CCEW Seminar: ‘Gothic Art in Ukraine’ – 24 April 2024

Professor Waldemar Deluga (University of Ostrava) will speak on “Gothic Art in Ukraine". In association with CEMS and Centre for Polish Lithuanian Studies, University of Aberdeen.

Wednesday 24 April, 1 -2 pm, MacRobert 310 (University of Abredeen) and online (Teams link here).

“Gothic Art in Ukraine”

In general, studies of the Gothic art of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, almost no space is devoted to the monuments that have survived in the territory of today’s western Ukraine (the former Ruthenian Voivodeship), including paintings, sculptures, or goldsmithing. Only the cathedral of Lviv is included in the canon of Gothic buildings. Yet in that city there are remains of Gothic decorations in tenement houses located on the Market Square, or fragments of the Golden Rose Synagogue. In other cities, we see extant medieval elements, such as those in Drohobych, not to mention Gothic elements in the architecture on the border of historical Moldavia (Khotyn castle), which in the 15th and 16th centuries was closely related to Poland as its fief. In this paper, I will present monuments that testify to the influence of the Latin tradition in Orthodox and Armenian art and also try to point to the possibilities of reconstructing Gothic art in the territories of today’s Ukraine.

Waldemar Deluga, University of Ostrava.

Waldemar Deluga is Professor of Art History at the University of Ostrava, Czechia. He specializes in Ukrainian art, particularly on its influences and transformations from the medieval period onwards. In 2019, he published Ukrainian Painting Between the Byzantine and Latin Traditions. Deluga also runs the journal Series Byzantina on Byzantine and Post-byzantine art in territories largely dominated by the Eastern Churches