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RUSSIA 99
MININ AND POZHARSKIY STATUE
A bronze by Ivan Martos depicts two heroes from
Tent roof on the the Time ofTroubles (159&-1613): the butcher Kuzma
Central Chapel
Minin and Prince Dmitriy Pozharskiy. The men raised
a volunteer force to
fight the invading
gJ Central Poles and, in 1612, led
Chapel of the their army to victory
Intercession
when they drove them
out of the Kremlin. The
Chapel of statue was erected
St. Nicholas in 1B 1B in the center
of Red Square. It was
moved to its present
position, in front of
St. Basil's, during BASIL, THE "HOLY FOOL"
the Soviet era. Born in 1464 into a peasant family in the village
of Yel okhovoe, Basil worked as an apprentice
Monument to a shoemaker. His ski II at divining the future
to Minin and soon became apparent and at the age of 16
Prin<e Pozharskiy
he left for Moscow There he undertook the
ascetic challenge of walking the city's streets
barefoot, educating Muscovites in piety.
Although he was often derided and beaten for
his sermonizing, his fortune changed in 154 7,
when he foresaw the fire of Moscow and was
credited with preventing it from destroying the
gJ Chapel of the Entry of entire city. On Basil's death, at the age of 88,
Christ into Jerusalem
J.if'lwt'----- Chapel of This chapel was used as a Czar Ivan the Terrible carried his body to the
St. Varlaam of ceremonial entrance during cathedral for buriaL He was canonized in 1579.
Khutynskiy
the annual P aim Sunday
procession. On this day,
the patriarch rode from the CATHEDRAL DESIGN
Kremlin to St. Basil's on a horse S t Basi I' s Cathedral consists of nine churches
Tiered gables disguised to look like a donkey. dedicated to different saints. Each of these,
with the exception of the Central Chapel of
the Intercession, symbolizes the eight assaults
on Kazan and is topped by a multicolored
dome. All of the churches are uniquely
decorated and different in size from each other,
giving the structure an all-around balance. The
building is designed to be viewed from every
angle, hence the absence of a single main
fa<;ade In pi an, the eight churches form an
eight-pointed star. The tour larger domes form
the endpoints of an imaginary cross with the
Central Chapel in the middle, and the smaller
churches between the larger ones.
ICON PAIN11NG IN RUSSIA
The Russian Orthodox Church uses icons for
gJ Main lconostasis both worship and teaching and there are strict
The Baroque-style iconostasis in the rules for creating each image. lconography is a
Central Chapel of the Intercession symbolic art, expressing in line and col or the
dates from the 19th century. However,
some of the icons contained in it were theological teaching of the Church.lcons are
painted much earlier. thought to be imbued with power from the
saint they depict and are often invoked for
Gallery protection during wartime. The first icons were
Running around the outside of brought to Russia from Byzantium. Kiev, today
the Central Chapel, the gallery the capital of Ukraine, was Russia's main icon-
connects it to the other eight
Chapel of Bishop chapels. It was roofed over at painting center until the Mongols conquered
Gregory the end of the 17th century it in 1240. The Moscow school was founded
and the walls and ceilings were in the I ate 15th century when Ivan the Terrible
decor a ted with floral tiles in the
late 18th century. decreed that artists must I ive in the Kremlin. The
great icon painters Dionysius and Andrey Rublev
were members of this renowned school.

