An exhibit entitled “The Orient in the Works of European Artists” has opened at the Lviv Picture Gallery. The paintings are on loan from the collections of three of Ukraine’s leading museums: the Lviv Gallery of Arts, the National Museum (Lviv), and the Lviv History Museum. This is the first time that such an extensive collection of Oriental art, including paintings, sculptures, graphics, weapons, and household items dating to the Islamic period from the 17th to the 20th century, is being displayed in the City of Lions. Unique works by French, Russian, German, Polish, Ukrainian, and Dutch artists are devoted to Turkey, Algeria, Syria, Egypt, Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries.
The Oriental world has sparked interest in Ukraine since time immemorial, because our country was at the confluence of two great civilizations — Christian European and Muslim. Thousands of pilgrims used to travel to holy places in Palestine, especially Jerusalem, where they drew spiritual sustenance and strengthened their Christian faith. Ukraine, in turn, attracted Eastern merchants, philosophers, clergymen, and diplomats.
The Syrian traveler and writer Boulos al-Halabi, also known as Paul of Aleppo, accompanied his father, Patriarch Macarius of Antioch, on his journey to Ukraine in 1654 and 1656, leaving us his invaluable notes on Ukraine of the day. In the 18th century, the traveler Vasyl Hryhorovych-Barsky, a scholar of architecture and a writer, was the first Ukrainian to travel to the Middle East, where he studied economics, philosophy, and the customs of various Oriental peoples. His travel notes, accompanied by 150 illustrations drawn from nature, which have no analogues in European culture, were published in St. Petersburg as a four-part book entitled The Travels of Vasyl Hryhorovych-Barsky throughout the Holy Places of the Orient in 1723-1747.
According to Oksana Kozynkevych, director of the Palace of Arts and the chief initiator and powerhouse behind the current exhibit, she was inspired by two individuals. One of them is Borys Voznytsky, Hero of Ukraine and director of the Lviv Gallery of Arts, who is devoted to preserving the invaluable art under his care, including Oriental art. The other is Waclaw Rzewuski, who helped bring many of these art treasures to Ukraine.
A miniature by F. Vieth depicts the prematurely grayed scholar commonly known as the author of A Manuscript Found in Zaragoza and the great-grandfather of the owner of the palace that today houses part of the Lviv Gallery of Arts. Under the influence of his ancestor’s stories about the Orient, his nephew Waclaw, the heir to Pidhirtsi Castle, began to dream about and study the East when he was still a youngster.
The name of his relative Waclaw Rzewuski (1758-1831?) is swathed in legends. Nicknamed Winczeslaw Revucha and Emir the Golden Beard, he was an explorer, Orientalist, first-class horseback rider, and connoisseur of horses. When he was 32, he set off to the Middle East and visited Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. He lived among the Bedouins, took part in their feasts and even their wars. His gallantry was rewarded with the title of Taj al-Fahar Abd al-Nishaani (Wreath of Fame). He drew maps of Mecca, Persia, and the Arabian Peninsula. Rzewuski described his impressions of his Oriental travels in a book of memoirs illustrated with 400 color drawings and Bedouin music notes. He founded an institute of Oriental studies in Europe and raised Arabian race horses whose descendants may be found in Europe to this day.
In the Ukrainian town of Savran, in Podillia, he introduced a romantic Bedouin-like nomadic lifestyle, complete with turban-wearing court Cossacks, which served to strengthen the so-called Cossackophile- Bedouin fashion among young noblemen. In his palace in Pidhirtsi, with its unique beauty and fortifications, the walls of the dining room and the yellow room were hung with paintings of battle scenes and portraits of famous people dressed in Eastern clothing, such as Bonnevol- Pasha. There were carpets and even tents in the palace. The collection of weapons in Pidhirtsi Castle was considered the finest in all of Europe.
“The idea to organize an exhibit of Oriental art came from our natural desire to help us discover the East for ourselves,” Kozynkevych said, “and to help further develop what our forefathers handed down to us. The realities of Ukrainian life in the 16th-18th centuries and the never-ending conflicts with our Muslim neighbors generated an enormous number of folkloric works, such as dumy, and historical and lyrical songs. You can even hear something eternally Oriental in the music of our Hutsul highlanders. So the theme ‘East and West Together’ requires a far broader approach.”
Kozynkevych also chairs the Supervisory Board of the Pidhirtsi Castle Charitable Foundation. This foundation organized the exhibit in collaboration with the Ministry of Ukraine for Culture and Tourism, the Lviv Picture Gallery, and the national organization Ukraine-Libya. The foundation’s supervisory board includes such well-known European personalities as Polish ex-president Aleksandr Kwasniewski, Princess Sanguszko (one of the castle’s owners, who resides in France), the world-famous film director Jerzy Hoffman, the prominent Polish actor Daniel Olbrychski, Countess Mans (an art patron from Austria), St. Petersburg mayor Valentyna Matvienko, People’s Artist of Ukraine Bohdan Stupka, and others. They are all determined to restore the somewhat rundown Pidhirtsi Castle. In the 18th century this castle was considered one of Europe’s 10 most exquisite residences and called “the Galician Versailles.” It is one of the best examples of the combination of imposing palace and bastion-type fortification.
The work of restoring the castle began a decade ago, but nobody can say when it will be completed. Meanwhile, the Worldwide Monuments Fund has placed this castle located in the small western Ukrainian village of Pidhirtsi on its list of 100 world historical and architectural heritage sites, which may be lost as early as this year.
The residents of Lviv have opted for a difficult way to display what has been preserved, attracting well-known personalities to the problem of art conservation and trying to keep their architectural heritage intact.
