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The Pantocrator

            The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood  Interior (Russian: Церковь Спаса на Крови, Tserkovʹ Spasa na Krovi), in St. Petersburg, Russia

Architecturally, the Cathedral differs from St. Petersburg's other structures. The city's architecture is predominantly Baroque and Neoclassical, but the Savior on Blood harks back to medieval Russian architecture in the spirit of romantic nationalism. It intentionally resembles the 17th-century Yaroslavl churches and the celebrated St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.
The Church contains over 7500 square metres of mosaics—according to its restorers, more than any other church in the world. This record may be surpassed by the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, which houses 7700 square meters of mosaics. The interior was designed by some of the most celebrated Russian artists of the day—including Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Nesterov and Mikhail Vrubel — but the church's chief architect, Alfred Alexandrovich Parland, was relatively little-known (born in St. Petersburg in 1842 in a Baltic-German Lutheran family). Perhaps not surprisingly, the Church's construction ran well over budget, having been estimated at 3.6 million roubles but ending up costing over 4.6 million. The walls and ceilings inside the Church are completely covered in intricately detailed mosaics — the main pictures being biblical scenes or figures — but with very fine patterned borders setting off each picture.

In Christian iconography, Christ Pantocrator refers to a specific depiction of Christ. Pantocrator or Pantokrator (from the Greek Παντοκράτωρ) is a translation of one of many Names of God in Judaism. When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek as the Septuagint, Pantokrator was used both for YHWH Tzevaot "Lord of Hosts" and for El Shaddai "God Almighty".

The icon of Christ Pantokrator is one of the most widely used religious images of Orthodox Christianity. Generally speaking, in Byzantine church art and architecture, an iconic mosaic or fresco of Christ Pantokrator occupies the space in the central dome of the church, in the half-dome of the apse or on the nave vault. Some scholars (Latourette 1975: 572) consider the Pantocrator a Christian adaptation of images of Zeus, such as the great statue of Zeus enthroned at Olympia. The development of the earliest stages of the icon from Roman Imperial imagery is easier to trace.
The icon, traditionally half-length when in a semi-dome, which became adopted for panel icons also, depicts Christ fully frontal with a somewhat melancholy and stern aspect, with the right hand raised in blessing or, in the early encaustic panel at St. Catherine's, the conventional rhetorical gesture that represents teaching. The left hand holds a closed book with a richly decorated cover featuring the Cross, representing the Gospels. An icon where Christ has an open book is called "Christ the Teacher", a variant of the Pantocrator. Christ is bearded, his brown hair centrally parted, and his head is surrounded by a halo. The icon is usually shown against a gold background comparable to the gilded grounds of mosaic depictions of the Christian emperors.
   

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Taken in: Russia / Saint Petersburg Federal City / St. Petersburg (show map)

Taken on: June 24, 2012

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san petersburgo

st. petersburg

russia

church

iglesia

templo

catedral

cathedral

Санкт-Петербург

Россия

orthodox art

arte ortodoxo

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искусство

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Sets appears in: • Russia • Seleccion more » • Mas interesantes • San Petersburgo • Arte y arquitectura Ortodoxos • varias « less

Groups appears in: • Churches, Chapels, Domes, Mosques, Temples, Shrines and Monaster • Russian Orthodoxy / Русское Православие more » • Orthodox Church Architecture • Central and Eastern Europe « less

Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ150, f/2.8, 1/30 sec, 4.5mm, ISO 800 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-FZ150
Aperture:	f/2.8
Exposure Time:	0.033 sec (1/30)
Focal Length:	4.5mm
ISO:	800
Exposure Bias:	-0.33 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	High gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Ver.1.0
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