Ukrainian Portrait Painting of the 18th–Early 19th Centuries in the Collection of the Dnipro Art Museum

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyse the collection of Cossack portrait painting of the 18th-early 19th centuries from the collection of the Dnipro Art Museum, with further classification of genre types and the role of specified works in the development of Ukrainian portraiture. The research methodology is based on a combination of general scientific and special methods of cognition. The leading tools of the research toolkit are analytical, historical-chronological, and systematic, which make it possible to thoroughly consider the material in art history and historical contexts, to obtain results for further searches in order to clarify attribution. The scientific novelty of the research lies in comprehensive study of artworks of particular collection of Cossack portraits of the 18th-early 19th centuries from Dnipro Art Museum collection, in which, next to famous historical figures (I. Samoylovych, I. Mazepa, I. Skoropadsky), we see little-known images (the scribe I. Nevinchany, the bishop Joseph). Their artistic and historical significance in the development of national portrait painting is determined. Conclusions. The eight portraits from Dnipro Art Museum collection considered in the article gave the author opportunity to research a number of portraits of Cossack figures of the 18th century, to trace important facts of creation of artworks group from first formation period of museum collection by efforts of Dmytro Yavornytskyi. The character analysis of the portraits proved the presence of main genre varieties in the collection – ktitori, epitaph, secular ceremonial and chamber types. Particularly important for research is the portrait of Hetman I. Mazepa, which shows an easel variation of the founder portrait. Most of the considered artworks represent the baroque in their stylistics, instead "Portrait of Pavlo Rudenko" by the brush of Volodymyr Borovikovskyi shows characteristics of a classical portrait. The artworks considered in the article specify the stylistics of national types.