Vs. Dmitriev. The Church of John the Forerunner in Yaroslavl. Review

"Russian Icon", SPB, 1914 No. 1, pp. 82-86

                                        Bibliography

Book publishing by K.F. Nekrasov. I'm sorry.   And oh, n.   I'm sorry.   into    I don't care. Explanatory article by N. Pervukhin. Photos of I. Lazarev, P. Mosyagin and S. Shipov (34 phototypes on separate sheets and 40 in the text of M.1913.C. 16 rubles).

The publication published by K.F. Nekrasov is the first experience of research devoted to a separate monument of ancient Russian art. Until now, only one of the numerous Yaroslavl churches was dedicated to a separate edition - the church of Elijah the Prophet. Unfortunately, this book, luxuriously published by I. A. Vakhromeev, was not on sale and is currently a bibliographic rarity.

“The Church of John the Forerunner, which is in Tolchkovo”, is a remarkable monument of the end of the KhUP century, but we will still beware of repeating, after the author of the explanatory article, that it is the Church of the Church.  "the most artistic monument of the Yaroslavl style of the era of the first Romanovs", and we reserve this final conclusion until the time when the Yaroslavl treasures will be thoroughly investigated. Now we agree only with the fact that the number of paintings of the Tolchkov temple is  "Not at all.  in the whole Christian world, according to the connoisseur of temple paintings N. V. Pokrovsky. The famous Church of the Blessed Virgin on Salamis (1735), in which Western researchers counted up to 3,724 figures, is inferior in abundance to the mural decoration of the Ilyinsk Church in Yaroslavl, and the Church of the Forerunner gives much more artistic images than Ilyinsky. But, of course, to talk about the primacy of quantitative does not mean to convince of the importance of artistic. Anyway.

 In case, even when looking at the beautifully reproduced and careful photographs of the book, we noticed a sufficient dose of craft in the paintings.

N. Pervukhin assures us that these paintings are a manifestation of art.  “infantly naive, but also holy and beautiful, like the prayer of a pure child,” but we did not find such perfect harmony, and, of course, it could not have been in the epoch of the turning point. On the contrary, church paintings John the Forerunner is a phenomenon extremely complex and, we add, not yet developed.

Unfortunately, instead of conclusions based on impartial analysis, the author of the article we are considering gives us a generalization dictated by personal taste. In view of the situation,  The frescoes of the forerunners are the same folk poetry, where there are individual songs, but there are no individual poets. N. Pervukhin, as it were, slides over the topic, often gives very vivid descriptions of his impressions, his delight, sometimes sketches interesting pictures, makes valuable remarks, but still little touches on very significant things: who and under what influences worked on the paintings. We only know that the work was produced by an art artel of 16.  "good"  masters  D and m and so forth   D. Grigoriev was a native of Pereyaslavl Zalessky, that he, as can be seen from the materials of I. E. Zabelin and A. I. Uspensky, was known both in the province and in Moscow ... Undoubtedly, it was a well-defined art school that imposed certain common features on all its participants, but from here it is still very far from combining them by N. Pervukhin into one collective person.

Sharp.   and so on and so on.   There is a difference between painting  "The Flowering Tree" and  Wisdom has made a home for itself.  and the cycle of the main temple dedicated to the life of John the Forerunner. In the second case, we can actually   We speak of a great master who has splendidly fused together a variety of influences, but in the first case we find only a bizarre ornateness - the result of the strongest influence of Poland. Who wrote the Akathist of the Mother of God, showing the great, skillfully used knowledge of Western Catholic painting? Who is the author of these interesting backgrounds with mysterious buildings, especially seduced us in composition?  "Joseph tells dreams" (p.34) We do not find the author of the article trying to penetrate this dark area.

The most characteristic frescoes are painted by a bold hand, loving strong simple movements, the composition is uncluttered, and often highly artistic - such are the cycles.  “The Days of Creation,” “The Life of John the Forerunner,” “The Fall.” It is possible that they characterize Grigoriev’s talents, at least they give the main tone to most paintings. A different spirit, more gentle, sophisticated and with a strong attraction to   p p t t t t t t t t  marked  “The Life of Andrei Yurodivyi”, and especially a wonderful fresco  Tsar Feodor Alekseevich and his sisters in the Tolga Monastery.

A new talent is heard in an interesting cycle.  "Song of Songs", undoubted Westerner and talented decorator. Compositions are almost copies from engravings of the western facial Bible of Piscator, 1674.

But in addition to the strongest attraction to the friaz, these paintings are influenced by the influence of Persia, even, perhaps, India and China, and least of all, regret for the broken, so slender and perfect among the Novgorodians of the Byzantine tradition.

The book is accompanied by several pictures from icons located in the Tolchkovo temple. Let us note from them a magnificent sample of virtuoso miniature HUP century  "Symbol of Faith"  and icon  "Annunciation" - some amazing synthesis, the result of the art of the HUP century. full Having broken the Byzantine tradition beyond recognition, it was deposited here at a precious price, gave a wonderful topic for analyzing the last days of ancient Russian creativity. We will not call this icon perfect – it is too fragmented. But it is this fragmentation, this bizarre confusion of Persia with Italy, Byzantine severity with Stroganov’s jewelry that makes it, in our opinion, a vivid embodiment of the then art understanding.