Purpose. The purpose of the article is to analyze the motive of mastery in modern artistic traditionalism.
Results. The works of F. Abramov, V. Shukshin, and V. Rasputin as representatives of the socio-moral, existential, and ‘mystical’ lines of development of this movement were chosen for our research. We separate the motif of craft and the the actual creative act, and analyze the effect of luminophany typical to the latter. In Shukshin’s work, the motive of skill correlates with the plot of civilization, the characters leave the countryside in search of wisdom. In the early texts, the city is presented as a promising space for the formation of personality, in the later ones, on the contrary, the image of the city gets a tragic resolution, the master chooses the path of a hired craftsman who repeats other people's patterns. The real hero here is ‘strange’, ‘foolish’, who does not know how to make practical use of the skill. He creates his world as a miracle, a refuge where you can escape from the cruel present.
In Abramov’s work, the themes of labor and skill are key, the social efforts of masters are important, they strive to transform the house, the countryside, and Russia here and now. There is an ethicization of labor, labor becomes a commandment, a prayer, the masters themselves belong to the fabulous chronotope, perform the functions of demiurges, opening up to the profane crafts, culture, and the vertical. Women often show skill in men's professions, which is due to the unique traits of the post-war period.
The motif of skill in Rasputin's later texts correlates with the motif of death. The theme of the master and his fate unfolds in the story Izba, where the question arises about a new hero who can lead the nation out of the spiritual impasse. Rasputin, disappointed in the possibilities of a patriarchal man, leaves the chance for the renewal of the universe to a woman whose feat is set off by the presence of the master Savelii, whose image is enhanced by the figure of Orpheus. When the masters no longer have a place, in reality, they establish personal contact with time, and Eternity resonates with the question of man.
Conclusion. Over the centuries, the experience of searching for ‘secret freedom’, the creation of the master of light, accumulates, is transmitted from generation to generation, which determines the existence of culture.
The Image of the city in Italian chapels of the 15th century (a study of Benozzo Gozzoli’s fresco cycles)