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RUSSIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE
THROUGH THE CENTURIES

 
 

Tablets - "Sviatsi"

 
 

Another novelty was the coming into fashion of small icons painted on both sides of a panel. They are known as "Tablets' or "Sviatsi" and they primarily served as religious calendars. Usually each tablet represented a holiday or an important occurrence in the life of the Church. They were painted not on wood panels, as was the case with most Novgorod icons, but on panels made of canvas on which, on both sides, were laid several consecutive coats of "Levkas" to make them stiff. "Levkas" is a sort of gesso made of chalk mixed with fish glue. Of exceptional beauty and interest are the tablets painted by unknown artists in the 15th century for the Cathedral of Saint Sophia, now exhibited in Novgorod Museum.

The iconography of the end of the 15th century witnessed further departure from the naive, and rather primitive approach that was so characteristic of Novgorod painters in the beginning of the century. They found increasing pleasure in small details, basically ornamental, or in softening their palette. The faces of their figures became more delicate and their bodies more slim. They are already far from Byzantine mosaic stiffness. Of course the degree of ingenuity varies with each artist, but the tendency to depart from the "Democratic" outlook was quite marked. Russian iconography of the 15th century by far outdistanced the literature of the age as an instrument of mental exercise or a medium to convey spiritual concepts. Actually, literature began to awaken in the beginning of the 15th century, after it experienced considerable direct Serbian influence and turned towards exploring deep human feelings, a subject that icon artists had considered for almost a century. Some of the icons they painted are of great beauty and richness. Framed in gilded iconostasis and illuminated with hundreds of candles, they offered a lavishly decorated and splendid spectacle.

 
 

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