UK
Collection

Head of the Savior

Mykola Fediuk

Basic information
ID
ФМз-Ж-253
Author
Mykola Fediuk
Name
Head of the Savior
Country
Ukraine
Culture
Eastern Europe
Technique
tempera painting
Material
cardboard tempera
Dimensions (height x width, cm)
44.4 x 34.3
Additionally
Type
painting
Genre
religious painting
Plot
Head of the Savior
Provenance
Yaroslava Muzyka Fund
Exposition
Lozinski Palace
Information about author
Author
Mykola Fediuk
Artist's lifetime
1885–1962
Biography
Mykola Fediuk (February 26, 1885, Golubtsi village (now Brody district) – May 17, 1962, Vynnyky town) was a figurative artist, painter, graphic artist, and teacher. Between 1896 and 1903, he received his primary education at Brody Gymnasium; later, between 1903 and 1907, he studied in Lviv Gymnasium. From 1907 to 1908, Mykola Fediuk attended the Faculty of Law of Lviv University. The circumstances of Mykola Fediuk’s acquaintance with Andrey Sheptytsky are unknown, but it was thanks to the Metropolitan's patronage that the future artist had the opportunity to start studying at the Krakow Academy of Arts. Between 1910 and 1916, the artist studied at the Krakow Academy, and later at the Munich Academy of Arts. He was the author of picturesque portraits and landscapes, such as “Cypresses” (1910), “Chapel in Lviv” (1910), “Self-Portrait” (1915), and others. All these works have been preserved in the funds of the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv. He was also the author of articles on artistic topics. In general, the funds of the National Museum in Lviv house fifty paintings by Mykola Fediuk, dating from the 1910s to the 1950s. Mykola Fediuk has proved himself not only as a painter and graphic artist but also as a fine art critic and an excellent teacher. For some time, he lived in Brody, where he worked as a professor at the Jozef Korzeniowski State Gymnasium from 1923 to 1927. From 1934, the artist lived in the town of Vynnyky on Nova Street, 7 (now Mykola Fediuk Street). From 1947 to 1950, after the Second World War, Mykola Fediuk was a teacher and then head of the graphics department at the Institute of Decorative Arts in Lviv. In 1975, at the Lviv Museum of Ukrainian Art, Mykola Fediuk's first personal exhibition took place to mark the artist's 90th birthday (unfortunately, posthumously). In 1969, a fire in the Vynnyky house destroyed all the author's works in the attic. The master rightfully took a prominent place in the history of Ukrainian art of the twentieth century. Mykola Fediuk died and was buried in Vynnyky.
Object description
М. Fediuk, together with J. Muzyka absorbed M. Boychuk's teaching directly from him. He based his own concepts of the monumental style in Halychyna on his research specifically on its landmarks - the icons, polychromy of Halychyna masters in the Sigismund's Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral (Krakow), the Chapel of the Holy Trinity in Lublin, and the church in the Lavriv (near Sambir). His works have a pronounced painterly character and exquisite colouring. In his work "The Head of the Savior" Mykola Fedyuk appeals to the stylistics of "boychukism". For example, the entire surface of the painting shows the head of Christ on a grey background, which resembles a monumental surface, with a halo bounding it on the left. The halo, hair and beard are painted in brown, with additions of ochre tones. The rhythm of the wavy hair contrasts with the strict rhythm of the movements on the face of the Saviour, which emphasizes the ascetic nature of Christ's figure.

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