Since their discovery, the icons from the Ohrid collection attract the attention, not only of experts, but also of the art lovers in general. It is not only the most important icon collections in the country, but also one of the most renowned and the most significant collections in the world. That is confirmed by the fact that no significant international exhibition of Byzantine art can be imagines without at least some of the Ohrid icons. They, besides icons from the Monastery of St. Catherine at Sinai, the icons from Mount Athos and the Russian ones, are among the greatest achievements of the Byzantine and Slavic icon painting.

All the icons from the collection come from the churches in Ohrid and its surroundings. Some of them have been painted in the icon workshops in Ohrid, some were brought from the major Byzantine art centers Thessaloniki and Constantinople, and some were painted in workshops elsewhere in Macedonia and then brought to Ohrid.

As a special feature of the collection can be considered the abundance of icons from the period of the so-called "Paleologan Renaissance" when art, especially icon painting, was truly flourishing. The presence of many processional (bilateral or double sided) icons and icons with revetments of gilded silver, which are true masterpieces of Byzantine applied arts is also characteristic for this collection.

Ohrid icons became known and more accessible to the public at the beginning of the 19th century, owing to the efforts and studies on a large number of foreign scientists and travelers. Scientific monitoring of medieval monuments in Ohrid, became more intense after the end of the First and Second World Wars with, the establishment of scientific institutions in Macedonia.

However, the greatest credit for the discovery of the Ohrid icons, belongs to one of the world's top art historians and one of the founders of byzantology, Russian scientist Nicodim P. Kondakov (1844-1925). His extensive studies in Macedonia in which Ohrid has been one of the main points, took place in the summer of 1900, but the results were published in 1909.

Besides the numerous liturgical and other items, on the iconostasis of the church of the Mother of God Peribleptos he discovered and published the most important and most beautiful icons from Ohrid collection because of which this collection is now so significant and known worldwide. Among them were the icons of Christ and the Virgin with the epithets "Psychosostis" and "Psychosostria" ("Saviors of the Soul"), "Mother of God Peribleptos", "Mother of God Hodigitria, Virgin Mary and Archangel Gabriel from the "Annunciation" relief icon of St. Clement of Ohrid and some others. His results are the foundation on which the analyses of the majority of future researchers are based. Among them was the Frenchman Charles Diehl (1859-1944), one of the leading authorities in the field of Byzantine art and history. In his comprehensive synthesis of Byzantine art, which had also the second edition, Ohrid monuments aroused particular interest. There the notes of  Kondakov about the Ohrid icons, that Diehl accepted at the beginning, have central place and in 1910 they have been reproduced in an edition with a worldwide reputation for the first time.

Here we have to note the contribution made by France Mesesnel with his study about the wooden, relief icon of St. Clement of Ohrid, which he dated in the XIV century that, like most of his findings, was revised in the later studies.

In the period between the two wars there were no some important publications that would supplement, revise or more systematically elaborate the old discoveries of Kondakov related to the Ohrid icons. They were only presented among the masterpieces of Byzantine icon painting in the book of Bogdan Filov about the ancient Bulgarian art, the book about the icon painting by Mikhail B. Alpatov and Oscar Woolf as well as in the second edition of Diehl.

Serbian art historian and art critic Milan Kashanin was the first one who noticed that the back of the icons "Mother of God Hodigitria", "Christ Psychosostis" and "Mother of God Psychosostria" were also painted and that they are actually processional icons.

A review of Ohrid icons was also made byViktor N. Lazarev (1897-1976) in his anthologic "History of Byzantine painting", but he showed some hesitation in their dating and valuation.

After World War the Second, Ohrid icons were studied by numerous art historians in the former Yugoslavia of which each of them gave his own contribution in their chronological and stylistic determination in the general history of Byzantine and post-Byzantine art. Among them, stand out Svetozar Radojcic (1909-1978), J. Vojislav. Djuric (1925-1996), Radivoje Ljubinkovic (1910-1979) Mirjana Corovic-Ljubinkovic (1910-1996), Gordana Babic (1932-1993) and the Macedonian ones, Kosta Balabanov (1929), Petar Miljkovic-Pepek (1929-2003 ) Cvetan Grozdanov (1936) and many others.

The first conservation works on the icons, in the late fifties and early sixties of the XX century, where committed by the pioneers and founders of the conservation in Macedonia, Zdravko Blazic, Spase Spirovski, Ilija Kavkaleski and others, and for the first time of the icons from the Ohrid collection were displayed in the outer porch of the church of the Mother of God Peribleptos in 1961 on the occasion of the 12th Byzantine congress that was held in Ohrid.

Today, the top class works of the icon painting from Ohrid and the region, dating from the Byzantine, post-Byzantine and from the period of the revival in Macedonia, are on display in the renowned Icon Gallery that is located opposite the church of the Mother of God Peribleptos. In its courtyard, in 1841 a new school for senior classes was built, and in 1845/50, on the site of the demolished monastic cells another class school was built. After the expulsion of the Greek bishop of Ohrid, about 1873/74, this school was used for education in Slavic language, and later for various other purposes, mainly for the residents of the city of Ohrid.

During the Bulgarian occupation in the Second World War, the building housed the city library, and after the war, among other things, the Ohrid professional theater here prepared and performed their plays.

Within the old elementary school "St. Clement of Ohrid" this object, known among thecitizens of Ohrid "amusement room" was used as a gymnasium, and after the construction of the new building of the school, it was handed over to the NI Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments and Museum in Ohrid. Between 1981 and 1983, it was reconstructed and revitalized into a modern gallery of icons where the most valuable icons from Ohrid region are on display as a permanent exhibition.

In 2000, on the occasion of the great anniversary of Christianity, the Gallery was readapted. The permanent exhibition got a new concept, and the spatial, security and microclimatic conditions improved, offering finally to the Ohrid icons a space that, according ttheir relevance, quality and beauty, they undoubtedly deserve. Here they are accessible to the numerous visitors and scholars, and through various international exhibitions, the fans of Orthodox art in Paris, Tokyo, Kyoto, Vatican City, Rome, Padua, Krakow, New York, London, Utrecht have also admired their beauty.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                           Milco Georgievski

                                                                                                                                                                               -Art historian-Advisor Curator-