In 1370, a thirty-year-old icon painter named Theophanes came from Byzantium and settled in Novgorod. Novgorodians gave him the nickname Greek - it was similar in place of birth, and the master constantly confused Russian words with Greek. When, having blessed, he began painting the Transfiguration Church, which stood on Ilyin Street, he revealed to the amazed gaze of Novgorodians such marvelous images of the Pre-Eternal Forces that fame was fixed to him, and did not fade to this day.
Icon painter from the shores of the Bosphorus
Little is known about the life of Theophanes the Greek. It is known that he went from Volkhov to the Volga in Nizhny Novgorod, and then to Kolomna and Serpukhov, until, finally, he settled in Moscow. But everywhere, wherever he directed his feet, he left behind wonderfully painted temples, screensavers in church books and icons, which became an unattainable model for many generations of artists.
Despite the fact that since the time when Theophanes the Greek lived and worked , six centuries have passed, many of his works have survived to this day. This is a painting of the already mentioned Novgorod Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior, and frescoes on the walls of Kremlin cathedrals - Arkhangelsk and Blagoveshchensky, as well as the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in the Seny. But besides this, icons written by his brush entered the treasury of Russian art, the most famous of which is the image of the Most Holy Theotokos, which went down in history as the “Virgin of the Don”.
Gift to Prince Dmitry Donskoy
So little information has been preserved about the history of the creation of this most famous work of the master that among art critics there are very different opinions regarding the year and place of its writing. There are even skeptics trying to challenge Theophanes' authorship (in their opinion, one of his students painted the holy face). However, for a long time, a tradition has developed that is equally based on historical materials and on oral tradition, according to which it was Feofan Grek who created this masterpiece, and did this until 1380.
Why so? The answer can be found in the “Historical Description of the Moscow Donskoy Monastery”, compiled in 1865 by the famous historian I.E. Zabelin. On its pages, the author cites an ancient manuscript that tells how before the start of the Battle of Kulikovo, the Cossacks presented the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy, through which the Queen of Heaven herself bestowed strength on the Orthodox army and the courage to overcome adversaries.
There are several hypotheses about where the Don Icon of the Mother of God was after the defeat of Mamai on the Kulikovo Field in 1380. The most probable is considered to be the one according to which the holy image was stored for two hundred and seventy years in the Assumption Cathedral of the Simonov Monastery, for which it was allegedly written. This is no coincidence, since the icon is two-sided, and on its back is written the scene of the Assumption of the Mother of God in the compositional solution generally accepted by the Orthodox Church.
Icon - Defender of the Russians
The next bright appearance of the icon, which Dmitry Donskoy received before the Battle of Kulikovo, dates back to 1552, when, on his victorious campaign against the Kazan Khanate, Tsar Ivan the Terrible prayed in front of this icon. After asking Her protection from the Heavenly Intercessor, he took with him the image painted by Theophanes the Greek, and when he returned, placed it in the Kremlin’s Archangel Cathedral. The icon was accompanied by the tsar and in his campaign to Polotsk in 1563.
It was so pleasing to the Queen of Heaven that the miraculous image of the “Mother of God of the Don” appeared before the Russians in a year of difficult military trials, instilling in them courage and blessing the Orthodox army. This also happened in 1591, when countless hordes of the Tatar khan Kazy II Girey approached the Mother See. Already from the height of the Sparrow Hills they looked with predatory eyes at the Russian capital, but they took the Muscovites from the cathedral the Don Icon of the Mother of God, walked around the city walls with a procession, and they became inaccessible to the enemy.
The next day, August 19, in a terrible slaughter the army of the Tatar Khan was killed, and he, with the remnants of his minions, barely escaped, and only miraculously returned to the Crimea. All this time, the Don Icon of the Mother of God was in the regimental church, and no one doubted that it was her intercession that helped to expel the enemies from Russian land.
In memory of the great victory at the place where the regimental church was located during the battle, they founded a monastery called Don. For this new monastery, a list was made of the miraculous icon that gave it its name, and then the day of its all-church celebration was set - August 19 (September 1). Since that time, Our Lady of the Don was revered as the heavenly protector of the Russian land from all who come to her with a sword.
King, hostage of the Time of Troubles
When in 1589, after the death of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich - the third son of Ivan the Terrible, the Rurikovich dynasty broke off in Russia, and Boris Godunov went to the empty throne, the first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia blessed him to the kingdom with this particular icon. However, Boris’s rule was not happy. It coincided with the most difficult period of Russian history, called the Time of Troubles.
After spending seven years at the head of a state torn by both foreign intervention and internal social conflicts, the tsar suddenly died in 1605, having barely survived to fifty-three years. The Archangel’s Cathedral of the Kremlin became the resting place of the deceased sovereign, where the face of the Don Icon of the Mother of God, which before recently, under the relentless ringing of bells, vowed selfless allegiance to the Fatherland, mournfully looked at his grave slab.
The beginning of the reign of Peter I
It is known that at the beginning of the reign of Peter I, Russia waged a war with Turkey, which lasted for fourteen years and became part of the pan-European Great Turkish War. It began with the campaign of the Russian army in the Crimea. It was headed by the loyal companion of the sovereign, Prince Vasily Vasilievich Golitsyn.
The icon "Our Lady of the Don" accompanied him throughout this entire military campaign, which became a difficult test for Russia and cost her many victims. But the intercession of the Virgin, revealed by Her through an image stored in the tent of the commander in chief, helped the warriors, albeit with heavy losses, to return home, completing the task assigned to them by allied obligations. In the last years of the 17th century, the miraculous image was spent in the chambers of the sister of Peter I, Princess Natalya Alekseevna, where many old icons were collected, and from where he was later transferred to the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kremlin.
The fate of the image in the XVIII and XIX centuries.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the icon was popularly respected. She was offered prayers and composed laudatory words. In addition, the glorified image was at the center of many stories and legends, some of which reflected real events, information about which was obtained from documentary sources, and some were the result of the imagination of a people who wanted to express their love and gratitude to Heavenly Intercessor.
The icons did not spare money for decoration. It is known that before the Napoleonic invasion, the image was covered with a rich salary with precious stones. The stones were stolen by the French, and after their expulsion there was only a golden frame for the icon, which the marauders mistook for copper.
Art Features Icons
It is written on a blackboard 86x68 cm in size. Speaking of the iconographic features of the image, it should be noted that the icon of the “Don Mother of God” refers to the type of theotokos icons “Tenderness” accepted by art critics, a characteristic feature of which is the combination of the faces of the Virgin and Her Eternal Infant. But the theological meaning inherent in the icons of this type goes far beyond the scope of the everyday scene depicting the caresses of a mother and her child.
In this case, a visual expression of religious dogma is presented, which determines the relationship of the Creator to His creation. Holy Scripture speaks of such an infinite love of God for people that for their salvation from eternal death, He sacrificed His only begotten Son.
A special solemnity to the figures was given by the now lost golden background, on which the Virgin and Child were depicted. The gilding that covered the halo also did not survive, but, fortunately, the faces and clothes came to our days in good condition.
Composition and color scheme icons
The compositional solution of the image is quite typical for the icons of this edition (canonical variety). The Blessed Virgin embraces the Son sitting on Her knees and clinging to Her cheek. The Eternal Infant is depicted holding up his right hand in a blessing gesture and holding a scroll in his left hand.
The Theophanes the Greek icon differs from other images of this exodus by depicting the bare feet of the Divine Infant, resting on the wrist of the left hand of the Virgin. The folds covering His ocher-colored tunic - outerwear, are underlined by a network of finely crafted gold lines, creating a festive and festive look in combination with the fabric color and blue accents. The overall impression is complemented by a gold lace pulling together a scroll.
Equally elegant and at the same time with a touch of nobility the vestments of the Virgin Mary are presented. Its upper mantle - maforium - is made in dark cherry tones and is trimmed with a gold fringe trimmed. Three golden stars, traditionally serving as decoration of Her decoration, have a purely dogmatic meaning. They symbolize the eternal virginity of the Mother of God - before, during and after the birth of Jesus.
Derogations from the Byzantine canons
It should be noted that, in the opinion of most art historians, the icon painter Feofan Grek (a Byzantine by origin) in his work went beyond the established traditions of the Constantinople school, whose masters did not allow themselves to violate established canons in creative experiments. The Don icon of the Mother of God is a vivid example of this.
To give the facial features of the Virgin more vitality and expression, the artist allows for some asymmetry in the arrangement of the mouth and eyes. They are not parallel, as on the icons of the Byzantine masters, but are located on the descending axes. In addition, the mouth is slightly shifted to the right.
These seemingly insignificant details, used by the author for purely technical purposes, were, nevertheless, a violation of the canons established by the Church of Constantinople, and in Byzantium were considered unacceptable. And there are many such examples in the icons and frescoes that Theophanes the Greek wrote. "Our Lady of the Don" is one of them.
The flip side of the icon
Of great interest is the reverse side of the board, which depicts the Assumption of the Virgin - the icon, as mentioned above, is bilateral. The painting here has been preserved much better than on the front surface. Even a delicate inscription in cinnabar is clearly read. Perhaps the salary that was once on the icon, stolen by the French in 1812, played a role, a reminder of which is only the golden frame for the icon that has been preserved to this day.
When looking at the image, the absence of elements traditional for this plot is striking. The master did not include in the composition the images of angels, the ascending apostles, the grieving women, and many other similar attributes that are familiar in such cases. Central is the figure of Jesus Christ, holding in his hands a tiny swaddled figure symbolizing the immortal soul of the Mother of God.
In front of the figure of Christ on the bed lies the body of the deceased Mother of God, surrounded by figures of the twelve apostles and two bishops who were present, according to the Holy Scriptures, at the death of the Virgin Mary. Two details are characteristic, which are an expression of the conventions adopted in the icon-painting: these are buildings placed at the edges of the icon and meaning that this scene takes place indoors, and the candle placed in front of the Virgin's bed is a symbol of fading life.
Discussions around the authorship of the icon
It is characteristic that the scene depicted on the reverse side of the icon carries obvious deviations from the traditions of Byzantine painting. This is primarily evidenced by the faces of the apostles, deprived of the aristocratic features characteristic of the traditions of Constantinople. As many scholars of Theophanes the Greek emphasize in their works, they are more inherent in purely peasant traits, common among the common people.
It is not surprising that the numerous differences between the works of Theophanes the Greek from the canons and artistic traditions of Byzantium gave rise to doubt among some art historians about the authorship of the works attributed to him. Their point of view is understandable, because on the banks of the Bosphorus the artist was not only born, but also formed as a master of icon painting - we should not forget that he came to Russia at the age of thirty.
His manner of writing is closer to the Novgorod school than his native Byzantine. Many years of discussion on this subject do not stop today, however, they are dominated by the opinion that, finding himself in a new country for him and having the opportunity to see many old icons created by Russian masters, the artist used their characteristic features in his work.
The most famous copies of the icon
It is known that over the centuries-old history of the icon several lists have been made from it. The earliest of them dates to the end of the 14th century. It was made by order of the cousin of Dmitry Donskoy - Prince Vladimir Andreyevich, and, decorated with a silver and gilded salary, became his gift from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
In the time of Ivan the Terrible, at his command, two lists were fulfilled, one of which was sent to Kolomna, was subsequently lost, and the other, placed in the Assumption Cathedral, has survived to this day. When the Intercessor of Heaven in 1591 helped Muscovites repel the invasion of Khan Girey, and the Don monastery was founded on the site where the regimental church stood, then they made another list of the miraculous image especially for him. Several copies of a later period are also known.
Donskoy Monastery: address and travel by public transport
The Soviet period was a new stage in the history of the Don Icon of the Mother of God. Since 1919, this image is included in the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery. Here he is one of the most remarkable exhibits in the section of Old Russian painting. Once a year, on the day of its all-church celebration, the image is delivered to the Donskoy Monastery (address: Moscow, Donskaya Square 1-3), where a solemn service is held in front of it, to which thousands of people gather. Anyone who, being at that time in Moscow, wants to take part in it, can get to the monastery, leaving the subway at Shabolovskaya station.
It is no coincidence that this image of the Blessed Virgin Mary is especially loved by Russians. As noted above, throughout his history he has been associated with the feats of arms of the defenders of the Fatherland, and through him the Queen of Heaven has repeatedly shown her help and intercession to the Orthodox people.