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- Ten years without the right of exposure: what does the "Last Judgment" look like after the restoration
Ten years without the right of exposure: what does the "Last Judgment" look like after the restoration
The exhibition "The Rebirth of a Masterpiece: the icon of the Last Judgment from the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin" opens in the Main Lobby of the Armory of the Moscow Kremlin Museums. The event is not just a display of a rare monument, but a return to people of an image that has remained hidden from view for many years. Izvestia was one of the first to see the masterpiece of medieval painting updated after ten years of restoration.
Rublevsky trace
The icon "The Last Judgment", dating from the end of the XIV — beginning of the XV century, is one of the reference examples of the art of the Moscow Principality and is considered one of the oldest Russian monuments on this subject. Next to it, in the lobby of the Armory, the screen shows the stages of restoration — "was" and "became": from the blackboard to the image preserved under it.
"The icon was created for the first temple in the Kremlin, built at the beginning of the 14th century," said Elena Gagarina, General Director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums. — This is the period of the very beginning of the golden age of Russian art, which came after the difficult years of the Tatar-Mongol invasion. So it is older than the Assumption Cathedral.
The icon served as a model for the famous scene of the Last Judgment in the painting of the Assumption Cathedral of Vladimir in 1408, created by Daniil Cherny and Andrei Rublev. The unique features of the iconography make it possible to see in it one of the main prototypes of this monumental work. The author of the restored icon is unknown, but experts say he was clearly influenced by the Rublevsky school.
"You could say the artists were sitting in neighboring workshops," smiles Alexei Barkov, curator of the Assumption Cathedral. — Russia, which has always been a pupil of Byzantium, stands up at this moment and Rublev appears, who creates one of the greatest works in world culture — The Trinity. It was a period of Renaissance in Russian icon painting.
The icon of the "Last Judgment" remained almost unknown to a wide audience. During the restoration in the 1920s, it was covered with drying oil, which darkened over the years and almost completely hid the ancient painting.
The modern ten-year restoration, which began in 2016, allowed not only to restore its historical appearance, but also to obtain fundamentally new scientific data. According to Elena Gagarina, the research helped to seriously clarify the dating and confirmed that the monument belongs to the heyday of Ancient Russian painting — just the time when Andrei Rublev and invited Greek masters worked in Russia.
The results of technical and technological research are of particular value. Examination in the infrared and X-ray spectra revealed two layers of painting. The bottom one is light and transparent, with a translucent author's pattern of outlines and folds. The upper one is dense, textured, with pronounced chiaroscuro modeling. According to experts, this feature may indicate the author's search for shapes and movements of figures in the process of working on the icon.
The Beast, Satan and Judas
The plot of the "Last Judgment" is rare in Russian iconography: in the Middle Ages, this theme was more often embodied in temple paintings, and icons based on such a plot became widespread only in the XVI–XVII centuries. That is why the monument from the Assumption Cathedral is of exceptional importance: it is the oldest Russian image dedicated to the Second Coming of the Savior.
The composition of the icon is strictly vertical and is divided into three tiers. In the center of the upper one is Christ in a shining mandorla, He is confronted by the Mother of God and John the Baptist, next to the apostles and angels. In the middle tier, Adam and Eve are kneeling, the righteous and sinners, among whom one can see the Jewish high priests Anna and Caiaphas. In the lower tier, there is an image of Satan in the middle of a lake of fire and a scene of Paradise — with the Mother of God, the Prudent Robber and the forefathers, and the gates of paradise, to which the apostles Peter and Paul approach.
The long-term work of restorers under the leadership of Larisa Gushchina allowed not only to return the icon to its historical appearance, but also to make another discovery.
— There is a feeling that this is not a completely finished work, but rather a reflection on the topic, — the restorer notes. — Here you can see the artistic search, the groping of the composition. In the process, it turned out that it was originally multi-figured. As you can see in the part where Gehenna of fire is described, Satan and Judas are sitting on the beast. Previously, there were many sinners in different clothes, and already naked figures were flying upside down.
The microscope has become the main tool in the hands of craftsmen. Experts literally removed the darkened drying oil bit by bit, working on every centimeter of the surface — from the central image to the smallest details of the background. In areas with a loss of the paint layer, denser cleaning was applied to preserve the uniform color of the work. The specialists had previously X-rayed the icon. The final stage included the finest tinting at the insertion sites and the application of a protective layer of modern varnish.
"It was not just a restoration, but a real scientific study," Larisa Guschina notes. — The color scheme of the icon is striking in its diversity. The artist used a very wide range of pigments — cinnabar, lapis lazuli, malachite, various ochres. But the main feature was the use of organic pigments. The ancient Russian masters created a real masterpiece of coloristics.
The technology of obtaining purple color is a special mystery. As it turned out, cochineal worms were used to create it, which were imported from Armenia, and later from South America.
— In Mexico, there were insects on cacti, — says Larisa Gushchina. — They were treated in a certain way, getting a water-soluble pigment. This organic dye was added to cinnabar, creating unique shades of purple. Similar technologies were known back in the first millennium and were used for dyeing fabrics.
The icon will be on display at the Armory until January 13. After that, she will be returned to the iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral, but first she must acclimatize.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
