Fresco Painting of the Late Eighteenth Century in the Interior of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Ivankiv, Zhytomyr Region

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the late eighteenth-century fresco painting in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the village of Ivankiv, Zhytomyr Region, Ukraine, which until now has remained outside the scope of scholarly and art-historical research. The research methodology includes a comparative analysis of archival and iconographic materials, as well as methods of artistic-stylistic analysis and reconstruction. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the first introduction into scholarly circulation of a number of sources from the public archives of the Zhytomyr Region related to the history of the church’s construction and existence, its confessional affiliation, and the emergence of its interior painting. It is noted that the church was built according to a cross-in-square architectural scheme, with the central bay crowned by an octagonal dome with four windows. The large cupola rests on four pylons by means of pendentives, dividing the interior space into nine compartments. Owing to the period of its construction, the building exhibits stylistic features of late Baroque with elements of emerging Classicism. The quadrature painting on the walls and the dome of the sacral building’s inner space is analyzed; data concerning the stylistic, artistic and compositional characteristics of the painting are introduced, and the dates and names of the painters are specified. The article examines the possibility that the fresco ensemble was executed by the Trinity monk Ioann Prehtl (known in monastic life as Joseph of St. Theresa), his disciples, or members of his circle. The conclusions state that the quadrature painting of the church belongs to the works produced by artists from the circle of this notable painter in the late eighteenth century. Archival materials partially confirm that the illusory-architectural elements with perspectival foreshortenings were executed by a single artist or a group of artists, while the narrative and thematic compositions in rocailles, on the dome pendentives, in the aediculae between the pillars, and in the medallions were created by other painters.