Ivan Motorin

The Motorins, also spelled Matorins (Моторины, Маторины in Russian) were a famous Russian family of bellfounders.

Feodor Dmitriyevich Motorin (Фёдор Дмитриевич Моторин) (1630s - 1688) began his career at the Moscow Cannon Yard in 1651 along with another famous bellmaker Alexander Grigoriev. In the 1670s, Motorin became a leading caster at the Cannon yard. In 1678, he cast a bell for the Church of Simeon Stolpnik in the Povarskaya Sloboda, in 1681 - for the Church of Virgin Mary in Grebnevo, in 1682 - for Danilov Monastery, in 1684 - for the Church of Archangel Gabriel at Chistiy Prud. All these bells, however, were destroyed by the Soviets in the 1930s. Feodor Motorin was also a talented businessman. After having accumulated some financial capital, he began purchasing land and buildings for his colleagues-bellmakers in the Pushkarskaya Sloboda in the 1660s. This is how the first bellmaking factory came into being in the area of Sretenskiye Gates in Moscow, of which Motorin had been the owner since 1686. The factory used to cast bells, commissioned by churches and monasteries. Small bells were also made for sale in Moscow.

A few works autographed by Feodor Motorin have survived to this day. They include two bells cast in 1678 and 1679 - the Danilov Bell (Даниловский колокол) and the New Bell (Новый колокол) weighing 3.2 tons (both can still be seen in the middle tier of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower); an 8-ton bell, cast for the Novodevichy Convent (1684); a 1.6-ton bell for the Volynsky Monastery in Chernigov (1683), which was relocated to Moscow in 1991 and hung on the Saint Basil's Cathedral. All of the surviving bells made by Motorin are known for their casting purity and rich relief decorations (stylized arabesque ornament and images of cherubs and seraphs, which harmonize with cast inscriptions).

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