REPRESENTATION OF THEMES OF CEREMONIAL MEDIEVAL GREGORIAN CHANT AND POMPA FUNEBRIS IN FINE AND DECORATIVE ARTS

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to determine the specifics of showing an appeal to ceremonial medieval examples of singing and initiations in fine and decorative and applied art. The article focuses on the evolution of visions of ritual dances, chants, cries, ceremonial processions, priestly liturgical actions, which caused the appearance of exceptional phenomena of the Middle Ages and early modern times – choral singing and various parade “pomps” during initiations. The circle of illustration of these spectacles in fine and decorative arts is outlined. Special attention is paid to the synthesis of temporal and spatial types of art and its reflection in fine and decorative and applied art. Thus, already in Ancient Egypt there are frescoes with the image of exalted mourners at funeral ceremonies (a typical example is the painting of the tomb of Ramose TT55 in the Sheikh Abd el-Kurna necropolis on the West Bank of the Nile in the Luxor region, the 16th century B.C.), as well as “Three Musicians” from the tomb of Nakhta, ca. 1422–1411 B.C., depicting female performers playing a Sumerian-like harp and flute. From the Hellenistic era, the cult of the Vestals developed (to whom the Vesta temples were dedicated in Rome on the Roman Forum in the South of the Sacred Way – Via Sakra) and in Tivoli near Rome, which were built during the 7th century B.C. – were reconstructed and completed after fires close to the first centuries of our era). In addition, reliefs with profiles of famous Vestal women on Roman coins, images of these revered women on the throne in the frescoes of Pompeii of the 1st century B.C. became popular and sculpture, in particular, of the II century B.C. Already in Ancient Rome, a ceremonial of various pathetic pomp with elements of spectacular parades began to take shape. In particular, the pompa triumphalis on the occasion of celebrating military victories, mourning processions Pompa funebris, and bravado Rompa circensis, timed to circus “games”. Finally, in the era of the Second Rome – Byzantium, religious liturgical and initiation ceremonies began to be accompanied by a synthesis of ritual musical and song actions, images of mourning tables. At the same time, some similar visions, including scenes of the performance of meditative Gregorian chorale, parade procession, were later recorded in separate visual narratives of Europe (for example, book-music miniatures of the stanza “Gregory I the Great, to whom the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove inspires a singing canon” 12–13th century, funeral banners of Pavlo Dzyalinsky, approx. 1594–1643, depictions of Pompa funebris scenes in engravings by Cornelis Halle in 1623, etc.).