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Waldemar Deluga

The History of Studics over the Orthodos Art on the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries in Volv

Even though studies over the Byzantine and post-Byzantine art in Central Europę have been developed for many decades. there are still a lot of works leA to do in order to see a whole piclure of artistic environments comiected with an activity of the Orthodox Church. The works of the Orthodox ~. especially icons are scattered and gathered mostly in museum collections of Ukrainę. Poland. Slovakia and Romania. Also sonie private collections are being created now, within which appear objects tliat art. important for a development of the post-Byzantine art. Tlie new collections of the Ortliodox Chuch are being forined too. Their tliorough elaboration reąuires separated publications on each museum complex, above all in a context of an occurrcnce of icons in sequences corresponding with each ikonostas. In previous scientific works they have been generally analysed separately. often without any reflection upon their liturgical context.

The presented history of scientific studies over the Orthodox art on the tum of the nineteenth of the twentieth centuries. with a special regard to a Lvov em iromnent indicates ways for further scietific im estigations. Tlie post-war researches were done in otlier conditions. A tliorough separation of scien~,,=-. a,, a closure of borders caused a situation inwhich representatives of each nation continued a scientific work on ftheir own. and tlierefore there are such great divergences in results of their studies. It is worth mentioning herc a scientific activity of Mieczysław Gębarowicz who left in Lvov to continue his study on art of the region. In the latest works on the Byzantine art. art historians frequently make use of both engraw and photographs and treat them as a comparative materiał to elaborate painting or arcliitecture. Howewer these works concem western art. The author States tliat an elaboration of the Orthodox painting fro tlie foriner Polish Commonwealth needs not only comparative studies in an aspect of a dependence of the word upon the picture and in a field of' indirect coinparative studies¹ among works coming from different religious emiromnents. but also reconstructions of iconographical programmes. e.g. an arrangement iconostases which are extremely important into a liturgical sphere. The works of tliis kind can be created only by means of iconographical pattems which allow us to know all the problems concerning the art of the Ortliodox Church in detaiL

Translated by Joaima paczos

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