87 sacred portraits of the 14th-20th centuries

The publication contains 87 portraits of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the museum repository of Borys Voznytsky Lviv National Art Gallery, which have never been displayed before. And so, these portraits can be seen not only on the exhibition itself, which is ongoing at Picture Gallery on Stefanyka Street, but also in this album.

Maria Soiko is the exhibition’s curator – and she compiled the album as well. Soiko says that the museum has more than 66,000 artifacts in storage, “but only 6-8 percent of that we manage to put on display.” Working in the repository, she decided to arrange an exhibition of 87 icons dating from 14th through 20th centuries. “In a while, we will hide these treasures behind the repository walls again. And maybe someone in a hundred years from now will put them on display again. That’s why I wanted to create the catalog,” Soiko said at the album presentation before art historians and members of the clergy.

“The effort put into this exhibition is by all means a feat,” says Roman Vasylyk, dean of the Sacred Art department of Lviv National Art Academy. “And when the effort develops into such a beautiful publication, we are making history.”

Professor Roman Yatsiv, art historian and vice-rector of Lviv Art Academy, considers the catalog to be a very professional work that enables a deeper interpretation of different periods of Ukrainian art – on which many books so far fail to provide a broader perspective, ignoring the art context of other countries of these periods. “It shows that there are artistic environments in Ukraine that are capable of representing the cultural heritage of Ukrainians and other peoples, as well as the cultural dialog between them that occurred throughout the centuries, on a much higher quality level than before,” Yatsiv asserts.