Like da Vinci, but in Kyiv: Discover the city's secret medieval frescoes
Photo: Frescoes in Cyril's Church in Kyiv, painted in the style of Leonardo da Vinci (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Andrii Petrenko, head of the Cyril's Church Museum of the National Reserve Sophia of Kyiv, says there is a place in Kyiv where one can see frescoes created using a technique that Leonardo da Vinci would only apply several centuries later.
He refers to the Cyril's Church — a 12th-century monument that has preserved the spirit of ancient Rus and unique paintings with no analogs in the world.
Petrenko explained that in the southern apse of the church, there are 13 frescoes executed in the fresco secco technique — when the painting is applied to dry plaster. This is the same method Leonardo used for his Last Supper. But the Cyril's Church frescoes appeared nearly three centuries earlier.
These compositions are a true treasure: they are signed in Slavic script, which indicates the work of local craftsmen — unlike Saint Sophia Cathedral, where Byzantine artists worked. The frescoes depict Saints Cyril and Athanasius of Alexandria — Christian figures of the 4th–5th centuries who are traditionally portrayed together.
Researchers were particularly intrigued by the emperor depicted in one of the frescoes as his clothing more closely resembles that of a 12th-century Rus prince than traditional Byzantine attire.
Cyril's Church has endured centuries of change but has preserved its unique medieval art, which still has the power to captivate and amaze, researchers emphasize.
Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Moscow Patriarchate was turning the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra into a center of the Russian world concept. As the director of the reserve, Maksym Ostapenko, noted, imperial frescoes appeared in the Dormition Cathedral without state approval, including images of Seraphim of Sarov, Kirill, and Metropolitan Pavlo. According to the plan, after the capture of Kyiv, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church was to serve there.
