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The Great Church of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

Creation period
1905
Dimensions
106x72,5 cm
106×72.5 cm
Technique
oil on canvas
8
Open in app
#1
Vasily Vereshchagin
The Great Church of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra
#2
Born into a family of artists, Vasily Vereshchagin followed the career of his grandfather, Ivan Vasilyevich, and his father, Pyotr Prokopyevich, an icon painter. Like his father, Vasily Vereshchagin often painted religious themes. The Great Church of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra depicts devout crowds flocking to the Assumption Cathedral of the monastery. People of different social classes – poor and rich, commoners and nobles – would come every day to the sacred place to venerate the relics. At first glance, the great crowd might suggest celebrations of a major Orthodox feast day, yet, back in the 19th century, it was an everyday thing to see crowds of people on the square outside the cathedral. 
 
For almost a thousand years, the Assumption Cathedral was a sacred and venerated place for Eastern Orthodox Christians. Its construction began in 1073. As legend goes, its architects came to Kiev from Constantinople where they had a vision of the Virgin Mary who told them to build a temple in her honour. 
 
For its time, the cruciform cathedral was unprecedented in scale and design. The dome was supported by six pillars and their span was larger than that of St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kiev. In ancient times, its interior was decorated with mosaics and frescoes, some of them are attributed to Alipy Pechersky, the first personally known painter of old Rus. 
 
Pavel Rappoport, an architecture historian, wrote that the Assumption Cathedral had established canons of Russian church building: “With its hallowed tradition and the legend of its miraculous construction, the Assumption Cathedral of the Pechersky Monastery was a benchmark of church architecture. So ecclesiastical authorities would require that the typological principle of its architecture be strictly applied to other churches”. 
 
During its long history, the cathedral suffered from earthquakes, enemy raids and fires; its exterior and interior changed several times. Vasily Vereshchagin himself took part in the 1890-1901 restoration campaign – he was in charge of painting the cathedral’s murals. 
#3
Now the picture is practically the only record of how magnificent the cathedral was back then. The twentieth century was a time of trials for the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. In 1926, the cathedral was shut down by Soviet authorities. On November 3, 1941, the monastery was almost completely destroyed in an explosion organized by the Nazi troops.
Ruins of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, winter 1941-1942.
#4
Reconstruction works began right after World War II, yet it was only in 1998–2000 that the cathedral underwent a major restoration. Since 2013, all the mural work in the cathedral is done by Ukrainian artists.
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The Great Church of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

Creation period
1905
Dimensions
106x72,5 cm
106×72.5 cm
Technique
oil on canvas
8
Point your smartphone camera to open in the app
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To see AR mode in action:
  1. Install ARTEFACT app for 
  2. iOS or Android;
  3. Find and download the «Paintings in Details» exhibition
  4. Push the «Augmented reality» button and point your phone's camera at the painting;
  5. Watch what happens on your phone screen whilst you flip through the pictures.
 
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