Biography
The dawn of Russian icon painting falls on the line of the XIV-XV centuries - the time when their masterpieces created famous painters Andrei Rublev and Feofan Greek. The latter arrived in Russia from Byzantium already formed a master, but truly great became in the 1390s. The largest Orthodox churches of Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod are decorated with frescoes and icons of Feofan Greek.Fate
According to the generally accepted version, the icon painter was born around 1340 in Constantinople - the heart of the Byzantine Empire, for which he received the nickname Greek. Rus has become home to Feofan in 1370 - he came to Novgorod, presumably, together with the Metropolitan Brick. After 20 years, in the 1390th, moved to Moscow, where he spent the rest of his life. According to some historians, Feofan also lived in Serpukhov and Kolomna, but the masterpieces created there were not preserved.
Feofan Greek is a follower of Isicham. This Christian treachery calls meditation by the method of knowledge of the Divine. The icon painter died about 1410, but not later than 1413. The cause of death is natural, because Feofan Greek, according to approximate calculations, exchanged the 8th tent.
1413th is dated to the Forest Characteristics of the Greek Faofan, which the writer and artist Epiphany woven sent to his friend Rev. Kirill Belozersky. By the way, the letter of epiphany is the main source from which the data about the personal life of the Feofan and its method of work.
Creation
According to the epiphany of the woven, for its lives, Feofan painted more than 40 stone churches in Constantinople (modern Istanbul), Chalkidone, Galate, Cafe (now Feodosia) and in the cities of ancient Russia. Only Russian masterpieces have been preserved to this day.
The first and only documented work of Feofan Greek is the Church of the Savior Transfiguration on Ilyin Street, which still serves the decoration of Veliky Novgorod. Until our times, painting came fragmentary. Inphroded elements allow you to evaluate the author's skills and the scale of the work carried out.
The most well preserved the dome and "drum". In the central part of the design, a pitch-boiler is depicted, he saved the Almighty. According to the portrait contour, it was withdrawn from Psalti, and four archangels and four Cherubim and Seraphim were drawn under the cerations. Such registration of the dome is traditionally not only for the Novgorod, but also Byzantine architecture: creating frescoes, Feofan Greek relied on the decoration of the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia.
The Trinity Promi-Preobrazhenskaya Church is also well preserved. Of particular value is the front image of the Trinity. Her feet, according to the idea of Feofan Greek, resounded Abraham and Sarah, bringing food to the guests. Now on the fresco you can see only Sarra.
In early 1390s, Feofan arrived in Moscow. Here the artist wrote icons and decorated church books. It is assumed that Peru Byzantine belongs to illustrations and initials in the Gospel of Boyarina Fedor Cat and the Gospel of Heathrovo. Works date back 1392. Art historians, relying on artistic analysis, attribute to Feofan the authorship of the works of the "Mother's Mother's Assumption" and "Don Icon of the Mother of God".
"The Assumption of the Mother of God" is a bilateral. On the one hand, a church holiday dedicated to the memory of death, or the audit of the Most Holy Virgin. The Virgin with a baby is drawn on the back. Later, the defeated portrait on the revolving side received a separate name - "Don Icon of the Mother of God."
Until the second half of the 20th century it was believed that Fauofan Greek created the icon of the Savior Transfiguration Cathedral in Pereslavl-Zalessky "Transfiguration". However, modern experts of the Tretyakov Gallery are readily declare that the hand of Byzantines did not touch this canvas. Now the icon is demonstrated as the work of the "unknown icon painter".
In 1405, three legendary icon painters - Feofan Greek, Andrei Rublev and Prokhor with a city - gathered to paint the Blagoveshchensky Cathedral. In addition, Feofan is attributed to the authorship of a series of icons from the iconostasis of the cathedral. By the way, this iconostasis is unique for church art - he became the first in Russia, on which the figures are depicted in full growth.
Consists of an Annunciation iconostasis of 9 icons. Here you can see the faces of Vasily the Great, Apostle Peter, Archangel Mikhail, the Mother of God, Savior Savior, John the Forerunner, Archangel Gabriel, Apostle Paul and John Zlatoust. The authorship is attributed to Faofhan Greek due to the fact that the manner of execution of the Icons is similar to the manner of paintings of the Savior Transfiguration Church in Veliky Novgorod.
Feofan had a heroev of the icons or deified at his own discretion. The master often broke away from work and talked with the servants of the temple, parishioners, that as if he was helping to comprehend the smear, which would be applied to the fresco. This method of work explains why FEOFAN GREK created the frescoes of the scorpius, that is, without a detailed image study.
Some art historians argue that the icon painter worked in monochrome technique using red-brown tones. Others suggest that the color of the color was lost in the time that the feophan palette was much more diverse. After all, in order to re-open the masterpieces of Byzantine, the restorers had to knock down the plaster and use lime.
Work
- 1378 - Church of the Savior Transfiguration on Ilyin Street
- 1395 - Church of the Nativity of the Virgin on the Seine
- 1399 - Cathedral of Saint ArchReart Mikhail in the Kremlin (Arkhangelsk Cathedral)
- 1405 - Blagoveshchensky Cathedral of the Kremlin