О некоторых декоративных приемах в стенописи собора Рождества Богоматери Антониева монастыря в Новгороде (1125 г.)
About Some Decorative Techniques used in the Murals of the Antoniev Monastery Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Novgorod (1125)

Summary/Abstract: The ornamental repertoire of the Antoniev Monastery Church is unique for its rare uniformity. In general these are different variations of the vine. But there is one unusual ornament which was used here for the first time in Russian practice. It is situated on the sides of the arcs of the prothesis on the same level as the initial altar partition, i.e. it was meant to be seen. It represents a vertical stripe, the white background of which is filled with elements of kufic letters. Sometime floral motives are added. The uniqueness of the ornaments seems of great importance to us having in mind the fact that it possibly has some connection with the altar. In the murals of the Antoniev Monastery we see a variation of an ornament, reproducing separate letters of elements of the classical Arab script „kufi”, which is one of the most important elements of all Islamic art. This ornament was widely used in stained glass, enamels, in manuscripts, murals, on ar- chitectural and sculpture details, in ceramics, on liturgical and everyday vessels of the Latin West in the 11th-13th cc. but it gradually disappeared in the 14th c. In Byzantine art it is not often used. It is well known mainly from the brick and marble decorations on the fa- cades of the churches of the 11th c. in Greece. The Byzantine monuments that have elements of kufic script, or rather its imitations could be found in the murals of the Byzantine periphery – Cappadocia, Macedonia, Cyprus. All examples show that not the element itself is being re- produced but the objects on which it can be found – fabrics, liturgical vessels, etc. Nowhere was it presented as an individual decoration. And this is the main difference between the monuments of the Romanesque and Early Gothic art, where it exists along with some other types of ornaments as „equal”, identifiable decoration, and Byzantine art. We do not know any examples, similar to the ornaments of the murals of the Antoniev Monastery.

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