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Andrei was succeeded as Grand Duke of
Vladimir by his brother, Vsyevolod III, 1176-1212, who, like most other Russian
princes, was an enthusiastic patron of the arts and eager to commemorate his
name by offering striking churches to the posterity. One of them was the
Cathedral of Saint Dmitrii,
(guardian of Thessalonika), that he built in Vladimir not far from the
Cathedral of the Assumption at the end of the 12th century. The chronicler
failed to mention the exact date of its erection. The Cathedral of Saint
Dmitrii architecturally repeats the features of the church of the Intercession
on Nerl, with the exception that it is more richly decorated. Beneath the
central frieze that horizontally divides the facades with the exception of
eastern) into two parts are small arcatures. Together with colonnettes they
form arcature niches, each one containing carved stone reliefs of birds, lions,
or plants, beneath which comes a figure of a saint with halo and under his feet
again reliefs of animal and floral design. The corbels that support the
colonnettes, their capitals and bases are all richly carved. Among the saints
we see princes Boris and Gleb, the first Russians to receive sainthood.
Strangely enough these saints are the major part of purely religious motifs,
which are otherwise scarcely represented. The tympanums and the drum are
covered with carved stone reliefs. Scenes from the Bible, details of apocryphal
stories, and all sorts of birds, dogs, panthers, flowers and particularly a
great many lions, in all positions and poses, decorate the tympanums. We see
there in the central tympanum, Alexander the Great in a chariot drawn by
griffins and ascending to heaven, and above the left window of the northern
wall even Vsyevolod with his sons, a place not very prominent for the
benefactor. We are surprised by the number of figures and by the disorder that
reigns in this semi-sacred, floral and animal world. Nevertheless the
impression is great and one cannot but share the excitement of a West European
priest who after seeing the cathedral, is alleged to have exclaimed: "O
Lord, what a divine heresy!"
Through the centuries the old reliefs deteriorated and had eventually to
be replaced; at present not all date from the 12th century. The cathedral was
repeatedly pillaged and damaged by fire, each time having to be restored, and
losing a part of it's original body. Soviet critics decry the restoration of
1837-1839, presumably done by order of Nicholas I, when the belfry, the
galleries and the two chapels were pulled down. The cathedral was originally
built as a separate unit, the annexes being added later, with the exception of
the staircase tower, which leads to the inside gallery reserved for the prince
and dignitaries. With the removal of the outbuildings the cathedral gained in
elegance by fully exposing the beauty and richness of its reliefs.
There is no information to tell us who were these ingenious architects and
stone carvers who built and so wonderfully decorated the old churches of
Vladimir. Their sumptuous lines, the originality of the slopes of their roofs
and especially their gorgeous carved stone ornamentation made them different
from other Russian churches of the same period or before it. Until not long ago
the prevailing opinion, borrowed from the old chronicles, was that "Many
masters from all over the world" participated in the construction and
decoration of the old churches of Vladimir. Indeed, they show influences of
Byzantium and Georgia and to a lesser degree of Armenian, Serbian and
Romanesque architecture and decorative art. Some details are almost identical
to those found in Georgian and Serbian churches, the others could be traced to
the Near East and to Asia. Cultural and trade relations between the Kievan
state and Georgia existed before the 12th century, and we know that the
Georgians participated in the building of the cathedral in Chernigov. These
relations expanded during the reign of Andrei and Vsyevolod, and it would be
logical to assume that among the "Many masters. . . " were Georgians
too. The Georgians were exposed in their turn to Oriental and primarily to
Persian influences for centuries which they could then have carried to
Vladimir. Oriental contributions to Russian arts came from friendly peoples and
were not imposed by invaders. Mongols brought very little if anything in this
field.
The results of large scale archeological excavations undertaken in the
Soviet Union after the Second World War persuaded a number of Soviet scholars
to return to the question, of who built the old churches in Vladimir. They now
accept the probability that Russian masters were involved in Vladimir; in the
absence of precise documentation, both opinions are easily defended. Of course
there is a possibility that Russians, as well as Georgians, Serbians and others
could have modified as early as the 12th century or even earlier the
architectural features that they had inherited from Byzantium as well as adding
certain elements and embellishments of their own. Some 11th century carved
objects excavated in Novgorod have reliefs that greatly resemble those of the
cathedral of Saint Dmitrii and the assumption is that Novgorodians had carved
them. Consequently, the possibility exists that the same masters or their
pupils could have participated in the construction of Vladimir's churches. But
even more persuasive is the fact that generations of Russian wood-carvers,
including simple peasants, handled wood with extraordinary skill and
imagination and produced rich and typically Russian motifs. There is no doubt
that they could have repeated the same feats in stone. The standards reached by
Russian architecture at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th
century were not inferior to most contemporary West European accomplishments.
This was the result of a period of frantic construction, whose importance can
be measured by the fact that in 1185 the small town of Vladimir lost 32
churches in a fire and there were more that survived, so many had been built in
a relatively short period of time. The innovations that builders introduced
there have become known in Russia as Vladimir-Suzdal architecture.
There is no doubt that Greek painters covered the old churches of Vladimir
with frescoes soon after they were built. Most probably here too the Greeks
were assisted by their Russian pupils. Unfortunately the old frescoes were
often victims of fires, Tatar vandalism or simple lack of skill on the part of
those who later wanted to restore them. For the same reasons the 12th century
frescoes in the cathedral of Saint Dmitrii did not survive. When the cathedral
was redecorated in 1844, some fragments of the old frescoes were discovered for
the first time, but they attracted no special attention. At that time old
frescoes were thought of no differently from any other curio. In 1918-1919 the
best preserved western wall under the gallery was cleaned, setting free the
fragments of the large composition of the Last Judgement. We see here the
apostles and behind them the angels. To the left is Saint Peter leading the
righteous, escorted by a flourish of trumpets played by the angels, and then
paradise itself with the Virgin and the forefathers in it. By carefully
examining the frescoes, two styles may be discerned: The more ascetic, visible
in the faces of the apostles and most probably painted by the Greeks, and the
softer and almost poetic style of the righteous, presumably painted by the
Russians in the 14th century. The interest in frescoes lasted only a short time
and as part of anti-religious policy of the Soviet government, the cathedral
was emptied of everything, closed and left to ruin. Only in the
nineteen-sixties did Soviet restorers return to clean some more fragments and
to retouch those where the original colors had become almost invisible. The
rest of the cathedral was whitewashed. In several churches including the
cathedral of Saint Dmitrii, I have seen myself the restoration process under
way. Would it be better if the restorers had just cleaned the frescoes and left
them as they are instead of retouching some parts? The cupola of Saint Dmitrii
Cathedral has preserved to the present day its Byzantine, helmet-like shape.
Its top is crowned with an old open-work gilded copper cross, which has a dove
vane on its top and a crescent at the bottom, symbolizing the invincibility of
the Orthodox faith and the victory of Christianity over Islam. It appears that
the crescent was on the top of the cross during the Tatar occupation of Russia.
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