Vassily Ivanovich Navozov

St. Louis, Louisiana Purchase Exposition (World's Fair), 1904

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been recently restored and should be hung in its current state. The canvas has been lined. The paint layer has been cleaned and the losses have been filled and retouched. All of the retouches are clearly visible under ultraviolet light. They have been regularly applied throughout the picture, focused slightly more in the larger male figures in the foreground and in the sky. The restoration is reasonably competent and the paint layer is stable. The retouches could be improved but the accuracy of many of the retouches seem to be fine.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The conversion of Russia was more significant in scope than all other missionary undertakings to have emanated from Constantinople, for the Russians were to carry Orthodoxy across a huge land mass, from Kiev in the West to Alaska in the East, and from Kherson on the Black Sea to the White Sea in the far North. This dramatic expansion enabled Orthodoxy to survive and flourish long after its original habitat, the Eastern Roman Empire, had fallen entirely under the rule of Islam.

It was probably in Kherson that the Russian Grand Prince Vladimir (979-1015) was baptized as a precondition of marriage to Anna, a Byzantine Princess. Vladimir and Anna then returned to Kiev accompanied by priests with icons, relics, liturgical vessels and books in the Slavonic tongue, which was already in use in Bulgaria. The old idols, chief of which was a wooden figure of the god of thunder, were destroyed, and on the following day Vladimir called upon his subjects to come to the river for Baptism. And so they did: 'Some stood up to their neck, others to their breasts, the youngest near the bank, some holding children in their arms...'

The two figures at left in The Baptism of Russia represent Vladimir and Anna, who is kneeling. This work is one of Navozov's most important creations, and it was included in the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition in 1904.