Transformations of Hryhorii Skovoroda’s visual image in the XIX century
Authors: Shcherban A. 
Published: September 2024

The relevance of the study. Ukrainians have been interested in the figure of H. Skovoroda for 200 years. A great number of portraits with the philosopher’s diffe-rent faces have been created. In modern informational space we can come across a statement that there is no picture reflecting his real features. Yet, in fact such portraits do exist, though they are sparsely known to the public that is currently using mostly the variants transformed during the XIX century. Taking all the mentioned into account, the relevance of the research is extremely topical.
The purpose of the article. To characterize the changes in the visual image of H. Skovoroda on the basis of the changes in depicting his face in the portraits of the end of the XVIII–XIX centuries.
The methodology is based on the historism principle in combination with comparative method, which allowed to reveal common and different features in the portraits of the philosopher.
The results. The article presents the results of analysis of 9 portraits of H. Skovoroda dated as the end of the XVIII–XIX century, printed on separate sheets and painted with oil paints. There is information about the authors of one painted (the work of a painter from Slobozhanshchyna, Lukianov, still non-identified) and two printed ones. One of them was stipple engraved by a Moscow artist Petro Meshcheriakov at the beginning of the XIX century. During the first half of the XIX century, while some people who personally knew H. Skovoroda were still alive, there were two editions of separate sheets of this work (an imprint from the first edition was pasted in the manuscript of Mykhailo Kovalynskyi’s memoir) and published in a book and two magazines. As there was no criticism from the contemporaries, there are grounds to consider the portrait to reveal H. Skovoroda’s facial features accurately. Five copies of this image painted with oil paint dated approximately as the XVIII–XIX century were analyzed. The one was singled out, which had been kept by V. A. Zadonskii till the beginning of the XX century and before that had belonged to his ancestors, the philosopher’s friend Donets-Zakharzhevskyi. The second, older engraving, which author was not identified, first used to be not well-know. Yet, after its lithographic copy was published in a Petersburg edition of the philosopher’s works in 1861, its reproductions started to dominate. In 1894 the artist from Petersburg, V. Mate, created on its basis a syncretic engraving by order of D. Bahalii and for his publication. Skovoroda’s face on this engraving is distinguished by a different picture perspective and by having become flatter.
Conclusion. Two variants of H. Skovoroda’s face created by engravers at the beginning of the studied period were actualized in different periods of the XIX century and changed due to copying and rethinking, which resulted in transformation of the philosopher’s visual image spread in mass culture.
The scientific novelty of the research. The first complex analysis of all known portraits of H. Skovoroda of the end of the XVIII–XIX centuries has been made.
The practical significance of the article. The results of the work should be taken into account when writing scientific, popular-scientific articles and educational publications or courses, as well as when creating works of monumental art.