THE COMPOSITE DECORATION ON TOP OF THE FELONS OF THE LATE XXTH – EARLY XXIST CENTURIES. ICONOGRAPHY OF THE MOTHER OF GOD CYCLE

Abstract

The Virgin’s topic of the religious images has been widely referred to in church and folk art of Ukraine. Since for every holiday and ritual day of the year, the parish has its own patrons, among which the Mother of God is considered to be the most holy and that’s why the image of Mary occupies a prominent place in all kinds of sacred art. Besides the hand drawn icons (church or household) the image of the Virgin is observed in the church textiles: banners, shrouds, covers and priestly robes. It’s regular that the decoration of the priestly dress subordinates the influence of the religious traditions and preferences of the masters. Thus, embroidered iconographic compositions on top of felons, forming alongside with the hand drawn icon, absorbed not only generally accepted canonic (church) peculiarities but folk ones as well. The felon is a top robe of the priestly clothes decorated with ornamental and plot trimming. Ornamental compositions are formed with the help of geometric, floral or combined motives and they are spread all over the outerwear. On top of the felon there is a small figured image framed mostly in the form of a decorative cross or a diamond, less often a circle or a square. The specified ornamental forms are based on the same motives, which decorate other parts of the robe. The object of our research is exactly embroidered composite trimmings together with the image of the Virgin on top of the felons. So, the current article deals with embroidered iconographic plots of the Virgin’s cycle which are most frequently observed on the priestly clothes of the western regions of Ukraine in the late XXth – early XXIst centuries. We analyze four most common images of the Mother of God: Guide (Hodegetria), Eleusa, Pokrova and Orans.