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by. N. Stadnyk
At the Reconciliation of Churches Congress last fall, when each church presented its own cultural and religious legacy, the Greek Catholic Church exhibited icons embroidered by Father Dmytro Blazheyovskiy. Born in 1910 in Vyslots Korizhniy, Zakarpattia oblast, Blazheyovskiy later studied from 1933 to 1946 in Rome where he was ordained and received a Ph.D. in theology and history. Until 1973 he served in several cities throughout the US, where he also published twelve books and a series of articles on church history, as well as nine albums of Ukrainian embroidery. When asked how he mastered needle-work, Blazheyovskiy explained that he was looking for fine patterns of church embroidery in the US and Canada but was unable to find any. So, he decided to start embroidering himself. He later published in Rome six collections of church embroidery patterns, and another three after Ukraine gained independence. Altogether, his collections contain 151 patters. Along with religions themes, they include portraits of Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, Lesia Ukrainka, Markian Shashkevych, Bohdan Khmelnytskiy, Ivan Mazda and others. Blazheyovskiy has traveled extensively throughout Ukraine and studied the peculiarities of embroidery technique in various regions, many of which have hardly changed over the past century. His initiative has since been taken up by others. Father Blazheyovskiy emphasizes, that his icons are ecumenical in nature, that is, they do not belong to any particular division of the Church. Given that no one else in the world has embroidered icons, Blazheyovskiy is basically the founder of the church embroidery genre. According to L'viv Museum's Ancient Art Department head Oleh Sydor, "Blazheyovsky's series of embroidered icons have had a profound aesthetic effect." Snydor says that Blazheyovskiy's icons fully communicate the author's creative endeavor and display an inherent ability to perceive beauty. "This is seen in his embroidered icons of Christ, the Virgin Mary, saints and various episodes in church history. Thematically, Blazheyovskiy's icons represent a complete iconostasis series." Blazheyovsky's needle-work technique based on the accurate cross-stitching of painted patterns and on embroidering the background in satin-stitch. He has also produced miniatures with about 144 stitches per sq cm. He used the 40-cell/dm double-threaded canvas. Those who are familiar with embroidery realize how difficult it is to cross-stitch rounded patterns. Blazheyovskiy's exhibitions receive an enthusiastic welcome. The exhibition at Ukraine House gathered more visitors than any other exhibition in the building's history, while in Kolomeya and Kosove, where embroidery is a traditional craft, about 3,000 people visited the exhibition in just three days. Blazheyovskiy's embroidered icons are also on display in a number of Ukrainian cathedrals abroad---in Munich, Rome, the Vatican and Brazil. The permanent collection is held in Blazheyovskiy's embroidery museum in downtown L'viv at vul. Viacheslava Chronovola 2-A. Exhibitions are planned at either Ukraine House or the Teacher's House in Kyiv early in 2001.
Article by N. Stadnyk |
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