SYMBOLISM OF WHITE COLOR IN THE TRADITION OF EMBROIDERED SHIRT AS A KEY ELEMENT OF THE ARTISTIC IMAGE OF THE UKRAINIAN FOLK COSTUME

Abstract

The article, using the art history tools, applied in the process of analysis of works of the Ukrainian decorative and applied art, oral folk arts and literary works, studies the specifics of symbolic content of white color in an embroidered shirt and reveals its importance in the artistic image of the costume, subject to transformational processes related thereto. The study was carried out taking into account the fact that the shirt is the key element of a complex of the Ukrainian folk costume. This scientific study was carried out with the purpose of clarifying the peculiarities of the symbolism of the white color of an embroidered shirt of the Ukrainian people as one of the components of the artistic image of the Ukrainian folk costume, taking into account the transformational processes taking place therein. In order to achieve the set goal, a list of the tasks was formed: to find out a place of the white color in the Ukrainian culture and art; to analyze examples of oral folk arts, literary works, which contain references to the white color of an embroidered shirt; to consider the peculiarities of symbolism of the white color at the beginning of the 21st century; to reveal the transformational processes of the artistic image of clothing, taking into account the role of the white color therein. The source base of this study was formed by embroidered shirts of different historical periods from different ethnographic regions of Ukraine, works of Ukrainian literature and examples of folklore. The scientific novelty of the results lies in the fact that a comprehensive analysis of semantic meaning of the white color of an embroidered shirt was carried out for the first time in the Ukrainian art history, in view of its importance in the artistic image of the folk costume of the Ukrainian people. This was achieved through the study of stable phraseological combinations of words with a colorative component based on direct and figurative meanings, revealing the peculiarities of stylistic and associative-figurative use of the meaning of the white color in the Ukrainian tradition on the example of a shirt in author’s and folk texts, which was done to obtain an emotional and evaluative meaning of objects and events. Conclusions. The interpretation of the semantics of the white color as a significant “linguistic” sign has been revealed, which, despite the significant transformational processes that have taken place with the Ukrainian traditional embroidered shirt, has retained its original meaning.