Hetmans of Ukraine on engraved portraits of the early 19th ct. (iconographic aspect of research)

Engraved portraits of the hetmans of Ukraine from the edition “Pictures of famous, somehow remarkable people, by the birth of by their merits belonging to Ukraine”, made by the engravers of the so-called “Beketov School” are researched. Main accent is made on the analysis of the iconography of depicted people and on iconographic sources used by the engravers. The importance of the iconographic aspect in the research of historical portraits as an instrument of attribution and catalog description substantiation of a certain artifact from the collection is stressed. As the research of a portrait, especially a historical one, is involved with an exceptionally complicated problem of a historical person identification with its depiction. If a portrait is not a mechanical fixation of external features of a depicted person, but rather an artistic work, the task of strict depiction of appearance fades into insignificance. The goal of a portrait artist is to create a convincing image, reveal the mental world of a depicted model, make it “speak”. On every new portrait, even that made by the same artist, often the same person looks differently, and sometimes is even unrecognizable. The talent and the skillfulness of the artist, his vision and attitude to what he portrays play the key role here. That is why the research of iconography in historical portraits has a huge scientific and practical value.