THE BEAUTIFICATION OF THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. SAVA IN BELGRADE: EXHIBITION PROJECT AT THE MUSEUM AND EXHIBITION COMPLEX OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS
20.12.2023 – 4.02.2024
THE BEAUTIFICATION OF THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. SAVA IN BELGRADE: EXHIBITION PROJECT AT THE MUSEUM AND EXHIBITION COMPLEX OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS
Dates: December 20, 2023 – February 4, 2024
Venue: Museum and Exhibition Complex of the Russian Academy of Arts, Tsereteli Art Gallery (19 Prechistenka street, Moscow)
The Russian Academy of Arts (RAA) in partnership with the Moscow International Foundation for Support to UNESCO present the research, enlightenment and exhibition project “The Beautification of the Cathedral of St. Sava in Belgrade”. The exhibition is rare opportunity to show to the wide public the huge scale of the project including the creative workshops where the preparatory work for the mosaic decoration of the Cathedral of St. Sava took place. The visitors will see the design drawings, the dome and sail layouts, color cartoons for compositions, sketches of choruses and other architectural elements of the Cathedral to be displayed on the area of more than 600 square meters in the halls of the Museum and Exhibition Complex of the Russian Academy of Arts. According to the concept, first the artists have executed fragments of the mosaics in the scale they should be in the Cathedral, now the viewers can trace the complex process of mosaic creation and transfer themselves to the inner space of the Cathedral of St. Sava with mosaic decoration.
The exhibition proves the preservation and achievements of the unique Russian school of mosaic art. The total mosaic area of the Cathedral is 17000 sq. meters thus making this temple a true encyclopedia of the Orthodox religious art which is unparalleled in the history of Christianity. The walls of the Cathedral of St. Sava are covered with more than 50.000.000 pieces of smalt of various sizes. The total weight of the mosaic exceeds 400 tons.
Fifteen teams of artists with a total of 350 persons have been involved into the Cathedral’s mosaic decoration, many of them are graduates of the academic art institutes, trainees of the RAA Creative Workshop of Monumental Painting, members of the Russian Academy of Arts. Besides the mosaics executed according to the draft designs of the Academician of the RAA Nikolai Mukhin there have also been produced three iconostases with icons authored by artists of the University of St. Tichon, four large icon cases of almost 7 meters with icons, a decorative marble floor, a huge central chandelier with the diameter of 20 meters, as well as several other chandeliers of smaller sizes. On display there will also be archive photographs and films about the project implementation process.
The traditions of the Russian school of monumental art and its history will be discussed during research conferences and panel discussions, lectures and master classes of artists - the project’s participants that are planned to be arranged in December (2023) and January (2024). Since its foundation up to these days the Academy of Arts has been playing the leading role in the creation of major monuments not only in Russia but worldwide too. The beautification of the Cathedral of St. Sava on the Vrachar plateau in Belgrade has become a new page both in the history of Christian art and contemporary art culture.
The project supervisor: the President of the Russian Academy of Arts, People’s Artist of the USSR and the Russian Federation Zurab K. Tsereteli.
The head of the project: the Academician and Member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Arts, Honored Figure of Culture Manana V. Popova
The project author and head of work for the artistic decoration of the Cathedral, Academician and Member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Arts, People’s Artist of Russia Nikolai A. Mukhin
The authors of the mosaic decoration concept: the Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, Doctor of Art History Irina L. Buseva-Davydova and the Academician Nikolai Mukhin
The Chief Engineer of the project and head of the assembly work: Evgeny N. Chelyshev
The computer work for the project: the Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts Anton V. Shtolba.
The historical background: The Cathedral of St. Sava is the principle cathedral of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the biggest on the Balkans.
The site for the Cathedral was approved in 1894 – exactly 300 years after the Ottoman Sardar Sinan-Pasha ordered the burning of the relics of St. Sava considered as a symbol of the nation. The burning took place in the square on the Vrachar hill located in the south of Belgrade. It is there, that they decided to start the construction of the Cathedral (now, on this hill besides the Cathedral there are the National Library of Serbia and a vast park). In 1905, the competition was announced and the participants were expected to focus on monumental art in the Serbian and Byzantine style. None of the five projects presented by the architects was appreciated as the best. The second competition because of the First World War was announced only in 1926. It included 22 draft designs but there was no winner either. At last in 1930, a Special Commission approved the construction project offered by the young architects Bogdan Nestorovich and Alexander Deroko.
The construction began in 1935. Вy 1939, the 12-meter high walls had been erected, but the construction was suspended due to the Second World War. It has not been resumed for almost all the communist era and only in 1985 the authorities allowed the construction work to be deployed again. The dome was completed in 1989 and by 2004 the main construction work had been over. In the same year there was the official inauguration of the Cathedral. In 2008, the side chapel of the Cathedral was consecrated in honor of the holy Martyrs Ermil and Stratonik.
With the dimensions of 91m х 81m and the total area of 7570 sq. m the Cathedral of St. Sava is almost equal to the scale of St. Sophia Cathedral. The diameter of its dome is 30 meters.
On March 16, 2012 in Moscow there was a signing of the Protocol between the Culture Ministry of the Russian Federation and the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Serbia on the Russian involvement in the creation of the artistic interior decoration of the Cathedral of St. Sava.
In 2014, the All-Russian open competition for the best design of the interior decoration for the Cathedral of St. Sava in Belgrade was announced, the winner was the project by the Academician Nikolai Mukhin representing the Russian Academy of Arts.
On August 30, 2016 in the residence of the Serbian President in Belgrade the Holy Patriarch Irinej of Serbia, then Serbian President Tomislav Nikolich, the Deputy Director General of “Gazprom Oil” Joint Stock Company Alexander Dybal, the Vice-President of the Moscow International Foundation for Support to UNESCO Manana Popova signed an Agreement on the Beautification of the Cathedral of St. Sava. The work on the interior decoration of the Cathedral started in September, 2016.
On January 17, 2019 during his official visit to Serbia the Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Cathedral of St. Sava in Belgrade where at that time the masters of the Russian Academy of Arts were finishing the mosaic assembly. On that day at the Cathedral of St. Sava His Holiness Patriarch of Serbia Irinej, the President of Serbia Alexander Vuchich and the Russian President Vladimir Putin symbolically completed the work at the mosaic image of the Savior Saved by the Miraculous by putting the missing fragments into it and left their autographs on the Draft Design for the Cathedral Mosaic Decoration.
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