The history of the study, attribution, restoration and digital reconstruction of the original appearance of the icon “Savior Not Made by Hands” from the exposition of the Smolensk Art Gallery

Abstract

The article describes the history of the study, restoration and attribution of the icon “Savior Not Made by Hands” from the exposition of the Smolensk Art Gallery. A review of publications shows the history and picturesque features of this monument, as well as the process of controversy around its dating and iconographic features. The author summarized the conclusions of the researchers' stylistic analysis and combined them with the data obtained during the restoration and macro photography of the surface of the monument in natural light and ultraviolet rays. According to their results, a digital reconstruction of a number of features of the original appearance of the work was carried out. In accordance with the surviving fragments, it was possible to replenish the completely lost fragments of the margins and background. With the use of a graphic editor, a number of features of the original pictorial concept of a medieval artist were reconstructed, minor losses in the drawing and abrasions of the paint layer were replenished. Late interventions in the pictorial structure of the work, left during the restoration, were partially removed and the original form of the halo was reproduced. Comparison with a number of stylistically and chronologically close monuments and preserved author's inscriptions on the board allowed the researcher to reconstruct the probable specifics of the original outline of the symbols inside the halo and the figures of the archangels. The color of the original background was restored from photographs of pigment stains, fragments of which were revealed during restoration. The result of the work was a visual representation of a number of graphic and pictorial features of the work, identified by researchers and restorers. The image reproduces the main set of pictorial techniques of the original work, which, in combination with a physical monument, will allow future researchers to understand much more accurately the specifics of its position among other monuments of Pskov icon painting of the 15th century.