Cathedral of Saint Demetrius

MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA SEMINÁŘ DĚJIN UMĚNÍ Lucie Lienerová Cathedral of Saint Demetrius Bakalářská práce Vedoucí práce: prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur ès Lettres Brno, 2021 I hereby declare that I worked on this bachelor’s thesis on my own and that I used only sources listened in the bibliography. __________________________________________________________ At this point I would like to express my gratitude to all who supported me at writing of this thesis, who gave me advices, help and who provided me with materials necessary for its completion. First and foremost, I must thank to my thesis supervisor professor Ivan Foletti who supported my choice of topic, provided me with crucial recommendations and who devoted to the thesis a lot of time and effort. From the very begining, the most important for me and my research was the support of my mother who willingly helped my studying Russian language and who patiently translated with me literature written in Russian at the time when I was not able to do so on my own. Without her, my research would not even begin. Further, I would like to express my gratefulness to those who provided me with essential sources without which I would not be able to complete the thesis. In this context I own my big thanks to my father, to Ing. Andrey Maratovich Novik and especially big thanks to Dr. Igor N. Titov for his helpfulness. Big thanks belong also to my friends for their belief in my skills. I would like to mention particularly Galina Prokudina for her support in translating Russian and old Russian texts and terms. Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to everyone who spent their time on corrections of my text and in this context, I own my big thanks to my friend Michaela Patrovská. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ...............................................................................................................................1 2. The State of Research ................................................................................................................2 2.1. Summary……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..20 3. Architectural Description and Restoration Interventions ……………………………………………………22 3.1. Description of Architecture …………………………………………………………………………………22 3.2. Description of Relief Embellishment…………………………………………………………………….26 3.3. Restoration Interventions ……………………………………………………………………………………30 4. Dating ………………………………………………….………………………………………………….………………………..35 4.1. Dating of Architecture …………………………………………………………………………………………35 4.1.1. Contextualization …………………………………………………………………………………40 4.2. Dating of Relief Embellishment …………………………………………………………………………..48 4.2.1. Formal Analysis and Sources ………………………………………………………………..49 4.2.2. Contextualization …………………………………………………………………………………54 4.3. Dating of Mural Paintings ……………………………………………………………………………………57 4.3.1 Formal Analysis and Dating…………………………………………………………………….58 5. Contextualization and Iconography …………………………………………………………………………………..66 5.1. Andrey Bogolyubskiy and the Political Situation at the time of the Construction of the First Churches ………………………………………………………………………………………………………66 5.2. The Iconography of the Churches (1158–1167) ………………………………………………….69 5.3. The Iconography of the Saint Demetrius cathedral ……………………………………………..70 6. Conclusion ………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………….73 7. Literary Sources and Bibliography ………………………………………………….………………………………….75 7.1. Chronicles …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..75 7.2. Reports from Archives …………………………………………………………………………………………75 7.3. Bibliography – Latin …………………………………………………………………………………………….76 7.4. Bibliography – Cyrillic ………………………………………………………………………………………….81 8. List of Images …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….87 1. Introduction The cathedral of Saint Demetrius was built in 90’s of 12th century on the court of Vsevolod the Big Nest (1177–1212).1 However, the court itself has not preserved to our time and the cathedral, situated in the centre of city Vladimir above the river Kljazma, is nowadays standing solitary. In proximity to the edifice, we can find the Dormition cathedral and the Rozhdestvensky monastery.2 The edifice is based on the basic cross-domed ground plan, with a triple apse and four piers supporting a single cupola which remains firmly in the tradition of Byzantine church as adapted in early medieval Rus.3 In the contrary with this, its building method using cut limestones as masonry has not emerged at any area of Rus’ on such a scale as in the North- Eastern Rus’.4 The cathedral is distinguished by diverse carved relief motives which almost entirely fill up its outer walls. Although, the cathedral was and still is elaborately studied, there were not find satisfying answers on most of the questions regarding the origin of the relief embellishment and the mural paintings, the dating of its architecture and its overall iconography. In this thesis a study of the cathedral begins with the description of architecture, relief embellishment and restoration interventions. It further focuses on the dating of the architecture in relation to the formerly adjacent palace court. For finding analogies to carved reliefs and mural paintings, establishing their dating, and incorporating them to broader context will be employed the formal analysis. In order to determine the iconological interpretation will be, in the fifth chapter, the cathedral’s establishment putted into broader context of political activities on Kievan Rus’ since the end of 50’s of 12th century and iconography of its facades will be also examined in the context of palace buildings and visibility of carved reliefs. 1 In Russian terminology sobor means also the main or the great church in a town or in a monastery, it is translating as temple or cathedral, without regard whether it has a cathedra or not. Saint Demetrius cathedral does not possess cathedra. Miloslava Šroufková – Rostislav Pleský – Marta Vencovská, entry собор, Rusko- český a česko-ruský slovník, Praha 1988, p. 479; S.I. Ozhegov, entry собор, Slovar’ russkogo yazyka, Moskva 1981, p. 658. 2 I.I. Shulus – N.V. Kipriyanova – N.V. Myagtina – V.A. Chernirkina, Gubernskiy gorod Vladimir v posledney treti XVIII – pervoy polovine XIX, Ocherki povsednevnoy provintsial’noy zhizni, Vladimir 2008, p. 173. 3 Williem Craft Brumfield, A History of Russian Architecture, Seattle 2004, p. 46; Dmitriy Olegovich Shvidkovski, Russian Architecture and the West, New Heaven 2007, p. 31. 4 Brumfield (note 3), p. 44; Shvidkovski (note 3), p. 29. 1 2. The State of Research There are not many comprehensive studies focused on the cathedral of Saint Demetrius, though essays concentrating on a single issue are more common. The façade iconography, the origin of relief embellishment and white stone architecture, these questions are all discussed in broader studies focusing on the building activity at North-Eastern Rus’. This chapter is introducing primary the studies focusing consistently on the Saint Demetrius cathedral. In his series of historical books, Vasiliy Nikitich Tatishchev (1686–1750) states the origin for the unique architecture on North-Eastern Rus’, characterized by its relief embellishment, comes from the Holy Roman Empire. For its first preserved monument, Dormition cathedral, established in 1158 on request of prince Andrey Bogolyubskiy (1157–1174), he implies that the masters were sent from Frederic I Barbarossa (1152–1190), with whom Andrey was in friendship.5 Although he did not prove his claim with any sources, his statement is present from 19th century essays as well as in nowadays essays, as will be shown later. Vasiliy Ivanovich Dobrokhotov (1814–1857) wrote a book in 1849 about the monuments in Vladimir, the Dormition cathedral and Saint Demetrius cathedral.6 He believed the cathedral of Saint Demetrius was established after Rozhdestvenskiy monastyr’, completed in year 1191, and was built in between years 1191–1197.7 Dobrokhotov assumed the edifice to be surrounded by the court buildings from the south and the north, which were connected with narrow passages, the same way as at Bogolyubovo court. He describes that the extensions, torn down in 1838–1839, were of the same kind as the cathedral.8 Furthermore, he delineates there were the same sculpted reliefs on one of the extensions as they are on the cathedral. Nevertheless, he supposed the extensions came from the era of Ivan the Terrible (1547–1584).9 He thought that the exterior relief embellishment depicted the words 5 V.H. Tatishchev, Istoriya Rossiyskaya s samykh drevneyshikh vremen, kn. 3., Moskva 1774, pp. 127, 487. 6 V.I. Dobrokhotov, Pamyatniki drevnosti vo Vladimire Klyazemskom, Moskva 1849. 7 Ibidem, pp. 139–140. 8 Ibidem, pp. 142–143. 9 Ibidem, p. 146. 2 of David; “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord”.10 He also believed that the murals, uncovered during restorations in 1838–1839, came from 15th century due to their similarities with the murals in Dormition cathedral painted by Andrey Rublev and Daniel Chorny in same century.11 In the same year, 1849, Sergey Grigor’yevich Stroganov (1794–1882) wrote his comprehensive essay on the Saint Demetrius cathedral.12 In his opinion, the churches at North-Eastern Rus’ could not have been built by Byzantine masters, as at that time, the anthropomorphic depictions on the facades of Byzantine churches were not allowed. He proposes a connection with the so called Lombardian school. Stroganov pointed out that the chronicles do not mention masters from Frederic I Barbarossa (1152–1190) and they only implied the masters

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