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Portrait of Wartan Hunanian

Ostap Biliavskyi

Basic information

ID: Ж-4517
Author: Ostap Biliavskyi
Name: Portrait of Wartan Hunanian
Date of creation: 1802
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire Poland
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions: 85 x 65 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: portraiture
Provenance: Lviv Historical Museum

Information about author

Author: Ostap Biliavskyi
Author in the original: Ostap (Eustachy) Biliavskyi
Artist's lifetime: 1740–1803
Country: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, now Ukraine
Biography: Ostap (Eustachy) Biliavskyi (1740–1803) was a Ukrainian artist who worked in Western Ukraine. He is known for portrait paintings and religious artworks. He was born in the village of Horodyshche near Berezhany. In the 1760s, Ostap studied at the Academy of St. Luke in Rome. The artist lived and worked in Lviv after 1771. He executed numerous commissioned portraits of burgers. In the late 1790s and early 1800s, he created a gallery of portraits of Armenian archbishops. In addition to portrait painting, Ostap Biliavskyi was engaged in monumental painting. A significant collection of works by Ostap Biliavskyi has been preserved nowadays.

Object description

Wartan Hunanian (1644–1715) was a Catholic priest, Catholic deacon, and Lviv archbishop of the Armenian Church. He came to Lviv from Etchmiadzin (Armenia) as a deacon in 1655. He was educated at the Lviv Armenian College of Theatine Fathers and studied in Rome, where he received a Doctor of Theology degree. In the late 1790s and early 1800s, Ostap Biliavskyi created a gallery of portraits of Armenian Latin bishops, including the portrait of Wartan Hunanian. A waist-length image of the bishop is depicted on the dark background. He is shown with a book, a frequent attribute of the clergy, which attests to the education of the portrayed man. The artist managed to express the character of the man in the painting. A masterful depiction of the individual features of the portrayed people characterises the works by Ostap Biliavskyi.

Portrayed person