Theme and Variations in Iconography
Following page 199
V"Old Testament Trinity"
by Andrew Rublev,
painted for the Monastery
of St. Sergius and the
Holy Trinity, 1420's
Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow
VI A Trinity of the Pskov School, mid-fifteenth century Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow
VII The Trinity by Simon Ushakov, 1670 Russian Museum, Leningrad
The New Portraiture
Following page l$g VIII Painting of F. Demidov by D. Levitsky, completed in 1773 Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow
The Evolution of Old Russian Architecture
Following page 261 IX Cathedral of St. Dmitry
in Vladimir, 1197 X Church of the Annunciation over the entrance to the women's monastery of the Protection of the Virgin in Suzdal, early sixteenth century
XI Church of the Epiphany at Chelmuzhi, Karelia, 1605
XII Church of the Transfiguration at Kizhi, Karelia, 1714
Repin and Russian Nationalism
Following page 291
Ivan the Terrible with his murdered son by Ilya Repin, 1885 Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow
Musorgsky by Repin, 1881
Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow
XV "Haulers on the Volga" by Repin, 1870-3 Russian Museum, Leningrad
Christ Dethroned
Following page 481 XVI "Appearance of Christ to the People" by Alexander Ivanov, 1833-57 Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow
XVII The Crucifixion by Nicholas Ge, 1891 Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow
Vrubel and the Devil
Following page 481 XVIII "The Demon Seated" by Michael Vrubel, 1890 Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow XIX "The Demon Prostrate" by Vrubel, 1902 Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow
A Satirical View of Russian Liberalism
Following page 511 XX Masthead introduced in January 1861 in the satirical journal Iskra
Malevich's Art of Outer Space
Following page 511 XXI "Dynamic Suprematism" by Malevich
Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow XXII "Woman with a Rake" by Malevich Tret'iakov Gallery, Moscow
? l*:
BACKGROUND
¦
Background
i. Kiev
The cosmopolitan, Christian culture of Kiev, "the mother of Russian
cities," from the conversion of Prince Vladimir in 988 to the Mongol sack of
Kiev in 1240. The uncritical adoption by Kievan Rus' of the artistic forms
and sense of special destiny of the Byzantine "second golden age." The love
of beauty and preoccupation with history; the building of the new city under
Yaroslav the Wise (grand-prince of Kiev, 1019-54); the movement north
under Andrew Bogoliubsky (grand-prince of Vladimir-Suzdal, 1157-74).
The rise to dominance of the "forest land," the Volga-Oka heartland of
Great Russia, particularly during the Mongol overlordship, 1240-1480.
The strengthening of communal ties during a period of weakened central
authority. The fears and fascinations of the forest: bears, insects, and, above
all, fire. The enduring importance for the Russian imagination of the key
artifacts of this primitive frontier region: the icon and the axe within the
peasant hut. The cannon and the bell within populated centers: symbols of
metallic might in a wooden world.
A culture of concrete sights and sounds rather than abstract words and ideas. The images of sainthood on wooden icons; the image of divine order and hierarchy on the icon screen. The Vladimir Mother of God as the supreme mother figure of Great Russia; Andrew Rublev (1370-1430) as its supreme artist. Bells as "angelic trumpets" and hypnotic cacophony.
rVEDUCED ?? its simplest outline, Russian culture is a tale of three cities: Kiev, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. None of them is really old by the standards of world history. The first was probably founded sometime in the eighth century, the second in the twelfth, the last at the beginning of the eighteenth. Each served as the capital of a sprawling Slavic empire on the eastern periphery of Europe; each left a permanent impact on the culture .of modern Russia.
The emergence of Moscow and then that of St. Petersburg are decisive events of modern Russian history, and the profound if subtle rivalry between the two cities is one of the recurring themes of its mature cultural development. Yet the cultural context for this drama was provided by Kiev: the first of the three great cities to rise and to fall. However weakened and transformed in later years, however subject to the separate claims of Polish and Ukrainian historians, Kiev remained the "mother of Russian cities" and "joy of the world" to the chroniclers.1 Memories of its accomplishment lingered on in oral folklore to give the Orthodox Eastern Slavs an enduring sense of the unity and splendor that had been theirs. In the words of the popular proverb, Moscow was the heart of Russia; St. Petersburg, its head; but Kiev, its mother.2
The origins of Kiev are still obscure, but its traceable history begins with the establishment by northern warrior-traders of a series of fortified cities along the rivers that led through the rich eastern plains of Europe into the Black and Mediterranean seas.3 The main artery of this new trade route down from the Baltic region was the Dnieper; and many historic cities of early Russia, such as Chernigov and Smolensk, were founded on strategic spots along its upper tributaries. Kiev, the most exposed and southerly of the fortified cities on this river, became the major point of contact with,the Byzantine Empire to the southeast, and the center for the gradual conversion to Orthodox Christianity in the ninth and tenth centuries of both the Scandinavian princes and the Slavic population of this region. By virtue of its
protected location on the raised west bank of the Dnieper, Kiev soon became a major bastion of Christendom against the warlike pagan nomads of the southern steppe. Economically, it, was an active trading center and probably the largest city in Eastern Europe. Politically, it became the center of a Slavic civilization that was less a distinct territorial state in the modern sense than a string of fortified cities bound by loose religious, economic, and dynastic ties.
Kievan Russia was closely linked with Western Europe;-through trade and intermarriages with every important royal family of Western Christendom.4 Russia is mentioned in such early epics as the Chanson de Roland and the Nibelungenlied.5 Indeed, the cultural accomplishments of the high medieval West which these works represent might not have been possible without the existence of a militant Christian civilization in Eastern Europe to absorb much of the shock of invasions by less civilized steppe peoples.
These promising early links with the West were, fatefully, never made secure. Increasingly, inexorably, Kievan Russia was drawn eastward into a debilitating struggle for control of the Eurasian steppe.
The political history of this the greatest undivided land mass in the world has been only very partially recorded. Like the Scyths, Sarmatians, and Huns before them (and their Mongol contemporaries and adversaries), the Russians were to acquire a reputation ?.more stable societies for both ruggedness and cruelty. But unlike all the others who dominated the steppe, the Russians succeeded-not just in conquering but in civilizing the entire region, from the Pripet Marshes and the Carpathian Mountains in the west to the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas in the east.