Interdisciplinary Approach as a Basis for the Methodology of Researching the Problems of Realist Painting

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to substantiate the methodological principle of researching realism painting on the example of analysing a painting by the Ukrainian artist Yurii Kamyshnyi. The research methodology combines a set of general theoretical (analysis and systematisation of material, theoretical generalisation and the method of deduction) and special scientific methods (terminological, method of analogies, art historical analysis, iconographic method). The scientific novelty of the study convinces of the possibility and advantages of applying an interdisciplinary approach to reveal the specifics of realistic painting. The dependence of the analysis of the prerequisites for the emergence and reasons for the realisation of realism in each artistic epoch, the conditions of its development in the classical and post-classical socio-cultural paradigm is substantiated. The content of the concept of "realism" is revealed through the prism of humanitarian knowledge, in particular, history, philosophy, cultural studies, ethnography, art history, psychology, sociology, which allowed strengthening the analysis of works performed in the realistic manner of realism. Conclusions. Based on the analysis of a number of definitions of the synonymous terms "interdisciplinarity" and "interdisciplinary approach" available in the Ukrainian scientific discourse, interdisciplinarity as an integrative approach to the analysis of works of art with interconnections with other areas of humanitarian knowledge, borrowings and the use of tools (schemes, models, categories, concepts) is substantiated. Analysing the specifics of realistic painting on the example of the work of the Ukrainian artist Yurii Kamyshnyi’s "Sun Caresses", the application of the historical and systematic method (as a correspondence to the political, social, cultural, and artistic conditions of development) is shown. The iconographic method and art historical analysis allowed us to substantiate the combination of landscape (rural landscape) and domestic genres. The style of the painting is in the manner of nineteenth-century realism, which is characterised by the depiction of the elegance of summer rural life with the personification of the day (noon). The image of the tree leaves, which seem to be "tired" of the scorching sun, was important here. The sun is also represented with flickering rays on a neatly whitewashed house wall. The iconographic method made it possible to describe the subject of the work as the exterior of a typical Ukrainian rural dwelling and yard. The method of generalisation allowed us to present its dominance in the work of the realist artist. The cross-cultural method was used to compare the plot specifics of the painting with the plot motifs of foreign realist artists. The method of ethnographic observation allowed us to verify the typicality of the image of a hut for the rural Ukrainian countryside.