Zhovkva School of Artists

Zhovkva School of Artists (Жовківська школа малярства та різьби; Zhovkivska shkola maliarstva ta rizby). In the 17th and 18th centuries Zhovkva was one of the main art centers in Western Ukraine. Rome-educated baroque painters, such as Yurii Shymonovych-Semyhynovsky and Martino Altemonte worked at the Zhovkva court of King Jan III Sobieski. Icon painters, such as D. Roievych, Ivan Rutkovych, T. Styslovych, Yov Kondzelevych, Vasyl Petranovych and K. Petranovych, V. Biliansky, I. Starzhevsky, I. Poliakhovych, M. Krosovsky, and Master Mykolai, and wood sculptors, such as S. Piatynsky, S. Putiatytsky, Yu. Mykhalovych, and Ivan Stobensky, worked in Zhovkva. The tradition they established and fostered contributed to the general development of the Ukrainian baroque art. A biographical dictionary of Zhovkva masters was compiled by Vira Svientsitska and published in Ukraïns’ke mystetstvoznavstvo (1967, no. 1). Volodymyr Ovsiichuk’s study of the Zhovkva masters appeared in 1991 as Maistry ukraïns’koho baroko (Masters of the Ukrainian Baroque).

[This article was updated in 2016.]