Some Questions of Artistic Design of the “New Testament” of 1702 from the Collection of the State Hermitage
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu15.2024.309Abstract
This article is devoted to the precious frame of the “New Testament”, which was published in the Moscow Print House in 1702. This book was presented by Stefan Yavorsky to tsarevich Peter Petrovich, who was born on October 28, 1715. After the death of Alexander II (1881), the book was placed in the sacristy of the Great Church of the Winter palace. The small book represents a bright work of the culture of Peter the Great’s time. Its precious decoration should be dated to the time between 1702 and 1715. The gift made to the prince by the Ryazan Metropolitan is connected with the biography of this church hierarch, known primarily as the author of sermons, but also as customer of icons. The date of the presentation of the “New Testament” (November 12, 1715) to Peter Petrovich is close to Stephen’s letter to Peter (November 14), in which the Metropolitan congratulated him on the birth of his son and prayed to let him go to Nizhyn to consecrate the church, “to offer there a sacrifice for the newborn prince”. This is the matter of the main church of the Nizhyn Monastery, founded by Stephen himself. A precious gift, decorated with gems, was supposed to strengthen the petition of the Ryazan Metropolitan. The composition of the frame includes minuscule icons with images of four evangelists and Crucifixion. They were created by one of the best Moscow icon painters from the early 18th century and show him as a great connoisseur of the art of icon painting. Shoulder-mounted images of the evangelists and the Crucifixion of Christ are executed in the traditions of icon painting of the Armory Chamber and belong to the monuments of the leading stylistic trend in Moscow painting of the late 17th — early 18th centuries. The general composition of the decoration of the New Testament frame goes back to the design of the luxurious liturgical Gospels.
Keywords:
Stefan Yavorsky, tsarevich Petr Petrovich, evangelists, icon, New Testament, Peter I, art of the early 18th century, Nizhyn Monastery, Dmitry Loginov, Kremlin Armoury
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Articles of "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Arts" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.