ICON GALLERY-OHRID

The Icon Gallery is situated in the old part of Ohrid, in the complex "St. Clement", opposite to the church of the Mother of God Peribleptos, for many years also named St. Clement, nearby the churches of St. Demetrius, SS. Constantine and Helena and Holy Physicians the Lesser.In 19th century this entire complex had explicitly religious and educative character. The object itself was built in 1845-50 in the courtyard of the church as a class school. After the expulsion of the Greek metropolitan from Ohrid, around 1873-74, this Greek school was used for education in Slavic language.During World War II this object housed the city library of Ohrid, and after the war it was used for various purposes. In addition to everything else, here the professional theatre of Ohrid prepared and performed its plays in the period between 1949 and 1954.While the old elementary school "St. Clement of Ohrid" was in use, this object was used as a gymnastic hall for the pupils, so-called "amusement room". When the new elementary school was built the object was given to the Institute for protection of the monuments of culture and National museum-Ohrid.In the period between 1981 and 1983, the object was reconstructed and revitalized into a modem gallery of icons where the most valuable icons from the region of Ohrid, created in the period between 11th and 19th centuries, are displayed.Previously, these icons were placed in the external parvis of the church of the Mother of God Peribleptos, where they were displayed for the first time in 1961 on occasion of the 7th Byzantologists Congress that was held in Ohrid.In 2000, while the entire world was celebrating the great anniversary of the Christianity, the Icon Gallery in Ohrid was readapted. With a new concept of the collection, modernization of the spatial, security and microclimatic conditions, the icons of Ohrid finally got a room that they certainly deserve according to their significance, quality and beauty.Most of these icons that, besides the icons from Mt. Sinai, Mt. Athos and Russia, belong to the rank of the greatest achievements of the Byzantine and Slavic icon painting, possess high artistic qualities and are set apart by their extraordinary coloristic refinement and beauty of the artistic treatment. Many of them have been painted in the mediaeval workshops of Ohrid, while some have been brought from Salonica and Constantinople as presents for the Ohrid churches. Some of these icons are covered with gold-plated silver revetments, decorated with miniature figures of prophets and various saints, scenes from the Old and the New Testament as well as floral and geometrical ornaments.The different epochs have left their chronological and stylistic traces on the icons from this significant collection.The earliest known icons from Ohrid are just a pendant of the wall-painting from the same time, and their basic features are the monumentality, the stiffness of the expression and the strange calmness emanating from the faces of the saints. "SS Basil the Great and Nicholas" and the "Forty Martyrs of Sebaste", the two oldest Ohrid icons, belong to this stylistic period.At the beginning of the 12th century, when the icons of the Virgin Mary and Archangel Gabriel, that together compose the scene of the "Annunciation", have originated, the artistic expression is more refined and has more emphasized graphicism in the treatment of the faces.One of the rare icons where an inscription for its creation can be met is the icon of Jesus Christ from 1262/63, ordered by the Ohrid archbishop Constantine Cavasillas for some church in Ohrid.The problem of the light and form, that has occupied the painters from the second half of the 13th century, has been solved very successfully on the processional icon with depictions of the Mother of God Hodigitria and the Crucifixion.

Nevertheless, the real masterpieces have been created in the period of the so-called "Pale Logan Renaissance", a period of blossom of the art, intruded by the new age and called after the name of the ruling dynasty in the Byzantine empire (1261-1453).The end of the 13th or the very beginning of the 14th century is the time of creation of the icon depicting the Evangelist Matthew, an expressive and firmly modeled figure, one of the best accomplishments of the Byzantine icon painting in general.The Fest-day icons "Baptism of Christ", "Descent into Hades" and "Incredulity of Thomas" were painted at the beginning of the 14th century for the iconostasis of the recently decorated church of the Mother of God Peribleptos (1295), as well as the homonymous main icon of the church.An unknown painter has achieved a real perfection in the painting of the processional icons "Mother of God Psychosostria" with the "Annunciation" on the other side, and "Jesus Christ Psychosostis" with the "Crucifixion" on the obverse.The large number of small churches that emerged from the middle of the 14th century, has dictated the need for creation of numerous icons that has fully occupied the painters from the local artistic workshops.The cult of the Slavonic educators SS Clement and Naum of Ohrid was very strong even then, so they were painted on numerous icons an a usual iconographical type for that period.However, just a sole work, the processional icon that depicts these two saints, is set apart according to its artistic qualities. A refined drawing, soft modelation and harmonious coloring are the characteristics of the painter of this icon and are very close to the style of John Theorianos, the author of the frescoes on the second floor of the narthex of St. Sophia’s church.After the year 1395, when Ohrid falls under Turkish rule, the artistic activity gradually but surely dies out. In 16th and 17th centuries there wed\re some efforts done for its revival but without any bigger success and without prospects for even a pale copy of the great artistic achievements from the previous epochs.Only just in 18th, and especially in the 19th century, the extraordinary works of the painters Constantine, Michael and Daniel from Samarina, and particularly Dicho Zograph, the icon painting has succeeded to gain some reputation, but not even close to the one it has reputed in the past.Now, gathered in one place, in the Icon Gallery-Ohrid, these icons are accessible to the senses of the numerous visitors, experts and passers-by, and through various international exhibitions, Orthodox Christian art lovers in Paris, Sarajevo, Tokyo, Kyoto, Vatican, Zagreb, Rome, Padua, Krakow, New York, London, have also admired their beauty.