III. The timeless art of the ukrainian icon
With the introduction of Christianity in the 10th century, Byzantine icons and icon painters began to be imported into Ukraine. In the following century an indigenous school of icon painting developed in Kyiv. By the turn of the century the Kyivan Cave Monastery Icon Painting Studio could boast of such renowned painters as Master Olimpii and Deacon Hryhorii, who are mentioned in the Kyivan Cave Patericon. Because of their destructibility by fire and desirability as war booty, many icons perished. No Kyivan icons from the 11th century, and only a few from the 12th, have survived to our day. With the rise of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia principality in the 13th century, a Galician tradition of icon painting arose. The chief icon painting schools in Galicia were those of Peremyshl and Lviv. Each of them had many branches scattered throughout the Carpathian Mountains region as far west as Transcarpathia. Numerous samples of their work dating back to the early 15th century have been preserved. At the beginning of the 17th century icon painting began to revive in eastern Ukraine. Its patrons were not only the church but also the rising Cossack elite. The new baroque churches in Kyiv, Chernihiv, and other centers of the Cossack Hetman state were decorated with elaborate iconostases. By the second half of the 18th century the icon evolved into an ordinary painting on a biblical theme and disappeared as a distinctive art form. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, Ukrainian icon painting was revived in a neo-Byzantine form, represented by Mykhailo Boichuk and his 'monumentalist' school, as well as by such painters as Modest Sosenko and Petro Kholodny... Learn more about the art of the Ukrainian icon by visiting the following entries:
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ICON. An image depicting a holy personage or scene in the stylized Byzantine manner, and venerated in the Eastern Christian churches. The image can be executed in different media; hence, the term 'icon' can be applied to mural paintings, frescoes, or mosaics, tapestries or embroideries, enamels, and low reliefs carved in marble, ivory, or stone or cast in metal. The typical icon, however, is a portable painting on a wooden panel. The earliest technique of icon painting was encaustic, but the traditional and most common technique is tempera. The paint--an emulsion of mineral pigments (ochers, siennas, umbers, or green earth), egg yolk, and water--is applied with a brush to a panel covered with several layers of gesso. Gold leaf is fixed to designated areas before painting begins. The paint is applied in successive layers from dark to light tones; then the figures are outlined and, finally, certain areas are highlighted with whitener. After drying, the painting is covered with a special varnish consisting of linseed oil and crystalline resins to protect it from dust and humidity... |
Icon |
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ICONOSTASIS. A solid wooden, stone, or metal screen separating the sanctuary from the nave in Eastern Christian churches. Of varying height, it consists of rows of columns and icons. It extends the width of the sanctuary and has three entrances: the large Royal Gates at the center and the smaller Deacon Doors on each side. The Royal Gates are hung with a curtain. The iconostasis evolved in Byzantium in the 9th-11th centuries. The icons of the iconostasis are separated by columns and are arranged in several rows. The number of icons and ranges can vary. Usually, a full iconostasis contains over 50 icons set in four to six rows, but simpler (one- or two-story) and more elaborate (seven-story) iconostases are known. In Ukraine the earliest iconostases were low, consisting of only two tiers. Their further development was conditioned by the development of wooden architecture and the decline of the art of mosaics. By the 14th-15th centuries the typical structure of the two- and three-tiered iconostasis was established... |
Iconostasis |
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KYIVAN CAVE MONASTERY ICON PAINTING STUDIO. Main centre of Ukrainian icon painting for many centuries. Its founding at the end of the 11th century was connected with the painting (1083-9) of the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyivan Cave Monastery by Greek masters and the Kyivan artists Master Olimpii and Deacon Hryhorii. The studio developed a distinctive style that is evident in its frescoes, icons, and book illuminations. From the late 16th century, collections of prints by western and local artists and of student drawings were kept for educational purposes. The studio's finest masterpieces of the 18th century are the mural paintings of the Dormition Cathedral (1724-31) and the Trinity Church (1734-44) above the Main Gate of the Kyivan Cave Monastery, which were done by Ivan Maksymovych, T. Pavlovsky, Zakharii Holubovsky, and A. Halyk. Many noted icon painters and engravers were trained at the studio. Towards the end of the 18th century the studio gradually lost its importance in the development of Ukrainian art... |
Kyivan Cave Monastery Icon Painting Studio |
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RUTKOVYCH, IVAN, b ? in Bilyi Kamin, near Zolochiv, Galicia, d ? Icon painter of the 17th century. Most of his creative life was spent in Zhovkva (1667 to ca 1708) where, among other things, he was one of the key figures in the Zhovkva School of Artists. Some of his work has been preserved, in whole or in part, such as the iconostases of the wooden churches in Volytsia Derevlianska (1680-2) and Volia Vysotska (1688-9); the large iconostasis of the Church of Christ's Nativity in Zhovkva (1697-9, now in the National Museum in Lviv), which is considered to be the finest Ukrainian iconostasis; and separate icons, such as Supplication (1683) from Potylych (now in the National Museum) and The Nativity of Virgin Mary (1683) from Vyzhliv. Rutkovych's treatment of religious subjects was realistic and almost secular in spirit. The emotive richness of his colors and the rhythm of his lines testify to the influence of contemporary European art on his style. Vira Svientsitska's book about Rutkovych was published in Kyiv in 1966... |
Ivan Rutkovych |
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KONDZELEVYCH, YOV, b 1667 in Zhovkva, Galicia, d ca 1740 in Lutsk, Volhynia. Noted icon painter and elder of the Bilostok Monastery in Volhynia. After his training at the Zhovkva School of Artists, he probably studied painting at the Kyivan Cave Monastery Icon Painting Studio and abroad. Some of his numerous works have survived, including a fragment of the Bilostok Monastery iconostasis; the tabernacle of the Zahoriv Monastery (1695); and the famous iconostasis of the Maniava Hermitage, painted in 1698-1705 and transferred in 1785 to the church in Bohorodchany upon the dissolution of the hermitage. In 1923 the iconostasis was deposited in the National Museum in Lviv under the name the Bohorodchany iconostasis. In 1722 Kondzelevych took part in painting the iconostasis of the Zahoriv Monastery. His last work was The Crucifixion (1737) for the Lutsk Monastery. Kondzelevych broadened the traditional scheme of the icon significantly: he devoted much attention to the surroundings, particularly to the landscape, which he filled with distinctive architectural ensembles... |
Yov Kondzelevych |
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KHOLODNY, PETRO, b 18 December 1876 in Pereiaslav, Poltava gubernia, d 7 June 1930 in Warsaw. Distinguished painter. A graduate of the Kyiv Drawing School, he began to exhibit his work in 1910. Symbolist influences are apparent in his early paintings, such as A Tale of a Girl and Peacock (1916). Attracted by ancient Galician icons in 1914, he became fascinated with the tempera technique and used it frequently. During the Ukrainian struggle for independence (1917-20), Kholodny worked in the Central Rada's Ministry of Education. Leaving Ukraine with the UNR government in 1920, he settled in Lviv in 1921. The subsequent period proved to be the most productive one in Kholodny's artistic career. In 1922 he helped found the Circle of Promoters of Ukrainian Art and took part in its exhibitions. He began to paint icons and churches and to design stained-glass windows. The basic features of his work, rooted in Ukrainian artistic traditions that grew out of the synthesis of Byzantine iconography with folk art, were compositional unity, the primacy of the line, and harmonious, warm colors... |
Petro Kholodny |
The preparation, editing, and display of the IEU entries featuring the timeless tradition of the Ukrainian icon were made possible by the financial support of the CANADIAN FOUNDATION FOR UKRAINIAN STUDIES.