History of mediæval art . twelfth century, whennative workmen, and even na-tive designers, took the placeof architects previously sum-moned from Byzantine traditions wereaffected by traits more pe-culiarly Asiatic : derived, onthe one hand, from Armenia,through the districts of theCaucasus, on the other fromthe interior of the great con-tinent, beyond the Ural Moun-tains. The Church of OurLady {Fig. 38) near the Clois-ter Bogolubor in the govern-mental district of Vladimir,built in the year 1165, wasByzantine in general arrange-ment ; yet it displays the in-fluences of Armen
History of mediæval art . twelfth century, whennative workmen, and even na-tive designers, took the placeof architects previously sum-moned from Byzantine traditions wereaffected by traits more pe-culiarly Asiatic : derived, onthe one hand, from Armenia,through the districts of theCaucasus, on the other fromthe interior of the great con-tinent, beyond the Ural Moun-tains. The Church of OurLady {Fig. 38) near the Clois-ter Bogolubor in the govern-mental district of Vladimir,built in the year 1165, wasByzantine in general arrange-ment ; yet it displays the in-fluences of Armenia in theportal, low galleries, and en-gaged pillars, and of distantAsia in the turnip-shapedcupola and the curved linesof the roof. These influencesare also evident in the Church of St. Demetrius at Vladimir, built between the years 1194 and1197, where the arcades in relief are Armenian, while the decora-tion of conventionalized foliage is distinctly Asiatic. Architectural motives from the far East naturally continued to. Fig. 38.—Church of Our Lady (Pakrova) nearthe Cloister Bogolubor. 68 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE. take the place of those from the West after the inroads of GenghisKhan had resulted in the subjugation of Russia to the Mongolians( 1237-1480). The occupation of the country by the Tartarswas, upon the whole, unfavorable to the development of Russianart; still it appears that the luxury and magnificence exhibited bythe commanders of these Asiatic hordes was not without its effectupon the courts of native princes and boyars, whose life had previ-ously been of patriarchal simplicity. The Russian artists who, fromchoice or from necessity, followed the retinue of the Tartars, re-turned to their homes strongly impressed with the Asiatic spirit,and this was readily adopted by a population of kindred tall, turnip-shaped cupolas, rising from low and solid masses ofmasonry,—the ornamentation, similar in treatment to that of Indiaand Persia
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