COPY ART MATTERS / Exhibition of antique copies of the 16-19th centuries. from the museum collection

COPY ART MATTERS 16-19 centuries paintings of the #WEartMuseum collections  Exhibition of ancient copies of the 16-19 centuries. from the collection of the Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art ❗ For the first time in its 96-year history, the museum displays an exhibition of old copies from the originals of famous Western European artists: Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, Velasquez, Ribera and other famous masters of the brush. The large-scale project became possible thanks to the great scientific, restoration and organizational work of the museum staff. 37 paintings on display make up an interesting and important part of the museum's collection of paintings, which for many decades was kept in the funds and was inaccessible to the audience. The reason for this was their poor preservation and the desire to show only originals in museum halls. An important role was played by the negative attitude of museum visitors to copies, which generally reflects the current trend of underestimating the value of such works. However, the highest professionalism of their authors and the beauty of the painting will give the audience of the exhibition aesthetic pleasure and make them see real works of art in them.✨Copying masterpieces of art, starting from ancient times (remember the Roman copies of ancient Greek sculptures), has always been of great importance both as a special type of artistic activity aimed at preserving and distributing the creations of masters of the past, and as an important teaching factor. It is difficult to name any of the great artists who, at the beginning of their career, would not have been copying under the guidance of their mentors. Copying as a discipline was introduced into teaching in all art academies in Europe. Before starting to work on a copy, the artist had to seriously prepare: to study the technique of preparing the canvas, the manner of the author's work and its technology (that is, the use of certain constituents of the soil, colorful pigments, etc.). The work on the copies helped the young painter not only master technical skills and conduct a "dialogue" with the old master, but also nurtured taste and allowed many artists to reveal their talent. It was a great school, unfortunately lost in our time. ✨ Due to wars and natural disasters, the world has lost many beautiful works, but thanks to skillfully made copies, we have an idea of ​​how, for example, the famous painting by the Italian artist Pompeo Batoni "The Repentance of Mary Magdalene" looked like in the 18th century - the original itself died in Dresden in 1945, but a wonderful copy made in 1798 by the Polish artist Augustin Nedzwiecki provides a unique opportunity to get acquainted with this masterpiece at the exhibition.✨During the preparation of the project, which lasted several years, it was possible to establish a fairly transparent provenance of most of the paintings. Some were donated to the Odessa City Museum of Fine Arts from the Museum of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1902, others were acquired by the Odessa Society of Fine Arts for the Museum of the Drawing School, and others were kept in private collections. In the early 1920s, they entered the Museum Fund, and from it into our museum. The source of income for some is the Hermitage and private collections. ✨There are paintings whose adventures cannot be conveyed in a few words - for example, a copy from the "Self-portrait of Rembrandt", made in the 17th century. in the workshop of the great Dutchman and acquired by Catherine II for the Hermitage collection (read separate annotation). The study of paintings and archival documents made it possible to find out the names of the authors of several copies. Among them were such famous painters of the 19th century as the professor of the St. Petersburg Academy Grigory Mikhailov, the famous battle painter Franz Roubaud (his panoramas "The Battle of Borodino" and "Defense of Sevastopol" are widely known), the Neapolitan painter Federico Chiappa, the Odessa artist Ekaterina Petrokokino. The Frenchman Paul Leroy and the Englishwoman Anna Allen Olney were associated with Odessa.✨ The exhibition also contains paintings that can only be considered copies with a grain of convention. This is "Portrait of the Doge Antonio Grimani", painted at the end of the 16th century. the presumably Venetian painter Leandro Bassano from a lost original; painting "Blind" by an unknown Dutch artist of the 17th century. based on the painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, but it is an original work both in the interpretation of images and in its ideological content. ✨All, without exception, the paintings at the exhibition have gone through a restoration process of various types of complexity. For many months, the museum restorer Olga Kutsan and all restorers of the oil painting department of the Odessa branch of the NNIRTs of Ukraine have been preparing works for meeting with the audience. Their technical and technological characteristics were studied by the chemist of the branch Zhanna Borovskaya. Our deep gratitude to these high-level specialists. ✨ Cleaned, sparkling with bright colors, antique copies are presented to the audience in order not only to show the high professionalism of their creators, but also to confirm the significance and importance of this ancient form of art. ‍靈Curator of the exhibition Irina Glebova The exhibition is open daily (except Wednesday) ⏳ 11:00 - 17:00 (weekdays) ⏳ 11:00 - 18:00 (weekends)  Entrance ticket - 40 UAH ‍♀️ Guided tours are held in ✔️ Monday ✔️ Thursday ✔️ Friday ✔️Saturday  at 16:00  Ticket - 100 UAH (entrance + excursion) Pushkinskaya, 9