The Virgin Nativity Cathedral
Medallions

The Western Wall, the Fourth to the North of the Doors

Dionisy's frescoes. The Western Wall, the Fourth to the North of the Doors

In the medallion (75 cm in diameter) there is a flower-leaf ornament against a black background. The geometrical pattern of the medallion is built of circular arcs of the medallion diameter with the foci on its circumference dividing it into six equal parts. The intersecting arcs form a “flower” with six narrow oval “petals” into which “leaves” with wavy edges are inscribed; the opposite “leaves” are of the same colour: the top left and bottom right are yellow (ochre), the side ones are blue (azurite, traces), the bottom left and top right are pink (ochre, traces). There are three oval brown strokes in the centre of the yellow ones: the bottom left one retains traces of red ochre, the rest have traces. The lines from the oval “leaves” to the centres of the arc on the medallion circumference form irregular rhombuses that contain “leaves” with wavy edges facing the circumference, the opposite leaves are of the same colour alternating with the colour of the adjacent “petals”: the bottom left and top right are yellow with dark shading at the bases; the top left and the bottom right are pink with traces of red shading on the bottom one; the top and bottom rhombuses are blue (azurite, traces). Between the medallion circumference and the “petals” are small fan-shaped “flowers” with wavy edges facing the medallion border. The colour can be discerned only in the bottom ones: the left “flower” is yellow with dark shading , the right “flower” retains traces of azurite; apparently, the colours alternated with the adjacent ones. All the colour elements of the ornament including the wide border (3.3 cm) between the two thin ones have a white outline (white chalk ground). In the centre of the medallion and on its circumference there are traces of the leg of a compass. Condition: a strengthened crack (up to 6 cm wide) on the left part of the medallion and loss of the white chalk ground (4x2.5 and 13x3 cm) in the bottom half. Nearly complete loss of azurite and pink ochre on the ornament elements. The yellow “petals” at the bottom to the sides and the two small “flowers” at the top and the bottom are better preserved; complete loss of the cloth folds crossing the medallion. Conservation: 1999, restorer O.V. Lelekova and E.M. Christie.