for a relatively short time. The temptation to new changes came when, in
the last quarter of the 17th century, the baroque, mixed with some late gothic
style, started to penetrate into Russia. The baroque found its way to Moscow
sometimes directly from Italy, but more often through the Ukraine and White
Russia. Despite the fact that it appeared rather tardily, the Moscow baroque
quickly reached its exotic forms in the late rococo phase. As was the case with
other elements that the Russians had adapted from outside, their baroque was
also refashioned and underwent changes during its period of
"Russification." This process of assimilation occurred in Spain,
Belgium, Germany and Poland, after Bernini and Borromini in Italy gave the
baroque its distinctive forms. In Russia the baroque became a style of church
architecture, which primarily followed the principle of piling several
decorative stories one on top of the other. Russian builders made the baroque
more ornamental than it was in the West. One could say that they neglected
construction and paid attention to embellishment. They exalted the ornament and
made it sometimes excessively florid; when their tendency toward superabundance
lead them to add colors, the Russian variation of the baroque sometimes ended
in a curious quaintness of style. With time and more experience the Russians
developed their won baroque, which they called Narishkin or Moscow baroque.
With it, as was the case with the Vladimir-Suzdal architecture of the 12th and
13th centuries, carved white stone, used in combination with brick patterns,
became the principal element. The Russians curved their limestone with the same
ease as they did wood, and produce very fine and intricate tracery that reminds
one of rich lacework. Though many patterns were borrowed from the West, they
were not blindly copied but reworked, modified and brought into accordance with
traditional Russian motifs. We have many photos of this style church including
that at Fili and the one at Kadishah Moscow in the directory of churches.
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