Alypius (Konstantinov)

• Name — Hierodeacon Alipiy • Birth Name — Alexei Ivanovich Konstantinov • Born — 21 March 1851 • Birthplace — Lipnikovo village, Rybinsk Uyezd, Yaroslavl Governorate, Russian Empire • Died — 30 August 1901 • Occupation — Iconographer, religious painter • Known for — Iconography, religious painting • Style — Academicism Alypius (secular name Alexei Ivanovich Konstantinov, Yaroslavl Governorate, Russian Empire –, Valaam, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire) – a Russian icon painter, hieromonk of Valaam Monastery, who became known as the creator of the Valaam Icon of the Mother of God, venerated in the Russian Orthodox Church and the Finnish Orthodox Church as a miracle-working icon. Alypius was a member of the commission for the construction of the Transfiguration Cathedral of Valaam Monastery and its bell tower, led the monastery's icon-painting workshop and the icon-painting section of the art school at the monastery. The vivid and complex personality of the artist attracted the attention of his contemporaries. He was written about by the traveller and journalist Vasily Nemirovich-Danchenko; the writer and publicist, representative of the conservative–Christian current of social thought Ivan Shmelev, and the poet, playwright and translator Konstantin Sluchevsky. A significant number of documents relating to his life and work are preserved in the archive of New Valaam Monastery. Interest in the life and work of Alypius at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century arose following the publication of the Tale of the Valaam Icon of the Mother of God found in the archive of New Valaam Monastery. Art historian Svetlana Bolshakova held that the work of Hieromonk Alypius marked a turning point in the development of the artistic style of the Valaam icon-painting workshop. She associated with his name the transition of Valaam Monastery – both in the creation of icons and in monumental murals – to the principles of the academic school of painting.

• Illustration — Alypius's grave at the Brotherly Cemetery of Valaam Monastery • Illustration — Alypius's gravestone Alexei Konstantinov was born on into the family of petty bourgeois Konstantin Ivanov and Matrona Vasilyeva in the village of Lipnikovo in Rybinsk Uyezd of Yaroslavl Governorate. Alexei Konstantinov studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, was awarded a small silver medal, but was unable to complete his studies due to health problems. Impressionable and inclined towards solitude, he dreamed in his youth of leaving the world and entering a monastery. On 3 September 1875, he was admitted to Valaam Monastery as someone "residing for spiritual contemplation and joining monastic life". On 23 May 1879, he became a novice; on 12 May 1884 he took monastic vows with the name Alypius in honour of the Venerable Alypius of the Caves, the first known Russian icon painter by name; on 28 June 1892 he was ordained as a hierodeacon, and in 1893 as a hieromonk. In 1896, Hieromonk Alypius was awarded a silver medal to be worn on the chest on the Alexander ribbon; and also in 1896 he was awarded the nabedrennik. Having become a well-known icon painter, Alypius retained his humility and modesty, and often performed "obedience at the refectory". He had a particular veneration of the Mother of God. He painted the cathedral icon of the Valaam Mother of God while the brethren read an akathist in her honour. He died on on the day of commemoration of Alypius of the Kiev Caves. A brief entry in the metrical book reads: "...died from burns, buried on 18 August. The funeral was served by Abbot Gabriel in concelebration". Abbot Gabriel himself makes no mention of this fact in his diary. The monastery's meteorological records for 1901 note two natural disasters that Bolshakova, in her dissertation, associates with this event: • A month before the death of Hieromonk Alypius, Sosnovets Island burned down. • Three days before 17 August, during the early liturgy, lightning broke through a window in the dome of the Transfiguration Cathedral and split a wooden beam on the bell tower to which a bell was attached. However, Bolshakova was unable to find any information about casualties in these events in the official documents of the monastery. The exact burial place in the Brotherly Cemetery of Valaam Monastery has not been established, but a granite gravestone survives, inscribed: Here rest the remains of the Hieromonk Alypius, died 17 August 1901, aged 50. A skilled icon painter and a diligent toiler. Holy fathers and brethren, forget me not when ye pray!

• Illustration — G. V. Gavrilenko (a staff member of the Valaam Monastery Museum) talking about the Hieromonk Alypius's personality The writer Vasily Nemirovich-Danchenko met Alypius in the Valaam workshop during his journeys through the Russian Empire, and described him as a small, frail man whose golden hair "stood like a cap on his head and could not be combed through with any comb", with sad, kind eyes and a pale, seemingly tormented face. He also noted the authority that the quite young monk enjoyed among the monastery's brethren. One of the monks commented in his presence about the painter: "the Lord granted him a talent for the benefit of the brethren – such a talent as even worldly, loud-acclaimed artists might vainly envy!" When the writer wanted to meet Konstantinov personally and view his works, he "got embarrassed, blushed, and grew flustered". The artist confessed to the writer that after conceiving a painting, he never began its execution immediately, waiting instead for inspiration from God. Nemirovich-Danchenko was struck by the way the monastery encouraged the icon painter's work: Konstantinov was supplied with French and English "illustrations" on subjects on which he had already finished working. In his book Muzhitskaya obitel ("A Peasant Monastery"), the publicist wrote: One feels indignant and annoyed on his behalf. A living soul, struggling. Even worse – not struggling, but having made peace, considering this place the finest on all the earth, and his cassock and skufia the highest happiness... Clearly, talent will little by little wither. Soon these sad eyes will dim, and his lively, expressive face, on which impressions constantly shift, will take on the dry monastic crease – then too the pure lines of drawing will coarsen, the delicate colours will fade, life will die in the figures, and from an artist who promised much there will emerge a plain, run-of-the-mill icon painter... The writer noted the "feminine softness" of Alypius's icon-painting style, calling him the Valaam Raphael. Despite his outward fragility and the distinctive character of his artistic style, Alexei Konstantinov was persistent and resolute: according to Nemirovich-Danchenko, one of the reasons for Alypius's departure to the monastery was a conflict with his parents, who did not want to see their son become an icon painter and beat him. Bolshakova noted that Alypius executed those church murals that have a complex symbolic and dogmatic content at their foundation. Alypius was also a member of the commission for the construction of a stone cathedral church with a bell tower. Among his papers there survives a draft of an unknown akathist to the Mother of God which, in the opinion of Archpriest Gennady Belovolov – biographer of Alexei Konstantinov – was composed by Alypius painter himself. Rejoice, O Intercessor who putteth us not to shame! Rejoice, O most gracious Mother of God! Rejoice, O Purification of the world! Rejoice, O Joy of the sorrowful and Harbour of the storm-tossed! Rejoice, O thou who helpest all who are in need! Do thou therefore preserve me also, O Virgin, O Most Pure Lady of all the sorrowful!

In his adolescence, Konstantinov showed aptitude for the visual arts, which his parents did not understand. The young man's interest in painting got the monastery's leadership attention (V. R. Ryvkin claimed that Alexei Konstantinov was already an icon painter before arriving at Valaam Monastery) and he was assigned to the icon-painting workshop.

• Illustration — Ionathan (Dmitriev), Abbot of Valaam Monastery, until 1891 • Illustration — Sergei Zaryanko. Portrait of engraver and rector of the Imperial Academy of Arts Fyodor Ivanovich Iordan, 1855 The monastery treasurer Ionathan, who was acting as abbot, sent Konstantinov to study at the Imperial Academy of Arts. With the assistance of academy rector Fyodor Iordan (the writer, journalist and local historian Anatoly Bakhtiaryov saw a portrait of Fyodor Iordan with a dedicatory inscription in Alypius's workshop at Valaam) he was enrolled. His name does not appear in the documents of the Imperial Academy of Arts, and his biographer Gennady Belovolov suggests that Konstantinov was an external student. He presumably studied from 1879 to 1882; these dates are reconstructed by Bolshakova in her dissertation from the facts that in 1878 Konstantinov was still at Valaam and in that same year painted the Valaam Icon of the Mother of God there, and in 1882 he received a silver medal from the academy – though not in person, as was customary: Konstantinov was again at Valaam, and the medal was sent to him there by the academy. He received the small honorary silver medal for a work on a subject from sacred history shown at an academic exhibition in 1882. Art historian Irina Buseva-Davydova considered the award to be evidence of his considerable talent. Bakhtiaryov, in his essay Valaam Monastery, claims that this award was given to Konstantinov for a "drawing" of the Nativity of Christ, which he personally saw at Valaam. Konstantinov was unable to complete the Academy of Arts owing to his state of health. According to another version, the cause was a lack of funds.

While engaged in icon painting, Alypius did not abandon secular painting and poetry. He often went into the forest to make en plein air sketches ("to paint God's nature in silence"). Abbot Ionathan saw a danger to a monk in this. When he called Alypius a lazybones, the artist left the monastery for two years. Bolshakova reconstructed the dating of this event – 1889–1890 – on the basis of Abbot Ionathan's correspondence. Gennady Belovolov found documents in the archive of New Valaam Monastery that allowed the event to be dated precisely. In August 1889 Konstantinov requested leave for two months to go to Rybinsk "to visit relatives", but did not return by the appointed time. He submitted a petition to the church authorities for a transfer to one of the monasteries of Yaroslavl Governorate. The matter reached the Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, who personally met the icon painter at Trinity-Sergius Hermitage near Saint Petersburg in the summer of 1890. Pobedonostsev sympathised with Konstantinov's situation and recommended that his request be granted. During this time Konstantinov suffered from insomnia and was tormented by pangs of conscience. He was compelled to return to the monastery and asked the abbot's forgiveness. The obituary of Alypius published in the journal Istorichesky Vestnik (Historical Herald) mentions that, already a monk, Alypius received his first award for a composition at one of the academic exhibitions. (The obituary does not specify the time of this award.) Alypius created fresco murals in the churches and sketes of Valaam and painted a large number of icons. His collaborators in working on icons were Abbot Gabriel and Hieromonk Luka. Doctor of Philology Leonid Reznikov held that it was precisely Gabriel who was the inspiration behind the murals of the Valaam churches and chapels – "an example of fierce capacity for work" – but that owing to his lack of professional artistic education he could not play the role of supervisor of such works. In the opinion of some art historians, the work of the three icon painters gave rise to a distinctive Valaam icon-painting style (philosopher Viktor Kutkovoy does not consider it possible to distinguish such a style and insists only on differences in "creative manners" of individual workshops within the icon painting of that time). One of Alypius's first works was the decoration of the All Saints skete church. Konstantin Sluchevsky, who visited Valaam in 1887, found him at work on the frescoes of this church. He wrote: The church is only being finished, and its interior is occupied by scaffolding; the walls and dome are being painted by a monk, a former pupil of the figure class of the Academy of Arts... he is particularly successful at the depiction of all the celestial incorporeal powers in the dome. Alypius regarded the painting of the Transfiguration Cathedral in 1891–1896 as the main work of his life. He painted icons for the five-tiered iconostasis of the upper church of the Transfiguration Cathedral. (Bolshakova calls it four-tiered and considers Alypius the head of a group of artists who executed the icons for it.) In the cathedral, his brush produced the wall paintings The Transfiguration of the Lord (this fresco was particularly noted by a traveller who visited the church in 1908, calling it "wonderful"), The Ascension of Christ, The Meeting of the Lord, The Old Testament Trinity, The Resurrection of Christ and several others, created in the upper church of the Transfiguration Cathedral and executed in 1893–1896. The murals of the lower church of the hierarchs Sergius of Valaam and Herman of Valaam, on which Alypius worked in 1891 and 1892, have not survived. Contemporaries attributed to Alypius the icons of the Mother of God of the Three Hands and of Saint Nicholas, painted for the monastery refectory.

• Illustration — Hieromonk Alypius at work Viktor Kutkovoy places Alypius's work within the academic style in icon painting, characterised by "lifelikeness" – he sought to express a mystical principle, but expressed his thoughts in the language of secular painting, "trying to explain heavenly mysteries through earthly realities". He considers the merit of Hieromonk Alypius to be his turn to the iconographic experience of painters of the past, in order to "overcome the transient through tradition". Alypius's inner world and tranquillity were reflected in his icons. His work was described at Valaam as "spiritual vision of heavenly-eternal beauty". Alypius pondered his conception at length, began work on an icon when he felt the action of divine grace, painted it with prayer, and worked over a prolonged period. He was written about by the Russian writer, traveller and journalist Vasily Nemirovich-Danchenko; the writer and publicist, representative of the conservative–Christian current of social thought Ivan Shmelev (who preserved the account of the Valaam monks about Alypius's withdrawal from secular painting); the theologist and future archbishop Hieromonk Damian; and the Russian poet, writer, playwright and translator Konstantin Sluchevsky. For some his work was the benchmark of mastery and deep comprehension of the icon's meaning – as for Hieromonk Damian – while for others it became a symbol of talent extinguished in the monastery, as for V. Nemirovich-Danchenko. Ivan Shmelev expressed the second view even more polemically in his early essay "On the Rocks of Valaam" ("Beyond the Edge of the World"): "Valaam, with the mighty hand of discipline that freezes thought, compressed the talent... crushed the soul of Brother Alexei, now Father Alypius, crushed the artist". However, in his later work Stary Valaam ("Old Valaam") he assessed the icon painter's life differently: "Alypius seeks in the faces the Lord's Light... he has taken on a lofty feat of asceticism. This is no enslavement but inspiration. He paints the imperishable, heavenly-eternal beauty". Hieromonk Damian assessed the work and activity of the icon painter as follows: In the fullest measure this may be said of Father Alypius, the Valaam icon painter who died in September and who managed the art workshop at Valaam Monastery for about a quarter of a century. In the new Valaam Cathedral and its sketes there are many works of the deceased that make a deep impression. The influence of the icon painter is acknowledged as enormous, since Valaam is the teacher of icon painting for all of the Russian North. Alypius frequently used gilded backgrounds with ornamental relief in his icons (icons for the iconostasis of the Dormition Church; the "Valaam Icon of the Mother of God" and the icon of the Lord Almighty located in the iconostasis of the Smolensk Skete; icons for the iconostases of the upper and lower churches of the Transfiguration Cathedral). Bolshakova suggested that he adopted this technique from the icon painter V. M. Peshekhonov, who was actively working in the monastery at the time when Alexei Konstantinov first became a novice at Valaam. Peshekhonov made ornaments by the method of chasing or burnishing on gold, while Alypius applied volumetric relief onto levkas with subsequent gilding. Bolshakova notes in her dissertation that Alypius combined the skills and techniques characteristic of a graduate of the Academy of Arts (in composition and coloristics) with a knowledge of the icon-painting tempera technique. She suggests that Alypius's works were executed in a mixed technique, at the base of which lies "the execution of a tonal drawing and a colour underpainting in tempera paints with subsequent glazing in oil." This achieves a dense, enamel-like surface "with an extraordinarily fine luminosity of the colours from the depth of the glazing layers". Alypius's icon painting has not dimmed over the past century. Particularly striking, in the Bolshakova's opinion, is the finish in the details: the carefulness and trembling quality of the golden curls of Archangel Gabriel, the flowing folds of the light fabric of the chiton and the softness of the treatment of the fingers and toes of both the Archangel and the Mother of God. Alypius's painting is distinguished by a bright, soft and delicate pastel palette, which is sometimes explained by the particular qualities of Valaam's nature, as well as by a sculptural draughtsmanship. An obituary of Alypius notes that, being bound by the iconographic canon, he "could not develop in himself a strong sense of colour; the palette of his works is timid and naive, but the more clearly stand out his merits as an artist with a rare power and correctness of strict draughtsmanship". The author calls him "a still unknown and little appreciated Fra Angelico." His works, in his view, produce "a deep, warm, heartfelt impression". Considering the uneven execution of the fresco compositions attributed to Alypius, Bolshakova suggests that most probably he often only supervised his pupils, while himself painting only the central image of Jesus Christ. His frescoes are characterised by an approach close to icon painting: the absence of spatial depth (conditional or symbolic golden background), measured movements and impassivity of the figures, timelessness of the action. At the same time, the treatment of the figures – their remarkable sculptural quality and the freedom with which they are drawn, the precise and soft arrangement of the folds of garments, and the academic painting technique as a whole, impasto in the light and glazing in the shadow with a local distribution of colour patches – all speak clearly to the fact that their author was also well acquainted with the academic school of painting. Alypius's frescoes are executed in the Byzantine technique of wax-casein tempera. The binding medium of the paint layer was composed of punic wax, sturgeon glue, and beeswax. The painting was carried out on dry plaster, onto which several layers of chalk-glue and gypsum ground were first applied, with the surface being coated with glue between the ground layers. This technique provided stability of the paint in the high humidity of Valaam. The palette of the murals has not changed over time. • Illustration — Alipy. The Valaam Icon of the Mother of God. New Valaam Monastery

The most celebrated work of Alypius was the Valaam Icon of the Mother of God. The icon was painted in a technique combining tempera and oil painting. Alypius was 26 years old when he created it (in 1878). At Valaam the icon was given the name "Local Valaam". In the lower part of the icon, a particle of the robe of the Mother of God was placed by the superior of Valaam Monastery, Abbot Gabriel. The Alexei Konstantinov icon copies bear the inscription "Image and likeness of the miracle-working image of the Valaam Mother of God". The icon is frequently classified by researchers as belonging to the iconographic type of Hodegetria. They note the regal bearing of Mary holding the Child, and her solemnity, which is reminiscent of icons of the Mother of God associated with the Byzantine imperial court. Bolshakova considered the iconography of the icon to be original, yet indirectly related to the image of Nikopoios ("the Victory-Maker"). She also noted Konstantinov's desire to approach the ideal of the time, Raphael's Sistine Madonna – in the composition "one senses the beginning or continuation of a certain narrative thread; the viewer observes as if an action unfolding in time: the movements of the figures of the Mother of God and the Child convey a momentary state that is about to change – that is, the action unfolds within a changing time and space". Bolshakova observes that the golden background with an ornament of lilies (a symbol of purity) underscores the otherworldly nature of the space, and that the gestures of the Mother of God and the Child are inscribed within a circle (a symbol of eternity). The composition of the icon emphasises not the earthly aspect of the existence of the Mother of God and the Saviour – as is characteristic of church painting of the 19th century that drew on Western European models – but the liturgical significance of the image, which is proper to the Byzantine icon. The iconography of this icon, in the opinion of Elizaveta Korpelainen, does not cite ancient models, but combines elements of the Byzantine iconographic type of Nikopoios (in such icons the Mother of God holds Jesus before her like a shield) with the icon-painting type of Great Panagia (in which the Mother of God is depicted full-length with Jesus on her lap). As iconographic prototypes for the Valaam Icon of the Mother of God, Kutkovoy considers the mosaic in the apse from the Church of the Dormition in Nicaea and the mosaic Mother of God between Emperor John II Komnenos and Empress Irene (1118, south gallery of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople). In scholarly articles the suggestion has been made that Alypius may have undertaken pilgrimages during which he had the opportunity to acquaint himself with these iconographic types. Elizaveta Korpelainen considers this debatable, since the Valaam Icon of the Mother of God differs from canonical models in its semantic details and is related to them only in general features and associatively. She argues that its models were icon-pictures by academic painters in the churches of Saint Petersburg and its environs. In particular, she considered the Kostomarov Icon of the Mother of God as a possible model. According to tradition, this icon was presented to the Saviour Kostomarov Skete Church by Emperor Alexander I in 1818. She also writes of the influence on the icon of the Lutheran mystical movement of Pietism, as a result of which "the image of divine love acquired... features of romantic sentimentality". The Mother of God is depicted full-length on a cloud in a golden radiance; she supports the infant Christ with one hand concealed beneath the hem of her garment and with the other hand in front. The Mother of God appears to be shielding him from future suffering. The feet of the Mother of God are depicted without shoes (a detail that Korpelaynen notes as an original element in Orthodox iconography). Christ's right hand gives a blessing, while in his left he holds an orb surmounted by a cross.

• Illustration — The Publican Zacchaeus in a Tree, Inviting Christ (fragment). 1881. New Valaam Monastery • Illustration — The Lord Almighty. New Valaam Monastery • Illustration — Life study, work with a model. 1895. New Valaam Monastery • Illustration — The Mother of God with the Infant on the Throne (fragment), 1896. New Valaam Monastery