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The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 1 (187), 104—116

UDK 730.046.3:94](477.83/.86)”17″

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

The date the article was first submitted to the publication 23.01.2026

The date the article was accepted for publication after review 10.02.2026

The date of publication (publication)

JOHANN GEORGE PINZEL’S «The GUARDIAN ANGEL»: BORYS VOZNYTSKYI AND ONE ICONOGRAPHIC MOTIF

LEVYTSKA Mariana

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0977-4470
  • Dr. hab. in History, PhD in Art History,
  • Senior Research Associate of the Art Studies Department
  • The Ethnology Institute NAS of Ukraine (Lviv),
  • 15, Svobody Avenue, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Professor of the Graphic and Art of Book Department,
  • L’viv Polytechnic National University
  • Contacts: e-mail: m.levytska@gmail.com

Abstract. Introduction. The article is based on research on the artworks of Johann Georg Pinzel conducted by B. Voznytskyi in the 1990s— 2000s and serves as a tribute to the outstanding museum professional and custodian of the renowned eighteenth-century master’s works.

Problem statement and purpose. The article offers new interpretations of the guardian angel image and its variations in projects attributed to the sculptor and his pupils or followers in Catholic and Uniate churches of eighteenth-century Galicia. It demonstrates how the historiography of Pinzel’s oeuvre, analysis of this motif, and its European parallels support a reinterpretation of his work as a significant and innovative contribution to local religious art.

The sources of the study include recognized publications by Ukrainian and foreign scholars on the sculptor’s body of work, as well as comparatively underestimated studies on the iconography of this motif in eighteenth-century art and sources on the theological foundations of its reinterpretation in post-Tridentine Catholic theology, in connection with the religious culture of eighteenth-century Galicia within the Polish-Lithuanian Com-monwealth.

Methods. The research employs basic methods of art-historical analysis, among which the key is the iconographic method. Through formal-stylistic, contextual, and comparative analyses, it is possible to identify the iconographic basis and to deepen the theological and art-historical interpretation of the image of the guardian angel as an innovative iconographic motif in Johann Georg Pinzel’s work.

Results. The study outlines a research framework situated between the analysis of artifacts and sources and the search for comparisons and analogies of the guardian angel iconographic motif within the context of Pinzel’s artworks. A review of the historiography of J.G. Pinzel and his followers shows that most scholars have focused primarily on verifying and attributing the corpus—an important task in art history. However, it is equally important to address questions concerning the emergence, development, circulation, and transformation of individual artistic motifs as carriers of deeper historical and cultural meanings of a given epoch or style.

The research has proposed possible interpretations of thші image within the complex interrelations and intersections of Baroque imagery in both its Western (Catholic) and Eastern (Uniate) dimensions. Ultimately, this has made it possible to reassess the efforts of twentieth-century museum professionals and scholars aimed at the preservation, study, and presentation of outstanding works of eighteenth-century Ukrainian art.

Keywords: Pinzel, iconographic motif, guardian angel, Borys Voznytskyi, theology of the image.

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