The second life of ancient paintings in the Ukrainian National Museum of Art. Bogdan and Barbara Khanenko

Until the end of September, the Ukrainian public has the opportunity to admire the exhibition of works of art by old European masters that have not been exhibited anywhere and have long been in the museum’s closed collections.

Thanks to the long and painstaking work of the restorers, it was possible to bring back to life several remarkable works of the 15-18th century. The centuries-old layers of varnish prevented not only from viewing the image, but also from understanding whose brush the paintings belong to. After the restoration was completed, the official collection of the museum was replenished with paintings by Francesco Simonini, Gasper Peter Würburgen, Quentin Massey, Cornelis Dekker, Antonio Joli and Giuseppe Zaisa.

The painting by Würburger is considered to be the most interesting work - a still life of a Flemish artist, which amazes with the swiftness of the artist’s brush, the perfect selection of colors that enliven fresh buds and the eloquence of silhouettes hiding in the background.

Museum staff say that the exhibition will be quite mobile and those paintings that visitors will see in early August can be replaced by September by others that are no less interesting for true connoisseurs.

Eve Istr