Biography
Ancient Russian icon as a phenomenon of art was opened to the world at the beginning of the 20th century. Until that time, the iconist existed as an unnamed genre, the anonymity of which is predetermined by the cattle of aesthetic consciousness and the prayer appointment of the written image. However, interest in the icon as the subject of art revealed the names of the artists, from under the brushes of which the most perfect creations were published. Moscow icon painter Dionysius occupies one of the first places in this series.Fate
About medieval masters Iconopy is not known so much. They speak primarily their work. However, Donia is known more than the great predecessors - Faofan Greek and Andrei Rublev. The future artist was born about 1444, presumably, in the family of a boyars. However, information about the kind and place of birth of the icon painter has not been preserved.
It is also not known who Dionysius learned iconist skill, but it suggests that in the 1460s he worked under the post of Mitrofan's master. By 40 years old, the artist headed his own artel, who was engaged in the painting of the Councils of Moscow Rus. Dionysius with the team painted individual churches and complexes of temples that are part of the monasteries, and his life was a series of moves from place to place.
The personal life of the master hid the thicknesses of the centuries, however, it is known that his sons of Feodosius and Vladimir were also engaged in an icon painting and even entered the father's artel. Some facts from the artist's biography become known from life. For example, that, working in the Panguvo-Borovsky Monastery in the 1460s and 1970s, he met the Reverend Panzhetia, which healed him from the illness sent to the painter for disobedience.
Another great monom-devotee, with whom the fate of Dionysius, became Joseph Volotsky, who founded his own abode in 1479. Hegumen invited the artist to paint the temples of the complex under construction, subsequently glorified as an Iosifo-Volokolamsky Assumption Monastery. It is assumed that Dionysius the rector addressed the famous "Epistle of Iconpoction".
Nothing is known about the causes of the death of the master. The final stroke to the portrait of Dionysius becomes information that before leaving he accepted the monastic stop to spend the last days in prayer and privacy. After the icon painter, a Pleiad of students and followers, whose works, despite artistic advantages, cannot be compared with the work of the master on beauty and expressiveness of images.
Iconography
Putting the craft, Dionirsia first wrote under the guidance of experienced masters. Such was the 10-year work on the painting church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Paftyevo-Borovsky monastery, after which the painter gained a reputation as a master of his case. In 1481, the artist entrusts an honorary mission to create an iconostasis in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.
The attitude of the customers to the painter illustrates that interesting fact that he received a major deposit of 100 virgin. Dionysius took three artists to help themselves, and he himself took a decisus rank - the most responsible part of the work. Already here, he manifested himself as a "Master's Master", personifying the features of the Moscow icon painting style - the elegant elongation of proportions, festivity and luminosity of the paints, the beauty of the face.
Icons Dionysius belong to the period of the heyday of Moscow Rus, which recently resetting the Tatar-Mongolian Igo oppressing it. 1482 The icon "Our Lady of Odigitria" is dated, also written for the Kremlin Cathedral. Other works, preserved to this day, became the "descent of hell", "Baptism of the Lord", "Crucifix", "saved in the power."
The fate of the frescoes Dionysius sadly: most of them were destroyed. Wall murals of the master whose authorship is not in doubt - these are frescoes in the church of the Nativity of the Virgin in the territory of the monastery of the monastery. In monumental work, the artist helped sons and apprentices.
Mural is full of light and joyful mood, which accompanies the glorification of the Blessed Virgin Mary - all images are devoted to fragments of her life, including plots from Akathist. Harmony of clean, gentle colors, among which are predominated with greenish and golden tones, will enerotically build images.
For the safety of ancient frescoes, it is possible to thank the poverty of the remote northern monastery, which could not afford to "reproduce" the walls, and therefore the painting remained almost in pristine form.
Creativity Dionysia is akin to revelation, through which the earthly world comes into communication with the world invisible. The icons of the artist express the spiritual searches of the era, presenting high samples of the genre of religious art. The six works of the Old Russian masters are demonstrated in the exposition of the State Tretyakov Gallery.
Work
- 1467-1477 - Painting of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin in the Paftyevo-Borovsky Monastery
- 1481 - Iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin
- 1482 - "Our Lady of Odihythriya (Smolenskaya)"
- 1480s - "Alexy Metropolitan with Life"
- 1500 - "Savior in the Forces"
- 1500 - "Foma's assurance"
- 1500 - "Baptism of the Lord"
- 1500 - "Descent to hell"
- 1502 - Frescoes of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin in the Ferapontov Monastery