Ikona "Spotkanie Melchizedeka z Abrahamem" Jerzego Nowosielskiego z cerkwi greckokatolickiej pw. Najświętszej Marii Panny w Ostrym Bardzie

Abstrakt

This article explores the provenience as well as iconographic parallels of the newly discovered icon by the well-known Polish artist Jerzy Nowosielski. During the period of his artistic activity no one came across the mysterious painting The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek placed in a small Ukrainian Greek Catholic church in Ostre Bardo, a village in the north-east of Poland. The icon did not even appear in the archive of Nowosielski’s works. Therefore, it has been hard to date the painting. Some of the researches, however, estimate it at the 1960s.

The masterpiece is a contemporary version of Orthodox votive paintings with the name of the founder written at the bottom of the composition. It is hanged as the frontal part of an altar, commonly known as an antependium.

The icon is divided into three parts - the main one, located in the middle of the composition, is a narrative image of the biblical story of Abraham and Melchizedek’s meeting. This iconographic representation of the theme used to be connected with the early Christian art. The biblical scene is surrounded by a group of prophets, which might highlight the narrative part of the painting. However, the order of the prophets does not match any of the depicting structures recognized in the Orthodox iconography. Both sections are separated by a patch of blue.

Even though Nowosielski’s approach to iconography and colour palette was unconventional, the numerous parallels between the analyzed icon and Santa Maria Maggiore’s mosaic are noticeable. The similarity can be found in the iconographic composition of both examples which emphasises the importance of Melchizedek.

Nowosielski’s painting has ecumenical significance – the author probably wanted to indicate religious versatility and the idea of the unification of the two Churches by the Union of Brest in 1596.