Notes of Christian Antiquity in the Architecture of the Orthodox Church: from Romanticism of the XIX to "Post-Modernity" of the XXI Century

Abstract

The problem of the criteria of modernity in the architecture of the Orthodox church seems to be a key issue in the period of intensive development of church building. The article attempts to reveal the problem from the position of the internal organization of sacral space, which is subordinate to the church tradition and little changed over time. Attention is focused on examples of conceptual reference of masters to the origins of Christianity, and monuments of Christian antiquity to update the forms of church art. Analysis and comparison of views of artists, thinkers in the history of the XIX century and modern Russia, projects and constructions created by them are given.

The main provisions of the theory, projects of murals, and iconostasis of Prince G.G. Gagarin, who stood at the origins of the Byzantine style of Russian art in the 1860s, is presented. An attempt is made to clarify the semantics and artistic principles of the recent architectural projects of Archimandrite Zinon (Theodore), the famous "zealot of the dignity of the icon". Three positions are examined. Criteria of modernity in the church art of two epochs - the Byzantine style of the time of historicism and the potential art of the future "post­modernity". Gagarin's method and the return of the Byzantine pattern by adapting it to the language of academic art. The method of Zinon, his ideas of an     icon-like image of the space of worship by returning to the formation and flowering of the Byzantine canon, and partly its archaization in  the decoration of the temple. A definition of the style of "theology of the Eastern Church'' in architecture is proposed, as opposed to the illustrative articulation of Scripture and Sacred Tradition in the decoration of the temple.