Article 7

The following article originally appeared in THE DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER on September 13, 1978. It was written by James Fiedler. It is printed with permission. Photo taken by Mark Kiryluk.

Artist Puts Impression of Paul on Canvas

Pope Paul VI had a special attraction for Russian immigrant artist Lev Lominago.

The artist - who has specialized in the art of painting religious pictures called icons - became a Catholic in 1963, the same year Paul became Pope.

And when he and his wife and daughter were able to leave the soviet Union in 1973 through the aid of the International Rescue Committee, he went to Rome and there was blessed by Pope Paul at an audience.

Great Experience

"It was a great experience...I was so close to him...I had a very warm impression of him," Lominago said.

When Pope Paul died, "my thoughts - what is inside of me - were directed to him," the artist related.

The result was a portrait of the late Pontiff painted meticulously with egg tempera in the style of the old masters.

Old Masters

It was his study of the old masters as an art student that first attracted Lominago to Catholicism. The spirit of Catholicism that he found in the works of the old masters, he said, "was closer to my spirit as an artist."

He became a Catholic through a Polish Catholic church in Leningrad, where he lived. Lominago said also that he had become upset with the way the Russian Orthodox Church had started "serving the government too much."

The artist said he had always "loved drawing as a child," and began his formal study of art at the age of eight.

Clandestinely

He eventually became interested in icons but had to study iconography clandestinely because of the government's opposition to religion, Lominago said.

"Being an iconographer is dangerous work in the Soviet Union," he added.

From Italy, he came to the United States in January 1974. He was in New York for only about a week when he was able to get a contract to paint icons for All Saints Russian Church in Denver.

He is now in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen.

Lominago still has a great love for the old masters. He said he admires their patient, meticulous manner of applying paint in layers, the method he used in painting the portrait of Pope Paul.

'Anathema'

The modern preference for a single quick application of paint strikes him as "vulgar." Acrylics, he said, are "anathema".

Lominago said his portrait of Paul was painted "not for money only."

Because of his special feeling he has for Pope Paul, he said, he would "like to see it hanging in some special place...like at the Vatican in Rome."

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Copyright © 2007 The Lominago Group. All rights reserved.