|
THE LVOV ART
GALLERY, founded in 1907,
is one of the
richest museums in our country. It was
after the reunificaton of
the Western Ukrainian lands within Soviet
Ukraine as a constituent
of the USSR that the museum has become
a true centre of artistic
culture and aesthtic education. Its collection
has been considerably
enriched. Nearly 1,000 works of art from
20 countries of the world
are now regularly displayed in the Gallery
halls, the total number
of exhibits exceeds 35 thousand paintings,
sculptural pieces, draw-
ings, works of decorative and applied arts.
In the 1950s, with the
assistance rendered by the museums of
Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev and other cities,
for the first time in the
Western regions of Ukraine, sections of
Russian Pre-revolutionary
and Soviet Art were set up in the Lvov
Art Gallery and now they
are constantly expanding.
The exposition is arranged
according to 'the historical and
chronological principle and gives an idea
of the complex process
of the development of world art from the
14th century up to our
days, of individual styles and trends of
fine arts in Europe and
in this country.
The exposition begins
with the works of Italian masters of
the 14th — 15th centuries. The high humanistic
and artistic achieve-
ments of the Renaissance are indicated
in the "Portrait of Antonio
Grimant" by the great Venetian painter
Titian, the "Portrait of an
Astronomer" (1522) by Marco Basaiti, the
works by masters of the
Leonardo da Vinci school. Prominent artists
of the Renaissance pe-
riod studied nature, learnt from it, and
the human being became for
them "the standard of all virtues".
The economic depression
and the Counter-Reformation in Italy in
the 1630s and 1640s led to a reappraisal
of the Renaissance values,
to a loss of humanistic ideals. The artists
of the new trend, manne-
rism that estabished itself at the time,
were infatuated with purely
formal problems, took themselves off nature,
laid emphasis on
subjective lines in their creative work.
Typical models of mannerism
are "Coral Fishing" (1950) tey Jacopo Zucchi
from Rome and the
"Portrait of a Young Noblewoman" (1558)
by Sofonisba Anguis-
ciola.
At the edge of the 16th
and the 17th centuries social conflicts
in Italy grow acute and bring about a struggle
in art—between
the relined, aristocratic tendency and
the democratic, realistic trend
started by Michelangelo da Caravaggio.
The Museum exposition
carries works of this period painted by
Guido Reni, Carlo Doici,
Guercino. The caravaggists are represented
by Bernardo Strozzi's
canvas "Apotsle Peter Healing a Palsied
Man", Pietro della
Vecchia's conversation pieces and by Giuseppe
Recco's still-life. Ba-
roque period can be traced in quite a few
paintings and sculptural
pieces.
The 18th century is
represented in the works by Venetian inas-
ters of decorative painting; Sebastiano
Ricci ("King David Carry-
ing the Ark to Jerusalem"), Gaspare Diziani
("The Vision of St.
Helen", 1750s), Pietro Antonio Novelli
("St. Mark the Evangelist",
c. 1762), portraits by Rosalba Carriera.
The exposition of the
Italian Art section is crowned with the
works by two most famous European sculptors
of the first half of
the 19th century—Antonio Canova and Bertel
Thorvaldsen, a Dane
who worked for a long time in Italy. His
"Tombstone of the Po-
ninski Children" (1837) was transferred
in the 1960s from the fa-
mily chapel to the Gallery halls.
The collection
of German Art covers the 15th — 19th centuries.
Early German painting is represented by
exceptionally valuable and
rare pieces: "Carrying a Cross" (1475)
of the Hans Multscher
school, an altar folding with one side-piece
bearing a composition
|
"Three Saints" by an anonymous Alsatian
artist of the last third
of the 15th century and the other side-piece
having "Coronation
with Backthorn" painted by Florian Winkler,
master of epitaph. In
these altar fragments the medieval Gothic
traditions are combined
with new, humanistic tendencies of the
Renaissance.
In his picture "Golgotha" (1535) Wolfgang
Krodel, captivated
by the progressive ideas of Lucas Cranach,
his teacher and one of
most outstanding masters of the German
Renaissance, rendered the
dramatic events with which the Peasant
War of 1525 ended.
In the 17th century German artists came
under a strong influ-
ence of Dutch and Italian arts, this being
tangible in the works by
lohann Karl Loth, lohann Heinrich and Philipp
Peter Roos that are
on display in the Gallery. Anton Raphael
Mengs, one of the most
outstanding representatives of German classicism,
is shown in the
Gallery as a ceremonial portrait
painter ("Portrait of Christof
Friedrich of Saxony") and master of the
profoundly psychological
and emotional portrait ("Portrait of the
Engraver F. Bartolozzi").
A small but valuable
collection of works of Netherlandish,
Flemish and Dutch art comprises the pictures
bv Lucas Gassel. Jan
van Scorel, Jan van Kessel the Elder, Pieter
Paul Rubens, mar-
vellous twin-portraits "Man with a Viola
da Gamba" and Woman
with a Guitar" (1631) by Gerrit van Honthorst,
a series of lands-
capes, still-life paintings and conversation
pieces by the leading
painters of those countries.
The gem of the
Spanish Art section is Francisco Goya's "Maja
on the Balcony".
French art is
represented by the works of the 17th— 18th mid
19th centuries, the most valuable among
them being the canvas
"At the Money-Lender's" ("Payment") by
Georges de la Tour.
This only work by la Tour, Lorrainese master
of the 17 th century,
to be found in the USSR enriched the master's
heritage comprising
by the time 32 paintings. Another gem of
the collection is the
"Portrait of Catherine Starzenska" (c.
1803) bv the famous painter
Francois Gerard.
The collection of Austrian
art in the Lvov Picture Gallery is
one of the most valuable among those available
in this country.
On display in this hell are sketches—studies
and designs of monu-
mental works and apse paintings by the
celebrated Austrian artists
of the 18th century Paul Troger, Franz
Anton Maulbertsch, Josef
Winterhalter the Younger, Franz Anton Paike.
The achievements in
ceremonial aristocratic portraiture of
the 19th century-are associa-
ted with the names of Jan Baptist Lampi
the Elder ("Portrait of
the Astronomer Joseph Lisganick", "Portrait
of an Unknown") and
Josef Grassi ("Portrait of Teresa Lubomiska
as Hebe", 1807).
In the hall of Foreign
Art of the end of the 19th and the first
lialf of lhe 20th centuries the vistor
can see the works of well-
known portraitists - lhe Swede Anders Zorn
and the Spaniard
l^nacio Ztiloaga, the paintings by the
representatives of various
trends and tendencies in the 20th-century
art — Frenchman Maurice
L.obrc. the Spaniard Marius de Maria, the
Italian Mario Tozzi, the
Dutch painters loseph Israels and Karel
Dacke, the Englich painter
Clifford Roy, the Germans Eugen Bracht
and Artur Rudolph, the
Rumanian Korneliu Baba, the. American Rockwell
Kent. and others.
The collection of works of
Polish art in the Lvov Picture Gal-
lery is the biggest in the Soviet Union.
The exposition presents
works of the 16th 17th centuries,
a mumber of paintings of the
Age of Enlightenment in Poland (the 18th
century); the 19th cen-
tury is represented hv the canvases of
Aleksander Orlowski and
Artur Grottger, Wilhelm L.eopolski and
Jan Matejko. Henryk Roda-
kowski and Aleksarider Kotsis, Aleksander
Gierymski and Ferdy-
nand Rliszchyc The major part of the exposition
is made up by the
works of the artists of the first half
of the 20th century, specifi-
caly, paintings by Jacek Maiczcwski. Olga
Buznanska, Jozef Me-
goffer.
|