[000:00:28;00] the belarusian icon painting school was formed over several centuries and this happened under the influence of many factors, for example, the style of the renaissance , which was based on the traditions of byzantine and old russian art, influenced the formation and historically established polyconfessionalism, the interaction of several religions and religious movements, the artistic heritage of the 16th century , starting

from famous masterpieces, ancient berussian art, ending with icons previously unknown to the mass audience. in addition, on the exhibition presents works whose restoration has not been completed, as well as fragments of monuments that will help to better trace the course of development of the original style of belarusian icon painting in the 16th century. why is the 16th century called the golden age of belarusian icon painting? we’ll find out from the head of the ancient berussian art department. national art museum of the republic of belarus elena korpenko. elena vladilenovna, good afternoon. hello, the exhibition is dedicated to the memory of a unique person, both in the history of belarus and in the history of the entire orthodox church, exarch metropolitan of slutsk and minsk, filoret. tell us what contribution he made to the development of belarusian iconography. metropolitan

philoret, honorary patriarch of all belarus. made a huge contribution to the development of modern icon painting in belarus in that he founded many new dioceses during his ministry, and icon painting workshops were formed in almost every diocese; the need for them was very great, because in connection with such a very active fight against religion in our lands, in the sixties and seventies, many churches were closed, with the arrival of the metropolitan... they began their revival; he made a huge contribution to the formation of our museum collection by blessing the transfer to our museum of nine works of the zhurovichi iconostasis. do you think iconography is understandable to everyone, or should people still possess some special skills, knowledge when visiting

this kind of exhibition, special knowledge, preparation are simply necessary, because the icon of belarus and the icon in general, first of all, it is symbolic, it is addressed to the high, spiritual, it shows events with plots that need to be known in the texts, first of all, in order to understand what is happening, a person who wants to understand the icon, know the icon , admire it, stand before it, pray, must have certain knowledge, and now it is necessary to say , that our public went much more prepared than it was , say, 15 or 20 years ago, but returning to your question, preparation is really needed, and many come for it both to church and to the museum. why do you think do people experience some special trepidation when they are in front of an icon?

i think this is primarily because the icon illustrates the world: the heavenly, sublime world, the inaccessible world, not always accessible to human consciousness, much here is accepted, so to speak, a priori, without interpretation, we only see what the icon painter depicts, we accept it as a given, we worship this, we pray to the sacred image and expect support from it, we pin our hopes on it, all that remains for us is: only by our righteous life, by our behavior, by our humility, to earn this support, from above, all this is embodied precisely in the prayerful, icon image. we live our own lives, according to our own laws, with our own

traditions, but why should someone interfere in the internal affairs of our country? they believed that they could enslave russia, and seize its resources, a huge market , huge... in order to drive a european into a multinational russian, you need to deprive him of the memory of what all previous attempts led to, the cossacks in paris, and that’s why these monuments must be removed, because these are the conditions of a future war, today there is a huge the number of people come to us from different countries, how much they fall in love with our native belarus, the marks have nothing personal , watch the 24 show on the belarus tv channel, in which

two worlds are united, a virtual game and real fights, they do not ask for the slightest mistake from each other, the opponent’s weakness will do it to their advantage. i have to test myself for strength, when i stood on this platform, my legs just started to get cold, my knees themselves, they will prove not in words, in deeds, who is the hero of our time, it was the first of course it’s scary for a minute, i didn’t expect that my hands would hurt so much, the tests have become more complicated, oh-oh, look, he’s pulling forward, come on, come on! come on higher, well, there’s a little bit left, well, let’s crawl,

watch the heroes project on our tv channel. belarusian icon painting is one of the unique components of world artistic culture. it was in belarusian icons that such picturesqueness first appeared. and even a noble portrait, they demonstrate a variety of styles of directions from monuments that maximally follow the ancient the byzantine canon to the works of the baroque classical style, so on the icons of the 18th century the clothes and hands of the mother of god can be depicted strictly according to the canon, but the face is painted as realistically as possible, belarusian painters freely combine catholic... colors of clothes and other details with cyrillic inscriptions on the contrary. as for our days, modern painters still use egg emulsion to prepare paints and paint holy faces on wooden

boards. the national art museum employs 20 specialists in the field restoration, four of whom are exclusively engaged in the restoration of icons, in a restoration workshop, as in the office of a chemical collaborator. various jars and vessels with solutions, you can even see surgical instruments, just brushes with paints, instill the idea that a human artist is working here, this is how restoration artist olga mikhailova brings icons back to life every day. we are in a scientific restoration workshop where real masterpieces are created, please tell us more about how is happening... restoration and what is necessary for this process to take place competently, the custodians of things, namely ancient belarusian art, they have a plan for the restoration of things that are priority things that need

restoration, those things that are in serious condition , first of all, they go to the physics and chemical research, x-rays, ultraviolet, etc. are performed, and with these studies... things go to the restoration council, and when everything has already been approved, recorded, everything is signed, the restorer has already begun work, and when the work is already completed, tinted, covered with a final layer of varnish, it is also handed over to the restoration council, a restoration passport is written, which indicates all the activities that the restorer carried out ... taking into account that you, as an artist, the restorer needs for work, we have different tools, including electric spatulas with different attachments, this is used for strengthening, various irons,

cast iron, which weigh from a kilogram and up to two and up to three, well, that is, they are heavy, then we have medical instruments, these are scalpels, various ones, probes, fluoroplastic spatulas, various films, which, for example , when you strengthen, let’s say thermal films, they don’t, well, they don’t allow... to perform an burn, well, that is, it protects, a restorer, he must follow strict rules, and in general, when you come to an exhibition and look at icons or oil paintings, you should not feel that anything at all happened to this thing, although there could be a lot of different processes going on there, but viewer

should not even know this and not feel it, when we strengthen the paint layer, a new discovery occurs, that is, things are under the layer of recording, that is, someone renewed them or someone restored them, in such, say, a planned restoration, a quick restoration goes into a longer process, with opening to the bottom. through the efforts of all belarusian artistic centers, cities and towns, orthodox and non-hellish monasteries, church brotherhoods, as well as the efforts of belarusian writers, theologians and talented canopists, a spiritual the richness and artistic perfection of the belarusian icon, this gives reason to consider them one of the important acquisitions of the national artistic heritage, the exceptional contribution of belarusians to the treasury of world artistic culture, but what about icons and natural italian stone. oleg

vitalievich popelsky has been manufacturing unique and one-of-a-kind stone products for more than 30 years. real works of art are born in his own factory, how icons appeared in the life of a master, why of all natural he preferred stone materials, we’ll find out right now. at first glance it may seem that the icons are similar, but this is not so. and each icon has its own distinctive features, tell us more about this. our icons are very different, have serious fundamental differences from the picturesque, icon-painted icons. what is their difference? first of all, it is a stone, it is the nature of a stone, it is unique. and in this regard, if you take a closer look at each one. icon and try to compare, you

look and find that not a single icon similar to each other, they each in their own way, each in their own way radiates their energy, their heat, this is how internal energy works, and the nature of the stone, this is a fundamental difference, they say this, gather all the icon painters together, they will not repeat what... what we will do, within the framework of our professional activities, we are working on creating one icon, the essence here is that nature itself, it is stones, is unique to this material, and therefore, each time starting a new work, we essentially have a new material that has its own pattern, our own color scheme, so we end up with what you

found on our icons. the icons are made of natural italian marble stone. why did you choose italian marble, since it is considered one of the most expensive materials? well, let’s say, preference is given to marble here, because it is a traditional material in stone processing, architectural forms, it is a very plastic material that can be easily processed, but i would like to say the following, there is not only marble, you are there you can see onyx, you can see there, trovertine, and how these works of art are born, because it is very painstaking, difficult work, we have different directions of sacred themes, and these are orthodox, catholic, we have done a lot in understanding

the sacred values ​​of judaism, muslims, that is, such a significant idea was to create a museum of sacred values ​​in stone, multi-confessional belarus, your creative piggy bank is not only an image of the faces of saints, but you are also the author of such a trend as homages made of stone, so tell us more about this, deeply