A CARVED FIGURE OF SAINT DEMETRIUS OF THESSALONICA IN THE EPONYMOUS AISLE OF THE ASSUMPTION CATHEDRAL OF THE MOSCOW KREMLIN. THE RELIC AND ITS SCULPTURAL EMBODIMENTY

Abstract

In the article, the author continues her research on the Holy relics and wooden carved sculpture in ancient Russian art in the context of East and West relations. The author draws attention to the current problem of studying the relationship of form formation with the structure of symbolic thinking within the cultural space of the era. Moreover, the author explores historical analytical texts which highlight the problems of sacred synthesis, confirming the author’s conclusions that church space and each object, regardless of its size and sacred significance, originally formed a single whole. In her article, the author proves that the kiot carved statue of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica was made by a Moscow master at the end of the 14th — beginning of the 15th centuries. It was placed in the Demetrius chapel of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, signifying, according to Metropolitan Cyprian’s plan, the image of the saint’s “tomb board”, which was brought to Vladimir from Thessalonica in 1197. Restored in the 16th and 17th centuries, the icon of the Thessalonica martyr, from which a golden filigree crown (the end of the 14th — beginning of the 15th century) has been preserved, could have also been commissioned by Cyprian in order to liken the Moscow Assumption Cathedral to the ancient basilica of St. Demetrius, and Moscow to Thessalonica. The only ancient shrine brought to Moscow from Vladimir in the 90s of the 14th century was most likely a Byzantine ark of the 11th century with a particle of St. Demetrius’s “shirt”, which was the main shrine of the basilica. The reconstruction of the “tomb board”, commissioned by Cyprian, in the form of a wooden statue of the saint confirms the opinion that it was a relief. The author draws attention to the polemical problem of interpretation of the phenomenon of Russian church sculpture in the synodal era as a manifestation of pagan beliefs, pointing out that its in-depth study at the end of the 20th — beginning of the 21st centuries made it possible to assert the high spiritual and artistic status of this phenomenon. The author bases her evidence on archival documents, analysis of historical and cultural contexts, and comparative analysis of monuments.