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The choice fell on Ridolfo Fioravanti,
(1415-1486), an architect from Bologna, who agreed to go to the mysterious
country for a salary of ten Rubles per month, equivalent at that time to the
price of two pounds of silver. He arrived in Moscow in 1475 and was advised to
visit first the city of Vladimir and several other places, including the
charming little church on the Nerli, to familiarize himself with the best
examples of Russian church architecture. He finished the new Kremlin cathedral
in 1479, and left no doubt that he had instantly caught the Russian spirit and
that the cathedral in Vladimir served as this main inspiration. The two
cathedrals do resemble each other very much,, and at the consecration, Ivan
III, the boyars, the church prelates and the people were delighted. The first
"Crowning" ceremony that was held in the cathedral was when in 1498
Ivan III invested his grandson Dimitri as his crown prince. Later Ivan the
Terrible chose to be crowned there as Russian tsar, establishing a custom for
those to come. Some architects consider its plan and its basic features a
harmonious combination of Renaissance and Russian traditional styles. The
cathedral was built of white stone; it has high round pillars, cross shaped
arches that carry five cupolas and by Russian standards, plenty of open space
inside. The windows are narrow and placed relatively high. The walls are bare
and decorated only with high pilasters and a band of blind ornamental
arcatures. This rather laconic exterior sharply contrasts with the ostentatious
interior with all walls covered entirely with frescoes. The cathedral was
completely embellished for the first time in 1514, presumably by painters
trained by Dionisii. With the exception of a few fragments in the chapel of the
Virgin, all the original frescoes perished in the flames that so often swept
though Moscow. Its first iconostasis, with icons painted, as the Chronicle
says, by Dionisii the priest, Timophey Yarets and Konia, who probably did some
wall painting too also disappeared.
There are several contradictory reports concerning the year they worked in the
cathedral. When the vaults started cracking, tsar Mikhail Romanov ordered that
all frescoes be repainted during the restoration. The best painters from all
parts of the country were called to Moscow to participate in the work. Among
them were two brothers from Pskov, Ivan and Boris Paisiin, Sidor Pospeev,
Bazhen Savin and others, in all almost a hundred painters and assistants. It
took them two years, 1642-1643, to repaint everything and cover almost fifty
thousand square feet with pictures and gold background. They worked under the
control of a special commission, headed by Boyar Boris Repnin, which took care
that the new frescoes be as close to the originals as possible. But some forty
rears later they were already damaged by fire, and damaged again when Napoleon
took Moscow. In the last century they were repainted with oil colors. The first
attempts to restore he original frescoes were made in the beginning of our
century. This process of cleaning, refreshing and retouching was finished in
1950, and today they give us an idea how he empty cathedral originally looked.
We say empty because the valuable things, and there were hundreds of them, were
taken out during and after the revolution. The walls are covered with hundreds
of silent and staring figures. Legend says that even Napoleon became frightened
when he entered the cathedral in 1812. The very intricate composition of the
last Judgement covers the entire west wall. The north wall shows scenes from
the life of the Virgin, and the south, the seven councils of the Orthodox
Church. In the window embrasures are the figures of Saint Vladimir and Saint
Olga. Martyrs, angels, saints and other personages are painted on the round
columns, each divided into five tiers. In the central cupola is a large image
of God, in the other four we see Jesus, The Virgin Sabaoth and Emmanuel. .The
iconostasis is one of the tallest in Russia. It has five tiers of icons and a
silver royal door and was last renovated in the eighteen eighties. There was
hardly any Moscow grand duke or tsar who did not contribute to it an icon. They
were brought from Vladimir, Novgorod, Pskov and other cities; and some
supposedly came from Constantinople. The most famous among them were the Virgin
of Vladimir and "Tsar Tsarem," allegedly painted by the first Russian
iconographer Saint Alimpii. Many of the icons were framed in gold and adorned
with precious stones. The most valuable were taken out and put into museums.
The entire look of the iconostasis and the altar offered a fabulous, and in a
way also barbaric, picture of hundreds of glistening diamonds, rubies,
sapphires etc. There was said to be over five tons of gold in various items,
decorations, frames etc in the cathedral. The disposition of icons in the
iconostasis follows a certain order aimed to elucidate the idea of the
universal church, namely the union of the Old and New Testaments. The icons in
the first, top, tier shows God in the middle and the forefathers and patriarchs
on his sides; in the second are prophets, from Moses to Christ, each holding in
his hand a scroll containing his prophecy, and in the middle is the Virgin with
the child Jesus, on her lap; the third, with usually the smallest icons, shows
major church holidays and events; the fourth, illustrates the Christian church
with Christ sitting on the throne in the center and the Virgin, Saint John and
the apostles on his sides. The bottom row had the most venerated, and usually
the most precious icons. The first, to the left of the Royal doors, was the
Virgin of Vladimir, followed by the image of the Savior and the icon "Tsar
Tsarem." To the right, another Savior, sitting in his throne, the
Assumption of the Virgin, allegedly painted by Metropolitan Peter, the
Annunciation of the Virgin, and Saint Dimitri (Demetrius of Saloniki). There
were several other old icons in the Cathedral, including the one depicting
Emperor Constantine as Saint George. The legend says that it was given by the
Pope to a Russian prince at the time when union with Rome was considered
possible. As we know, Moscow Metropolitan Isidor was of Greek origin, and after
attending the Eight church council at Florence in 1438 he had ordered that in
the liturgy a short prayer be said for the life of the Pope and his name be
mentioned. When in 1440 a papal bulletin was read in the cathedral of the
Assumption in the presence of Vasili II, the grand duke jumped from his seat
and accused Isidor of heresy and put him under house arrest in the nearby
Chudov monastery. A few years later in 1488, the council of Russian prelates,
independently from the Patriarch of Constantinople, chose the Bishop of Riazan
Iona as the new Metropolitan of all Russia. Not long afterwards the Ukrainian
Metropolitan of Kiev in his turn declared the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
independent from Moscow.
The Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin soon became the main sanctuary
of Russia. Its architectural features, style, cupolas, iconostasis, practically
everything, served as a model for hundreds of churches throughout the country.
The square in front of it was named Cathedral square and became the heart of
the Kremlin. Surrounded by two more cathedrals, a palace, a belfry and
churches, it was there that coronations, processions and most of the
festivities took place.
Ridolfo "Aristotle" Fioravanti was indeed a very gifted and versatile
man. Besides teaching Russians how to make better bricks, how to use lime in
construction and how to build solid stone churches, he taught them several
other until then not well-known skills, such as how to cast big bells and
cannons in molds. Amazed by Fioravanti's knowledge and obtrusiveness, the
Russians nicknamed him Aristotle, after the famous Greek, considered to be the
highest compliment that could be made to a scholar. Not only the people were
pleased with Fioravanti; Ivan III liked him too and often consulted him. The
ingenious Italian particularly impressed him with his masterly knowledge of how
to cast big cannons, which Ivan needed so much both against the Tatars,
Lithuanians and Swedes, and to put the still-independent Russian provinces
under his rule. By 1479, Moscow already had its first artillery foundry,
jokingly named "cannon's izba," which produced the cannons to defeat
Novgorod and other principalities, and the bells to greet the Moscow grand duke
upon his return from his military campaigns. Before coming to Moscow, according
to some sources, Fioravanti was involved in some affair with counterfeited
papal money. The fact is that he knew how to mint coins and he helped Ivan's
minters to improve their primitive methods and make better "denga,"
at that time considered an important prerequisite to increasing and improving
trade.
Please go to Moscow
kremlin for photos inside and outside the cathedral.
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