Popeniuk Y. The Image of the Nativity of Christ in Ukrainian Painting of the 15th –18th centuries: Aspects of Interpretation and Artistic Presentation.

The aim of the dissertation is to investigate the monuments on the subject of "The Nativity of Christ" in the Ukrainian painting of the 15th - 18th centuries as an artistic phenomenon with a formed imagery and characteristic stylistic peculiarities in wide historical, cultural, symbolic and mental contexts. A considerable range of iconographic and historiographic materials was included in the original research base, which made it possible to characterize the iconography of the subject, to outline the stylistic stages of development, to analyse the typology of icons "The Nativity of Christ". The genesis of the image of the Nativity of Christ in the Ukrainian painting of the 15th - 18th centuries is traced in the dissertation in the context of the Common European cultural space, the peculiarities of the iconography of the image of the Nativity of Christ in the Ukrainian art of the 15th - 18th centuries are revealed. By means of semeiotic analysis the system of symbolism in the iconography of the subjects of "The Nativity of Christ", "The Adoration of the Shepherds" and "The Adoration of the Magi" was analysed and the semantic loading of the spatial construction of icons on the subject of the Nativity of Christ was traced.