Polotsk and Novgorod Museums-Reserves Exchange Exhibitions

October 23, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The National Polotsk Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve and the Novgorod State Joint Museum-Reserve are exchanging exhibition expositions, Larisa Lysenko, head of the Art Gallery, a branch of the Polotsk Museum-Reserve, told a BELTA correspondent. Russian museum workers will present the exhibition "Alexander Nevsky" from the collections of the Novgorod State Joint Museum-Reserve in Polotsk. Visitors will be able to see archaeological materials - battle axes, a sword, maces, spearheads and arrowheads, reconstructions of a saber and helmet, chain mail, copies of miniatures from the 16th-century Illustrated Chronicle, maps, and battle plans, which will provide a fairly complete picture of the heroic epic of the struggle against the Germans and Swedes in the 13th century: the victories of 1240 and 1242, won by Russian squads under the leadership of Alexander Nevsky, which have enduring significance in the history of the Russian state and the Novgorod land. The exhibition will also feature sigillographic materials - seals of Princes Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and Alexander Nevsky. Early written sources from the Novgorod Museum's collection - calendars and service Menaions of the 17th-18th centuries - testify to the spread of the cult of St. Alexander Nevsky as one of the most revered national saints. The exhibition widely presents the iconography of St. Alexander Nevsky - in monastic attire, princely robes, and as a warrior-horseman. The exhibition will open on October 24 at the Art Gallery. On the same day, an exhibition of works of art from the collections of the National Polotsk Museum-Reserve "On the Verge of Centuries" will open in Novgorod. It will introduce Novgorod residents to the art of Belarusian artists of the late 20th - early 21st centuries. The exposition is an element of research into the panorama of creative processes taking place in the country. Painting, graphics, and sculpture reflect the diversity of artistic pursuits of Belarusian artists. Among the exhibition participants are Honored Artists of Belarus, People's Artists, and artists of the middle and young generations. They are all united by the imagery of their visual language, which is based on classical forms of artistic practice and the transformation of national school traditions. According to Larisa Lysenko, the main principle for selecting works for the exhibition was not an encyclopedic overview of all existing trends and directions, but rather a demonstration of the cultural field of a specific period in Belarusian art. -0-