Антропология и искусство (о некоторых итогах и планах по антропологическому изучению древних и современных популяций по произведениям изобразительного искусства)

Abstract

Introduction. The article is devoted to a retrospective review of the results of the anthropological study of fine art sources, achieved by the race research laboratory directed I.V. Perevozchikov that are currently ongoing. Materials and methods. Descriptions of materials and methods are detailed in the main articles of the team cited in the bibliography. Results and discussion. The anthropological study of fine art is a new interdisciplinary direction in anthropology; it is carried out in two directions: 1) the western european portraiture and russian portraiture, 2) the ancient sculpture and painting. The idea of using ancient human images in anthropology is not new, but the population approach to the analysis of series of images belongs to I.V. Perevozchikov. About one and a half thousand portraitures were described as samples from populations, anthropological characteristics and estimates of homogeneity of populations based on composite portraits were studied. Anthropological description of the ancient population of the Mediterranean was obtained from samples: fayum portrait, roman sculptural portrait, etruscan portrait. In the evolution of the portrait, certain stages of the reflection of the physical individuality are determined; human images can be viewed from the anthropoesthetic standpoint as markers of a person's biological and social needs for self-identification. Conclusion. Combination of the descriptive method and the composite portrait for studying ancient and modern portraits makes it possible to obtain objective data on the anthropological types of the depicted population. Obtaining anthropological information about ancient populations contained in a variety of art resources of the cultural heritage requires an interdisciplinary synthesis of scientific ideas and knowledge of specialists in the natural sciences and the humanities.