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Onion dome

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Architecture

   Detail of onion domes on Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow
   Enlarge
   Detail of onion domes on Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow

   An onion dome (Russian: луковичная глава, lúkovichnaya glava) is a type
   of architectural dome usually associated with Russian Orthodox
   churches. Such a dome is larger in diameter than the drum it is set
   upon and its height usually exceeds its width. These bulbous structures
   taper smoothly to a point, and strongly resemble the onion, after which
   they are named.

   Other important types of Orthodox cupolas are antique helmet domes (for
   example, those of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod and Assumption
   Cathedral in Vladimir), Ukrainian pear domes ( Saint Sophia Cathedral
   in Kiev), and Baroque bud domes ( St. Andrew's Church in Kiev).

History

   Art historians disagree when and why onion domes became a typical
   feature of Russian architecture. Byzantine churches and architecture of
   Kievan Rus were characterized by broader, flatter domes without a
   special framework erected above the drum. In contrast to this ancient
   form, each drum of a Russian church is surmounted by a special
   structure of metal or timber, which is lined with sheet iron or tiles.

   By the end of the nineteenth century, most Russian churches from before
   the Petrine period had bulbous domes. The largest onion domes were
   erected in the seventeenth century in the area around Yaroslavl,
   incidentally famous for its large onions. Quite a few had more
   complicated bud-shaped domes, whose form derived from Baroque models of
   the late seventeenth century. Pear-shaped domes are usually associated
   with Ukrainian Baroque, while cone-shaped domes are typical for
   Orthodox churches of Transcaucasia.

Traditional view

   Onion domes of the Resurrection Church, Kostroma (1652)
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   Onion domes of the Resurrection Church, Kostroma (1652)

   The earliest academic researchers of Russian architecture pointed out
   that Russian icons painted before the Mongol invasion of Rus do not
   feature churches with onion domes. Furthermore, two highly venerated
   pre-Mongol churches that have never been rebuilt—the Assumption
   Cathedral and the Cathedral of St. Demetrius in Vladimir—uniquely
   display golden helmet domes. Restoration works on several other ancient
   churches revealed some fragments of former helmet-like domes below
   newer onion cupolas.

   Based on these findings, it was concluded that ancient Russian churches
   were helmet-shaped while onion domes had been introduced considerably
   later. It was posited that onion domes first appeared during the reign
   of Ivan the Terrible. Indeed, the bulbous, wildly coloured domes of
   Saint Basil's Cathedral have not been altered since the reign of Ivan's
   son Fyodor I, clearly indicating that onion domes did exist in
   sixteenth-century Russia.

   Some scholars even postulated that onion domes were borrowed by
   Russians from Muslim countries, probably from the Khanate of Kazan,
   whose conquest Ivan the Terrible commemorated by erecting St. Basil's
   Cathedral. Others argued that onion domes first appeared in wooden
   architecture of the Russian North, above tent-like churches. According
   to this theory, onion domes were strictly utilitarian, as they
   prevented snow from piling on the roof.

   This theory became firmly entrenched in Soviet architectural theory.
   Based on the notion that onion domes did not exist in Russia before the
   mid-sixteenth century, restoration works on churches built before the
   seventeenth century have routinely involved replacement of onion domes
   with "more authentic" helmet-shaped domes. One example of such
   restoration is the Dormition Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin.

Alternative theories

   Wooden churches in Kizhi and Vytegra have as many as twenty-five onion
   domes
   Enlarge
   Wooden churches in Kizhi and Vytegra have as many as twenty-five onion
   domes

   In 1946, the historian Boris Rybakov, while analysing miniatures of
   ancient Russian chronicles, pointed out that most of them, from the
   thirteenth century onward, display churches with onion domes rather
   than helmet domes. Nikolay Voronin, the foremost authority on
   pre-Mongol Russian architecture, seconded his opinion that onion domes
   existed in Russia as early as the thirteenth century, although they
   presumably could not be widespread. These findings demonstrated that
   Russian onion domes could not be imported from the Orient, where onion
   domes did not replace spherical domes until the fifteenth century.

   Sergey Zagraevsky, a modern art historian, surveyed hundreds of Russian
   icons and miniatures, from the eleventh century onward. He concluded
   that most icons painted after the Mongol invasion of Rus display only
   onion domes. He found only one icon from the late fifteenth century
   displaying a dome resembling the helmet instead of an onion. His
   findings led him to dismiss fragments of helmet domes discovered by
   restorators beneath modern onion domes as post-Petrine stylisations
   intended to reproduce the familiar forms of Byzantine cupolas.
   Zagraevsky also indicated that the oldest depictions of the two
   Vladimir cathedrals represent them as having onion domes, prior to
   their replacement by classicizing helmet domes.

   Zagraevsky explains the ubiquitous appearance of onion domes in the
   late thirteenth century by the general emphasis on verticality
   characteristic of Russian architecture from the late twelfth to early
   fifteenth centuries. At that period, porches, pilasters, vaults and
   drums were arranged to create a vertical thrust, to make the church
   seem taller than it was. It seems logical that elongated, or onion,
   domes were part of the same proto-Gothic trend aimed at achieving
   pyramidal, vertical emphasis.

Symbolism

   Ivan the Great Bell Tower in the Moscow Kremlin (sixteenth century)
   Enlarge
   Ivan the Great Bell Tower in the Moscow Kremlin (sixteenth century)

   Prior to the eighteenth century, the Russian Orthodox Church did not
   assign any particular symbolism to the exterior shape of a church.
   Nevertheless, onion domes are popularly believed to symbolise burning
   candles. In 1917, noted religious philosopher Prince Yevgeny Trubetskoy
   argued that the onion shape of Russian church domes may not be
   explained rationally. According to Trubetskoy, drums crowned by
   tapering domes were deliberately scored to resemble candles, thus
   manifesting a certain aesthetic and religious attitude. Another
   explanation has it that the onion dome was originally regarded as a
   form reminiscent of the edicula (cubiculum) in the Church of the Holy
   Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

   Onion domes often appear in groups of three, representing the Holy
   Trinity, or five, representing Jesus Christ and the Four Evangelists.
   Domes standing alone represent Jesus. Vasily Tatischev, the first to
   record such interpretation, disapproved of it emphatically. He believed
   that the five-domed design of churches was propagated by Patriarch
   Nikon, who liked to compare the central and highest dome with himself
   and four lateral domes with four other patriarchs of the Orthodox
   world. There is no other evidence that Nikon ever held such a view.

   The domes are often brightly painted: their colours may informally
   symbolise different aspects of religion. Green, blue, and gold domes
   are sometimes held to represent the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and
   Jesus, respectively. Black ball-shaped domes were once popular in the
   snowy north of Russia.
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