Dear friends!

We continue to acquaint you with Artistic Heritage of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

Today we are going to talk about one of the paintings of Lavra’s Refectory Сhamber. It is the image of the famous Saint Mark the Grave-Digger (Pechernik).

Unusually striking are the features of his portrait. It is interesting to note that the driving factor of this portrait is not so much the monk’s face as his figure. His posture is simple and eloquent at the same time. This is Pechernik’s moment of rest, when he is leaning heavily on the handle of the shovel. He looks thoughtfully in front of him. The painter notices his bowed and tired back, the feature that the old man has become familiar with long ago. It is quite probable that the vision of how he would draw the monk’s figure Ivan Izhakevych got “from nature”, and kept it in his memory. For the artist, who grew up in a peasant environment, it was not difficult to portray the figure of Saint Mark the Grave-Digger. The landscape of the composition “Saint Mark the Grave-Digger”, used by the author as the picture’s background, is one of the most expressive artwork pieces one can observe in the portrait gallery of the Refectory Chamber. The rhythmics of the descending semicircular lines of the natural landscape is like an echo for the figure of the Saint. The image of a snow-white birch trunk, which cuts a deaf cave hole with a moving stream, gives birth to some symbolic ideas in the mind of the viewer.

Harmony and measure - these are the features typical for the “mood landscape”, which became the background for the figure of Saint Mark the Grave-Digger. The portrait could have been different if the amendments suggested by the Theological Council to Ivan Izhakevych could have been confirmed at the picture’s “sketches phase”. According to those amendments he had “to paint a piece of bread on the ledge of the mound, dish with water and a hanging cross signifying the measure of water one could drink from it”. The remarks were not taken into account in the final version of the portrait and it makes us feel good. However, the artist fixed them on the sketch in response to the critical comments of the Council, and used them later, in the graphic series of P.M. Plakhov’s works.

Saint Mark the Grave-Digger is depicted in P. Plakhov’s postcard under the low vault of the cave. On the ledge of the wall to his left, the illustrator placed that piece of bread and a mug of water. He flatly refused to paint these items while working as a monumental artist in Lavra’s Refectory in 1903.

Captions to the illustrations

1. Ivan Izhakevych. Saint Mark the Grave-Digger. Early 12th century. Paintings of the Refectory Chamber adjoining the Church of Saint Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk

2. Ivan Izhakevych. Postcard “St. Mark the Grave-Digger”. 1903 St. Petersburg. Graphic series by P.M. Plakhov

Prepared by Olena Pitateleva

Senior research worker

Study of Artistic Heritage Research Division

National Preserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra”

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