Ieu's featured topics in ukrainian art and architecture
I. The Art of Fresco Painting in Ukraine II. The Byzantine Art of Mosaic in Ukraine III. The Timeless Art of the Ukrainian Icon IV. The Art of Ukrainian Baroque Engraving V. Masterpieces of Rococo Architecture in Ukraine VI. The Ukrainian Classicist Painters VII. Academism in 19th-century Ukrainian Painting VIII. The Tradition of Ukrainian Landscape Art IX. The Ukrainian Realist Genre Painting X. The Ukrainian Impressionist Painters XI. Mykhailo Boichuk and his School of Ukrainian Monumental Art XII. Ukrainian Modernist Artists in Paris XIII. Kyiv's Architectural Monuments Destroyed in the 1930s and 1940s XIV. Ukrainian Nonconformist (Unofficial) Art in the USSR (1960s-80s)
I. The art of fresco painting in ukraine
In the Kyivan Rus' the fresco was the principal method of decorating church interiors. While Byzantine-style mosaics were limited to the central part of a church, frescoes covered all the side apses, vaults, columns and walls of the side naves, and sometimes even the arch supports, galleries, niches, and external portals. In Byzantium, mosaics were never mixed with frescoes in the same building; this is a unique practice of Ukrainian church art. Harmony between mosaic and fresco was achieved by using the same dominant colors. The most famous examples of this decorative system are Saint Sophia Cathedral (1037) and the Cathedral of Saint Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery (mid-12th century) in Kyiv. After the middle of the 12th century frescoes almost completely replaced mosaics in the decoration of church interiors. The most complete set of frescoes from this period has been preserved in the church of Saint Cyril's Monastery in Kyiv... Learn more about the art of fresco painting in Ukraine by visiting the folwing entries:
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FRESCO PAINTING. A method of painting on freshly plastered walls with powdered pigments that are resistant to the erosive action of lime. Before the colors are applied to the wet plaster the main lines of the composition are usually traced on the preceding coat. The painting is very durable and is applied to both interior and exterior walls. The origins of fresco painting in Ukraine can be traced back to the 4th century BC. Frescoes adorned the homes, public buildings, and tombs of the Greek colonists and Scythians on the coast of the Black Sea. The most interesting ancient frescoes from the 1st century BC were discovered during excavations of burial sites in Kerch in the tomb of Demeter... |
Fresco painting |
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[FRESCOES OF] SAINT SOPHIA CATHEDRAL. Saint Sophia Cathedral is a masterpiece of the art and architecture of Ukraine and Europe. It was built in Kyiv at the height of Kyivan Rus', in the Byzantine style, and significantly transformed during the baroque period. The cathedral was founded by Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise and built between 1037 and 1044. The original building, most of which remains at the core of the existing cathedral, is a cross-in-square plan with twelve cruciform piers marking five east-west naves intersected by five transverse aisles. The cathedral's interior is decorated with magnificient 11th-century mosaics and frescoes. Exterior ornamentation of the original 11th-century walls consists of decorative brickwork, the monochromatic painting of key architectural elements, and a number of frescoes... |
Saint Sophia Cathedral |
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[FRESCOES OF] SAINT MICHAEL'S GOLDEN-DOMED MONASTERY. An Orthodox men's monastery in Kyiv. In the 1050s Prince Iziaslav Yaroslavych built Saint Demetrius's Monastery and Church in the old upper city of Kyiv, near Saint Sophia Cathedral. In 1108-13 his son, Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych, built a church at the monastery dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel. The monastery was mostly destroyed during the Tatar invasion of 1240 and ceased to exist. Written records confirm that it was reopened by 1496. Soon afterward it began to be known as Saint Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, its name being taken from the church built by Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych. Restored and enlarged over the 16th century, it became one of the most popular and wealthy monasteries in Ukraine. ... |
Saint Michael's Monastery |
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[FRESCOES OF] SAINT CYRIL'S MONASTERY. A monastery founded by Grand Prince Vsevolod Olhovych ca 1140 on the outskirts of medieval Kyiv. Its church, Saint Cyril's, was built ca 1146. The church's frescoes are fine examples of 12th-century Ukrainian art and the influence of Bulgarian-Byzantine painting on it. They depict the Nativity of Christ, the Presentation of Christ at the Temple, the Eucharist, the Annunciation, the Dormition, the Last Judgment and Apocalypse, an angel gathering the heavens into a scroll, the apostles, the evangelists, and various prophets and martyrs. Murals of saints--Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, Saint John the Macedonian, Saint Euphemios--adorn its pillars, and compositions depicting Saint Cyril teaching the heretic, teaching in the cathedral, and teaching the emperor are found in the southern apse... |
Saint Cyril's Monastery |
The preparation, editing, and display of the IEU entries associated with the art of fresco painting in Ukraine were made possible by the financial support of the CANADIAN FOUNDATION FOR UKRAINIAN STUDIES.