Images of inspiration: Monuments to the poet Adam Mickiewicz within the range of European sacred art

Abstract

The relevance of the study lies in the need for an interdisciplinary and comparative interpretation of monuments to Adam Mickiewicz and Taras Shevchenko as a component of the European monumental discourse of the nineteenth-twentieth centuries. The aim was to analyse the transformation of ancient and Christian iconography in the depiction of the poet’s creative inspiration through the monuments to Adam Mickiewicz in Lviv (1904, A. Pöppel), Paris (1909-1929, A. Bourdelle) and Odesa (2004, O. Kniazyk). Iconographic, iconological, cultural-historical, semiotic, comparative and artistic-stylistic methods were applied. The connection of the image of the poet with the sacred iconography of apostles, saints, and geniuses in the art of the Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism, and Romanticism was examined. The influence of ancient and Christian traditions on the architectonics of the monuments was established, in particular the symbolism of the column as the Axis of the World and of the altar as the idea of sacrifice. In the Lviv monument Adam Mickiewicz was depicted as a mediator between the earthly and the heavenly; in Paris – as a prophet, drawing on the iconography of the Apotheosis of Rome and the allegory of
freedom; in Odesa – as an image of inner inspiration referring to Greek kouroi. The compositions combined sacred and secular motifs, creating a synthetic image of the poet. A typological kinship was revealed with the monuments to Taras Shevchenko in Kharkiv (1935) and Lviv (1992-1996), which underlined the universality of the image of the poet as a spiritual leader. The results revealed the sculptors’ innovative approach to the synthesis of sacred and secular images, reflecting a link with European traditions. The study is useful for art historians, cultural studies scholars and researchers of the interrelationship between literature, sculpture and urban space.