The wooden sculpture of Sabaof returned to the Irkutsk Regional Art Museum after restoration

IRKUTSK. In the Irkutsk Regional Art Museum. V.P. Sukachev from Moscow returned a wooden sculpture of Sabaoth dating from the XVIII century. In the period from 2008 to 2015, this exhibit was in the capital at the All-Russian Art Scientific Restoration Center. I. E. Grabar (VHNRTS) on restoration. He entered the Museum of Savaof in 1974 along with other samples of wooden sculpture found during the reconstruction of the Holy Cross Exaltation Church in Irkutsk. In the temple in the 30s of the XX century housed an anti-religious museum, where religious objects from all over the region were collected.

There are few wooden sculptures in Russia. The IOKhM collection, which includes 30 works, is one of the most significant in Eastern Siberia. It is not only significant in terms of the number of exhibits, but also diverse in its subject: the compositions “Crucifixion”, “Sabaoth”, figures of angels, saints, Evangelists are presented. They are made in different manners, which allows us to talk about the influence of the traditions of the South Russian and Northern styles on the Siberian sculpture.

Upon admission to the museum in 1974, the sculptures were very dirty, had significant losses and screes of the paint layer. Immediately emergency operations were carried out: cleaning, strengthening the paint layer with mikalent paper. But even then the question arose of the complete restoration of these monuments. According to the chief curator of the Irkutsk Regional Art Museum. V.P. Sukacheva Anna Parfenenko, the restoration process is very long, since many types of work cannot be carried out simultaneously, but only sequentially. In VHNRTS was strengthened and restored the paint layer and gesso. In addition, some lost fragments of the sculpture were restored - part of the cloud and wings of the cherubs.

In the near future, the sculpture of Savaof will replenish the exposition of the icon painting hall of the Siberian Art Gallery at the address: Irkutsk, st. Karl Marx, 23.

The host of hosts (“Lord of the Hosts”) is one of the names of God in the Jewish and Christian traditions. In Christian theology, God - whose essence is one, but whose being is the personal relationship of the three hypostases: the Father - the beginningless Initial, the Son - the Logos, embodied in Christ and the Holy Spirit - the "life-giving" principle. Christian tradition has for centuries insisted on the inconceivability of God the Father. But Russian iconography without a hosts is unthinkable. The half-length sculptural image of the hosts in the clouds, which does not have independent significance, was probably placed at the top of the complex composition. In a fine manner, the techniques of sculptural carving traced popular understanding of the sacred image.