To the Issue Concerning a Byzantine Iconostasis in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the 19th – Beginning of the 20th Centuries

The purpose of the article is to discover the issue of creating the Byzantine iconostasis in the artistic decoration of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in the 19th – early 20th centuries a case study of the Great Pechersk Church (the Dormition Cathedral). The methodology is based on complex using historical and cultural analysis, and art study analysis. Scientific novelty. Milestones of creating the Byzantine style iconostasis in the Dormition Cathedral during the 19th – Early 20th centuries have been discovered. The cultural and artistic basis for implementing the idea of Byzantine iconostasis in 1845–1847, 1890–1900s has been revealed according to the text and visual records introduced into scientific circulation. The dominant role of the main iconostasis for the image of side-altars’ new iconostasis has been determined. The conservatism of religious personages who wanted to preserve the features of the previous iconostasis (height, number of tiers, the old icons, etc.) has been proved. It is determined that the sacred value of some icons was more important as a stylistic priority and it barely led to the replacement of the material of the iconostasis (silver instead of marble that traditional for Byzantine iconostases). Published photos of the Big iconostasis and the approved draft of the main iconostasis with the author of autographs (photos from the collection of the National Reserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra”). It has been found out distinguished Ukrainian art historian H. Pavlutskyi in one of them. The autonomy of the iconostases style of the mural paintings style in the Great Pechersk Church decoration has been proved. Conclusions. The attempt to realize the idea of the Byzantine iconostasis in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra’s Great Church in 1845–1847 created a precedent of the inconsistency of the artistic style of iconostasis and mural painting. The Byzantine style iconostasis hypothetically could exist in the spacious Baroque plastic art. Conversely, the complex of Baroque iconostases existed independently of the wall form performed in accordance with the Byzantine tradition at the turn of the 19th and the 20th century. The polemic pointed around the main iconostasis, a new іmage of other iconostases designed in a complex with it. The baroque tradition was implemented in the new iconostasis projects. The monks perceived a change in mural paintings but they considered some icons by sacral constants in the Great Church. The Big iconostasis without upper tiers with the Byzantine cross was the victory of the Baroque tradition. The preservation of Baroque iconostases was a testimony of their stylistic autonomy from the mural painting decorated in Byzantine style. Key words: sacral culture, Orthodoxy, Byzantine art, Baroque art, iconostasis, sacral mural painting, KyivPechersk Lavra, Dormition Cathedral.

MUSEUM CURATOR BY VOCATION. CANON MIROSŁAW NOWAK PHD (1961–2021): DIRECTOR OF THE WARSAW ARCHDIOCESE MUSEUM

Having fought a long and tough battle against COVID-19, on 11 April 2021, Mirosław Nowak PhD, a theologian, art historian, museum curator, Archdiocese Conservator, and the Director of the Warsaw Archdiocese Museum, passed away. In 1982–1987, Fr. Mirosław studied art history at the History Department of the University of Warsaw, at the same time studying philosophy and theology at the Higher Metropolitan Seminary in Warsaw. Having taken holy orders in 1990, throughout his life he was able to successfully harmonize his ministry with the profession of an art historian. With his research focused on Baroque art, in 2006, he defended his doctoral dissertation on the Chapel of Blessed Ceslaus in the Wrocław church of the Dominicans. Fr. Mirosław Nowak performed many Diocese-wide functions, with 2013 being for him breakthrough: it was then that he became Director of the Warsaw Archdiocese Museum. Under him, the Museum was moved to a new extensive home in the centre of Warsaw’s Old Town; he mounted a permanent exhibition, and created an energetic cultural centre of high impact. At the Museum, he organized lectures, shows, authors’ presentations, concerts, and conferences. Fr. Nowak established contacts with other museums in Poland and abroad; he organized around 40 temporary exhibitions, among which the biggest and most interesting was that dedicated to the Silesian master of the Baroque Michael Willmann, The Warsaw Archdiocese Museum will painfully miss a good human and an excellent director.

Ukrainian School Christmas Drama of the XVIIth–XVIIIth Centuries and Puppet Nativity Play Theatre: Problem of Adaptation and Interpretation of a Musical Factor

The article states that the Ukrainian baroque art has become differentiated into the high, middle and lower stylistic levels. There were certain connections between them, and new art genres appeared on the verges of these levels. The problem of the connection between distinct stylistic levels of the Ukrainian musical baroque has not yet attracted the attention of researchers. The study examines the links between the Ukrainian school Christmas drama of the XVIIth– XVIIIth centuries and the puppet Nativity play theatre. It is noted that for the first time a comparison of these two kinds of theatrical art is drawn in terms of the use of a musical factor in them. It is established that the first act of the Nativity play drama is related to the high style of Ukrainian Christmas school drama. This is revealed on the basis of analysing the dramatic functions of a Choir in both school drama and Nativity play drama. A choir in these spectacles took an active part in revealing the Christmas story, playing the role of a character. What they had in common was the genre of spiritual chant with the syllabic versification. Despite its association with the high style of school drama, the Nativity play drama was a quite new theatrical genre that belongs to the middle stylistic level. Focusing on the folk environment, authors of the Nativity play drama intelligibly conveyed to a wide audience the sacred plot. It is noted that in the second act of the Nativity scene were adapted interludes of school dramas, which represented the lower stylistic level of the Baroque. In this act, a funny line came to the fore, and a musical component is marked by influences of the Ukrainian musical folklore with a predominance of its dancing variety. The interaction of folklore with the lower version of the Baroque had a great potential for the further development of the Ukrainian national theatre. Due to the fact that music was an integral part of the puppet Nativity play drama and played an important dramatic function, this theatrical spectacle, like some school dramas, had the features of the drama with music genre. Thus, school drama and Nativity play drama created the foundation, on which in the XIXth century, the Ukrainian dramaturgy emerged, with a significant role of the musical factor in it, which was essentially a drama with music.

Revelation in the Visual Arts

This chapter deals with visual artworks as media of divine revelation. Readers gain insight into how Christianity as a religion of revelation has used images since the third century to transmit knowledge of God and his action in history. Early Christian pictures rate among the oldest communication media of revelation. Placed intentionally above the altar, the apse mosaics of late antique churches served anagogical purposes leading beyond the pictorial work to transcendent realities. The perception of images in the Middle Ages could represent the beginning of anagogical ascent towards the divine, engaging the viewer’s imagination. In Renaissance and baroque art occurred a rhetorical shift. Gazes and pointing gestures of the figures draw the viewer’s attention to the stage-like performance of the divine in a perspectival or visionary space. The issue frequently became controversial in contemporary history because the concord between artistic self-expression and the Judaeo-Christian understanding of revelation was no longer a given. At present, the individual responses to divine revelation continue.

A KNIGHT IN THE SERVICE OF ART. HANNA BENESZ IN MEMORIAM (1947–2019)

Hanna Benesz graduated from the Institutes: of Art History and of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw. Her whole career launched in 1975 remained inseparably connected with the National Museum in Warsaw, where she worked at the Gallery of European Art curating the Flemish and Dutch collections. She followed all the promotion steps: from assistant to curator. Benesz strongly believed that museum curator’s job was grounded in a perfect knowledge of the collection. Thanks to her research conducted into the paintings amassed in National Museum’s storerooms, she successfully attributed a substantial number of works and identified provenance of many. She studied iconography applying research methods worked out by iconology. Moreover, she focused on the paintings’ technical condition, this occasionally leading to spectacular ‘restorations’, e.g. the identification of a genuine work by Abraham Janssens (ca 1575–1632) the Lamentation of Christ in a forgotten work, previously considered to be a copy. Author and co-author of many exhibitions, she cooperated with museum curators around the world. Her exhibition on Baroque art reached as far as Japan. Benesz’s intention was not only to present the paintings from the National Museum’s collections through a direct contact of visitors with the works, but also in publications, mainly in English and online. As soon as she became curator, together with Maria Kluk she focused on working out the reasoned catalogue Early Netherlandish, Dutch, Flemish and Belgian Paintings 1494–1983 in the Collections of the National Museum in Warsaw and the Palace at Nieborów. Complete Illustrated Summary Catalogue, published in 2016. A year later, the Catalogue was honoured with the main prize in the Sybilla Competition in the category for publications, while the King of the Netherlands awarded Hanna Benesz with the chivalric Order of Orange-Nassau (Oranje-Nassau) of the 5th grade; she was decorated with it by the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands during the 20th CODART Congress held at the Warsaw Łazienki Palace. Not only was Hanna Benesz an outstanding museum curator and scholar, but also a trusted friend and a warm empathetic person, sensitive to other people’s misfortunes.

Stage Interpretation and Inner Transformations of the Image of the Hero in Baroque Art

The image of the Baroque hero — the martyr or righteous man — is of scholarly interest as an object of self-knowledge and a guide of the idea of inner transformations. The object of the research has been served to a great degree by Pedro Calderon’s play “The Constant Prince” and its stage manifestation, to a lesser degree Andreas Grifi us’ play “Catharina von Georgien.” The duplicity of inner nation typical of the baroque hero and the aspiration towards acquiring immortality are clearly refl ected in the mental scheme of the transition from death to resurrection. The protagonist’s outward suffering and death are perceived in this context as a symbolic refl ection of the inner sufferings of the soul capable of enlightenment and a mystical unifi cation with God. The scenic image of Don Fernando (“The Constant Prince”) is presented in the directorial images of Vsevolod Meyerhold (1915), Jerzy Grotowski (1965) and Boris Yukhananov (2013). This makes it possible to trace on various temporal stages the baroque hero’s change of perception from a positive to a negative scenario. Whereas the positive scenario of the image’s transformation asserts the process of attaining God, the negative scenario denies the possibility of spiritual reawakening and displaces God beyond the scope of the hero’s inner space, turning the hero from a savior into a victim.