The development of the Ukrainian icon during the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries

• Main Author: Igor Kovalchuk
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Ukrainian Association of Researchers of Religion (UARR) 2015-12-01
• Series: Українське Pелігієзнавство
• Online Access: https://uars.info/index.php/uars/article/view/600

There are very few monuments of icon art of the 13th-15th centuries, but they give a great opportunity to learn a lot about the state of the Ukrainian Church of that time, about the strengthening of faith, and also about the stylistic quest for Ukrainian artists. The development of the iconography of those centuries in Ukraine marked the Tatar-Mongol invasion. When a person or a whole nation falls into a difficult situation, faith in God grows, spirituality rises. Monuments of culture of the XIII-XV centuries record especially jealous hope in God, the strengthening of the religiosity of different sections of the people. From this time there is hardly any secular art: everything preserved is permeated with Christian religiosity. In these years, such great temples are not already built, as in the early centuries of Christianity in Russia, but small, but well-fortified churches throughout Ukraine are built. There are also various centers of icon-painting. Their masters focused mainly on the ancient art of Kiev, introduced in their samples many local elements. Icons painted in various spiritual centers, in particular in the monasteries, are striking by their monumentality and severity, which reflected that day (See: The History of Ukrainian Art, Vol. 6, vol., 1968).