- Ilya Bondarenko
Infobox Architect
caption=Old Believers' Church of Intercession ofTheotokos , Gavrikov Lane,Moscow , 1906-1911
name=Ilya Yevgrafovich Bondarenko
nationality=Russia
birth_date=July 18 1870
birth_place=Ufa
death_date=July 21 1947
death_place=Moscow
practice_name=Own firm
significant_buildings=Northern Revival churches ofOld Believers , 1906-1911
significant_projects=
awards=|Ilya Yevgrafovich Bondarenko ( _ru. Илья Евграфович Бондаренко, 1867 - 1947) was a
Russia n-Soviet architect , historian andpreservationist , notable for developing a particular style ofOld Believers architecture in 1905-1917, blending Northern Russian revival withArt Nouveau .Education and early works
Bondarenko trained at
Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1887-1891 (class ofAlexander Kaminsky ), completing education at the Zurich Polytechnikum in 1894 andFyodor Schechtel firm (1895-1896). He travelled within Russia throughout 1890s, studying traditional architecture of the North andVolga regions.He was associated with
Savva Mamontov -sponsored group of artists andAbramtsevo Colony ; these connections helped him secure his first major project - Russian Crafts pavilions at theExposition Universelle (1900) in Paris, in partnership withKonstantin Korovin . Later, Bondarenko would rely on Abramtsevo ceramics in most of his works. He was well skilled inArt Nouveau interior design, taking part inIvan Fomin 's 1902 Art Nouveau exhibition. His style, influenced byVictor Vasnetsov and contemporary work of Sergey Solovyov, is a direct development of Abramtsevo school, yet with unique touch of austere Old Believers traditions and a deep first-hand knowledge ofPskov andNovgorod relics.Old Believers churches
During the
Russian Revolution of 1905 , the government lifted earlier bans offOld Believers , allowing them, at last, to build their own churches (before April, 1905, worship was limited to a few historical places likeRogozhskoye Cemetery ). Congregations responded with numerous new construction projects. Bondarenko, well-known to influential community leaders, became the foremost architect forBelokrinitskaya Hierarchy . In 1907-1908 he built the first new Old Believers church in Moscow, in Tokmakov Lane (for thePomorian Old-Orthodox Church ). This was followed by churches inNoginsk ,Riga , Kashin,Orekhovo-Zuevo , three more churches in Moscow. He also worked for the State Church, completing theShuya Cathedral in 1912.Preservation efforts
Bondarenko adored the Moscow variety of
Neoclassicism , and was engaged in studies of this style since 1904. In particular, he discovered and published the original drawings ofDomenico Giliardi andAfanasy Grigoriev (1913), and wrote the first biography ofMatvey Kazakov (1912).After the
Russian Revolution of 1917 Bondarenko, despite his affiliation with the church, found a place in Soviet system - first as the museum manager inUfa (1919-1921), where he set up the first theater and the first museum (present-dayMikhail Nesterov Museum; Nesterov and Bondarenko were close friends). In 1921, Bondarenko returned to Moscow, and worked in various soviet institutions until his death in 1947.In 1930s, he returned to architecture, working with historical buildings, notably his 1938 expansion of
Bakhrushin Museum of Theatre and 1933 expansion ofMoscow Conservatory . He held title of chief architect ofVagankovo Cemetery , chief architect ofMosenergo , and was engaged in numerous consultancies regarding old buildings, including the 1938-1940 surveys ofSaint Basil's Cathedral . His last assignment has been the restoration ofMatvey Kazakov 's Travel Palace inTver , damaged duringWorld War II .References
* Russian: [http://www.samstar.ru/document/1951/?XTORESID=565c24f17afba1f220446a9a4ed6db0e fragment of Bondarenko memoirs]
* Russian: Нащокина, М.B., "Архитекторы московского модерна", М, "Жираф", 2005, стр.87-96 ("Maria Naschokina")
* Russian: Леонидова, Т., "Архитектор, художник, педагог…", [http://hronos.km.ru/text/2004/leonid09_04.html]
* William Craft Brumfield, "Commerce in Russian Urban Culture 1861-1914", The Woodrow Wilson Center Press, ISBN 978-08-0186-750-7
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