Svientsitska, Vira

Svientsitska, Vira [Свєнціцька, Віра; Svjencic’ka], b 28 August 1913 in Lviv, d 21 May 1991 in Lviv. (Photo: Vira Svientsitska.) Art scholar; daughter of Ilarion Svientsitsky. After graduating from Lviv University in 1938, she worked at the National Museum in Lviv. In 1947 she was arrested for co-operating with the Ukrainian underground resistance and imprisoned in a labor camp. After being released in 1956, she returned to Lviv, obtained a candidate's degree (1966), and was placed in charge of the Department of Medieval Painting at the Lviv Museum of Ukrainian Art. She wrote many articles on Ukrainian painting and wood carving; books on 17th- to 20th-century carved hand crosses (1939), Ivan Rutkovych and 17th-century Ukrainian painting (1966), medieval Ukrainian painting (1976, with Hryhorii Lohvyn and Liudmyla Miliaieva), and 14th- to 18-century Ukrainian painting in Lviv's museum collections (1900, with O. Sydor); and the chapter on 14th- to 16th-century painting in vol 2 of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR history of Ukrainian art (1967). She also compiled a dictionary of Zhovkva master painters and carvers (see Zhovkva School of Artists), published in Ukraïns’ke mystetstvoznavstvo (vol 1, 1967), and coauthored a book on 13th- to 20th-century Ukrainian folk painting (1991). In 1993 Ya. Pavlychko published a bibliography of Svientsitska’s works, and in 1995 L. Kots-Hryhorchuk’s bio-bibliography guide to the art historian appeared in Lviv.

[This article was updated in 2009.]