benevolence and piety; Muscovite rulers founded and patronized monasteries as
they traversed their realms (Mozhaisk, 1563; Pereslavl’-Zalesskii, 1564).
Just like other imperial counterparts, Muscovite rulers constructed a“symbolic
center”in the Kremlin. Ivan III (ruled 1462–1505) and Vasilii III (ruled 1505–33)
transformed this fortress high above the Moscow River from an outpost of wooden
walls and buildings to an exquisite stone ensemble, glittering with gold leaf and
onion domes, and magnificent in the magnitude and variety of its edifices. Dem-
onstrating Moscow’s conquests, new cathedrals incorporated decorative elements
from Novgorod and Pskov architecture and Novgorodian-style icons and frescos.
Italian engineers proclaimed Moscow’s cosmopolitan status by inserting Renais-
sance details across the Kremlin—Milanese swallow-tail merlons on the fortress
wall, Venetian scallop shells in the Archangel Michael Cathedral, protruding brick
facets from northern Italy on the“Faceted Chamber,”a tower clock (Figure 6.4).
Aristoteli Fioravanti from Bologna and Florence subtly designed the centerpiece
Cathedral of the Dormition (Uspenskii sobor, 1479) according to Renaissance
“golden section”proportions, even while heeding his patrons’ instructions to
copy the twelfth-century Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir. Such replication not
only embodied historical continuity with the Grand Princes of Kyiv and Vladimir,
but also provided Muscovy with an imperial architectural style. Anchoring
Figure 6.4 Reconstructed in the latefifteenth and early sixteenth century, Moscow’s
Kremlin ensemble with several grand cathedrals broadcasts the realm’s identity as both
powerful and Orthodox Christian. Motifs such as Milanese swallow-tail merlons evidence
the hand of the ensemble’s Italian architects, while decorative and structural details
from Novgorod and Pskov architecture testify to Moscow’s regional conquests. Photo:
Jack Kollmann.
142 The Russian Empire 1450– 1801