MOGARICHEV Yu.M., ERGINA A.S. The Lost Fresco Paintings of the Inkerman Cave Churches (“Temple with Baptistery”, “Church of Geography”, Monastery of Saint Sophia)
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2021.6.3
Yurii M. Mogarichev
Doctor of Sciences (History), Professor, Leading Researcher,
Institute of Archaeology of Crimea of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Prosp. Akademika Vernadskogo, 2, 295007 Simferopol, Russian Federation;
Head of the Humanity and Social Science Department,
Crimean Republican Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education,
Lenina St, 15, 295000 Simferopol, Russian Federation
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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6057-2316
Head of the Department of Postgraduate Studies, Lecturer,
Department of Painting, Saint Petersburg State Academy of Arts and Design named after A.L. Stieglitz,
Solyanoy Lane, 13, 191028 Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7988-0415
Abstract. Introduction. Among the “cave towns” of Mountainous Southwestern Crimea, there are monuments located in the lower reaches of the Black River valley. There are no less than 9 rock-cut monastic complexes which include about 30 temples.
Methods. Some churches of the 13th–15th centuries were decorated with fresco paintings. Today, frescoes have been preserved only in one church. Sources of the 18th–20th centuries indicate traces of paintings in more than five temples. Frescoes inside the “temple with baptistery”, “Church of Geography (Eugraphy)”, and the Monastery of St. Sophia have not survived. Archival materials that expose the plots and compositions are published in this work.
Analysis. The frescoes of the “temple with baptistery” date back to the 13th century. The Deesis composition is reconstructed in the apse conch. In the “Church of Geography (Eugraphy)” (the 13th century), on each side of the throne, four figures of saints are depicted (The Holy Fathers composition). This is probably: John Chrysostom, Gregory the Theologian, Basil the Great, Cyril of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, Athanasius of Alexandria and two more saints from among the Cappadocian Fathers. One of them is obviously St. Blaise. This painting in general terms repeats the traditional scheme of the lower register of the painting of the apses of the cave temples of the mountainous Crimea. The monastery of St. Sofia should be dated back to the 14th–15th centuries. During the period of the monastery’s functioning, there were fresco paintings in the Main Church and Church no. 3, but all the attempts to attribute them were unsuccessful.
Results. The analyzed frescoes show themes of Deesis and the Great Cappadocians. They are common for altar compositions in cave temples in South-West Crimea. In the interiors of the cave temples of Inkerman, there are: simple linear ornaments, complex plant reports, linear ornaments with complex weaving and plant elements.
Key words: Byzantium, Crimea, Inkerman, “cave towns”, cave churches, frescoes. Citation. Mogarichev Yu.M., Ergina A.S. The Lost Fresco Paintings of the Inkerman Cave Churches (“Temple with Baptistery”, “Church of Geography”, Monastery of St. Sophia). Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 4. Istoriya. Regionovedenie. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. History. Area Studies. International Relations], 2021, vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 31-51. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2021.6.3.
The Lost Fresco Paintings of the Inkerman Cave Churches (“Temple with Baptistery”, “Church of Geography”, Monastery of Saint Sophia) by Mogarichev Yu.M., Ergina A.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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