The Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve becomes a venue for a scientific conference every year in late July. The central point of its subjects is a display in the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes that presents exhibits from the museum holdings and private collections. This year’s conference was titled “The Image of Our Lady of Kazan in Icon Painting and Decorative and Applied Arts”. It took place last Saturday and united representatives of different Russian regions. Employees of the Central Andrey Rublev Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art, the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve, the Vologda State Museum-Preserve, the Russian State Library, researchers and collectors participated in it.
Mikhail Sharomazov, director of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve, greeted them opening the event, “The conference that we hold every year in late July has become traditional. You come to us and we are very glad at it. If at the beginning we thought first of all about the exhibition, now the conference is the main event of our meeting. The subjects of these displays and conferences become more and more complicated every year. We open those layers of culture that were not visible earlier”. Father Vladimir, rural dean of the Kirillov district, dean of the Kazan Cathedral in Kirillov, also addressed the meeting and underlined the importance of the image of Our Lady of Kazan for the Russian people.
In spite of the rather narrow topic of the conference, the reports were various. It is connected with the fact that the image of Our Lady of Kazan was among the most venerated ones in our country and occupied a central position in icon painting. Even the reforms of Patriarch Nikon that led to the schism of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century didn’t influence it. The icon of Our Lady of Kazan was of special importance in the icon painting of the Old Believers. Several reports confirmed it. Besides, the speakers reported about the icons of Our Lady of Kazan and their copies. Two participants addressed the meeting on the Kazan Cathedrals – in Kirillov and St. Petersburg. Numerous guests, including Alexey Ulanov, four time world and European champion, Olympic champion of the 11th Winter Olympics in Sapporo, attended the conference – they came to learn some new information.
At the end of the conference, its participants went to the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes to join in the opening ceremony of the exhibition titled “The Images of Our Lady of Kazan in Icon Painting”. It presents exhibits from the holdings of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve and private collections of: Ilya Borovikov, Oleg Gornostaev, Alexander and Olga Ilyins, Eduard Kamenev, Andrey Kirikov, Andrey Kusakin, Alexander Lipnitsky, Yevgeny Markov, Andrey Melashenko, Vyacheslav Momot, Boris Pravdin, Alexander Renzhin, Yevgeny Royzman, Anatoly Rudnev, Ekaterina Savchuk, Oleg Teterya, Igor Fedorov, Sergey Khodorkovsky, Alexander Sharov. It is housed in the Treasury Chamber and will be open till August 15, 2015.
Besides, a round table discussion took place after the opening ceremony. The participants summed up the results of the day, shared their impressions and discussed the plan of work aimed at the organization of another conference in June 2016.
