The "Taffeta Church" of Tsar Feodor Ioannovich and Tsaritsa Irina, 1592

The exhibition is being held in Room 5 in the Mikhailovsky Palace

The Russian Museum opens an exhibition dedicated to a unique work – the sewn, or “taffeta”, i.e. made of an exquisite silk fabric, church of Tsar Feodor Ioannovich and Tsaritsa Irina Godunova. The exhibition features 23 images of embroidered icons from the museum collection that are the evidence of touching, sublime and artistically flawless art of Old-Russian embroidery. The show is part of the permanent exhibition of the Mikhailovsky Palace up to October. It is being held in Room 5 in close proximity to the collection of Old-Russian art that is on display in Rooms 1–4.

The iconostasis is an elaborate composition of icons embroidered with silk and gold threads. It was created in the workshop of Tsaritsa Irina Godunova in 1592. Among the extant works of embroidery, it stands out for its lyricism, subtle psychology of images, artistry and mastery of execution.

During the Time of Troubles and at the beginning of the Romanov reign, embroidered icons could be kept in the tsar’s court or decorate one of the many Kremlin chapels. Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich made his victorious Smolensk campaign with the portable church in the early 1650s. It is not surprising that Tsar Peter the Great, the heir of Alexis Mikhailovich, moved the “taffeta church” from Moscow to St Petersburg as a military relic.

Despite numerous losses and burns the icons had in 1938, when they were received by the restoration workshop of the Russian Museum, the high quality of the work was noticeable. Researchers pointed that the artists used all means of artistic expression to “emphasise the magnificence fit for the purpose of the work as a portable church of the Russian sovereign”. Feodor Ioannovich’s “taffeta church”, which united the Rurikovich and the Romanov dynasties, was perceived in Imperial Russia as a symbol of military glory. However, we can now claim that the “sewn church”, which was collecting new images and acquiring new meanings over the centuries, was originally conceived for a different purpose. The iconostasis was executed in the chambers of Irina Godunova in 1592, when the royal family was particularly concerned with the issue of the absence of an heir to the throne and the preservation of the Rurikovich dynasty, which led to the erection of a number of votary churches and the creation of votive paintings and stitched works. The “taffeta church” was one of them.