Exhibitions
State Complex “ The National Congress Palace” - official residence of the President of the Russian Federation (2025); Museum of the Repin Academy of Arts
About the work
The painting depicts a built-in stone cross, a characteristic feature of Novgorod stone architecture. Such crosses were embedded directly into the masonry of churches, becoming an integral part of their appearance and spiritual meaning. To this day, many monuments with this distinctive element have been preserved in Veliky Novgorod and its surroundings. This particular image is associated with the Church of St. Andrew Stratelates, located within the Novgorod Kremlin.
The whitewashed wall and the stone cross form a symbol at once austere and poetic. The cross, immured in stone, recalls a seed hidden in the earth for future growth, or a heart concealed within the chest, invisibly sustaining life. It is like an ancient root, anchoring the building to the ground and binding the flow of human history to eternity. This detail transforms architecture into a metaphor of resilience and memory, uniting the spiritual with the material.
The work is part of a series created as preparatory studies for the diploma painting "Alarm Bell" where the Church of St. Andrew Stratelates occupies the far right position.