Heorhiy Popov. Images of saints in altar paintings of the Refectory church

(in commemoration of the 970th anniversary of the first Chronicle about Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra)

Dear friends!

We are glad to introduce the next release of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra “Artistic Heritage” to you. Today we are going to continue acquainting you with the paintings of the Church of Sts. Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk (Refectory).

The first number of figures of saints, which were planned to be presented in the altar painting of the Refectory, was updated by the Ecclesiastical Council in 1904. The artist Heorhiy Ivanovych Popov had to paint six instead of four saints on the altar walls of the church. That is why, H. Popov painted two single images of the saints and two paired picturesque ones. Those were St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. Basil the Great, St. John Chrysostom, St. James the Brother of God, St. Gregory the Theologian and St. Gregory I the Great, Pope of Rome (St. Gregory the Dialogist).

Altar images of saints painted by H. Popov look quite similar to the characters of saints created by another artist Viktor Mykhailovych Vasnetsov in St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral. No doubt, H. Popov continued Vasnetsov’s traditions in expressing figurative and artistic meaning and used them as prototypes in his artistic works. For example, in the way it was done by V. Vasnetsov, he tried to concentrate his attention on such sacred attributes of saints as books, rather than giving the detailed painting of patterns on the liturgical vestments. Each time, while “decorating” book covers and fasteners, he did it in a new way trying to avoid repetition. He changed the angle under which saints held books in their hands but strictly adhered to the canons, depicting saints front-faced and against the gold background. Thus, H. Popov managed to avoid the rigidness of their images.

Prepared by Olena Pitateleva 
Senior research associate
Research Division of tudying Artistic Heritage of National Preserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” 

Captions to the illustrations:
Il. 1. H. I. Popov Sts. James the Brother of God and John Chrysostom. Paintings of the Church of Sts. Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk. Early 20th century.
Il. 2. V.M. Vasnetsov Saints. Paintings of St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral (Kyiv). The end of the 19th century.
Il. 3. H.I. Popov Saint Gregory the Theologian. Paintings of the Church of Sts. Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk. Early 20th century. Fragment