White stone carving on the temple in Yuryev-Polsky

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

St. George's Cathedral is a white-stone cathedral located on the territory of an ancient detinets in the city of Yuryev-Polsky, Vladimir region. Built in 1230-1234 by Prince Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich. Traditionally, it was believed that the cathedral was built on the foundation of the white-stone church of St. George, which was built in 1152 when the city was founded by Yuri Dolgoruky. Archaeological research in recent years has shown that the temple of 1152 was located in a different place (where exactly is still unknown). Apparently, the original church did not differ much in type from the eponymous Vladimir church in the courtyard of Dolgoruky, Boris and Gleb in Kideksha near Suzdal, the Savior in Pereslavl-Zalessky.

About the beautiful little town of Yuryev-Polsky, which is in the Vladimir region, I have already told you more than once. Let me just remind you that he has no connection with Poland, he is Polish only later that he is in the area that used to be called Opole. Here, for example, the Golden Calf was filmed - it was Yuryev-Polsky that became the city of Arbatov. But today's post is not about that, but about what. There is a magnificent temple here. For me personally, he is one of the three most beautiful in Russia, I also talked about him once, but today I wanted to tell you a little about his magnificent white stone carving, which is difficult to ignore.

I will say right away that I shoveled a lot of network information in order to try to determine the plots depicted on the walls of the temple. It is not possible for me to define all the plots - it seems to me that specialists will not be able to cope with it either.

This cathedral is unique in that it is the last white-stone cathedral of this kind in Russia, built before the invasion of the Tatars. It was consecrated on a very conveniently remembered date - 1234, and 4 years later there was a tragic battle on the City River, in which Yuri Vsevolodovich died and from which the Tatar yoke began to a large extent. Initially, it was taller and "slender" than the current cathedral - this one, like a boletus mushroom, cuddles in the ground. This is due to the fact that in the middle of the 15th century it collapsed and had to be restored. And the location of the white stone carving is also slightly different, although

Almost the entire cathedral is covered with outlandish ornaments, in themselves they are already works of art. But also there are not just ornaments, but also bas-reliefs depicting saints, princes, mythical creatures, and even an elephant! The elephant, by the way, is not so easy to find, at the end of the post I will reveal the secret of finding it =)

Let's take a closer look, however, to the thread itself. An essential technical and artistic innovation of the decorative system of St. George's Cathedral is the combination of individual images and figures, made in high relief, with the finest carpet ornamentation, covering both the free planes of the walls and the background around the high reliefs. The nature of this system can be judged by the facades of the northern and southern vestibules of the St. George Cathedral, where carved stones, executed in high relief, are combined with shoots of planar plant ornament. The same system of combining the carpet pattern with the high-relief figures of saints, animals and monsters on the second tier of the facades.

This combination of two ways of carving on large planes of facades was technically very difficult. At first, they were decorated with high-relief images, which were carved into separate stones at the construction site and then inserted into the masonry of the wall. At this first stage, the decoration of the building resembled the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl: the reliefs protruded on the smooth plane of the wall. Then the carving of the carpet pattern began, which was carried out along the already finished wall, moving on to its architectural details and braiding high-relief sculptures. This work required from the carvers impeccable precision of the eye and hand, unmistakable movement of the cutter, since the slightest error would be irreparable. The finest pattern was applied first with one drawn contour: this is clearly visible on the southern wall of the western vestibule, the decoration of which remained unfinished. The combination of these two systems of carved decoration required its preliminary detailed and accurate design, which took into account the placement of carved stones in advance, so that the pattern associated with them could normally unfold its elements when approaching the high reliefs.

Plant patterns

Carpet ornament

Faces. I wonder if there is a description of all the plots of this cathedral?

Above the portal was placed the image of the patron saint of the city and the temple - St. George, dressed in military armor and leaning on a high spear and an almond-shaped shield with the image of a leopard - the emblem of the dynasty of Vladimir princes.

Animal:

Figures of saints - patrons of the principalities. This series of reliefs, according to one version, revealed the main idea of the program of the carved design of the temple: the heavenly forces provide special patronage to the Vladimir princes and their chosen land.

The plot of "Daniel in the lion's den"

At the very window only Daniel with outstretched hands.

Upstairs there are two lions from the plot

Only five remained of the "Seven Youths of Ephesus". These are recumbent figures with "baskets"

Near the elephant is another of the youths

Above - the saints of the Deesis order

Deesis saints

The plot "Three youths in the cave"

To the right of the pipe at the top, the left lad

Angel in the center

In general, collecting this mosaic is very interesting, but incredibly difficult!

Ascension (?). Above him are the common lion masks.

The plot of the Transfiguration

Our Lady of Oranta

More lion masks and griffins

And here is the elephant, you can see it on the northern facade only after climbing the steps of the neighboring red brick temple.

Here is such a beautiful temple in the Russian outback.