Kyiv school of icon painting

also: Kyivan school of icon painting

school c. 11th-13th centuries Kyivan Rus' Ukraine

With the Christianization of Rus' in the late tenth century, Byzantine icons and icon painters first arrived in Kyiv - Volodymyr the Great ordered icons for the Church of the Tithes from Chersonese. Within a century an indigenous school had formed around the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, whose icon-painting studio, founded at the turn of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, is credited to the monk Alimpiy and the deacon Hryhorii. Its style closely matched the contemporary mosaics of Saint Sophia in Kyiv, and by the twelfth century its influence reached across Kyivan Rus' - Galicia, Volhynia, Novgorod, Suzdal, and Yaroslavl. Fire and war destroyed most of the icons; only a handful of Kyivan panels survive from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the few named survivors - such as Saint Nicholas with Saints on the Borders and the lost Ihor's Mother of God - make the school rare and precious.

Будівля іконописної майстерні Києво-Печерської лаври, пам'ятка архітектури 19 ст.
Будівля іконописної майстерні Києво-Печерської лаври, пам'ятка архітектури 19 ст.CC BY 3.0 (credit: Ростислав Маленков) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Byzantine templates rendered locally: frontal, hieratic holy figures on gold grounds
  • Close kinship with Kyiv's contemporary mosaics - rich color fields and jeweled surfaces
  • Elongated, slender bodies with small heads and large, dark, expressive eyes
  • Linear, schematic drapery patterns drawn over weightless, floating figures
  • Painted in tempera on prepared wooden panels

Key figures

  • Volodymyr the Great (958-1015) — Grand Prince of Kyiv whose Christianization of Rus' created the school's foundation and first commissions
  • Yaroslav the Wise (c. 978-1054) — Grand Prince and patron of Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv, whose mosaics shaped the school's style
  • Alimpiy Pechersky (fl. late 11th-early 12th century) — Monk credited with founding the icon-painting studio of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra
  • Hryhorii (fl. late 11th-early 12th century) — Deacon and painter of the Lavra studio named in the Kyivan Cave Patericon

Example works

  • Saint Nicholas with Saints on the Borders — Unknown master (Kyiv school) (c. 1100)
  • Ihor's Mother of God — Unknown master (Kyiv Pechersk Lavra) (13th century)
  • Theotokos Orans (mosaic, Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv) — Unknown master (11th century)

Sources

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