Unknown student or instructor of the Imperial Stroganov School, icon of St. Olga painted en plein, Moscow, 1908–1917; held in silver case by V. Tsivkin, Kyiv, Imperial Russia (present-day Ukraine), 1908–1917

Silver, enamel

Open: 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 3 1/8 in. (8.9 x 6.3 x 8 cm)

This collapsible travel frame was made for an enamel icon made at the Imperial Stroganov School. The Stroganov School, as it is known in English, was the most important institution for advanced training in applied arts in late Imperial Russia. The school’s students and faculty produced innovative and beautifully crafted works in enamels, silver, ceramics, and other media. Icon painting was also a subject of study and students completed these religious images in multiple materials. This miniature traveling icon is painted after Mikhail Nesterov's icon of St. Olga for the interior of Kyiv's St. Volodymyr’s (Vladimir's) Cathedral, a church dedicated to Saint Prince Volodymyr, baptizer of Rus'. It was created as part of a cycle depicting both the life of Christ and the history of Christianity in Ancient Rus'. The cathedral is a monument to modern art, particularly the Neo-Byzantine strain of Art Nouveau. In addition to Nesterov, painters Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Vrubel, Pavel Svedomsky and Wilhelm Kotarbinsky filled the interior with an exciting new vision of church painting.

It is of particular interest that the case for the miniature icon was made by Jewish silversmith-jeweler V. Tsivkin even though there was an official, but apparently loosely enforced, ban on Jews creating Orthodox Christian religious objects. In this case, of course, the case could have fulfilled other functions. Tsivkin probably had some ties to the important Kyiv or Kiev jeweler Iosif (Joseph) Marshak. In his memoirs, Iosif’s son Alexander mentions two men with the same surname – Israel and Lev Tsivkin – who served in senior positions as engravers, chasers, and managers in the workshop. The little we know about this talented silversmith shows the great amount of research that remains to be done on the Jewish silversmiths of Ukraine.