Церковь Николы на Липне близ Новгорода и идейное содержание ее росписи
The Church of S. Nicholas on Lipno near Novgorod and the Idea Content of its Frescoes

Summary/Abstract: The wall-painting of the Church of S. Nicholas on Lipno is the single surviving fresco ensemble of the 13th c. in Russia. Its building (1292) and decoration (most probably1294) became the starting point for the national and the artistic revival of the important old-Russian cultural center after the long de- pression of the North-West Russian territories caused by difficult political situation . The reconstruction of the iconographic program of this fresco-ensemble, damaged during last 150 years, is based on the summary analyses of the location data and the research of the material of the graphic fixation of the frescoes made during the 19th and the first half of the 20th c., as well as the early descriptions of the wall- painting. The main idea of the decoration is mostly caused by the concrete his- torical realities of the time. The wall-painting reflects the important stage of creation of the national pantheon of sanctity in its purely novgorodian expression. Besides, the content of the frescoes shows that Novgorod, being on the line with the Catholicism, one of the first among the Russian lands had gotten the impetus to the national and religious self-identification, and – what was significant – being quite independent, this center identified itself with that part of orthodox world, which was baptized by kiev Prince Vladimir.

• Details
• Contents