Icon of unknown saint was restored

Preparation for the exhibition “St. Kirill Belozersky. Rare Iconography Variants” that is due to be opened in the People’s House on June 22 is in full swing in the museum. Employees of the museum restoration workshop are making efforts for it. At the regular restoration council, they demonstrated the icon that was in the process of restoration. It was registered as “Unknown Saint” in the documents. The original painting was obscured by darkened, almost black, varnish. Removing it, they unveiled the image of St. Kirill Belozersky. Ivan Nikolaevich Fedyshin, fine art restorer of the 1st category, is restoring this icon. He notes that “its iconography is typical of the Kirillov painting of the 18th century”. They faced some difficulties during the restoration process. There are losses of the paint layer till the prime coat in some spots. At the meeting of the council, they decided to tone the spots with the losses of the paint layer and to apply restoration gesso and to tint the spots with the losses of gesso in accordance with the original painting. A metal cover and an adornment covering the saint’s halo have come down to us. At present the adornment decorated with three large bezel set stones is being tested in the Northern State Inspection of Assay Supervision in Veliky Ustyug. Nikolay Bregman, leading expert of the department in the State Research Institute for Restoration, restorer of the highest category, suggested assembling the cover on a shield with a photo copy of the icon glued onto it. Thus, they will be able to exhibit two monuments together. The restored icon with the image of St. Kirill Belozersky painted in the 18th century will be first presented to the public this summer.

The icon “Miracle-Workers of Belozersk in Front of the New Testament Trinity” is being restored by N.V. Petukhov under the direction of I.N. Fedyshin and will be displayed at the exhibition in the process of restoration (the original painting is being unveiled very slowly and hard because of the uneven coating layer). A metal cover of this icon is kept in the museum holdings. It will be restored soon.