Interregional scientific conference in Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve was full of… surprises!

The Interregional Scientific Conference “St. Kirill Belozersky and Rare Iconography Variants” was held in the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve during two days. Art critics from different countries – Russia, Italy and Latvia – gathered in the House of the Father Superior.

Research officers of the St. Petersburg Institute for History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Arts (Moscow), the Central Andrey Rublev Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art (Moscow), the Vologda’s branch of the All-Russian Art Research and Restoration Centre named after Academician I.E. Grabar, the State Museum Association “Art Culture of the Russian North” (Archangelsk), Lomonosov Moscow State University, the State Research Institute for Restoration (Moscow), the Church Scientific Centre “Orthodox Encyclopedia” (Moscow), the Vologda State Museum-Preserve, the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve, the Moscow State Integrated Art and Historical Architectural and Natural Landscape Museum-Reserve, the National Gallery of the Komi Republic (Syktyvkar),  the Cherepovets Museum Association, the Collection of Russian Icons in the Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called (Moscow), the Research Institute of Theory and History of Fine Arts in the Russian Academy of Arts (Moscow), the magazine “Antikvariat” (Moscow), the Museum of Russian Icons in Peccioli (Italy), the Nevyansk Icon Museum (Yekaterinburg), the New Jerusalem Museum, the Institute of the Old Believers (Latvia), the Museum of History and Culture of the Old Believers (Borovsk), the N.N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (Moscow), the Museum of Russian Kerchiefs and Shawls (Pavlovsky Posad) gave their informative reports at the conference.

“The first part of the conference was about St. Kirill Belozersky, the fate of this monastery, its history… We considered the factors influencing the course life in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery and participation of Father Superiors in the policy of the country. A lot of attention was paid to the concept of rarity in the iconography of Russian saints and iconographic solutions in the hagiographic cycles”, explained M.N. Sharomazov, director of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve.

Zoya Dmitrieva, head of the Department of Ancient History of Russia in the St. Petersburg Institute for History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, reported about the monks’ donations of the 16th century to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Nikita Bashnin, research officer of the Historical Archive in the St. Petersburg Institute for History of the RAS, gave a serious report about veneration of St. Dionisy Glushitsky in the 15th-19th centuries. Dionisy Glushitsky is considered to be the creator of the lifetime image of St. Kirill Belozersky. It was presented by Natalya Sheredega, head of the Department of Old Russian Art in the State Tretyakov Gallery, in the Refectory of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve on June 22.

Elena Shchurina and Lidia Glysina, research officers of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve, spoke about the formation of the memorial complex of St. Kirill Belozersky and the churches consecrated in his name. Irina Buseva-Davydova, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts, shared her experience of classification of rare subjects and versions of Russian icon-painting with the participants of the conference.

Mikhail Chernov, famous art expert, editor of the magazine “Antikvariat”, presented the paper “Rare Iconography Variants of the Icons of Vetka and Starodubye from Svetlana and Ugo Rizzo Collection”. It was rather interesting to listen to the talk about the collection of Russian icons belonging to the Italians. But the best gift for the participants of the conference was the opening ceremony of the first exhibition in Russia presenting the Old Believers’ icons of Vetka and Starodubye from the unique collection of Svetlana and Ugo Rizzo. It was held in the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes on June 23. To see with your own eyes everything that Mikhail Chernov described devotedly was really great.

Surprises of the conference came one after another. This international event started with them! Right after the talk of Zoya Dmitrieva about the donations to the monastery, well-known collector Alexander Lipnitsky made a gift to the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve – the early printed Latin book on dogmatics of the 16th century. The unique edition given to director M.N. Sharomazov was handed over to the holdings of the museum at once.

The next conference on this scale will take place in the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve in 2018. Its subject was determined during the round table discussion in which the art experts and collectors participated: “Icons as Primary Source”. The collection of articles of the participants of the Interregional Scientific Conference “St. Kirill Belozersky and Rare Iconography Variants” will be prepared soon.

Art critics from Russia, Italy and Latvia participated in the conference “St. Kirill Belozersky and Rare Iconography Variants”