CHAP. II. 1800. tating them in Russia. a country where the arts of multiplying them by imitation were then unknown, they were covered by plates of the most precious metals, which left the features alone visible. As soon as the messengers of the Gospel died, they became themselves saints, and were worshipped by their followers. The pictures they had brought were then suspended in the churches, and regarded as the most precious relics. Many of them, preserved now in Russia, are considered as having the power of working miracles. It would then necessarily follow, that with new preachers, new pictures must be required. Manner of imi- The Russians, characterized at this day by a talent of imitation, though without a spark of inventive genius, followed, not only the style of the original painting, but the manner of laying it on, and the materials on which it was placed. Thus we find, at the end of the eighteenth century, a Russian peasant placing before his Bogh, a picture, purchased in the markets of Moscow and Petersburg, exactly similar to those brought from Greece during the tenth; the same stiff representation of figures which the Greeks themselves seem to have originally copied from works in mosaic, the same mode of mixing and laying on the colours on a plain gold surface, the same custom of painting upon wood, and the same expensive covering of a silver coat of mail; when, from the multitude and cheapness of such pictures, the precaution at first used to preserve them is no longer necessary. In other instances of their religion, the copy of sacred relics seems to the Russians as much an object of worship as the original. This will appear by the description of Moscow; in the neighbourhood of which city is a building erected at prodigious expence in imitation of of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem; having exactly the same form, and containing a faithful representation of the same absurdities. CHAP. II. 1800. Cathedral. Superstitions of the Greek The Cathedral of Novogorod, dedicated to St. Sophia, in imitation of the name given to the magnificent edifice erected by Justinian at Constantinople, was built in the eleventh century. Many of the pictures seem to have been there from the time in which the church was finished, and doubtless were some of them painted long before its consecration, if they were not brought into the country with the introduction of Christianity. At any rate, we may consider them as having originated from the source whence Italy derived a knowledge of the art, though prior to its appearance in that country. Little can be said of the merit of any of them. They are more remarkable for singularity than beauty. In the dome of a sort of anti-chapel, as you enter, are seen the representations of Church. monsters with many heads; and such a strange assemblage of imaginary beings, that it might be supposed a Pagan rather than a Christian temple. The different representations of the Virgin, throughout Russia, will shew to what a pitch of absurdity superstition has been carried. I believe most of them are found in all their principal churches; and as their worship forms so conspicuous a feature in the manners of the Russians, it will be proper to annex fac-similes of those pictures which have the greatest number of votaries; for though they are all objects of adoration, they have each of them particular places, in which, as tutelary deities, they obtain more peculiar reverence; and sometimes small chapels and churches, dedicated particularly to some one of them individually. CHAP. II. 1800. Virgin with three hands. individually. These are, principally, THE VIRGIN OF VLADIMIR; THE VIRGIN WITH THE BLEEDING CHEEK; and ---spectatum admissi, risum teneatis ?---THE VIRGIN WITH THREE HANDS! The authors of the Universal History appropriate this last picture to the church of the convent of the New Jerusalem. I believe it to have been originally painted as a barbarous representation, or symbol, of the Trinity; and therefore it more properly applies to another convent in the neighbourhood of Moscow. The following ; story has however been circulated, concerning its history. An artist, being employed on a picture of the Virgin and Child, found one day, that instead of two hands which he had given to the Virgin, a third had been added during his absence from his work. Supposing some person had been playing a trick with him, he rubbed out the third hand, and, having finished the picture, carefully locked the door of his apartment. To his great surprize, he found the next day the extraordinary addition of a third hand in his picture, as before. He now began to be alarmed; but still concluding it possible that some person had gained access to his room, he once more rubbed out the superfluous hand, and not only locked the door, but also barricadoed the windows. The next day, approaching his elaboratory, he found the door and windows fast, as he had left them; but, to his utter dismay and astonishment, as he went in, there appeared the same remarkable alteration in his picture, the. Virgin appearing with three hands regularly disposed about the child. In extreme trepidation, he began to cross himself, and proceeded once more to alter the picture; when the Virgin herself appeared in person, person, and bade him forbear, as it was her pleasure to be so represented. CHAP. II. 1800. Many of those absurd representations are said to be the work of angels. In the Greek church they followed the idols of Paganism, and have continued to maintain their place. They are one of the first and most curious sights which attract a traveller's notice; for it is not only in their churches that such paintings are preserved; every room throughout the empire has a picture of this nature, large or small, called the BOGH, Russian Bogh. or God, stuck up in one corner; to which every person who enters offers adoration, before any salutation is made to the master or mistress of the house: and this adoration consists in a quick motion of the right hand in crossing, the head bowing all the time in a manner so rapid and ludicrous, that it reminds one of those Chinese mandarin images seen upon the chimney-pieces of old houses, which, when set a-going, continue nodding, for the amusement of old women and children. In the myriads of idol paintings dispersed throughout the empire, the subjects represented are very various: some of them, on account of their singularity, might merit a more particular description; but as engraved representations best answer the purposes of information, four, in addition to those already given, have been inserted in one plate. Each of them will afford the Reader a very accurate idea of a Russian BOGH; while the curious may find amusement in deciphering the monograms and other inscriptions upon those pictures. E CHAP. III. Antient History of Novogorod. NOVOGORO D. 1 Antient History of Novogorod - First Churches in Russia THE melancholy ideas excited by the present appearance (1) "Quis contra Deos, et Magnam Novogordiam ?" "Who can resist the Gods, and Great Novogorod?" |