The article is devoted to an in-depth study of the architectural features of the Church of St. Demetrius the Great Martyr in Veles. For an extended period, there was a lack of available information regarding the date of construction of the church and its history during the Middle Ages. The first to undertake a study of the church was the Yugoslav historian of architecture J. Bošković. In the absence of any information regarding the history of the church, he attributed its architectural solution to the second half of the 14th century. As a result, the Church of St. Demetrius in Veles was included in the primary reviews on the Balkan architecture, and was considered to be in a similar style to the churches of Serbia. An alternative viewpoint, which posits the possibility of categorizing the church in Veles within the context of early Paleologian architecture of the 13th century, was initially presented in the thesis of the Macedonian historian of architecture Sasho Korunovski. During the restoration work conducted between 2018 and 2022 by a team of specialists from the NI National Conservation Center in Skopje, the original murals were discovered and cleared of lime plaster in the interior of the narthex, on its eastern and northern walls. The newly discovered fragments of murals on the eastern wall of the northeastern corner of the narthex have revealed a ktitor’s composition depicting a large figure holding a model of the church in his hand. A lengthy dedicatory inscription accompanies the ktitorial portrait. Despite the considerable damage, the majority of the text could be deciphered. The date of construction and the name of the ktitor have been identified. Once the dating was clarified, it became possible to undertake a more detailed analysis of the architectural features of the church in the context of the artistic traditions of the era in which it was constructed. This work is supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 20-18-00294-P) and done at the Research Institute of Theory and History of Architecture and Town Planning — branch of the Central Research and Project Institute of the Construction Ministry of Russia.
. It may seem that in the painting Bathing of Susanna kept in Vienna, Jacopo Tintoretto portrays the Old Testament heroine as an embodiment of temptation. But is she revealed as frankly as we imagine? The naked woman is depicted in paired bracelets and pearl earrings, a necklace, while a bone comb, a long silver hairpin, an embroidered wide belt, a miniature box are placed all around her. We assume that the listed jewelry is endowed with a semantic and symbolic role in the program of the canvas. Indeed, all the listed jewelry made up the wedding set of a Venetian bride of the 16th century which was given to her by her future husband. Later, the girl appeared in it as a future wife and hostess and kept the ceremonial attire for her entire life. Consequently, the depiction of the wedding jewelry in Tintoretto’s painting reflects the entire story of Susanna and the set should be seen as a promise of a happy ending: the danger that threatened Susanna will be resolved by the triumph of her virtue. The interpretation of the plot itself in the eyes of the contemporaries was probably not obscene, since the naked heroine was "protected" by jewelry that reminded of her devotion to her husband.
The architectural and archaeological expedition of St. Petersburg State University conducted a large-scale archaeological research on the territory of the Novgorod Archbishop’s yard from 2006 to 2009, in 2011 and from 2018 to 2021. Although the main object of the research was the Vladychny (Faceted) palace built in 1433, the excavation also permitted to examine the extensions which adjoined the palace. All of these buildings have now been lost, and we can judge about them mainly by archaeological data. The archaeological evidence suggests that from the second half of the 15th to the 17th century, the Vladychny (Faceted) palace was gradually surrounded by the extensions with different functions, including residential structures, passageways, porches, and other elements. The construction of these additional buildings significantly changed the spatial configuration of the complex. Unfortunately, we do not have precise data on the dating of structures in most cases. However, it seems that the most significant construction at Archbishop’s yard took place in the middle – second half of the 17th century, under Metropolitans Nikon, Pitirim, and Korniliy. It is likely that many of the buildings that have been excavated belong to this period. It is obvious that in the 15th –17th centuries the territory of the Archbishop’s yard was densely occupied with various structures. Due to the current level of knowledge, it is not yet possible to reconstruct the entire complex. However, the materials obtained through archaeological research allows to gain a better understanding of the development of some parts of the Archbishop’s yard. The research was financed by the grant of the Russian Science Foundation, № 24-18-00228, https://rscf.ru/project/24-18-00228
The article examines the history of the image of Pan in ancient art, from the 6th century BC to the 3rd century AD. The evolution of the image has been traced in the historical context: in connection with political circumstances, religious ideas and myth-making of poets. The change in the semantics and role of the character is analyzed. Particular attention is paid to a previously unexplored topic — the significance of Pan in the art and religion of the Northern Black Sea region, where Pan acquires the function of the guide of the soul of the deceased to the afterlife. The specificity of Pan, his difference from other Olympic deities, lies in his continuous changes, from a character of a rural cult to a stoic “god of the universe”. The ability to quickly adapt to different cultural and historical contexts was partly due to the lack of a written tradition, but the main reason is the universal nature of the deity. In the history of the image, several periods of special interest in the character are distinguished. In the classical period in Attica, he joins the local gods who help the Greeks defeat the Persians, and his iconography converges with images of other heroes and gods. The next stage of rethinking the image occurs in the Hellenistic period, from the 3rd century BC. The mythology of Pan is enriched with genre and erotic subjects. A poetic view of the shepherd god appears in bucolic poetry and art; Pan’s presence in a real or imaginary landscape becomes a sign of a sacred landscape. This perception of the image of the god becomes relevant in the ideology of the Golden Age of Augustus. The last, most prolonged episode of Pan’s popularity is associated with the subjects of the Dionysian circle on Roman sarcophagi of the 1st–3rd centuries. Pan appears in his traditional role as a participant in libations and love scenes that take place in the other world, opening the way to the eternal life of the soul.
The design and technological features of polychrome enamels on three Old Russian (12th–13th centuries) bronze objects, an icon pendant, a kolt and a cross, found in the Vladimir-Suzdal region were studied by X-ray, synchrotron, and neutron tomography. The enamel images decorating them are similar in appearance to the cloisonné enamel technique. However, the obtained data allow us to conclude that their technology does not have the main features of either type of cloisonné enamel: European and Byzantine. In the objects under consideration, the enamels are deposited into recesses, which is not the case with European enamels, while the recesses are obtained by casting, which is not used in Byzantine cloisonné enamels. Moreover, various copper alloys used as the base material for the objects, were not used in either European or Byzantine cloisonné enamels. The study showed that the enamel inserts were not made using the cloisonné enamel technique, where metal partitions are placed on a plate or in a recess, forming cells that are subsequently filled with enamel of different colors. The order of operations was the revised: first, the enamels were applied, then the partitions were placed on certain places, and then the enamel was fired. The partitions had a decorative function, as a contour that limited the images. The products made with such a simplified technology can be considered as imitations of expensive gold items of princely-boyar attire made using the complex jewelry technique of cloisonné enamel. The work was carried out within the framework of the state assignment implementation of the National Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute" in part of X-ray tomographic studies, and the state assignment of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (R&D No. 122011200266-3) in terms of technological studies of ancient Russian enamels.
