Fedir Schmit and the Study of Byzantine Art: The Kharkiv Years
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17721/2519-4801.2024.2.01Keywords:
Fedir Schmit, Byzantine art, mosaics, Ravenna, Archbishop's PalaceAbstract
The aim of the study is to draw additional attention to the academic legacy of Fedir Shmit, a specialist in the history of Byzantine and Rus’-Ukrainian art, historic preservation, and museum studies and theorist of art, as well as to offer a Ukrainian translation with commentary of his article on the Ravenna mosaics of 1112, which appeared in 1914 in No. 7 of the Lantern magazine.
Research methodology. The work uses the descriptive, comparative-historical, and biographical methods, as well as the method of philological commentary.
The results. The study presents a Ukrainian translation of a research paper by Fedir Shmit that sheds light on the question of whether the early 12th-century Italian mosaics in Ravenna belong to the Byzantine tradition. The introduction to the translation focuses on Shmit's development as a scholar of Byzantium, clarifies a number of facts from his biography, and briefly surveys recent scholarship on Shmit’s work. The study as a whole contributes to the continuing efforts on the part of today’s researchers to render in Ukrainian Shmit’s influential work in Byzantine studies and art history.
Conclusions. The academic output of Fedir Shmit has not lost its significance and relevance. The ‘Kharkiv period’ of his career was highly productive for Shmit as a specialist in the history of Byzantine art and museum studies; his works published during this time meet even today’s academic standards. One such still-important piece of scholarship is the article “The Ravenna Mosaics of 1112”, presented here in a Ukrainian translation.
The Ravenna mosaics of 1112 Schmitt considered the subject of the study of the history of Byzantine art, probably sharing the views of Nykodim Kondakov about the significance of Byzantine influence and his constant presence in Italian art during the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. This statement generally does not contradict modern research tradition.
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