Монастырь Антония Римлянина - Monastery of St Antony of Rome in Novgorod

Монастырь Антония Римлянина
Monastery of St Antony of Rome

история:

Одно из самых живописных мест Новгорода.

По преданию его основал в 1106 Антоний Римлянин. Легенда, как и все монастырские легенды, невероятна, но красива. Антоний родился в Риме в 1067. Был богат. В 18 лет постригся в монахи, а свое богатство - золото и серебро - сложил в бочку и бросил в море. Через 20 лет он удалился на скалу, молясь о спасении православия. Однажды поднялась страшная буря и камень, на котором молился Антоний, понесло по морю, как ладью. Через два дня, в день праздника Рождества БР, он оказался в Новгороде. Место, куда его принесли волны, и стало монастырём. Через несколько лет рыбаки выловили бочку. Денег, лежавших в ней, хватило на строительство каменной церкви и приобретение земли.

Закладка каменного собора Рождества БР - это первая твердая дата в истории монастыря.

Реальная история монастыря типична для средневековья: он горел и отстраивался заново, в 1570 под мечом опричнины пали настоятель Геласий и все монахи, в 1611 его разорили шведы.

Monastery, shown on the left side of a 17th-century engraving from the famous travel account by Adam Olearius, is located north of the center of Novgorod on the East side of the Volkhov River.

According to tradition, Anthony was from Rome (hence he is called "Rimlianin").

We know about him primarily from a Vita written late in the 15th century and a 16th-century sermon praising him, that is, from texts written centuries after he came to Novgorod.

His Vita relates how he fled persecution of the Orthodox by the Roman Catholic Church.

Caught in a storm while on his ship, he was saved by the miraculous appearance of a stone, on which he could stand, and when the weather cleared, he discovered he was in Novgorod, at the location where he then founded his monastery early in the 12th century.

He is mentioned in the Novgorod chronicles under the years 1117 and 1147.

The miraculous stone was in fact later transported into the main church of the monastery, the cathedral of Birth of Virgin, where it was revered for its miraculous powers--a good example of popular Orthodox belief which in many different places both in Russia and in the Orthodox East included among holy relics stones considered to possess such powers.

Miracles connected with the stone were recorded in the 16th and 17th centuries; the author of one of the most interesting accounts about Muscovy, Deacon Paul of Aleppo, who visited Novgorod in 1655, mentioned the cult of Anthony and the miraculous stone.

With the exception of the main church, the original buildings of the monastery have not survived.

On the left are the 19th-century gate and the refectory Church of the presentation, built in the 16th century.

At one time the monastery housed the theological academy created as a result of the early 18th-century church reform under Peter the Great; one of the academy buildings is extant.

место:

Новгород

Novgorod

адрес:

Великий Новгород, ул. Студенческая

оформление:

1117.

Зодчий Пётр.

состав:

собор Рождества Богородицы

cathedral of Birth of Virgin

история:

Построен на деньги основателя обители св. Антония Римлянина.

Cathedral is arguably very important in the history of early Russian architecture and which contains very interesting remnants of its original fresco decoration.

Сейчас - музей.

оформление:

1117...19.

Каменный, четырехстолпный, с нартексом, лестничной башней, трехглавым завершением.

Вместо тяжелых крестчатых столбов использованы Т-образные и восьмигранные, что для интерьера небольшого храма весьма существенно; лестничная башня - круглая, а не прямоугольная, хоры - деревянные, а не каменные.

Church is one of the earliest still largely intact churches from medieval Russia.

At one time, it was thought that the structure followed the six-pillar plan common to early Orthodox churches in the south and found in the contemporaneous Novgorod churches of St Nicholas and St George (in the Iur'ev monastery--right).

Studies done as recently as two decades ago have shown that in fact the original building had a single cupola (now it has three) and an approximately square floor plan with only four pillars.

This much was completed by 1119, and some time after the interior had been painted in fresco in 1125, a narthex, stairwell and balcony were added to the west end of the church, the basic construction being completed probably prior to 1150.

The current state of the building and a floor plan delineating the addition are here.

The importance of this relatively recent discovery about the construction of the church lies in the fact that the three-apse, single-coupola, four-pillar church became the norm in many parts of Russia in subsequent centuries. The argument now is made that this form may have originated in Novgorod, possibly even with this church, and from there spread to other regions.

The interior of this early church also provides interesting evidence regarding iconographic programs and displays. Today the icon screen, which separates the eastern (altar sanctuary) end of the church from the rest, as an obligatory feature of Orthodox churches (see photo, right). However, icon screens developed over some time, perhaps reaching their full height and complexity only in the early 15th century in Russia. In earlier centuries, the main iconographic program of a masonry church would be displayed in the mosaics or frescoes on its walls. Individual icons of importance might be attached to the forward pillars, placed on stands, or possibly hung from a crossing beam in the center between the forward pillars. It is likely that the first "icon screens" were drapes which could be pulled to close off the sanctuary and might display a holy image.

This church dates to the period prior to the emergence of the icon screen as we know it today. As with all early Russian churches, its original interior was much changed over the centuries. Frescoes generally became dark or decayed from moisture; so they were painted over, the idea being that the holy images were simply being renewed, not that the sanctity of the originals or the "originality" of the early artists' work was being violated. Originality was, after all, not a criterion in the church art, which was the product of divinely inspired labor. In the case of the frescoes of interest here, when the re-plastering and re-painting were done, holes were made in the original surface in order to get the new layer to adhere. Hence the blotchy appearance of the early frescoes when uncovered. In the church today, one can see both some of the original frescoes and what remains of the 19th century ones (especially in the cupola, left). The later re-plastering included adding stucco decoration, which is visible in some of the photographs. Apart from the re-painting, an icon screen was built, in the process concealing some of the earlier frescoes and evidence about the original construction. In the photos taken in 1968, the remants of the blue wood of the icon screen can be seen (right); now it has been removed entirely.

The removal of the icon screen made it possible to establish that probably in the original church a single beam crossed the front pillars approximately "one storey" above the ground. From it would have been hung a curtain, but on the front of the pillars just above and below it very sizeable icons were displayed. There may or may not have been a group of small icons suspended from the middle section of the beam.

состав:

придел св. Иоанна Богослова

chapel of St John the Evangelist

придел

chapel

придел

chapel

придел

chapel

святыня:

икона

icon

название:

Благовещение {4551}

Annunciation

Сошествие во ад

Descent to Hell

вид иконы:

ряд праздничный {4520} ( - )

feast row

Успение

Dormition

вид иконы:

ряд праздничный {4520} ( - )

feast row

техника:

фреска

fresco

история:

Сохранились фрагменты фресок.

We have not attempted here to identify all the images remaining from the original frescoes (in fact, that may not be possible), but will comment on selected aspects of the iconography. We start by looking up from below toward the front pillars and main apse of the church (the view omits the "first storey"), then look at the images of the archangel Gabriel and Maria on the respective pillars.

Additional fescoes in the apse area seem to have included scenes specific to the life of Maria as recorded in an apocryphal Gospel text popular in Byzantium.

The remaining early frescoes in the main part of the church are in the lower altar and apse area. Among the themes were the Presentation in the Temple, the Beheading of John the Baptist and the presentation of his head to Herod, the Adoration of the Magi (detail, left) and the Dormition. Of particular interest are the images of Moses (lower on right) and Aaron on the pillars flanking the central opening to the altar, emphasizing the connection of the altar with the Old Testament Temple and Ark of the Covenant. As one can see from these images, the state of preservation is poor; in the case of the seraph in the niche, the painting is of much later date.

The style of these early frescoes is a reminder of the international contacts of medieval Rus and Novgorod in particular. V.N.Lazarev, a noted expert on early Russian and Byzantine painting notes their "un-Byzantine" character and connects them with some of the contemporary Romanesque art in the West. There are numerous other examples of the art of the West making its way to Novgorod, of course not all of them attesting to the presence in the city of western artists. In the given instance, Lazarev leaves open the possibility that western artists contributed to the decoration of the main church in a monastery founded by a "Roman."

Among the interesting discoveries in the restorations of recent years have been frescoes in the stairwell (below). Some time scholars discovered an image that appears to be the Virgin in a nimbus, holding what might have been a model of the church, and adjoining that image to its right is the figure of a man inclined toward the nimbus. This has been interpreted as possibly an image of the architect, presenting his work to Virgin for Her blessing, although it is also possible that here we have simply a novgorodian praying to an image of the Virgin of the Sign. The name "Foma" is painted inside the nimbus, and letters have been scratched above the man's head.

Only recently, in the summer of 2000, another fresco was discovered in the stairwell--an image of a lion. Lest one jump to the conclusion this is an example of secular art in the church (not impossible, of course), it is worth remembering that carved lions abound on the churches of the Vladimir area and tend to be interpreted in the Christian iconography as having the power to ward off evil.

название:

Благовещение {4551}

Annunciation

Св. ?

St ?

предмет с изображением:

файл

s4_2

novgorod-museum.ru

малый

Свв. Флор, Лавр, Кир и Иоанн, целители

SS Florus, Laurus, Cyrus and John, who were known for their vows of poverty

место:

на западных гранях восточной пары

below the Annunciation

оформление:

Полуфигуры.

Half-figures.

That probably was the way they were originally portrayed, leaving space below for a large icon to be placed on either pillar.

The leftmost of these images is on the left (unfortunately somewhat blurred).

оформление:

1125.

Самый значительный по объёму и своеобразный по стилю ансамбль новгородских фресок 12 в.

Все изображения выполнены в крупном размере, согласованном с архитектурными членениями.

Колорит построен на сочетании чистых открытых цветов.

Живопись собора и сейчас вызывает споры: некоторые учёные видят в ней существенное влияние романского стиля, большинство - включает их в число памятников византийской традиции, формирующей свой особый художественный стиль.

предмет с изображением:

файл

s3_11

novgorod-museum.ru

фрагмент

малый

предмет с изображением:

иллюстрация

[1988 c. 327]

открытка

postal card »

серия: