Yaroslavl traditions in the classicist period of church wall-painting in Tver region

Abstract

In the article an attempt is made of clearing up the source of the North-East Tver region artistic culture flourishing in the 19th century that especially became strikingly apparent in church wall-painting. Beginning with the early 19th century the painters from the city of Yaroslavl were actively working in the Tver region and introduced various traditions of Yaroslavl into the fine arts. One of the characteristic features of the Yaroslavl painters’ language was the combination of Old Russian and West European devices in the classicism stylistic context that found a reflection in the Tver region monuments. At present the phenomenon of different trends coexistence in the beginning of the 19th century is well known in the specialized literature through the example of icon-painting. A similar occurrence took place in the monumental art but so far it hasn’t been investigated in the scholarly literature. The works of the Yaroslavl painters Banshchikov and Smirnov are preserved in the Resurrection cathedral in Kashin as a masterpiece of wall-painting without renovations or restorations. Through the example of the cathedral paintings the devices of the Yaroslavl painters are being analyzed, in particular the use of the rare Old Testament cycle in the painting programme created on the basis of the popular German engravings from Christoph Weigel Bible (1695). A comparison of the Yaroslavl painters’ style in the Korsun Icon of the Mother of God church in the village of Zelentsovo and a number of the North-East Tver region murals is carried out. The analysis of the interregional connections and the study of the Old Russian traditions firmness in the classicism period favour the deepening one’s knowledge about the view of the Russian art development in the first half of the 19th century. For the Yaroslavl region bordering the Tver region districts Yaroslavl as a strong monumental art centre became one of the main sources of the new artistic traditions.