The Plowman and the Music as gender personifications of the Czech identity in culture

The culture of the Czech National Revival produced a symbolic autoidentification in figures of the Plowman and the Music. The drawings of J. Mánes and the sculptures of J. Myslbek perpetuated these figures as gender symbols of the Czech identity. The figures of the Plowman and the Music are presented in the Mánes’ drawing “Domov”. The semantics of the drawing is versatile, which provides an impulse for its culturological interpretation. A symbolic figure of the Plowman in historical and cultural consciousness of Czechs has been associated with Přemysl the Ploughman — the legendary founder of the Přemyslid dynasty. According to the Czech legend told by Cosmas of Prague, Přemysl was elected the prince upon the request by the Czech ruler Libuše, who then married him. The title of the drawing refers to the song of J. K. Tyl, which had become somewhat of an unofficial Czech anthem of the 19th century. In the Mánes’ drawing Libuše is substituted by a symbolic figure of the Music as a personification of the national genius of Czechs. Historical-patriotic connotations generate the image of the Czech people, which formed in the epoch of the National Revival. Moreover, the Czech identity manifested itself in gender as a harmony of the male and female principles, work, and music. The idea of organic work as the basis of art is introduced into the drawing`s composition. A series of Mánes’ drawings “The Music” came to be a vivid embodiment of the national identity, showing the life of a peasant accompanied by music from birth till death. The Myslbek’s sculpture “The Music”, which became lobby`s centerpiece of a new Czech sacred place — The National Theater in Prague, is presented as a personification of the Czech identity in culture. A female image of the Music is identified with the soul of the people in a state of sociocultural and political emancipation.

Study of a costume complex from the burial of the princess Natalia Alexeevna Romanova. Preserved and lost

This paper discusses a costume complex from the burial of the Princess Natalya Alexeevna Romanova, the sister of Emperor Peter II. The burial of the young Princess took place in a dynastic necropolis of the Ascension Monastery of the Moscow Kremlin in January 1729, among dozens of tombs of Great Duchesses, Queens And Princesses. Two hundred years later, with the destruction of the monastery, by the efforts of museum and scientific staff, all the sarcophagi of the necropolis moved to the Moscow Kremlin Museums. Here is where their research began as part of a large project “Historical Necropolis” (supervisor T. D. Panova). The costume complex from the burial of Princess Natalya Romanova was studied and restored in 2008–2010 under the highest category restorer in textile and leather N. P. Sinitsyna`s guidance. However, not all the items from the burial have survived to our days — only the princess's dress, her order things, stockings and part of a heavily ruined headdress have been preserved. The other part of the costume complex has been lost for various reasons and at different times (Grand Duke's Mantle, funeral crown, wig, shoes, etc.). This research came as an attempt to present the funeral costume complex in its integrity.

“Third-class humanˮ: On representation of the image of ethnic migrant in modern Russian drama (on the example of the play “Khach” by U. B. Gitsareva)

The paper discusses artistic portrayal of an ethnic migrant in the modern Russian drama on the example of the play “Khach” (2014) by U. B. Gitsareva. The author focuses on the way migration is described and what are the meanings that inform this social phenomenon in the play. The play`s poetics is about giving a voice to migrants and distinguishing them from the mute mass, which organically fits into general tendency of Documentary Theater. The study highlights the concept of “strangeness” (“Otherness”), which is realized here both through a spatial chronotope and artistic objectivity; identifies and systematizes discursive means and mechanisms for constructing the image of an ethnic migrant, reveals perception and attitude of the host community towards the ethnic migrants, explores characteristics attributed to him in the host environment, analyzes how the topic of public recognition is embodied in everyday language and indicates strategies for migrants to overcoming “strangeness” (“otherness”). The author also substantiates the issue`s relevance for literary research. The choice of the paper`s subject is determined by the lack of studies of the given issue in terms of the modern Russian literature. As the analysis shows the play “Khach” is a comprehensive attempt at generalization, built into both the socio-psychological and ideological context.

“Although he was not equal to Karamzin and Derzhavin, in the society of Russian artists he was not unfamed” (review of the monograph by A. N. Pushkurov “M. N. Muravyov and the culture of literature: a dialogue of perceptions”. Kazan, 2019)

The new monograph by A. N. Pashkurov is a serious scientific study that goes beyond the scope of the work of M. N. Muravyev, raising important methodological problems in the study of Russian literature of the 18th century. A talented historian and theorist of literature, Professor Pashkurov provides an example of the methodology for mastering the literary myth and the system of views of the writer on the world around him and artistic creation. This book marked the beginning of a series of works by philologists on the comprehension of the creative personality in its relation to the past, present and future of literature. This is the special value of the monograph.

Public art as a form of visual sublimation of power

Public art of the USSR and Mexico during the 1920s and early 1950s was chosen as the object of research. Both powers saw public art, especially frescoes, as the most direct and appropriate way of expressing a new revolutionary system of values, and considered it an ideal medium for creating metahistory. Established chronological framework is determined by the fact that during this period, similar changes took place in a political structure of both countries, which led to a transformation of the understanding of artistic production. The author highlighted the relationships between socio-political transformation of images in Mexican muralism and Soviet socialist realism of the 1920s and 1950s (prior to the period of Soviet modernism); she also identified the relationships between the system of images and their influence on the viewer and detected stylistic similarities and differences between both artistic trends, bearing in mind historical and political differences. Similarities in the relations of art and power in Mexico and the USSR manifested in redefining the structures of power; rethinking the concept of the nation and history; recreating the past and controlling it to build the future; rejecting contemporary trends in art of that time and turning to didactic art to educate people and transmit the ideals of the new state. They were also displayed in artistic legitimization of the new political order and creation of public art through appealing to a complex of beliefs, feelings, universal images and fetishes be revered and turned into national cults.

Valeryan Sergin and the development of the Siberian landscape painting at the turn of 21st century: to the study of the artist`s works

The subject of research is an artistic practice of V. A. Sergin, a national artist of Russia, a full member of the Petrovskiy Academy of Sciences and Arts, an academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, a participant in more than 180 exhibitions, including 25 national and international projects, more than 20 personal exhibitions. The paper explores artist’s creative biography in the context of Russian and Siberian traditions and analyzes bright stages of the formation and flowering of the “Siberian school” of Russia, the Krasnoyarsk organization of the Union of Artists, with regional, regional, personal exhibitions and specific works of Sergin highlighted. The author addresses artistic originality of the national tradition of the Siberian region, allowing to holistically present a wide panorama of the development of the Siberian and Russian schools. The paper consistently attempts to discover the artist’s creative laboratory and to identify the “formula” of his inspiration. The basis of the study is a set of principles and techniques of work that have been carried out in practice by the artist from the late 1950s to the present day, and takes into account the creative work of V. A. Sergin, which solves specifically pictorial issues. The creative strategy of modern artist is perceived as a universal cultural environment, a territory for the formation of artistic meanings. The creative environment in the workshop, in the open air and during travels creates the conditions for implementing the art program and reveals those processes that help demonstrate and provide the continuity of artistic traditions.

Serbian Voyvodina vocabulary in comparative and areological aspect

The paper undertakes an analysis of vocabulary of the village Gospodjinci (Voyvodina, Serbia), collected with the help of questionnaire of the “Serbian Dialect Atlas” project (about 400 questions). This dialect belongs to the Shumadiya-Voyvodina dialect, which represents the basis of the Serbian literary language, and the vocabulary of this dialect is quite similar to a literary vocabulary (dialectisms make up 5%). Most of the identified dialectisms are also common outside of the Voyvodina. The lexical corpus under study is also compared with the vocabulary of another Shumadiya-Voyvodina dialect — the dialect of Bela Crkva in North-Western Serbia. With 27% of the answers of questionnaires from two villages differing, 10% are partly varying (in one dialect one word is used whereas in the other — two words). In some cases lexical differentiation between the Gospodjinci dialect and Bela-Crkva dialect reflects common Serbian synonymy. Some of the differential lexemes are important from the geo-linguistic point of view and oppose the dialects of Voyvodina to some of the Serbian dialects: pevac — petao ‘rooster’, verenica -zaručnica ‘bride’, zmija — guja ‘snake’, pule — magare ‘donkey’ etc. Lexical isoglosses allow us to conclude that the area of Voyvodina may be included in both Western and Eastern Serbo-Croatian areas.

Magic Forest Illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley in “Le Morte D`Arthur”: Image Semantics and its Russian “Replication”

The “magic forest” illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley in spite of the continuity in relation to the Pre-Raphaelite and the reconstructed Middle Ages / Renaissance in the works, dedicated to Arthur on the pages of the Kelmscott Press publications, has a number of peculiar features. The semantics of the natural images of the black-and-white illustrations to Thomas Malory's “Le Morte D`Arthur” turns out to be consonant with both the folklore (pagan in its essence) ideas about the forest as other world, and the Christian symbolism of the passion forest, this uncultivated “exile lands”. The essential features of the “Beardsley`s forest” can include its gloominess (black grass, spectacular haze of frames), inaccessibility (thickets of giant bindweed “stifling” knights, fence of trunks, represented as the border of the forest edge, thorns, reminding of the torments of earthly love and its sinfulness). Thomas Malory reduces the element of unbelievable in his narration; Beardsley, on the contrary, returns dragons, fairies, satyrs to the Forest. The paper addresses the background of the first publications of his “forest” graphics in Russia, notes the transfer of emphasis from the medieval forest topic to the motif of the landscape garden that is more consonant with the rockail aesthetics. The authors also draw comparison of interpretation of the forest image and its goat-footed guardians, satyrs, in the representation of the English illustrator and in the text of the “Northern Symphony” by A. Bely.

Color designations and similar concepts in reports of the Russian representative in Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth V. M. Tyapkin

From the point of view of history of color names in Russian language the records of the first representative of Russia in the Polish-Lithuanian state (V. M. Tyapkin) not published in full are of significant value. The most abundant in respect to the color were the records relating to the events of 1676, which is explained by the mass activities that occurred at this time — such as a magnificent funeral of the Polish kings and the coronation of the new monarch. Analysis of the source showed that belyy, zolotoy, krasny, and chernyy are represented with greater frequency. Most often, color designations were used to convey the appearance of fabrics, banners made of them, clothing; less often — interiors and decorations, the color of animals and the appearance of persons. The study determines that the terms krasny and zolotoy were specified by similar concepts, which are different variations on the theme of these colors: zlatoy, zolotnyy; as well as rumyanets, skarlatnyy, chervonnyy and chervchatyy. However, as it turned out, the language “palette” of the document is somewhat poorer than the expressive means of the Russian language of the 17th century. Nevertheless, the residency materials help to clarify the existence of certain lexemes and reveal their etymology. The author introduces new information about the use in speech of educated representatives of the Moscow Russia vocabulary units barvyanyy, farba, and specifies the history of using the term tsvetnoy. A unique case has been identified: the writing of zlatopisanyy — zolotopisannyy is inherent in the monument under study, and we do not know any other examples of its use during this period. Another variant of the well-known word, zolototsvetnyy, found in the source under study, was discovered in the works of M. V. Lomonosov.

Uglich as a place of memory in Olga Bergholz`s creative vision

The paper is the first to analyze Uglich as a place of memory in a creative thought of Olga Bergholz and reveal individual and collective memorization of the old Russian city. The topos of Uglich, which became a spiritual cornerstone for Leningrad`s poetess, gained some new meanings in the perspective of her statements. In the initial period of her creativity, the city developed as an entirely social space, arena for the struggle of old and new world order. A visit to Uglich in 1953 initiated the theme of preserving the monuments and reviving the crafts in the poetʼs mind. In her mature years, Bergholz hold “the city of childhood” as a blessed though later lost place of absolute happiness and harmony, with an allusion to the legendary Kitezh-grad and Kalyazin bell tower. Based on a cultural collective memory, Uglich was actualized and placed among the most important national topos of Russia (historical spot of the death of Tsarevich Dmitry of Uglich) with a metaphorical image of the root-eared bell — a fighter for justice. Bergholzʼs texts reflect the principles of museum commemoration of the Uglich tragedy that are typical for each historical period. The analysis of the poetessʼs working notes for the second (unwritten) part of the novel “The Day Stars,” according to which she was tending to reflect on the innocent victims of olden days (Tsarevich Dmitry, the exiled Uglich townspeople) and contemporaneity (Stalin's repressions), helped to read anew the screenplay “The Day Stars” written in collaboration with I. Talankin. Creative intentions, unrealized in prose, found their realization in a cinematic project that provided effect of presence of the heroine in the Old Russian city, thanks to which the calamities of exiled Uglich townspeople were associated with the lawlessness against Bergholz herself. The role of poet-the-bell was emphasized by constructed Uglich-Leningrad space, in which the heroine performed a symbolic act, accepting a root-eared bell from a dying bell-ringer. The poetess regarded Uglich as a place of memory in the context of lost spiritual guidelines of the first communards as well (“pervorossiane,” who organized the first Society of communal grain-growers in Altai). Thus, according to her creative vision, the city revealed itself as a national loss in terms of the projection “Uglich — Kitezh — Kalyazin bell tower — Pervorossiysk.”