Download Introduction This course of lectures covers history of Russian

Introduction
This course of lectures covers history of Russian architecture from the end of the 10th to the early 13th
centuries. It is usually referred to as Old or Ancient Russian Architecture. However, calling it "ancient" is
not exactly right since it is not "ancient" in the proper sense of the word, as is the case with Ancient
Egyptian or Ancient Greek culture. Old Russian architecture is a phenomenon of our medieval culture.
To get the first impression and introduction to Russian architecture of the 10th to 13th centuries, often
referred to as pre-Mongol architecture, is quite easy; for example, you can take a specific architectural
monument and imagine it against the background of modern Russian or West European architecture.
Then the distinct character of a Russian building will become obvious.
Three kilometers from the city of Novgorod and slightly away from the right bank of the River Volkhov
there is a not-too-high and modest-looking church. This is the Church of the Transfiguration of Our
Saviour on Nereditsa Hill, which is popularly known as simply Nereditsa. It was built in 1198, by order of
Prince Yaroslav the Wise. As compared to the grandiose churches of St. Petersburg and Moscow built in
the 18th and the 19th centuries, it looks very simple, almost simplistic.
A huge size of this or that building does not by itself guarantee the artistic value, and, besides, there is
simplicity and then there is simplicity. Remember the famous words of a poet about artistic expression:
We can't but fall — a heresy! —
To unbelievable simplicity.
No review of Novgorod, Old Russian, or Russian architecture in general, can do without reference to
Nereditsa. This church is necessary for understanding the evolution of Novgorod and Old Russian
architecture, for the artistic development of the Byzantine theme that first appeared in our architecture
in the 10th and the early 11th centuries. Nereditsa reflects the features of local architecture that
developed in the 12th and the early 13th centuries.
There is something arcanely intimate, something hard to express in words, in the outline of this church a singular charm linked to the national world view, something emotional and heart-stirring.
The restorer of Nereditsa, Petr Pokryshkin, at the beginning of the 20th century, addressed Nereditsa
with the poet Fyodor Tyutchev's words:
The proud foreign glance
Cannot comprehend - would not even notice!
What shines secretly through
Your humble nakedness.
And exactly this that "shines secretly through" is the main thing in Nereditsa as well as in Old Russian
culture and architecture. This is more important than any facts. This is what one needs to unravel in the
mystery of Old Russian architecture.
The science dealing with Old Russian architecture is relatively young. The 18th century was lost for this
kind of research as well as for the research of our medieval culture. Interest to Russian antiquity was
kindled by works of N. Karamzin. But even Pushkin and his contemporaries did not fully understand the
artistic value of Russian medieval art, including the architecture; almost everything at that time was
overshadowed by ancient Greek and Roman art, which is understandable and not hard to explain.
The debates between Slavophiles and Westernizers in the 1830s-50s marked the beginning of collecting
and classification of Old Russian art.
A great role for the understanding in the second half of the 19th and the early 20th centuries the truly
unique qualities of Old Russian architecture was played by archaeology and restoration of architectural
monuments. These two branches of science provided accurate information about the greatly distorted
appearance of ancient buildings. The views of pre-revolutionary science on Russian pre-Mongol
architecture were summarised in the multi-author "History of Russian Art" published in the early 20th
century under the editorship of Igor Grabar. A multi-volume publication on history of Russian art
appeared in the middle of the 20th century, under the same title but enriched with scientific discoveries
of the first half of the 20th century. Its first four volumes cover Old Russian art, including Old Russian
Architecture.
Another general work worth mentioning is "The General History of Architecture" published in the 1970s
(the section on pre-Mongol architecture can be found in Volume 3). Many researchers, whole-hearted
in their devotion, treaded the difficult path of studying Old Russian architecture. Among them were D.
Ainanov, A. Nekrasov, N. Voronin, M. Karger, Yu. Aseev, P. Rapoport, A. Komech. A lot had changed
during the 20th century in the science of Old Russian architecture: methods had changed; the approach
to an architectural monument as a historical source had prevailed, and dozens of new architectural
monuments had been included in research. While before the revolution researchers based their work
on 30-40 architectural monuments, now there are over 200.
Before turning our attention to pre-Mongol buildings themselves, it is necessary to make a few
introductory remarks concerning characteristics of architecture as an art form and special features of its
artistic language.
Architecture belongs to the spatial arts. One should mention its connection with technology. There is a
good reason for the existence of such a phrase as "building and architecture". But building belongs to
the sphere of technology. Architecture in Greek and Latin means "chief building", referring to the art of
building and artistic values connected with it, an image implying something superior, more important
than just the practical value of a building. Every art form has its own way of embodying the spiritual
content, feelings and ideas, general or specific in different measure. Ability for generalisation is in the
nature of architecture.
Unlike painting, sculpture or graphic art, architecture does not depict. Its way of creating forms and
shapes is not depictive. It cannot portray like painting or narrate like literature. Architecture uses a real,
three-dimensional form, a material substance, possessing a number of specific qualities that are
transformed into an artistic image through creative interpretation of an architect. Citing Antoine de
Saint-Exupéry, "... the architect took the stone and created silence".
What are the qualities of the material that serve as basis for the language of this art form? Right now it
does not matter whether it is wood, stone, brick or concrete. Here are these qualities:
materiality;
weight;
statics;
colour;
texture, etc.
When dealing with the material mass, an architect uses its linear and dimensional characteristics:
the line;
the plane;
the size.
He creates a proportion, a correlation of these qualities, extracts rhythmic effects out of them. This is
what we call the language of architecture that defines the nature of this art from. Thus, the media used
by architecture have no analogues in nature. The line, the size, the plane are able to convey a
generalised meaning, even abstract, one can say, but not specific.
Architecture embodies general patterns of existence, big ideas, the passions inspiring the man and the
society; its nature is to create symbolic images, a kind of portraits of a certain society in its historical,
social, religious and national aspects.
We are not always aware of the fact that the building erected by the architect is created in harmony and
sometimes in confrontation with the gravity, the terrestrial attraction. Indeed, the only theme inherent
to architecture is overcoming the weightiness, inertia and constraints of the material, that is, the
building material. The variety of images created by architecture comes down to this theme and its
interpretation in different historical periods and by different peoples. Overcoming weightiness is always
a victory, a victorious spirit unbending the man.
Architecture is also a drama: the supporting and the supported structures, their confrontation, and the
victorious result.
These characteristics of a building determine its correct comprehension. A work of architecture is not
just a facade, it is a three dimensional body. The mode of its materialisation and existence is its building
structure.
How should one comprehend the building? One should get into the spirit of the hard work performed by
the support structures, feel the continuous antagonism of the supporting and supported structures, take
seriously this silent drama and its final victory. See the reflection of the design concept in its exterior;
associate with it, try it on yourself (a human being is also an architecture).
One cannot fail to see another characteristic feature of architecture that is inherent in the very nature of
its language. Architecture embodies only positive values of the man's spirit. It cannot reproduce the
crafty zigzags of the human spirit - its irony, satire, humour. The inherent inability of architecture to
embody the negative gives this art form a tone of dignity and honesty.
The prominent architecture theoretician Ginsburg expressed this idea with extraordinary
conclusiveness: "The principal laws of creating an architectural mass, the laws of rhythm that inspire it,
are very simple. These are almost exclusively the laws of forming a regular geometric shape, which are
clear in their mathematical essence, distinct in their rhythm... The variety of architectural masses can be
reduced to a few simple geometric bodies - a parallelepiped, a prism, a pyramid, a cone. The
classification of rhythms is simple as well: simple and complex, symmetric and asymmetric,
disconnecting and connecting."
Every style has its own ways of rhythmic organisation. Thus, architecture has an amazing ability to
capture in its rhythms, as it were, the pulse of the era, its most general and yet most intimate
aspirations.
So, the rhythm of spatial-dimensional entities is the main way of creating the architectural image. What
senses does architecture appeal to? In medieval times architecture was the leading art form. Why?
First of all, as it was already mentioned, architecture embodies the most general ideas that the society
lives by. They say that a great epoch finds its reflection in great architecture. And this is true. The life of
medieval society was completely dominated by the grandiose spiritual system of Christianity. Thus,
conditions were highly favourable for the development of architecture. It is not a mere coincidence
that the most beautiful buildings on our planet are churches, especially medieval one.
Furthermore, a church is a quintessential expression of the Christian world view. Architecture of a
church is a materialized understanding of the world order according to Christian ideas. Only
architecture, with its mechanisms of generalisation, could express this colossal idea. Yet another thing is
important: under the aegis of church architecture, sacred worship was carried out. It was implemented
by using artistic devices of many art forms, or rather, their grandiose synthesis:
the art of public speaking;
singing;
writing;
painting;
applied art;
a theatrisized solemn rite.
All these art forms together or separately specified the content that had already been materialised in
the symbolism of church architecture, which was the symbolic expression of the world, its structure and
meaning.
Besides, the church is an element of urban or country environment that is constantly influencing people.
It is always beside people in their everyday lives. It forms the image of the city, town, or village, forms
their moral face, continuously reminds the man about the most important things.
All other art forms were not by any means as accessible for the man of the Middle Ages and, therefore,
had not ability to exercise continuous influence over him. All this puts architecture, and, above all,
church architecture, in the first place when it comes to the significance, the level of influence on
everyday life and religious life of people.
And in the end, I would like to say one more thing. Rus’, as you know, adopted Christianity from the
Byzantine Empire, and along with Christianity, it also adopted its tradition of church building.
Byzantine architecture by the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th century had come a long
way in its development. This path was marked by the development of a religious building that best
meets the needs of Christian worship. By the end of the 10th century, there appeared a type of church
that was classically elegant and ultimately acceptable from the point of view of functionality, imagery
and symbolism.
A brief typology of the Byzantine church and its history are as follows: in the 4th and the 5th centuries,
two types of structures dominated the Byzantine church construction - the basilica and the centrallyplanned building. Both were borrowed from Hellenistic and Roman architecture.
By the 6th century, we find a convergence of these two types: the basilica becomes less extended,
sometimes looking almost square in plan, and its structural arrangement begins to include the dome
that now defines the central part of the church and its characteristics. Thus, a distinct type of church is
created that later was called the domed basilica.
Later, especially in the post-iconoclastic period, i.e. from the middle and the second half of the 9th
century, the cross-domed type of church became dominant in church architecture.
The main, i.e. the central, core of the cross-domed building is the temple on four supports (columns, or
pylons). The four supports are joined with wall arches and sail vaults that carry the dome, usually
mounted on drums. This is the central bay of the church, the domed space.
The domed space in this type of building has adjoining bays in the cardinal directions (north, west, south
and east), which are covered by barrel vaults. These are the bays that form the spatial cross.
Structurally, the cross-domed form is highly practical. Symbolically, this is an image of the hierarchy,
expressed in a simple, clear and accessible form. The cross-domed church could be both ultimately big
and ultimately small.
As already mentioned, this type of church became in the 10th century the dominant architectural form
of Byzantine architecture. And this was the time when Christianity was introduced in Rus’.