Portraits of the 18th Century from the Family Gallery of the Galagan’s: Socio-Cultural dynamics in visual images of history
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28925/2524-0757.2023.117Keywords:
portrait, family gallery, socio-cultural dynamics, Galagan’s, Left Bank UkraineAbstract
The article examines the issue of studying portraits from family galleries of the Ukrainian lordship of the 18th century as visual evidence of the social dynamics within this stratum. The concept of the article is based on the statement that a portrait as a historical source represents a person in the aggregate of personal characteristics and social role. The purpose of the article is to analyse the reproduction of socio-cultural changes experienced by the Hetmanate's elite during the 18th century in portraits from the Galagan’s collection. The authors used a set of methods of historical-anthropological and historical-artistic analysis. In particular, the facts of the real biographies of the representatives of the family were correlated with the images on the canvases. Changes in the choice of authors of works were analysed, and the evolution of artistic and technical methods of their performance was considered. Elements of clothing and materials from which they are made, the shape of hairstyles, and the presence of accessories were taken into account.
Portraits of the Galagan’s illustrate the process of transformation of the Cossack-elderly family into a noble one and show the change of social roles within one family. The works of the family collection eloquently attest to two models in the behaviors of the top Cossacks and their descendants — the imitation of ancestral traditions and the borrowing of the lifestyle of the imperial aristocracy. The change in the artistic style of works is also a mirror of the dynamics of the socio-cultural priorities of society. Over the course of 50 years, the transition from Cossack portraits with characteristic features of the baroque style to academic canvases, combining elements of rocaille, classicism, sentimentalism, and romanticism, took place within one collection. At the same time, these works demonstrate how ancestral portraits became symbolic capital for Galagan descendants already in the 19th century, contributing to the formation of ideas about the Cossack roots of the family.
Downloads
References
Biletskyi, P. (1969). Ukrainskyi portretnyi zhyvopys XVII-XVIII st. Kyiv: Naukova dumka [in Ukrainian].
Bielikova, H. & Chlenova, L. (2006). Ukrainskyi portret XVI–XVIII stolit. Kyiv [in Ukrainian].
Galagan, H. P. (1896). Rod Galaganov. In A. I. Stepovich (Ed.), 25-letie Kollegii Pavla Galagana v Kieve (pp. 1–23), Kyiv [in Russian].
Gaskel, A. (2010). Visual History. In P. Burke (ed.), T. & A. Portnovykh (trans.), New Perspectives on Historical Writing (pp. 221–255) [in Ukrainian].
Kovalevska, O. (2018). Vizualni studii. In V. Smolii (Ed.), Narysy z sotsiokulturnoi istorii ukrainskoho istoriiepysannia: subdystsyplinarni napriamy (pp. 119–136), Kyiv: Heneza [in Ukrainian].
Kovalevska, O. O. (2014). Zobrazhennia kriz viky: ikonohrafiia kozatskoi starshyny XVII–XVIII st. (Vol. 1), Kyiv [in Ukrainian].
Kurach, S. M. (2019). Rodynni portrety Rozumovskykh-Darahaniv u zibranni Chernihivskoho oblasnoho khudozhnioho muzeiu imeni Hryhoriia Galahana. Sivershchyna v istorii Ukrainy, 12, 404–408 [in Ukrainian].
Lazarevskii, A. (1883). Galaganovskii familnyi arkhiv. Kievskaya starina, VII, 432–471 [in Russian].
Lazarevskii, A. (1875). Ocherki malorossiiskikh familii. Galagany. Russkii arkhiv, 1, 318–325 [in Russian].
Lazarevskii, A. (1882). Starinnyie malorossiiskie portrety. Kievskaya starina, 5, 337–342 [in Russian].
Ruban, V. V. (1990). Zabytyie imena. Rasskazy ob ukrainskikh khudozhnikakh XIX — nachala XX veka. Kyiv: Naukova dumka [in Russian].
Slavutych, Ye. (2013). Clothes of the Cossack Starshyna in Hetmashchyna (the 2nd Half of the 17th — 1st Third of the 18th Centuries). Spetsialni istorychni dystsypliny: pytannia teorii ta metodyky, 16, 210–238. [in Ukrainian].
Slavutych, Ye. V. (2012). Viiskovyi kostium v Ukrainskii kozatskii derzhavi: Uniformolohichnyi slovnyk; H. V. Boriak (Ed.). Kyiv. [in Ukrainian].
Sokyrko, O. (2021). Hetman in a Wig. External Forms of Representation of the Hetman Kyrylo Rozumovskyi’s Power. Text and Image: Essential Problems in Art History, 2(8), 51–85 [in Ukrainian].
Shcherbakivskyi, D., & Ernst, F. (1925). Ukrainskyi portret: vystavka ukrainskoho portretu XVII — XX st., Kyiv [in Ukrainian].
Shmitt, Zh.-K. (2002). In . Ya. Gurevich (Ed.) Istorik i izobrazhenie. Odissey. Chelovek v istorii: Slovo i obraz v srednevekovoy kulture (pp. 9–29). Moscow: Nauka [in Russian].
Vasilchikov, A. A. (1880). Semeistvo Razumovskikh (Vol. 1). Sankt-Peterburg [in Russian].
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Марина Будзар, Яна Ярмоленко
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish in this journal retain the right of authorship of the work and give to the journal right of first publication of this work under the conditions of Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), which allows others freely distribute the work published with reference to the authors of the original work and the first publication of this magazine.
