The State Historical Museum opened in the Ulyanovsk Museum-Reserve “Motherland of V.I. Lenin” unique exhibition / 73online.ru

…and the Museum-Reserve “Motherland of V.I. Lenin” presented the audience with its own collection of once forbidden art.

Today at the Museum “Urban Planning and Architecture of Simbirsk-Ulyanovsk” on the street. Lev Tolstoy, 24 opened the exhibition “Drawn popular print and copper casting of the Old Believers” – a new partnership project of the Museum-Reserve “Motherland of V.I. Lenin” and the State Historical Museum (Moscow). The opening was attended by the governor of the Ulyanovsk region Alexey Russkikh, the regional minister of art Evgenia Sidorova, and exhibition curators from the capital. The project is intended to give a complete understanding of the artistic features of hand-drawn popular prints and reflect the originality of this type of folk art.

The exhibits presented in our city are being exhibited for the first time – these are about 50 items of hand-drawn popular prints of Old Believers from the 18th – 19th centuries. from the collection of the State Historical Museum, which has the most significant collection of this rare type of monument, numbering 150 sheets. The drawings are made by hand on paper using ink, tempera, and gilding; they tell religious stories for the average person and have an educational and educational function.

“We gathered at the opening of the exhibition “Old Believer Painted Popular Prints,” which was commissioned by the Ulyanovsk Museum and brought here. Those who come to this exhibition will see completely unique things that we do not show in our exhibition. This is a special material and a special department that concerns the history and art of the Old Believers. Their art arose from the need to educate their like-minded people, call them to a righteous life, and talk about the peculiarities of the Old Believers’ rites. They worked exclusively by hand and reached great heights in their art,” Elena Itkina, chief researcher at the State Historical Museum’s department of visual materials, described the exhibits.

A separate section of the exhibition consists of a complex of copper-cast plastics from Old Believer workshops in Russia at the end of the 18th – 19th centuries. from the collection of the Museum-Reserve “Motherland of V.I. Lenin”. These are icons, folding icons, eight-pointed altar crosses, which became the most common objects of worship created by Old Believer foundry masters. In the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. copper-cast plastic was widely sold at the largest Russian fairs, since it was popular not only among Old Believers, but also among adherents of the official church.

“On our way we met an absolutely incredible person – a researcher at the museum center of the Old Believer women’s monastery, Elena Zolotova, who is a leading specialist in this field. She provided us with invaluable assistance by looking at our items and attributing them down to the workshops associated with a specific period. It turned out that our collection contains copper-cast plastic that was made in the Urals, Moscow, Moscow region, Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod regions. Old Believer art was forbidden for 160 years. Peter the Great issued two decrees prohibiting the production of crosses and icons from copper. Firstly, this was a struggle with the Old Believers, and secondly, metal was always needed. We are now experiencing a moment when the interest – both scientific and spectator – in these objects is very great,” commented the director of the Museum-Reserve “Rodina V.I. Lenin” Irina Kotova.

The exhibition will be complemented by a documentary exposition dedicated to the history of the spread and existence of the Old Believers within the Simbirsk province.

Tatiana Lisitsyna