The Demidoff Church in the San Donato Estate in Florence

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu15.2018.405

Abstract

The article is about the decoration of the former Demidoffs’ house church in the villa of San Donato. A part of it is now located in the church of the Nativity of Christ and St. Nicholas the Thaumaturge in Florence (architect M. T. Preobrazhensky). The author has suggested the probable appearance of the house church in the villa of San Donato based on notes of contemporaries, analysis of the palace’s blueprints and the remaining elements of the decoration. The ecclesiastical purpose of the surviving building of the “Demidoffs ex-chapel” has been questioned and analyzed, based on D. Silvestri’s original sketches, from which it follows that this is the building of the Odeon — a concert and theater hall. Particular attention is paid to the carved decoration of the church, made in A. Barbetti’s workshop, to the iconostasis and the gallery of local and small icons. Local icons of the iconostasis and icons of the apostles executed in an academic manner by famous religious painter V. V. Vasilyev. However, the gallery of small icons of the second tier of the iconostasis and the doors-kiots is stylistically close to the icon-painting of the 17th century. Also, based on historical analysis and analysis of style, the author sets up a hypothesis that the gallery of small icons from Demidoffs’ church belong to “Nevyansk” or “Peshekhonovsk” icon-painting schools.

Keywords:

Demidoff the Prince of San Donato, Church of the Nativity of Christ and St. Nicholas the Thaumaturge in Florence, M. T. Preobrazhensky, D. Silvestri, A. Barbetti, V. V. Vasilyev, “Nevyansk” icon-painting, “Peshekhonovsk” icon-painting

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Author Biography

Vitaliy V. Zherdyev, Kharkov State Academy of Design and Arts

PhD, Associate Professor of the Department of Academic Drawing, Doctoral Student of the Kharkov State Academy of Design and Arts, Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine

References


References

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Published

2018-12-11

How to Cite

Zherdyev, V. V. (2018). The Demidoff Church in the San Donato Estate in Florence. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Arts, 8(4), 605–625. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu15.2018.405

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 4 (2018)

Section

Visual arts

License

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.