Brunov. Travel to Byzantium Automatic translate

State Museum of Architecture A.V. Shchuseva presents an exhibition devoted to the study of monuments of Byzantine art by the famous architectural historian Nikolai Brunov (1898-1971).

In 1924, at the age of 26, a recent graduate of Moscow State University, a young scientist Nikolai Ivanovich Brunov made a trip to Istanbul on the instructions of the Academy of Architecture. On this trip he was accompanied by a friend and classmate Mikhail Vladimirovich Alpatov. The purpose of their trip was to search for collections of the Russian Archaeological Institute in Constantinople, whose activities were interrupted by the First World War, as well as the study of monuments of Byzantine art. Together they studied Sofia of Constantinople, the Church of St. Irene, the Church of St. Bacchus, the Pantocrator Monastery, the temples of the Lipsa Monastery and previously unknown buildings - monuments that determined modern ideas about the great architectural tradition of the Eastern Roman Empire. The study of the Byzantine Constantinople, trips to ancient Nicaea, Trebizond and the Greek Mystra made it possible to collect not only vivid impressions, but also rich photographic material. Photos give us the opportunity to see the masterpieces of Byzantine architecture through the eyes of two Russian art historians who lived about a hundred years ago, and put Nikolai Brunov on a par with the famous photographers of Constantinople - Istanbul.

An exhibition at the Museum of Architecture will show N.I.’s never-before-exhibited photographs. Brunov 1924, depicting Sophia of Constantinople, the ancient buildings of Mystra, Trebizond and other masterpieces of Byzantine architecture. These photographs recorded in detail the state of architectural monuments for that period. In addition, the exposition will be supplemented with photographs of the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries with views of Byzantine architectural monuments. In total, about a hundred photographs will be shown.

The exhibition will also feature books and articles by N.I. Brunov, created in the wake of a trip to Constantinople, several letters D.V. Alpatov, written from Istanbul in 1924 (stored in the manuscript department of the Pushkin Museum named after A.S. Pushkin), and a unique photo from a private collection - witness of the trip N.I. Brunova and D.V. Alpatova in Trebizond.

Curators of the exhibition: Julia Ratomskaya, Svetlana Troshina.