COXE’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.

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In the infide of this cathedral are twelve maffy piers white-waffied, which, as well asthe walls, are thickly covered with the reprefentations of our Saviour, .the Virgin Mary ,and of various- faints. Some of thefe paintings'are of very high antiquity, and probablyanterior to the revival of the art in Italy . Many of the figures are finilhed in a hardflatJiyle of colouring upon a gold ground, and exaCtly firnilar to thofe of the Greek artifts,by whom, according to Vafari, painting was firlt introduced into Italy .

Towards the latter end of the thirteenth century, fome Greek artifts invited to Flo-rence, painted a chapel in the church of Santa Maria Novella . Although their defignand colouring were hard and flat , and they chiefly reprefented the figures on a field ofgold-, yet their productions were much admired in that ignorant century. Cimabue ,who was then a boy , (truck with their performance, was accuftomed to pafs all the timehe could Heal from fchool in contemplating the progrefs of their work. His enthufiafmbeing thus kindled, he turned his whole attention to the ftudy of an art to which hisgenius feemed inclined. His firft compofitions had all the defeCts of the mailers whomhe imitated ; but he gradually improved as he advanced, and laid the firft rude founda-tion of that aftonilhing excellence which the fchools of Italy afterwards attained.

As painting was brought into Italy from the Greek empire, when there was fcarcelyany conne&ion between thofe two coyntries, we may be well allured it was introducedat a more early period into Ruflia, from the fame quarter; not only becaufe a conflantintercourfe had been long maintained between the Great Dukes and Emperors of Con-ftantinople, and becaule the Patriarch w'as formerly the head of the church eftablilhed inRuflia; but likewife becaufe the Ruffians being converted to Chriftianity by the Greeks,were accuftotned, after their example, to decorate their temples with various figures,and mult have received from them many portraits of faints, which form in their religiona neceflary part of divine worlhip. We may conclude, therefore, that the cathedral ofSt. Sophia, which was built in the eleventh century, and is one of the moll antientchurches of Ruflia, was ornamented with figures of faints by the Greek artifts, whom,the Great Dukes of Novogorod drew from Conftantinople. The reprefentations inqueftion, indeed, are fuch mere daubings, as not to deferve a particular inquiry, if itdid not afiift in illuftrating the progrefs of the liberal arts, and afeertaining the early in-troduction of painting into this country, at a period when it was probably unknowneven in Italy *.

Several Princes of the ducal family of Ruflia are interred in this cathedral. The firftis Vlodimir Yaroflavitch, who was born in 102c, died in 1051 f, and buried in thischurch, which he had juft completed. Befides his tomb, are thofe of his mother Anne,daughter of the eaftern Emperor Roman us, his wife Alexandra, his brother Micfiillaf,and laftly, of Feodor, brother of Alexander Nevlki, who died in 1228. The mollantient of thefe fepulchres are of carved wood gilt, filvered, and furrounded withiron rails ; the others are of brick and mortar. Within the fanCtuary the walls arecovered with Mofaic compartments, of coarfe workmanfhip, but curious from theirantiquity.

Our landlord is a German, and his inn, though fmall, one of .the moft commodiouswe had hitherto met within Ruflia; it was neatly furniffied, and afforded beds, anarticle of Angular luxury in this country, which we had no fmall difficulty to procure,even in the city of Mofcow.

* Jam diu pingunt Rutbeni, et quis credat ? feculo duodecimo, fays Falconi.— SeeEflaifur la Bib. &c.p. 19.

j- S. R. G. vol. v. p. 399.

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