The Origins of the Sacred Image. Icons from the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts in Kyiv

Saint Sergius and Bacchus, 7th century, Khanenko Museum.

The Origins of the Sacred Image is the Musée du Louvre’s response to the threats to cultural objects created by the war in Ukraine. Since December 2022, Louvre staff have been collaborating with their counterparts at the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts in Kyiv, to facilitate the transfer of sixteen of the most emblematic works from the Ukrainian national collections to France. The exhibition website states that the operation, unprecedented in character and scope, demonstrates France’s unwavering support for Ukrainian culture professionals, who demonstrate extraordinary energy and creativity on a daily basis in coping with the consequences of the war. It was devised in partnership with the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH), which has been fully committed to the protection of Ukrainian heritage since the start of the war.
The exhibition presents five of the sixteen works from the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts in Kyiv transferred to France: four icons from the 6th and 7th century, encaustic paintings on wood from Saint Catherine’s Monastery at Sinai, and one micro-mosaic icon from the late 13th or early 14th century from Constantinople, with a remarkable gold frame. This set of five icons illustrates both the classical heritage at the foundation of Byzantine civilisation, and the highly original relationship to images that it introduced, which characterised artistic expression within Eastern Christianity. It forcefully announces the themes of the Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art recently created at the Musée du Louvre.

These masterpieces of sacred art have yet to reveal all their mysteries, and will subsequently be subject to in-depth analysis and study. An international committee composed of Ukrainian scientists and international specialists in the field will accompany this highly anticipated research.