Fresco paintings of Southwest Crimea cave churches according to Igor Grabar

Introduction. Today, the remains of fresco paintings are preserved in six cave churches of Taurica: the temple of the Southern Monastery (Mangup); church in the field of Kielse-Tubu (district of Mangup); the temple of the Assumption and the Three Horsemen (Eski-Kermen); the Donators Temple (district of Eski-Kermen); the church number 12 on Zagaytansky rock (Inkerman). Authors of the 19th - early 20th centuries left descriptions of the now lost murals of six more monuments. Methods . Frescos of Crimean cave churches in historiography received insufficient comprehension. Only one monograph was published on this issue (1966). Analysis. Opinions and comments regarding the mural paintings of the cave churches of Crimea, expressed by reputable art historians and specialists in fresco paintings, are relevant. These include Igor Grabar. He was in Crimea in 1927, as the head of the Central Art Conservation Center by Glavnauka of the RSFSR. The Manuscript Department of the State Tretyakov Gallery stores leaflets from the notebook “Igor Grabar’s trip notes in the Crimea and about Old Russian art”. Authors publish the full text of Igor Grabar’s notes concerning the murals of cave churches: the temple of the Assumption and the Three Horsemen (Eski-Kermen); the Donators Temple (district of Eski-Kermen); the temple of the Southern Monastery (Mangup). Results. Igor Grabar’s notes help us clarify many points of view in the study of frescos of cave temples in Crimea. The study of the murals of the temple of the Three Horsemen by Igor Grabar allows us to justifiably discard the versions of “three Georges” and “portraits of real local figures”. There are images of three holy warriors: Dmitry, Theodore (Stratilates or Tyrone), and George in the cave temple. The study of the Mangup Church fresco by Igor Grabar allowed us to develop a periodization of the formation of fresco paintings of this monument.