Malowane cerkwie

• Authors: Brykowski Ryszard

Title variants

EN

PAINTED UNIAT CHURCHES

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The outside painting o f uniat churches at Łemkowszczyzna*, discussed now in literature for the first time, received attention as late as mid-sixties o f this century, on the occasion o f works on the documentation o f Polish wooden sacral architecture and on the Catalogue o f Works o f Arts in Poland (see footnotes 2 and 3). Further observations and practical application o f the information compiled for conservatory purposes took place during the repairing o f a wooden uniat church at Bartne in the years 1968—1970. Outside painting o f the church is found on the cornices, arcaded friezes, board and shingle timbering o f the walls and even on the entire shingle surfaces o f roofs as well as on the domes o f towers and turrets. The painting has been noted in the whole Łemkowszczyzna district, both in the northern Polish region o f the Carpathians and also on the southern Slovac part as well as in some Łemków villages in trans-Carpathian Ruthenia. The most common examples of such paintings, with a very rich colouring, preserved until to-day in a relic form, are observed in Middle Łemkowszczyzna, on the Polish side (in villages o f Bartne, Świątkowa Mała, Świątkowa Wielka). Apart from large non-topical paintings, there have also been seen topical ones — colourful bouquets o f flowers (Czarne) and imitations o f arcaded friezes (Andrzejówka, Brunary Wyżne). It is difficult to establish the date o f paintings and when the custom was first introduced at Łemkowszczyzna. The literature, especially ethnographic and memoristic writings including well- known manuscripts, does not offer any mentions on this subject. The only available description refers to preparing dyes by village women for painting houses at Łemkowszczyzna and it dates from 1877. The fact that paintings appear on the outside attire of buildings from the 18th and 19th cc. does not mean much, as the shingle board timbering is replaced from time to time and the life o f the old good (i.e. resin) shingle ranges from 80 to 100 years. The painting o f architectonic details on the 18th-century uniat churches does not explain anything either, because they could also be painted at a somewhat later period o f time. The only discovered painted date is the year o f 1901 found on a painted ave-bell o f a small uniat chapel at Gładyszów. At the same time, however, painting o f bricked and wooden temples with eastern liturgy is a common phenomenon in the southwards o ff the Carpathians, within the reach o f Byzantine- Balkan culture (in official and folk art) and it has its distant medieval genesis (e.g. painted biblical and evangelic tales found on the bricked Byzantine churches). The most congenial in character with Łemków paintings seem to be decorative, geometric (red and black) paintings in the form o f circles, semi-circles, crosses and stars appearing on the cornices o f wooden Moldavian churches, which can be associated with the 18th century. But also this problem requires studying. Weather-stained and rain-washed today, deprived o f their old intensity or simply fading, outside paintings o f churches must have been striking with their colourfulness. This is to say that the aesthetic value o f places o f workship, called nowadays historic monuments, had been different in the past. Besides, outside painting o f wooden sacral and secular buildings had a wider scope in the past than we suppose it now. Relics o f the outside paintings are also to be found in some wooden churches (see note 27). The universality o f occurrence and the nature o f outside paintings on uniat churches lead to believe that this was not done for aesthetic reasons only. For instance, magic sings were scented in geometric paintings of the frameworks o f houses and farm buildings, which can also be applied to cornices in Moldavian churches. On the other hand, „complex” painting o f Łemków uniat churches should rather be associated with practival activities aimed at protecting and preserving the building material (similarly to oil-trickling o f wood in those regions where it was available). Aesthetic problems were thus in that instance a secondary problem. One can not, however, totally exclude other factors like the importance o f some colours in expressing different feelings o f the man which could dictate the choice o f a specific palette. * * The Łemkowie — an ethnographic group of highlanders inhabiting eastern part of the Western Carpathians and separating the Polish settlers from the Slovacs with a narrow belt. The genesis o f the group has not been explicitly established ; Polish studies link its emergence with the Wallachian settlers (ethnically mixed : Romanian, southern Slavonic and Ruthenian) several waves of whom arrived between the 14th and 16th cc. The Ruthenian language, Catholic denomination with eastern liturgy. The name known in the thirties o f the last century.

• Publisher: Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa
• Journal: Ochrona Zabytków
• Year: 1979
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 228-238

Dates

published

1979

Contributors

author

Brykowski Ryszard

• dr, Instytut Sztuki PAN Warszawa

References

• Por. R. B r y k o w s k i , Z prac Instytutu Sztuki PAN nad dokumentacją drewnianej architektury sakralnej w Polsce (IV). Sprawozdanie z prac na terenie woj. rzeszowskiego 1962—1970, „Rzeszowska Teka Konserwatorska”, Rzeszow 1974, s. 116.
• Katalog zabytkow sztuki w Polsce. Wojewodztwo rzeszowskie. Powiat gorlicki, opr. J. Z. Ł o z i ń s k i i B. Wo l f f - Ło z i ń s к a, cz. I, 1955—1956; R. B r y k o w s k i i T. C h r z a n o w s ki , cz. II, 1964—1970, maszynopisy w zbiorach Instytutu Sztuki PAN w Warszawie.
• por. R. B r y k o w s k i , Drewniana cerkiew łemkowska w Nieznajowej, „Ochrona Zabytkow” ,
• t. XIX, nr 1, 1966, s. 81
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• Por. R. B r y k o w s k i , Wstępne badania architektoniczne drewnianej cerkwi par. gr.-kat.- p.w. Opieki NP Marii w Komańczy (pow. sanocki), mps, 1969, WKZ Rzeszow; i obszerniej: St. M i c h a ł c z u k, Cerkiew w Komańczy, woj. rzeszowskie, pow. sanocki. Dokumentacja naukowo-historyczna, mps, 1969, PKZ Lublin.
• R. R e i n f u s s , Malowane zręby chałup wiejskich, „Polska Sztuka Ludowa”, t. III, nr 7—8, 1949, s. 200—219.
• R. B r y k o w s k i , Т. С h r z a n o w s к i, M. K o r n e c k i , Sztuka w Rumunii, Wrocław — Warszawa — Krakow — Gdańsk 1979, s. 168.
• В. К о v a ć e v i ć o v a-Pu ś k a r o v a, J. P u ś k a r , Drevene kostoly vychodneho ritu na Slovensku, Preszow 1971, s. 28.
• S. J ę d r z e j e w s k a , P. R u d n i e w s k i , Sprawozdanie z oznaczeń pigmentow warstw malarskich na elewacjach cerkw w Bartnem, pow. Gorlice, mps, 27.VII.1970 r. w zbiorach b. Powiatowego Urzędu Konserwatorskiego w Gorlicach.
• R. B r y k o w s k i , Zabytki architektury powiatu gorlickiego, op. cit., s. 493.
• R. B r y k o w s k i , Nieznane fragmenty polichromii w małopolskich kościołach drewnianych, „Biuletyn Historii Sztuki”, t XXVII, nr 4, 1965, s. 347.