Yulia Buzykina
Moscow Kremlin Museums, Moscow, Russian Federation;
yuliabuzykina@gmail.com
Unusual Iconography of the Holy Five of Sebasteia
in the Wall Paintings of Archangel Michael Cathedral of Moscow Kremlin.
Towards the Problem of Warrior Saints in the Byzantine Tradition
Our paper deals with the subject raised firstly by Ch. Walter in his study of the warrior saints
in Byzantine art and tradition. The question was: who actually are the warrior saints? Walter shows
that the obvious answer, which is “those, who were warriors according to their Lives”, is wrong.
Some warrior saints, among them St Demetrius, did not have anything to do with military service
according to their Lives; they “became” warriors in iconography during their veneration.
The same happened in Russian post-Byzantine art to The Holy Five, mentioned by Walter as
well. They have turned into warriors about the middle of the 16
th
century. The Holy Five were often
depicted in the Byzantine art since 11
th
century, but in the Russian art of Byzantine time we can see
very few of their depictions. However, they became more popular in the late 15
th
century. Since the
middle of 16
th
century the Holy Five were particularly venerated in the tsar family, as on December,
13, 1546, on the day of their memory Makarius the Metropolitan of Moscow blessed young prince
Ivan Vasilyevich (future Ivan the Terrible) to marry Anastasia Romanovna. In honor of this event,
the tsar stablemen have founded a church of John the Baptist (patron saint of Ivan the 4
th
) with side
altar of The Holy Five of Sebasteia.
We will concentrate on depiction of The Holy Five on the pillars of Archangel Michael
cathedral. The existing wall paintings created in 1652–1666, reproduce the program and presumably
iconography of decoration created in 1564/1565. Three of the martyrs, Auxentios, Eugenios and
Eustratios are depicted as warriors with arms and armor, although they were not soldiers. Mardarios
wears civil dress. Orestes, who was the only warrior among them, according to the Life, wears civil
567
dress too, but his figure is a late reconstruction. Such “militaristic” iconography is very ridiculous
and rare, and we do not know any examples of it in the Russian art earlier than the second half of
the 16
th
century. One can suppose that the existing wall painting repeats not only the program, but
iconography of the saints as well. Moreover, in the original decoration, all the five martyrs could be
firstly depicted as warriors. Wall paintings and icons of late 16
th
– 17
th
centuries with all the five in
military dress, confirm this.
Our presumption looks more probable, taking into account lists of banners of Tsar Regiment,
preserved in the 17
th
century documents. They have depictions of warrior saints, holy Byzantine
Emperors and Russian princes on the horseback with arms and armors. The banners must repeat
the earlier ones and among them figure ones with Auxentios, Mardarios and Orestes.
To sum up, we suppose that in the middle of the 16
th
century, the Holy Five Martyrs of Sebasteia
appeared on the pillars of Archangel Michael cathedral as military saints. It was done on purpose
and for the first time in the Russian art. We think that here one can see the same mechanism
working as in the case of St Demetrius of Thessaloniki, but in the Russian post-Byzantine art of
16
th
century. The Holy Five are not the only accident, for example, the military iconography of St
Tryphon appears in the Russian art at the same time.
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