Stobensky

Stobensky [Stobens’kyj]. A family of 17th- and 18th-century wood carvers and wood sculptors from Zhovkva, Galicia. Hnat (d 1742) learned his craft in the carpentry and wood carving guilds of Zhovkva. He carved the iconostases in the Trinity Church in Zhovkva with Yu. Shymanovych, S. Putiatytsky, and V. Sokovych and in the churches at the Krekhiv Monastery, the Mezhyhiria Transfiguration Monastery, and the Krasnopushcha Monastery. His son, Ivan (d after 1775), learned his craft from his father and helped him carve the iconostases in Zhovkva, Krekhiv, and Krasnopushcha. In 1746 he moved to Kyiv, where he took part in rebuilding the campanile at the Saint Sophia Cathedral. Hnat's younger brother, Stepan (d late 18th century), was also taught by Hnat, and helped his nephew do the decorative carvings in the Saint Sophia campanile. In the 1750s he took part in the building of the Dormition Church in Poltava.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]