“We realized that we are not only showing objects of fine art, from book graphics and enamels to large-format canvases, but in many ways we are tracking the attitude of the Russian people to the world,” says Zhanna Belik, head of the department . of art examination and criticism of the Rublev Museum, and she immediately adds: “I hope that our viewers understand the word “peace” in the broadest sense.”
It turns out that in Russia they began to think about the creation of the world only under Ivan III, and that was because the geopolitics of that time demanded it, the country was growing and strengthening, and it was necessary to demonstrate its right to a leading role in history. universal. At the same time, the concept of “Moscow is the third Rome” and the belief that Russia is the same age as the universe was gaining momentum. Before this, the curators claim, Russians were concerned with themes of personal salvation, and icon painters were concerned with themes from the New Testament.
The first attempt to talk about the creation of the world is found in Tolkova’s Palette of 1477, and the first Russian icon on this topic appears in the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. These treasures, of course, are not presented in the Rublev Museum, but since the last quarter of the 15th century the “Holy Trinity” has been located here.
There are so many mysteries around this icon that excursion groups stay near it for at least half an hour. It was written approximately seventy years after Rublev’s “Trinity”, and there is no doubt, the exhibition curators are sure, that the unknown artist copied the master’s masterpiece. Here the same meeting occurs about the intention to create the angelic and human world. But in Rublev’s icon there is one cup on the table and the copyist has three.
“If we remember the descriptions of the restorers who studied the original source, then the Cup really is there, but the rest of the table is a painting without preservatives,” Zhanna Belik tells the curious. “Maybe there was originally something else on the table, but hasn’t it survived to this day?”
The curator does not approve, he asks questions. There will be many more of them during the exhibition. The Rublev Museum is one of those places where people do not like to give ready-made answers and provoke thoughts.
The most memorable of the exhibition are eight large-format sketches for the paintings of the vaults of the side naves of the Vladimir Cathedral in kyiv. They were created by Wilhelm Kotarbinsky and Pavel Svedomsky in 1887-1895. Since the paintings migrated from cardboard to the cathedral dome, no one could see them so closely and the sketches were kept in private collections. Their show is a sensational event.
The seven days of creation here are not something boring and didactic, it is a riot of colors and breadth of vision: a barefoot God, rainbows, birds, palm trees, stormy waters, red boots at the palekh of the angels… There is a image of the planets and the entire solar system: literal understanding of the creation of celestial bodies. The influence of Byzantium, Italian mosaics, folk crafts, the Russian academic school, and the growing Art Nouveau style of the time add quite readable metaphors about the structure of the world to Kotarbinsky-Svedomsky’s works; everything new, of course, is good. , but there is no path without continuity.
This is also indicated by the copies of the Dionysian frescoes in the Ferapontov monastery: they are located right in front of the kyiv naves. These copies were made by the famous Soviet artist Nikolai Gusev, who also allowed us to watch Rublev making copies of the murals of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir.
From the 20th century in an exhibition that covers almost half a thousand years of understanding of the primordial world: “Archangel Michael” by Mikhail Nesterov.
“As is known from church tradition, Archangel Michael must save the world, even those who are tormented, and it is important that Nesterov turns to him precisely at a difficult time in our history,” the museum notes.
In total there are more than 50 works in the exhibition. The Rublev Museum’s “Creation of the World” project includes not only the exhibition itself, but also lectures and concerts of sacred and instrumental music. The exhibition will be open until June 2.
