13 Jan 2025

ICONS FROM THE NATIONAL CHURCH MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY

         A new book has been published, presenting the collection of National Church Museum of History and Archaeology icons at St. Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. It is dedicated to the museum’s 100th anniversary. The book was issued by the Institute of Art Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences under a fundamental research project funded by the Science Fund at the Ministry of Education and Science.
 
         Icons from the National Church Museum of History and Archaeology (ISBN 978-619-7619-35-5) has a volume of 548 pages and 733 images, with authors Alexander Kuyumdzhiev, Vesselina Yoncheva, Darina Boykina, Ivan Vanev, Ivan Rashkov, Ivanka Gergova, Maya Zaharieva, Margarita Kuyumdzhieva, Mariela Stoykova, Maria Kolusheva, Natalia Nedelcheva, Ralitsa Ruseva, Teresa Bacheva, Tsveta Kuneva, Tsvetan Vassilev.
 
         The National Church Museum of History and Archaeology has the most extensive collection of works of Christian art in Bulgaria. This includes icons from the museum’s Iconographic Department. This is a significant fund in its scale and variety, with chronological boundaries from the end of the 13th to the end of the 20th century. Much of this collection comprises iconographic works that have not been exhibited, studied, or published. The fund also includes some of the most significant examples of Bulgarian medieval and Renaissance art.
 
         The edition includes 600 iconographic works, constituting almost the entire museum collection, most of which are published for the first time. They are divided into three large sections, including icons from the end of the 13th to the end of the 17th century, those from the 18th century, and icons from the end of the 18th to the end of the 19th century. Additional thematic groups were also formed, presenting the two-sided icons, the Russian icons, and the triptychs. The structure of the edition is entirely consistent with the nature of the collection and individual works while meeting modern scientific requirements for the analysis and publication of icons. The articles and annotations prepared contain not only information related to the specifics of each site but also data on its origin, its entry into the museum, additional information on previous restoration interventions, participation in exhibitions, bibliography, etc.
 
         The presentation of icons by chronology is a common practice when publishing them and is also adopted here. However, this edition also introduces an additional grouping of icons by origin and authorship of icon-painters. This method is applied to the entire edition, with most of the works being presented in groups in the form of general articles in which the icons of one master are considered in the context of his work and in relation to their common origin from a particular settlement and church. This allows works to be presented in their entire scientific field, overcoming the usual limitations offered by traditional catalogues dedicated to museum collections. There are also external parallels for some icons, which further enriched the scientific presentation of the entire collection. In this way, the origin of many icons, lost or mistaken in the museum's inventory books, is restored. New iconographers, hitherto unknown to science, have been identified, and a number of inaccuracies related to the work of some popular masters have been corrected. Epigraphic analysis of the preserved inscriptions from all icons is added, allowing the restoration of important information related to their dating, origin and donors and leading to corrections of the information known from previous publications.
 
         In the parts presenting the icons from the end of the 13th to the 17th century and those from the 18th century, a series of new attributions were made, related to each other by icons, which until now have been published as independent works, considered to be the work of various painters or ateliers, and known in science with inaccurate dating. The icons from the Revival section are presented not only in chronological sequence but are also arranged by generations of icon-painters and their kinship. This innovative approach is related to the specifics of the museum collection, which contains icons from all over the country, as well as from outside the country, and in practice, is a representative sample of icon painting in the Bulgarian lands under Ottoman rule from the end of the 18th and 19th centuries.
 
         In addition, the book contains an introductory study that traces the history of the National Church Museum History and Archaeology from its foundation in 1923 to 1960. Emphasis is placed on the activity of prot. Ivan Goshev – the founder and long-time director of the museum. The study of the process of forming the collection in the early years of the museum’s existence is also done for the first time in scientific literature. The introductory part of the edition includes a text presenting the directors who have managed the museum institution for the last hundred years. All this, together with the rich illustrative material, turned the publication Icons from the National Church Museum of History and Archaeology into a large-scale scientific study of a fundamental nature.

Икони от Националния църковен историко-археологически музей_корица_