(c. 1700-1770). parish priest of the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Drohobych, professional painter of images for Drohobych churches. Born c. 1700 in Drohobych. A pupil of the local icon painting school of painters. His work became a professional and original phenomenon of Ukrainian Baroque. He came from the Hlibkevych dynasty of priests. Among his early works stands out the icon from the altar of the old church of the Holy Trinity “Meeting” c. 1740, full of deep sacred and symbolic meaning. In 1740-1750, Father Hlibkevych painted murals in the Drohobych churches of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, St. George, and the Nativity of the Virgin, which became a unique page of Ukrainian sacred art. Numerous works by Father Vasyl have survived, some of them bearing a dated signature, which provides a unique opportunity to trace the evolution of almost all of his work. He executed a number of altars and parts of iconostases both for his own church (images for the altar of St. Nicholas, funded by brother Daniil Khometsky. 1746-1747, images of the altar of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, funded by Oleksandr Hubytsky, 1759, the image of “Adoration of Christ” (with portraits of Bishop Joseph Shumlyansky and Maria Theresa) for the deisesus row and “The Last Supper” in the middle of the festive row of the main iconostasis (before 1770). and for such Drohobych churches as St. George (images for the altars of St. George, St. Nicholas, the Assumption of the Virgin, two ferrotrons – precessional images). The Nativity of the Virgin (the local and apostolic rows of the main iconostasis and the ferrotron, the second half of the 18th century). St. Friday (the apostolic row of the main iconostasis has been preserved iconostasis beginning of the second half of the 18th century). In 1753, he simultaneously executed two altarpieces with a close Eucharistic theme “Christ the Vine-Grower” (by the efforts of Andrei Nemirovsky) for the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and Lamentation” (with the image of Christ, from whose wounds a vine sprouts) for the Church of St. George. He graphically designed the “Memorial of Mikhail Hlibkevtch” (1741). A unique image of his work “Crucifixion with Donors” on a canvas from an unknown church and other works have been preserved. The work of Fr. Hlibkevtch is a synthesis of local and Central European traditions, which already expressed Western stylistic influences of Baroque and Rococo. At the same time, his icon painting is a central, bright phenomenon in the church art of the Przemysl Diocese of the 18th century, which, apparently, expressed the spiritual and aesthetic intentions of the Boyko sub-ethnic group. Despite his active creativity, Fr. Hlibkevych was an extremely modest person in life, as if embodying in his life’s actions the moral precepts of high Christian spirituality, which he served with all his talent. In his works we also see images of the people of Drohobych at that time, people who paid for icons. This is also a defining feature of that era – the secular was surprisingly intertwined with the sacred. Fr. Vasyl Hlibkevych died in 1770, as recorded in the church “Synodical”.

L. Skop