History of the Ukrainian icon
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Kyivan Rus-Ukraine adopted both the technique and style, and even iconographers and mosaicists, from Constantinople or from iconography schools dependent on it. Though it preserved the tradition of Byzantine iconography, before long Rus-Ukraine developed its own style, its own version of the predominant Byzantine tradition. In the style of Rus-Ukraine a more gentle interpretation of faces prevails, with lighter, easier colors, and the skillful imposition of gold on the background of the icons, and on the nimbuses and decorations of robes, especially the robes of Jesus Christ and of the Mother of God. This technique is called assist, when delicate layers of gold are imposed on the icon.
Here great attention was paid to the gradual imposition of transparent layers of colors and their delicate fusion; the layers are called washes. Thus, the decisive lines of traditional compositions were not cast aside. Nestor the Chronicler says that the most famous iconographer of the times of Kyivan Rus-Ukraine was Alimpii, a monk of the Kyivan Monastery of the Caves. Alimpii, active from the end of the 11th to the beginning of the 12th centuries, learned from the Greeks and eventually became an independent and original iconographer. He is considered to be the author of most of the icons in the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God in the Monastery of the Caves. The Kyivan School educated numerous other, anonymous, iconographers, who created countless masterpieces in Kyiv and other centers of Kyivan Rus. Iconographers from the whole Kyivan state studied and interned in the capital, and also invited masters to work with them.
Theophane the Greek and Russian iconographer Andrei Rublev raised some of the iconographic techniques typical of the Kyivan school, for example, washes and assist, to a very high level. They managed to create a new harmony of colors and thus convey a sense of peace and gladness. Other famous schools, in cities like Moscow, Jaroslavl, Pskov, and Tver, developed later and brought something new to traditional iconography.
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Returning to the iconography of Rus-Ukraine, it must be said that from the 13th to the middle of the 17th centuries the lead was taken by Halychyna and Volyn (western Ukraine). This happened as a result of dark times in history: the Mongol-Tatar attacks on eastern and central Ukraine. Church life suffered from the many attacks of the hordes, so iconography in a large part of Ukraine either ceased to exist or was very limited.
Western Ukraine adopted traditions from the Kyivan School and developed them. Later, original features appeared in the icons of Halychyna. Thanks to the large number of icons which have been preserved to the present, and to their high quality, the icons of Halychyna hold a key place in Ukrainian iconography.
The iconography of Transcarpathian Ukraine, Slovakia and the Lemko area (now in Poland) is a very interesting phenomenon in church history and it developed mainly from the 15th to the 17th centuries. At that time, the patrons of art sponsored Renaissance trends and gave money for the adornment of large churches. The smaller churches, however, which were not able to pay for expensive masters, hired travelling iconographers from Halychyna. The main center there at that time was Przemysl (now in Poland).
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This movement found its own naive, original style: sincere, direct, fresh. This iconography was widespread, and today is considered a high manifestation of an original interpretation of East-Byzantine tradition. In central Ukraine in the 17th and 18th centuries, Baroque, which was influential all over Europe, entered Ukrainian iconography. The strongest impetus for the development of «Cossack Baroque» was in the time of Ivan Mazepa. The realistic style of this movement entered so strongly that Byzantine iconography was to a large extent substituted with Western-style naturalism. Eventually similar tendencies appeared all through Eastern Europe. In the different countries of the Eastern rite there were not only examples of Western religious naturalism; naturalism dominated fully. Greece, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia and other countries accepted this cultural influence and gave in to it.
After this period, many other artistic waves followed and influenced iconography. Some of them might seem odd to us today, but it is necessary to recall that the spiritual and cultural life of the times dictated those changes. And, finally we cannot change history. We must acknowledge what was, like it or not.
Iconography in Ukraine, as well as in other Eastern European countries, is reviving today. Historical research is being conducted in this field. There is a strong tendency to renew the native traditions of Kyivan Rus-Ukraine, and this is not only in relation to iconography but to Christian spirituality in general. It is still necessarily to consider briefly the differences between Eastern and Western art. In the 11th and 12th centuries, Eastern and Western art had much in common. Later, however, the concept of the task of religious art in the West changed completely. This process began in the 9th century, in Charlemagne’s time. Western thought opinion focused on two aspects of ecclesiastical art. According to Western theology, religious art, first of all, should serve to instruct the faithful, especially the illiterate, and ,secondly, to show the natural human being, yearning for God.
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Eastern thought completely shares the first principle, though it does not emphasize this as strongly as the West. As to the second principle, Eastern theology has an entirely different approach. In the East saints are not depicted as natural human beings, but instead, as far as possible by earthly means, as transfigured people, as in the divine presence. For an objective comparison, it is perhaps best to turn to the thought of a well-known Western scholar on iconography and church art, Egon Sendler: «Western religious art, indisputably, has dogmatic content and is rooted in Sacred Scripture and Tradition. However, in its forms and techniques it relies to a great extent on the art of one era or another. Eastern art, on the contrary, requires that the artist in his interpretation of a given theme closely adhere to the theological content of Tradition. This Tradition is precise and rich. For this reason the forms created by Byzantine art are always motivated by the eyes of faith, to a greater extant than those created by the Western tradition.»
Consequently, Western religious art often goes in step with the trend of the given era. To some degree this makes it interesting and modern. However, when the times change, then the modern becomes already unmodern, and it is necessary to re-work it again. Eastern iconography has the task of witnessing to the unchanging truths of Christ. Sacred Scripture is unchanging, but always fresh and current, and iconography is similar. There are different translations of Sacred Scripture, but the essence is the same. As with iconography, different versions and styles are created, but the essence is one and the same. For iconography is faith in colors.
One Western artist asked the author of these lines: «Why are your Eastern icons always similar to each other? Why are the same compositions repeated?» «Do you change the Creed annually, or do you always profess the same one?» I asked in reply. «Who would change the "Creed"» «So we, in like manner, always maintain the same traditions of iconography, for it is our Creed in colors.»
The author, Prof. Yakiv Krekhovetsky,
specializes in Pneumatology, Faith and Science, and Byzantine and East-Slavic iconography. Among his achievements, in summer 1999 he taught at the theology summer program held in Univ, Ukraine and co-sponsored by the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies (Ottawa, Canada) and the Lviv Theological Academy.
