“Classical” heritage in Byzantine and pre-Mongol art of the late 11th – early 12th centuries.

Abstract

Old Russian art as a whole was oriented towards the monastic culture of the Byzantine Empire, and this became distinctly clear in the 12th century. The princely community at the early stages of the development of pre-Mongol culture assimilated from Byzantium the court art full of "classical" reminiscences. New finds of fresco fragments of the Church of the Annunciation on Hillfort and the St. George Cathedral of the Yuriev monastery in Novgorod clearly demonstrate that aristocratic traditions, with elements of the “classics” penetrated into Russia during the reign of the House of Monomakh. These traditions spread beyond the boundaries of the Kiev land and Southern Russia and manifested themselves in the monuments of Novgorod. They were alive not only in the 11th century, but throughout the entire first third of the 12th century. This situation was quite consistent with the preservation of the practice of the princely order.