The Sunken Heart

Anastasiya Markovych on the painting

„There is something of a Byzantine icon in this painting, something of a jeweller’s masterpiece, and something of my own imagination. The delicacy of a woman’s beauty meets here the warmth of amber, the cool gleam of silver and the mystery of the sea — the tears of the Heliades.

It is a singular work in which painting meets the art of the jeweller. The painting has been enriched with real silver and amber by the amber artist Kamil Staszczak, owner of the Amber Museum in Kołobrzeg.

I love to look at this extraordinary composition of ornaments, of amber woven into the hair, of golden reflections and intricately entwined forms. Painting, silver and amber permeate one another here, forming a whole that recalls the work of a Renaissance goldsmith. Every detail has its meaning; every stone keeps a story of its own.

And the “Sunken Heart” of the title is a true treasure — a magnificent piece of amber, larger than a hand, resting in the woman’s hands. As if she held in them not only a remarkable stone, but the feelings, the memory and the tears of thousands of years sealed within it.”