The dissertation is devoted to the study of artistic processing of stone in
landscape design of the Vinnytsia region, Ukraine. The objective of the work is to
find out the specifics of the development of artistic stone processing in the
Vinnytsia region, to systematize the available data, and to find unique scientific
materials that represent the artistic features of stone works in this region.
During the research work, regular visits were made to the main centers of
stone craftsmanship. In some of them, stationary observations were conducted,
during which expeditionary findings were collected.
Based on the expeditionary research the state of scientific development of
the problem is analyzed and the theoretical and methodological foundations of the
research are clarified. The works of the researchers who have studied issues in the
same scientific area are organized, systematized, and analyzed in chronological
order. It has been established that the earliest literary references to artistic stone
processing in Ukraine appeared in the first half of the nineteenth century, when
researchers, using exclusively historical and inventory-descriptive methods,
recorded the Cossack crosses they found. At the beginning of the twentieth century,
this approach was combined with an art historical approach, which gave a more
complete picture of the artistic qualities of stone objects. During the 1930s and
1950s, the study of national monuments of Ukraine mostly of a religious nature,
was almost stopped and restarted in the early 1990s, when Ukraine became an
independent state.
It is noted that the artistic processing of stone is represented in the scientific
literature in a fragmentary and incomplete way, since a small number of
researchers have addressed this topic, focusing primarily on the study of stone
tombstones. Only a few have partially covered landscape sculpture, which is the
subject of this study. Therefore, the analysis of the reviewed literature shows that
there is only a small number of published works on artistic stone processing.
stonemasons to use, above all, creative means in accordance with cultural
traditions and trends. It has been established that the samples of the first half of the
nineteenth century have inherent characteristics such as archaic monumental
forms, massiveness, and lack of plane decoration. At the same time, different types
of general silhouettes can be observed. Such types of ancient crosses as the Latin,
Greek, Pati, Maltese, three-leafed, rectangular-framed, with rounded frames,
headed cross, etc. were found. However, in the second half of the nineteenth
century, crosses gradually changed, their shape became more refined, and in fact,
the silhouettes turned into typical trefoil-shaped cross tops. Also, ornamental
decorations such as rosettes, signs of the moon, sun, stars, etc. appeared on the
tombstone surface. At the end of the nineteenth century the religious symbols on
tombstones, such as the Crucifixion, the Mother of God, the Lord God of Hosts,
the intercessors, the Holy Spirit, and the All-Seeing Eye, were extremely popular.
It is established that in the early examples with the Crucifixion scenes, the figure of
Jesus Christ had incorrect anatomical proportions, but in later peri
