Temptation of Saint Antony

Mykola Fediuk

Basic information

ID: ФМз-Г-IV-1003
Author: Mykola Fediuk
Name: Temptation of Saint Antony
Technique: linocut
Material: paper
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 12.7 x 16.3

Additionally

Type: graphic art
Genre: religious
Provenance: Yaroslava Muzyka Fund

Information about author

Author: Mykola Fediuk
Artist's lifetime: 1885–1962
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ukrainian SSR, now Ukraine
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

The engraving illustrates the hagiography of Saint Anthony the Great (the Hermit). The narrative about the temptations experienced by Saint Anthony during his time in the Egyptian desert was widely spread in Western European medieval art and literature. In the engraving, the saint is depicted under the vault of a cave with a book in his hands. Near the cave entrance, a figure of a nude woman is visible. The devil took on her image, trying to tempt the hermit. At the top, in the centre of the work, there is an indistinct inscription: "спо..." ("temptation").

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Temptation of Saint Antony

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