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Belarusian icons on show in Liechtenstein

MINSK, 1 April (BelTA) – Belarusian icons are on display at the Liechtenstein National Museum, BelTA learned from the Belarusian embassy in Switzerland.

According to a local Swiss online publication, the preparations for the exhibition were launched in July 2018. 

The preparations included several months of negotiations, bilateral agreements, visas, logistics, customs clearance, and installation difficulties. The exhibition features 30 unique icons written by Belarusian painters.

The icons on show are from the collection of the National Art Museum of Belarus. Many of them got to the museum after the Second World War, when the museum started traveling across Belarusian cities to find icons in closed churches.

Among the icons that are temporary on display at the Liechtenstein National Museum, is the icon of the Mother of God of Odigitria. It was written in the middle of the 17th century and was found during a scientific expedition in 1970 in one of the churches in the town of Golynka, Minsk Oblast. The icon is written in a mixed technique (tempera and oil painting). Semi-precious stones malachite and lazurite were used as pigments, that is why the colors look so bright and luminous from the inside. The image of the Mother of God was hidden under six layers of paint.

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