Curated tour of the COPY ART MATTERS exhibition

✨The Travels of the Sinner  The exhibition of old copies from the originals of the great artists of the past that has opened in the museum belongs to those projects that are being prepared for a long time and carefully and which must be seen. Why? Firstly, these paintings convey all the advantages of painting by the old masters, as they were not painted by mediocre artisans for mass sale, but by high-level professionals (many of them were famous painters themselves) commissioned by museums, art academies, and large collectors. Secondly, these paintings have been extracted from museum funds, studied and restored, but after the exhibition is closed, they will return to their place of storage and it is not known when they can be seen again. Finally, they are simply beautiful and noble.  Of particular value are well-made copies from already lost masterpieces. There is such a picture at the exhibition - it is "Mary Magdalene", which conveys the beauty of the famous canvas of the famous Italian painter of the 18th century. Pompeo Batoni. The charming image of a golden-haired sinner, elegantly lying in a cave and indulging in repentance, aroused admiration among several generations of visitors to the Dresden Picture Gallery, where the painting has been kept since the museum opened in 1855, and before that it had decorated the private chambers of the Saxon kings. On February 13, 1945, she died during the Anglo-American bombing of Dresden.Many copies and engravings were made with this picture, known to all educated people in Europe, but what is surprising is that the best copies also suffered a tragic fate, as if an evil fate set its goal to destroy all memory of the picture. Judge for yourself: an old copy of the 18th century, which belonged to the King of Prussia, Frederick the Great, perished during the First World War. Another, right in the process of creating in the hall of the Dresden Gallery, where the famous artist Viktor Schramm worked on it, was poured by some vandal with vitriol. An interesting story is connected with the third copy: it belonged to the Shah of Iran, Mohamed Reza Pahlavi, who in the early 1960s presented it to the Soviet ballerina from Buryatia Larisa Sakhyanova during her tour in Tehran. The shah's gift hung for many years in the ballerina's apartment in Ulan-Ude, but after her death the painting disappeared. Years passed, and the canvas was accidentally found in some landfill, but in a terrible state - it was cut up and down by someone's barbaric hand, as if in a fit of hatred.Our beautiful copy, fortunately, is alive and well. Moreover, it is signed and dated, which is rare: A. Niedzwiecki1798. She came to Odessa in 1902 among the paintings donated by the Imperial Academy of Arts of St. Petersburg to the Odessa City Museum of Fine Arts, from where after 1917 she entered our museum. It would seem, what else does a researcher need to be completely happy? After all, everything is known! But the problem was that nowhere in the available sources was it possible to find any information about its author A. Nedzwiecki, and this was especially surprising given the high level of painting. In a short article you cannot describe all the vicissitudes of a long search, but this is what eventually became known: in 1831 Tsar Nicholas I donated the painting to the Museum of the Academy of Arts of St. Petersburg, and before that it was in the Winter Palace among those requisitioned in 1820 from Polotsk Jesuits works of art. In Polotsk, the oldest city in Belarus, European Jesuits, expelled in 1773 from all Catholic countries, found refuge. Here they opened the Collegium (since 1812 - the Academy) - an educational institution with a museum and an art gallery. Thanks to their efforts, a strong art school with European traditions was formed in Polotsk. Its talented representative was Augustin Nedzwiecki, a Polish Jesuit artist, a graduate of the Collegium and a student of Gabriel Gruber, (1740-1805), the head of the Jesuit order, an outstanding scientist and artist. The most capable pupils of the Collegium were sent abroad by the Jesuits to improve their skills. Among such students, the name of Augustin Nedzwiecki is also known. "Mary Magdalene", like other copies of it from the works of Titian, Raphael and other masters, adorned the Jesuit Museum at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. These materials were provided by employees of the National Polotsk Historical and Cultural Reserve, for which we are grateful. The information about our picture, in turn, made our Belarusian colleagues very happy - after all, they considered it to have died in the whirlpools of history. ‍ 靈 This fascinating story was prepared for you by the curator of the exhibition COPY ART MATTERS Deputy Director of the Museum for Research Irina Glebova ‍♀️ Guided tours are held at 16:00 at ✔️ Monday ✔️ Thursday ✔️ Friday ✔️Saturday  Ticket - 100 UAH (entrance + excursion) The exhibition is open daily (except Wednesday) ⏳ 11:00 - 17:00 (weekdays) ⏳ 11:00 - 18:00 (weekends) Pushkinskaya, 9