Originally published in The Moscow Times on March 3, 2000
The recently rebuilt Church of Christ the Savior may have caused, in recent years, a great deal of ink to flow and passions to be spent. Despite the hubbub, however, the main hall of the cathedral is still closed and will likely remain so until April. But visitors to the cathedral can still enjoy the cathedral museum's engaging exhibit "In the Light of the Soul, there is Rebirth...," on display through March.
The exhibit features copies of paintings, sculptures, icons and other examples of applied arts that hang in a part of the cathedral that is off limits until it reopens this spring.
The artists who redecorated the church during its reconstruction from 1994 to 1999 took great pains to conform to the building's original 19th-century character, and the exhibit reflects their efforts. The museum houses a number of enormous paintings of religious scenes and figures, all of them done within the last four years. In one, a grey-haired Christ wears a downy beard and holds a dove in his hands - the original work hangs in the cathedral's central dome.
The exhibit also…
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