Saint Paul

The icon depicts St. Paul the Apostle at knee-high. The saint is dressed in a dark brown chiton and a red himation. He holds a decorative book with a dust jacket inlaid with precious stones around an isosceles cross. The figure of the saint is slim, carefully modelled. A narrow nose and mouth indicate the loss of the sensuality of the material world, and a high, furrowed forehead – wisdom and the presence of the Holy Spirit. The image of the saint was made with great craftsmanship and ornamentation; the decoratively trimmed beard, sophisticated modelling and the precision of the details draw attention. The icon has a shallow indentation (indentation for the main representation) and is secured from the back with struts and an internal dovetail joint. The precision of the workmanship and attention to detail indicate a good-class Russian workshop.

The St. Paul icon was brought to the Museum in Lublin in 1956. Its origin is unclear, because before it was included in the collection, it had travelled a long way through at least a few of the repositories of post-war Poland. According to the documentation, the icon was stored in a repository at the Narożno Palace in Bożków (Dolnośląskie Voivodship, Kłodzko district). When the storage was closed (the palace was designated as a state farm), part of the collection was sent to various institutions and museums, and the rest was transported to the storehouse in Żelaźno (in the same district). From there, in 1954, it was transported to the Central Museum Storehouse in Kozłówka (Lublin Voivodship). At that time, the palace and the State Museum in Kozłówka functioning there were structurally affiliated with the Lublin Museum. In 1956, several icons attributed to workshops in Russia and Belarus were transferred from the Kozłówka repository to the collection of the Museum in Lublin, including the icon of St. Paul. There are no records of the previous destinations or storage of the icon. For years, it was kept in the museum warehouse, and in 2019 it underwent conservation. Currently, it is presented at the permanent exhibition of the Orthodox Painting Gallery.