The Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum of

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

() is one of

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

's largest museums, dedicated to

Ukrainian culture The culture of Ukraine is composed of the material and spiritual values of the Ukrainian people that has formed throughout the history of Ukraine. Strong family values and religion, alongside the traditions of Ukrainian embroidery and Ukrainian ...

in all its manifestations. It was established by

Metropolitan Archbishop Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

Andrey Sheptytsky Andrey Sheptytsky, OSBM (; ; 29 July 1865 – 1 November 1944) was the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Metropolitan of Galicia and Archbishop of Lviv from 1901 until his death in 1944. His tenure in office spanned two world wars and six political r ...

in 1905 and was originally known as the Lwow Ecclesiastical Museum. It currently bears Sheptytsky's name.

History

The founder donated some 10,000 items to the museum and raised the funds required for its maintenance. An extravagant Neo-Baroque villa was acquired to house the collections. After the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the museum was renamed the Lviv Museum of Ukrainian Art. The collection was augmented by adding a number of exhibits confiscated from other Lviv museums. By the late 20th century, the museum's holdings of Ukrainian

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...

s and

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...

were the largest in the country. The National Museum now occupies the ornate building of the former Lviv Industrial Museum, which housed the Lenin Museum in Soviet times. A cluster of memorial houses and the Sokalshchina Museum in Chervonohrad are affiliated with the National Museum. During the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, works were removed from display for safety; they included the Bohorodchany iconostasis. The curator of books and manuscripts, Anna Naurobska, described the importance of the collections, as: “This is our story; this is our life. It is very important to us.”

Collection

Nowadays the funds of the museum contain over 100,000 items, representing centuries-old traditions of development of Ukrainian art and national culture. It has four permanent exhibitions: "Old Ukrainian Art"; "Art of the 19th to the Beginning of the 20th Century"; "Ukrainian Art of the 20th Century"; "Folk Art", with 1,800 objects on display. It also hosts temporary exhibitions. The museum boasts the greatest and most magnificent collection of middle-age Ukrainian sacred art of the 12th–18th centuries, including 4000 icons, sculptures, manuscripts (including the Horodyshche or Buchach Gospel), etc. Most lavishly represented in the collection of the museum are icons from the 14th–18th centuries, mainly from Western Ukraine. It is known that Illarion Swiecki came to the village of Mshanets, Boykiv, to personally take some of the older icons from the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin to the museum. The Ukrainian renaissance and baroque periods are represented by the works of

Ivan Rutkovych Ivan Rutkovych (), born c. 1650 in Bilyi Kamin, near Zolochiv, Lviv region, Ukraine, died after 1708, was a Ukrainian icon painter who worked mostly in Zhovkva and Univ. Biography Ivan Rutkovych is considered a founder of the Zhovkva I ...

(the Zhovkva iconostasis of the 17th century) and Jov Kondzelevich (the Bogorodchansky iconostasis, 1698–1705). There is a precious collection of Ukrainian prints of the 17th–18th centuries (about 1000 pieces). The museum has paintings by artists such as Johann Georg Pinsel,

Serhii Vasylkivsky Serhii Ivanovych Vasylkivsky (, ; ; October 19, 1854 — October 7, 1917) was one of the most prolific Ukrainian artists of the pre-revolutionary period and an expert on Ukrainian ornamentation and folk art. Biography Vasylkivsky grew up in ...

, Antin Manastyrsky, Ivan Trush, Olena Kulchytska, Mykhailo Boychuk, Jakiw Hnizdowskyj, Oleksa Hryshchenko, Liuboslav Hutsaliuk, Vasyl Krychevsky, Michał Filewicz, Józefat Ignacy Łukasiewicz, Pyotr Ilyich Bilan, Oleksa Novakivskyi, Ivan Trush, Oleksandr Murashko and

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (; ; 9 March 1814 – 10 March 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist, and ethnographer. He was a fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts and a member of the Brotherhood o ...

and others. The National Museum of Lviv also has a number of important manuscripts, some of them very rare such as Cracow publications by Schweipolt Fiol (1491–1493),

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

printings by Francysk Skaryna, and virtually all of Ivan Fedorov's publications.

Foundation

Scientific and Artistic Foundation of the

metropolitan bishop In Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (alternative obsolete form: metropolite), is held by the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a Metropolis (reli ...

. * Memorial Art Museum Olena Kulchytska,

* Memorial Museum of Art Oleksa Novakivskyi,

* Leopold Levitsky Memorial Museum of Art,

* Mykhailo Bilas Art Museum, Truskavets * Memorial Museum of Art Ivan Trush,

* Sokalshchyna Art Museum, Chervonohrad * Boykivshchyna Art Museum,

Sambir Sambir (, ; ; ) is a city in Sambir Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. It serves as the Capital city, administrative center of Sambir Raion (Raion, district) and is located close to the border with Poland. Sambir hosts the administration of Sambir urba ...

Directors

* Tetiana Lupii (2003–2005) * Ihor Kozhan (from 2005 to the present)''Забитівська, А''. Кожан Ігор // Енциклопедія Львова / За ред. А. Козицького. — Львів: "Літопис", 2010. — Т. 3. — С. 314—315.

Gallery of some works on display

Georges de Lydda.jpg Kondzelevych BohorodchanyIconostasis Gabriel.jpg Rutkovych Skvariava Nova Iconostasis Entry into Jerusalem LNM.jpg Rutkovych SkvariavaNova Iconostasis Gabriel the Archangel LNG.jpg Rutkovych Skvariava Nova Iconostasis St.Michael.JPG

References

External links

* Sofiia Yaniv
National Museum in ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine''
{{Coord, 49, 50, 35, N, 24, 01, 41, E, source:kolossus-ukwiki, display=title Museums in Lviv Art museums and galleries in Ukraine Museums established in 1905 Folk art museums and galleries 1905 establishments in Austria-Hungary Andrey Sheptytsky