Abstract
This paper is the fi rst scientifi c publication of a unique epigraphic monument from the epoch of Moscow Russia, the inscription with the names of the tsar’s fodder icon painters who painted the Trinity Cathedral in the Trinity-Macarius Kalyazin monastery during the summer of 1654. The frescoes in the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Makariev Kalyazin Monastery (presentday Kalyazin, Tver Region), made by a team of icon painters in the summer of 1654, are among the recognized masterpieces of the Old Russian art of the mid-17th century. A large part of them was destroyed in the explosion of the cathedral in 1940. The names of the masters who painted the cathedral are engraved in a three-line inscription under the chronicle of the Cathedral (CIR0031), which is located on the inside of the northern wall of the quadrangle behind the northern door near the iconostasis on the left choir. By the early 20th century, the inscription had survived with numerous contaminations and losses of the paint layer. The inscription was removed from the wall during the preparation of the cathedral for the explosion in 1940, and transported to the A.V. Shchusev State Research Museum, where is currently.
A technique for non-contact 3D modeling with subsequent visualization of the surface topography by mathematical algorithms used in documenting and examining epigraphic monuments in Corpus Inscriptionum Rossicarum (CIR) has allowed the loss of text to be partially recovered. The main source for the substantiated reconstruction of the lost parts of the inscription is the entry in the Synodic of Kalyazin Monastery, kept in the Tver State United Museum, where the names of the icon painters and their immediate family members have been inscribed. Thus, it was possible to fully restore the names of the masters who painted the frescoes in the Trinity Cathedral: Simeon Avramov (head of the artel), Vasily Ilyin, brothers Ivan and Mikhail Feofi latovs, Semen Sergeyev Gruzinets, Peter Yakovlev, brothers Andrey, Ilya and Vasily Fedorovs, Simeon Stefanov, Ivan Alexiev, Ivan Samoilov, Grigory Danilov, Simeon Pavlov, Ivan Stepanov, Mark Gushchin and Yakov Avtonomov. Most of the participants in the artel came from Kostroma and Yaroslavl, towns which produced a plead of skilled icon and fresco painters in the 17th century. After the painting of the Holy Trinity Cathedral at Kalyazin Monastery, some of the painters died during the epidemic of 1654–1655, while others began working in other artels.
Keywords
Epigraphy of Moscow Russia, Corpus Inscriptionum Rossicarum, Trinity-Macarius Monastery in Kalyazin, Russian Art of the Pre-Peter I’s epoch, 17th century fresco paintings, tsarist icon painters, synodic.
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