Olha KHARIV on the Volyn Icon Museum
The uniqueness of the Volyn Icon Museum in northwestern Ukraine’s Volyn region can be discerned already from its name. The collection of the museum includes 1500 pieces of sacred art, with more than 600 icons of the Volyn school of the 16th through 18th centuries, as well as metal-plastics, decorative etching, and sculpture. The exhibit halls permanently exhibit 80 icons, a collection already restored. The rest of the icons are shown in occasional topical exhibitions due to lack of space. Exhibits currently on display include, for instance, “Volyn Etching, 16th-17th centuries” and “Engraving in Volyn Sacred Art,” where visitors can see covers of icons and Gospels of the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Eleven icons of the Volyn tempera tradition, and later periods of Roman Catholic church decoration (18th and 19th centuries) returned from restoration at the Ukrainian Academy of Arts last year. According to Tetiana Yeliseyeva, director of the museum, canvas art from Roman Catholic churches, as well as icons from Ukrainian Greek Catholic churches (the Orthodox Eparchy in Volyn ceased to exist in 1617), represent the most interesting material in recent research and form the basis for future expositions of oil paintings.
The idea of holding pieces of sacred art constantly on display emerged during archaeological expeditions of 1981 – 1985 which included members of the museum and were led by Pavlo Zholtovskyi, following a request by the Ministry of Culture to explore worship buildings of the region and register pieces of art. These expeditions were basically undertaken to save art: two-thirds of churches were closed at the time, their icons covered with mold, with gesso deteriorating, and entire parts disappearing. Part of the cult objects were added to the funds of ethnographic museums of Volyn and Rivne, the neighboring region, and those that were in urgent need of restoration were sent to research workshops of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts. The 26 rescued icons were first publicly displayed in an exposition entitled “The Cult of the Saints in the Orthodox Church” in the early 1990s. A later exposition, “Volyn Iconography of the 16th through 18th Centuries,” along with articles by a prominent Lviv-based researcher, Oleh Sydor, on the Volyn Painting School, became a starting point for arguing in support of a separate museum. The largest collection of Volyn icons in Ukraine provided the opportunity of showing stages of development of the local iconographic tradition. Unfortunately, examples of ancient iconography of the period of medieval princes went to other museums, thus the Volyn Mother of God from the 12th-13th centuries is still at the National Arts Museum, and the Mother of God of Drahomyr from the early 13th century is at the Rivne ethnographic museum. Still, most icons from the defining period of the 16th to eighteenth centuries remained here.
In the early 1990s, the Volyn Ethnographic Museum Department of Religion, whose employees collected sacred objects, was based in the non-active Church of Sts. Peter and Paul. When the former Museum of Atheism was given over to the Roman Catholic community, the issue of moving its rich collection arose. Rather unexpectedly, the Volyn Region Branch of the Security Service of Ukraine granted their premises for rent. The ethnographers renovated the building, prepared storerooms, and finally opened the new Volyn Icon Museum in 1993. However, when icons were moved from the church, it transpired that a restoration workshop needed to be created immediately, because a collection of this size could not be moved in one day. Professionals from the Lviv Department of the Kyiv Restoration Center and students of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts were incorporated into the preparation process. “We are very grateful,” said Tetiana Yeliseyeva, “to Fr. Ludwig Kamilewski, then-pastor of the Roman Catholic community, for not ousting us for an entire year, and keeping the icons in the church.” Meanwhile, problems arose with the security service: after two years, for no apparent reason, our landlords asked the museum to leave. There were attempts to resolve the scandal by addressing letters to the Ministry of Culture and a special Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament. Finally, the museum community was given a two-storey building downtown, which, to the joy of the tired scholars, was rebuilt with consideration for special conditions the museum needed, such as autonomous heating, air conditioning, fire and burglar alarms, a modern and properly-equipped restoration workshop and proper storerooms. The first visitors of 2001 had the opportunity to see the restored and never-before shown icons “The Savior in Glory,” from the first half of the 16th century (restored by Anatolii Kvasiuk), “Deisis,” from the first half of the 17th century, and “The Life of St. John the Apostle,” from the 18th century.
There are several resources for the museum to use to add new works to its stock. First of all, there are scholarly expeditions (22 in the period of 1997 through 2003). These expeditions research churches by authorization of eparchial authorities of the Ukrainian Orthodox churches of the Kyivan as well as Moscow patriarchates. It should be said that the museum has a full picture of what icons are kept in the churches, thanks to descriptions of the 1980s, and all valuable objects from that time on have been counted and registered, so any change can easily be discovered. Many of these icons are no longer used in religious services, and the communities painlessly give them over to the museum. In this way, a 16th-century icon of St. George, for instance, was found in the bell tower of the village of Holoby, Kovel district. This is the oldest depiction of the saint, whose cult spread throughout the region, because of Prince Volodymyr Vasylkovych, who had a Church of St. George built in Liuboml in the 13th century. The icon was restored by Iryna Melnyk, a Lviv-based professional. The money for the restoration was provided by Bishop Nyfont of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate. Another dramatic instance took place in the village of Mateiky, Manevychi district, where old icons of the apostles were nailed to the wall in the attic. When the restorers started taking the icons down, wood crumbled. The scholars had doubts as to whether the icons could be saved. Only later did it turn out, to their relief, that the woodworm only destroyed the one, “plain” board that the icons were affixed to.
Sacred objects are added to museum not only as a result of expeditions or as gifts (like the icon of the Kholm Mother of God, donated by Nadia Horlytska, a well-known Volyn civic activist). Volyn customs have repeatedly given the museum icons taken from smugglers (usually examples of Russian iconography of the 18th and 19th centuries). A collection of 330 icons was put together as a result, and a “Resurrection to Ascension” exhibition was based on it. A collection of icons from Gospel covers was formed the same way. The icons feature interesting gold and silver incrustations in classical and rococo styles, and original subjects, such as “Weep Not for Me, O Mother,” “The Joy of All Afflicted,” “The Softening of Evil Hearts,” and “The Three Persons of God.” According to Tetiana Yeliseyeva, director of the museum, “these icons are not typical for Ukrainian iconography. They started appearing in Russia, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but after the Third Partition of Poland, when Volyn territories were included into the Russian Empire, these icons are found in our churches. It is difficult to establish whether religious objects taken at the border were bought or stolen. Experience tells us that icons in many churches are unfortunately not counted, registered and photographed, as is the practice in Poland.”
RISU’s Ukrainian-language site posted this article on 31 March 2005