ALEVIZ NOVY
(active 1499-1531 in Russia)

Biography

Italian architect and sculptor. He is known also as Aloisio Nuovo, and perhaps can be identified as the sculptor/architect Alvise da Montagnana. He was invited by Ivan III to work in Moscow. He was apprehended by the khan of Crimea, and at his court he built some sections of the famous palace in Bakhchisaray.

He arrived to Moscow in 1504 with a letter of recommendation from the khan. Aleviz's first and principal work in Moscow was the Archangel Cathedral, the burial place of Muscovite monarchs. The cathedral's elaborate Renaissance ornamentation was extensively copied throughout 16th-century Russia.

Aleviz Novy was last mentioned in 1514, when he was entrusted by Vasily III to build 11 churches in Moscow. Although only parts of these structures have been preserved, there is enough evidence to assume that they were built in strikingly differing styles. The best preserved of these churches is the cathedral of the Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery in Moscow (1514-17), admittedly the earliest rotunda in Russia.