Dear Friends!

We congratulate you sincerely on the feast of the Holy Trinity! We wish you peace, goodness, love, health, happiness, and all the best!

On this occasion, we present to your attention unique artifacts from the interior of the Trinity Gate Church of the National Kyiv-Pechersk Historical and Cultural Preserve.

Take a trip to our virtual museum during your coffee or tea break and make your #quarantinediscoveries!

The gem of the Preserve's collection is the icon of the Mother of God Bratska of the Lavra painting school (the 20-30s of the 18th c.), from the iconostasis of the Trinity Gate Church of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. This is an outstanding work among the copies of the Mother of God Bratska icon of 1692-1704 from the Epiphany Cathedral of the Brotherhood Monastery in Podil (collection of the National Art Museum of Ukraine). The icon from the Trinity Church has certain deviations from the original - a different inclination of the head of Christ, the position of his legs and the hands of the Mother, who supports the feet of Christ the Child. The full-length Virgin stands in the clouds, which is the peculiarity of this icon in comparison with other copies. Another specificity of the icon are  embossed cartouches with monograms of the Virgin and Christ, framed with garlands of fruits, flowers and shells and supported by putti. Only the paired icon of the Savior from the same iconostasis has the same relief decoration.

In the 17th-18th centuries, the icon subject of the Mother of God Bratska was known in the eastern Ukrainian and Belarusian lands and in Galicia. This is the “Tender Feeling” of the “Roman” type. It seems to combine two icon types: “Eleusis” (“Merciful”) and “Glycophilus” (“Sweet Kiss”). Baby Jesus' face touches the left cheek of the Mother of God. The icon conveys the tenderness of communication between Mother and Son. Since the Mother of God also symbolizes the Church of Christ, the icon depicts the fullness of love between God and man. Love combines heavenly and earthly, divine and human in the icon, which is expressed by the touch of faces and the combination of halos.

Under unknown circumstances, the icon was lost for several decades. It is believed that during the Second World War it disappeared from the Veneration tier of iconostasis. In 1969 it was found in the Pokrovsky Convent in Kyiv and returned to the Preserve by a group of famous scientists (L. Milyaeva, G. Logvin, L. Chlenova, I. Dorofienko and others), who worked at the commission of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR, created to compile a register of artistic values of churches in Kyiv.

The icon was restored in 1979–1982 by the restorer of the highest category A. Beliay.

Let’s #stayathome and discover the beauties of the Preserve’s collection together!

#museumfromhome, #museumcoffeebreak, #museumteabreak