Wall Paintings of the Nativity of John the Baptist Church in Presnya: Genesis, Iconography, Attribution

Abstract

The article deals with the painting of the Moscow Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist in Presnya. The purpose of the article is to characterize the wall painting of the temple and a number of examples of its easel painting to indicate the correlation of artistic traditions and to identify compositions created by V. M. Vasnetsov or under his guidance based on art history analysis. The author concludes that the Nativity of John the Baptist Church should be determined as an original monument of an Orthodox art that requires research. The relevance of the topic is determined by the inconsistency of processes taking place in contemporary art. First, the following of professional artistic traditions is replaced by expressive modern forms of "contemporary art" - installations, performances - and, as a result, we witness how classical masterpieces lose their value and true artistic works experience deliberate destruction. On the other hand, there is a need for the revival of spiritual art, inseparable from the traditions of Orthodox creativity, which is getting stronger.