Metal icons. Wooden base of the icon

Like everything in life, holy places are revealed to us by the will of God. And it is unlikely that we would have ended up in the wonderful city of Arzamas in the Nizhny Novgorod region if we had found free places for an overnight stay in Diveevo, where we were originally going.

Since we usually travel by car, the distance between Arzamas and Diveevo, about 60 km, did not frighten us (by the way, you can also get to Arzamas from Moscow by train). We decided that we would live in Arzamas, see the city and from there we would leave for Diveevo and nearby places.

We stayed at a hotel in the very center of a small town (the population of Arzamas now is just over 100,000 people). Literally a few minutes walk is the city Cathedral Square and the Nikolaevsky Arzamas Convent, the Resurrection Cathedral and other churches standing on it.

View from Cathedral Square

The abundance of churches that we saw in Arzamas was amazing. Some of them are not restored, but domes and crosses remind of what a solid foundation of spiritual life was laid. By the beginning of the 20th century, 25 parish churches and 4 monasteries had been built here.

Now the deanery district of the city accounts for 12 functioning churches and 2 monasteries: the Spaso-Preobrazhensky male and Nikolaevsky female, as well as the Arzamas metochion of the Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveevsky monastery. Thank God that monasteries and temples continue to be restored.

However, Orthodoxy was not always in this place. Arzamas was founded in the middle of the 16th century on the site of an ancient Mordovian settlement as a fortress, which Tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered to build when he was on his third campaign against Kazan. The name of the city is associated with the names of two brothers Arzay and Masai, who, according to one of the legends, were the first to accept Orthodox faith. The official date of foundation of Arzamas is 1578. The fortress was “ordered to be in the service of the sovereign”, and it played an important role in the defense of the southeastern borders of the Russian state.

In the 17th century, Arzamas became famous for its Arzamas geese and onions, for which the Arzamas people were called "goose" and "bowmen". Arzamas was also known for the dressing of leather and leather products, and the famous Arzamas yuft was exported even to Europe.

Since 1719, Arzamas has been the main city of the province, which was part of the Nizhny Novgorod province, with a population of almost 7,000 people, which was slightly less than in Nizhny Novgorod. Since 1779, Arzamas has become a county town.

In the 18th century, numerous trade treatises passed through it, which led to the expansion of trade and an increase in the defense industry in the city. The heyday of Arzamas fell on almost a hundred years from the middle of the 18th century.

The construction of church architecture in Arzamas lasted about three hundred years, and during this time the temples were rebuilt more than once, wooden ones were replaced with stone ones.

In 1842, the previously mentioned majestic Resurrection Cathedral was built in honor of the victory in Patriotic War 1812. It was built for 28 years, the project was carried out by M.P. Korinfsky (1788-1851), a native of Arzamas, a student of the famous Russian architect A.N. Voronikhin. The most revered shrine of the Resurrection Cathedral is the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.

Resurrection Cathedral

Fresco "Resurrection of Christ"

“In terms of its general appearance and excellent proportions, the Arzamas Resurrection Cathedral has no equal among the classical churches of Moscow and can only be compared with the St. Petersburg cathedrals of Stasov,” wrote the famous restorer N. N. Pomerantsev in 1926.

Temple in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Life-Giving Spring"

Next to the Resurrection Cathedral are the winter church assigned to it in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "The Life-Giving Spring", built at the end of the 18th century, and the Nikolaevsky Convent, founded in 1580. Incidentally, Archpriest Avraamy Nekrasov, a disciple of St. Seraphim of Sarov, served in it for more than 30 years.

Nicholas Arzamas Convent

The life of the monastery was inextricably linked with historical events. She did not escape the harsh fate that befell the state at the beginning of the 20th century - with the advent of the theomachic power, the monastery was destroyed and closed. He began to revive only in 1994.

There are several miraculous icons in it: two icons of the Mother of God and two icons of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, to which numerous pilgrims turn with prayer.

In 1997, two residents of Arzamas brought a dark board to the monastery. It was not possible to understand whether it was an icon and what was depicted on the board. Once the abbess ordered to place this board in a frame, hang it in the temple and pray before it to the Most Holy Theotokos. Soon after that, a bright spot appeared on the board, and the sisters of the monastery saw the neck of the Virgin with the handle of the Savior. The icon continued to cleanse itself, and it became possible to read its title: "Deliverance from the troubles of the afflicted." The image continues to be updated to this day.

“Deliver us from troubles, pure Mother of God, giving birth to eternal deliverance, and peace, having every mind” (from the canon to the Most Holy Theotokos)

Another miraculous icon of the Mother of God is “It is worthy to eat” (chopped). It was written in the Russian Panteleimon Monastery on Athos in the middle of the 19th century for the sisters of the Alekseevskaya Arzamas monastery. With the advent of the godless power, the monastery was closed, the temples were defiled. In particular, they removed the rich precious riza from the icon of the Mother of God, and cut the icon itself with an ax, mutilating the face of the Mother of God.

Icon of the Mother of God "It is worthy to eat" (chopped)

Already in our time in the Nikolaevsky Monastery, after the sisters took the icon to the procession, it was renewed and began to stream myrrh. Later, after the renewal of the colors of the image, new ones began to appear above the eyes of the Mother of God cut down by the atheists.

Believers also flock to the especially revered images of Nicholas the Wonderworker in the monastery. The icon of St. Nicholas was brought to the monastery in 1997. At first it was a black board, presumably an icon of St. Demetrius of Rostov. Later, the icon began to be updated, and the sisters were able to read that it was an icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Due to lack of funds, the sisters could not maintain an inextinguishable lamp in front of the image, and the image darkened again. The sisters repented and served a prayer service in front of the icon. At Easter 2009, the vestment on the image appeared in a bright color, and remained bright.

Miraculous image of St. Nicholas

The second miraculous image of St. Nicholas - the carved icon of St. Nicholas of Mozhaisk - was donated to the monastery around 1580 by the abbot of the Transfiguration of the Savior convent Sergius. After the closure of the Nikolaevsky Monastery in the time of theomachism, this shrine, like many others, was transferred for storage to the Museum of Atheism, opened by the new authorities in the Resurrection Cathedral. In December 2015, the miraculous image was returned to the resurgent monastery.

Nikola Mozhaisky

The courtyard of the Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery also made a great impression on us: nowhere before have we seen such a beauty of a porcelain iconostasis in several tiers.

Sunk into the soul and other praying churches of Arzamas with their ancient icons, magnificent gold embroidery and salaries amazing in their work.

Being in the city center, you can also see the Cathedral of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, built at the beginning of the 19th century in the village of Vyezdnoy, near Arzamas. The cathedral consists of winter and summer churches. Inside it was decorated by painters from Moscow and students of the Stupino school. In the altar there is an image of the "Crucifixion", according to art historians, owned by the famous Spanish artist of the 17th century B. E. Murillo. The cathedral was built on donations from the residents of Vyezdnoye.

Cathedral of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God

Being in the outback of the Nizhny Novgorod region and seeing the masterpieces of architecture, icon painting, gold embroidery, metal and stone work, you understand that the Orthodox people really brought all the best to the temple, to God. I want to return to wonderful Arzamas again, pray in front of the preserved shrines and slowly walk through the quiet city, admiring how the sun is reflected in the crosses and domes of churches, some of which have yet to shine again in all their glory.

Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "The Sign"

Elena Kisel

* The text uses materials from the official website of the Deanery of Arzamas http://arzblag.ortox.ru/; city ​​sites: http://arzgo.ru and http://arzamas-gorod.ru; site of the Nikolaev Arzamas Convent http://nicola-arzamas.ru/, as well as materials provided by the monastery in printed form.

WHAT WOOD WAS USED FOR PAINTING

Linden is the best tree for painting, but spruce, alder and cypress are sometimes used. Boards are always made from seasoned dry wood and are well glued with wood glue. Knots are cut out of the boards, otherwise they dry out all the time, and this causes cracks to appear on the ground. Inserts are glued into the places of the cut knots with carpentry glue. This is always done from the front side and no deeper than half the thickness of the board. To keep the soil on the board more firmly, its front side is cut off with a tsinubel (gear planer). The back side of the board is also cleanly chipped, and oak dowels cut into it. This keeps the board from warping.

HOW TO MAKE A WOODEN BASE

For the manufacture of boards, the bases preferred small-layer wood - linden, southern poplar, willow. They also used oak, beech, cypress, walnut, and sometimes birch. The use of different wood for the manufacture of boards is associated both with the growth of certain species in different climatic zones, and with local traditions. The most used species in the manufacture of boards in Russian icon painting was linden, and in the northern regions of Russia quite often conifers - pine, spruce, larch, cedar.

Boards for painting were made by woodworking specialists - woodworkers, rarely the artists themselves. Boards made by non-specialists are of low quality processing.

Already in the 11th-12th centuries, icons appeared in Russia, the height of which sometimes reaches two meters or more. Their dimensions were determined by the size of the church premises. For example, the icon of the 11th-12th centuries depicting Peter and Paul, written for the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral, has a size of 236 x 147 cm, the “Annunciation” of the 12th century for the St. cathedral - 230 x 142 cm; the first icon is stored in the Novgorod Historical and Art Museum, the other two - in the State Tretyakov Gallery. For military campaigns and travels with diplomatic purposes, Russian people ordered icons of small and medium sizes. For example, the icon "Savior" of the beginning of the 13th century (Yaroslavl Art Museum), which belonged to the Yaroslavl prince Vasily, has a size of 44.5 x 37 cm.

Boards were hewn out of the block with an ax and planed with an adze. Longitudinal sawing of logs into boards in Russia probably began to be done only from the 17th century (information in written sources dates back to this time). During archaeological excavations in Chernigov and Novgorod, saws of the type of a modern hacksaw were found in the cultural layer of the 11th century. These saws could only be used for cross cutting boards.

Traces of the tool during the processing of the board are a reliable sign in determining the time of creation of the icon. Different tools used in the manufacture of the board leave traces of different nature. Notches remain from the ax, hollow-shaped furrows from the scraper, and flat furrows from the planer. With later renovations of the icons, the back side of them could be repeatedly leveled - retouched. Therefore, it is necessary to judge their initial processing on the back side with caution. But on the exposed parts of the front side of the board, where the gesso is sometimes lost, one can see the primary surface treatment. On the example of processing the front side of the icon of the 11th-12th centuries depicting Peter and Paul, it can be seen that after the boards were hewn with an ax, they were hewn along the fibers with a scraper, and after they were combined into one shield, the front side was additionally hewn in the transverse direction to smooth out irregularities at the junction of the boards .

On the front side of the board, a recess was made, which is called the ark. The edges of the board rising above the ark are the field, and the bevel between the field and the ark is the husk.

The basis for a small icon was cut from one board; to make a large icon, they combined several boards into one shield.

For greater strength, small, short planks were cut between the inner sides of the boards. Planochki of various configurations were cut into the front or back side of the board. They were called depending on the form - "cucumbers", "pans" or "swallows". Embedded in the front side of the board "swallows" were made from the 16th century.

From the back side of the icon or from its end sides, the boards were additionally fastened with long slats with different cross sections - dowels. At different times, various keys were used both in their configuration and in the methods of fastening the keys. Byzantine and Russian icon boards of the 11th and the next two centuries are characterized by the attachment of dowels on the end parts and the back of the board with wooden spikes or forged iron nails. Such dowels are called overhead end and overhead from the back side.

Since the 14th century, overhead dowels have been gradually replaced by mortise dowels, inserted into specially cut grooves on the back of the icon, which made it possible for shrinking or swelling boards to slide along the dowels and not burst. In the XIV-XV centuries, grooves were most often cut from one edge of the icon to the other. The groove and the key were usually made not straight in section, but wedge-shaped cut, which kept the key when it dried out. In the 15th century, the grooves for the dowels began to be made 5–10 cm shorter than the width of the icon board. The dowels, slightly tapering in length, began to be inserted towards each other, one under the other. the key protruded high above the back of the board. In the 16th century, dowels were made thinner and less protruding above the plane of the board. In the 17th century, they were also made flat, protruding slightly above the back surface, but wide, in order to further enhance their resistance to deformation (bending) of the board.

From the very end of the 17th century, dowels appeared, embedded in the ends of the board. Such dowels provide good deformation resistance only for small and medium-sized boards. They were not used in large icons.

When examining the back side of the icons, one often encounters painting it with oil paints. This was done at a later time in order to protect the boards from warping and being damaged by grinder bugs. The back sides of the boards often have a specific brownish or blackish coating. It is assumed that these are traces of special processing of boards with drying oil or garlic juice (the use of the latter to protect against grinder bugs is described in Western European manuscripts of the 17th century).

Already in antiquity it was known (encyclopedic notes of the Roman scientist Pliny, 1st century) that boards made of cypress, pine and some other trees are not affected by grinder bugs, since their wood is saturated with cedar, lavender oils and other repellent substances. Since the second half of the 17th century, in the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin, some small icons were painted on cypress boards, and cypress boards were sometimes glued to lime icon boards from the back. From that time until the beginning of the 20th century, small icons were made, painted on imported cypress boards. From the second half of XIX century in Russia, icons appear on cypress boards, taken from the monasteries of Athos (Greece).

You can judge the time of writing the icons by the features of the ark and fields. For example, the fields of icons of the 11th-12th centuries are, as a rule, wide, and the reliquary is deep. From the 13th century, the fields were made narrower. Starting from the 14th century, icon boards were sometimes made without reliquaries. From the 14th to the 16th century, boards for icons with a centerpiece surrounded by hallmarks (scenes) of life were made with a double reliquary. The main image of the icon was placed in the inner recess; scenes from the life or selected saints were written on the higher plane surrounding it, and selected saints and texts dedicated to them were also sometimes placed in the margins. In the 16th century, the ark was usually shallow and the husk smoothly passed into the deepening of the ark. In the 17th century, the transition between field and husk becomes sharper again. In the XVIII-XX centuries, all the listed types of processing of the front side of the board existed. Their choice depended on the tastes of customers.