Institute of National Memory presents icon reconstructed from medieval seal

An ancient seal and the icon “reconstructed” from its image. Photo: Alferov’s Facebook

Director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Oleksandr Alferov, presented a “reconstruction” of an early-11th-century icon, which, according to him, was the central icon of Chernihiv’s Savior Cathedral and a gift from Prince Mstyslav, son of St. Volodymyr the Great.

The basis for this “restoration” was a seal belonging to Bishop Anthony of Chernihiv, dating from the mid-12th century and depicting Christ. Alferov suggested that the seal shows an image of the original 11th-century icon, which supposedly served as a model for the engraver.

Iconographer Andrii Komarnytskyi, who created the new icon, analyzed other icons of the same era. Since the seal does not preserve color, the palette was reconstructed using contemporary analogues.

However, the method raises questions: from such a small and schematic impression on a seal, it is impossible to reliably reproduce the original icon. In fact, this is not a scholarly reconstruction but rather the creation of a new icon in the 11th-century style, based on the author’s assumptions.

Alferov called the work a “unique practice of global significance” and announced plans to “restore” at least five more icons from the 11th–12th centuries.

Earlier, Alferov stated that it was unacceptable to compare the “highly cultured German people of the Nazi era” with Russians, claiming that “Putin loses to Hitler on all counts.”

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