Welcome
Exhibition
English
German
Ukrainian
Dutsch
Gallery - EN
Section 1
{"id":7,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"3.webp","path":"images\/bridges\/3.webp","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bridges\/3.webp","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/3.webp","title":"Section 1","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>Art Connecting People: Antwerp and Ukraine<\/h1>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 11px;\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Aptos,sans-serif\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"font-family:"Cambria",serif\"><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n<p>Our exhibition’s title, <em>Art Connecting People<\/em>, is a playful nod to Nokia’s famous slogan. But unlike a phone signal, art connects people in ways that are emotional, spiritual, and enduring.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<p>During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, religious art became a kind of visual Esperanto—a shared language that was understood across continents. At its heart were the prints—reproducible, portable, and visually powerful. This exhibition explores how images printed in Antwerp traveled to Ukraine, China, and Latin America, and how they were interpreted, copied, and transformed in those distant lands.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<p>This is not a tale of cultural domination. It is a tale of creative dialogue, of reinterpretation and remixing. Artists from places as distant from each other as Kyiv and Cusco reimagined these images through the lenses of their own traditions and faiths. A prophet in Antwerp became an apostle in Ukraine. The iconography of the Virgin Mary, Protectress of the Roman People—venerated in Rome and shaped by Byzantine tradition—also came to incorporate distinctly Chinese artistic elements. The same lines, different meanings.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<p>These adaptations show not just influence, but imagination. This is <strong>art as translation<\/strong>—faithfully inspired, but never identical.<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 11px;\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Aptos,sans-serif\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"font-family:"Cambria",serif\"><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:11px\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Aptos,sans-serif\"><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:11px\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Aptos,sans-serif\"><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>Early Seventeenth-Century Map of Europe<\/h2>\n\n<p>Source: Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"3","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"early-17th-century-map-of-europe","watermark_name":"3.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Section 2
{"id":2,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"4.jpg","path":"images\/bridges\/4.jpg","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bridges\/4.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/4.jpg","title":"Section 2","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>The Birth of Global Visual Culture<\/h1>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Aptos,sans-serif\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"font-family:"Cambria",serif\"><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n<p>Today’s children in Kyiv, Antwerp, Frankfurt, and Rio all recognize the same pop culture heroes—Superman, Pokémon, Wonder Woman, and so on. The prints and icons in this exhibition have likewise become part of a <strong>global visual language<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>The Mission to India <em>(De Seyndinghe nae Indien)<\/em><\/h2>\n\n<p>Cornelis Galle the Elder<br \/>\nEngraving, 1640<br \/>\n23 × 18.7 cm<br \/>\nAntwerp – The Glen McLaughlin Map Collection of California as an Island, Stanford University Libraries<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"2","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"antwerp-a-creative-hub-that-reached-the-world","watermark_name":"6.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Section 3
{"id":8,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"5.webp","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/5.webp","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bagallery\/original\/5.webp","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/5.webp","title":"Section 3","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>Back to History<\/h1>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p>Long before Marvel or Nintendo, there was a different kind of visual hero: the saint. Figures like Saint Onuphrius—clothed only in leaves and living in the desert—fascinated believers across the continents. Just as comic books travel today, religious prints spread spiritual narratives across Early Modern Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.<\/p>\n\n<p>Books and prints were the media of their time. And Antwerp, one of Europe’s wealthiest port cities, was their Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>1. Saint Onuphrius<\/h2>\n\n<p>Jan Sadeler, Raphael Sadeler the Elder, after Maerten de Vos<\/p>\n\n<p>Engraving, 1600<\/p>\n\n<p>17.8 × 21.5 cm <\/p>\n\n<p>Antwerp — Museum Plantin-Moretus (Printroom collection), UNESCO World Heritage, Antwerp<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>2. Saint Onuphrius<\/h2>\n\n<p>Unknown artist<\/p>\n\n<p>Icon, tempera on wood, mid-eighteenth century<\/p>\n\n<p>107 × 74 cm<\/p>\n\n<p>Western Ukraine — City Museum "Spiritual Treasures of Ukraine", Kyiv<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"4","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"onofrius-engraving-1585-86-saint-onuphrius-icon-tempera-on-wood-mid-18th-century","watermark_name":"5.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Section 4
{"id":9,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"6.webp","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/6.webp","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bagallery\/original\/6.webp","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/6.webp","title":"Section 4","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>Antwerp: A Creative Hub that Reached the World<\/h1>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p>During the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Antwerp was one of Europe’s busiest and richest port cities. It became a vibrant center for artists and printers who produced religious books and images—especially those working with the Jesuits. These prints didn’t stay in Antwerp for long: they traveled across oceans, reaching places like Latin America, China, Africa … and Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>View of Antwerp<\/h2>\n\n<p>Caspar Merian<\/p>\n\n<p>Etching, 1651<\/p>\n\n<p>15.5 × 27.0 cm<\/p>\n\n<p>Frankfurt am Main — Museum Plantin-Moretus (Printroom collection), UNESCO World Heritage, Antwerp<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"5","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"view-of-antwerp","watermark_name":"490490503-6.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Section 5
{"id":10,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"7.webp","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/7.webp","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bagallery\/original\/7.webp","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/7.webp","title":"Section 5","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>How Antwerp’s Prints Reached Ukraine—and the World<\/h1>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p>In 1593, the Jesuit priest Jerónimo Nadal (1507–1580) published <em>Evangelicae Historiae Imagines<\/em>, a visual gospel designed for missionary work. It became a <strong>visual bestseller<\/strong>, and was adapted for Chinese woodblock printing in the 1630s, painted onto Latin American canvases, and transformed by Ukrainian artists such as Ivan Rutkovych (circa 1650 – early eighteenth century).<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<p>These images weren’t merely copied, they were reimagined. In Ukraine, an icon painter might draw upon these images to create icons for an iconostasis. Such “walls of icons” were used to shield liturgical practices from the view of ordinary believers. They were a unique feature of the Eastern Christian tradition and were absent from Catholic churches. In China, nude figures were replaced by figures with modest robes, and Latin inscriptions became Chinese calligraphy.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<p>Through these adaptations, the images took root in different spiritual soils.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>1. Healing the Paralytic at Bethesda<\/h2>\n\n<p>Antonie Wierix<\/p>\n\n<p>Engraving, 1572–1624<\/p>\n\n<p>23.0 × 14.5 cm <\/p>\n\n<p>Antwerp — Museum Plantin-Moretus (Printroom collection), UNESCO World Heritage, Antwerp<\/p>\n\n<h2><br \/>\n2. Healing the Paralytic at Bethesda<\/h2>\n\n<p>Unidentified Chinese artist<br \/>\nWoodcut from <em>Tianzhu Jiangsheng Chuxiang Jingjie<\/em> (Illustrated Explanations of the Lord of Heaven’s Incarnation), 1637<br \/>\nJinjiang, Quanzhou — Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n\n<h2><br \/>\n3. Healing the Paralytic at Bethesda<\/h2>\n\n<p>Ivan Rutkovych<br \/>\nIcon, tempera on wood with gilding, late seventeenth century<br \/>\nKrekhiv, Western Ukraine<br \/>\nFrom the iconostasis of the Church of St. Paraskeva<br \/>\n(Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icon.org.ua\/masters\/rutkovych-ivan\/#gallery-13\">icon.org.ua<\/a>)<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"6","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"healing-the-paralytic-at-bethesda","watermark_name":"7.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Section 6
{"id":11,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"8.jpg","path":"images\/bridges\/8.jpg","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bridges\/8.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/8.jpg","title":"Section 6","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>One Image, Many Stories<\/h1>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p>This eye-catching title page was created in Antwerp by Cornelis Galle the Elder (1576–1650) and shows 12 prophets with messages about the coming of Jesus. But the story doesn’t end there! Artists from across the world gave it new life. In Kyiv, Averkiy Kozachkovskyi (active ca. 1721–1740s) turned the prophets into apostles by swapping their messages for lines from the Credo prayer. Meanwhile, an unknown artist in Latin America added bold colors, moved the image to canvas, and placed the Virgin Mary at the center—shifting the focus from Jesus to his Mother. One image, many stories.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>1. Title Page of <em>Commentaria in duodecim prophetas minores<\/em><\/h2>\n\n<p>Cornelis Galle the Elder, after a design possibly attributable to Peter Paul Rubens<br \/>\nEngraving, 1625<br \/>\n32.5 × 19.6 cm<br \/>\nAntwerp — Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam<\/p>\n\n<h2><br \/>\n2. Title Page of <em>Apostle <\/em>(Acts of the Apostles)<\/h2>\n\n<p>Averkiy Kozachkovskyi<br \/>\nEngraving, 1722<br \/>\n27.5 × 16.5 cm<br \/>\nKyiv — City Museum “Spiritual Treasures of Ukraine”, Kyiv<\/p>\n\n<h2><br \/>\n3. The Twelve Minor Prophets Glorify the Trinity<\/h2>\n\n<p>Unidentified Andean artist<br \/>\nOil on canvas, eighteenth century<br \/>\nSucre, Chuquisaca — Museo Colonial Charcas<br \/>\n(Source: colonialart.org)<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"7","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"one-image-many-stories","watermark_name":"8.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Section 7
{"id":12,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"9.jpg","path":"images\/bridges\/9.jpg","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bridges\/9.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/9.jpg","title":"Section 7","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>From Byzantium to Kyiv: A Shifting Visual Tradition<\/h1>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p>Ukraine’s Christian roots lie in <strong>Byzantium<\/strong>, not Rome. The Eastern Orthodox tradition long shaped Ukrainian religious art, favoring <strong>flat, frontal, symbolic<\/strong> images. One can still see this heritage in the mosaics of Kyiv’s eleventh-century St. Sophia Cathedral.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>The Annunciation<\/h2>\n\n<p>Unknown artist<\/p>\n\n<p>Mosaic, eleventh century<\/p>\n\n<p>Virgin Mary (height: 2.23 m) and Archangel Gabriel (height: 2.23 m)<\/p>\n\n<p>North-eastern and south-eastern piers beneath the dome,<\/p>\n\n<p>Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv<\/p>\n\n<p>(Source: Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"8","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"from-byzantium-to-kyiv-a-shifting-visual-tradition","watermark_name":"9.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Section 8
{"id":13,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"10.webp","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/10.webp","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bagallery\/original\/10.webp","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/10.webp","title":"Section 8","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>The Annunciation<\/h1>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p>Before the sixteenth century, Western influences had been marginal. From the beginning of the sixteenth century onwards, they entered the cultural landscape, most notably through Flemish and German engravings—these left a lasting mark on local artistic traditions. By the late seventeenth century, many Ukrainian icons had shifted from the stillness of the Byzantine image to the dynamic <strong>movement, depth, and emotion<\/strong> found in Western art.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<p>A Ukrainian icon of the Annunciation might now show the archangel Gabriel bowing in courtly reverence, holding a lily in his hand. This iconographic motif was lifted straight from a print by Antwerp engraver Schelte Bolswert (ca. 1586–1659).<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<p>Still, Ukrainian artists didn’t merely imitate. They kept essential elements of their own tradition such as the Virgin’s characteristic robes, thus preserving identity within change.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>1. The Annunciation<\/h2>\n\n<p>Schelte Adamsz. Bolswert, after Gerard Seghers<br \/>\nEngraving, early seventeenth century<br \/>\n38.5 × 27.1 cm<br \/>\nFlemish school — Museum Plantin-Moretus (Printroom collection), UNESCO World Heritage, Antwerp<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>2. The Annunciation<\/h2>\n\n<p>Unknown artist<br \/>\nIcon, tempera on wood, late seventeenth – early eighteenth century<br \/>\n121.3 × 86.5 cm<br \/>\nWestern Ukraine — City Museum "Spiritual Treasures of Ukraine", Kyiv<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"9","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"the-annunciation","watermark_name":"10.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Section 9
{"id":14,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"11.webp","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/11.webp","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bagallery\/original\/11.webp","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/11.webp","title":"Section 9","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>Eastern Influences from the West<\/h1>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p>Ukrainian artists were inspired not only by Western art but also by Eastern images that came through Western prints. One famous example is the icon of the Virgin Mary known as <em>Salus Populi Romani<\/em>, a beloved Roman image with Byzantine roots. The Jesuits had it engraved by the Flemish artist Hieronymus Wierix (1553–1619) in 1569, and it quickly spread far and wide—from Lithuania all the way to China. Ukrainian artists, whether Orthodox or Greek Catholic, also embraced this image. As you can see in the displayed images, artists in both Ukraine and China gave Mary a local look, adding their own cultural touch to her face.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>1. Mary with the Christ Child (<em>Salus Populi Romani<\/em>)<\/h2>\n\n<p>Hieronymus Wierix<\/p>\n\n<p>Engraving, 1563–before 1600<\/p>\n\n<p>13.8 × 8.8 cm<\/p>\n\n<p>Antwerp — Museum Plantin-Moretus (Printroom collection), UNESCO World Heritage<\/p>\n\n<h2><br \/>\n2. Christian Madonna and Child<\/h2>\n\n<p>Unknown artist<\/p>\n\n<p>Coloured ink on silk scroll, Ming dynasty <\/p>\n\n<p>120 × 55 cm<\/p>\n\n<p>China — Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago<\/p>\n\n<h2><br \/>\n3. Mary with the Christ Child<\/h2>\n\n<p>Unknown artist<\/p>\n\n<p>Icon, tempera on wood, eighteenth century<\/p>\n\n<p>111.2 × 61.4 cm<\/p>\n\n<p>Western Ukraine — City Museum "Spiritual Treasures of Ukraine", Kyiv<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"10","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"eastern-influences-from-the-west","watermark_name":"11.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Section 10
{"id":15,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"12.jpg","path":"images\/bridges\/12.jpg","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bridges\/12.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/12.jpg","title":"Section 10","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>Crossing Confessional Borders<\/h1>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p>Remarkably, Catholic imagery found a new home in Orthodox iconography. Jesuit prints made in Antwerp that targeted Catholic audiences were reinterpreted by Ukrainian Orthodox artists.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<p>Faces changed, beards were added or removed, and hoods became halos. We can follow such a transformation in Averkiy Kozachkovskyi’s engraving of Saint Luke: The apostle, once cloaked in the hood of a Catholic monk, emerges anew as a bearded Orthodox evangelist.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>1. Luke the Evangelist<\/h2>\n\n<p>Adriaen Collaert<br \/>\nEngraving, 1570–1618<br \/>\n23.7 × 19.3 cm<br \/>\nAntwerp — Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam<\/p>\n\n<h2><br \/>\n2. Luke the Evangelist<\/h2>\n\n<p>Averkiy Kozachkovskyi<br \/>\nEngraving, in <em>Gospel<\/em>, 1733<br \/>\n25.7 × 17 cm<br \/>\nKyiv — City Museum "Spiritual Treasures of Ukraine", Kyiv<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"11","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"crossing-confessional-borders","watermark_name":"12.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Section 11
{"id":16,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"14.jpg","path":"images\/bridges\/14.jpg","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bridges\/14.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/14.jpg","title":"Section 11","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>Saint Barbara<\/h1>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p>Likewise, saints like Barbara and, in the next section, Catherine were remade in “Eastern Christian art language” and given halos. Such symbols of Orthodox sanctity were layered atop Western forms.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>1. Saint Barbara<\/h2>\n\n<p>Adriaen Collaert<br \/>\nEngraving, ca. 1590–1610<br \/>\n19.6 × 15 cm<br \/>\nAntwerp — Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam<\/p>\n\n<h2><br \/>\n2. Saint Barbara<\/h2>\n\n<p>Sophronius<br \/>\nEngraving, in <em>Akathists of St. Barbara<\/em>, 1757<br \/>\nKyiv — Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Kyiv<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"12","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"saint-barbara","watermark_name":"14.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Section 12
{"id":17,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"15.jpg","path":"images\/bridges\/15.jpg","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bridges\/15.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/15.jpg","title":"Section 12","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>Saint Catherine<\/h1>\n\n<p>Likewise, saints like Barbara and, in the next section, Catherine were remade in “Eastern Christian art language” and given halos. Such symbols of Orthodox sanctity were layered atop Western forms.<\/p>\n\n<h2>1. Saint Catherine<\/h2>\n\n<p>Schelte Adamsz Bolswert, after Peter Paul Rubens<br \/>\nEngraving, 1596–1659<br \/>\n38.7 × 25.2 cm<br \/>\nAntwerp — Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam<\/p>\n\n<h2><br \/>\n2. Saint Catherine<\/h2>\n\n<p>Unknown artist<br \/>\nIcon, oil on canvas, mid-18th century<br \/>\n124.5 × 78 cm<br \/>\nChurch of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Kyiv — National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv<\/p>\n\n<p>(Source: Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"13","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"saint-catherine","watermark_name":"15.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Section 13
{"id":18,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"16.webp","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/16.webp","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bagallery\/original\/16.webp","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/16.webp","title":"Section 13","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>Saints, Stories, and Ukrainian Identity<\/h1>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p>Art helped Ukraine visualize its own past. In the seventeenth century, Ukrainians looked to the glories of medieval Kyivan Rus’ as a source of national identity. For most of the saints who lived in the Middle Ages, no images existed at all; in search of their “faces”, artists often turned to Western European prints, adapting the figures’ poses and gestures. For example, Saint Andrew—the legendary founder of Kyiv’s spiritual heritage—was portrayed in poses borrowed from Hendrick Goltzius’s (1558–1617) famous engraving from Antwerp.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<p>Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a medieval legend was widely told throughout Ukrainian lands about Apostle Andrew’s visit to Kyiv and his prophecy foretelling the rise of a future city filled with holiness and divine grace.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>1. The Martyrdom of St. Andreas<\/h2>\n\n<p>Hendrick Goltzius, after Maerten de Vos<\/p>\n\n<p>Engraving, 1577–1600<\/p>\n\n<p>21.0 × 28.3 cm <\/p>\n\n<p>Antwerp — Museum Plantin-Moretus (Printroom collection), UNESCO World Heritage, Antwerp<\/p>\n\n<h2><br \/>\n2. Apostle Andrew<\/h2>\n\n<p>Unknown engraver<br \/>\nWoodcut, in <em>Anfologion<\/em>, 1638<br \/>\nLviv — City Museum "Spiritual Treasures of Ukraine”, Kyiv<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"14","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"saints-stories-and-ukrainian-identity","watermark_name":"16.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Macarius of Egypt
{"id":19,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"17.webp","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/17.webp","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bagallery\/original\/17.webp","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/17.webp","title":"Macarius of Egypt","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>Saint Macarius of Egypt<\/h1>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p>Ukrainian engravers turned to Antwerp’s graphics. Leontius Tarasevych (ca. 1650–ca. 1710) created an image of the Kyivan Venerable Athanasius, Hermit of the Kyiv Caves (d. ca 1176) by adapting a print by Macarius of Egypt (ca 300–391).<\/p>\n\n<p>These borrowed forms helped Ukrainians give visual substance to memory, affirming their place in the great chain of Christian civilization.<\/p>\n\n<h2><br \/>\n1. Saint Macarius of Egypt as Hermit<\/h2>\n\n<p>Boëtius Adamsz. Bolswert, after Abraham Bloemaert,<\/p>\n\n<p>Engraving, 1612–1619<\/p>\n\n<p>14.6 × 9.4 cm<\/p>\n\n<p> Antwerp — Museum Plantin-Moretus (Printroom collection), UNESCO World Heritage, Antwerp<\/p>\n\n<h2><br \/>\n2. The Venerable Athanasius, the Solitary<\/h2>\n\n<p>Leontius Tarasevych<br \/>\nEngraving, in <em>Patericon of the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves<\/em>, 1702<br \/>\nKyiv — Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Kyiv<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"15","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"macarius-of-egypt","watermark_name":"17.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Monastic Genealogies and Sacred Trees
{"id":20,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"18.jpg","path":"images\/bridges\/18.jpg","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bridges\/18.jpg","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/18.jpg","title":"Monastic Genealogies and Sacred Trees","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>Monastic Genealogies and Sacred Trees <\/h1>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p>As with other European traditions, Ukraine embraced genealogical trees—both secular and sacred. At Kyiv’s famed Caves Monastery, artists like Elijah (Ilia in Church Slavonic) created tree-like compositions of saints, rooted in founders such as Anthony and Theodosius.<\/p>\n\n<p>And their model? A Dominican print by Theodoor Galle (1571-1633) from Antwerp. The iconography, style, and structure reveal how even the most “Ukrainian” of artworks is also part of the <strong>transcultural family tree<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>1. Title Page for Miracula et Beneficia SS. Rosario<\/h2>\n\n<p>Theodoor Galle<br \/>\nEngraving, 1610<br \/>\n15.5 × 9.2 cm<br \/>\nAntwerp — Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam<\/p>\n\n<h2><br \/>\n2. The Tree of Kyiv-Pechersk Holiness<\/h2>\n\n<p>Monk Elijah<\/p>\n\n<p>Woodcut, from the title page of <em>Akathists<\/em>, 1674<br \/>\n17.3 × 13.1 cm<br \/>\nKyiv — Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Kyiv<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"16","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"monastic-genealogies-and-sacred-trees","watermark_name":"18.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
Final Thoughts
{"id":21,"form_id":1,"category":"category-1","name":"bridgesfaziten.png","path":"images\/bagallery\/original\/bridgesfaziten.png","url":"https:\/\/bridges.polyuni-frankfurt.de\/images\/bagallery\/original\/bridgesfaziten.png","thumbnail_url":"\/images\/bagallery\/gallery-1\/thumbnail\/category-1\/bridgesfaziten.png","title":"Final Thoughts","short":"","alt":"","description":"<h1>Credits<\/h1>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>Curator and Author<\/h2>\n\n<p>Vitalii Tkachuk (Goethe University Frankfurt)<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>Project Partners<\/h2>\n\n<p>POLY Research Group, Goethe University Frankfurt<\/p>\n\n<p>Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp<\/p>\n\n<p>City Museum Spiritual Treasures of Ukraine, Kyiv<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>English Version<\/h2>\n\n<p>Stylistic and Editorial Support — Laurence Taylor (Warsaw)<\/p>\n\n<p>Additional English Language Support provided with AI tools (ChatGPT)<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>Grant Support<\/h2>\n\n<p>German Research Foundation (DFG)<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>Translations<\/h2>\n\n<p>Ukrainian — Vitalii and Nadiia Tkachuk<\/p>\n\n<p>German — Boris Azab and Kevin Klein (Goethe University Frankfurt)<\/p>\n\n<p>Dutch — Bruno Boute (Goethe University Frankfurt)<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>Acknowledgements<\/h2>\n\n<p>Michael Leemann (Goethe University Frankfurt)<\/p>\n\n<p>Kris Geysen & Virginie D’haene (Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp)<\/p>\n\n<p>Daria Dobriian (City Museum Spiritual Treasures of Ukraine, Kyiv)<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>Web & Technical Support<\/h2>\n\n<p>Webagentur Frankfurt<\/p>\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n<h2>Image Credits<\/h2>\n\n<p>All images reproduced with permission or used under open access\/public domain licenses.<\/p>\n","link":"","video":"","settings":null,"likes":0,"imageId":"17","target":"blank","lightboxUrl":"final-thoughts-2-2","watermark_name":"19a.jpg","hideInAll":0,"suffix":"round "}
