Description
Despite the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, research and publications on the history and culture of Baturyn, Chernihiv oblast, former capital of the Cossack state, have continued unabated at CIUS and Chernihiv University. CIUS is the sponsor of this joint Canada-Ukraine project.
The eleventh annual booklet on the Baturyn project (published in Toronto in 2022; 44 pp. in Ukrainian, 61 colour illustrations) examines in detail and broad comparisons rare images of Cossacks and Western mercenaries from the armed forces of Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1687-1708). These images are featured in relief on locally manufactured terracotta and glazed ceramic stove tiles which have been excavated at Baturyn. The analysis of these archaeological finds is richly illustrated with photos, drawings, and computer graphic reconstructions of the fragmented tiles, showing the visage, hairstyles, clothing, footwear, weapons, accoutrements, and ethnic origins of the hetman infantry and cavalry men at the turn of 18th century.
The Baturyn collection of unearthed stove tiles depicting European warriors of this time is the largest in Cossack/Central Ukraine. The authors believe that thanks to the extensive commercial and cultural contacts of Mazepa’s capital with the West, local ceramists modelled refined representations of military on 17th- and early 18th-century Dutch revetment majolica or engravings. This booklet demonstrates the high achievements of the decorative ceramic arts, culture, and lifestyle of the Cossack elite, as well as the stimulating influences of European baroque drawing in Baturyn prior to its ravaging by Russian troops while putting down Mazepa’s anti-Moscow uprising in 1708.
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