Мавританські мотиви у творчості академіка архітектури О. М. Бекетова

Abstract

In the 18th – early 19th century, in the architecture of Europe, the fashion for Orientalism began to appear, but this process started to gain real strength in the second half of the 19th century during the spread of the so-called neo-styles. The certain creative tribute to the enthusiasm for oriental motives was given by the most famous Kharkiv architect – academician of architecture O. M. Beketov. In 1895–1910 he designed and built on his yard space in the village of Profesorskyi Kutochok (now a district of the Crimean city of Alushta) the complex of summer cottages by the sea in the eclectic style, but with the clear preference for the architectural forms of the oriental look. The center of its composition was the two-storey six-room manor house with the asymmetrical balcony (oriental-type veranda), open terrace, two loggias and compact interior plan system. In the same spirit, for his brother-in-law D. O. Alchevskyi, the artist made the project of the two-storey city mansion with the corridor-suite plan system, which was built in 1896–1897 in Kharkiv on Sadovo-Kulikivska Str., 7 (now Darvina Str., 13). Based on the historical and art history analysis, it can be confidently asserted that the buildings of O. M. Beketov’s dacha in Alushta and the city mansion of D. O. Alchevskyi in Kharkiv were built together using the techniques and forms of Moorish architecture of the 8th–13th centuries and Crimean Tatar architecture of the 14th–18th centuries. It is important that in the process of their design and construction, O. M. Beketov was able to create graceful, charming, almost fabulous architectural images in the best traditions of Morisca. The author creatively applied the plasticity of the architectural elements of the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, the Giralda minaret in Seville, the Palacio de Pena in Sintra, Portugal, which bizarrely and, at the same time, organically harmonized with Iraqi, Crimean Tatar and purely European architectural forms. In addition, in his creations, O. M. Beketov significantly strengthened the eclecticism characteristic of Moorish architecture with elements of Art Nouveau, only adding modernity and extraordinary expressiveness to the architectural image of houses. The design and construction of these buildings for their time was carried out at the highest level, which makes it possible to confidently include them in the circle of the best old mansions of Alushta and Kharkiv. In addition, O. M. Beketov’s dacha is one of the important architectural dominants of Profesorskyi Kutochok, and D. O. Alchevskyi’s mansion, from the urban planning point of view, very successfully closes the perspective of Kulykovskyi Descent in Kharkiv. Both buildings are monuments of architecture, perform weighty urban planning functions, and need protection and periodic restoration.