In 1978, the Andrei Rublev Museum received two fragments of Novgorod frescoes as a gift from Georgy Dionisovich Kostaki, a major collector of Russian art. Their origin was established after restoration. The fragments turned out to be ancient, dating back to the pre-Mongol era.

They depict the faces of ecumenical hierarchs Dometian of Melitene and Hypatius of Gangra from the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa in Novgorod. The church was built by order of Novgorod Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich in 1198 in memory of his early deceased sons. The church was painted in 1199. Despite the remodeling of the temple, the paintings remained unchanged until the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945) when the building served as an observation post. As a result of artillery shelling, most of the vaults collapsed. After the war, the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior on Nereditsa was restored. In 1992, it was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Dometian, bishop of Melitene (Great Armenia), was revered as a shepherd of wisdom, zealous in matters of faith, and a miracle worker. He was born into a wealthy and pious family and received a good secular and ecclesiastical education. Soon after his marriage, he was widowed and devoted himself to feats of piety, becoming bishop of Melitene (now Malatya, Turkey).

The bishop died in Constantinople in 602 and was buried with great honors in the Church of the Holy Apostles. He is believed to have performed many miracles both during his lifetime and after his death.

Dometian was depicted on the north wall of the central apse in the lower row of saints as a gray-haired old man with deep wrinkles on his forehead and cheeks, with a graying beard, wearing a saintly vestment with an omophorion (a long wide ribbon with images of crosses), with a slightly raised blessing right hand and with a closed Gospel in his left hand.

The graphic manner of painting, emphasizing the rigor of images, is characteristic of the painting of the entire northeastern part of the altar apse of the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa. The significance of this painting is valuable for understanding the Old Russian mural painting of the pre-Mongol period, as it is a dated monument. Its style was characteristic of both the epoch and the local Novgorod school that was being formed at the time.