Teamwork

This is a small glimpse of the frescoes of the Cathedral of the Dormition in Vladimir, built between 1158 and 1160 by Prince Andrei Bogoljubskij. After a few centuries, in 1408, the work of Andrei Rublev began, with the help of Daniil Cërnyj, who created all the interior frescoes, while the numerous icons of the deesis are the result of even more hands, because in addition to the direct work, supervision and probably some targeted intervention of the two masters, they were created with the help of a team of other iconographers.

They represent the Last Judgement, with Christ on the throne and the choirs of angels, the apostles, the procession of the righteous men and women, the choirs of angels, the rows of prophets and patriarchs, and on the side also the episodes of the life of the Virgin. All this is represented in great harmony despite the obvious difference in style between the two masters. Sources from the 15th century state that Andrej and Daniil were friends, in addition to the fact that Andrej was most likely a pupil of Daniil. Evidently the master had not stifled the style of the pupil, having arrived at very different results. Yet they worked together, certainly compared themselves, helped each other in the development of projects, but then each painted in his own way. If Daniil follows a more classical, pictorial and serious trend, Andrej makes the characters lighter, more human, with looks and expressions that express a simple, pure, almost childish goodness, pervading the scene with a sense of calm and peace, which expresses the trust and love of the apostles, the righteous, the prophets towards the One who comes, Christ. He himself, seated on the throne of judgment, with the sweetness of his face and gestures, suggests to us that God's "judgment" always occurs through mercy, occurs through his gentle love, offered and shed together with his blood for the salvation of men and not for their condemnation.

The team of iconographers works for many, many months, in the heat and the cold, they also work during the spread of the plague in Vladimir, without stopping, defying death itself to complete this work, this work that was supposed to give glory to God. They also work in an era of bloody wars - one of the hardest eras for Russia - and yet this drama does not shine through in their art, on the contrary, especially in Rublev, the beauty of the colors and his compositions, the peace, the love, the trust in God that radiates from his faces, become a peaceful response to the violence of the time in which he lives, become, in the face of the general sense of disintegration, of destruction, a message of hope and salvation that returns to manifest the order, the beauty, the love that has already won, that awaits us all...
Merry Christmas.


Chiara Dal Corso
NP December 2024