The present article is devoted to studying the art of Ambrosius Holbein — the elder brother of Hans Holbein the Younger. He died at the age of 25 leaving behind only a small body of works and he always remained in the shadow of his famous brother. The only monograph dedicated to Ambrosius Holbein was written more than 100 years ago. Generally, the artist is simply treated as the brother of the famous artist, Hans Holbein the Younger. The paper deals with attributed works of Ambrosius Holbein: graphic works will be presented, including the book graphics, wall-paintings and paintings. The “Portrait of a Young Man” from the Hermitage collection is the only work convincingly attributed to him. The author pays attention to the problem of identification of the young man depicted in this portrait. The paper shows that the art of Ambrosius Holbein, as well as his life, requires a far deeper study.

Altar zone is the most significant and sacred part of the interior of any Christian church. Architects and sculptors used special methods to decorate an altar and to emphasize its particular role in the composition of the building. Rome was an important and celebrated center for pilgrims who wished to venerate innumerous relics and get blessing of the Pope. The article analyzes the architectural decoration of altar zone in the churches of Rome. It included an altar itself, an altar barrier, a pulpit and a ciborium. There are a few monuments that can be explored as examples of a typical medieval arrangement of the altar space in Rome: San Giorgio in Velabro, Santa Maria in Castello in Tarquinia, Santa Maria Assunta in Anagni and Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Ferentino. These monuments represent the first type of the alter space arrangement.Santa Maria in Cosmedin and San Clemente are the examples of second type, more severe and secluded. So, it is possible to identify several methods of creating altar spaces and to characterize particular features of style and iconography of the Roman medieval architecture in general and of altar spaces in particular.

In his new monograph, along with the Byzantine regions, R. Ousterhout pays attention to the architecture of countries that surrounded Byzantium. Among the topics discussed in R. Ousterhout’s multifaceted new book, one is of particular interest to the author of this article, as it is connected to his own research.That is an issue of medieval Armenian architecture in the context of the architecture of the Byzantine world and the entire East. R. Ousterhout points out the role of the Roman heritage in early Christian Armenia. Following the descriptionof the Surb Khach church on Aghtamar Island (915–921), the author focuses on the metropolitancity of Ani and its Cathedral, which are compared by scholars to the churches of the European Romanesque. At the same time the author distinguishes the structure of Armenian and European buildings. Mentioning the zhamatun of Horomos monastery (1038) and the same-type constructions of the 13th century, R. Ousterhout insists on their uniqueness. In the chapter devoted to the master builders the author turns to a schematic working drawing of a stalactite vault executed on the wall of the gavit of the Astvatsnkal monastery. He analyzes photos of the drawing, which was lost for years and re-discovered during our expedition in May 2015. The author was able to give capacious characteristics to a variety of monuments, as well as emphasize those features that turned out to be especially significant to the specialists in Byzantine architecture.

Byzantine written sources contain vitae of holy women, who disguised as monks lived for along time in monasteries or hermitages. Concealing their gender, they developed exceptional ascetic qualities surpassing their female nature. These legends, probably composed in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, from the 5th to the 7th century, exist in Greek, Coptic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Latin. After the Arabs conquered these regions, Byzantine hagiography focused on other types of female saints, leaving aside holy cross-dressers. Several interpretations may be given to monastic disguises adopted by women. Virility has been associatedsince antiquity with positive qualities, while femininity with weakness and spiritual poverty. Transcending femininity was, according to Church Fathers, the only way for women to find soul salvation. On the other hand, several scholars see in the attitude of these women an attempt to imitate the superior sex and acquire equal status within the patriarchal society. The transvestite holy woman is consequently an ambiguous figure, being at the same time admired and disputed. This paper addresses issues of gender identity and iconography in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine art (6th–16th centuries), based on the figure of the transvestite female saint. Using as case studies St. Eugenia and St. Athanasia, it explores the visual language adopted by medieval artists to depict them and argues that the role of the Capital Constantinople was crucial in shaping the iconography of these holy cross-dressers. It also examines the symbolic meaning of portraits of St. Athanasia included in the otherwise conservative iconographic programmes of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine churches in Cyprus, tracing the origins of her particular popularity in the island. The image of the transvestite female saint in Byzantium challenges the accepted notions of medieval gender identity and invites us to consider an alternative version of the female persona in the Christian East. The examination of medieval depictions of St. Eugenia and St. Athanasia reveals that the iconographic rendering of these holy cross-dressers was by no means established, but rather a field of experimentation for Byzantineand Post-Byzantine painters.

This article discusses the architecture of the Royal Necropolis at Iron Age Salamis (Cyprus). In search of possible prototypes and parallels to the Salamis tombs, the authors analyze a wide range of funerary monuments including those discovered in Cyprus in recent decades. The specific features of funeral architecture are considered in the context of the formation, existence, and interaction of the Cypriot city-kingdoms. The complicated political and ethno-cultural situation in the region is taken into account as well. It seems probable that creating a kind of universal aristocratic tomb-type, Salaminian elite and builders involved in the process took as a starting point the elements of Mycenaean culture adopted throughout the long history of contacts with the Aegean. The local traditions, contacts with Asia Minor and Levant also played their role. Nevertheless, the rite itself, which has if not the origin then parallels in the Aegean world, seems to be crucial. It determines the parameters, forms and principles of planning decisions.

Romanisation of the Central Balkans began with the Roman conquest in the 1stcentury, upon which tribal communities were organized into administrative units. The fact that the boundaries of pre-Roman tribal territories didn't correspond in total with the areas of the newly formed Roman provinces, led to frequent influences from neighbouring provinces and the blending of Roman art with local traits in the artistic sphere. Although in the 1stcentury different types of sculpture (cult, monumental and honorary) were present, throughout the whole period of the Roman reign cult sculptures and statues were the most numerous. Tracing the development of the art in the territory of Central Balkans' Roman provinces, it is clear that the northern parts were more under the Roman influence as the consequence of indigenous population more readily adapting to the process of Romanisation, while the southern parts of the Central Balkans area were more influenced by the Greek culture with which they were in contact from as early as the middle of the 7thcentury B.C. Sculptures, statues and reliefs were modelled upon Roman art canons, copying classical Greek and Hellenistic art, in bigger centres like Ratiaria, Singidunum, Viminacium, Naissus, Scupi etc. and localities along the Danube limes. At the same time, in the interior of the Central Balkans' provinces, works of art were manufactured upon Roman canons but with local traits. These were mainly recognized in the simplicity, frontality and linearity of the art works. This is particularly visible in the western and south-western parts of the aforementioned territory, as in some of the localities in eastern parts of the area. During the 2ndand the 3rdcenturies, beside skilful artisans from Greece, Asia Minor and the Mediterranean, who came and worked in bigger centres, local workshops also produced different kinds of artworks, copying Roman types in a more or less successful way. During the 3rdcentury particularly, different cultural and artistic influences met and blended, often transcending the administrative borders of the provinces, thus the forthcoming iconographic syncretism was present in the 4thcentury as well. From the end of the 3rd and during the 4thcentury, rich aristocrats, local elite and emperors ordered high quality works for decorating their estates and villas, following aesthetic criteria established in other eastern and western provinces. In the art works from that period, beside certain schematism and linearity in the modelling, a blending of similar iconographic details is emphasized as the presence of local artistic traits. Therefore, the continuance of manufacturing of the sculpture by copying classical Greek works of art and of the locally produced works of art with traits of indigenous material cultures is present until the end of the Roman reign.

In the lower right corner of Michelangelo’s drawing from the British Museum, he wrote a brief instruction for his faithful but not outstanding pupil Antonio Mini: “Draw Antonio, draw Antonio. Draw and do not waste time” (ca. 1524). Judging by the unsuccessful attempt of Mini to copy Michelangelo’s sketch presented on the same sheet, he lacked practice and understanding of basics of the art of drawing. However, neither eight years spent in the house of Michelangelo, nor the careful guidance of his teacher made Antonio an artist. The distinction between the concepts of the general style of the workshop and professional personal authorship, key to the beginning of the 16th century, had a clear influence on the creative method of Michelangelo. Possessing a closed and conflicting character, considering sculpture his main vocation, he preferred individual work with drawings to the collective work of a workshop. His approach to organizing thework on painting did not presuppose the presence of pupils as well. In addition, Buonarroti sincerely despised the “mechanical’’ techniques that accompany the teaching of drawing, urged his colleagues to trust only their own eyes and implied innate talent. This position excluded for Michelangelo’s wards the opportunity to facilitate the mastering of drawing techniques. In this article, we will clarify what the goal of Michelangelo was when he devoted a lot of time to the education of young men and discuss his pedagogical methods. The study of drawings and student copies will shed light on the intimate exchange between the master and his pupils.

The history of studying secular architecture of the Old Rus’ in premongol period (10th–13th centuries)is considered in the article. It is argued that the problem of the correspondence between the written, pictorial, and archaeological sources was the central one, while the researchers were focused on the question of interpretation and correlation of the terms used in the written sources, such as seni, terem, gridnitsa, vezha, first investigated by Ivan Zabelin in the late 19th century. The analysis of the growing corpus of the archaeological remains of the masonry civil buildings (more than 20 at the moment) was held within the framework of the mentioned discussion, which caused the wide spread disputable hypotheses. On the contrary, the typology of the civil architecture, topographical features of the sites, and their links with the Byzantine and Western European analogs had been studied superficially. The problems of research of the civil architecture in 14th–15th-century Novgorod are considered to be close to the ones mentioned above, and demanding the comprehensive research.

While some research has been carried out on the history of formation of Chinese and Japanese art collections in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, only a few studies explored the formation of Asian art collections of regional museums. While the history of collecting indicates that it was a complex and multilayered process, there are a considerable number of Asian objects that are dated from the pre-revolutionary period. Among a number of different sources one is outstanding —a Tea Road from China to Russia. This study hypothesizes that a significant share of Asian objects that are preserved in collections of Russian museums which are located in towns and cities linked geographically and/or economically to the Tea Road could have originated from the collections of the tea traders and because of this these collections could have similarities in structure and quality of the objects. Basing on a survey conducted in cooperation with the specialists in local museums of Yekaterinburg, Irbit, Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, and Kyakhta, this research aims to distinguish art objects that went back to the pre-revolutionary collections of the tea traders and to detect their provenance and to identify collectors.

The article offers an analysis of specific building practices and church planning of Early Franciscans. It focuses on the issues of a significant liturgical transformation within the Roman Church and the Order itself, which began in the second half of the 13th century. The author analyzes the phenomenon of chancel barriers of Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Franciscan churches in Italy. Along with providing a brief overview on possible reconstruction of decoration and architectural forms of the “tramezzi”, this paper draws attention to its significance within the spatial hierarchy and liturgical cursus of the Friars. The article also considers some pivotal turns and perspectives of modern historiography, which are generally devoted to the principles of interior divisions and limitations in the Christian sacred architecture as a whole.