A. Ivanova. Fabric "The Tale of Igor's Campaign"

The colour photograph shows a tapestry with the theme "The Story of Igor's Campaign" (according to the Ukrainian-language simple pencil inscription under the photograph, there is no date or place of the photograph). The size of the work is quite impressive (taking into account the fragment of the figure supporting the work on the left, the length of one side of the square is about 2 metres). In terms of style, the work is a vivid example of a thorough study of folk art and the search for original images to recreate the idea of a military campaign in the times of the Ancient Rus. Thus, the images of miraculous heroes on horseback in this work by Antonina Ivanova are a reinterpretation of images of horsemen (illustrations 24-27, 51, 68, 70 from Voronov's book "On Peasant Art", 1924), hunting scenes and people in militarised uniforms (illustrations 97 and 98). In addition to these images, with which Antonina Ivanova was undoubtedly familiar, the sources of the iconography of the soldiers of the Igor regiment used by the artist include numerous folk woodcuts with the "king" Alexander the Great, Aliosha Popovych and the Nightingale Robber (mid-17th to 18th centuries), painted objects, mainly chests, with Alexander the Great, the hero Usyna Horynych or Bova Korolevych (17th century). Each of the corners of the square depicts a stylised sun, typical of both folk woodcuts and earlier examples of Orthodox iconography. Thus, the four horsemen in the central square are the obvious result of the combination of the above images with the artist's attempts to evaluate them from the point of view of her varied and rich experience. The perimeter of this square is decorated with almost ornamental figures of riders in simple clothing. Another group of motifs, which to some extent emphasises the idea of the literary basis of the depicted motifs, are repeated images of birds of paradise (given the quality of the photograph, it is difficult to say, but these are probably syryns – half-women and half-birds), known from examples of fine and decorative arts dating back to the twelfth century (according to S. Zhehalova). As far as the dating of the work in the photograph is concerned, at the level of speculation, especially with regard to the composition, the colour (of course, it is difficult to say how well this photograph corresponds to the original) and the use of images of horsemen, one source of inspiration could be the carpet from the Fifth Pazyryk Kurgan, discovered during excavations in 1949, which became a real scientific sensation due to its age (made around the fifth to fourth century BC) and the state of preservation of the piece. It is worth noting that other artists from Mykhailo Boichuk's circle, including Ivan Padalka, who created illustrations for this text in 1928, also addressed the theme of the "Tale of Igor's Campaign" (Shpakov A. Artist and Book. Kyiv, 1973. pp. 56, 63).

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery