Karnovsky, Mykhailo

Karnovsky, Mykhailo [Карновський, Михайло; Karnovs'kyj, Myxajlo], b and d ? Printmaker and book illustrator of the early 18th century. A representative of Oleksander Tarasevych’s school of copper engraving, he was educated probably at the Chernihiv College and the Kyivan Mohyla Academy. From 1701 to 1710 he worked as an engraver at the printing house in Moscow. Karnovsky is known for his illustrations of Leontii Magnitsky’s first arithmetic textbook (1703), including a fine frontispiece depicting Pythagoras and Archimedes, the teza posters in honor of Metropolitan Yoasaf Krokovsky (1706) and the patriarchal locum tenens Stefan Yavorsky (1708), and a print of the Kyivan Cave Monastery Mother of God among the Stars. Karnovsky and other Ukrainian engravers introduced the traditions of Ukrainian graphic art to Russia and influenced the development of Russian engraving.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]