Masterpieces of Orthodox Christian art at St. Alexander Nevsky Crypt

In 2012 Bulgaria’s largest church, St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, celebrates the centenary of its completion. Its designs have been created by a group of renowned architects, sculptors, painters and stonemasons.
In 1964 a decision was made to convert its Crypt into a museum of Orthodox Christian art from the Bulgarian lands. This was a rather unconventional idea back at that time given that in the first decades of communism Orthodox Christianity was perceived as hostile to the official ideology, hence the interpretation of Christian art as religious propaganda. In the early 1960s however, a major exhibition was organized in Paris on the initiative of the National Art Gallery in Sofia. The event was held under the auspices of the then French Minister of Culture, prominent writer André Malraux. The exhibition was spectacularly successful and a few French intellectuals including Malraux, wrote positive reviews about it. The display was then invited for show elsewhere.
More about the crypt’s history as a space showvasing Christian art - from Dr Georgi Gerov, curator at the Medieval and National Revival Orthodox Christian Art Department of the National Museum of Fine Art, the former National Art Gallery.
“It seems that in connection with the exhibition in Paris, the official Bulgarian authorities became aware of the great artistic merits of Orthodox Christian art that Bulgaria owned, and so they thought it would be good to arrange permanent expositions. This is how a decision was made to transform the display originally called Masterpieces from Bulgaria’s Museums into a permanent exhibition in Sofia. The next step was to select the Crypt of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral as its venue. Until then it had been empty. It had been originally created to serve as a pantheon to keep the remains of great Bulgarians but this never happened. So it came to house this permanent exposition that initially presented the Bulgarian cultural heritage from Antiquity and from the Middle Ages.”
For this reason the Crypt originally kept Thracians treasures, replicas of the frescoes of the celebrated Kazanluk Tomb and other artifacts from the Classical Antiquity. With time however it gradually specialized in the period of Medieval and National Revival Orthodox Christian art. Today it features ancient icons, frescos, church plate, liturgical books and pieces of woodwork. One of the collection’s most ancient works is an icon currently on display following a long period of restoration. Researchers have found on it as many as three painting layers and this has helped its dating. On one side the icon depicts Jesus Christ and on the other, His Crucifix.

„The exposition has an even earlier icon from the time of the First Bulgarian Kingdom (681-1018). It is one of the celebrated Preslav ceramic icons”, Georgi Gerov explains. “However when discussing traditional icons created on a wooden base, this is indeed the earliest one in our collection. It is dated in the second half of 11 c. and the early 12 c. and originated in the Black Sea town of Nessebar. It was strongly venerated because in the 14 c. it underwent major restoration. The old and rather rotten wood of the icon was placed over a new wooden base and the Crucifix was painted on the back side. Later the icon was painted two times more – in the 16 c. and in 18 c. During the most recent restoration all those layers were separated from each other and placed on a new base, so we now have several works of art instead of just one.”
A tour of the Crypt is a way to make a worthy itinerary of icon-painting trends in the Bulgarian lands until as late as 19 c., the time of the foremost icon-painting schools in Tryavna and Samokov that are represented with works of some of their leading talents. The Samokov School is part of the exposition with works of founder Hristo Dimitrov and his famous sons Zahari and Dimitar Zograf. Other works that impress viewers are a few amazing pieces of traditional wood-carving.
“We have an iconostasis that originates from the Virgin Mary Shroud Nunnery at Rila Monastery”, Dr Gerov explains. “We also have a bishop’s throne and a very beautiful gate from the early 19 c., the work from artists from the Bansko School. The works of wood-carving are fewer but this is quite normal as their formats tend to be larger – iconostases, thrones etc., things that we did not have enough space to mount. However, we stake on diversity and we have on display a few works of goldsmithery. We also have a few very fine pieces of embroidery. To recap, the exposition offers samples from all genres of Orthodox Christian art in the Bulgarian lands starting from the Middle Ages all the way to the National Revival that ended in late 19 c.”
The masterpieces from the Crypt of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral have been invited for displays at Biblioteca Ambrosiana, a historic library in Milan, Italy, at the Palace of Vincennes, Paris, and at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessalonica, Greece. “Unfortunately, for purely financial reasons, we cannot lead a more active policy of buying out works that appear on the market of art. Well, luckily, there are patriotic Bulgarians who buy works and donate them to the Crypt because they feel this is indeed invaluable national heritage”, concludes Georgi Gerov. The latest acquisition of the museum is the marvelous icon Virgin Mary Source of Life painted by Dimitar Zograf.

Translated by Daniela Konstantinova

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Masterpieces of Orthodox Christian art at St. Alexander Nevsky Crypt

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