STATE-OF-THE-ART TECHNOLOGIES OF IMITATION OF MURAL PAINTING FROM THE KYIVAN RUS AND BAROQUE PERIODS IN THE RECONSTRUCTED ST. MICHAEL GOLDEN-DOMED CATHEDRAL IN KYIV.

The article deals with the issue of restitution of destroyed architectural monuments that remains disputable. Based on compliance with the world practice of restitution that is recognized at the legislative level, an example of restitution of a unique object of Ukraine is described – St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv, destroyed in the period of the militant atheism of the 1930s. Specialists of the Ukrrestavratsiia Corporation completely reconstructed the volume of the destroyed St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral and St. Michael's bell tower. The work focuses on one of the aspects of the accomplished rehabilitation activities – state-of-the-art technologies for performing mural paintings that imitate ancient Rus frescoes and baroque mural paintings. Reproducing the image-bearing concept of mural painting was one of the most challenging tasks, taking into consideration that photographic materials and evidence of interior decoration were not sufficient on the one hand, and the fact that the cathedral and monastery are functional – on the other, that imparted its peculiarity and called for painting the murals using up-to-date durable painting technologies. For these reasons, instead of the sophisticated and less durable technique of the ancient Rus frescoes, mural painting was used in the image-bearing system of frescoes, but in the state-of-the-art techniques of Keim’s process or mineral painting. The possibilities of strengthening and monitoring cracked masonry structures that are the base of reconstructed frescoes are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]