Theophil Kopystynskyi

Theophilus Kopystynskyi was a Ukrainian artist who gained European fame as a master of iconography and savior of church painting. By carefully studying sculptures, iconostases, and images, he understood the reasons for their destruction and made efforts to preserve these monuments for future generations of Ukrainians.

Т. [Kopystynskyi is known for his restoration works in the Bernardine Fathers' Church in Leżajsk (1896), the Wawel Cathedral Church, the Dominican Fathers' Church, and the Mariacki Church in Krakow (1897-1898), about 150 icons from the collection of the Stavropegian Institute for the Archaeological and Bibliographic Exhibition in Lviv (1888), as well as the altar icon "Annunciation" in the church of the village of Zahiria, Lviv region.

T. Kopystynskyi made illustrations to the poem "Mykyta the Fox" by Ivan Franko (magazine "Dzvynok", 1890, Lviv), "The Adventures of Don Quixote" by M. de Cervantes in translation by Ivan Franko. Franko (Dzvynok magazine, 1891, Lviv); History of Ukraine-Rus' by M. Arkas (Krakow, 1912); caricatures for the magazines Zerkalo and Strakhopud (1880-90).

The artist's works are kept in Lviv (National Museum, Historical Museum, Museum of the History of Religion). The exposition of the National Museum of Folk Art of Hutsulshchyna and Pokuttya named after Y. Kobrynsky includes the icon "Assumption of the Virgin" by T. Kopystynsky (1876).