The multimedia disc "Yaroslavl Icon Painting" (software) gives a unique opportunity to get acquainted with artworks of the Yaroslavl church painting of the last eight centuries. The disc contains materials from the collections of Yaroslavl Art Museum, Yaroslavl Museum - Preserve of History and Architecture and Faculty of History of Yaroslavl State University.
This software contains information about icons starting from the XIII century, when Yaroslavl became the capital of the independent principality.
The Yaroslavl art of the 13-th century is represented nowadays by five icons. They are all well preserved and of remarkable artistic level though created in different historical times. “Our Lady Orans” and “Christ Pantocrator” are masterpieces of Pre-Mongolian icon painting of the early 13-th century. It should be noted that in the world there are only 25 icons of the Pre-Mongolian period, i. e. from the beginning of the 13-th century up to the year 1237. “Our Lady Umilenie enthroned” and "Archangel Michael" were painted at the end of the 13-th century, in times of Mongolian-Tartar Yoke. Icon painters of princely workshops on the orders of princes created all of them.
Feudal domestic wars and frequent forays of the Golden Horde's people favoured neither creation nor preservation of monuments of Yaroslavl icon painting of the 14-th century. But nevertheless some of them have survived up to the present day. It probably was political and cultural stabilisation, which came after the victory of Russian army on Kulikovo Field in 1380, which favoured their creation. The troops of Yaroslavl, Mologa and Kurba took part in the battle on Kulikovo Field.
The icons of the 15-th century having survived up to nowadays, are the witness that the processes in Yaroslavl art were common to the entire Russian culture. The 15-th century was the time of formation and evolution of tall multi-tiered iconostasis - a specific Russian form of decoration of orthodox temples.
In connection with the great fire of Yaroslavl in 1501 Moscow masters set up new stone temples and made their monumental paintings. The Yaroslavl icons of the early 16-th century were also painted by Moscow painters. Yaroslavl painting of the middle and second half of the 16-th century strikingly reflected local original features and democratic tastes of commissioners - townsmen.
The 17-th century is the Golden Age in Yaroslavl culture. Many masterpieces of Russian art of this century were created right here. Most unusual was the fact that on the final stage of the development of Russian medieval culture Yaroslavl seems to sum up its century-old history by having formed its icon painting school.
The 18-th century signifies the beginning of the New Times in Russian history. As a result of the socio-political reforms considerable cultural changes took place. The church religious art was not the only one determining the Russian artistic process any more. Quickly and steadily the temporal culture was supplanting the religious one. The church architecture was greatly affected by such styles as Baroque and Classicism.
In the 19-th century icon painting became a mass type of artistic production. In big towns and villages there existed icon-painting workshops where icons were painted both for temples and, mostly, for particular commissioners.
The 20-th century is the hardest and most dramatic one in the history of religious art. The beginning of the 20-th century was signified with successes of restoration due to which many ancient icons acquired their original appearance. This provoked a big interest in icon painting both in the sphere of scientists and among lovers of art. However from the end of 1920s up to the end of 1980s the religion itself and the art related to it were considered to be the ideological enemies of the new regime. Painters were forced to change their qualification and develop, in particular, varnished miniature. Yet, many ancient monuments were preserved in museums where they were studied and restored.
“ Yaroslavl Icon Painting ” includes descriptions of more than 200 icons and 150 details from them. Icons (details) of each century can be viewed with music accompaniment and multimedia lectures. Viewing icons involves a short description, narrative about the icon, its large-scale image and entire historic technical information.
One of the distinctive opportunities offered by software is its flexible icon search system according to the specified attributes: name, literary source of the subject, time of creation, master, commissioner. The system makes it easy to select the icons according both top articular attributes and to a given combination of them.
Disk contains materials from collections of
Yaroslavl Art Museum
Copyright © 2000, Volga Embankment 23, Yaroslavl, Russia, 150000
Yaroslavl Museum Preserve of History and Architecture
Copyright © 2000, Bogoyavlenskaya square 25, Yaroslavl, Russia, 150000