Manuscript Heritage of I. Shulikov as a Source of Studying the Late XIXth – Early XXth-Centuries Easter Egg Painting

Author

Tkachenko Viktor – a Ph.D. in History, a senior research fellow, a head of Research Department of the National Historical and Ethnographical Preserve Pereyaslav

MANUSCRIPT HERITAGE OF I. SHULIKOV AS A SOURCE OF STUDYING THE LATE XIXTH – EARLY XXTH-CENTURIES EASTER EGG PAINTING

Abstract

Studying Easter egg painting was commenced by members of the Russian Geographical Society in 1874. Theretofore, there had appeared in literature only cursory data on this issue, scattered in separate Governorate (provincial) and Zemstvo (district) editions of the Russian Empire, concerning the initiated custom of using and giving painted Easter eggs on Easter day, as well as regarding the role of Easter eggs in rites, beliefs and customs. For the first time, opinions on Easter eggs as works of Ukrainian art and on the necessity of their studying were expressed by the outstanding Ukrainian anthropologist, ethnographer and archaeologist F. Vovk at the Third Archaeological Congress in Kyiv (1874). In the late XIXth century, a number of works were published by V. Yastriebov, M. Sumtsov, S. Kulzhynskyi and others. The collection of the National Museum of Ethnography and Artistic Craft (NMEAC) of the Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine was examined by the famous historian M. Korduba in the late ХIХth century. During the years 1902–1912, I. Zaretskyi, N. Mohylianskyi, A. Lazhechnykov, B. Schneider, A. Prusevych, V. Babenko, V. Sakharov and A. Serzhnytovskyi have gathered a string of ethnographic collections in Ukraine for the Russian Ethnographic Museum (St. Petersburg). In the time of 1920–1927, the staff of the Kharkiv Museum of Sloboda Ukraine (MSU) collected painted Easter eggs as well.

Information on the Volyn painted Easter eggs was received by the Volyn Central Museum in 1911–1913 via questionnaires owing to pupils of public schools, disciples of the Volyn Theological Seminary and other persons. The collected data made it possible for I. Shulikov, a museum worker, to prepare an appropriate study. It was not published in due time, therefore it is unknown to the general public of researchers of painted Easter eggs art. This manuscript, being preserved in the Archival Scientific Funds of Manuscripts and Phono-Recordings of the M. Rylskyi IASFE of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is a rich and valuable source of information. It consists of 16 sections dealing with the origin of painted Easter eggs, as well as Easter eggs on Volyn, their kinds and decorative patterns, techniques of making folk painted Easter eggs and maliovankas. The collected materials also enabled the author to conclude that the motifs of ornaments were borrowed from natural surroundings and everyday life.

Keywords

I. Shulikov, Volyn, painted Easter eggs’ ornamental patterns, techniques of production, painted Easter eggs, maliovankas, collection.

References

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