Olga Kovtun, Associate Professor at the Department of Theology, Culture, and Arts of South Ural State University and Doctor of Sciences (Philosophy), has published a study in the SUSU Bulletin (Social Sciences and the Humanities series) on a unique monument of church art — a shroud made for the Church of the Ascension in the city of Kasli in the 19th century.
Gold embroidery has been a traditional craft of women’s monastic communities since the time of Vladimir Monomakh. This field continues to attract both historians and practitioners today; there is even a journal, Ubrus, dedicated to reconstructing techniques and discussing the stylistic features of church embroidery in detail.
The Ascension Church in Kasli has an unusual history. It was built in 1852 in the Russian-Byzantine style based on the design of Ernst Hristian Georg Sartorius, the chief architect of factories in Yekaterinburg. At the beginning of the 20th century, panoramic views of the church, as an example of the Ural landscape, were captured by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, a pioneer of colour photography in Russia.
Over time, in Kasli (a town centred around an ironworks) a women’s monastic community began to form. By the end of the 19th century, it was affiliated with one of the largest convents in the Ural region, the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery in Yekaterinburg. In 1903, it gained independent status and became the Kazan-Bogoroditsky Convent in Kasli.
By the late 19th century, the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery was renowned for its gold embroidery workshops. According to the monastery chronicle, already “back in 1842, novice Martha and nun Magdalena studied the art of gold embroidery in Moscow and Arzamas”. This helps trace the influence of different schools on ecclesiastical needlework in Yekaterinburg.
Typically, the work involved producing liturgical and church items. The works of the sisters of the Novo-Tikhvin Convent of the Gorno-Ural region were valued throughout our country and received an honorary diploma at the First All-Russian Exhibition of Monastic Works and Church Utensils in St. Petersburg in 1904.
It should be noted that the shroud is a symbolic depiction of the body of Christ taken down from the cross at Golgotha. In Orthodox churches, it is usually kept in the altar and brought out for veneration on Good Friday. On the evening of the same Friday (or, according to the church calendar, on the morning of Holy Saturday), the shroud is “buried” — carried in a procession around the church, symbolizing the procession of Joseph of Arimathea. By Easter, or the Resurrection of Christ, it is returned to the altar.
The Kasli Shroud is notable for its monumental size. There is a depiction of the Deposition of Jesus Christ from the Cross at its centre. Words from the Good Friday The Noble Joseph… chant are embroidered in gold threads on cherry-coloured velvet. In the corners of the border there are images of cherubim with applied faces and wings embroidered over a pattern, framed by a vegetal ornament. This feature is characteristic of both secular peasant embroidery and the gold embroidery traditions of Torzhok.
“A distinctive feature of this shroud are the applied halos of the saints, made using cast copper with gilding and decorated with an ornament featuring characteristic serrations that harmonize with the silver and gold threads of the brocade garments of the saints,” emphasizes Olga Kovtun, the author of the study.
The production of such cast metal halos was originally a craft of local Old Believers but gradually spread throughout the Ural region.
The main mystery — whether the Kasli Shroud was made directly in Yekaterinburg or in other workshops — remains unsolved.
“The artistic craftsmanship, as well as the nature of the ornamental pattern executed in a “couched” stitch over a design (traditional for the Torzhok craft) suggests that the shroud was made in the gold embroidery workshop of the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery at the end of the 19th century,” Olga Kovtun notes in her article. However, she refrains from making a final conclusion for several reasons, pointing to the need for further research.
In any case, the Kasli Shroud is an example of Russian church art of the late 19th century, combining many features of Ural crafts: the gold embroidery techniques of the Novo-Tikhvin convent, influenced by the artisans of Torzhok, and the cast applied halos.
Meanwhile, the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery continues to attract pilgrims today as a centre of spiritual life in the Ural region.
You can find the full article by Olga Kovtun on the SUSU Bulletin website