ICONOGRAPHIC PROGRAMS OF MONUMENTAL PAINTINGS BY O.Y. SOKOL IN THE CHURCHES OF KHARKIV AND POLTAVA REGIONS

Abstract

The article analyzes the iconographic programs of O. Sokol’s monumental paintings, which have been preserved in the churches of Kharkiv and Poltava: the Church of St. Sampsonius the Pilgrim in Poltava (1909) and the Church of the Three Saints (Goldberg’s Church) in Kharkiv (1915). These churches were built for different purposes and had different functions. Thus, the Sampsonian Church was built as a memorial church-monument on the site of the Battle of Poltava (the so-called Swedish Grave), while the Church of the Three Saints was planned as a courtyard of the Transfiguration of the Saviour Kuryazh (Old Kharkiv) Monastery (but after the construction was completed, it was used as a parish church). According to the function of the churches, Sokil developed an original iconographic program for each of them. Thus, in the Church of the Three Saints, a program of the patronal type was implemented (typical for the paintings of monastery churches), where special attention was paid to personal images of saints differentiated by the type of service. The Sampsonian church implemented a soteriological iconographic program, where the main leitmotif was the theme of the Resurrection, sacrifice, protection, etc. During the study of church monuments in the Poltava region, another complex of monumental paintings was discovered, which, according to the authors of the article, could be related to the creative heritage of O. Sokol (co-authored with O. Murashko). These are the paintings of the Epiphany Church in the village of Oboznivka, Hlobyno district, Poltava region (1901). The paintings of the Oboznivka church represent the third type of iconographic program, a copy-comparative one (compositions of the paintings of St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral in Kyiv were used), which was successfully used for the picturesque decoration of the village parish church. The authors of the Oboznivka church murals worked freely with the samples, adapting well-known compositions to the interior of the church, which was built in a different architectural style. In all three churches, the author of the murals is clearly fascinated by the art of the early Christian period.