Italians introduced collection of Russian icons in Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes!

You will be able to see a real miracle in the Treasury Chamber of the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes! The Italians presented the collection of icons of the south-western region of Russia! Svetlana and Ugo Rizzo live in two countries. They have been collecting icons for more than 15 years. “First time Ugo brought three icons”, said his wife Svetlana. “We didn’t understand anything in them at that time. He was told that they were rather rare. A week later we looked for some rare cameras, oil stoves and lamps and he showed me that place where he had bought the icons. I looked and saw similar icons there. Absolutely the same! I was told that an icon-painter used to live there and painted such icons for the whole neighbourhood… Then we stated to read a lot about the works of Old Russian art. Our collection was replenished with some icons from Vologda, Veliky Ustyug. But we really like the Old Believers’ icons of Vetka and Starodubye”.

Every image is imbued with light, is sacred and brings good news. You feel in a different way even at the museum display presenting the icons. The collection of Vetka and Starodubye that was insufficiently studied until now has been introduced in Ferapontovo. Probably, this event was to take place in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Where else?

At the opening ceremony of the exhibition in the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes which the whole academic community and collectors of antiques from three countries (Russia, Italy and Latvia) attended, Mikhail Chernov, art expert, collector and editor of the magazine “Antikvariat”, noted, “I made acquaintance with Svetlana and Ugo Rizzo at the vernissage long ago. They told me that they were collecting icons and I suggested that they should focus on a certain region because the icons would have both spiritual and scientific value then. They said that they liked Vetka and admitted that they would collect icons of Vetka. I approved their choice and helped them with some pieces of advice during the whole life. Now Svetlana and Ugo Rizzo have about 50 icons in their collection”.

Vetka (a small inland on the Sozh River (the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, now – the Gomel region of Belarus, called after the strait surrounding it and making up a branch (vetka) of the river) and Starodubye (the territories of the Bryansk region in Russia and the Chernigov Oblast in Ukraine at present) are among the most important Old Believers’ centres. These areas hosted opponents of the crown and Patriarch Nikon’s innovations who were subjected to severe persecution in the late 17th – 18th centuries.

The history of these areas, including colonization and arrival of the first priests, the tsar’s policy directed to fight with the Old Ritualists, construction and consecration of the unique church of the Old Believers - the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin, its dismantling, persecution of monks and their reunion is presented in the Treasury Chamber of the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes.

Irina Buseva-Davydova, Doctor of Art History, chief research officer of the Research Institute of Theory and History of Fine Arts in the Russian Academy of Arts, said about the collection of Svetlana and Ugo Rizzo, “Such a collection of icons of that epoch can be found neither in Russia, nor in the world. But our friends have it! I thought why the Italians were collecting Russian icons… Probably, because they are sensitive to any art in general!”

“Vetka remained a blind spot until recently. A great number of the icons of Vetka were brought abroad due to the proximity of borders. They replenished the collections in Germany, Italy…Thanks to this collection presented in the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes, we have a chance to see what Vetka and Starodubye were and to get the information gathered by the collectors. Nobody has introduced a more detailed summary about the collection of the Old Believers’ icons of the south-west”, said the art critics.

You won’t see such a collection of icons of Vetka and Starodubye displayed in Ferapontovo now anywhere else. The friends of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve – Italians Rizzo – have first presented it to the public. “Masters of Vetka made panels for icons without a kovcheg (a recessed square or rectangular central area for the main image) using softwood (aspen, poplar). As a rule, the background and margins were covered with gold plate on which they created diverging pattern. Sometimes they applied imitation gilding. The use of some painting methods on gold shows that local icon-painters knew the icons of the Armoury Chamber”, said the participants of the opening ceremony.

You will be able to see the icon-painting heritage of Vetka and Starodubye in the Treasury Chamber of the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes till the end of summer. Then it will be brought to Italy, to that place where the collectors Rizzo live.

The Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve and its branch - the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes – have implemented joint projects with the state museums lately. But as museum director Mikhail Sharomazov said, “We return to our previous outlooks on life – show unique collections of some collectors. The works of art from the collection of Svetlana and Ugo Rizzo are of historical, cultural and artistic value and they considerably enrich our knowledge about the spiritual heritage of Vietka and Starodubye – these very important icon-painting centres of modern times”.

The first exhibition in Russia presenting the Old Believers’ icons of Vetka and Starodubye was opened in the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes. Italians Svetlana and Ugo Rizzo introduced their collection.