Erotic temples in Khajuraho or Kama Sutra in stone. Question about the sculpture in the Orthodox Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul in Kamchatka

Khajuraho is the name of the smalltourist village around temples in india. About 20 temples have been preserved here, the largest of which is Kandarya Mahadeva, the outer and inner walls of which are framed by 646 sculptures. All buildings were erected in the 9th-12th centuries. AD

Throughout the world, Khajuraho is associated primarily with erotic sculpture.

Detailed description

The Khajuraho complex represents a unique artistic creation, as much for its very original architecture as for its sculptural decoration of amazing quality, made from a mythological repertoire of numerous scenes of amusement, which are not the least known scenes, susceptible to different interpretations, sacred or desecrated.

Khajuraho is one of the capitals of the Chandella rulers, a dynasty of Rajput origin who came to power in the early 10th century and reached its zenith between 950 and 1050. Of the 85 temples that were built in Khajuraho during the Chandella period (and which were still resplendent when the great traveler Ibn Battuta noted them in 1335), 22 still exist, spread over an area of ​​about 6 km2.

As monuments from two different religions, Brahmanism and Jainism, the temples of Khajuraho were nevertheless distinguished by a common typology: they contain an elevated base, above which rises the body of a richly decorated building, the jangha, covered with several registers of sculpted panels, on which open-laced galleries are open. This crowns the series complete with towers of curvilinear contours, Sikharas.

The highest are located at the sanctuary of the deity. Each of these towers, as is typical for Nagera style temples, symbolizes the "cosmic mountain", Mount Kailasha. A typical plan includes an entrance, a large hypostyle hall (mandapas), Dark Sanctuary and finally various applications.

The most important group of monuments is located in the western zone, near the archaeological museum, including the temple of Varaha, Lakshmana, Matangeshwara, Kandariya, Mahadeva Chitragupta, Chopra tank, Parvati, Vishwanatha and Nandi. But in the east and south the group also includes noteworthy complexes (temples of Ghantai, Parshvanath, Adinath, Shantinath, Dulhadeo, Chaturbhuja).

Yasovarman (AD 954) built the Vishnu temple, now known as the Lakshmana temple, it is rich and developed the example of his time proclaiming the prestige of the Chandellas. Vishvanatha, Parsvanatha and Vaidyanatha temples date back to the time of King Dhanga, successor of Yasovarman.

Jagadambi, Chitragupta, are noteworthy among the western groups of the royal temples of Khajuraho. The largest and grandest temple of Khajuraho is the immortal Mahadeva Kandariya which is associated with King Ganda (1017-29).

A great influence on the school of Tantric thought, the Chandela kings promoted various Tantric doctrines through royal monuments, including temples. Khajuraho sculptors depicted all aspects of life. Societies of the time believed in dealing honestly and openly with all aspects of life, including sex. Sex is important because the tantric cosmos is divided into masculine and feminine principles. The male principle has appearance and potential, the female has energy. According to Hindu and Tantric philosophy, no one can achieve anything without a friend, as they manifest themselves in all aspects of the Universe. Nothing can exist without their cooperation and coexistence. According to ancient treaties on architecture, erotic images were reserved for certain parts of the temple only. The rest of the temple was lavishly covered with other aspects of life, secular and spiritual.

Legend

Once upon a time, in the holy city of Varanasi, there lived a girl of amazing beauty named Hemavati. She was of noble birth, for she belonged to the highest caste of Brahmins.

One night, by moonlight, she was taking a bath in the pool near her house. The maiden was so beautiful that Chandra himself, the moon god, having admired her charms, descended to earth and united with the girl in a fit of love. From this relationship with the celestial, Hemavati became pregnant. She faced universal condemnation for having a premarital affair.

But Chandra ordered her to leave home and give birth to a son in a remote village. He promised that her son would eventually become king and said that he would have to build eighty-five temples decorated with erotic images.

There, in the small village of Khajuraho, she gave birth to a son and gave him the name Chandravarman. The boy grew up to be as strong and handsome as his divine father. At the age of 16, he could kill a tiger with his bare hands. And then Hemavati called upon the moon god. Chandra made his son king and Khajuraho became his capital. The young king won many victories over his enemies and built eighty-five temples around Khajuraho. The rituals performed during construction, which included decorating the temples with figures in erotic poses, freed his mother from her guilt.

This is how, according to legend, the now world-famous Hindu temples in Khajuraho appeared.

History

In the 9th-11th centuries, in the kingdoms and small principalities of Northern India, power was seized by the warlike dynasties of the Rajputs, who migrated from the western part of the country - from Rajasthan and Gujarat. However, according to ancient tradition, only a person from the varna (caste) of the Kshatriyas - born kings and warriors

The Rajputs tried to pass themselves off as Kshatriyas, confirming their claims with legends about the mythical ancient kings of the Solar and Lunar dynasties, descended from the gods themselves. Representatives of the Rajput Chandela clan, who over time took a second name for themselves - Chandrateya, that is, “descendants of Chandra,” the god of the moon , explaining this renaming by a legend already known to us.

By the 9th century, they had added to their possessions a small principality in Central India with its capital at Khajuraho (in the modern state of Madhya Pradesh). Then the city was called Khajuravatika, which translated from Sanskrit means “forest of date palms.” The founder of the independent Chandel kingdom was Harshdev’s son Yasovarman (Yasovarman or Lakshavarman, reigned ca. 925-950), he declared himself a great king (maharaja) and began to capture lands of weakened neighbors. He built a majestic Lakshmana temple in the capital.

Being a patron of art and architecture, he continued temple construction in Khajuraho, building in particular the Vishwanatha Temple. New temples were also erected in the 11th century under King Vidhyadhara Deva, reigned c. 1025-1035, who successfully defended the Chandel possessions from the raids of Mahmud Ghaznavi’s army from Afghanistan and Punjab. So, the temples of Khajuraho were not built at one time, but were built gradually during the 10th-11th centuries on the initiative of the kings of the Chandela dynasty, who were not only warriors, but also connoisseurs and patrons of the arts.

Among the temples of Khajuraho there are also Jain ones, dedicated to Jain ascetic saints. But the most famous are Hindu sanctuaries, centers of worship of the main Hindu gods Shiva and Vishnu.
The temples are built on high platforms and oriented to the cardinal points.

In the 12th century, the temples of Khajuraho continued to flourish under the patronage of the Chandels, but the kings of the “Moon Dynasty” themselves increasingly suffered defeats in the fight against old and new opponents. At the beginning of the 13th century, the Chandels were forced to admit their dependence on the Muslim Delhi Sultanate in Northern India.

The temple complex in the “forest of date palms,” which suffered greatly from Muslim invasions, remained active as early as the 14th century. Princes from the Chandel dynasty continued to rule in neighboring regions for several centuries, but they no longer claimed the role of independent and great kings, like their ancestors - builders of majestic and perfect temples.

By the 19th century, despite the care of the inhabitants of neighboring villages, the temples of Khajuraho were overgrown with jungle. They were discovered by the British in the 1830s and 40s. Restoration work began only at the beginning of the 20th century. Now Khajuraho is a small place with a population of about ten thousand people. Of the eighty-five temples, only twenty-four have been preserved by time.
In March, a festival of Indian classical dance performers is held here..

see other photos of statues -

There is a strong opinion that sculptural images in the temple are prohibited by Orthodoxy. If you start to understand the issue, it turns out that this is not so.

Only in the Acts of the VII Ecumenical Council will we find the message of St. Patriarch Herman of Claudiapolis to Bishop Thomas, in which he carefully emphasizes: the tradition of painted icons that arose among Christians is “more decent” than the Roman custom of erecting copper statues in memory of certain events (which, nevertheless, were also used by the first Christians).

Much later and much more sharply, the Russian Holy Synod spoke out about the temple sculpture, which in 1722 was not pleased with the custom that “crept” into Rus' “from the Romans and Poles” and the “unskillful, malicious ignorant icon painters” (and it is still unknown what else) .

Meanwhile, the tradition of temple sculpture in Rus' continued to develop, drawing on several sources at once - North Russian folk wooden sculpture; Catholic influences that were indeed observed in Russian art from the Baroque era and later Classical sculpture.

The existence of sculpture was also supported by the popularity of baroque carved iconostases (most often with floral patterns), and various examples of temple plasticity, such as tabernacles.

As we can see, Russian temple sculpture of the 18th-19th centuries is a very motley phenomenon. But for each individual work here you can clearly imagine which tradition the artist was within.

So different

They began collecting temple sculpture in Russia back in the 1930s, rescuing it from destroyed churches. Art historians claim that it was the first such exhibition, organized in 1935 in the gallery of the Great Cathedral of the Donskoy Monastery, that saved the temple itself from destruction.

And yet, even in the new collection, torn out of the temple interiors, the sculptures look like orphans. In other cases, the unusual furnishings of the museum hall make it possible to peek into the secrets of the artists, who obviously expected that in the temple the viewer would see their creations only from a certain angle.

For example, the sculpture of John the Evangelist, if you approach it a little from the side, turns out to be half flat. This is almost a high relief, which the viewer had to look strictly at the front.

The Crucifixion and Christ in Prison of the 18th century are obviously associated with the traditions of folk sculpture.

The image of the human body - posture, muscle structure, facial expression - is still conditional here. The hands of Christ in the crucifixion repeat the outlines of the lost cross as if they were firmly glued to it and do not have their own weight.

Only the turn of Christ’s head in the Crucifixion and the crossed, helplessly thrown hands of Christ in prison give slight dynamics and liveliness to the image:

Another image of Christ in prison continues an interesting folk tradition. It turns out that in folk sculpture exactly this canon of depiction of the Passion has developed - Christ, beaten by the guards in the crown of thorns, put his hand to his ear in heavy thoughts.

For greater authenticity, the artist painted the traces of the crown of thorns on the forehead and the scars on the Savior’s body with tempera.

Among the sculptures at the exhibition there were also those in which the influence of Western art was clearly visible: the Old Testament high priest - an elongated figure, as if descended from the walls of some Gothic cathedral

and the guard - a bushy Polish nobleman in an antique helmet and cuirass.

Moreover, the creator of the Guardian obviously studied in Europe and showed considerable skill in his creation, as well as knowledge of anatomy. Just look at how the clenched collarbones and tense forearm muscles are depicted here!

Obviously, the creator of Christ the Pantocrator was also familiar with examples of classical sculpture.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about his sculpture is the material from which it is made. Agree, such delicate work is much easier to imagine in marble than in wood.

The presented collection was complemented by the Volga Mother of God - a bright continuation of the folk tradition, a kind of either noblewoman Morozova, or the mother of a shaman,

baroque, ruddy, like a doll angel

and another John the Theologian, who for some reason presented himself to the sculptor as a surprised simpleton, more like the fabulous Emelya.

This is what Russian church sculpture was like - in some places a masterful, and in others a naive attempt to present the Gospel events not just in colors, but in poses, gestures, emotions and forms. After all, you can think like that.

At this time, the form of a classical Hindu ground temple of a cubic shape with a flat roof had already developed, to which was added a tower superstructure with a large number of sculptures decorating it. An example of a cave Hindu temple is the temple complex in Ellora. So, one of his temples (Kailasa temple) the whole thing - from the high base, decorated with life-size figures of elephants and lions, to the pyramidal towers - was carved from one single piece of stone over the course of 150 years, essentially representing a gigantic sculpture.

At this time, two- and three-story cave temples appeared. Huge high reliefs, filling the wide planes of the walls and dominating the overall architectural and spatial design of the interior, become the plastic basis of the cave temple. It is also decorated with a large number of sculptures. Therefore, the first millennium of the new era became the time of true flowering of Indian sculpture.

In expressing the ideals and values ​​of Hinduism (as well as Buddhism), the art of sculpture played, perhaps, more importance than architecture. Ancient Indian sculpture remained mainly religious, but the masters tried to convey the inner state of the characters, even minor ones. So, in Buddha statues not only his strength, beauty and health are represented, but also his high spirituality. This is the Buddha statue from Sarnath. Buddha is depicted preaching the dharma.

Most of the sculptures that have come down to us from that time are of a cult nature, but even then secular sculpture also existed. The importance of the art of sculpture in artistic culture is evidenced by the fact that special manuals on sculpture were created, which contained rules for creating sculptures, primarily for temples and other religious buildings. Techniques of sculptural iconography were also developed, which differed in different religious traditions - there were Buddhist, Jain and Hindu types of sculptural iconography.

Three-faced Shiva in the cave temple on Elephanta Island

The majestic bust of a three-faced deity, who simultaneously embodied the forces of destruction, creation and peace, seemed to grow from a block of stone. The size of this statue is amazing. The height of the heads alone reaches 6 m, while the grandeur of the body, as if hidden in stone, can only be imagined by the imagination of the audience. The feeling of extraordinary inner strength, some kind of cosmic power is contained in overly protruded large lips, a heavy chin, sternly knitted eyebrows and a menacing expression on the faces, looking at three directions.

Preaching Buddha from Sarnath (IV century)

His face with half-closed eyes is turned not to the world-suffering, but to future liberation, to nirvana. The body shapes are smoothed out, the muscles are not felt at all, the facial features are correct, the pose is free, the whole figure exudes serenity and detachment

Kailasanatha Temple in Ellora

The incredible efforts put into the construction of this monument were already recognized at that time as a miracle. To this day, people who have seen Kailasanatha wonder how it was possible to carve such a huge monument from a whole block of stone without complex mechanisms.

In the 11th century The Gupta power was captured by the nomadic tribes of the Hephthalite Huns. Their invasion brought great harm to Indian artistic culture. The conquerors destroyed many flourishing cities, monuments of ancient architecture and art. And although the power of the Hephthalites lasted a short period, after them the country was fragmented into many small states. From this time on, India entered its new historical stage - the Middle Ages.

The establishment of feudalism was accompanied in India by a number of changes in spiritual life. The Buddhist doctrine began to be pushed aside by the newly reviving Brahmanical beliefs, borrowing a lot from them and dissolving into local teachings and cults. The New Brahman teaching of the Middle Ages strengthened the power of local feudal lords, supported the disunity of the country, and the division of the inhabitants of India into various castes. These new trends of the times were most clearly manifested in such areas of artistic culture as sculpture and architecture.

In the VII-VIII centuries. The second era of cave construction began, which took place under the sign of the glorification of the gods of Hinduism, using new expressive techniques for this. The sense of drama of the era, full of turmoil and anxiety, and the desire to glorify the exploits of the gods and legendary heroes were also responded to by the new grandiose scale of the temples. The largest cave complexes of Ellora and Elephanta Island, began to be built in the 7th-8th centuries. and continued to be built until the 13th century, they deviated far from their Buddhist prototypes, which were based on the ideas of the hermit life and contemplative peace of the Buddha. The power and scope of Brahmanic narrative scenes required larger spaces than those of ancient caves. Already the early (VII century) temples of Ellora were distinguished by greater complexity of forms and bulky inner courtyards. Two- and three-story halls, carved one above the other in the thickness of the rock, reached a depth of up to 41 m. Long galleries, multi-columned terraces, as well as the walls of the temple premises, were covered with high-relief images of Brahman and sometimes Buddhist deities, heroes of the epic.

Construction techniques and stone processing skills have reached unprecedented perfection in Ellora. Massive plump columns had capitals and bases covered with complex sculptural patterns. Sculpture filled the entire interior space of the temples. Severe and angry stone deities, looking at the audience from the mysterious twilight, were depicted in battle with evil or in readiness for a feat. In an effort to convey the generosity and variability of natural forces, which were personified by the deities Vishnu and Shiva, the masters gave them the fantastic appearance of multi-headed and multi-armed creatures. The image of the multi-armed Shiva, the king of dances, who rotates the Universe with the powerful rhythms of his movements, has become especially popular.

The features of modern times were especially clearly manifested in the monumental sculpture of the three-faced Shiva in the composition of the cave temple on Elephanta Island.

Despite the widespread development of cave architecture, it still could not fully satisfy the needs for narrative forms of art. Therefore, simultaneously with the cave temples in the 7th-8th centuries. Ground-based religious buildings also began to be erected, the bulk of which were concentrated in the southern regions of India. By this time, the main types had developed above ground temple- northern and southern. In temples of the southern type, a mandatory detail was shikhara - completion of the sanctuary in the form of a step pyramid with a false dome. The northern temples made a shikhara of parabolic shape with a disk at the top. The Kailasanatha temple complex is considered an example of a southern temple, the composition of which was repeated later in the Ellora temple of the same name. Of the northern type temples, the most famous are the temples of Khajuraho.

In the 8th century The transition from the images of ancient art to the images of the Middle Ages in architecture and sculpture was finally completed. Vast construction and sculptural experience allowed masters in the 8th century. to cut out grandiose and uniquely expressive spatial complexes in the rocks. This is the classic monument of the early Indian Middle Ages - Kailasanatha Temple V Ellora(temple of the lord of Mount Kailasa in Ellora - the top of the world, the habitat of the god Shiva). Architects and sculptors created a three-part monument, incredible in labor intensity, huge in size, fabulous in the richness of its sculptural design, surrounded by a courtyard, including pylons, porticoes, galleries, halls, relief compositions and free-standing statues.

VIII-XIII centuries - the time of the rise of Indian stone architecture. One is struck by the abundance of its forms, the power of the imagination of the architects, and the unbridled narrative generosity of temple sculpture and decorative crafts. The huge temples of India in the Middle Ages played the role of universal bodies of knowledge. For that time they were museums, treasuries, and unique scientific and artistic encyclopedias. Their walls, covered with an innumerable number of statues, could be read like the pages of stone books, captivating with the variety of their plots and the abundance of fantastic characters.

One of the most interesting buildings in India is temples in Khajuraho, built at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th century. Among them is the Kandarya Mahadeva Shaivist temple. Its main element is the shikhara, the main tower, rising to a height of more than 35 m above the ground. The external decoration of the temple with architectural details and decorative decorations creates the effect of lightening the mass of the building. The elegance and variety of plastic design of both the surface of the temple and its interior create a rich picturesque play of light and shadow, and an endless number of gracefully curved figures of apsaras, heavenly beauties, dancers and musicians, loving couples and entire groups form an unusually plastic ornamental frieze. All nine hundred sculptures and all the high reliefs of this temple are imbued with eroticism, being, in a sense, illustrations for the Kama Sutra.

...Everything here is a symbol, a sign, an example.
What a tale of evil and torment are you
Can you see on the walls here?
Like in these complex letters
Do you understand the meaning of each letter?
Their gaze, like the gaze of a snake, is viscous...
The door is closed. Lost key.
Maximilian Voloshin. "Letter". 1904

In this poem, Voloshin reflects on the secrets of Gothic cathedrals. It is already difficult for a modern person to understand how a medieval person perceived what he saw on the walls of cathedrals; many things are mysterious to us, because it is not clear why they are depicted.
For a person of the Middle Ages, 10 thousand square meters of cathedral walls covered with sculptural images are a book that can be read. Of course, this book is the Bible with stories from the Old and New Testaments, well known from the sermons of the priest. Not everyone, moreover, knew how to read. However, the interpretation of biblical images is close to a realistic depiction of a person; one can even judge the fashion of that time from the clothes of the figures, for example, note the large hanging sleeves. Hairstyles, hats of the era.

The 12th century, the time of construction of the cathedral, was marked by the Chartres school of philosophy with its representatives: William of Conchez, Thierry of Chartres, Bernard Sylvester and Alan of Lille. These philosophers returned to the ideas of Plato, Conchesius wrote in his comments to Plato: “The beauty of the world is everything that is revealed in its individual elements: stars in the sky, birds in the air, fish in the water, people on land.”
The idea that man is part of cosmic harmony became the first step on the path from Romanesque art with impersonal sculpture to Renaissance art. During the Gothic period, individual traits appeared that could speak about the individual character and the beginnings of psychology in the depiction of a person.

You can notice the difference between the figures on the oldest western portal and the later ones, southern and northern.

Among the sculptures, almost portrait images appear, such as the young knight St. Feodor standing on the left.

One can even imagine that the sculptor, while working, kept in his head the image of some person he saw in life.

The poses and gestures of many of the sculptures are very natural.

Mary's visit to Elizabeth.

Or Gregory the Great with well-designed hands in an expressive gesture.

Liveliness of gestures appears in the sculpture.

Here I would like to quote the famous French historian Jean le Goff: “Medieval culture was a culture of gestures. All significant agreements and oaths in medieval society were accompanied by gestures and embodied in them. The vassal put his hands in the hands of the lord, put them on the Bible, and broke them as a sign of challenge a straw or throwing a glove. The gesture notified and indicated a position. In religious life its meaning was even greater. The gesture of faith was the Cross. Gestures of prayer were hands folded, raised, arms crossed, shrouded in a veil. There were gestures of repentance when striking one's chest, gestures of blessing with the laying on of hands and making the sign of the cross; gestures of exorcism of evil spirits, incense. ...Churches are gestures in stone."

From the sculpture one can judge the ideas of a person of that time about the beautiful and the ugly. The beautiful, of course, was the prerogative of the angels, and the ugly was the devil. It should be noted here that in subsequent centuries the image of the devil became more multifaceted; a beautiful woman could be the same spawn of the devil, since her beauty served to seduce true men from the path. Suspicious individuals, both with congenital deformity, the mark of the devil, and suspiciously beautiful ones, were sent to the fire of the Inquisition.
Angelic beauty is the calmness of the devil, an angel is not emotional. Integrity of appearance and proportionality. Grace of gestures.

One of the most famous sculptures of the cathedral is an angel with a sundial.

And next to him sat a playing donkey. Left behind the Bremen musicians.

Proportion during the Gothic period was of a slightly different kind than during the Renaissance. If during the Renaissance it is much closer to the golden ratio, Leonardo draws a man with a head one-eighth of his body; then, in these times, elongated proportions and posture in the form of the letter S were “fashionable,” which was sometimes attributed to the narrow clothing of that time. But, based on the completely naked Venus of Lucas Cranach (one of him, he has several of them), you can well study the “model” proportions of Gothic times. They are close to the modern fashion for thin, flat-chested, long-legged models.

Elongated proportions correspond to the idea of ​​excellent proportionality.

The devil, as a symbol of the ugly, is coarse, hairy and smelly. He has a disproportionately large head, shaggy donkey ears, a wild look, he makes faces, a gaping mouth with large lips, crooked short legs, large heels, horse teeth. The forehead is low and wrinkled, the nose is flattened, the beard is thin, goat-like, tousled stubble on the head, a hump on the back. In this form, he began to be depicted in the 11th century; later he also acquired the wings of a bat.

On the southern facade you can see angels with righteous souls on the left side, and devils with sinners on the right.

In the 13th century, theatrical mysteries actively developed, which also played out scenes from the Bible; in such productions, the image of Faust, who is taken away by the devil, later appeared, based on which Christopher Marlowe wrote “The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus”, and Goethe, later, his “Faust” . The folk legend about a warlock who sold his soul to the devil for pleasure has deep roots.
The sculpture seems to be playing a mystery before the viewer; we can see the sinners being dragged to hell by the devils. Someone else is frantically clutching a bag of wealth; the devils cannot be bought off. One of the devils has an extra face on his stomach, an image that is not only found here.

And the sculptor’s skill was to fit all the sculptural figures into the architecture, to preserve the integrity of the perception of architecture. Therefore, even the composition of two figures - Abraham, who is preparing to sacrifice Isaac, was combined into a single solid volume.

To be continued...

If you remember, I already said that in the State Museum of Architecture named after A.V. Shchusev (MUAR), in the pharmacy order, from February 18 to April 20, 2014 there is an exhibition "Under the arches of a Russian temple. Church wooden sculpture of the 17th-19th centuries." We visited this exhibition the other day.
What can I say? She's beautiful! I always literally freeze when I see a church wooden sculpture. She makes a very strong impression on me. It seems that in front of me are living people, the same ones who stepped towards me from the incredibly distant past. And they are beautiful, despite all their imperfections.
Alas, now the temple wooden sculpture is almost forgotten. Once upon a time it filled every temple, but in the 1920s it was practically removed from the cultural space and perished, along with the temples and their interiors. And only a small number ended up in museums. Thanks to which it was preserved. Many of these sculptures are being exhibited for the first time.
Most of the exhibited monuments are works of masters of the provincial school. They are emphatically simple, ascetic and devoid of anatomical research. The body is in the shape of a block, the arms and legs look like cylinders, the head is like a generalized volume, with a protruding wedge of the nose, the ribs are indicated by horizontal stripes. However, they attract the eye. Look at their faces. They are full of strength, they clearly convey emotion - suffering, detachment or pain, hope or tenderness.

John the Theologian. Fragment of the composition "The Crucifixion with Those Present".

Our Lady. Fragment of the composition "The Crucifixion with Those Present".
XVIII-XIX centuries, Ivanovo region. Wood, gesso, tempera.

The sculptures especially often feature images of Angels and Cherubs. They are thin and graceful, they have harmonious and youthful faces. Most often they were located in the tiers of iconostasis, next to especially revered icons, overshadowing significant compositions and sacred areas, such as the Royal Doors.

Angel.
18th century, wood, gesso, tempera, gilding.
Private collection.

A separate, very popular subject in church sculpture is the suffering of Christ before the crucifixion, called “Christ in Prison” or “Midnight Savior”. The interpretation of this image differed from Western Europe. Physical suffering fades into the background. It is the heavenly essence of Jesus that stands out. He is sad and distant. He seems to not notice either the blows or insults of his executioners.

Christ in prison.
19th century, wood, gesso, tempera.
Private collection.

Take a closer look at his beautiful face. It is surprisingly alive, yet so detached and calm.

And another sculpture “Christ in prison”:

XVIII-XIX centuries, wood, gesso, tempera, gilding.
Private collection.

Most often, such sculptures were placed in separate niches. Small “dungeons”, the so-called “praetors,” were created for them, decorated with gilded carvings, drapes and curtains.

Various sculptures could stand either separately or as entire compositions. Here are photographs of fragments of these compositions:

Fragment of the composition "The Crucifixion with Those Present". Saint Longinus the Centurion.
Mid-18th century,wood, gesso, tempera, gilding.
Origin: refectory church of the Simonov Monastery in Moscow.
State Museum of Architecture named after. A.V. Shchusev.

Fragment of the composition "The Crucifixion with Those Present". Bust of a warrior.
Mid-18th century, wood, gesso, tempera, gilding.
State Museum of Architecture named after. A.V. Shchusev.

And here is an amazingly beautiful tabernacle. It is made in the form of a five-domed temple. And inside it there is even a semblance of a church interior, with an altar partition and opening Royal Doors. They are depicted by the doors of a cast folding camping frame. The Holy Gifts were previously placed inside.

And finally, the Royal Doors. The gate depicts the Last Supper. Christ and his 12 apostles at the table.

XVIII century,wood, gesso, tempera, gilding, metal.

Origin: iconostasis of the Church of the Ascension of Bartholomew Monastery in Moscow (1729)
State Museum of Architecture named after. A.V. Shchusev.

A little closer to both doors:

This is such a wonderful exhibition. In addition to the sculpture, it contains a number of photographs of temple interiors. And all exhibits are provided with descriptions and fairly complete and interesting comments.

We highly recommend visiting this exhibition.

Address: st. Vozdvizhenka, 5/25 (follow the link for directions)
Nearest metro stations: Biblioteka im. Lenin", "Arbatskaya",
"Alexandrovsky Garden", "Borovitskaya"
Working hours:
The museum halls are open from Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 to 19:00
On Thursday - from 13:00 to 21:00.
The ticket office is open until 18.30.
On Thursday - until 20:30.
Ticket price: full - 100 rubles, preferential - 50 rubles.
The ticket entitles you to visit the permanent exhibition of the museum and all temporary exhibitions.
Read more.
Unfortunately, there is no catalog for the exhibition, which personally made us very upset.