The Way of Beauty

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Russian Geometric Patterns from the 19th Century

Last year I featured some wall paintings of the Trinity at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, in Moscow, left. This is a modern reconstruction of a 19th century church and all the art from that time has been faithfully reproduced too (I hadn’t appreciated this until an NLM reader pointed it out to me!). As well as some striking naturalistic and iconographic art, there is some beautiful geometric and patterned art as well which I show here. This reminds me in some ways of the decoration one might see in an English 19th century neo-gothic church designed by Pugin. Anyway, I hope that this will inspire those who are responsible for the interior decoration of our churches to consider geometric designs as an option.