Lviv mascarons of the XIX — first quarter of the XX centuries are an important cultural heritage of the architectural art of Lviv, as they are one of the aspects of the architectural image representation of the city and its architectural styles.
The word “mascaron” (fr. mascaron, it. mascherone — a large mask) denotes a high-relief or bas-relief face, the head of an animal or a fantastic creature, which is depicted full-face. These relief masks were usually carved from stone or cast from plaster, and they had a metal mount.
Mascarones enrich the decorative design of faсades of the Lviv architecture and carry an important information load, symbols. At the same time, these aesthetic accents of buildings disappear without a trace, leaving behind the sometimes destroyed exterior fragments, which underscores the urgent need to preserve them.
In the architecture of Lviv, mascarons have been changing and evolving from the Renaissance style to the Modern style. That is, mascarons have been used by architects at different stages of development of the city architecture. Their artistic and plastic solution have been consistent with the aesthetic tastes of the era and stylistic trends in architecture.
The purpose of the building, its style, as well as the architect's idea or the customer's requirements influenced the choice of masks. Despite the usual anonymity of mascarones as a type of architectural and decorative plastic, we still partly know the names of the sculptors, and in some places we can identify them based on the stylistic analysis of the entire complex of elements of the sculptural plastic of facades. At the same time, it should be noted that the primary author of mascarones was usually an architect. It was he who created the sketch, which the sculptor later implemented in the material.
There are five main typological groups of mascarons in the Lviv architecture of the XIX — first quarter of the XX centuries. Imparting symbolic and informational significance to the exterior of the architectural object contributed to the “fixation” of specific artistic images of masks on different functional types of buildings.
The main array of mascarons on the facades of Lviv buildings are relief images of characters from ancient mythology. In Lviv, mascarons depicting characters from Greek and Roman mythology can be divided into four unequal parts and typological subgroups: artistic images of the Olympian gods, relief faces of minor gods of ancient mythology and mascarons of deities and heroes. It is important to say that one or another god can be recognized by attributes, by certain details, traditionally characteristic only of this deity. The appeal to the images of ancient mythology pointed to the function of the building and served as a kind of sign of the patronage of ancient gods in the areas of activity of the customer.
With the advent of the Viennese Secession in the Lviv architecture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the images of mascarons underwent significant changes. The architecture of the Lviv secession was flooded by mysterious female mascarons, the two main groups of which were spring images of nymphs, associated with beauty and life, and demonic, whimsical female images, which are opposite to them. The combination of mysterious female mascarons with various stylized forms of the plant world (the motif of “blossoming hair”) is the embodiment of human harmony with nature.
The study has shown that for the Lviv architecture of the XIX — first quarter of the XX centuries the typological group of anthropomorphic mascarons is characteristic, too, in which the features of individualization of images are more or less present. These men’s and women’s masks are often arranged in the center of the cartouche and complemented with hats or attributes. The mascarons of this typological group are not endowed with deep and varied symbols, however, they contain information and memory of people, information of whom is currently lost.
When conducting the study of the grotesque group of mascarons in Lviv, we encounter pronounced exaggerations and hyperboles, which is one of the main features of grotesque. In order to show the significance of the grotesque mascarons of Lviv, we have developed a complex typology of this group of images. It includes a subgroup of teratomorphic masks, images of the Greenman deity, embossed theatrical masks and emotion masks. Each of the subgroups is marked by a special symbolism and variability of figurative and plastic solutions of grotesque mascarons.
The typological group of zoomorphic mascarons of Lviv is characterized by a variety of artistic and stylistic devices, compositions, textures and dimensions. The exteriors of many buildings in Lviv are decorated with mascarons of lions — a symbol of strength and power. Relief masks of other animals in the city buildings are represented by skillfully sculpted images of wild boar, cat, sheep, goat and elephant.
