ILLUSTRATIONS FOR TARAS SHEVCHENKO'S “KOBZAR” WORKS BY ARTIST AMVROSYI ZHDAKHA

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to determine the conceptual, compositional, artistic-figurative, and stylistic features of thirty-nine illustrations by the extraordinary Ukrainian artist Amvrosyj Zhdakha to the collection of literary works by Taras Shevchenko from the collection called “Kobzar”, which since the post-war 1940s have been kept in the collection of the State Scientific Architectural and Construction Library named after V. G. Zabolotnyj in Kyiv, and since the end of the 20th century in the private collection of T. Maksym’yuk (Odessa). The main idea of the study is based on the exclusivity of the work of the specified artist in the specified field. After all, Amvrosyj Zhdakha was the first to try to illustrate the most significant work of Taras Shevchenko comprehensively and dedicated it to the embodiment of 1894–1901, and later returned to Shevchenko’s work from 1917 and worked on it at least until1921. Amvrosyj Zhdakha illustrated "Drowned", "The Cause", "Ivan Pidkovа", "The Monk". The methodology of the work is based on a combination of principles, approaches and methods. Thus, it is based on the principles of scientific reliability and comprehensiveness, as well as on art historical, cultural, historical approaches; axiological, ontological, hermeneutic, prosopographic, historical-chronological, comparative, cultural-creative, socio-cultural, iconographic, formal-stylistic and art historical analysis methods. Among the key tasks of the study is to investigate the legacy of Amvrosyj Zhdakha in illustrating the works of the poetic collection "Kobzar" by Taras Shevchenko according to materials available in both state and private collections of Ukraine; to characterize the artistic, figurative, plot, compositional, iconographic features of the artist's handwriting compared to the works of K. Trutovskyj, I. Repin, I. Yizhakevich, O. Slastyon, V. Krychevskyj; to carry out an art historical analysis of the various works of A. Zhdakha, published in the 2019 edition by Volodymyr Nedyak in the Emma publishing house (the best book of Ukraine in 2019).