Зодчество Древней Руси

surrounding area as well as in Vladimir itself. A group of palatial buildings for the Grand Prince were built in the village of Bogo lyubovo. Unfortunately all that is left of these splendid buildings with their luxurious decorations, which greatly impressed the numerous visitors, among them foreign ambassadors, are the ruins of the palace and archaeological remains. The first thing travellers saw when approaching Vladimir by water was the Church of the Intercession on the River Neri. This blindingly white, beautifully proportioned building standing in the midst of endless meadows is remarkable for its serene majesty and refinement of form. It was built to commemorate the victory over the Volga Bulgars, in which the young prince Izyaslav lost his life. The main entrance into the town and the central point of the defence system were the "Golden Gates" built as an exact replica of those in Kiev. The main cathedral of the Vladimir metropolitan diocese was the Cathedral of the Assumption. The original small building with a single dome was incorporated in the 12th century into a vast, imposing five-domed cathedral which has remained to this day. Among the frescoes dating from various periods which decorate the interior, there are paintings by Andrei Rublyov, the brilliant 15th-century Russian master, and of his fellow artist, Daniil Chorny. These frescoes surpass all others in their unusually delicate drawing and subtle harmony of colours. At the end of the 12th century, when the Vladimir-Suzdal school was at its creative peak, the Cathedral of St. Dmitry was built in Vladimir. The outer walls of this small, single-domed cathedral made of white stone were divided up by a decorative horizontal band and vertical pilasters, the spaces in between being covered completely by fine relief:work. St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky dating from the 13th century is also remarkable for its stone carvings. It was damaged in the 15th century and quickly reconstructed by the Moscow architect V. Yermolin, but in the process of rebuilding some stone blocks depicting saints, fantastic monsters and plants from the original cathedral were put back in the wrong order. As a result the church has become a huge puzzle in stone which many generations of Russian artists and architects have tried to solve. The town of Suzdal was an important centre of the Vladimir region. Here the visitor will find many well-preserved monuments from different periods in varying styles. The Cathedral of the Nativity, the wonderful grouping of bishop's palaces, the monas teries of the Intercession, of the Saviour and St. Euphimy, the small parish churches and other buildings, all represent a brilliant page in the history of early Russian art from the 13th to 17th cen turies. Because of its wealth of monuments Suzdal is being turned into a huge open-air museum and the whole town has now been declared a national preserve. The most important artistic monuments of Kiev and Vladimir Suzdal belong to the period preceding the Tatar invasion. The foundations of Russian architecture were laid in Kiev, and the Vladimir masters assimilated and developed the Kiev traditions,

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THE ARCHI tecture in Kiev Rus resulted from the need to strengthen the power of the Grand Princes and of the Christian Church, and to con solidate the international prestige of the state. The 11th· and I2th-century artists and architects continued East Slavonic traditions, drawing widely on the rich artistic heritage of Byzan tium, Bulgaria and the Caucasus. The early local churches re present many variations of the standard pattern-the cross inscribed in a rectangle, with a central dome supported on piers. built of brick and stone. Among these the Cathedral of St. Sofia in Kiev stands out as the most striking monument in the capital of the Kiev Rus. The external composition of the original cathedral with its thirteen cupolas rising to a central pyramid, was unfor tunately lost when the cathedral was later rebuilt. The interior of the cathedral, on the other hand, has been well preserved. Its huge mosaics, frescoes and carved stonework are most striking in their richness and fine craftsmanship. The most impressive is mosaic on the central apse, above two rows of figures, "The Church Fathers" and "The Eucharist", the huge figure of the Virgin Orans with raised hands in an attitude of prayer. In the I Ith and early 12th centuries numerous stone churches, town fortifications and princes' palaces appeared in Kiev, Cherni gov, Pereyaslavl Yuzhny, Polotsk, Novgorod and elsewhere. A brilliantly original adaptation of the traditional rectangular design with a central dome can be seen in Pyatnitsky Church in Chernigov, built at the tum of the 12th century. Here the imaginative system of stepped vaults made it possible to design a composition soaring steeply upwards, which became one of the basic features of early Russian architecture. In the middle of the 12th century, the young but rapidly growing town of Vladimir on the River Klyazma was given the title of the Grand Prince's capital. The severe, laconic style of the local architecture of previous years, which can be seen, for example, in the Cathedral of the Saviour in Transfiguration in Pereslavl Zalessky, could not fulfil the need for a more ostentatious style in building. In order to meet this, foreign architects were engaged to work together with the most experienced Vladimir craftsmen. Majestic solemnity, refinement and wealth of form distinguish the white stone architecture of Vladimir-Suzdal in the 12th and early 13th centuries. The walls of the palaces and churches are decorated with the most intricate carving. Painting and gilding are also widely applied. Magnificent buildings appeared in the DEVELOPMENT OF MONUMENTAL

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