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Princess Olha

Yaroslava Muzyka

Basic information

ID: Рз-194
Author: Yaroslava Muzyka
Name: Princess Olha
Date of creation: 1967
Country: the USSR
Technique: mosaic
Material: smalt
Dimensions: 129 x 96.5 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: decorative and applied arts
Genre: history painting portraiture
Plot: Portrait
Provenance: Yaroslava Muzyka Fund

Information about author

Author: Yaroslava Muzyka
Artist's lifetime: 1894–1973
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ukrainian SSR, now Ukraine
Biography: Yaroslava Muzyka (Stefanovych) was born in Zaliztsi in Ternopil region on January 10, 1894. She died on November 24, 1973, in Lviv. She was an artist of diverse preferences and talent. She turned to graphic art – linocuts, woodcuts, drypoint, monotype; painting – oil, tempera, gouache, encaustic; mosaic and enamel, on glass, grattage on gold or silver foil, batik, embossing on leather, embossing on metal. She studied drawing and painting at Leonard Podhorodecki Free Academy of Fine Arts in Lviv and André Lhote Academy in Paris. In 1928, she trained as an art restorer at the Central State Restoration Workshop of Ihor Grabar in Moscow. She also worked at the National Museum in the restoration workshop. Yaroslava Muzyka was one of the founders of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists (AIUA), a Ukrainian public art organization that operated in Lviv from 1931–1939. In 1937, the artist learned the difficult technique of burning enamel objects by attending Mariia Dolnytska classes in Lviv. In addition, she studied on her own using French and German enamelling manuals. The artist worked in the technique of bulk (scenic, painted) and cloisonne enamel. Her favourite subjects in the enamel works were Hutsul demonology, pagan mythology, beliefs of ancient Slavs, the works by Taras Shevchenko, images of animals, and female portraits.

Object description

The work is a rectangular polychrome composition with a frontal half-length portrait of the Old Ruthenian Princess Olha. She is dressed in the traditional princely attire of the time: a gold tiara with a white headscarf, a white shirt with a belt and a brown cloak over it. With her right hand, the princess holds the hilt of her sword. With her left hand, she releases three doves with burning straws tied to their feet into the sky. The mosaic illustrates the well-known legend of Princess Olha's revenge on the Drevlians for the death of her husband, Ihor. From every farm in Iskorosten where Prince Ihor was killed, Olha ordered a tribute of three doves and three sparrows to be collected. Burning tinder was tied to the birds' feet. With this, the birds returned to their homes. Thus, the city was burnt.

Portrayed person

The name of the person portrayed: Princess Olha, the wife of Kyivan Prince Ihor, son of Rurik, and mother of Sviatoslav, was the first ruler of Rus (945–964) to officially convert to Christianity.
Lifetime of the person portrayed: Approx. between 880-920 – 969

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Princess Olha

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