The Moscow Baroque is a conditional name for the style of Russian architecture in the last decades of the 17th – early 18th century, the main feature of which is the widespread use of architectural order elements and the use of centric compositions in the temple architecture. The first stage of the development of the Russian Baroque. The obsolete name is Naryshkin’s Baroque.

Origin
In the second half of the XVII century. in Russian culture, a turn to the civil beginnings of social life, an appeal to the human person as the main element of being began to be felt. This phenomenon was called “Russian pre-birth” (DS Likhachev). In architecture, there has been a departure from the conventionality of medieval architecture for rational, order forms. These processes were similar to the beginning of the Renaissance in Western Europe.

However, earlier, in the late XIX – early. XX century., Art historians have identified the architectural style associated with the traditions of the Western European warrant. Ignoring the cultural prerequisites for its emergence, and using only a chronological correspondence with the art of Western Europe at the end of the 17th century, the trend was called ” Baroque.” Moreover, given the opinion prevailing at that time that everything progressive in Russian culture at the end of the 17th century, is associated exclusively with Peter I and his closest associates, this Russian version of Baroque was called “Naryshkin”, after the relatives of Peter I along the line of the mother, Naryshkin, supposedly the first to start erecting buildings that differed in their architecture from the traditional stylistics of the buildings of Ancient Rus. The first buildings in the style of “Naryshkin Baroque” were called the Church of the Intercession in Fili and the Cathedral of the High Priests Monastery.

Later, in the 1960s, as a result of research it was established that the key monument of the “Naryshkin Baroque” – the cathedral of the Vysokopetrovsky Monastery was built in the beginning of the 16th century. Also, monuments were erected before the Church of the Intercession in Fili, but having the same stylistics. Among these buildings were the buildings of the Novodevichy Convent and, especially, the Church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa in the Okhotny Ryad, built on the order of Prince VV Golitsyn, the State Chancellor and the closest associate of Princess Sophia. Thus, the name “Naryshkin Baroque” has lost its relevance.

Some researchers (MA Il’in) drew attention to the fact that the initial phase of the “Moscow Baroque” is closely related to the resumption of the construction of the Resurrection Cathedral of the New Jerusalem Monastery, and that both the decor decoration and the centrality of the planning solution characteristic of the church buildings of the Moscow Baroque could be borrowed by the capital’s masters from this building. The Resurrection Cathedral was abandoned after the condemnation and exile of Patriarch Nikon (1666). Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich achieved forgiveness and the return of Nikon (1681), according to his order, construction work in the Resurrection Cathedral was continued after more than a ten-year hiatus. With the forgiveness of Nikon, the architecture of the Resurrection Cathedral attracted the attention of Moscow’s enlightened circles: the elements of the space-spatial solution and the design of the cathedral were taken as initial samples for creating a new style in architecture.

All these studies showed a connection with the architecture of the early Renaissance rather than the Baroque, but given the prevailing terminology, it was decided to leave the name “baroque” (with the territorial notation “Moscow”), although modern scholars recognize that it is “… baroque bearing the Renaissance function”.

Chronological style frames
The main period of the development of the architecture of the Moscow Baroque can be considered the period from the beginning of the 1680s to the first years of the 1700s. in Moscow. In the regions of Russia, spatial solutions and a characteristic design system (but in a somewhat simplified form) can be traced back to the end of the 18th century. The gradual attenuation of the metropolitan areas “Moscow baroque” can be attributed to the gradual transition of city life in Petersburg and focus on the Western European architecture and its masters, openly proclaimed by Peter I of.

In-Stuctured Flows
The Moscow Baroque in its classical version is a stylistically fairly homogeneous phenomenon. Regardless of the geographical location, the artistic elements of the decoration – the warrant, the frames of the window and door openings – follow the standard model and are therefore easily recognizable.

However, there are several groups of buildings that have significant differences from the main direction, but do not go beyond the limits of style. Directions are due to their appearance, mainly, the tastes of specific customers.

Stroganovsky style
In the first place, this refers to buildings built by order of a large industrialist Stroganov in the Urals. The buildings of this group are characterized by their relative locality. In terms of architecture, the architecture of the Stroganov buildings is more saturated with decorative decorations than the Moscow monuments, the elements of the order sometimes have an even more classical appearance than in Moscow, which makes it possible to distinguish this trend as “the Stroganov style. ”

Naryshkin style
Naryshkinskoye or Moscow baroque is a conditional name for a specific style trend in Russian architecture at the end of the XVII – beginning of the XVIII centuries, the initial stage in the development of Russian baroque architecture. By its name, the architectural trend is due to the young, boyar-oriented Naryshkin family, oriented to Western Europe, in whose Moscow and Moscow estates churches were built with some elements of a new Baroque style for Russia of that time.

The main significance of the Naryshkin style is that it became the link between the architecture of the old patriarchal Moscow and the new style (Peter’s Baroque) built in the West European spirit of St. Petersburg. The Golitsin style, which was closer to the West European baroque, was built at the same time as the Naryshkinsky style (the buildings erected in it sometimes refer to the Naryshkin style or use the generalized concept of “Moscow baroque” for them) was only an episode in the history of Russian baroque and could not play such an important role in the history of Russian architecture.

Title
The Assumption Church in Pokrovka, Moscow

The name “Naryshkinsky” stuck to the style after careful study in the 1920s. Church of the Intercession, built in the late XVII century. Naryshkin Fili. Since then, Naryshkin architecture is sometimes called “Naryshkin”, and, given the main area of the spread of this phenomenon, “Moscow baroque”. However, there is a certain difficulty in comparing this architectural trend with Western European styles, and it is connected with the fact that, stadially corresponding to the early revival, the Naryshkin style on the part of the form does not lend itself to definition in the categories formed on West European material, it features features like Baroque, so and Renaissance and Mannerism. In this regard, it is preferable to use the term “Naryshkin style”, which has a long tradition of use in scientific literature.

Prerequisites for occurrence
In the XVII century. in the Russian art and culture a new phenomenon appeared – their secularization, expressed in the dissemination of secular scientific knowledge, a departure from religious canons, in particular, in architecture. Approximately from the second third of the XVII century. the formation and development of a new, secular culture begins.

In architecture, secularism was expressed primarily in the gradual departure from medieval simplicity and rigor, in the pursuit of external picturesqueness and elegance. Traditionally, the customers of church construction became merchants and townspeople, which played an important role in the nature of the erected buildings. A number of secular elegant churches were built, which however did not find support in the circles of church hierarchs who resisted the secularization of church architecture and the penetration of secularism into it. Patriarch Nikon in the 1650s forbade the construction of tent churches, putting forward the traditional five-domed church, which contributed to the emergence of tiered churches.

However, the influence of secular culture on Russian architecture continued to grow, and some Western European elements also fragmented. However, after Russia concluded the Eternal Peace with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1686, this phenomenon took on a larger scale: the established contacts contributed to the large-scale penetration of Polish culture into the country. This phenomenon was not homogeneous, because then the eastern outskirts of the Commonwealth were inhabited by Orthodox cultures close in culture, and a part of the culture, including purely national elements, was borrowed from them. The combination of features of different styles and cultures, as well as a certain “rethinking” of their Russian masters and determined the specific nature of the new emerging architectural trend – the Naryshkin style.

Features
Church of the Intercession in Fili

The Church of Boris and Gleb in Zyuzin, Moscow

“Naryshkin style” is closely connected with the pattern, but this is to some extent its further stage, in which the transformed forms of Western European architecture – orders and their elements, decorative motifs, undoubtedly of Baroque origin, come through.

From the architecture of the XVI century. it is distinguished by the piercing vertical energy sliding along the sides of the walls, and throwing out lush waves of patterns.

For buildings “Naryshkin style” are characterized by a mixture of contradictory trends and trends, internal tension, heterogeneity of structure and decorative finish. They feature features of European Baroque and Mannerism, echoes of Gothic, Renaissance, Romanticism, merged with the traditions of Russian wooden architecture and ancient Russian stone architecture. A dual scale is characteristic – one giant, vertically aspiring, and another – miniature-detailed. This feature was embodied in many architectural projects in Moscow during the entire first half of the XVIII century. Many traditions of the Naryshkin style can be found in the projects of IP Zarudny (Menshikov Tower), Bazhenov and Kazakov.

The elements of the exterior decoration of the typical mannerist style are used not for dismembering and decorating the walls, but for framing spans and decorating the ribs, as was customary in traditional Russian wooden architecture. The opposite effect is produced by elements of interior decoration. The traditional Russian floral pattern acquires Baroque splendor.

Characteristic for the European Baroque continuous movement, the dynamics of the transition of stairs from the outer space to the interior, in the Naryshkin style did not receive such an obvious embodiment. The stairs are rather descending, than ascending, isolating the internal space of buildings from the outside. In them the features of traditional folk wooden architecture are visible.

The best examples of the Naryshkin style are the centric tiered temples that appeared, although in parallel with this innovative line a lot of traditional, besstolpnyh, overlapped by a closed vault and crowned with five chapters of churches enriched with new architectural and decorative forms – first of all, borrowed from Western European architecture elements of the warrant, denoting the tendency of the transition from medieval bezordernoy to consistently order architecture. Naryshkin’s style is also characterized by the two-color combination of red brick and white stone, the use of polychrome tiles, gilded wood carvings in interiors following the traditions of “Russian uzorochya” and “grass ornament”. The combination of red brick walls, trimmed with white stone or gypsum, was typical for the buildings of the Netherlands, England and Northern Germany.

The buildings built in the Naryshkin style can not be called truly baroque in the West European sense. Naryshkin style in its basis – the architectural composition – remained Russian, and only individual, often barely perceptible elements of the decor were borrowed from Western European art. Thus, the composition of a number of erected churches is opposite to the baroque one – individual volumes do not merge into one whole, plastically passing into each other, but are placed one on top of another and are severely delimited, which corresponds to the principle of formation typical for Old Russian architecture. Foreigners, as well as many Russians familiar with Western European Baroque patterns, Naryshkin’s style was perceived as a truly Russian architectural phenomenon.

Buildings
Some of the first buildings in the new style appeared in the Moscow and Moscow estate of the boyars’ family Naryshkin (from the clan that the mother of Peter I, Natalia Naryshkina), in which were built a high-class multi-tiered church of red brick with some white stone decorative elements (vivid examples: The Church of the Intercession in Fili (1690-1693), the Trinity Church in Trinity-Lykov (1698-1704), which are characterized by the symmetry of the composition, the consistency of the masses and the location of the lush white-stone décor, which is freely interpreted anny order borrowed from Western architecture provides a means for visually associate multipartite construction volume.

“The Church of the Intercession in Fili… – a light lace fairy tale… purely Moscow, and not European beauty… That is why the style of the Moscow Baroque has so little in common with the Baroque of Western Europe, because it is so inextricably intertwined with all art, directly to him on Moscow preceding, and therefore for each foreigner the Baroque features are so elusive… The Intercession in Fili or the Assumption on Maroseyka, which seem to him quite the same Russians as Vasily the Blessed. ”

Igor Grabar, Russian art critic

The Church of the Intercession in Fili is built according to the principles of formation, typical of Russian architecture of the 17th century, representing a five-headed tiered temple in which the severely delimited volumes of the bell tower and the church are located on the same vertical axis, the so-called octagon on the quadrangle. The Chetverik, surrounded by the semi-circles of the apses, is actually the Church of the Intercession itself, and above, on the next tier, the octagon is the church in the name of the Savior Not Made by Hands, covered with an eight-toned arch. On it rises a ringing tier, made in the form of an octagonal drum and topped with a delicate gilded faceted onion head, while the remaining four chapters complete the apses of the church. At the base of the church there are gulbisches, surrounding the church are spacious open galleries. At present, the walls of the temple are painted in pink, emphasizing the snow-white decorative elements of the building.

Similar features are completely snow-white church of the Trinity, located in another Naryshkin’s manor, Trinity-Lykovo, and built by Yakov Bukhvostov. Many other buildings in the Naryshkin style are associated with the name of this serf by the origin of the architect. It is significant that in Bukhvostov’s buildings there are elements of an intentionally introduced West European warrant (the corresponding terminology is used in contract documentation), however, the use of order elements is different from that adopted in the European tradition: the main supporting element, as in the old Russian architectural tradition, remains the walls that almost disappeared Among the many elements of the decor.

Another prominent building in Naryshkin Baroque was built serf architect Peter Potapov for the merchant Vinogradov Sverchkova trinadtsatiglavaya Assumption Church in Pokrovka (1696-1699), which is admired by Bartolomeo Rastrelli and Vasily Bazhenov put it on a par with St. Basil’s Cathedral. The church was so picturesque that even Napoleon ordered to blow up the Kremlin, put beside her special protection so that she was not hit by a fire which started in Moscow. To date, the church has not reached, because it was dismantled in 1935-1936 years under the pretext of expanding the sidewalk.

The Church of John the Warrior on Yakimanka (1706-1713) outlines the transition from the Naryshkin Baroque to the Petrine one.

In the traditions of the Naryshkin style, many churches and monasteries were rebuilt, which was reflected, in particular, in the ensembles of the Novodevichy and the Don monasteries, the Krutitskoy metochion in Moscow. In 2004, the Novodevichy Convent complex was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, including as an “outstanding example of the so-called” Moscow Baroque “(Criterion I), and as” an outstanding example of an exceptionally well-preserved monastery complex, in detail reflecting the “Moscow Baroque,” the architectural style of the late 17th century. “(Criterion IV). In the monastery are preserved the walls and a number of churches, built or rebuilt in Naryshkin style.

In the architecture of St. Petersburg at the beginning of the XVIII century. Naryshkin style did not receive further development. However, between the Naryshkin architecture and the Petrine Baroque of St. Petersburg in the first quarter of the 18th century, there is a certain continuity, typical examples of which are the buildings serving the secular needs of the Sukharev Tower (1692-1701) and the Church of the Archangel Gabriel or the Menshikov Tower (1701-1707) in Moscow. The basis of the composition of the Menshikov Tower, built by the architect Ivan Zarudny on Chistiye Prudy in Moscow for the closest associate of Peter I, Prince Alexander Menshikov, is based on the traditional scheme, borrowed from Ukrainian wooden architecture – the tiered octahedrons that are slightly decreasing at the top.

It should be noted that in the creation of the architecture of the Naryshkin Baroque, in contrast to the Petrine one, Russian masters were mostly noted, which undoubtedly determined the specific character of the constructed buildings – they were in large part the Old Russian character of the building with the details borrowed from the West European architecture, as a rule, were of a purely decorative nature.

Value for Russian architecture
Naryshkin’s style most strongly affected the appearance of Moscow, but it also had a great influence on the development of the entire architecture of Russia in the 18th century, being a connecting element between the architecture of Moscow and St. Petersburg under construction. In many respects it was thanks to the Naryshkin style that the original image of the Russian Baroque was formed, which was especially clearly manifested in its late Elizabethan period: in the masterpieces of Bartolomeo Rastrelli-Jr. The features of the Moscow baroque are combined with elements of the Italian architectural fashion of the time, in the exterior decoration of such Moscow baroque buildings as the Church of St. Clement (1762-69, architect Pietro Antoni Trezzini or Alexei Evlashev), the Red Gate (1742, architect. Dmitry Ukhtomsky) also features Naryshkin architecture, especially its characteristic combination of red and white flowers in the decoration of the walls.

Later, at the end of the XIX century. Naryshkin architecture, which was widely perceived by the time as a typical Russian phenomenon, had a definite influence on the formation of the so-called pseudo-Russian style.

Significant architects
Yakov Bukhvostov
Ivan Zarudny
Peter Potapov
Osip Startsev
Mikhail Choglokov

Golitsyn style
A very small group consists of two churches, commissioned by the princes PA and BA Golitsyn. Great participation in the construction and decoration took the Italian masters, so the appearance of these buildings is quite strongly distinguished from the classic examples of the “Moscow Baroque”. However, there is no need to talk about a separate style (only two buildings), rather about “monuments of the Golitsyn circle”.

Prozorovsky Style
connected with the family of the princes of the Prozorovs (see VP Pertsov’s article in “references”). This is a small group of churches closely connected with the first church of the octagonal type on the quadrangle – not preserved by the Church of the Assumption in Petrovsky-Dalniy. Despite the fact that the drafting of her project was connected with the name of Prince V. V. Golitsyn (this was noticed by G. K. Wagner), however, the laconic external appearance of the church, unusual for the Moscow baroque, largely reflected the tastes of the customer – P I. Prozorovsky.

Quite a persistent stylistic line, despite a small number of buildings, has a fairly extensive chronological and geographical development, in each of the subsequent buildings of this direction, a connection with the original prototype is visible.

Laconic architecture of Prozorovsky found its admirers – one can name the church in the village of Strakhov (Zaoksky district of the Tula region) and the Trinity church in Troitsk (Teply Stan, now Mosrentgen settlement in the Moscow region).

Basic buildings

Religious buildings
Early Buildings
The church of Joasaph, the prince of India in Izmailovo (1678-79, 1685-87, is not preserved)
The Refectory Chamber of the Simonov Monastery (1679-85, architect OD Startsev)
The church in the village of Petrovskoe-Dalnee (1684-88, is not preserved)
Church of St. Paraskeva Friday in the Okhotny Ryad (1684-87 gg., Not preserved).
The Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi (1687-1695, architect Sergey Turchaninov).
Build up the heyday, see articles: Naryshkinsky Baroque, octagon on the quadrangle.

Regional monuments
The main regional monuments of the Moscow Baroque are located in the Moscow region and the largest cities of Russia at that time:

Ryazan – Assumption Cathedral (1697-99, architect Y. G. Bukhvostov), under the city – Solotchi Monastery with original baroque solutions
Tobolsk – the buildings of the Tobolsk Kremlin, some of which were built by the project of Semyon Remezov. On the basis of the “Moscow Baroque” in Siberia, the original ” Siberian Baroque ” developed.
Astrakhan – Assumption Cathedral (1699-1710, architect Dorofey Myakishev)
Kazan – Peter and Paul Cathedral (1723-26 gg.) – one of the best regional designs, by proportions and design belongs to the tops of style.

Residential buildings
The palace of Prince VV Golitsyn in the Okhotny Ryad (1687)
Vorobiev Palace (1687)
Chamber of Troyekurov in Okhotny Ryad (1696)
Lefort Palace in the German Sloboda (1698-99, architect D.V. Aksamitov, many elements allow to attribute this building to the transition phase of style)
The palace of Prince Gagarin on Bolshaya Lubyanka (1699)

Regional monuments
The Korobov’s Chambers in Kaluga (1690)
Mihlyaev’s house in Kazan
Voivodship house in Kolomna

Public buildings
The Mint in Red Square (1697)
The Corps of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy (1687, rebuilt)
The building of the Zemsky order (on Red Square) (1700)
Sretensky Gate of the Earth City, known as Sukharev Tower (1692-95, expanded 1698-1701, architect M. Chogolkov)

Engineering and fortification
The large stone bridge (1687-92, not preserved, the architect – the elder Filaret (on attribution BN Nadezhin))
The walls and towers of the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery (1690-94, the architect Ya. G. Bukhvostov)

Source from Wikipedia