National Art Gallery with Crypt
Authors: Georgi Gerov et al. (translated by Claire Brisby)
Bulgarian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Храм-паметник «Св. Александър Невски». Sofia, 1999, 60 pp.
От редакции. 23 сентября 2009 г. Священный Синод Болгарской Православной Церкви принял решение о том, что иконы из коллекции Национального церковного историко-археологического музея Болгарии не будут более покидать его стены для участия в международных выставках. В последний раз некоторые из экспонатов музея, которые еще ни разу не вывозились за рубеж, участвовали в сентябре-ноябре 2009 г. в московской выставке «Шедевры иконописи XIII-XIX вв. Из музеев и частных собраний Болгарии» в рамках Года Болгарии в России.
В состав выставки были включены два оригинальных произведения XIX в. – т.н. «Иерусалимии», которые создавались по заказу болгар, совершивших паломничества на Святую землю, и играли роль своеобразных свидетельств о проделанном пути. Подобные «Иерусалимии» хранились не в церквях, а в домах паломников и часто служили домашним иконостасом, поэтому в музейных коллекциях «Иерусалимий» практически нет. Специально в Москву была привезена «Иерусалимия» 1873 г., которая происходит из с. Ореше близ гор. Видин и отличается несколько упрощенной программой, но при этом имеет любопытную деталь. Под фигурой спящего пророка Варуха, увидевшего, согласно библейским апокрифам, сон о восстановлении Иерусалима, стилизованно изображен город в виде трех красных домов в окружении красной стены, и стоит подпись «о построении России», хотя должно быть «о построении Иерусалима». Как подчеркнула Ралица Русева, «это библейский сюжет, в котором сказано, что пророк Варух проспал под смоковницей разрушение Иерусалима и построение Иерусалима. Но здесь написано не ''построение Иерусалима’’, а ‘’построение России’’. Мое объяснение связано с настроениями 19 века. Есть идея, что Москва – Третий Рим. И она освободит балканские страны от турецкого рабства».: http://expertmus.livejournal.com/62744.h
Head of a Saint or Angel (4th~5th century)
Anonymous
From the village of Khan Krum, near Shoumen
Mural fragment, 16x14x0.5 cms
On loan from the Regional Historical Museum, Shoumen
Part of the image of the face of a young saint or of an angel has survived. The fragment is from a mural scheme in a church and was found together with other similar images in the excavations of two early Christian churches situated in Khan Krum's outer fortifications. The fragment records the nature of Byzantine art before the foundation of the Bulgarian state and possesses the characteristic features of early Christian art - staring eyes and the use of shades of the base colour green in modelling the face.
St. Paul the Apostle (9th-ioth century)
Anonymous
From Tuzlalaka, near Preslav.
Painted ceramic, 16x16.2x0.3 cms
On loan from the City Museum, Preslav
Ceramic icons are a distinctive feature of Bulgarian artistic production during the ninth and tenth centuries. This image of St. Paul was found in eight pieces in a waste pit next to the monastery workshop in the area of Tuzlalaka near Preslav. It is associated with three other icons, of the apostles James, Philip and Mark, which share the same proportions and style, suggesting they were the work of the same painter. The use of a bold outline of the half length figure emphasises the two dimensional treatment of the image, which is enhanced by the linear treatment of drapery depicted with parallel brown lines. The image is painted directly onto the ceramic surface. The base colour is the natural colour of clay, pink tempera is used in the modelling of the eyes, nose, cheeks and neck. A yellow-green glaze denotes the saint's halo. The icon represents the inauguration of icon painting in Bulgaria.
The Virgin I Kyria Zois (second half of 14th century)
Anonymous
From Nessebur.
Tempera on panel; 123x84.5x3 cms
Acquired by National Art Collection in 1965
This large icon is of interest because of its iconographic peculiarities and artistic value. The Greek inscription indicates a rare hymnographic type. The posture of the Child is unusual in that he is reclining in the arms of his mother. In this perspective, the Child's expression can be interpreted as a reference to his sacrificial death. The use of highlights symbolising divine light is a common artistic device but the animated outline and range of colour denote a distinctively individual and expressive style. The influence of late Gothic art in the west can be detected in the illusion of transparency found in the treatment of the Child's garment. On the basis of style, it is attributed to the second half of the fourteenth century and reflects the nervous tension prevalent in spiritual life of the period.
Synaxis of Archangels (14th century)
Anonymous
From the Bachkovo Monastery
Tempera on panel, gilded ground; 123x76x3.5 cms
On loan from the Bachkovo Monastery Museum
The composition conforms to the iconographic representation of incorporeality. The Archangels Michael and Gabriel make manifest the image of incorporeality with the representation of the Virgin and Christ in the medallion they hold between them. The ornamentation of the vestments, the refined colouring and modelling of form relate this image with the stylistic tendencies of the fourteenth century. The icon also reflects the authority of Empire, dressed in imperial robes and standing on raised dais, the Archangels were acknowledged as guardians and irreproachable warriors playing an important role in the visual cult of the emperor.
The Virgin with St. John the Theologian (the Evangelist) The Miracle of Latome (end of 14th century)
Anonymous
From the Poganovo Monastery
Tempera on panel; 92.7x61.5x3.2 cms
On loan from the Museum of the Archaeological Institute, Sofia
Icons carried in processions offered the possibility of different images on each side of the panel. This bilateral icon from the Poganovo Monastery is one of the most remarkable of its kind because of the unusual subjects and exceptional quality On one side is an image of the Virgin with the rare epithet Kataphigi, meaning refuge, with St. John the Theologian (the Evangelist), the patron saint of the Poganovo Monastery. The sorrow which their expressions and poses evoke recalls the iconography of the Crucifixion, although the cross with the crucified Christ is missing and instead of a young man, St. John is depicted as aged. The other side represents a vision of Christ with the inscription 'Miracle in Latome' on each side of the figure of Christ. He is shown beardless in a circular aureole, surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists. Seated on a rainbow, He holds an unwound scroll inscribed with a text taken based on Isaiah (25,9). In anticipation of His Sacrifice, the wounds of the Crucifixion are shown on his hands and legs. The vision is revealed to two prophets of the Old Testament, Ezekiel and Habakkuk who holds a scroll with the text from Ezekiel (3,1). Their worldly situation is represented by the schematic rocky shore and waters plentifully stocked with fish on which they are placed. Such images are rarely encountered in Byzantine art and are usually associated with death. The sense of volume and classical proportion and the range of rich colours suggest that the icon was the work of a master of the Paleologan period from Thessalonica. An inscription suggests the identity of the donor as Helen, the wife of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus and the daughter of the local feudal ruler, Constantine Deyan, with whom she founded or restored the monastery. However, recently some scholars have argued that the donor of the icon may have been a prominent woman of the same name who lived in the second half of the 14 th century.
The Virgin Panhymnitos (end i6th-early 17th century)
Anonymous
From Nessebur
Tempera on panel, gilded ground; 109x78x3.5 cms
On loan from the Museum of the Archaeological Institute, Sofia
The Virgin and Child are depicted in the variant of the Eleousa, showing compassion, as established in the eleventh and twelth centuries. The Virgin inclines her head towards the Infant, whose face touches hers in an embrace. Flanking the central figures are images of two archangels with outstretched hands proffering drapery, symbolising the inscribed hymnographic epithet Panhymnitos. This epithet is rare but most often found on icons from Nessebur. On the basis of style, the icon is attributed to the turn of the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries.
Altar Doors with "The Annunciation" (16th century)
Anonymous
From the Monastery of the Preobrazhenie
Tempera on panel; 119.8x86x2.1 cms
On loan from the Monastery of the Preobrazhenie
The Annunciation is the subject conventionally found on altar doors. The symbol of the portal is associated with the Virgin's role in the Incarnation. On the left door is the image of the Archangel Gabriel and on the right, the image of the Virgin Mary. Behind these two figures, the prophets David and Solomon are shown against an architectural setting. On account of the style and some features of the iconography the doors are attributed to an Athonite painter active in the latter half of the sixteenth century, strongly influenced by the eminent master of the time, Theophanes Strelitsa-Batas from Crete.
The Dormition of St. Nicholas (17th century)
Anonymous
Mural painting, 105x123 cms
From the church of St. Nicholas, Zhelezna, near Chiprovtsi
On loan from the Museum of the Archaeological Institute, Sofia
The painter has drawn on the standard iconography of saintly death, with the saint shown laid on a bier, dressed in white vestments with the omophorion, designating his rank of bishop. The assembled clergy are gathered in two groups around him. The architectural setting represents the walls of Myra, the seat of St. Nicholas's bishopric. Representations of the death of St. Nicholas are usually an episode in narrative treatments of his life. This fragment of a mural scheme in a village church of north west Bulgaria exemplifies the common practice of depicting the patron saint of a church in its interior.
© Блог экспертов Музея имени Андрея Рублева, 2012
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