Byzantine traditions of plastic arts design to preserve the national identity of the Lemko-Rusins in Galicia (the second half of the 19th -the first third of the 20th century)

Abstract

Northern Lemkovyna has been developing traditional plastic arts in the Byzantine style for a very long time. This type of art is one of the talismans that have preserved the national identity of the Lemko-Rusins through the centuries. This paper investigates the specificity of the Byzantine style in the Lemko stonemasonry, which is primarily the drawing of the iconography of memorial forms: the position of the hands and feet of the crucified Jesus Christ as in the Christian tradition of the Eastern rite, a three-armed cross, Cyrillic inscriptions, and so on. This clearly emphasizes the nationality of the memorials surrounded by Polish works of the Roman Catholic rite, with Latin, not Rusin inscriptions, more elongated Latin cross, iconography of Jesus according to the Roman Catholic tradition, etc. Despite centuries of repression, the Lemko Rusins have managed to preserve their national and religious identity in the vicinity of non-ethnic elements by observing Byzantine traditions in the plastic arts and religious cult. The flourishing development of plastic arts, in particular, artistic stonemasonry, in the second half of the 19th - first third of the 20th century can be considered a component of the national Rusin Renaissance, which has not yet been properly investigated by historians. In further research, other cases of Lemko-Rusin plastic arts can be investigated, eg. icon painting, embroidery, and so on.