2025.2

The article deals with a bookplate or ex libris, a special type of fine and decorative applied art. Relying on the categories of art semiotics the authors outline the properties of the genre using such concepts as individuality and human personality. The article analyses the role individuality and personality play in producing the idea of a bookplate, in performing its artistic solution and delivering the information about its owner. Another aspect to be investigated is the influence that verbal arts produce on the composition and design of bookplates, namely the synthesis of the visual and the verbal functioning in accordance with the rules of sign ensembles combining signs from different systems. The principles of interaction between the visual and the verbal in a bookplate are considered using the samples from the library belonging to Irakly Andronikov, a scholar, writer and a master of oral storytelling. The samples of oral storytelling by Andronikov were compared to the generalized principles of featuring bookplates to reveal the common mechanisms underlying these materials. The description and attribution of the bookplates reflect the milestones of Andronikov's biography, as well as plots and heroes from the fiction by of Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov.

Currently modern civilization is witnessing a unique process of the cultural paradigm transforming, caused by qualitative changes in cultural attitudes, worldviews and values. The traditional attitude to works of art views them as valuable items, which is currently shifting to focus on the «commercial» aspect of creativity processes. These new approaches call for studying the way values may be represented in the sphere of collecting, taking into account that the personal and the social are combined both in creativity process itself and the dynamics of changes in the field. Though mass collecting is a widespread phenomenon in modern Italy, the fashion for particular items of arts is hypothesized to be the key driver for this process, rather than the gist of collecting itself. Moreover, the issues of preserving cultural heritage have gone beyond the field in question. The author uses the method of interdisciplinary approach to study the essential characteristics of the phenomenon of collecting.

The article is devoted to the Museum of Decorative, Applied and Industrial Art of Stroganov Russian State Art University; founded in 1864 in Moscow, it became one of the oldest museums in Russia. Since 1899 till the revolution it used to be called the Museum of Emperor Alexander II. The main purpose of the museum was to collect and study works of Russian art, which was in line with the Stroganov School, whose original intention was to preserve and develop national artistic traditions. Many outstanding representatives of Russian culture, art and science, including graduates from Moscow University, contributed to the history of the Stroganov School Museum. Since its foundation the Museum has been closely connected to art education and industrial education in this country.

The article is first to consider the influence that G. De Chirico's works of the early period (1910s-1920s) and his 'metaphysical painting' produced on Italian artist Antonio Bueno. The author highlights that the impact produced on young Bueno, searching for his own artistic manner, by the stylistics of this well-recognized leader of the avant-garde 'metaphysical painting' trend was ambiguous. The author exploits a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach to evaluate the way De Chirico's works contributed to Bueno's search for a 'modern style' of painting. The materials of the research are Bueno's diary-memoirs and the studies devoted to his works. It is concluded that only some features typical of early works by De Chirico and his 'metaphysical painting' manner were acquired by Bueno. However, they are concluded to contribute significantly to the development of Bueno's individual stylistic manner. Moreover, these 'borrowed' features are considered most distinguished and stably occurring. In fact, these are the features that shaped his works, in particular those having earned him national and international recognition.

This article outlines the way such a genre of Russian photography as photo series was formed and developed. It also the role it played in the system of mass communications and journalism in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as considers modern interpretations of this phenomenon in the history of Russian and world photography. The characteristics of certain types of photo series (photo essay, reportage photo, photo series) are featured depending on their visual content and fiction material they relied upon. The authors analyse several professional photographic, cinematographic and literary-artistic journals and magazines such as "Kino-fot", "LEF", "Noviy LEF", "Sovetskoie kino" ('Soviet cinema'), "Proletarskoie foto" ('proletarian photo') and "Sovetskoie foto" ('Soviet photo') to evaluate creative tasks of the photographers, theoretical issues critical reviews. The authors consider several strategies of visual storytelling, on which both the photography program and the materials arrangement on the page are based: production sketch or reportage, the principle of photo observation in space, monitoring and the biographical principle. It is emphasized that the genre of photo series in mass communication is close to design, where issues of visual scenario and publication timing come to the fore and enter the realm of graphic design and photo design. It is a well-known fact that photographers A.M. Rodchenko and B.V. Ignatovich mastered these fields themselves in order to maximize the subject by selecting, arranging and accenting the details.

One of the most grandiose Buddhist festivals in China is annually celebrated on the eighth day of the fourth month according to the Chinese lunar calendar, when the Birthday of Buddha Shakyamuni or the Day of the Ablution of Buddha is celebrated. On this day, believers wash the statue of Buddha in scented water as a sign of respect. The article describes the Ablution Ceremony, which consists of six parts: monks gathering to greet the Buddha, greeting the statue, washing, blessing and circumambulating it, returning and concluding the rite. The ceremony is examined using the example of the festival in Kaifeng (Henan Province, China), the ancient capital of the Seven Dynasties, Daxiangguo Buddhist Temple was consecrated as a royal temple during the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127). It is emphasized that during large-scale festivals Daxiangguo Temple also invites more than 800 famous monk-musicians from all over the world to play together on a grand and spectacular stage a special programme called "Offering to Buddha". The article analyses the components of the programme in question and its musical poetics. Namely, it focuses on the function that music performs in the Ablution Ceremony and studies the means of musical expression delivering the emotional atmosphere that corresponds to the traditional prayerful arrangement of the ceremony. The focus is on the role of the Buddhist orchestra of Daxiangguo Temple and the performance of a special piece "Victory Festival" by Hao Yuqi and Liu Yaoting, based on a tune for the suona of Henan Province, which gives the music a bright local flavour. The culture-forming role of Daxiangguo Temple, whose ceremonies are included in the national cultural heritage of China, is emphasized.

The article discusses the activities of N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, the teacher standing at the origins of modern music education. Attention is also paid to the composer's contribution to Russian concert life in the last decades of the 19th century. The present review aims to evaluate the role of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov – his personality, creative and educational activities – in Russian culture.

The author concludes that the issues touched upon in the article deserve further research to be comprehensively described and comprehensively analysed.

The article is devoted to the study of Merce Cunningham's one-act ballets as unique examples of postmodern choreography in which traditional ideas about dance are reinterpreted. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the key characteristics of his work: the autonomy of movement from music, the rejection of narrative and linear drama, as well as the use of the method of chance. Cunningham overcame classical ideas about the synchronicity of music and dance, creating ballets where each of the expressive means (movement, sound, set design) existed independently, but interacted within the framework of a common artistic idea. One-act ballets such as "RainForest" (1968) and "BIPED" (1999) are considered in the article as important examples of Cunningham's innovative approach to the organization of space and time, as well as to interaction with technology, including the use of video projections and computer simulation of movements. The article highlights the importance of Cunningham's one-act ballets as a phenomenon that not only changed the way people viewed dance in the 20th century, but also influenced modern choreographic practices. The work is of interest to dance researchers, scholars focused on cultural studies, and anyone investigating postmodern art.

The article studies the cases of a choreographer's appealing to the topics of the 18th century. This issue rarely becomes the subject of scientific research to cover the features of Petipa's work with the material that was widely recognizable and had its stage representation typical of the second half of the 19th century. These ballet performances included all the inherent features, such as the structure of the action, operating with complex choreographic forms, large diversity in the part of the main performer. Later the choreographer's activity resulted in elaborating the traditional 'canonical' representation. The analysis of Petipa's contribution to ballet theater led to proposing a hypothesis that the choreographer was one of the creators of the 18th-century theatrical myth and developed the very principle of aesthetic perception of history among the audience: the stage image he shaped later became generally accepted. The article studies the notion of recognition, which is especially relevant for the ballet theater. It allows the viewers to perceive what they see and to correlate the received impressions with the well-established images of the past typically evoked in a representative of the second half of the 19th century, i.e., isolated from the epoch by a sufficient temporal distance. For the choreographer brought up in the French tradition, as well as for their Russian audience, a sense of historical authenticity is combined in one production with 'variations on a rococo theme'. The authors analyse Petipa's performances created over four decades, which inevitably rely on historical materials of the 18th century, from the early one-act ballet "The Parisian Market" (1859) to one of the last creations, the pantomime "The Heart of the Marquise" (1902).

The article considers tradition as a fundamental factor in the formation and development of the national theater school. The history of theater education is outlined in order to show the theater school as one of the brightest phenomena of the national cultural heritage. This allowed the author to justifiably state the insufficient study of the theater school in the aspect of indivisibility of specific creative methodology, aesthetic and moral values. The significance of the theater school in preserving a certain cultural tradition of theatrical thinking and creativity is considered. The most important principle of the acting school formulated by K. S. Stanislavsky is emphasized. Namely, it is the transfer of the living tradition of the actor's art from the teacher to the student during a pedagogical workshop. The history of the Russian theater school uncovers a unique way of theater schools emerging and developing in a number of regions in Russian provinces. As an important prerequisite for the birth of professional theater schools in the province, the role of theater technical schools is considered. In order to analyse the role of tradition in the formation and development of provincial theatrical school, the author turns to the history and creative methodology of the Yaroslavl theatrical school, one of the leaders in Russian theatrical education. The key role F. E. Shishigin, the founder director and a teacher of the theater, played in the formation of the school is outlined. Having appealed to the Yaroslavl theater school's experience in preserving traditions, the author highlights the necessity of a careful attitude to the tradition and the importance of searching for modern approaches to work with it in the acting school. The study of the historical and topical aspects of the traditional foundations of the Yaroslavl theater school contributes to a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of the Russian theater school.

The article is based on the comparison of stage images created Russian and Soviet actress O.L. Knipper-Chekhov in the play "The Cherry Orchard" and the Chinese actor Mei Lanfang in the play "A Dream in the Garden". The article explores the principles of creating a female image in the Russian and Chinese stage tradition of the mid-20th century, as well as the peculiarities of theatrical and stage culture of China and the USSR of this period. The study reveals the differences in the ways the actors approach to their roles and create images according to the Russian and Chinese stage traditions. Knipper-Chekhov's principle of a 'Secret marriage to an image' and Mei Lanfang's method of 'Moving without changing shape' reflect different aspirations for 'reality' and 'beauty'. This comparative study is based on the creative potential of theatrical art images of the mid-20th century. The article focuses on the way the theatrical directions represented by the two actors understand the universal issues of theatrical art differently, as well as the way the intersection of the key principles of Russian and Chinese (more broadly, Eastern and Western) theatrical traditions leads to mutual penetration and resonance.