Abstract: The subject of the study is monumental murals, as well as cardboard and sketches by the German artist, one of the founders of the "Union of St. Luke", Friedrich Overbeck (Johann Friedrich Overbeck; 1789-1869), in comparison with his easel works and frescoes by masters of his circle. The object of research is the specifics and evolution of the artist's approach to monumental painting. The purpose of this work is to identify the features of Friedrich Overbeck's fresco painting, and also to analyze the evolution of the manner of his work on monumental cycles. Stylistic, iconographic, historical and cultural analysis is used as the methodological basis of the study. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that despite the fact that Overbeck's activity became one of the important phenomena of European artistic life in the first half of the XIX century, the problem of the formation and development of his approach to fresco painting was practically not touched upon in Russian and Western historiography. This study traced the gradual transition in Overbeck's work from simple illustrative compositions to complex multi-level programs in their meaning. The main specificity of Overbeck's monumental cycles relative to other Nazarenes is the complication of the symbolic content of the works, primarily based on the use of "typological symbolism".

Keywords: Rome, Casino Massimo, Casa Bartholdi, The Nazarenes, monumental painting, Overback, frescoes, romanticism, german art, art of the XIX century

Abstract: The relevant topic of teaching foreign-speaking students in the field of modern Russian theater education is discussed. The subject of the research is the speech training of Chinese students-actors within the framework of an experimental Russian–Chinese theater and educational project of the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts (St. Petersburg) and the Central Academy of Drama (Beijing). The experience of voice and speech training in homogeneous Chinese groups is summarized, the real manifestations of significant ethnopsychological phenomena and the possibility of their use for educational purposes are generalized. The author, a direct participant in the project, analyzes the course and results of the experiment from the position of optimal compliance of the educational process with the identified psychological, mental and national-cultural characteristics of Chinese students-actors. The novelty of the research lies in the experimental substantiation of the variant of the ethnooriented model of voice and speech training of Chinese students in the Russian theater school, carried out using two languages (Russian and Chinese) in Russia, and then in China. This ensures the consistency and meaning of voice and speech education, the possibility of transferring acquired speech skills into national artistic practice. The result of the study ethnopsychological, mental and national-cultural features were found in practice and affecting the process of voice and speech training. Taking into account and using a combination of these factors implements an ethnopsychological approach to voice and speech training of Chinese students-actors.

Keywords: Chinese mentality, ethnopsychological phenomena, monolingual group, stage speech, actor training, theater school, theater and educational project, Chinese students, bilingualism, ethnopsychological approach

Abstract: The research object is the domain of Hellenic religious worldview in the Northern Black Sea region during the Antiquity era. The research focuses on the revival of the Aphrodite cult in the Bosporus and Chersonese in the first centuries A.D. and the strengthening of the chthonic element in these beliefs. The authors consider in detail such aspects of the topic as the mythological origin, the presence of various epicleses of the Greco-barbarian Aphrodite, her connection with other female deities, as well as the features of the chthonic functions originally inherent in this goddess of love and family life. The article pays particular attention to Aphrodite's involvement in funerary rites and the deity's patronage of dead souls. The main research conclusions stem from the identified multifactorial reasons for the popularity of the Aphrodite cult in the Northern Black Sea region in the Roman period. The most important of these are the distribution of the deity's cult among the Romans and the possibility of Aphrodite's divine protection covering a wide enough range of the local population, including sailors, as well as the peculiarities of the reaction of local Hellenes to the Roman cultural expansion. The authors' special contribution to the study of the subject is to link the radical changes in the veneration of Aphrodite in the Northern Black Sea region with the democratization of the apotheosis of the dead in the first centuries A.D. The novelty of the research lies in conducting the first comprehensive study in historiography on this topic, which has revealed one of the main reasons for the return of popularity, as well as the archaization of the Aphrodite cult in the Northern Black Sea region during the Roman period. According to the authors, it was an increased need for the deification of deceased relatives, in order to ensure the peace of their souls and achieve immortality. It was Aphrodite, the oldest and supreme Hellenic deity as Mistress of the afterworld, who could most effectively breathe divine powers into the deceased as well as ensure that he/she would be born in a new capacity.

Keywords: ancestor cult, divine protection, Great Goddess, Eros, Aphrodite, Chersonese, Bosporan Kingdom, Northern Black Sea region, heroization of the dead, chthonic cults

Abstract: Chinese painting of flowers and birds and Western still life paintings are unique, but they have a certain similarity in the representation of objects of the material world. The artists who created them belonged to different cultures, but turned to similar motives, means of expression, as well as artistic materials and techniques of working with them. Gradually, their interaction intensified, which led to borrowings and changes in artistic concepts. The main problem of this study is the parallels in the evolution of the genre of still life paintings in Chinese and Western European painting from the XVII century to the present — the time of the active development of this genre both in the West and in the East. The aim of the research is to find similarities and differences in the approaches of Chinese and Western European artists when creating works in the genre of still life in terms of background construction, composition, color, ways of expressing the idea, as well as the choice of theme and motif of the image. A comparative characteristic of the work of artists of various periods from Caravaggio and Li Song to Marcus Lupertz and Zhou Shaohua, as well as a number of modern Chinese painters, is consistently given. A comprehensive artistic analysis of paintings by various authors shows that at present we can talk about the search for traditions in the creation of still life in the synthesis of the principles of Western European art and Guohua.

Keywords: vanity of vanities, symbol, flowers and birds, motive, western European painting, chinese art, comparative analysis, artistic style, still-life, guohua

Abstract: This article discusses the cult of the tutelary spirits (thành hoàng) in Vietnam. These are spirits venerated as patrons of villages, rural communities and urban areas in Vietnam are expected to protect area against calamities, disasters, epidemics, wars, etc. These are mythical, historical and pseudo-historical characters who have merits to the area and its inhabitants. The veneration of them is rooted in the traditional culture. It is an integral part of the Vietnamese folk religion (tín ngưỡng dân gian Việt Nam). The spirits of the area are included in the pantheon of numerous deities and spirits (thần) worshipped by the Vietnamese nowadays despite the anti-religious policy of the Communist Party of Vietnam (in the second half of the 20th century). The article describes reconstruction of the history of the cult and a description of its current state. The milestones of its development are considered: the formation of the cult during the Late Lê dynasty (1428–1788), development trends during the Nguyễn dynasty (1802–1945), which included the period of colonization of Vietnam by the French, the decline of the cult in the second half of the 20th century in socialist Vietnam, the revival of the cult and the entire religious system with the beginning of economic reforms and the democratization of public life in the 1980-90s, and finally, the modern flourishing of the cult and the features of its adaptation to modern conditions. The definition of the historical forms of the cult allows to identify the dynamics in its development and describe the inevitable transformations of the cult in the 21st century, which often are not realized by the bearers of culture, who perceive the cult as an ancient unchanging tradition. The cult has not previously been studied by Soviet and Russian orientalists. I propose the first systematic description of the history of the cult and an assessment of its current state.

Keywords: Asian Studies, Far East religions, syncretism, deities, folk religion, guardian spirits, spirits cult, tutelary spirits, Vietnam, spirits veneration

Abstract: The object of the study is the symbolic and allegorical meanings of artistic images of fine art, built in the unity of the diverse, based on the principle of the relationship between the real and the conditional. The subject of the study is a comparison of the methods of metaphysical and constructive realism in creating aesthetically expressive forms of artistic images expressing symbolic meanings. The article systematizes the methods of creating artistic images in constructive realism: typification, stylization, artistic and theoretical generalizations, analysis, synthesis, application of constructive ideas of combining parts of the whole, geometric generalization of form in the construction of the spatial structure of the object, artistic interpretations. The main method of image research is the analysis of visual contexts of the application of the concept of methods and other means of constructing artistic images. The novelty of the article lies in constructive realism in creating deeper symbolic meanings than the generally accepted forms of realism convey. With constructive realism, aesthetically expressive images are created in the unity of the heterogeneous and do not distort the conventional meanings. In the differentiation of means and integration of image layers, the image represents a single symbolic meaning. As a result of the analysis of constructive realism, four regular processes of building the unity of the diverse in the form and content of artistic images have been revealed. The conclusion is that constructive realism to the construction of artistic images has practical significance. The images are characterized by aesthetic expressiveness, this attracts the attention of the audience. In expression through the form of symbolic meanings, images acquire the potential of visual communication with people.

Keywords: allegory, symbolism, visual images, artistic interpretations, geometric generalization, meaning, artistic image, metaphysics, constructive realism, fine arts

Abstract: The article reveals the role of Taoism in the development of images of gardens and parks in Chinese art. Taoism is considered as a spiritual component of the traditional culture of China, affecting all spheres of human essence, including its expression in the visual arts. The problem of this study is to show how the Taoist ideas about man and the world around him were expressed in the works of landscape painting of the V–XIV centuries, when both the formation and development of the art of depicting nature and the formation of the fundamental principles of landscape planning took place. Both phenomena of Chinese culture were obviously influenced by Taoism, so the focus is on picturesque images of gardens and parks and the means of their artistic embodiment, which were formed as a result of the influence of philosophical and religious ideas.   The purpose of the publication is the stylistic and semantic analysis of Chinese medieval landscapes depicting garden and park ensembles and elements formed under the influence of Taoist aesthetics. Such a perspective should enrich Russian science with new information about the formation and enrichment of the figurative series in the landscapes of Chinese masters over a long period of time, as well as evaluate the originality of their visual interpretation of philosophical and aesthetic ideas. This will allow us to see how the images of gardens and parks conveyed through the symbolism of images the inner world of a person and the authors themselves, how the ideas of the Taoists associated with these images manifested themselves not only in the subject of paintings, but also in an artistic form.

Keywords: emptiness in the landscape, chinese artist, natural motif, Taoist images, chinese garden, garden art, landscape painting, Taoism, scroll, guohua

Abstract: The study is a continuation of the article "Exhibition activity of the Palekh lacquer miniature craft (1923-1939)", published in the scientific journal "Man and Culture". The subject of the proposed work is an analysis of the exhibition activity of the Palekh lacquer craft in the post-war period, limited to the second half of the 1940s and the end of the 1980s. The purpose of the article is to use historical, typological and structural research methods, as well as a historical and systematic approach, to show the specifics of this period in the history of the exhibition activity of the Palekh craft. Emphasizing the continuity of the exhibition activities of the 1940s - 1980s with the pre–war period, the author at the same time points out the new features that appear in the exhibition practices of the craft in the post-war period.   The scientific novelty of the research consists in the fact that the author analyzes the most important art shows of the Soviet Union, where the products of the Palekh lacquer miniature were exhibited in the 1940s – 1980s. The article pays special attention to the activities of the State Museum of Palekh Art, which after its opening in 1935 became an important exhibition center for lacquer craft products, personal, retrospective, thematic and traveling exhibitions are considered. The main conclusion of the article is the substantiation of the importance of the considered topic for understanding the public recognition and fame that the Palekh lacquer miniature craft acquired in the late Soviet period, as well as in the post-Soviet period.

Keywords: Palekh, lacquer miniatures, Russian lacquer miniatures, exhibition, exhibition activities, Soviet lacquer miniatures, folk art, Russian folk art, applied arts, arts and crafts

Abstract: The subject of this article is the Anglo-Indian community - a stratum of the population of British India consisting of Englishmen born in India or permanently residing in it. In the early 1880s, the community faced a new factor in political life - the rapid development of Indian nationalism, and the community's reaction to new trends was reflected in the political satire of the period under study - in particular, in Thomas Hart-Davis's pamphlet "India in 1983" The pamphlet describes a hypothetical society of India of the future, which was freed from British rule, but proved incapable of independent existence.   As a result of the conducted research, it was concluded that in the early 1880s the Anglo-Indian community was a closed, isolated stratum of the population, which negatively reacted to the demands of the Indian intelligentsia to expand the rights of the indigenous population in the governance of the country. Criticism of the demands of the nascent national movement found expression in political satire, one example of which was T. Hart-Davis's pamphlet "India in 1893", which reflected the ideas of the Anglo-Indian community about the immaturity and groundlessness of the political demands of the figures of the Indian National Congress and the national movement as a whole.

Keywords: Indian National Congress, colonialism, Thomas Hart-Davies, Anglo-Indian community, national movement, political satire, Anglo-Indian literature, British India, Ilbert bill, nationalism