“Heavenly army. Image and veneration” in the Kremlin

On March 17, the exhibition “Heavenly Host. Image and veneration.

The exhibition is one of the largest projects in the history of Russian museum work and includes unique monuments, many of which are rarely shown to the public.

On the eve of the opening, the exhibition was presented by the General Director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, Elena Yuryevna Gagarina, and the curators of the exhibition, Sergey Pavlovich Bryun and Maria Vladimirovna Vilkova.

The project, which was carried out by the Kremlin Museums, was prepared for a long time and painstakingly implemented. Discussions began in 2020, and only now the exhibition has been presented to the public. The exposition was prepared with the participation of the State Hermitage, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Mikhail Abramov Museum of Russian Icons.

At the exhibition, the viewer can get acquainted with the unique works of ancient Russian art associated with the veneration of the Archangel Michael, martyr soldiers and noble princes. For centuries, the Russian people turned to the intercession of the Heavenly Host and its head – the Archangel Michael – in times of disaster and in everyday hardships.

The exhibition provides a rare opportunity to see close-up exhibits that are rarely shown to the museum public. So, the visitors were presented with the temple image “Archangel Michael with the deeds of angels”. It should be noted that this is the only temple image that has survived to this day from the first Kremlin cathedrals built during the time of Grand Duke Ivan Kalita (the icon dates from about 1400). This icon left the iconostasis for the first time since 1980, and the audience got a unique opportunity to examine the icon from the time of the Battle of Kulikovo in detail.

The exhibition also presents more ancient exhibits: one of the oldest bilateral pre-Mongolian icons of the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries “Odegetria the Mother of God. Saint Great Martyr George”, banners with images of archangels at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries, samples of Russian temple sculpture of the 14th-17th centuries, and the relief image of the Miracle of the Holy Great Martyr George on the Serpent, made by a European master, transferred to the Assumption Cathedral in the distant 17th century, is exhibited for the first time .

The exhibition, which tells about the holy warriors in Russian art over a thousand-year period – from pre-Mongolian times to the 20th century, brings together more than one hundred and thirty works of icon painting, sculpture, secular painting, numismatics, faleristics, weaponry and jewelry art. The exposition in the One-Pillar Chamber of the Patriarchal Palace includes seven thematic sections dedicated to the Archangel Michael, the most famous martyr soldiers – Saints George, Demetrius of Thessalonica and Theodore Stratelates, as well as Russian princely holiness and piety.

The second part of the exposition in the exhibition hall of the Assumption Belfry reveals the theme of appealing to the intercession of the Heavenly Host in court ceremonial and state symbols of the Muscovite kingdom and the Russian Empire. Here are weapons, orders and awards, objects of the coronation ceremony, icons of holy warriors of the 17th-19th centuries, watercolor sketches depicting the banners of Russian sovereigns. The exhibition is completed by monuments of the Soviet period, including sketches for the monumental works of Pavel Korin, dedicated to the images of Alexander Nevsky and Dmitry Donskoy. These works serve as living evidence that in all periods of Russian history, the images and feat of the holy warriors remain unfading symbols, giving consolation, setting an example, giving hope. The exhibition raises the theme of Russian princely piety and princely holiness.

In addition to the exhibition, an extensive cultural program has been prepared and a colorful catalog has been published.

From March 1 to August 1, 2023, as part of events related to the exhibition, the Oktyabr cinema on Novy Arbat hosts film screenings of iconic films covering several periods of Russian history: the films are presented and discussed with the audience by the staff of the Moscow Kremlin Museums – exhibition curators Sergey Bryun and Maria Vilkova and art lecturer Elizaveta Titova.

The lecture hall prepared a series of lectures “Images of Heavenly Warriors in Orthodox Culture”, “Invisible Warfare”, “Golden Legend”: St. Michael, St. George, St. Jacob, and educational activities for children.

Also, during the exhibition, there will be guided tours of the exhibition halls, including curatorial ones.

Anna Duhon.

Photo by Yuri Pokrovsky