Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin (Antoniev Monastery)

The church was founded by St. Anthony in 1117, shortly after the foundation of the monastery on the right bank of the Volkhov River . The construction of a stone cathedral by a private person, such as the Monk Anthony, was almost exceptional for those years. Other stone cathedrals of Novgorod at that time were erected on the princely initiative. The Nativity Cathedral is more modest in comparison with them and has a number of differences.

The construction of the temple took place in two stages. In the years 1117-1119. its central volume, almost square in plan, was built with three high apses and one dome. The interior, apparently, was well lit due to the abundance of windows. Its not very large space was notable for its rare integrity. The side naves merged with the dome space thanks to pillars close to the walls, the western pair of which has a streamlined octagonal shape. Altar apse, on the contrary, was more isolated from the naos of the temple, since the eastern pair of pillars turned to naos with wide flat faces, which were adjacent to the altar barrier .

Almost immediately after completion of construction for unknown reasons in 1119-1122. from the west, a narthex with choirs above it is attached to the cathedral. At the same time, the western wall of the first building in the central nave is completely disassembled, its ends turn into another pair of supporting pillars. The lateral parts of the choir remain cut off from the interior of the temple piers with window openings. From the northwest, a round staircase adjoins the narthex, along which climb to the choirs. The tower is crowned with a dome, in which from ancient times the side chapel of Onufrius the Great and Peter of Athos was located. To balance the composition from the southwestern corner of the cathedral, a third dome is placed above the choirs. It also serves to provide additional illumination of the choir space. This restructuring brought the Cathedral of the Anthony Monastery closer to other Novgorod stone temples of that time. The closest analogy is St. George’s Cathedral of St. George’s Monastery , which also has an external staircase (though rectangular in shape) and crowned with three domes.

Over time, the Nativity Cathedral overgrown with extensions. Already in the XVI century, a small porch appeared from the west. In 1671, a chapel was added from the south in honor of Anthony of Rome. Then he was painted. In 1680, the aisle of the Apostle John the Theologian appeared from the north, and in 1699 a new porch was erected over the entire width of the cathedral. Probably at the same time, the new outbuildings were connected to the interior of the cathedral by wide arches hanging in the side walls. At the same time, the floor of the cathedral, which had gone into the earth over the centuries of its existence, was aligned with the floor level of the extensions and raised by 1 meter. The beskomarnoe coating was replaced by a roof with a direct cornice, and narrow windows were trimmed ^[2] . In this form, the temple has survived to this day.

Unlike other monastery churches in Novgorod, the cathedral continues to be used as a museum. The relics of St. Anthony, who had rested in the cathedral since 1597, have been considered missing since the opening of the cancers by the Bolsheviks.

In 1125, the inside of the cathedral was painted with frescoes . In the 17th century, painting was completely renewed for the first time. In 1837, due to dilapidation, most of the ancient painting was knocked down from the walls, and a year later the cathedral was re-painted. These murals have survived to our time. They are executed in the academic manner characteristic of the 19th century, far from the forms of Orthodox icon painting.

For the first time, small fragments of the original frescoes were found on the altar in 1898. Their systematic disclosure began only in 1919 and continued intermittently until the 1990s. Currently, almost all the surviving fragments of the mural of 1125 have been cleared and restored, which allows us to judge both their stylistic features and the originality of the selected iconographic plots.

Fragments of the painting of all three apses, as well as narrow stripes of fragments on the side walls from the side of the altar, have been preserved. The frescoes on the eastern pillars, obscured over time by the new high iconostasis, have perfectly survived to our days.

The mural program, following some generally accepted patterns of Byzantine art, has a number of original features. There is no doubt that their content was thought out by the founder of the monastery.

The two lower registers of the central apse depicted numerous saints . The expanded hierarchal rank will become a local Novgorod tradition in the 12th century. Next to the saints on the edges of the central arch leading to the altar at the very bottom are the Old Testament prophet Moses and High Priest Aaron . Their figures frame the entrance to the altar, thus showing that the Old Testament tabernacle was a type of the New Testament temple. They seem to participate in worship along with the New Testament bishops . This specific feature of the painting was extremely rare in Byzantium, but became very common in ancient Russia. Another unique feature of the program is the numerous reverends depicted in full length and waist-high in medallions on the faces of all three altar arches. Amazing not only their number, but also the placement of images of holy monks in the eastern part of the temple, while usually they were placed closer to the entrance on the western side.

The murals of the northern apse of the cathedral - the altar - were dedicated to the Proto-Gospel, that is, the story of the Nativity and childhood of the Mother of God . Here, the composition The Introduction of the Mother of God to the Temple , as well as the scene of the washing of the Mother of God, singled out here from Christmas itself in a separate composition, is best preserved. Its location in the center of the apse reminds of the preparation of holy gifts for the liturgy . The Mother of God herself here is a gift to God brought by her parents.

On the other side of the altar, in the deacon’s , there was a lengthy cycle of the life of John the Baptist , ending with his martyrdom and scenes of the three acquisitions of his head, immediately after his death, revered as a sacred relic. Part of the scene of the feast of Herod and the figure of the seated Herodias , to which the severed head of the prophet was preserved, have been preserved. Below, the figure of a digging youth survived - one of the acquisitions of the head of John the Baptist. This revered Christian relic disappeared several times and was again found, in honor of which a separate holiday was established in the church calendar. One of the figures of the holy deacons has been preserved on the entrance arch to the deacon.

The largest fragments on the southern and northern walls give some idea of ​​the painting of the naos. As usual, the vaults and upper parts of the walls were covered in gospel stories. A characteristic feature found in other ancient Russian churches was a special juxtaposition of two scenes highlighted by the large size - the Nativity of Christ on the south and the Assumption of Our Lady on the northern walls. The bodily birth and incarnation of the Son of God is contrasted with birth after death in a new eternal life. Even a small preserved fragment allows us to understand that here the Assumption was presented in a special expanded version with the image of the transfer of apostles to Jerusalem to the bed of Our Lady on clouds.

The best preserved painting is the eastern pillars on the western faces facing the worshipers. Above is the Annunciation . The figures of the Archangel Gabriel and Our Lady according to the established tradition are depicted separately so that the scene takes place as if in the space of the temple itself. Under the Annunciation are four figures of holy healers - Cyrus and John, Flora and Lavra. If two of them hold medicine containers in their hands, very reminiscent of donors , then the other two (one in each pair) have scrolls in their hands. Here, along with the healing of the body, the healing of the soul by Christian teaching is obviously emphasized. Moreover, images of healers flank the altar of the temple, showing that it is here that a person is given healing.

Under these frescoes was attached the template of the altar barrier, in which initially probably there were no other icons besides the images of the Savior and the Mother of God . The altar was covered with a curtain attached to the template. Towels hinted at her at the bottom of the pillars ^[2] .

The artistic features of the frescoes for a long time remained without a proper assessment by researchers. Incomplete disclosure of ancient painting prevented scientists from adequately perceiving their style. In this regard, an opinion was expressed about the alienness of this painting to all ancient Russian art and its connection with Romanesque art . Now it has become clear that the painting of the Anthony Monastery is nevertheless included in the context of other Novgorod monuments, although it has its own striking differences. It is likely that her performers were still artists from Kiev. The frescoes retain many of the features of the paintings of the early XII century, such as the frescoes of St. Sophia of Novgorod and St. Nicholas Cathedral . The figures are large and heavy, they are dominated by static. The plastic modeling of the faces, which stands out in comparison with almost flat clothes, is similar. However, in a personal letter, a more intense graphic rendering of features appears, giving the images much more activity. The images of Antonievsky frescoes are characterized by great emotional openness, bordering on exaltation. These new trends, spreading in different parts of the Byzantine world, will find a great response in Novgorod. The contrast, so sharp in the ratio of the static figures to the internal mobility of the images, also manifests itself in the sonorous color of the paintings: here dark blue backgrounds are combined with bright yellow nimbuses, and dark monastic clothes with robes of pink, blue and light green tones ^[2] .

The staircase adjoining the cathedral in antiquity had many different functions. She not only led to the choirs of the temple, but also had in her dome a separate chapel of Onufrius the Great and Peter of Athos, consecrated in 1122. Tiny cells were preserved in the thickness of the tower walls, in which the monks of the monastery secluded themselves for prayer. The Monk Anthony spent his last years here, likened in this way to the pillars .

The latest architectural restoration also found that initially the tower had three openings at the base of the dome for attaching bells. However, the most interesting are the drawings preserved on the internal walls, which are not integral, made by professional artists, but created apparently by the monks themselves. They are made with simple red ocher lines and are poorly preserved to this day. Here are mainly symbolic-allegorical and didactic images. Among them is the figure of a lion with a sad face as a person and a tail tied, which indicates the main monastic virtues - repentance and humility. There is also an image of a fantastic creature on four legs with a human head - probably an image of Kitovras , the character of the apocryphal legend about King Solomon . Kitovras, resembling an ancient centaur , was endowed with extraordinary power and unearthly wisdom. According to the legend, Solomon forcibly brought Kitovras to the construction of the Jerusalem temple, but he was able to free himself and escape back to the desert, preferring freedom to worldly glory ^[2] .

In addition to kitovras, on the wall of the staircase tower, an image of a manticore was found - a mythical creature with the body of a lion and a human face ^[3] .

• St. George Cathedral of St. George's Monastery
• List of ancient Russian architectural structures of the pre-Mongol period