Illuminated Gospel, dated 1684, from the Cathedral of the Archangel at the Moscow Kremlin Museums: to the question of iconographic sources

Abstract

This article deals with miniatures of the Gospel from the collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, dated 1684. The author analyzes the iconography of the compositions, identifies the sources used as models for the masters who decorated the book, and also examines the circumstances associated with the order of the manuscript. The text touches on the issue of artistic connections between Russia and Western Europe in the field of book illustration of the 17th century and describes in detail the creative work of the court masters on the miniatures of the Gospel. The author discovers a Western European visual source that has never been associated with the range of Kremlin monuments before, which complements our vision of the iconographic lexicon of the court masters of the second half of the 17th century.

Keywords

• christian iconography
• kremlin workshops
• gospel
• russian art of the 17th century