Fine art museums Northern Macedonia

This national gallery (Галерија на Икони/Galerija na Ikoni) is the jewel of the country's museums. The basement room, without much interest, contains recent icons and liturgical objects. But the main room, on the first floor, contains the thirty-six most valuable icons of Ohrid. Here is our selection.

Forty Martyrs of Sebaste - V. 1070 - 43,5 x 33 cm . This is the oldest representation of this type in the world and the second oldest icon in the gallery after the one of St. Basil the Great and St. Nicholas (no. 272) dating from 1045/1055. Painted for the Saint Sophia Cathedral, it illustrates the martyrdom of forty Christian legionaries put to death on the frozen lake of Sebaste (Sivas, Turkey) during the winter of 320. This episode is common in Eastern iconography. It is striking for the strength of conviction and stoicism of the martyrs. But it is especially important politically: it serves as a pretext for Constantine to take over the entire Roman Empire and become the champion of the Christians.

Annunciation - Two icons with riza - c. 1115 - 111 x 67,5 cm (each ). This diptych comes from the nearby church of the Mother of God-Perivleptos and bears on the reverse the name of its patron, the archbishop of Ohrid Leo II Mung (1108-1120). It illustrates the announcement to Mary of her divine motherhood by the archangel Gabriel. Each of the two figures is painted on a different support whose background and edges are covered with a superb riza. This protection in embossed metal is used here to "paint" the halos, the background with plant motifs and the holy figures on the sides. Thus, around Mary appear her parents Joachim and Anne, Christ, Saint John the Baptist and various saints and prophets. Mary's raspberry red maforii is held by two semi-precious cut stones.

Christ Pantocrator - With riza - 1262/1263 - 134,5 x 93 cm. This is the oldest icon in the region with an exact date. Behind it is also the name of the patron, the most erudite archbishop of Ohrid, Constantine Kabasilas. Destined for the church of the Mother of God-Perivleptos, it depicts the "all-powerful" Christ(pantokrator in Greek) draped in blue and gold with a halo made of a golden riza. The proportions are not realistic: the shoulders are too narrow, but this allows the painter - anonymous - to highlight the face and hands. The right hand with two outstretched fingers symbolizes the double nature, human and divine, of Christ.

Mother of God Hodegetria (with riza) and Crucifixion of Christ - Second half of the ^13th century - 95,5 x 65 cm. This icon painted on both sides was made by two of the greatest medieval artists of the Balkans, Michailis Astrapas and Eutychios, to whom we owe in particular the frescoes of the church of the Mother of God-Perivleptos. On the front: the Mother of God Hodegetria ("Leader"). The painting is completed by a riza with hammered halos and filigree background. On the reverse: the crucifixion of Christ with the Virgin and the apostle John. The gallery has two other "double-sided" icons that were intended for processions, one of which is magnificent, from the beginning of the ^14th century, showing the Annunciation and, on the front, the Mother of God Psychosostia ("Savior of souls").

Saint Clement of Ohrid - In relief - late ^13th century - 140 x 35 cm. If it looks like a wooden statue, it is in fact an "icon in relief", a very rare type of icon in Byzantine art. It comes from the church of the Mother of God-Perivleptos and is the only one of its kind in the country. The appearance of icons in relief in the ^13th century could be linked either to the first engraved wooden iconostases or to the Western influence after the capture of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204.

Saint Marine - V. 1754 - 92,5 x 60,5 cm . This is one of the most outstanding icons in the gallery. It was made by Constantine of Shpat, master of the school of Berat, in Albania. The saint, known in the West as Margaret of Antioch, died a martyr in 305. As in another icon in the gallery (no. 158), she is traditionally depicted wielding a hammer to slay a demon and/or dragon. Twelve vignettes depict scenes from her life (temptations of the devil, appearance of the dove of the Holy Spirit, etc.) and her martyrdom. Perpetually subjected to temptation, she took a vow of chastity. But for having rejected the advances of the Roman governor Olybrius, she was tortured and put to death. The Romans are represented here as Ottomans, Olybrius being dressed as a pasha. An anachronism probably very voluntary.

Mother of God Panton Chara - 1844 - 57 x 41 cm. It was made by the great Mijak painter Dico Zograf for the church of St. John in Kaneo. It belongs to the subcategory of the "Joy of All"(Panton Chara in Greek), which is related to the icons of the "unfading rose" (evocation of virginity). The Christ child is dressed in the orange-golden garb of the high priest. The inscriptions are written in both Greek and Old Slavonic. At the bottom are six portraits of saints. The last one on the right wears the red Arabic fez adopted in the Ottoman Empire from the ^nineteenth century. He also wears an embroidered vest and a fustanelle typical of the Greco-Albanian region of Epirus. It is the neo-martyr Saint George of Ioannina (Greece), killed in 1838 for having renounced Islam and converted to Christianity.

This former hammam (Даут-Пашин Амам/Daut-Pašin Amam, Hamami i Daut Pashës) was one of the largest in the Ottoman Empire. It houses the National Gallery of Macedonia (Национална галерија на Македонија/Национална Галерија на Македонија, Galeria Kombëtare e Maqedonisë), founded here in 1948. The building was erected around 1480 on the initiative of the Ottoman governor of Rumelia Davud Pasha, who later served as grand vizier of the Empire from 1482 to 1497. Like the hammam Čifte, it had two parts one for men and the other for women. The ensemble is surmounted by two domes, which each covered a hot room, and eleven domes above the rest of the facilities. The interior retains some ornaments such as carved stalactites or floral reliefs. It houses nine rooms where some of the most valuable paintings of the country are gathered. In room 1 there is a collection of icons from the ^14th to the ^17th century. Among them, note the movingVirgin of Lesnovo (^14th century) and the Annunciation (^16th century) which incorporates elements of Italian art, while the Holy Spirit is represented by a kind of black beam typical of the Serbian-Byzantine style. This is followed by room 2 dedicated to the "Macedonian Renaissance" (^19th-20th centuries), and then a large space dedicated to contemporary art (rooms 3-9) with works by the great painters Nikola Martinoski (1903-1973) and Petar Mazev (1927-1993). The garden is decorated with statues and sculptures.

This gallery (Галерија Мартиноски/Galerija Martinovski) was founded in 1968 in a beautiful traditional ^19th-century house. It is dedicated to the Aromanian painter from Kruševo Nikola Martinovski (1903-1973). Trained at the Grande Chaumière academy in Paris between 1927 and 1828, he is considered the founder of contemporary art in what is now North Macedonia. The two floors feature 62 works by the painter (oils, tempera, drawings, etc.), some of his personal effects and an exhibition of traditional local costumes.