Ancient Belarusian Art Ancient Belarusian Art

	Ancient Belarusian Art

• - Belarusian Art of the 19th century
• - Belarusian Art of the 20th century
• - Russian Art of the 18th – early 20th centuries
• - European Art of the 16th – 20th centuries
• - Oriental Art of the 14th – 20th centuries

The ancient Belarusian art collections of the Museum are extraordinary diverse and rich in contents. These are monuments that were created during a great time period – from grey antiquity of early feudal society, heritage of Polatsk and Turau-Pinsk principalities of the 10-12^th cc. – till the epoch of baroque enlightenment of the 18^th century and even the first half of the 19^th century. Collection of ancient Belarusian decorative and applied art has particularly wide temporary borders. It includes archeological discoveries from excavations  in ancient Belarusian cities of the 10-16^th cc. - domestic subjects, which in its performance gain the nature of real  medieval craft works - chess figures, home glass tableware, beads, embellishments, and also splendid samples of the sacral religious art - stone carved worn-close-to the body icons, cross-encolpions, as well as works of the Belarusian gold smiths - artists-jewellers of the 16-18^th centuries: liturgical chalices, monstrances, Gospel covers, calixes, chasubles - metallic icon-settings, votive silver plates. The collection also includes samples of weaving and embroidery of the 17^th – early 19^th centuries: Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church chasubles from fabric of the European and local production, samples of the famous Slutsk belts of the second half of the 18^th – early 19^th centuries, belts of Grodno factories.

The 17^th century saw enormous fame of "Belarusian carving". Belarusian master-carvers on wood and on gold created remarkable altars and iconostases not only in the native land, but also in Muscovy. The museum funds and expositions have samples of such highly artistic works:  iconostasis basilikos, carved rows, baroque cartouches, decorated with a relief cut carving, as well as with scenes, executed in high relief technology and round voluminous sculpture. The museum collection of sculpture and carving of ancient Belarusian art has such masterpieces of wooden plastics and sculptures of Belarus, as the basilikos of late 16^th century from Varanilavichy, two late Gothic sculptures of archangels from small villages of Sharashova and Yalava, baroque sculptures from Polatsk and Kobryn.

The ancient Belarusian icon and sacral painting collection is one of most valuable in our country. This is the largest collection of Belarusian icon painting works in Belarus. It displays the history of original religious painting development, history of the Belarusian icon from late 15^th century (image of The Virgin Hodegetria of Slutsk) till early 19^th century. The monuments of early 19^th century still possess the traditional line of the classical Belarusian icon: carved gilded and silvered backgrounds, especial iconic plots and images. Icons "Christ Pantocrator" from Bytsen and "The Virgin Hodegetria" from Dubyanets – works dated from the second half of 16^th century, "The Ascension of Christ" of middle 17^th  century from Bezdzezh, "The Nativity of the Virgin" of 1649 by Pyotr Yasuseyevich from Halynets are pearls of the ancient Belarusian icon painting collection.

It is known that Belarusian artists of the 16^th – early 18^th centuries did not usually sign their works. However, there are several works in the museum collection, by inscriptions on which it is possible to know the name of their authors – artists of the 18^th – early 19^th centuries: Vasyl Markiyanavich from Slutsk, Tomash Silinich from Mahilyou.

As far as laic portrait painting making up a separate collection in the Museum’s ancient Belarusian art fund of is concerned, it is possible to name more names of the artists - their creators:  the 17^th-century artists, who worked in Nyasvizh and Vilnya - Daniel Shults and Iohann Schretter, in Vroclav and Gdansk - Bartholomeus Strobel, the 18^th-century artist who worked in Nyasvizh -  Josef Ksawery Heski. The Radziwiłł’s ex-collection portraits from their Nyasvizh Castle form the basis of the Museum’s ancient Belarusian portrait collection. They are complemented with the so called "Sarmatian portraits" – portrait scenes of the Belarusian szlachta members in their traditional "Sarmatian" dress from different private homestead galleries and Hrodna Convent of St. Bridget (portraits of Kshyshtaf and Alyaksandra-Maryanna Veselovskys and their adopted daughter Gryzelda Sapeha). The Museum’s branch "The Wankowiczes' House" exhibits an ancient Belarusian portrait collection part – from samples of the 17^th century till homestead portraits of the 19^th century, that preserve conventionality and representativeness  features traditional for Belarusian Sarmatian portrait: family crests and informative inscriptions, conditional motions, frozen facial expression, special attention to the dress details.

The largest part of the museum ancient Belarusian art collection, which, with the exception of the above named items, also has a collection of handwritten books and early printing works, has been found during the Museum’s exhibition around Belarus. It arrived at the museum funds basically from closed Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in 1970-1990-s. Many works were seriously damaged. They were thoroughly restored by restorers and presently, in spite of fragmentary safety, amaze us with harmony of paints and accuracy of drawing.

The Museum’s ancient Belarusian art collection has monuments, which arrived at the museum collections of Belarus as early as 1920-s, survived World War II and were returned after the war from abroad. In the second half of 1940-s - 1960-s they were returned to the Art Museum and formed the basis of the museum ancient Belarusian art collection.

You can see the most valuable works of the ancient Belarusian art collection of the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus on its constant exposition or on temporary exhibitions.