Landmarks of Russian Architect

William Craft Brumfield

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781317973249
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

A comprehensive guide to Russian architecture, this volume is designed for students and other readers wishing to gain an understanding of the subject.

1. Introductory Survey

Medieval Period: 11th–17th Centuries

Very little is known of pre-Christian architecture among the eastern Slavs; but with the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity by Prince Vladimir of Kiev in 988, the construction of masonry churches spread throughout the territory of ancient Rus, as Byzantine clerics, artists, and builders were invited to the area. The largest and most complex of these early churches was Kiev’s Cathedral of Divine Wisdom (1037–1050s), commissioned by Yaroslav the Wise and built with the direction of Greek masters. The interior contained extensive mosaics as well as frescoes. Other major churches of this period include the Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod (1045–1052), the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior in Chernigov (1031–1050s), and the Cathedral of the Dormition at the Kiev Cave Monastery (1073–1078; destroyed in 1941). Typically, these churches were built of opus mixtum (a combination of narrow brick, stone, and a mortar of crushed brick and lime). The application of stucco to church walls began toward the end of the twelfth century.

Regardless of size, the churches adhered to a plan known as the “inscribed cross,” consisting of a cuboid core structure with crossing main aisles whose intersection was marked by the central dome, elevated on a cylinder supported by the four main piers. The interior bays were delineated on the exterior by pilasters culminating in curved gables known as zakomary, whose shape reflected the barrel vaulting of the interior. This cross-inscribed plan proved remarkably durable and capable of elaboration in small measure due to the iconographic system of frescoes that emphasized key points of the structure and gave the viewer clear reference points to the meaning of the church and its physical structure. Medieval chronicle references to architects are extremely rare, and in no case is there substantive information about any of the builders of medieval Russian churches.

In addition to Kiev, Novgorod, and neighboring cities, the third center of architecture in pre-Mongol Rus was the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, whose limestone churches were distinguished by carved decoration and precision of design. Grand Prince Yury Dolgoruky commissioned the first of these churches, such as the Transfiguration in Pereslavl-Zalessky (1152–1157). His son Andrei Bogoliubsky began the great era of limestone building in this area with the Cathedral of the Dormition, Vladimir (1158–1160); his palace church at Bogoliubovo (1158–1165) of which only fragments extant); and the Church of the Intercession (Pokrov) on the Nerl (1165). His successor, Vsevolod III, enlarged the Dormition Cathedral (1185–1189), and built the Cathedral of St. Dmitry in Vladimir (1194–1197), whose upper tier is covered with elaborate carving representing Biblical and secular motifs. Other churches of this period include the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin in Suzdal (1222–1225) and St. George in Yurev-Polskoy (1234), both of which collapsed in the fifteenth century and were substantially reconstructed.

After the Mongol invasion of 1237–1241, church construction sharply declined. By the middle of the fourteenth century masonry construction revived, particularly in Novgorod with the support of wealthy merchants and neighborhood craft guilds. The Church of St. Theodore Stratilates on the Brook (1360–1361) and the Church of Transfiguration on Elijah Street (1374; frescoes by Theophanes the Greek) exemplified a distinct local style with steeply-pitched trefoil roofs. Moscow also enjoyed an architectural revival in the construction of limestone churches, but not until the last quarter of the fifteenth century did the major monuments of the Kremlin take shape under the direction of Italian masters imported by Ivan III.

In building the Dormition Cathedral (1475–1479), Aristotele Fioravanti introduced both a rigorously geometric plan and technical improvements such as deep foundation trenches with oak pilings, strong brick for the vaulting, and iron tie-rods. The interior, devoid of the usual choir gallery and with round columns, seemed unusually spacious and well lit. Brick soon displaced limestone for most masonry construction. Aleviz Novy used it in his Cathedral of the Archangel Michael (1505–1509), which had a number of Italianate elements. Italian influence also appeared in Marco Friazin and Pietro Antonio Solari’s design of the Faceted Palace (1487–1491), and in the Kremlin walls and towers (1485–1516), built by Antonio Friazin, Marco Friazin, Solari, and others, with additions in the seventeenth century. The dominant element of the Kremlin, the Bell tower of Ivan the Great, was constructed in two stages: the lower two tiers in 1505–1508 by Bon Friazin, and the upper tier with cupola in 1599–1600.

During the sixteenth century, Moscow’s brick votive churches displayed boldly inventive designs, also with Italian influence. The Church of the Ascension at Kolomenskoe (1530–1532) defined the “tent” (shatior) tower form, while the Decapitation of John the Baptist at Diakovo (ca. 1550) exemplified another form of the tower church. These prototypes were combined in the most spectacular and most famous of Russian churches, the Intercession on the Moat, popularly known as Vasily (Basil) the Blessed (1555–1561). Built in Red Square to celebrate Ivan IV’s conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan, the structure consists of a central tent tower (dedicated to the Intercession of the Mother of God) surrounded by eight tower churches. Polychrome onion domes were added at the turn of the seventeenth century, while attached structures and much of the painted decoration appeared throughout the seventeenth century. The latter part of the sixteenth century also witnessed the building of major brick fortresses, most notably the citadel at Smolensk (1595–1602) by Fedor Kon.

After the depredations of the Time of Troubles (1605–1612), the building of masonry churches occurred on an unprecedented scale during the long reign of Tsar Aleksei (1645–1676). Of special note are two large complexes: Patriarch Nikon’s New Jerusalem (or Resurrection) Monastery west of Moscow, with a cathedral (1658–85) based on the plan of Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre church; and in Rostov, Metropolitan Jonah Sysoevich’s walled ensemble of churches and residence chambers (1670–1683). In a related development, many of Moscow’s monasteries (Novodevichy, Novospassky, Simonov, Donskoy, Andronikov) were rebuilt in the late seventeenth century as was the great Trinity-Sergius Lavra (monastery) at Sergiev Posad forty-four miles (70 km) to the northeast. The proliferation of lavishly ornamented churches occurred throughout Muscovy, especially in Yaroslavl.

As Russia experienced increased contact with the West through Ukraine and northern Europe, elements of the Baroque appeared in numerous churches commissioned primarily by the Naryshkin and Sheremetev families on estates surrounding Moscow. Examples of the “Naryshkin Baroque” show a revival of the tower church form, often on a quatrefoil base as in the Churches of the Intercession at Fili (1690–1699), the Trinity at Troitskoe-Lykovo (1698–1703), and the Transfiguration at Ubory (1694–1697). The latter two churches are attributed to Yakov Bukhvostov, who also built the monumental Dormition Cathedral in Riazan (1693–1699). During the seventeenth century the use of brick in secular construction increased, mainly in Moscow, with its brick residences (palaty) and the tiered Sukharev Tower (1692–1701).

Imperial Period: 18th–20th Centuries

The assimilation of western architectural motifs increased radically during the reign of Peter I (1694–1725). In 1703 he founded St. Petersburg, which became the Russian capital in 1711. Architects imported from the western Europe, Jean Baptiste Le Blond (1679–1719) and Domenico Trezzini (1670–1734), submitted plans for its development. Le Blond’s influence was substantial in defining the early Baroque in Petersburg, but his early death precluded a greater architectural legacy. Trezzini had a prolific career that included monuments such as the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul (1712–1732), the Building of the Twelve Colleges (1722–1741), Peter I’s Summer Palace (1711–1714), and the first design of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (monastery) with the Church of the Annunciation (1717–1722). Other notable structures include the Kunstkammer (1718–1734), by Georg Mattarnovy, with a central tower after a design by Andreas Schlüter. At this stage Petersburg’s architecture owed much to the northern European Baroque, particularly in Sweden and Holland. The stuccoed brick walls of the city’s baroque buildings were painted, with white trim for window surrounds and other details.

Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli (1700–1771) defined the high Baroque style during the reigns of Anne and Elizabeth. Among his major projects are Elizabeth’s Summer Palace (1741–1743; not extant), the Stroganov Palace (1752–1754), the final version of the Winter Palace (1754–1764), and the Smolny Convent with its Resurrection Cathedral (1748–1764). In addition Rastrelli greatly enlarged the existing Imperial palaces at Peterhof (1746–1752) and Tsarskoe Selo (1748–1756). During this period Russian architects such as Mikhail Zemtsov (1688–1743) and Savva Chevakinsky (1713–1780) contributed significantly to the city’s development. Chevakinsky’s masterpiece, the Cathedral of St. Nicholas (1753–1762), rivals the best work of Rastrelli.

In the transition from the Baroque to Neoclassicism, favored by Catherine II, Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe (1729–1800) played a central role with his designs for the Academy of Arts (1764–1788; in collaboration with Aleksandr Filippovich Kokorinov, 1726–1772), the Small Hermitage (1764–1775), the New Holland Arch (1765–1780s), and the arcaded trading center Gostinny Dvor (1757–1785). With the support of Catherine, a constellation of architects endowed the city during the second half of the eighteenth century with a grandeur inspired by classical Rome and Palladianism: Antonio Rinaldi (c.1710–1794) built the Marble Palace (1768–1785) for Catherine’s favorite, Grigory Orlov; and Giacomo Quarenghi (1744–1817) designed the Hermitage Theater (1783–1787), the Academy of Sciences (1783–1789), the Smolny Institute for Noblewomen (1806–1808) as well as the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo (1792–1796). Georg Friedrich Veldten (1730–1801), builder of the Chesme palace and Church of John the Baptist (1777–1780) in the pseudo-Gothic style, enlarged the Hermitage complex and enhanced the beauty of the city with quays along the left bank of the Neva.

Charles Cameron (c.1740–1812), the leading proponent of Palladian architecture in Russia, designed the palace at the imperial estate of Pavlovsk (1780–1796), a gift from Catherine to Grand Duke Paul. Cameron also designed the exquisite pavilions in the Pavlovsk estate park, such as the Temple of Friendship (1780–1782). At Tsarskoe Selo he reconstructed in the manner of Robert Adam and Clerisseau a number of rooms in Rastrelli’s Catherine Palace, and attached the Cameron Gallery (1783–1786), with connecting pavilions, to the south wing of the palace. Palace construction in the city continued with Emperor Paul’s Mikhailovsky Castle (1797–1800), an Italianate design by Vincenza Brenna and possibly Vasily Bazhenov.

Other major architects of late eighteenth-century Petersburg include Ivan Starov (1745–1808), whose understated classicism in the design of the Tauride Palace (1783–1789) was widely adopted as a model for estate houses. After many delays, Starov completed the central ensemble of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra with his imposing Roman-style Trinity Cathedral (1776–1790). Andrey Voronikhin (1759–1814) created a still more obvious example of the Roman influence in his Cathedral of the Kazan Mother of God (1801–1811), with its sweeping colonnade attached to the north (Nevsky Prospekt) facade. Voronikhin also designed the Mining Institute (1806–1811), whose Doric portico exemplifies the revival of interest in archaic Greek architecture. Similarly, Jean Thomas de Thomon (1760–1813) used the temples at Paestum as a model for the Bourse, or Stock Exchange (1805–1810), on the tip of Vasilevsky Island.

The construction and site plan of the Bourse provided a focus to one of the city’s major strategic points, and thus initiated the campaign of Tsar Alexander (1801–1825) to provide an interconnecting system of architectural ensembles and public space throughout the center of Petersburg. The rebuilding of the Admiralty (1806–1823) by Andreian Zakharov (1761–1811) reaffirmed that structure and its spire as dominant elements in the city plan. The culmination of the imperial design fell to Carlo Rossi (1776–1849) who created four major ensembles: the Mikhailovsky Palace and Park (1819–1825); the General Staff Building and Arch (1819–1829), facing Palace Square; the Alexandrine Theater and adjacent buildings (1828–1832); and the Senate and Holy Synod (1829–1834) facing Senate Square, the site of Etienne Falconet’s monument to Peter I (“The Bronze Horseman”; 1768–1782). Vasily Stasov (1769–1848), Petersburg’s other master of late Neoclassicism, built a number of churches, including the Icon of the Savior (1817–1823), with the attached building of the Court Stables extending on either side along the Moika Canal.

Neoclassicism in Moscow appeared primarily in houses and other institutions built by the nobility and wealthy merchants. Talented serf architects built many of the grand estate houses, but the most prominent designers of mansions and churches in Moscow were Matvey Kazakov (1738–1812), Rodion Kazakov (1755–1803), and Vasily Bazhenov (1737–1799). Bazhenov also designed, at the request of Catherine II, a grandiose plan for rebuilding the Kremlin in the Neoclassical style. During Catherine’s reign, period styles such as pseudo-Gothic had appeared in the work of Bazhenov, and Matvey Kazakov. In the 1770s-1880s Bazhenov and Kazakov were involved in the building of a “Moorish” pseudo-Gothic imperial estate at Tsaritsyno, near Moscow, but Catherine II abandoned the project.

After the fire of 1812, damaged structures such as the Bazhenov’s Pashkov House and Kazakov’s Moscow University were rebuilt, while new houses appeared in the Empire style as interpreted by Domenico Gilardi (1788–1845), Osip Bove (1784–1834), and Afanasy Grigoriev (1782–1868). In the latter part of the eighteenth century and the early decades of the nineteenth, Neoclassicism spread throughout the provinces, with particularly impressive results in Kaluga and Kostroma.

During the reign of Nicholas I, classical unity in Petersburg yielded to eclecticism and innovations in construction engineering, both of which are evident in the final version of St. Isaac’s Cathedral (1818–1858) by Auguste Montferrand (1786–1858) and in mid-nineteenth century palaces by Andrey Shtakenshneider (1802–1865). Mikhail Bykovsky’s (1801–1885) design for the estate of Marfino (1831–1845) demonstrated the enduring appeal of the Gothic revival. More significant was the Russo-Byzantine style, supported by Nicholas I and implemented by Konstantin Ton (1794–1881), builder of the Great Kremlin Palace (1838–1849). The major work in this style, which prevailed in church architecture throughout the century, was Ton’s Church of Christ the Redeemer (1837–1883; destroyed in 1931), built in Moscow as a memorial to Russian valor in the 1812 war.

Secular architecture in Petersburg and Moscow during the mid-nineteenth century was largely an eclectic combination of various periods in the history of Western architecture. In Petersburg and Moscow applied eclectic decorative styles profusely to the facades of new apartment houses and commercial buildings. By the 1870s there arose a new national style based on decorative elements from sixteenth and seventeenth-century Muscovy as well as on motifs from folk art and traditional wooden architecture. Among the early proponents of this Russian revival style were Ivan Pavlovich Ropet (pseudonym of Ivan Petrov; 1844–1908) and Viktor Hartmann (1834–1873), both of whom played an important role in the early 1870s within the artists’ community at Savva Mamontov’s Abramtsevo estate. The most significant architectural monument at Abramtsevo is the small Church of the Icon of the Savior (1881–1882), whose design by the painter Viktor Vasnetsov (1848–1926) incorporated motifs from early medieval Russian architecture.

Major examples of the Russian style in Moscow include the Historical Museum (1874–1883), built on the north side of Red Square to a design by Vladimir Shervud (1833–1897), and the Upper Trading Rows (1889–1893) by Aleksandr Pomerantsev (1848–1918), assisted by the construction engineer Vladimir Shukhov (1853–1939). In Petersburg the Russian style was used by Alfred Parland (1845–92) for the Church of the Resurrection of the Savior “on the Blood” (1883–1907). In Moscow a number of mansions were built in the national style, and its influence continued through the early 1900s as the “neo-Russian” component of the style moderne. Painters such as Viktor Vasnetsov, who created the entrance building at the Tretiakov Gallery (ca. 1905), and Sergei Maliutin (1859–1937) were particularly active in using traditional Russian decorative arts as part of a new architectural aesthetic.

The “new style,” or style moderne, that arose in Russian architecture at the turn of the century included a number of stylistic tendencies. Its main emphasis was on the innovative use of materials such as glass, iron, and glazed brick in functional yet highly aesthetic designs. The style flourished above all in Moscow, where its leading practitioner was Fedor Shekhtel (1859–1926). Shekhtel worked primarily for patrons among Moscow’s entrepreneurial elite, such as the Riabushinskys. His most brilliant work was a mansion for Stepan Pavlovich Riabushinsky (1900–1902), although it is rivaled by the more modernist design of the Aleksandr Derozhinskaia mansion (1901). Shekhtel also excelled in the design of commercial buildings. Other leading modernist architects of the period In Moscow include Lev Kekushev (1863–1919), Adolf Erikhson, and William Walcot (1874–1943). All three were involved in the prolonged construction of one of the largest and most significant moderne buildings in Russia: the Hotel Metropole (1899–1905). Like Shekhtel, both Kekushev and Walcot produced major examples of the modern style in the design of private houses for wealthy clients.

In Petersburg the style moderne appeared primarily in the design of apartment complexes by architects. (Petersburg’s relatively compact urban plan impeded the construction of detached private houses.) Yet despite the rapid expansion of apartment space, the lack of adequate housing, particularly for workers, remained a major social problem. The style moderne also appeared in Petersburg’s commercial buildings such as the Singer Building on Nevsky Prospekt.

By the end of the 1900s, the style moderne had yielded to, or merged with, a more severe form of stripped classicism, known in Russia as neoklassitsizm. Architects in Petersburg were especially receptive to the neoclassical revival, and they applied it to almost every major structural type, including banks, department stores, apartment buildings, and private houses. One of the most accomplished and versatile architects in this style was, again, Lidval, designer of the Hotel...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction to the Series
• Preface
• 1. Introductory Survey
• 2. Russian Wooden Architecture
• 3. Early Medieval Kiev
• 4. Novgorod: 11th–14th Centuries
• 5. The Vladimir Area: 11th–13th Centuries
• 6. Medieval Muscovy: 15th–16th Centuries
• 7. The Seventeenth Century
• 8. Eighteenth Century Baroque
• 9. Neoclassicism
• 10. Nineteenth Century Eclecticism
• 11. Twentieth Century
• Illustrated Architectural Elements
• Index