The remarkable art of the ancient Russian jewelers of the era of Yaroslav the Wise and Vladimir Monomakh amazed European travelers who visited Russia in those days. It has been forgotten for centuries. However, through the efforts of domestic archaeologists in the 19th-20th centuries, the creations of ancient masters gained new life. Hundreds and thousands of jewelry created by masters of the 10th - early 13th centuries were mined from the ground. Exhibited in the windows of museums, they are able to enchant the modern fashionista and arouse deep, sincere admiration of the artist.
In ancient times, Russia was influenced by several developed cultures at once. In medieval Kyiv, entire quarters were inhabited by foreigners: Greeks, Jews and Armenians. Severe warriors and clever merchants from Scandinavia brought the fine pagan art of the Viking Age to the Russian lands. Merchants from the East - a colorful and intricate ornament, so beloved in the countries of Islam. Finally, Christianity, adopted from the mighty Byzantine Empire, spread out on the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, connected Russia with a high artistic culture of this state. Byzantium was in those days the beacon of civilization in barbarian Europe and the keeper of ancient knowledge, bequeathed by the era of antiquity. But along with Christianity, Russia for several centuries maintained persistent pagan traditions. The complex, highly developed religious system of East Slavic paganism became an important source of creative imagination for ancient Russian painters, sculptors and jewelers.
The Mongol-Tatar invasion turned out to be disastrous for many secrets of jewelry art. The masters who owned them perished in the hard times of Batyev's defeat or were driven away by the Horde to serve their rulers. For a whole century, the skill of ancient Russian jewelers was in decline, and only in the middle - the second half of the XIV century. began its slow recovery.
Jewelry Techniques
In an era when Kyiv was the capital of the Old Russian state, Eastern Slavs loved to adorn themselves with many jewels. Cast silver rings with ornaments, twisted silver wire bracelets, glass bracelets and, of course, beads were in fashion. They were the most diverse: from colored glass, rock crystal, carnelian and rubies, large hollow beads made of cast gold. Round or moon-shaped bronze pendants (lunnitsa) were hung to them, decorated with fine ornaments: unprecedented magical animals in the Scandinavian style, complex wicker designs, very reminiscent of images on Arab dirhems - coins that were in circulation both in Russia and in Europe in those days. .
But the most popular decorations were temporal rings. Cast silver temple rings were woven into women's hairstyle at the temples or hung from headdresses, they were worn one by one or several pairs at once. Each East Slavic tribe that became part of the Kievan state had its own special type of temporal rings, unlike the same adornments of its neighbors. Northern women, for example, wore an elegant variety of rings that looked like a curl or flattened spiral. The Radimichi liked the temporal rings more, in which seven rays diverged from the bow, ending in teardrop-shaped thickenings. On the temporal rings of the Vyatichi, which were among the most decorative, instead of rays, there were seven flat blades.
Citizens of the XI-XIII centuries. most of all they loved kolts - paired hollow gold and silver pendants, which were attached with chains or ribbons to the headdress. Many kolts that have survived to this day are distinguished by an amazing perfection of form. In 1876, near the village of Terekhovo, Oryol province, several pairs of kolts of the 12th - early 13th centuries were discovered in a rich hoard. They are massive five-ray stars, densely covered with thousands of soldered tiny metal balls. This jewelry technique is called granulation; it came from Scandinavia and was widespread in Ancient Russia. Along with granulation, filigree was also used: the thinnest silver or gold wire, twisted in bundles, was soldered onto plates or twisted into openwork patterns. In 1887, on the territory of the ancient Mikhailovsky Golden-Domed Monastery, another treasure of jewelry of the 11th-12th centuries was found, including a pair of gold kolts. Colts were decorated river pearls and images of fantastic birds with female heads. The colors of the images have not lost their brightness, and their combination is extremely elegant: white, turquoise, dark blue and bright red. Meanwhile, the master who created this splendor died about eight centuries ago. Mikhailovsky kolts are made in the virtuoso jewelry technique of cloisonné enamel, which was adopted from the Byzantines. This forgotten art required patience and amazing precision in work. On the surface of the gold jewelry, the jeweler soldered the thinnest gold ribbons-partitions on the edge, which formed the outline of the future pattern. Then the cells between them were filled with enamel powders of different colors and heated to high temperature. In this case, a bright and very strong vitreous mass was obtained. Products made in the technique of cloisonné enamel were very expensive, so it is no coincidence that most of the works that have survived to this day are details of an expensive princely attire.
Another favorite technique of ancient Russian jewelers was blackening, which, according to some scholars, was a Khazar legacy. Niello was a complex alloy of tin, copper, silver, sulfur and other constituents. Inflicted on a silver surface, the black created a background for a convex image. Especially often, blackening was used to decorate folding bracelets-bracers. Several dozen such bracelets of the 12th century. kept in the State Historical Museum. It is not difficult to distinguish figures of musicians, dancers, warriors, eagles and fantastic monsters on them. The plot of the drawings is far from Christian ideas and much closer to paganism. This is not surprising. Jewelers used enamel or niello both for depicting Christ, the Mother of God, saints, and for griffins, dog-headed monsters, centaurs and pagan festivals.
There were both purely Christian and purely pagan jewelry, which were objects of religious cults. Many pectoral crosses-encolpions have been preserved, consisting of two wings, between which particles of the relics of saints were placed. On the wings there was usually a cast, carved or blackened image of the Mother of God with the Child. No less often, archaeologists find pagan amulets - objects that protected from diseases, troubles and witchcraft. Many of them are cast figurines of horse heads, to which "bells" are attached in chains, made in the form of animals, birds, spoons, knives and grips. With their ringing, the bells were supposed to drive away evil spirits.
"Hryvnia of Vladimir Monomakh"
Some monuments of ancient Russian jewelry art gained great fame. Articles and books are written about them, their photographs are placed in albums dedicated to the culture of pre-Mongol Rus. The most famous is the "Chernihiv hryvnia", or "Vladimir Monomakh's hryvnia". This is a chased gold medallion of the 11th century, the so-called serpentine, on one side of which a female head is depicted in a ball of eight snakes, symbolizing the devil, a pagan deity or an evil inclination in general. Prayer in Greek is directed against the disease. On the other side is the archangel Michael, called to defend the owner of the hryvnia from the devil's machinations. The inscription, made in Slavic letters, reads: "Lord, help your servant Vasily." It was a real Christian amulet against evil spirits. The plot and the very technique of performing torcs-serpentines are borrowed from Byzantium; in pre-Mongol times, decorations of this kind were not uncommon. "Chernihiv hryvnia" is made with unusual skill and should have belonged to a rich, noble person, most likely of princely origin. The cost of this jewel is equal to the amount of princely tribute from an average city.
The medallion was found in 1821 near the city of Chernigov, in ancient times the capital of the principality. The inscription indicating the identity of the owner - Vasily - suggested to historians that the hryvnia belonged to Vladimir Monomakh (1053-1125), who was given the name Vasily at baptism. This famous ancient Russian commander and politician reigned in Chernigov for some time. He left "Instruction" to the children, written in the form of memoirs. In this essay, the prince wrote that one of his favorite activities was hunting. Going out on it, Vladimir Monomakh was not afraid of boar fangs and elk hooves. Hunting not far from Chernigov, he dropped a precious hryvnia, which brought to the descendants the work of skillful Kyiv masters.
Names on metal
The vast majority of the monuments of jewelry art of Ancient Russia are anonymous. Archaeologists, finding the remains of workshops that belonged to ancient Russian gold and silver craftsmen, extracted from the ground all the accessories necessary for the jewelry craft. However, history has not preserved the names of the remarkable craftsmen who created the "Chernihiv hryvnia" or kolts from the Mikhailovsky treasure. Sometimes only the jewels themselves "let slip" about their creators. So, craters - precious silver bowls for holy water, created in medieval Novgorod of the 12th century - bear inscriptions in which the names of the masters Kosta and Bratila are reported.
The famous Polotsk educator of the XII century. In 1161 Princess-Abbess Euphrosyne ordered a cross to contribute to the Spassky Monastery founded by her. The six-pointed cross, about half a meter high, was made of cypress wood and covered with gold plates adorned with precious stones from above and below. Already by the 20s. 20th century almost all the stones were lost, but it is known that there were about two dozen of them, and among them were grenades. The stones were fastened in nests on gold plates, and between them the master inserted twenty enamel miniatures depicting saints. The name of each saint is minted next to the image. Christian relics were kept inside the cross: the blood of Jesus Christ, particles of the relics of Saints Stephen and Panteleimon, as well as the blood of St. Dmitry. The shrine was overlaid with gilded silver plates, and the edges of the front side were framed with a string of pearls. In the eyes of believers, relics made the cross more precious than the gold and silver used by the jeweler.
The fate of the cross of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk, which in turn was in the hands of the Orthodox, Catholics, Uniates, in the treasury of the Moscow sovereigns and the hiding place of the French who occupied Polotsk in 1812, is sad. It was lost during the war of 1941-1945, it was searched for by journalists, writers, scientists, politicians and even Interpol (International Crime Organization). The history of these searches is as dramatic and inconclusive as, for example, the epic associated with the famous Amber Room (the walls and all the furnishings of which were decorated with amber), stolen by the Nazis during the same war and since then unsuccessfully searched by scientists.
Descriptions and drawings made before the disappearance of the cross of St. Euphrosyne preserved the text of the inscription, which was left on the surface of the cross by its creator, the Polotsk master Lazar Bogsha (Boguslav). The Cross of St. Euphrosyne is one of the main spiritual shrines of Belarus and a recognized masterpiece of medieval jewelry art.
Nowadays temporal rings, kolts and many other works of medieval Russian jewelry art are collected in museums. Particularly rich collections belong to the State Historical Museum, the Armory of the Moscow Kremlin and the Patriarchal Sacristy.
The remarkable art of the ancient Russian jewelers of the era of Yaroslav the Wise and Vladimir Monomakh amazed European travelers who visited Russia in those days.
The remarkable art of the ancient Russian jewelers of the era of Yaroslav the Wise and Vladimir Monomakh amazed European travelers who visited Russia in those days. It has been forgotten for centuries. However, through the efforts of domestic archaeologists in the 19th-20th centuries, the creations of ancient masters found a new life. Hundreds and thousands of jewelry created by masters of the 10th - early 13th centuries were mined from the ground. Exhibited in the windows of museums, they are able to enchant the modern fashionista and arouse deep, sincere admiration of the artist.
In ancient times, Russia was influenced by several developed cultures at once. In medieval Kyiv, entire quarters were inhabited by foreigners: Greeks, Jews and Armenians. Severe warriors and clever merchants from Scandinavia brought the fine pagan art of the Viking Age to the Russian lands. Merchants from the East - a colorful and intricate ornament, so beloved in the countries of Islam. Finally, Christianity, adopted from the mighty Byzantine Empire, spread out on the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, connected Russia with the high artistic culture of this state. Byzantium was in those days the beacon of civilization in barbarian Europe and the keeper of ancient knowledge, bequeathed by the era of antiquity. But along with Christianity, Russia for several centuries preserved persistent pagan traditions. The complex, highly developed religious system of East Slavic paganism became an important source of creative imagination for ancient Russian painters, sculptors and jewelers.
The Mongol-Tatar invasion turned out to be disastrous for many secrets of jewelry art. The masters who owned them perished in the hard times of Batyev's defeat or were driven away by the Horde to serve their rulers. For a whole century, the skill of ancient Russian jewelers was in decline, and only in the middle - the second half of the XIV century. began its slow recovery.
JEWELERY TECHNIQUES
In an era when Kyiv was the capital of the Old Russian state, Eastern Slavs loved to adorn themselves with many jewels. Cast silver rings with ornaments, twisted silver wire bracelets, glass bracelets and, of course, beads were in fashion. They were very diverse: from colored glass, rock crystal, carnelians and rubies, large hollow beads made of solid gold. Round or moon-shaped bronze pendants (lunnitsa) were hung to them, decorated with fine ornaments: unprecedented magical animals in the Scandinavian style, complex wicker designs, very reminiscent of images on Arab dirhems - coins that were in circulation both in Russia and in those days. Europe.
But the most popular decorations were temporal rings. Cast silver temporal rings were woven into a woman's hairstyle at the temples or hung from headdresses, they were worn one or several pairs at once. Each East Slavic tribe that became part of the Kievan state had its own special type of temporal rings, unlike the same adornments of its neighbors. Northern women, for example, wore an elegant variety of rings that looked like a curl or flattened spiral. The Radimichi liked the temporal rings more, in which seven rays diverged from the bow, ending in teardrop-shaped thickenings. On the temporal rings of the Vyatichi, which were among the most decorative, instead of rays, there were seven flat blades.
Citizens of the XI-XIII centuries. most of all they loved kolts - paired hollow gold and silver pendants, which were attached with chains or ribbons to the headdress. Many kolts that have survived to this day are distinguished by an amazing perfection of form. In 1876, near the village of Terekhovo, Oryol province, several pairs of kolts of the 12th - early 13th centuries were discovered in a rich hoard. They are massive five-ray stars, densely covered with thousands of soldered tiny metal balls. This jewelry technique is called granulation; it came from Scandinavia and was widespread in Ancient Russia. Along with granulation, filigree was also used: the thinnest silver or gold wire, twisted in bundles, was soldered onto plates or twisted into openwork patterns. In 1887, on the territory of the ancient Mikhailovsky Golden-Domed Monastery, another treasure of jewelry of the 11th-12th centuries was found, including a pair of gold kolts. Kolts were decorated with river pearls and images of fantastic birds with female heads. The colors of the images have not lost their brightness, and their combination is extremely elegant: white, turquoise, dark blue and bright red. Meanwhile, the master who created this splendor died about eight centuries ago. Mikhailovsky kolts are made in the virtuoso jewelry technique of cloisonné enamel, which was adopted from the Byzantines. This forgotten art required patience and amazing precision in work. On the surface of the gold jewelry, the jeweler soldered the thinnest gold ribbons-partitions on the edge, which formed the outline of the future pattern. Then the cells between them were filled with enamel powders of different colors and heated to a high temperature. In this case, a bright and very strong vitreous mass was obtained. Products made in the technique of cloisonné enamel were very expensive, so it is no coincidence that most of the works that have survived to this day are details of an expensive princely attire.
Another favorite technique of ancient Russian jewelers was blackening, which, according to some scholars, was a Khazar legacy. Niello was a complex alloy of tin, copper, silver, sulfur and other constituents. Inflicted on a silver surface, the black created a background for a convex image. Especially often, blackening was used to decorate folding bracelets-bracers. Several dozen such bracelets of the 12th century. kept in the State Historical Museum. It is not difficult to distinguish figures of musicians, dancers, warriors, eagles and fantastic monsters on them. The plot of the drawings is far from Christian ideas and much closer to paganism. This is not surprising. Jewelers used enamel or niello both for depicting Christ, the Mother of God, saints, and for griffins, dog-headed monsters, centaurs and pagan festivals.
There were both purely Christian and purely pagan jewelry, which were objects of religious cults. Many pectoral crosses-encolpions have been preserved, consisting of two wings, between which particles of the relics of saints were placed. On the wings there was usually a cast, carved or blackened image of the Mother of God with the Child. No less often, archaeologists find pagan amulets - objects that protected from diseases, troubles and witchcraft. Many of them are cast figurines of horse heads, to which "bells" are attached in chains, made in the form of animals, birds, spoons, knives and grips. With their ringing, the bells were supposed to drive away evil spirits.
"HRYVNA OF VLADIMIR MONOMAKH "
Some monuments of ancient Russian jewelry art gained great fame. Articles and books are written about them, their photographs are placed in albums dedicated to the culture of pre-Mongol Rus. The most famous is the "Chernihiv hryvnia", or "Vladimir Monomakh's hryvnia". This is a chased gold medallion of the 11th century, the so-called serpentine, on one side of which a female head is depicted in a ball of eight snakes, symbolizing the devil, a pagan deity or an evil inclination in general. Prayer in Greek is directed against the disease. On the other side is the archangel Michael, called to defend the owner of the hryvnia from the devil's machinations. The inscription, made in Slavic letters, reads: "Lord, help your servant Vasily." It was a real Christian amulet against evil spirits. The plot and the very technique of performing torcs-serpentines are borrowed from Byzantium; in pre-Mongol times, decorations of this kind were not uncommon. "Chernihiv hryvnia" is made with unusual skill and should have belonged to a rich, noble person, most likely of princely origin. The cost of this jewel is equal to the amount of princely tribute from an average city.
The medallion was found in 1821 near the city of Chernigov, in ancient times the capital of the principality. The inscription indicating the identity of the owner - Vasily - suggested to historians that the hryvnia belonged to Vladimir Monomakh (1053-1125), who was given the name Vasily at baptism. This famous ancient Russian commander and politician reigned in Chernigov for some time. He left "Instruction" to the children, written in the form of memoirs. In this essay, the prince wrote that one of his favorite activities was hunting. Going out on it, Vladimir Monomakh was not afraid of boar fangs and elk hooves. Hunting not far from Chernigov, he dropped a precious hryvnia, which brought to the descendants the work of skillful Kyiv masters.
NAMES ON METAL
The vast majority of the monuments of jewelry art of Ancient Russia are anonymous. Archaeologists, finding the remains of workshops that belonged to ancient Russian gold and silver craftsmen, extracted from the ground all the accessories necessary for the jewelry craft. However, history has not preserved the names of the remarkable craftsmen who created the "Chernihiv hryvnia" or kolts from the Mikhailovsky treasure. Sometimes only the jewels themselves "let slip" about their creators. So, craters - precious silver bowls for holy water, created in medieval Novgorod of the 12th century - bear inscriptions in which the names of the masters Kosta and Bratila are reported.
The famous Polotsk educator of the XII century. In 1161 Princess-Abbess Euphrosyne ordered a cross to contribute to the Spassky Monastery founded by her. The six-pointed cross, about half a meter high, was made of cypress wood and covered with gold plates adorned with precious stones from above and below. Already by the 20s. 20th century almost all the stones were lost, but it is known that there were about two dozen of them, and among them were grenades. The stones were fastened in nests on gold plates, and between them the master inserted twenty enamel miniatures depicting saints. The name of each saint is minted next to the image. Christian relics were kept inside the cross: the blood of Jesus Christ, particles of the relics of Saints Stephen and Panteleimon, as well as the blood of St. Dmitry. The shrine was overlaid with gilded silver plates, and the edges of the front side were framed with a string of pearls. In the eyes of believers, relics made the cross more precious than the gold and silver used by the jeweler.
The fate of the cross of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk, which in turn was in the hands of the Orthodox, Catholics, Uniates, in the treasury of the Moscow sovereigns and the hiding place of the French who occupied Polotsk in 1812, is sad. It was lost during the war of 1941-1945, it was searched for by journalists, writers, scientists, politicians and even Interpol (International Crime Organization). The history of these searches is as dramatic and inconclusive as, for example, the epic associated with the famous Amber Room (the walls and all the furnishings of which were decorated with amber), stolen by the Nazis during the same war and since then unsuccessfully searched by scientists.
Descriptions and drawings made before the disappearance of the cross of St. Euphrosyne preserved the text of the inscription, which was left on the surface of the cross by its creator, the Polotsk master Lazar Bogsha (Boguslav). The Cross of St. Euphrosyne is one of the main spiritual shrines of Belarus and a recognized masterpiece of medieval jewelry art.
Nowadays temporal rings, kolts and many other works of medieval Russian jewelry art are collected in museums. Particularly rich collections belong to the State Historical Museum, the Armory of the Moscow Kremlin and the Patriarchal Sacristy.
The remarkable art of the ancient Russian jewelers of the era of Yaroslav the Wise and Vladimir Monomakh amazed European travelers who visited Russia in those days.
It has been forgotten for centuries. However, through the efforts of domestic archaeologists in the 19th-20th centuries, the creations of ancient masters found a new life. Hundreds and thousands of jewelry created by masters of the 10th - early 13th centuries were mined from the ground.
Exhibited in the windows of museums, they are able to enchant the modern fashionista and arouse deep, sincere admiration of the artist.
In ancient times, Russia was influenced by several developed cultures at once.
In medieval Kyiv, entire quarters were inhabited by foreigners: Greeks, Jews and Armenians. Severe warriors and clever merchants from Scandinavia brought the fine pagan art of the Viking Age to the Russian lands. Merchants from the East - a colorful and intricate ornament, so beloved in the countries of Islam. Finally, Christianity, adopted from the mighty Byzantine Empire, spread out on the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, connected Russia with the high artistic culture of this state. Byzantium was in those days the beacon of civilization in barbarian Europe and the keeper of ancient knowledge, bequeathed by the era of antiquity. But along with Christianity, Russia for several centuries preserved persistent pagan traditions. The complex, highly developed religious system of East Slavic paganism became an important source of creative imagination for ancient Russian painters, sculptors and jewelers.
The Mongol-Tatar invasion turned out to be disastrous for many secrets of jewelry art. The masters who owned them perished in the hard times of Batyev's defeat or were driven away by the Horde to serve their rulers. For a whole century, the skill of ancient Russian jewelers was in decline, and only in the middle - the second half of the XIV century. began its slow recovery.
JEWELERY TECHNIQUES
In an era when Kyiv was the capital of the Old Russian state, Eastern Slavs loved to adorn themselves with many jewels. Cast silver rings with ornaments, twisted silver wire bracelets, glass bracelets and, of course, beads were in fashion. They were very diverse: from colored glass, rock crystal, carnelians and rubies, large hollow beads made of solid gold. Round or moon-shaped bronze pendants (lunnitsa) were hung to them, decorated with fine ornaments: unprecedented magical animals in the Scandinavian style, complex wicker designs, very reminiscent of images on Arab dirhems - coins that were in circulation both in Russia and in Europe in those days. .
But the most popular decorations were temporal rings. Cast silver temporal rings were woven into a woman's hairstyle at the temples or hung from headdresses, they were worn one or several pairs at once.
Each East Slavic tribe that became part of the Kievan state had its own special type of temporal rings, unlike the same adornments of its neighbors. Northern women, for example, wore an elegant variety of rings that looked like a curl or flattened spiral.
The Radimichi liked the temporal rings more, in which seven rays diverged from the bow, ending in teardrop-shaped thickenings.
On the temporal rings of the Vyatichi, which were among the most decorative, instead of rays, there were seven flat blades.
Citizens of the XI-XIII centuries. most of all they loved kolts - paired hollow gold and silver pendants, which were attached with chains or ribbons to the headdress. Many kolts that have survived to this day are distinguished by an amazing perfection of form. In 1876, near the village of Terekhovo, Oryol province, several pairs of kolts of the 12th - early 13th centuries were discovered in a rich hoard. They are massive five-ray stars, densely covered with thousands of soldered tiny metal balls. This jewelry technique is called granulation; it came from Scandinavia and was widespread in Ancient Russia. Along with granulation, filigree was also used: the thinnest silver or gold wire, twisted in bundles, was soldered onto plates or twisted into openwork patterns.
In 1887, on the territory of the ancient Mikhailovsky Golden-Domed Monastery, another treasure of jewelry of the 11th-12th centuries was found, including a pair of gold kolts. Kolts were decorated with river pearls and images of fantastic birds with female heads. The colors of the images have not lost their brightness, and their combination is extremely elegant: white, turquoise, dark blue and bright red. Meanwhile, the master who created this splendor died about eight centuries ago. Mikhailovsky kolts are made in the virtuoso jewelry technique of cloisonné enamel, which was adopted from the Byzantines. This forgotten art required patience and amazing precision in work. On the surface of the gold jewelry, the jeweler soldered the thinnest gold ribbons-partitions on the edge, which formed the outline of the future pattern. Then the cells between them were filled with enamel powders of different colors and heated to a high temperature. In this case, a bright and very strong vitreous mass was obtained. Products made in the technique of cloisonné enamel were very expensive, so it is no coincidence that most of the works that have survived to this day are details of an expensive princely attire.
Another favorite technique of ancient Russian jewelers was blackening, which, according to some scholars, was a Khazar legacy. Niello was a complex alloy of tin, copper, silver, sulfur and other constituents. Inflicted on a silver surface, the black created a background for a convex image. Especially often, blackening was used to decorate folding bracelets-bracers. Several dozen such bracelets of the 12th century. kept in the State Historical Museum. It is not difficult to distinguish figures of musicians, dancers, warriors, eagles and fantastic monsters on them. The plot of the drawings is far from Christian ideas and much closer to paganism. This is not surprising. Jewelers used enamel or niello both for depicting Christ, the Mother of God, saints, and for griffins, dog-headed monsters, centaurs and pagan festivals.
There were both purely Christian and purely pagan jewelry, which were objects of religious cults. Many pectoral crosses-encolpions have been preserved, consisting of two wings, between which particles of the relics of saints were placed. On the wings there was usually a cast, carved or blackened image of the Mother of God with the Child. No less often, archaeologists find pagan amulets - objects that protected from diseases, troubles and witchcraft. Many of them are cast figurines of horse heads, to which “bells” are attached in chains, made in the form of animals, birds, spoons, knives and grips. With their ringing, the bells were supposed to drive away evil spirits.
"HRYVNA OF VLADIMIR MONOMAKH"
Some monuments of ancient Russian jewelry art gained great fame.
Articles and books are written about them, their photographs are placed in albums dedicated to the culture of pre-Mongol Rus. The most famous is the “Chernihiv hryvnia”, or “the hryvnia of Vladimir Monomakh”.
This is a chased gold medallion of the 11th century, the so-called serpentine, on one side of which a female head is depicted in a ball of eight snakes, symbolizing the devil, a pagan deity or an evil inclination in general. Prayer in Greek is directed against the disease. On the other side is the archangel Michael, called to defend the owner of the hryvnia from the devil's machinations. The inscription, made in Slavic letters, reads: "Lord, help your servant Vasily." It was a real Christian amulet against evil spirits. The plot and the very technique of performing torcs-serpentines are borrowed from Byzantium; in pre-Mongol times, decorations of this kind were not uncommon. The "Chernihiv hryvnia" was made with extraordinary skill and must have belonged to a rich, noble person, most likely of princely origin. The cost of this jewel is equal to the amount of princely tribute from an average city.
The medallion was found in 1821 near the city of Chernigov, in ancient times the capital of the principality.
The inscription indicating the identity of the owner - Vasily - suggested to historians that the hryvnia belonged to Vladimir Monomakh (1053-1125), who was given the name Vasily at baptism. This famous ancient Russian commander and politician reigned in Chernigov for some time. He left "Instruction" to the children, written in the form of memoirs. In this essay, the prince wrote that one of his favorite activities was hunting. Going out on it, Vladimir Monomakh was not afraid of boar fangs and elk hooves. Hunting not far from Chernigov, he dropped a precious hryvnia, which brought to the descendants the work of skillful Kyiv masters.
NAMES ON METAL
The vast majority of the monuments of jewelry art of Ancient Russia are anonymous. Archaeologists, finding the remains of workshops that belonged to ancient Russian gold and silver craftsmen, extracted from the ground all the accessories necessary for the jewelry craft. However, history has not preserved the names of the remarkable craftsmen who created the "Chernihiv hryvnia" or kolts from the Mikhailovsky treasure. Sometimes only the jewels themselves “let slip” about their creators. So, craters - precious silver bowls for holy water, created in medieval Novgorod of the 12th century - bear inscriptions in which the names of the masters Kosta and Bratila are reported.
The famous Polotsk educator of the XII century. In 1161 Princess-Abbess Euphrosyne ordered a cross to contribute to the Spassky Monastery founded by her. The six-pointed cross, about half a meter high, was made of cypress wood and covered with gold plates adorned with precious stones from above and below. Already by the 20s. 20th century almost all the stones were lost, but it is known that there were about two dozen of them, and among them were grenades. The stones were fastened in nests on gold plates, and between them the master inserted twenty enamel miniatures depicting saints. The name of each saint is minted next to the image. Christian relics were kept inside the cross: the blood of Jesus Christ, particles of the relics of Saints Stephen and Panteleimon, as well as the blood of St. Dmitry. The shrine was overlaid with gilded silver plates, and the edges of the front side were framed with a string of pearls. In the eyes of believers, relics made the cross more precious than the gold and silver used by the jeweler.
The fate of the cross of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk, which in turn was in the hands of the Orthodox, Catholics, Uniates, in the treasury of the Moscow sovereigns and the hiding place of the French who occupied Polotsk in 1812, is sad. It was lost during the war of 1941-1945, it was searched for by journalists, writers, scientists, politicians and even Interpol (International Crime Organization). The history of these searches is as dramatic and inconclusive as, for example, the epic associated with the famous Amber Room (the walls and all the furnishings of which were decorated with amber), stolen by the Nazis during the same war and since then unsuccessfully searched by scientists.
Descriptions and drawings made before the disappearance of the cross of St. Euphrosyne preserved the text of the inscription, which was left on the surface of the cross by its creator, the Polotsk master Lazar Bogsha (Boguslav). The Cross of St. Euphrosyne is one of the main spiritual shrines of Belarus and a recognized masterpiece of medieval jewelry art.
* * *
Nowadays temporal rings, kolts and many other works of medieval Russian jewelry art are collected in museums. Particularly rich collections belong to the State Historical Museum, the Armory of the Moscow Kremlin and the Patriarchal Sacristy.
June 17th, 2013
The most ancient Russian monument of the 12th century is a silver bowl. It belonged to the Chernigov Prince Vladimir Davydovich.
This form of the product has existed in Russia since the 10th century. The only decoration on it is the inscription by which the owner of the bowl was identified. The cup was intended for drinking in a circle, when everyone, as a sign of belonging to a family or squad, drank a little from a filled vessel and passed it to another. When the cup went around the full circle of those gathered, all the participants in the feast became “brothers”. Later, such bowls became known as “brothers”.
For many centuries the bowl of Vladimir Davydovich lay in the ground. In 1852, she was found on the site of Saray-Batu, the former capital of the Golden Horde Khanate on the Volga. Until now, historians have not been able to figure out how the bowl ended up in Saray. Perhaps the Polovtsy captured it during one of the raids on Russian soil. But it is possible that the cup has nothing to do with the military raids of enemies. The wife of Vladimir Davydovich, who was killed in the internecine war, remarried the Polovtsian Khan Bashkord. It is quite possible that the bowl was among her dowry. It is also worth noting that Prince Vladimir Davydovich of Chernigov himself was the cousin uncle of Prince Igor - the hero of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign"
The exhibition presents women's jewelry. Very often, such jewelry made up the entire treasury of the family. The most common women's jewelry is temporal rings, for fastening on a headdress.
Most often, they were fastened on a ribbon, and the ribbon, already folded in two, was sewn on the sides of the headdress, the hairpiece. Most often, the temporal rings were made in the form of a five-pointed star. The smallest balls with a diameter of 0.04-0.05 cm were planted in a ring with a diameter of 0.06 cm. In total, there were up to 5,000 such silver grains on each of the jewelry. The technique of soldering mircoscopic rings was well known in pre-Mongol Rus.
The masterpiece of the collection is a silver chalice made by Vladimir-Suzdal craftsmen. This is a very slender bowl with proportionate parts. In one of the medallions decorating the chalice, there is an image of St. George. There is a chalice from the Transfiguration Cathedral of the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky. Therefore, historians believe that the chalice could belong either to Yuri Dolgoruky himself or to his descendants.
The famous Ryazan treasure, apparently, is part of the grand ducal treasury, which was hidden during the siege of the city by the hordes of Batu in 1238. When the peasants plowed the field in the spring of 1822, they found a pot of jewels. The vessel was hit by a plow, it broke, and rare objects of pre-Mongolian jewelry art presented in the window rolled out of it.
The composition of the treasure includes symbols of the grand duke's power - barmas. There are also kolts among the items found. The technique of decorating these jewels is cloisonne enamel, filigree, precious stones.
Historians have not yet figured out the purpose of the Colt. It can be assumed that this is a female adornment, but each disc weighs 400 g, in total - 800 g.
Therefore, it is difficult to imagine that a woman could wear such a heavy piece of jewelry. Maybe the kolts were the decoration of the setting for the icon.
FILIGREE AND FILIGREE
Colts and bars are decorated with the finest golden lace - filigree. Filigree is the laying out of patterns with gold thread on a metal surface.
The malleability of gold made it possible to draw a thread up to 2 km long from 1 g of metal! Then the gold wire was rolled through a special roller and a flat ribbon was obtained. She was placed on the edge and thus laid out the patterns.
In Russia, this technique was even more difficult, because the gold ribbon was additionally twisted like a rope. Therefore, the Russian technique of filigree is called filigree, from the words skat, knot, twist. The patterns were quite convex, because the filigree was applied in several layers.
The first Russian saints Boris and Gleb are depicted on the colts.
On the bars in the center there is an image of the Mother of God, on the sides - Saints Irina and Barbara. Images of saints are made in the technique of cloisonné enamel.
CLOISONNE ENAMEL
First of all, a drawing was applied to a gold or silver surface with a sharp object. The contours of the drawing were strengthened with a gold ribbon, and then filled with enamel in several stages. Enamel is a vitreous mass to which oxides of various metals are added. Initially, the enamel is in the form of a powder. Cells were filled with this powder and the product was fired in a kiln. The enamel melted and shrunk. Then more powder was added and fired again. The procedure was repeated several times until the enamel rose to the height of the walls of the pattern.
Colts and barms are decorated with gems planted in high nests. The ways of strengthening stones on a golden surface indicate that Russian craftsmen knew European techniques for working with stones and successfully applied them.
Another chalice in the museum's collection is the work of a Novgorod master. In the northern regions, the traditions of jewelry art were not interrupted by the Mongol-Tatar invasion. On the other hand, Novgorod and Pskov goldsmiths were well acquainted with European jewelry art. Russian craftsmen ALWAYS made chalices from precious material. The Novgorod chalice is made of agate-like jasper, so it can be assumed that this is a Western European work. But studies of the chalice showed that a Russian master worked. The top of the bowl is decorated with the finest filigree in the form of the sign of infinity and stones.
The ark is a quadriforium. From a jewelry point of view, the ark is decorated using a very complex technique. Some parts are decorated with a black pattern and it may seem that this is a niello technique. But it's not like, the ark is decorated with enamel. (Currently, the quadriforium is located on the first floor of the Armory, in a showcase with royal regalia).
At the end of the 14th century, politically, Moscow rises above other Russian cities, but a single, special, Moscow style had not yet developed by that time. Moscow craftsmen are still turning to samples of Kievan Rus.
Until the 18th century, deposits of precious stones were not known in Russia. They were brought from Europe and from the East. Russian craftsmen did not cut gems, but polished them, such stones are called cabochons (from the French caboche - head). Russian craftsmen valued stones as they fell into their hands, as nature created them, sometimes with many flaws - chips, notches, irregular shape. But if an already cut stone was brought to us, then it was used as is, with a cut. In Europe, master cutters lived in Amsterdam, the city is famous for cutting workshops and jewelry craft from time immemorial.
Folder. It is amazing that this is a signed thing, which is absolutely incredible for 1412. However, the name of the master is written on the fold - Lukean. The plot of the fold is the song of the triumph of the Resurrection, Christ is depicted in paradise along with the saints. In this work, the influence of the Romanesque style is very noticeable. A tiny thing is distinguished by amazing work. Silver, gilding.
Salary for the Gospel of 1415. Gold. Researchers associate the restoration of the salary in the 17th century with the name of the boyar Boris Ivanovich Morozov, the tutor of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, therefore this salary is called the “Morozov Gospel”.
The decorations are made in the technique of chasing and filigree. In the center of the composition is the scene of the Descent into Hell. Church fathers are depicted in the corners: including John Chrysostom and Basil the Great. Selected saints are placed along the salary field. Chrysoprase, emeralds, sapphires and amethysts adorn this setting. The book block inside is also very nice, with miniatures, but in very poor condition. There is currently no way to restore it. The illustrations on the parchment pages of the New Testament are similar in style to the work of Andrei Rublev.
Setting for the icon of Vladimirskaya. The museum keeps three salaries for this icon. Two jewelry decoration techniques are used here - embossing or basma and embossing. (by the way, the throne of Boris Godunov is made in the Basma technique). At the top of the frame is a chased Deesis. Chasing gives a greater relief of the figures with a relatively light weight products, therefore, using this technique, the craftsmen sought to save precious metal. A few gems frame the face of the Mother of God, to which the worshipers turned.
Another setting for the Vladimir icon comes from the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.
This is the contribution of Metropolitan Photius. Metropolitan Photius was a Greek, he came to Moscow in 1410 and brought with him a lot of Greek masters. The hallmarks are made in the technique of chasing. The salary is decorated not with filigree, but with filigree. On the salary we see a brand with the name of Photius himself
Another setting for the Gospel is decorated with the finest filigree on a silver setting. On five narrow silver plates, a carved niello inscription in ligature informs that the salary was made under Grand Duke Ivan Vasilievich and his grandson Dmitry Ivanovich by order of Metropolitan Simon for the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin. This is the work of the masters of the Moscow Kremlin. The continuously flowing filigree tape fills the entire surface of the setting.
In the same work, the craftsmen used another technique - gold casting. The crucifix and figures of saints are cast and soldered onto the surface of the setting. They are set off by the dense green enamel of the background.
The unique exhibits in the collection are two zions - large and small. Great Zion is very reminiscent of the decorations of Romanesque and Gothic churches - the architectural monuments of this era very often included sculptural images of saints
Small Zion - gilded, in shape similar to one of the churches of the Russian north, there is some resemblance to the Nativity Church of the Ferapontov Monastery in the Vologda Territory.
Zion Small
Apparently, the zions were taken out during the solemn divine service, as symbols of the Church.
Additional information: gold and silver are ductile and fusible metals, this allows craftsmen to make objects from them that are difficult or impossible to make from copper or modern alloys
Gold in Europe has always been scarce. Most of this precious metal was mined in Egypt. In one of the ancient books it was even mentioned that there is as much gold in Egypt as there is sand in the desert.
The skill of jewelers, flourished in the era of Kievan Rus, grew from heavy and primitive bracelets, massive rings, hryvnias and necklaces made of copper or woven from silver wire, into thin openwork jewelry, decorated with a perfect notch, which conveyed not only simple patterns, but also complex plot drawings. Since the time of the strengthening of the state in Russia, the quantity and quality of jewelry and products made of gold and precious stones have increased. There is a tradition of decorating complex drawings weapons, horse harness.
At these times, forged belts are spreading, which serve rather as decoration, therefore they are carefully trimmed with specks, openwork cuts. Products made of gold, silver, bronze and bone, which were created by the masters of Kievan Rus, are distinguished by originality, high artistic value, even in those items, the manufacturing technology of which was borrowed. In particular, this applies to the artistic technology of niello - the use of chemical etching silver products to create a dark background, on which the figures of people, animals or a decorative ornament were carved. The art of filigree was also borrowed - the use of thin wire for soldering in the form of picturesque patterns onto the metal base of the product was decorated.
Close to filigree was granulation - soldering the smallest gold or silver balls onto the surface of jewelry. Most jewelry technology during the time of Kievan Rus, enamel can be considered. For its manufacture, the contours of the pattern were embossed on the surface of golden objects, into which golden partitions were then soldered. The gaps were filled with multi-colored powders of a special chemical composition, after which the product was subjected to heat treatment. Slowly melting, such powders formed an exquisite surface of the desired pattern. Miniatures in individual handwritten book works of that time are distinguished by high craftsmanship. Ancient preserved in the Ostromir Gospel - These are the figures of the three evangelists. The bright ornamental surroundings of the figures and the abundance of gold make these miniatures look like a piece of jewelry. Deacon Gregory rewrote from the Old Bulgarian original and designed the Ostromir Gospel.
Modern technologies allow you to create no less perfect jewelry. For example, such offers the Moscow jewelry store. where the wealth of choice is impressive.
The jewelry business of Ancient Russia has a deep history and is rooted in peasant life, the life of ancient Slavic settlements. It is interesting to note that the first jewelers were women. Among a large number work on the arrangement and decoration of everyday life, they also made jewelry and amulets.
The process can be represented as follows - women wove a variety of crafty products from wired cords, then covered them with clay, dried and placed in an annealing oven. The wax was burned out, and molten metal - bronze or silver - was poured in its place. As a result, they received beautiful, rather pretentious jewelry - in appearance, as if woven from wire. This is called wax casting.
Women jewelers are more characteristic of pre-Christian Russia, since already in the 10th century men began to be engaged in casting, and clay and stone molds began to be used more often. Chasing and engraving are added to the casting.
It is also curious that each tribe brought to the same Jewelry something unique to this area. An illustrative example is the "kolts" - temple decorations that women wove or attached to their hair or headdress - and there could be from one to three on each temple.
So, kolts in the form of a seven-pointed star are characteristic of the Radimichi, among the Vyatichi - the rays expanded towards the end, among the Novgorodians - extensions in the form of a rhombus, among the northerners - spiral, etc. Later, the colts began to be made hollow, so that, most likely, it was possible to place a fabric moistened with fragrant substances there.
Jewelers, or more correctly at that time - silver and goldsmiths - who moved to the cities, met and mastered new techniques and patterns that came both from the east and from the northern sides. However, the masters always retained their own flavor, successfully combining new knowledge and folk traditions, striking with their products and their contemporaries, and you and me - these are crowns, and tiaras, and barms, and kolts, hryvnias, bracelets, buckles, salaries of books, encolpion crosses, and it’s impossible to list everything.
The jewelery art of Russia reached its peak in the 12th - 13th centuries. Masters own a large number jewelry technician. The "grain" technique is widely used - the fusion of many - thousands - small metal beads onto the product, which creates an amazing play of light. The filigree or filigree technique consists in the fact that the pattern is laid out either from twisted gold threads, flattened into a ribbon with a hammer, or drawn with gold wire.
However, the most widely known techniques of that time are enamels, they were used both for decorating gold and silver items, and for decorating books. Enamels were of two types - notched and cloisonné. It is cloisonne enamels that are considered the pinnacle of jewelry craftsmanship of the times of Kievan Rus.
All the skill of the masters of that time can be assessed if you give a few figures. The Russian Museum in St. Petersburg keeps silver kolts in the form of a semicircular shield with six silver cones. There are 5,000 tiny rings soldered to each cone, and a grain of silver is soldered on each ring! That is, just on one colt - 30,000 grains of silver. Can you imagine the skill level of this jeweler - after all, this is the 11th - 12th century!
The culture of Byzantium, and after it Kievan Rus and medieval Europe, was a Christian culture. Byzantine jewelry of the 6th century in the Hermitage is represented by famous finds from the city of Mersin on the Cilician Plain and other regions of Asia Minor. Necklaces with crosses, openwork medallions, chased pendants and inlays of semi-precious stones show a variety of artistic solutions and techniques, which the masters of Constantinople mastered to perfection. Jewelry often brought as a gift to decorate miraculous icons.
From Byzantium, this tradition came to Russia, where in the monasteries there were storages with precious gifts: kolts, chains, pearl necklaces, stone and wooden carved icons, crosses and panagias. To decorate the icons, gold kolts were used, exquisite temporal decorations made in the technique of cloisonné enamel and belonging to the number of the most interesting monuments of ancient Russian art of the 12th century.
The collection of A.P. Basilevsky Russian Parisian, who devoted himself to the study of the era of the formation of Christian art. A magnificent example of High Gothic jewelry is the St. Trudpert Cross, the so-called Freiburg Cross, created at the end of the 13th century to store particles of the Life-Giving Cross brought by the German crusaders from Palestine.
Sources: irinalexa.io.ua, www.science-community.org, 900igr.net, www.liveinternet.ru, cyberleninka.ru
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