УКРАЇНСЬКА РУКОПИСНА ОРНАМЕНТИКА НОВОВІЗАНТІЙСЬКОГО СТИЛЮ: ОСОБЛИВОСТІ РОЗВИТКУ В КОНТЕКСТІ СХІДНОХРИСТИЯНСЬКИХ ХУДОЖНЬО-МИСТЕЦЬКИХ ТРАДИЦІЙ

Abstract

Background: New Byzantine handwritten ornamentation is determined by the exceptional elegance and richness of decorative motifs. It was finally formed in the XIII–XIV centuries as a result of the transformation of Old Byzantine ornaments, gaining the status of elite book ornaments in Bulgarian and Serbian book arts. At the end of XIV–early XV centuries in the course of the so-called second South Slavic influence, its specimens got into the literary and artistic centers of the Rus. The existence of New Byzantine handwritten ornaments on the Eastern Slavic soil has been studied very unevenly, because until now the research attention has focused exclusively on Russian monuments decorated with this ornament. Little is known about Ukrainian patterns of the New Byzantine style. It can be explained by the fact that in Ukraine they rarely occur only in isolated codes, which, moreover, have been partially introduced into scientific circulation for a long time, and therefore they have remained inaccessible to the general public. Purpose : The proposed exploration makes the first attempt to investigate the features of the application and development of the decorative system of the Ukrainian variant of the New Byzantine style of decorating manuscripts in the context of related ornamental traditions of Central and Eastern Europe. At the same time, the author has no ambition to fully identify this undeniably important scientific problem that needs thorough interdisciplinary studies, but to first outline its outlines and share his observations and considerations, many of which will probably be debatable. Results : The small number of Ukrainian handwritten monuments decorated with New Byzantine patterns is obvious, and this constitutes an insurmountable obstacle to the reproduction of a general picture of their consistent progress and diversity of manifestations in the late medieval Ukrainian and, in general, Eastern Christian cultural and artistic space. But the fact that it is open today does not give the slightest reason to doubt its extraordinary importance, a lasting tradition with a solid foundation. The ornamentations of the Kyiv Psalter, the Koroleve and Navariya (from Navariya) Gospels being analyzed in the article reflect the main stages of the penetration and evolution of the New Byzantine ornamental style in Ukrainian book art. Domestic artists who possessed a large arsenal of Byzantine and South Slavic models, from the very beginning, perceived it (New Byzantine style) creatively; as a result, it was quickly mastered and combined with local cultural and artistic heritage. In the XV c. in the territory of Ukraine this ornamentation, having acquired new unique features, became another local style variety, along with Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, Russian and others. Moreover, there is reason to argue that the modified New Byzantine decorations of Ukrainian books greatly influenced the development of the handwritten ornamentation of the Moscow State of the XVI c. Key words: New Byzantine style, ornament, Ukrainian manuscript book, book art, the Kyiv Psalter, Koroleve Gospel, Navariya Gospel.