OLEKSANDR NAIDEN IS A CONTEMPORARY RESEARCHER OF THE ANCIENT TRADITION OF WALL PAINTINGS IN UMAN AND PODILLIA

Abstract

The article examines the prerequisites for the emergence and spread of folk murals in the Uman region and adjacent Podillia, a historical and ethnocultural region extremely rich in peasant paintings, with their vivid local features and more than a century of active use, which left a significant mark on the national culture. Due to the fragility of the materials, primarily the surface of the wall on which the drawings were applied, their long-term preservation was almost impossible. A whole layer of monuments could have been irretrievably lost if not for the sketches, photographs, tracings, and testimonies of researchers who studied the murals in the first half of the twentieth century, In particular, Vasyl Krychevsky, Vadym Shcherbakivsky, Danylo Shcherbakivsky, Vsevolod Bushen, Yevheniia Berchenko, Kostiantyn Shyrotsky, Volodymyr Hagenmeister, Arkadii Zarembsky, Afanasii Bezhkovych, Kostiantyn Krzeminsky, Mariia Shchepotieva, Yelyzaveta Levytska, Petro Yurchenko, Borys Butnyk-Siverskyi, and Viktor Samoilovych. In the next generation, the figure of Oleksandr Naiden, Doctor of Art History, winner of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine (2010), stands out. The scholar systematized the materials of past collectors, analyzed them in depth and comprehensively, and supplemented them with new data. This article is devoted to understanding the significance of O. Nayden’s works for art history and cultural studies. The following methods were used in the work: theoretical – for generalization and analysis of the literature; analytical – in the scientific analysis of the researcher’s works, determining their structure, object, subject and methods of research, conclusions, author; comparative – to outline the place of O. Nayden’s works in the general art history process. The scientific novelty lies in the study of the interconnected complex of works by O. Nayden concerning the ideological foundations of the murals, their semantics and stylistic features; an attempt to present in a generalized form the main ideas put by the researcher as the basis of his scientific analysis and compare them with his predecessors. Conclusion: O. Naiden managed to create a coherent concept of identifying and revealing the essence of paintings in terms of poetics, cosmism, and folklore. The scientist for the first time introduced a significant number of monuments into scientific circulation, carried out an art historical, ethnological, and iconic analysis of the ornaments.