EXHIBITION IN NESVIZH ICONOSTASES' GOLD BELARUSIAN MASTERS' ART IN MOSCOW

EXHIBITION IN NESVIZH

ICONOSTASES' GOLD

BELARUSIAN MASTERS' ART IN MOSCOW

The exhibition presents unique in their beauty and technique 17th-century items of gilded carving – Royal doors, icons in luxurious cartouche-frames, and fragments of iconostases. Created in the 17th century, they decorated the interiors of Moscow churches and monasteries, and in the 1920s, after the closure of some church buildings for worship and their destruction, they were taken to the State Museum-Reserve Kolomenskoye. Many objects are on display for the first time.

In Russia, gilded sculptural carving appeared in the second half of the 17th century. This was due to the resettlement of Belarusian masters from Vilna, Polotsk, Vitebsk, Smolensk, Shklov and other cities to the Russian state. The gilded iconostasis carving, which grew from Belarusian roots on Russian soil, formed an artistically perfect version of the common European style in the late 17th-century Russian art.

The works of Belarusian art masters acquired new motifs of the Baroque style in carving – a flexible vine with large bunches of grapes, bundles of fruits, curls resembling the shape of a pearl, acanthus leaves of high relief, naturalistically presented flowers and fruits. Among flowers, the most common were stylized hibiscus flowers, Chinese rose, and among fruits there were cracked pomegranates, apples, pears, lemons, and figs. In order documents, they were mentioned as ‘carved fruits’, while all the listed fruits and flowers had a symbolic meaning in Christian art. The vine was conceived as an evangelical image of Christ, the only source of life, and had a symbolic connection with the sacrament of communion.

The exhibition range includes the 17th-century tiles from the collections of the Museum Kolomenskoye, their production was significantly influenced by the works of Belarusian artisans.

The exhibition of gilded carvings and multicolored tiles is the result of many years of work by the museum's specialists to preserve the cultural heritage of Russia and demonstrates the centuries-old artistic ties between the two Slavic peoples.

O.A. Polyakova,

the author of the concept and curator of the exhibition, deputy director of the museum   collections, Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation