From the history of ancient Russian icon painting

Exhibition "Nevyansk icon" opened in Yelabuga

On September 15, the exhibition "Nevyansk Icon" from the funds of the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore opened in the exhibition hall of the Yelabuga State Museum-Reserve. The exhibition features 65 items of church antiquity, including 20 unique icons of the original Nevyansk icon-painting school of the 18th-19th centuries, as well as copper utensils and household items. A special place is occupied 16th century gospel and traditional clothing of the Old Believers.

The Nevyansk icon-painting school was recently singled out by art historians as a separate direction. Meanwhile, the works of the Ural masters do have their own distinctive features, first of all, abundant gilding. In addition, they are festively bright and elegant. But what is most striking is the mastery of the authors, who often create multi-figure and multi-plot compositions with the finest elaboration of details on one icon.

According to researchers, the Nevyansk icon is one of the highest manifestations of Old Believer icon painting. Among the works of Nevyansk icon painting presented at the exhibition are icons Lord Almighty, Mother of God of Kazan, Archangel Michael, Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, prophet Elijah and many other saints.

Nevyansk masters constantly sought to expand the content of the icon. In this respect, the images "Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos" and "Nativity". On the icon of the Intercession, the scene of the appearance of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Blachernae Church is supplemented by countless hosts of saints surrounding her, and the icon of the Nativity of Christ includes 16 scenes reflecting the events of the first years of the earthly life of Jesus Christ.

The persecution that the Old Believers were subjected to made the images of martyrs for the faith especially beloved and widespread. Ulita and her young son Kirik and "The fiery ascent of Elijah the prophet". The last image can be seen on an unusual two-sided icon, which includes a rare in its distribution "The image of the origin of the Honest Life-Giving Cross of our Lord at the source". Equally rare, and perhaps the only one of its kind, is the multi-plot tondo icon. "Only Begotten Son", which was once above the royal gates of the Old Believer house church.

Many icons in the exposition are accompanied by small but capacious texts telling about the events connected with the appearance of this or that image. For instance, Nikola Mozhaisky, who holds a sword in one hand, and in the palm of the other - a symbolic image of the city of Mozhaisk, saved from enemies by his heavenly intercession.

The exposition presents several copper-cast icons. Among them is a four-leaf fold with the twelfth holidays, image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Cross with crucifix and forthcoming.

Copper icons and crosses appeared in Russia since the adoption of Christianity. In the second half of the 17th century, after the split of the Russian Church, the copper icon received a special development. Copper-cast images revere " as those who have been cleansed by fire", i.e. " not made by hand», « not created by new believers". The development of the copper foundry business took place in very special conditions, contrary to the law and the will of the authorities. By decree of Peter I, not only the production, sale, but also the existence of copper icons and crosses was prohibited. Only crosses-vests and chest panagias were allowed. Despite the existence of this law, which was in force in Russia for 160 years, copper work in the Old Believer environment, among forests, in hidden sketes, reached an extraordinary height of artistic embodiment.

Cast crosses are also included in the composition of two painted icons, which, despite their relatively small size, are extremely rich in content. So, on one of them, a loose kiot cross is surrounded Holy Metropolitans Alexy, Peter and And she, as well as Martyrs John the Warrior, Ulita, Kirik and Salome. The icon is shown on the top right side. Intercession of the Virgin, and on the left Annunciation.

Even more plots include the Cross itself with the crucifixion and the upcoming ones. It is crowned with six-winged seraphim, below which are icons Descents into hell, Lord of hosts, Holy Trinity, Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, Protection of the Mother of God, Meeting of the Lord and selected saints.

There are large icons in the exhibition with skillful salaries: cast, decorated with carvings, embossing and gilding. There are icons in frames embroidered with beads and mother-of-pearl with inserts of colored glass.

Family icons were often ordered, where, along with the central image of the Virgin or a particularly revered saint, the heavenly patrons of parents and their children were depicted in the margins. So, on one of these icons called "Our Lady of the Troubles of the Suffering" you can see the saints nauma and Daniel, Catherine and Barbarian, Marina and Thomais.

In the 18th-19th centuries, there was an Old Believer icon-painting tradition in the mining Urals, which was called the Nevyansk school. The term is associated with the Ural city of Nevyansk (Sverdlovsk region)

BRIEF HISTORICAL SUMMARY

In the 18th-19th centuries, there was an Old Believer icon-painting tradition in the mining Urals, which was called the Nevyansk school. The term is associated with the Ural city of Nevyansk (Sverdlovsk region), which in the 18th-19th centuries was the cultural capital of the mining Urals and the largest center of the Old Believers. There were icon-painting workshops and a scriptorium in Nevyansk.

Icon painters who painted in the “Nevyansk” style worked not only in Nevyansk, but also in other mining settlements (Nizhny Tagil, Staraya Utka, Krasnoufimsk). The formation of the school took place against the backdrop of active industrial colonization of the Urals in the first half of the 18th century. The “new settlers”, who came from the Russian North and the Volga region, brought with them their ideas of beauty and predetermined the appearance of the Nevyansk icons. At an early stage in the development of the Nevyansk school, a connection was found with the old Russian icon-painting centers - Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vologda. By the last quarter of the 18th century, when the third or fourth generation of local icon painters was already working, the Nevyansk school acquired that stability that external influences could only enrich, but not destroy. Icons of the 19th century artistically more uniform. This is due to the formation of a "fashion" for the works of some icon painters, such as the Bogatyrevs, which stimulated other, less well-known artists, one way or another to "copy" the style of the "luminaries".

Nevyansk icon: from the origins to sunset

So far, none of the researchers of Nevyansk icon painting has named the exact date when it began and even when it ended. The question is by no means idle. Although one can hardly seriously count on such crazy luck, so that the year, month, date, as well as the place of creation and the surname with the name of the isographer - and everything was indicated on one icon. Most likely, such an icon will never be found.

For the uninitiated, let's start with the basics: what is an icon. In the Christian understanding, an icon is an image of the persons of Holy Scripture: biblical characters and scenes, the lives of saints. In a narrower sense - an image on a wooden board. Note that icons can also be made from other materials, primarily from metal, then from stone, ceramics, fabric, glass, etc., but in this case we will focus exclusively on an icon based on wood.

The wooden icon is arranged as follows: a chopping block was cut out of a block on both sides of the core. Before that, the material was dried for a long time, usually several years. The chopping block was processed with a tool corresponding to the era: an ax, a scraper, a saw, a planer, a jointer. With an ax or a chisel, a “trough” was chosen from the front side, and an “ark” was obtained along the perimeter (fields towering above the middle). Further, the so-called “pavoloka” (made of fabric, and often paper since the 18th century) was glued onto the base. A multi-layered gesso, a creamy mixture of chalk, an adhesive solution (animal or fish glue) and a small amount of hemp oil or drying oil, was applied to the pavoloka, and each layer was thoroughly dried before spreading a new one. Usually 6-12 layers were applied. Then the gesso was ground and polished. After that, the isographer (called the "signner") applied the drawing to the gesso, using, as a rule, the front original - a sheet of parchment or thick oiled paper, on which a plot on a particular topic was drawn or copied.

The sheet was superimposed on the gesso and "powdered". “Powder” is such a procedure when a linen bag stuffed with crushed charcoal was lightly tapped on a sheet: the coal woke up through the holes and a “translation” of the pattern from black dots was obtained on gesso. The isographer circled the dotted drawing with a brush or traced it with a cir (quoted). It turned out "proris". The next operation was the application of polyment (paint, usually minium), on which sheet gold was glued. Simmered garlic or other binder was used as glue, later gum arabic was used. Having glued the gold and polished it with a wolf's (bear's) tooth or a piece of agate, the isographer proceeded to painting. First, everything that was local (landscape, architecture, clothes, etc.) was prescribed, and last of all, faces. Then the front side of the icon was covered with a protective film of drying oil or varnish. Lacquer, and especially drying oil, as it were, "collected" all the painting into a single color whole, "manifested" it.

We did not mention one important detail of the icon - the dowels. True, not every icon has them.

Wood warps when dry. The board, especially the front side, usually bends over time. So, so that the icon does not warp, it is reinforced with dowels. Dowels - wooden connecting parts that fasten the shield or strengthen a single board. The most ancient icon dowels are printed. They were stuffed with copper or wooden nails on the lower and upper ends, as well as on the back side. Later, more reliable cut-in keys were invented.

It is likely that the earliest Nevyansk icons were created not in the city whose name they bear (in the 18th and even in the 19th centuries it was designated as a factory, and the status of a city was assigned only in 1919), but in some other nearby settlement.

If we take into account the earliest of the Nevyansk icons known today (1734), then in hardly more than three decades an icon-painting school with many characteristic and only inherent features, features of the artistic style, originally developed plots, its own canons of writing, lowercase and headline (knitted) fonts and many other details that, together, define the products of icon-painting workshops as Nevyansk.

From the very beginning, the Nevyansk icon has been presented to us as a precious alloy obtained in a powerful creative crucible. It combined into a whole, and the original whole, the details of many schools, trends and directions. In Nevyansk icons, especially early ones, the influences of Yaroslavl, as well as Moscow, Vyatka, late Stroganov, Perm and other letters and manners are obvious.

So, when did Nevyansk icon painting begin? Even an approximate date is still difficult to name, without strong evidence.

We did not come across icons from the original period, but among Yekaterinburg collectors there is a legend that there are two icons dated 1694 and 1695. And although according to the description (verbal) of the one who saw these icons, they are quite Nevyansk, that is, they have a full set of signs of the school, this version needs to be carefully studied and clarified.

Both icons have the same plot - "John the Baptist, the Angel of the Desert." Both icons are brownies, dimensions are approximately 30x27 cm. On the icon of 1694, the date is Cyrillic: “ZSG, November”. One of the icons, presumably, is still in a private Ekaterinburg collection, the other twenty years ago passed through the hands of a certain collector and was resold to Moscow.

However, there are also doubts, among which, in particular, this: how could icons be painted at the Nevyansk factory in 1694-1695, if the construction of it was started only in 1701?

There is, however, information that has not yet been documented, that traditional (Old Believer) icon painting arose in the Urals at least at the very beginning of the 18th century or a little earlier.

The Pomeranian Old Believer, Bespopovets Ivan Andreevich, who lived in Chelyabinsk, assured one of the authors of this article in 1975 that the first settlers from Vyg came to the Urals in the 17th century. This is how he explained when and where the handwritten book “One Hundred and Six Pomor Answers” ​​appeared in the Southern Urals (paleographically dated to the end of the first quarter of the 18th century).

Ivan Andreevich, although he did not rely on any historically confirmed facts or archival documents, confidently used oral traditions. He not only named the names and surnames of the monks from the Vygovsky (Vygoretsky) “obchezhitelstvo” who instructed the Ural Old Believers in the faith, but also assured that, in addition to the “manuscript” books they brought, they brought “truly Orthodox”, according to the “ancient” rules written with paternal and grandfather images of the icon “without Nikonian corruption”. And it is quite possible to believe in this - similar icons made on Vyga, in hermitages according to ancient models created before the middle of the 17th century, could serve as originals for Nevyansk copyists. It should be noted that they were reproduced by the iconographs of the Old Believers very accurately both in spirit and in detail, which we could repeatedly verify. For example, we had a chance to examine at least ten icons of the Mother of God of Kazan, painted in Nevyansk, created in different decades of the 18th century. The same icon undoubtedly served as a model for them (original), although all copies differ from each other in the manner of execution. It was this icon "Our Lady of Kazan" that was in the greatest demand among the Ural Old Believers.

There were, of course, imported icons for other subjects, especially during the period of mass migration to the Urals. They must be taken with them when moving to a new place of residence. Now they are extremely rare. This is understandable - after all, local icon painting arose and developed in the Urals immediately after the great migration, and it satisfied the demand of the population.

It happens that an icon travels like a wanderer and, passing from hand to hand, loses reliable information about itself, acquiring legends. Due to traditions in Russia, many iconographers quite consciously did not indicate either their name, or the place and time of manufacture. They believed: God sees everything, knows everything, and to remind them of their deeds is pride, that is, a sin. And others believed that it was not they who create the image, but the Holy Spirit: he looks at them with his eyes and leads them with his hand, while the artist is only an instrument of God. Therefore, he, the performer, does not have the right to appropriate to himself what was created, in fact, not by him, but by God.

But there were those who signed their creations. Not for the sake of pride, but to certify the very fact of accomplishment. Signature icons are a great success for an art critic. So, Chelyabinsk collectors at the end of the sixties of our century discovered the city of Nevyansk, where, as it turned out later, the “white-faced” icons famous throughout the Urals were painted. The icon was accidentally discovered in the economic warehouse of the city of Karabash. It marked the icon painter - Ivan Anisimov (Malyganov), the year of creation - 1796 and, most importantly, the place of writing - "in the Nevyansk plant." It was a huge success, a discovery that began to be confirmed by more and more evidence - icons, which, by the similarity of signs, could be called "Nevyansk".

So, in the 18th century, the Nevyansk plant was one of the centers of the Old Believers, and in relation to the topic of the article, let's say so - "the center of the Ural icon painting." By the beginning of the 19th century, there were more than a dozen icon-painting workshops in it. It was in this "new" Demidov Nevyansk, in our opinion, that the professional icon-painting school arose at the beginning of the 18th century and in the first half of it was finally formed.

Some researchers equate the concept of "Nevyansk school" and "icons of the Bogatyrevs". In our opinion, this is incorrect. The Bogatyrev dynasty has already taken a worthy place in the history of Nevyansk and, in general, Ural icon painting, their creative activity has been studied to some extent, however, along with them, no less talented artists lived and worked successfully at the same time.

And earlier, but especially in recent years, we began to come across Nevyansk icons of the early period. Prior to the discovery (from private collections) of icons, only one dated museum one was known (“Fatherland”, 1780).

One was not enough. Then the icon of 1774 "Our Lady of Kazan" appeared. The next one, also from a private collection, "Michael the Archangel of the Terrible Forces Voevoda" is dated October 1771. Not all of the six figures are well preserved, and the archangel has many losses, but the supporting features have been added and they could be more freely operated using as attribution material. If we assume that they could write like this in the 50-60s, then the time range has expanded until the middle of the century. It remained to wait (and look!) for the next find.

And then we got an icon with the date - 1734. Our assumptions and expectations came true: a dated icon from the first half of the 18th century with signs of the Nevyansk style has finally been discovered! We do not exclude the appearance of a new guest - the beginning of the XVIII century. Or late XVII. But so far this one is the oldest.

EARLY

The icon was received for restoration under the name “Uglichskaya”. But of the three varieties of this type, none resembled her.

The icon was in a deplorable state: the gesso (ground) had undergone significant destruction. Hilly surface, friability, softness, numerous fragmentary losses of the paint layer and gesso. Cracks have furrowed almost the entire scenic plane and the remains of the protective film of drying oil, which has darkened greatly with time (it usually darkens in 70-100 years and gradually becomes almost impenetrable). Various impurities (wax drops, soot, streaks, etc.) darkened the painting even more.

Unfortunately, the inscription (the title of the plot) on the unfamiliar icon was corrupted and could not be read immediately. The substitution of the lost letters also did not give positive results. Looking ahead, let's say that the word was written with an extended letter and it also turned out to be erased. After pre-washing it was possible to read the inscription. Here is its translation into modern Russian: “This holy image was written in the summer of 7243, completed in the same year on December 18, on the feast day of the holy Great Martyr Sebastian and his squad.” Since the “holy image” was completed in December, it is necessary to subtract not 5508 years from this figure (according to legend, the past from the creation of the world to the birth of Christ), but 5509. It is this figure that is subtracted in cases where the months from September to December inclusive are indicated. So the year 1734 turned out as a result.

In the Russian pantheon, there are more than two and a half thousand popular icon plots of the Mother of God. Among them we had to find someone we had never met before. The fact is that we doubted: is it unlikely that we have Uglichskaya in front of us? The doubt arose primarily because the name did not fit exactly into the line, it was a letter shorter. However, the inscription could have been made with spelling errors (this happens too). In a word, we had to find, by all means, a reproduction of such an icon, or at least its verbal description. Considering that we had rather meager reference material at our disposal, the task turned out to be not an easy one. And yet we managed to find a reproduction of the icon, similar to the icon of the Mother of God, which for some reason the owner called "Uglich". The drawing, although not in all details, coincided. On the reproduction, the Virgin Mary is depicted exactly in front, and the head of the Infant is turned 3/4 towards the Mother of God. On the icon, the head of the Mother of God is turned to the left, and Christ, in the same left-sided turn, seemed to have turned away from her. All other details of the figures matched.

It seemed that the icon was not the same at all. But in one of the albums, we studied about a dozen reproductions of Our Lady Hodegetria. The time of creation of the icons is from the 14th to the 19th centuries. And on one of them (Byzantium, XIV century), the baby was depicted in the exact same spread as on our icon. And then we decided that we were not mistaken, before us is the “Our Lady of Egypt”.

We will not describe the icon, the article is provided with a reproduction of it. It is only worth noting that the painting is of a high professional level. Its elements contain an almost complete set of attributes of Nevyansk icon painting: methods of applying colors and revealing volumes, modeling forms, expressions of faces and their characteristic type, pattern of ornaments, “pettiness” (miniaturity) of detail, lowercase fonts typical of the Nevyansk school and ligature of headings and etc.

Another reason why the Nevyansk iconographers did not indicate not only their names, but also hushed up the place where the icons were created. This was done out of an elementary precaution - the Old Believers-icon painters were persecuted as propagandists of heresy. Now, thanks to archival research, the names of some Old Believer iconographers and the places where they secretly set up their cells-workshops have become known - this is primarily Nizhny Tagil and its environs.

In one article it is impossible to tell in detail about the distribution area of ​​the Nevyansk icons in the Urals. It can only be argued that this area is huge, that the Nevyansk school of icon painting had a tangible impact on the Vyatka, Perm, Siberian (Tobolsk, Tyumen) regions, on the Southern Urals. The Nevyansk school was a significant phenomenon of spiritual life in the Urals from the first decades of the 18th century to the first decades of the twentieth century - this pictorial series opens with the already familiar “Egyptian Mother of God”, and closes the “Almighty” with the date April 2, 1919. And how large and important the place she, an icon, occupied and meant then in a person’s life, it’s hard for us to even imagine.

Ivan Andreevich (he was already over seventy in 1975) very willingly spoke about the life of the Old Believers. And he explained: the icon is not so much a “picture” (he knew that collectors collect icons and books as works of art), but an “image of God” and that the grace of God comes from primordial icons. They, bespopovtsy, greet newborns with such icons and bless them for marriage. And these unions, "without priests", "stronger than iron." Icons were also escorted to the afterlife, nailed to grave crosses. In general, the icon accompanied a person and protected from the moment of birth until death. Therefore, in every family, the image was cherished as the greatest value. Ivan Andreevich recognized the icons of the Nevyansk school as “his own”. He willingly included Stroganov and Palekh as such, if they had an ark. And the Perm icon, stylized as Nevyansk, he also called "Nashin".

So the Nevyansk school, having absorbed and remelted the best traditions of different schools, itself began to enrich the painting of neighboring regions. Nevyansk icon painting has been transformed at all levels of artistic interpretation - from the most exquisite miniature painting, which is not inferior in virtuosity and complexity of performance to the best examples of the royal workshops of iconographs - to ugly folk primitives (“rubbers”) in three colors, the price of which on a market day was three kopecks. Icons were painted in the Urals every year, including those of Nevyansk - thousands ...

Icons created by schismatic iconographers in Nevyansk and surrounding settlements were distributed among adherents of the old faith. The Old Believers could only pray to "their" images, or very ancient ones, created before the middle of the 17th century. Even the restoration was not trusted to Nikonians or atheists. It is not surprising - even natural - that Nevyansk icons are still found not only in the Sverdlovsk region, but also in neighboring ones - after all, then, in the 18th-19th centuries, for the Old Believers there was, as they say now, a single space in which they lived.

From time to time we are asked the question: why do you consider this icon to be from Nevyansk, and that one just from the Urals? Where is the proof? How do you determine the creation date? Is it reliable? We are clearly aware that the system we use does not pretend to be ideal and one hundred percent reliable, it may not suit someone. Well, let them invent their own, more perfect. In the meantime, a few words, briefly, about the principles and methods of our system.

The attribution and dating of icons is by no means an easy task. Attributes are based on extensive experience of scrupulous study of each instance. First of all, the so-called "watchfulness" is necessary. This is a specific collector's term, denoting the ability to distinguish, recognize in objects what he had seen before in others. A "watched" collector, sometimes, not being able to explain and prove, is based on intuition and experience. This experience is given over the years, after getting acquainted with a large number of exhibits. In addition to observation, one must have a clear idea of ​​the various signs related to the circle of icons that are similar in execution, about individual characteristics.

When analyzing, a lot is taken into account - from the type of wood and the method of making the material of the shield (board) to the features of applying the paint layer. Even under this condition, very often one has to limit oneself to conditional dating and designation of the place of creation, as they say, “from” and “to”, or even put a question mark in general. When dated, or even signed, with the name and surname of the performer are involved as attribution material, we usually indicate this original analogue as a reference in the annotation.

There is no need to prove how valuable such specimens are to the researcher. For example, for a certain time, the Nevyansk icon “Our Lady of Kazan”, dated January 22, 1774, served as a “support” (Ekaterinburg, private collection). She had such an abundance of significant losses that she did not represent a collection, and even more so a museum value. But fragments survived on it with details that were very important and indicative for us: colors and shades of colors, the pattern of the ornament of the borders of clothes, golden “clouds” on the red background of the icon cases, the shape and registration of “Jerusalem” stars, etc. (“Jerusalem stars” are three stars depicted on the cape of the Mother of God. They symbolize the virginity of Mary before birth, during the birth of Christ and after his birth.)

This icon, essentially unsuitable for exposition, gave us a lot: relying on it, its individual features and details, we were able to date and tie other icons to the place, and the “fork” could be several decades in both directions.

We study the reference icons with special care. It is noted, fixed (in writing, as well as photographed) any detail of the icon, which to an ignorant person could seem meaningless. It is similar to the work of doctors in the anatomical theater. At first glance - scrupulous, monotonous work. But over time, the icons lined up in a chronological row and became distinguishable by the manner of writing.

For the researcher, we repeat, everything is important: what material (wood species) is made of, what part of the block is cut from, how well it is dried, what tool the woodworker used (axe, scraper, planer, jointer). Dowels - direction, figuration, tie-in shape, connection method into a shield (gluing, dovetail, tongue), etc. Further: is the icon an ark or is it written on a straight board? So, having not yet looked at the painting, but only having examined the basis, we can already assume whether the Nevyansk icon is or not, and also, in what approximately time period it was made.

We finally got to painting. And here the most interesting begins: how the paints are applied, what kind of protective film (linseed oil, varnish), how much it has darkened over time, whether it is speckled with craquelures (cracks), in what manner the painting is done: traditional, fryaz (in Russian art, the generalized name for all foreign , Western European influences and styles) or later ecclesiastical "realistic" writing?

It is indicative what paints are used: natural - tempera, oil, mixed media - or modern chemical ones. Any person more or less familiar with painting knows that modern paints are very different from paints, say, of the 18th century in shades and even colors. The physical state of the paint layer and gesso is also very revealing. Of course, the “specialists” have learned to age both paints and gesso, but, having the appropriate experience, it is quite possible to distinguish natural destruction from artificial ones.

In one of the shops in Yekaterinburg, not so long ago, a three-leaf wooden fold was commissioned. On the wings are the archangels Gabriel and Michael, on the middle - the Savior Not Made by Hands. The owner assured that the icon belonged to her grandmother. But here's the bad luck: a fold is cut out of fresh wood, and instead of age-old pollution, it is somehow smeared with “mordant”. There are, however, not so clumsy, but downright skillful fakes. One of them was written on an old board from the beginning of the 19th century, with the remains of the author's gesso. The icon was completed by a professional artist. He even painted craquelures, so subtly and skillfully that they could only be recognized with the help of a microscope.

And, of course, the artistic level of performance will tell a lot to the researcher. How is the plot structured? Does it look like canonical Nevyansk? What are the drawings for the drawing? Painting technique: how are the melts superimposed, what kind of filling, golden gaps, ornament pattern? Landscape, urban architecture, specific architectural details (cornices, balustrades with balusters, columns, arches) are all taken into account. Seemingly small details are also important, such as the shape and color of pebbles, grass, trees, clothes of characters, not to mention the types of faces.

It was interesting to observe, for example, how one detail of the picturesque Nevyansk landscape was repeated and simultaneously changed from decade to decade - a tower with an arched passage. On the icon of 1771 "Michael the Archangel of the Terrible Forces Voevoda", the image of this detail is quite typical in terms of design and color for the traditional school, and it was not difficult to find an analogue by referring to the Yaroslavl masters, specifically to Semyon Spiridonov (Kholmogorets), to the icon "Nikolai the Wonderworker in thirty-four hallmarks of life "(1685). One of the hallmarks depicts the city and, in particular, a two-story tower with a high arch and battlements. In terms of color and decoration of the opening with large stone blocks, it is very reminiscent of the structures of the same name depicted on Nevyansk icons almost a century later.

On the icon of Menaia, remarkable for its filigree execution (1802), which we ventured to attribute to the Bogatyrev workshop, the said tower is reproduced in detail and in various ways - the same teeth and openings. Gradually, however, the tower turns into a decorative element of the landscape. On one of the icons of the middle of the 19th century, she stands in the middle of the city and there is a wasteland around her, and on the other (1840) she is generally taken out of the city and rises massively and ridiculously. The semantic purpose of these elements is lost and they are used simply as color spots.

So, as the thoroughness of the study of the depicted object decreases, the loss of its original meaning, it is possible to determine when, in what century and even decade the icon was painted.

LATER APOSTOLIC REGION

Four icons of the apostolic rank (row) will be considered by us as an example of Nevyansk icon painting of the late period, moreover, all of them are well preserved and, which is very important, have an almost complete set of attributes corresponding to this time period. These paintings are dated 1885.

The “biography” of the rank has not yet been thoroughly established, but it is known for sure that the apostolic rank was brought to Yekaterinburg several years ago from Irbit, where it was kept in the basement of one of the city’s churches. Masters could write the entire rank in Nevyansk, or in Nizhny Tagil, or in Yekaterinburg, they could fulfill the order on the spot. We have no doubts that the rank was created for the Old Believers, as well as what its icon painters, who worked in the Nevyansk traditional manner, created.

There is no need to describe the Apostolic Row in detail either, since the article is illustrated by a reproduction.

Judging by the size, the full apostolic row (rank of 12 figures) was intended for a small church. The dimensions of each icon are about 63x53 cm. Its basis is traditional for Nevyansk woodworkers - pine. Shields are assembled with special care, from solid, well-dried material. True, the dowels were inserted not in the end, but in the back, while the people of Nevyansk invariably preferred cut-in end ones. What does this deviation mean? Perhaps the shields themselves were not made in Nevyansk, but, for example, in Irbit. One way or another, but for more than a century the shield did not warp at all.

A curtain has also been laid. Levkas is dense and very hard, the so-called "bone". This was made in the best Nevyansk workshops. The fields and the background are covered with sheet (leaf) gold. Tempera paints, very finely grated, of good quality.

The painting is well preserved. True, the glazes (the last author's layer) are erased in some places, small chips are visible, and the drying oil has darkened to black in places.

The figures, three on each icon, are depicted in various poses against the backdrop of a typical Nevyansk landscape with sloping multi-colored hills. Some peaks are white (snowy). Trees, roots, herbs, bushes, rounded pebbles, fir-trees and pines - all these details are the attributes of Nevyansk writing. Some can be traced from the end of the 18th century, others arose in the second half of the 19th century. True, on these 4 icons they are painted with artistic imposingness, sometimes turning into naturalism. So, one of the icons depicts a village fence, as if the apostles went out to talk on the outskirts of the village somewhere in the vicinity of Nevyansk or Nizhny Tagil. These and similar realistic details are characteristic of the Nevyansk icon painting of the late period, although the proximity of the icon landscape to nature is captured even in school icons of the late 18th century.

It is curious to note that the faces of the apostles of this rank are very different from the Nevyansk canonical ones, they are very coarsened, peasant in appearance. The figures are heavy, baggy. Some of the folds of the clothes are pretentious and unnatural.

After washing over the lower edge, an inscription made in cinnabar appeared in the Nevyansk icon font: “By the zeal of Yegor Vasiliev Tokarev. 1885, May 10th day. In the lower right corner, another inscription was found, partially covered with a whitening pad: "189(?)". It must be assumed that it was made during the restoration, but it is possible that this is the date the work was completed.

Egor Vasilievich Tokarev, we assume, is not an icon painter, but a customer. This reflection is suggested by the inscriptions on the remaining icons of the apostolic row: “By the zeal of Nikon Ivanov Babaylov”, “By the zeal of Andrey Alekseev Adanitsin”, “By the zeal of Vasily Mitriyev Zudov”.

Some researchers see the author's in any signature inscribed on the icon. However, this is not always the case. Names and surnames may belong to owners, contributors, heirs. In this case, it is certainly the donors. Their diligence is noted.

It has already been noted that strict art connoisseurs will find artistic flaws in the depiction of the apostolic row. But it should be noted that all the icons coloristically look very impressive. Effectiveness determines the brightness of the apostolic robes: scarlet, crimson, green, burgundy, which, in combination with pink, snow-white, bright blue, light green, juicy yellow shades of slides, create a joyful color scheme, setting the viewer up for festivity, "cheerfulness of the spirit ".

So, the earliest known work of the Nevyansk icon painters is dated 1734, the latest - 1919. These are facts.

If the information provided to the authors by Yekaterinburg collectors is confirmed, and if we take into account that one of the authors held an icon in his hands, written in the 30s of our century, perhaps the last iconograph of the traditional direction, then it turns out that the Nevyansk icon painting in the Middle Urals continued over 200 years.

Attributes of the Nevyansk style are found in icons of various levels of artistic performance - from folk unpretentious primitives to works of a very high class; from more than a meter high rank icons to miniatures that can only be viewed in detail through a magnifying glass.

Nevyansk icon-painting workshops worked for centuries and not only in the “factory” itself, but also in many other cities and towns: Nizhny Tagil, Yekaterinburg, Chernoistochinsk, Krasnoufimsk, etc. A lot of icons were made, they were bought by tens of thousands of Old Believers of various persuasions, ranging from a peasant and a worker to millionaire merchants and factory owners.

The struggle of the church and tsarist authorities against the schismatics did not stop until the beginning of the 20th century. Therefore, among the Old Believer icons, dated ones are rarely found, especially signed ones and with the designation of the place of creation. But the Old Believers were good conspirators and, we believe, not very many icons and ancient books were confiscated from them, current finds confirm this. And there is hope that the researchers of Nevyansk icon painting will finally meet with earlier exhibits and then many doubts and questions regarding the beginning and end of this unique school will be clarified.

Lydia Ryazanova, Yuri Ryazanov

"Ural Pathfinder", No. 2, 1999

Russian Civilization

The first album "Nevyansk Icon", released in 1997, not only marked the phenomenon, but also became the first among such private publications in post-Soviet Russia. In addition, he served as an example for many researchers, collectors, following him for several years, albums of both private collections and those dedicated to regional icon painting were released and continue to be released.

Evgeny Roizman:
The album "Nevyansk Icon" in 1997 was the first experience. It was a very daring project, ahead of its time. We opened the way, drew attention to the study of regional schools, showed the algorithm. A year later, the album "Ural Icon" appeared, and then "Siberian Icon". After that there was another push - our "Krasnoufimskaya Icon". Through a long study of the Nevyansk icon, we have identified a bright and very characteristic direction. And a few years later, the “Syzran icon”, “Guslitskaya icon” began to appear ...

But the Nevyansk icon is a phenomenon of a completely different order than just a regional direction. What's the Difference? Why, when talking about the Nevyansk icon, we are talking about the school, what kind of concept is this and how does it compare with other regional trends?

Evgeny Roizman: A significant number of high-quality monuments, created over the course of about 200 years, united stylistically, originating from the same territory, and influenced neighboring regions. In addition to common techniques and technological features, these icons reveal a common ideology. In Nevyansk icon painting, all stages of development are traced: the emergence, formation, flourishing and decline. And of course, it is necessary to note the impact that the school has had on many regional destinations.

Our Lady of Egypt. The earliest Nevyansk icon in the Museum. On the icon is the date of writing - 1734.

The phrase “Nevyansk Icon is the pinnacle of the Mining and Factory Old Believer icon painting” is often used. Why "Old Believer"?

Evgeny Roizman:
It must be understood that the real Old Russian iconography, which existed before the reforms of Peter the Great (under Peter the Great, icons were ordered to be painted in oil and “life-like”) was valued precisely by the Old Believers and was preserved only by them. It was the Old Believers who preserved the ancient Russian icon-painting tradition for us.

Then why is “mining iconography” added?

Any serious art starts from the customer. If there is a rich and sophisticated customer who knows what he wants to get for his money, then all the craftsmen will compete and fight for this order. And go to higher and higher levels. We see this even now, for example, in painting, in jewelry. But in icon painting, in addition to purely technical skill, there is another component: it is high spirituality. All customers of the icons were ardent zealots of ancient piety. Here, at the mining plants, a large stratum of very rich, sincerely believing and sophisticated customers has formed. They, factory workers, separated themselves from the rest of the population, besides (important!!!), the icon for them was not only a precious thing and a symbol of faith, but also a way of self-identification. By the icons they saw - one's own or someone else's. Here the old people still have this: this icon is ours, this one is not ours.

Is it possible in a few words, easily, for an inexperienced reader to indicate what is the “trick” of the Nevyansk icon? What puts this phenomenon on a par with outstanding examples of Russian icon painting?

Old Russian iconography ceased to exist by the 18th century. The Armory Chamber, which gathered craftsmen from all over Russia, was dispersed. The influence of Western European painting on Russian icon painting grew, and not directly, but through Ukraine. And the real Old Russian icon painting was preserved only among the Old Believers. In the ancient manner, individual masters worked in Palekh, Mstera, in Moscow, Yaroslavl and served the interests of the Old Believers. And suddenly, at the end of the 90s of the 20th century, it turns out that from the first half of the 18th century until the revolution itself, a powerful original school of icon painting existed in the mining Urals, working at such a high level that would do honor to both Moscow and Yaroslavl. This school created a number of recognized masterpieces that enriched and adorned Russian iconography. This fact is recognized by all major Russian scientists, and I am very glad that I played an important role in this discovery.

Icon "Resurrection - Descent into Hell with the Twelfth Feasts". Pay attention to the stamp on the right, second from the top.

What is the background of the album? How was the circle of research literature on the Nevyansk Icon formed? After all, no one dealt with this topic with such thoroughness before the Museum?

Evgeny Roizman:
The first publication was in 1986 - Lidia Ryazanova published an article in the Ural magazine. And the very term "Nevyansk Icon" was mentioned in the report of Oleg Gubkin at a conference in Perm in September 1985. And in 1997 our first album was released, which contained a number of scientific articles on the Nevyansk icon.

What is his fate?

Evgeny Roizman:
The album was published in a circulation of 5,000 copies, costing $140,000. Dispersed in all major libraries.

What does "break up" mean?

Evgeny Roizman:
I distributed it among libraries and all interested persons.

Did you try to sell?

Evgeny Roizman:
Something went on sale, but due to inexperience, no money was seen. This story puzzled me ... Moreover, I was the only one who was not given the governor's award for this album. But that didn't stop me. Because, first of all, I am a historian and a researcher.

Probably, such inattention of society, the absence of some kind of reciprocal result, cuts off any desire to continue working in the bud?

Evgeny Roizman:
Album "Ural Icon" - I participated in this project. The album was published with the money of the government of the Sverdlovsk region. Oleg Gubkin supervised it. The album significantly supplemented the Nevyansk Icon. Most importantly, he came out with a dictionary of icon painters. I was one of the authors of the catalogue. These are two fundamental albums, but today the study of the Mining and Factory Old Believer icon painting has advanced much further.

In addition to such publishing projects, was there other work? Articles, publications, exhibitions?

Evgeny Roizman:
In 2002, the first Bulletin of the Nevyansk Icon Museum was published. I myself then was not up to the articles. I created a museum and was involved in acquisitions. There was an accumulation of material and scientific information, processing. Five newsletters have already been published. Four and an application.

And how is the Vestnik formed?

Evgeny Roizman:
All scholars and researchers working on the topic of Old Believer icon painting, and icon painting in general, are notified. Or in some related disciplines - handwritten books, etc. All this is done mainly on the basis of the archaeographic laboratory of the Ural University. This is a very high scientific level. He is valued in the scientific community.

The first album was also the first experience, probably, over time, with the advent of new scientific research, with the expansion of the collection, a new album was also required?

Evgeny Roizman:
In 2005 they made a new album "Museum of the Nevyansk Icon". It is interesting because for the first time such a volume of Nevyansk icons of the 18th century was given, which is not found in all local state museums. Most of the icons were published for the first time. All attributions in time were argued and verified. Showcase your book collections. The album demonstrated the scientific and artistic level of the museum. And in 2008 we published the album Krasnoufimskaya Icon. This was the first experience of a scientifically reasoned substantiation of a separate direction of Nevyansk icon painting. In fact, a serious scientific discovery was made. It took twenty years of work to fix this phenomenon.

Three albums. In the center - the very first, on the left - the next, late - "Krasnoufimskaya Icon". All editions are long gone.

It's been 6 years since that time until this album. What publications were during this time?

Evgeny Roizman:
A number of serious scientific articles have been published, including the article "Folding in Russian Icon Painting" in the third bulletin - this is the first article about folding in general. There was a serious article in the fourth bulletin - I summed up the extent of the destruction and disappearance of icons in the Urals - "The Nevyansk icon that we lost." And finally, in the Bulletin of the Tretyakov Gallery, a long article was published on the creation and acquisition of the NI museum: "The icon will find a home for itself."

Evgeny Roizman:
The idea of ​​a new album has been around for a long time. The superficial view of some Moscow art critics gave me the idea that it is necessary to show the origins of the Nevyansk icon. In fact, about twenty years ago I already began to identify the early Nevyansk icon.
I was always alarmed by the fact that I did not meet direct analogues of the Nevyansk icon anywhere at all. That is, I see in it echoes of Stroganov's letters, Moscow letters of the first half of the 17th century, Yaroslavl's letters of the 17th century, but I have never met direct analogues anywhere. And I understood that the Nevyansk icon painting developed here, at the mining plants, but at the same time it did not rely on any local tradition, since there was none. And I had to show this to the entire scientific community.
For more than 20 years, I purposefully selected all the early Nevyansk icons. The most famous of them is Our Lady of Egypt of 1734. I bought it for $10,000 in 1999 at the height of the crisis. It was the price of a good two-room apartment in the center. In total, 34 early Nevyansk icons are known. One of them is in a private collection, another one is in the Chelyabinsk art gallery, the next one is in the Perm Regional Museum, traces of another one are lost. All the rest are from the collection of the Museum of the Nevyansk Icon.

That is, the album should demonstrate the uniqueness and independence of Nevyansk icon painting in its very origins? Did you manage to show this to scientists and art historians?

Evgeny Roizman:
Yes. On April 30, the album was presented to our Ural scientific community. For a wide range of fans, the album will be presented later. There was also a presentation at the Dionysius Frescoes Museum in Ferapontovo. For the Russian scientific community, the presentation will take place at the Russian Academy of Arts on Prechistenka.

At the presentation of the album with Oleg Petrovich Gubkin.

What is the contents of the album?

Evgeny Roizman:
34 icons, their detailed description. All these icons existed in Nevyansk, Nizhny Tagil, Chernoistochinsk. And most importantly, they already carry the features that will be preserved in the Nevyansk icon throughout its history.

Evgeny Roizman:
In fact, this is just the beginning of the journey. The next album will trace the history of the Nevyansk icon from the middle to the end of the 18th century. It will be much larger in volume, since there are more than three hundred monuments of this period in the museum's collection. The next edition will cover the period from 1800 to 1861. And this series will end with an album on the Nevyansk icon from 1861 until the revolution. The story ends in 1917. This will be the most comprehensive and high-quality study of the Nevyansk icon.

It's nice that in addition to images, instead of the obligatory boring introductory article, the album contains a lot of lively interesting scientific material.

Evgeny Roizman:
Indeed, there is a specificity here. I don’t go into art history aspects, my task is to show a clear visual range and maximum texture. This will enable art critics to rely on verified facts and accurate attributions.

To curb the flight of their imagination?

He said nothing, but laughed.

Evgeny Roizman:
We worked on this album together with my supervisor, the largest specialist in the history of the mining Urals, Viktor Ivanovich Baidin. For this album, Viktor Ivanovich made a dictionary of icon painters, that is, he gave a scientifically supported reference for each Old Believer icon painter documented in the Urals in the first half of the 8th century. A small and very high-quality article was written by the head of the restoration department Maxim Ratkovsky. This is a very valuable view of the restorer, who worked with all the monuments included in the album and professionally sees all the stylistic features.

At the presentation of the album with Viktor Ivanovich Baidin and restorers Mikhail (left) and Maxim (right) Ratkovsky.

How to earn the right to participate in the creation of the album? What is the criterion for competence?

Evgeny Roizman:
I always involve the most serious professionals in my work. For example, Oleg Petrovich Gubkin, the best specialist in the icon painters Bogatyrevs and Chernobrovins, agreed to participate in the next album.

What is the most important thing for you personally in all this difficult process?

Evgeny Roizman:
The Nevyansk icon is a discovery. And I took part in it by founding the first private museum of icons in Russia. And "Krasnoufimsk icon" and "Early Nevyansk icon" are my independent research directions, on which I spent more than 20 years of my life.

Could government institutions do this? I mean - not to publish an album, but in this way, purposefully and quickly enough to restore the phenomenon in such completeness, to assemble a museum from scratch?

Evgeny Roizman:
No. Nobody is in a hurry there. It's not even a negative. All the same, they will have everything at some point.

More biased because he risks his own money?

Evgeny Roizman:
Certainly. But as a rule, such researchers lack academic knowledge. And public institutions have much more complicated funding paths and low mobility.

Is it possible to join forces? It seems to me that the problem is that "official" scientists see collectors, those who are ready to invest in research and collecting, only as sponsors, but not like-minded people and associates?

Evgeny Roizman:
Representatives of state scientific structures are jealous of the collectors. Ryazanov understood more in icons, they could not stand him, because he understood more. He ran and said: “We must save the icons, we must save!” And they did not understand this as sharply as he did, and then, they did not have a team to save. The state museums have such funds that the hands of restorers do not reach and will not reach for a long time to work with many objects. But in general, it all depends on the personal qualities of all participants in the process. All major real scientists involved in ancient Russian art always treat collectors with respect. They share information, build on their knowledge and know how to work side by side.
The most effective research and publishing work is a public-private partnership.

Evgeny Roizman:
We work further.

PHOTO: Alla Vayzner, Yulia Kruteeva, Andrey Tkach (shooting icons)

PHOTO GALLERY:

Lovers of Russian painting received a magnificent gift from the publishing house of the Ural University: the album "Nevyansk Icon" (Yekaterinburg, 1997). The idea of ​​this book has long been hatched by employees of the Ural museums, art restorers, collectors and connoisseurs of icon art. And now the project, the implementation of which was given almost two decades, came true. For this, not only generous material support was needed, but also the artistic flair of the Yekaterinburg collector, poet, entrepreneur Yevgeny Roizman.

An interesting collection of icons from the Nevyansk School is kept in the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. We present reproductions of some of them. Simeon the God-bearer. Icon of the late 18th - first quarter of the 19th century.

Mother of God Hodegetria of Smolensk. Icon of the late 18th - first quarter of the 19th century.

Nicholas the Wonderworker. The painting was made in the late 18th - early 19th century. The silver setting dates from 1825.

Archdeacon Stefan. Circle of the Chernobrovins. Second quarter of the 19th century.

Akathist to the Mother of God. Workshop of the Bogatyrevs. 1800 Fragment of an icon.

The album is a scientific publication, which published for the first time 150 works of fine art known only to specialists (184 color reproductions of icons, including fragments). The book also contains photographs of icon painters taken in the last century at the dawn of photography, ancient landscapes of the Nevyansk environs - the estates of the prominent industrialists Demidovs and other rare historical materials found in Russian archives.

Today, perhaps, the scientific album editor, associate professor of the Ural University Galina Vladimirovna Golynets. It was she who, more than 15 years ago, first introduced the concept of "Nevyansk icon-painting school" into scientific circulation. Here is what she says about this icon-painting school.

Unlike the well-known ancient icon-painting schools - Novgorod, Pskov, Moscow - the Nevyansk school arose and took shape only in the 18th-19th centuries. Its creators were the Old Believers, who rejected the church reform of the middle of the 17th century and fled from the northern and central regions of the country. They transferred Ancient Russia with its centuries-old cultural heritage to the Urals.

It is paradoxical that in the Urals the industrial base of young Russia was laid by people who did not accept Peter's reforms, those who combined efficiency and daring impulses of creative energy with a commitment to patriarchal ideals. That is why the creators of the new industry and the accompanying art (malachite and jasper products, iron casting and engraving on steel) were at the same time zealous keepers of the artistic traditions of the Russian Middle Ages. Features of originality in the Ural Old Believer icon were already outlined in the time of Peter the Great, but it experienced its heyday, stimulated by the rise of industry and the economy of the region, later - in the second half of the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries.

The concept of "Nevyansk school", used in relation to the Ural Old Believer icon, is rather arbitrary, but not arbitrary. The city of Nevyansk, which grew out of a settlement at a metallurgical plant founded in the upper reaches of the Neiva River at the end of the 17th century, became the center of the Old Believers in the Urals. He gathered the best icon painters. However, not only icons born in Nevyansk itself should be attributed to the Nevyansk school. The local iconographers, fulfilling various orders - from small home icons to monumental multi-tiered iconostases, set up workshops in other Ural cities, spreading their influence all the way to the Southern Urals.

The skill of icon painting passed down from generation to generation, the existence of dynasties such as the Bogatyrevs and Chernobrovins, the presence of favorite iconographic types, characteristic stylistic features and techniques of tempera technique - all this allows us to speak of the Nevyansk icon painting school. It is characterized by elongated proportions of figures, sophistication of poses, subtlety of writing. The people of Nevyansk skillfully mastered all the secrets of craftsmanship and were able to merge the expressive means of painting into a single whole.

Whatever traditions shine through in the Nevyansk icon, it primarily relies on the 17th century, whose art became the protograph for all later icon painting. Traditions established by artists in the middle of the 17th century in Yaroslavl, Rostov Veliky and Kostroma turned out to be the main ones in the Nevyansk school. The Old Believer Ural icon has given us examples of a more organic and creative development of ancient Russian traditions than, say, an antique-made Palekh icon, albeit intended for a New Believer church. Of course, the attitude of the Old Believers did not remain unchanged. Outbreaks of religious fanaticism gradually faded away, the influence of the official church and secular principles of life grew. "Numerous merchants conduct extensive trade, and at the same time, most of the merchants are gold miners. It is a pity that almost all of them are Old Believers, or schismatics, however, this does not prevent them from being worthy citizens and people who are not alien to public pleasures," he wrote in 1843 editor of the all-Russian magazine "Repertoire and Pantheon" one of the Yekaterinburg correspondents.

Gradually, the Nevyansk icon began to evolve towards decorative art, becoming a luxurious thing that personifies the fabulous capital of the Ural industrialists. Nevyansk iconography was a thing of the past, but it did not leave without a trace. She had a noticeable influence on the folklore icon, which did not waste its creative potential for a longer time, on the local book miniature, on painting on wood and metal, on the entire artistic culture of the Urals.

The study of the Nevyansk school convinces us that this is a major phenomenon in the history of Russian art, expanding the idea of ​​icon painting of modern times. During its heyday, it reached true artistic heights. The well-known researcher of ancient Russian art G.K. Wagner said about Archpriest Avvakum that he "went down in history not as an Old Believer, but as a spokesman for eternal ideals on high" and that this is precisely why "his dramatic life and dramatic work look so modern." These words can also be attributed to the best masters of Nevyansk icon painting. This is the opinion of Galina Vladimirovna Golynets, who spent many years studying this area of ​​Russian icon painting.

The book will undoubtedly draw attention to the original, hitherto practically unknown school of icon painting, and to many mysterious, previously "hidden" pages of the history of the "supporting edge of the state!", in which this school could originate and fruitfully develop over several centuries.

The circulation is printed in one of the best printing houses in Finland, on special quality paper. According to the editor-in-chief of the publishing house F. A. Eremeev, the album "Nevyansk Icon" is one of the first publications in our country that uses the advanced technology of the so-called rasteless, that is, dotless, printing. Thanks to this, the smallest details are distinguishable on album reproductions, and their quality is comparable to that of the highest quality color photographs.