Postnik Yakovlev

Postnik Yakovlev (

Barma). It is thought that he was nicknamed "Barma" (Барма) ("the mumbler"), although it might be that his full name was, in fact, Ivan Yakovlevich Barma; (Postnik means "Faster", a term used for several religious figures, including Patriarch John IV of Constantinople); Barma might also be Yakovlev's assistant.^[1]

According to legend, Ivan the Terrible blinded Yakovlev so that he could never build anything so beautiful again. However, this is probably a myth, as Yakovlev, in cooperation with another master, Ivan ShirIai, designed the walls of the Kazan Kremlin and the Cathedral of the Annunciation [ru] in Kazan in 1561 and 1562, just after the completion of St. Basil's.^[2] He also designed the northeast chapel of St. Basil's (where Basil himself, the popular Basil Fool for Christ – Yurodivy Vassily Blazhenny – is buried), in 1588, four years after Ivan's death.

According to several historians, Yakovlev also designed churches in Staritsa, Murom, Sviazhsk, and perhaps Vladimir, although others contend that this was another architect with a similar name.^[3]

References

^ William Brumfeld, Landmarks of Russian Architecture: A Photographic Survey (Documenting the Image, Vol 5)(Amsterdam: Overseas Publishing Association, 1997), p. 95.
^ Dopolnenie k aktim istoricheskim (St. Petersburg, 1846), Vol. 1, No. 82, p. 167.
^ N. F. Kalinin, "Postnik Barma - Stroitel' Sobora Vasiliia Blazhennogo v Moskve i Kazanskogo kremlia," Sovietskaia Arkheologia (1957) No. 3, pp. 261-263.

[1] William Brumfeld, Landmarks of Russian Architecture: A Photographic Survey (Documenting the Image, Vol 5)(Amsterdam: Overseas Publishing Association, 1997), p. 95.

[2] Dopolnenie k aktim istoricheskim (St. Petersburg, 1846), Vol. 1, No. 82, p. 167.

[3] N. F. Kalinin, "Postnik Barma - Stroitel' Sobora Vasiliia Blazhennogo v Moskve i Kazanskogo kremlia," Sovietskaia Arkheologia (1957) No. 3, pp. 261-263.

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