A presentation of a unique project for visualising the history of Vitebsk will take place in the conference hall of the V. Lenin Vitebsk Regional Library on 25 May, the regional executive committee informed a BELTA correspondent.
A presentation of a unique project for visualising the history of Vitebsk will take place in the conference hall of the V. Lenin Vitebsk Regional Library on 25 May, the regional executive committee informed a BELTA correspondent.
Vitebsk artist Igor Durov will present a triptych dedicated to the Upper and Lower Castles of Vitebsk in the 12th, 14th, and 17th centuries. The author completed the latest painting in the series this spring. "The growing interest in one's own history in the age of visual culture requires new approaches to historical research and its representation. Igor Durov has studied the main body of historical sources for each of the stated periods, and traced analogies in the construction of castle fortifications and the development of urban architecture in other regions of Eastern Europe. The artist has managed to recreate the appearance of the Upper and Lower Castles of Vitebsk with historical scientific justification. In the reconstructions, they are visible as if we were looking at them at different times from Uspenskaya Hill. What is noteworthy is that they are in colour and with a great deal of detail. All this makes the triptych unique. It has no analogues in the republic," noted Denis Yurchak, chief specialist of the culture department of the main department of ideological work, culture and youth affairs of the regional executive committee.
The triptych provides an insight into how citizens viewed the castles of Prince Vasilko Svyatoslavich (the brother of Euphrosyne of Polotsk, 12th century), the stone castles of Algirdas Gediminas (14th century) in the early era, and on the eve of the war between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia in 1654-1667. When preparing the works, the author also consulted with well-known researchers of Vitebsk antiquities. The scientific consultant for the artist was the renowned Belarusian archaeologist, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor Leonid Kolyadinsky, who himself conducted excavations at the Upper Castle of Vitebsk for many years.
The presentation will be held at the library on the fourth Thursday of the month, making it a kind of continuation of the free city history course project "Vitebsk: Real and Popular History".