This publication is a reprint of a study by the now deceased M.N. Sokolov in a collection of articles dedicated to the thirtieth anniversary of I.E. Danilova as Deputy Director for research of the A.S. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts [Sokolov 1997, pp. 22–23]. It is not a memoir about a late senior colleague, but rather a dithyramb addressed to the still living and active leader of the Museum’s academic life and its human community. M.N. Sokolov managed to outline in a short witty essay the main features of I.E. Danilova as a researcher and as a human being.

Among the objects of greek art of the Bosporan production, greek archaic art basis is quite clearly observed. We can interpret it as the preservation of early aesthetic ideas in the perception of plastic form, a certain “manner of vision”, transferred with the Hellenic impulse to a new environment in the 6 BC. Over time, the plastic manner was modified, but the “archaic trace” in the sculpture was preserved. Undoubtedly, it became the defining basis of a peculiar local form, which was gradually filled with elements learned from subsequent masters of the new “classical” schools.
A relief with a battle scene (Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts) turned out to be a kind of key to understanding the bright variety of local art, which was proposed to be distinguished and designated as the “Bosporan style”. We can also refer to it a number of other monuments of monumental sculpture, both of the late 6th and 4th centuries BC, and later, including the widespread Bosporan tombstone steles of the Hellenistic and Early Roman era. There are reasons to assume the existence of the Bosporan style in the forms of architectural decoration, and in torevtik (gold objects from the Donetsk and Stavropol mounds: Perederieva Mogila and the mound, excavated in 2013 in Stavropol), and even in small forms – terracotta plastic – this style is reflected: the statuette of a horseman from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in the composition, flattened surface of the relief and characteristic details resembles the style of the Bosporan steles of late Hellenism. All this translates the phenomenon under consideration into the status of the so-called “Grand Style”, that is, an artistic manner that manifests itself in various categories of culture and for several centuries has determined the expressive appearance of the Bosporan environment.

The paper is dedicated to the ivory cover, commonly referred to in scholarship as the Murano diptych. The name, alluding to one of the Vene- tian islands, derives from an 18th-century historic record attesting the presence of one of the sides of the cover in a Murano monastery. This part of the diptych was later brought to Ravenna and today is on display at the Ravenna National Museum. The fragments of the other side of the diptych are dispersed among various museum and library collections in Manchester, Paris, Berlin, and Saint Petersburg. Notwithstanding the scattered location of the ivory, it is possible to reconstruct its constituent elements and original decoration. Besides offering a detailed analysis of the surviving fragments, this paper focuses on the overall iconographic program and formal characteristics of the diptych, and studies its reliefs in light of late antique ivory carving and church decoration. It is argued that late antique ivories represent an important source of information concerning the use of apocryphal imagery in monumental art, enabling us to reconstruct the imagery of early Byzantine narrative cycles.

The issue of the original and copies in the Western Christian tradition of manuscript illumination involved a complicated process including several attempts at classification which engendered several further problems, such as the authority of the original manuscript as a whole, estimating the kinds of decomposition (compositional core – décor etc) of copied images to more or less significant degree for purposes of quotation, building the compositional scheme of quotes from several more or less equal origins, splitting the quote to pieces of different level of cognizance and scale (from a group of figures to significant part of figure, a.k.a “module”. The method of “example books” or “motive books” query is a different question. In the article is represented the experience of classification of the Western Christian miniaturist’s work methods, verified in several aspects.

The article is devoted to a unique monument of German book illumination of the second half of the 12th century – illuminated cartulary or “Traditionscodex”. The manuscript, written by the sacristan Conrad, goes beyond the book of copies of documents relating to donations of property and becomes a kind of historical chronicle of the Freising diocese. The unique character of this monument is revealed by comparing with typologically similar manuscripts created in the 9th–12th centuries. The images of representatives of the highest religious (bishops of Freising) and secular authorities (kings of Germany and emperors) are of particular importance in the codex. In the article the author defines the various functions of these images in the “Codex the Conrad Sacristan”, emphasizing the importance of the representative function, and makes a comparison with similar images found in German illuminated manuscripts of the second half of the 12th century.

As special devotional image among the Montreal Cathedral mosaics is dedicated to the personification of the Wisdom of God on the east side of the arch that separates the central nave from the transept. The Wisdom is depicted as a queen-like wife with her hands raised in prayer, entitled SAPIEN- TIA DEI. Below on the sides of the arch the Archangels Gabriwl and Michael are adoring her. The image is located at the beginning of the Old Testament scenes on the walls of the nave.

A personification of the Wisdom of God as a queen-like wife is not known in the Byzantine art of the 11th – 12th centuries but is found among Roman miniatures. This depiction is similar to personifications of the Church in Roman and early Byzantine monumental painting. It is difficult to tell the difference without an inscription. A Roman example could be used by Byzantine artists of the Monreale as а model. The image in the Monreale may be considered as personification of both Wisdom and the Church. Such double personification is found in Medieval images.

The article is devoted to the decorum of the wooden gusli (psaltery) found during archaeological excavations in Novgorod the Great in 1969. This artefact, dated from the first half of 12th century, is decorated with two carved dragon’s heads. Also there are depicted graffiti carvings: one with dragon’s heads and another one with a lion and a bird. The similarity between caved dragon’s heads at gusli from Novgorod and decorum of Western European medieval musical instruments (citoles and harps) is found. There is mentioned in the article that images of harps with zoomorphic decorum are known from miniatures with King David depicted in medieval illuminated psalters. Also it is found that the graffiti with a lion and a bird has iconographic parallels in the stone carvings with King David on the walls of the Church of the Interces- sion on the River Nerl (1165) situated near the city of Vladimir in Russia. Therefore a hypothesis about reflection of King David’s theme in the decorum of gusli from Novgorod is expressed.

It still seems to me correct to date the icon “Christ Pantocrator” from the Rublev Museum back to around 1200 or to the first quarter of the 13th century, that is, the pre-Mongol period. Masterfully painted, but far from the refined roots of the Constantinople style, the icon bears clear signs of the art of Northern Greece and Macedonia, and the tradition of Kastoria seems to be especially close. The origin of the object remains unclear; it could have been the work of both a Greek and a Russian master. However, even if we consider both the icon board and its painting to be by Russians, it is very close to Byzantine art, and precisely of this region. Probably, such closeness is an indication of the influence of Northern Byzantine art on the development of regional features of the painting of 13th century North-Eastern Russia.

The article examines the silver oklad of the Holy Gospel from the Moscow Kremlin Museums, made by using the embossing technique (basma). This oklad was previously dated from mid to late 16th century and attributed to silversmiths of the Russian North. Based on a comprehensive study of this work and similar items it was proved that this piece was made by Stroganov craftsmen at the beginning of the 17th century, on the instructions of Nikita Stroganov, as a contribution to the Solvychegodsk Cathedral of the Annunciation. This attribu- tion is confirmed by archival documents. The form and decoration of the silver Gospel oklad, created in Solvychegodsk by order of Nikita Stroganov, copied the best creations of Moscow silversmiths, but the Stroganov works in silver, while similar to those in Moscow, have their own special features and originality.

The connections of the perspective construction and inter- pretation of architecture in Masaccio’s fresco “Trinity” with the work of Brunelleschi is covered extensively in the literature. At the same time, it is surprising that the striking similarity of the figure of Christ on the cross in this monumental painting panel with a wooden crucifix carved by Filippo Brunelleschi is mentioned only in a few foreign studies in the mode of state- ment. This paper analyzes the reasons for this similarity and traces the role of Brunelleschi’s “Crucifixion” in the development of Italian art of the Quat- trocento era. The hypothesis is put forward that the image of Christ in the Masaccio’s fresco is not just a technical repetition, but a kind of “homage” to an older friend and consultant.

Architectural structures are often found in both in the monumen- tal and in the easel painting of Siena in the 15th century, but it is in the predella polyptychs that they enter into dialogue with human figures, creating harmonious compositions or original contrasts. In some works, they serve as a deco- rative background for narrative scenes, while in others they become integral parts of them. This article demonstrates that, despite the strong attachment of the Sienese artists of the Quattrocento era to the medieval tradition, it is in the predella polyptychs of the 15th century that innovations in the field of depicting architectural structures are adopted. Through the examination of a number of scenes from the predella of the sienese polyptychs, it became obvious that it was in the architectura picta that artists had greater freedom and depicted architectural innovations that had not yet been reflected in actual Sienese architecture. There are many predella fragments depicting architectural structures, but they have not been fully documented. The brief excursion reported in this study aims to review the most representative samples, organize them chronologically and analyze their evolution through almost the entire 15th century.