Russia (bbabo.net), - The Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum (NGKhM) now displays more than seventy most valuable icons and church utensils.

- What you see at the moment is the first stage of our work on the exposition. In the first half of the year, six more icons and five temple sculptures, which are currently under restoration, should be added to it, - says Natalia Sokolova, head of the exhibition and exposition department of the National State Art Museum.

The novelty of the exposition is "The Passionate Mother of God", an image of the 17th century, which belonged to the merchant Dmitry Sirotkin. Thanks to the Nizhny Novgorod fair, he managed to collect a remarkable collection of Old Believer icons, among which this particular one stands out. Art historian Irina Marsheva tells an interesting story related to her.

- The icon is made in a style that differs from the canonical one: Baroque elements are visible. Eight years ago, the icon was kept in the funds under the name "Stone of the mountain not hand-carved." During the restoration process, it was possible to establish that the icon is “The Passionate Mother of God”, here there are all the signs inherent in this iconography: the Mother of God with a baby sitting in her arms, who looks at angels with instruments of passions. But the icon also has a fundamental difference from other images of the Holy Mother of God: she sits on the throne. Perhaps this is due to the special veneration of the image in the Nizhny Novgorod region, - says the art critic.

According to legend, the image of the Holy Mother of God was found in the village of Palets: a certain Nizhny Novgorod woman was healed of it. They found out about this in Moscow and demanded to bring the icon. By the way, on the spot where the Muscovites met the miraculous image, the Strastnoy Monastery was founded: now only toponymy remains of it. The icon was then returned to Nizhny Novgorod. And a list was made from it, where the Mother of God is already sitting on the throne, made in the style of the Moscow Faceted Chamber, one of the most significant institutions in the capital at that time.

Another image with a rich history on display is the Praise of the Mother of God (1630s). This legendary icon is mentioned in the chronicles of Nizhny Novgorod. It could be seen by Kozma Minin's contemporaries, and perhaps even by his son, who lived not far from the temple in honor of the Praise of the Mother of God, in which the icon was located. The altar Gospel of Archpriest Savva Evfimiev, the spiritual leader of the militia, is also related to the events of 1612.

A separate exposition hall is dedicated to the Nizhny Novgorod icon.

- In all these icons, a certain style can be traced, in particular, a combination of earthy ocher and blue, as well as some ornamentation, - says Sabina Melnik, a researcher at the National State Art Museum. - It is important to understand that until the 17th century there was no episcopal chair in Nizhny Novgorod, and accordingly there were no icon painters accompanying the bishop. Therefore, it is difficult to talk about a well-established Nizhny Novgorod school of icon painting with a certain stylistic unity. We are just starting the learning process.

By the way, one of the discoveries made by art critics during preparations for the exhibition "Heavenly Lower", held as part of the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the city, is the Pavlovskaya icon. From the museum's collection, one Pavlovian work was presented for the exhibition, and now there are four of them in the updated permanent exhibition. Each is unique. For example, the image of "The Good" depicts four Christmases at once: Christ, the Mother of God, John the Baptist and Nicholas the Wonderworker. The remarkable Pavlovian technique with its decorative effect, the abundance of elements borrowed from book miniatures makes the image truly outstanding.

By the way

The exposition also includes objects of applied church utensils. For example, the shroud: part of a set of liturgical fabrics. Traditionally, such a set included two airs - embroidered plates with which the priest covers the cup with wine and paten with bread, as well as the shroud itself. Interestingly, one of the airs of this kit is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The fabrics were made by order of Dmitry Stroganov for the Makariev Monastery in the famous Stroganov gold-embroidery workshops in a very complex technique: sewing with gold in attachment. It was a great achievement for craftswomen to achieve different shades of gold thread. In this case, they succeeded, which, of course, is an indicator of a very high level of skill.

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