Wooden sculpture

The collection of Russian wooden church sculpture of Moscow Kremlin Museums is rather small. It numbers about 80 exhibits. However, the majority of creations are eminent examples of Old Russian plastic arts. The collection is not a historically formed one. It appeared because of the purposeful collecting activity of the museum during a bit more than ten years - from 1918 till 1931. The chronological frame of the collection covers the late XIV- early XX centuries. It presents various kinds of plastic arts - either small carved icons, crosses and folding icons low relief or monumental high reliefs and examples of the round. Numerous works of the Russian small plastic arts form a special collection.

Carved icons and sculptured images of Saints, although they were rarer than painted icons, were loved and worshipped in Russia, especially among little people. The attitude of the churchdom towards such icons was rather careful for they were considered to be connected with paganism and influenced by the Catholic world.

The collection of Moscow Kremlin Museums presents artworks of church sculpture from different art centers. Among them there are showpieces from Moscow, Novgorod, Rostov the Great, the Russian North. The best works are presented in the permanent display in the gallery of the Church of Laying Our Lady’s Holy Robe.