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The interest in preservation and restoration
of ancient churches was even greater under Vasilii I (1389-1425). His mother, as we have
seen, was also greatly interested in the restorations. Religious fervor also
was on the increase; in fact, when in 1395, the Mongol conqueror, Tamerlane,
invaded Russia, church dignitaries hurriedly brought from Vladimir to Moscow
the famous icon, the "virgin of Vladimir." A mass was held at the
Kuchkovo field, where the icon was met by the people. A holiday to mark the
date, the Meeting of the Virgin (Sretenie), was established; later, on the same
spot where the icon was met, a new monastery (Sretenski) was built.
We do not know what prompted Tamerlane to turn back, but the Russians believed
for centuries that God heard their prayers and stopped the invader before he
reached Moscow.
In 1404 Grand Duke Vasilii commissioned a Serbian monk from Mount Athos to
build the first striking clock in the Kremlin. According to the Chronicle the
clock did not have figures but letters written on the rim, which turned around
instead of hands. Lazarus (Lazar) was the name of the inventive monk, who also
constructed a bell and a mechanical map for the clock. Each hour on the hour
the rim moved one twelfth of the semi-circle and the mechanical man hit the
bell with the hammer that he held in his hands. There were daily and night
hours, the first beginning with the sunrise, and the hours of sunrise and
sunset were rest each fortnight. The clock was a great wonder to Muscovites,
who could not understand how the mechanical man could be so precise, and do his
job without being told or pushed by anybody. Then it was agreed that the gadget
was "somehow the product of man's dexterity and governed by his
wits." Before he left Moscow, Lazarus trained a Russian watchmaker to
service the clock and twice a month to make the necessary time adjustments.
In 1397 Grand Duke Vasilii Dimitrieveich laid the foundation of the new wooden
Church of the Annunciation in the Moscow Kremlin, which he meant to serve as
his private family chapel. The chronicle says that in 1405 the following
artists took part in painting of the icons for the iconostasis: Theophan, the
Greek iconographer, Prokhor, the old man from Gorodets, and the monk (chernets)
Andrei Rublev. This was the first time that the name of Rublev was mentioned:
Nobody could have guessed, not even Vasili, that together with Theophan, Prokor
and Daniil Chernii, the simple monk was about to start the greatest period of
Russian iconography, create the classic form of the iconostasis and become the
founder of the Moscow school of painting.
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