The article presents the characteristics of the books and publications by Professor Irina E. Danilova (Art History), that were exhibited in the reading room of the research library of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and were devoted to the 100-anniversary of the author. It also contains some episodes from I.E. Danilova’s biography, her role in the scientific activities of the Pushkin Museum from the late 1960’s to the early 2000’s and her pedagogical achievements at the Russian State University of Humanities.

In this article, I trace the various ways Ancient Greek artisans used seashell-motifs, and how they interpreted these natural forms in artistic contexts. The reason for the popularity of seashells lies in their visual and haptic variety, their wealth of association, and the device of something secret hidden under the hard outer shell. I examine three possible variants of the motif’s treatment in relief and volume: the shell-container as part of a vessel, the shell as an independent container, the shell as a sculpted motif on a vessel.
Of particular interest are the vases where the integration of shell and vessel is especially marked, such as plastic aryballoi, lekythoi and other types (often with the inclusion of mythological subjects, such as the birth of Aphrodite). Terracotta and metal pyxides are also considered. Alongside these, I examine the rare “marble shells”, stone vessels carved in the intricate shape of “pelican’s foot” shells.

These materials are devoted to the golden ornamental plaques showing the figure of a Scythian horseman used as an appliqué for dress, and ultimately – to the question of the origin of a the matrix according which they were manufactured. Here an iconographic analysis of the object is proposed, a group of related monuments is presented, and the results of the analysis carried out are presented, using natural scientific methods. Thanks to one non-standard idea, the procedure for such a study was formulated, and could be carried out.

The article analyzes three fragments of Attic red-figure pottery found during the excavations of the ancient Panticapaeum by the Bosporan Archaeological Expedition of the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in 2021. One is the cup bottom on the low ring base showing a young man and a satyr in a tondo. The stylistic and compositional features allow us to attribute it to the Jena Painter, who was active between 400 and 380 BC. The second fragment belongs to a cup of a similar type: the image of two young men walking, one after the other is partially preserved in tondo; and the legs of two naked young men have survived on one of the outer sides. The painting of the tondo was most likely done by an anonymous painter of style B, and the decoration of the outer sides by the Q Painter. Finally, the third fragment is part of the cupskyphos, with two draped youths by the Painter of Kiel B 599. All three vessels were made in the same workshop, headed by the Jena Painter.

When the pavement of Kabr-Hiram was discovered in 1861, E. Renan considered the mosaics covering the side aisles to belong to the fourth century, because of their very classical style, while the rest of the floor belonged to the year 575, the date mentioned on the inscription in the sanctuary of the church. Later, the researcher assertained a homogeneity presented in the laying of the mosaic, so confirmed the late date of the whole and connected it to what he called the “Justinian Renaissance”. Thus the mosaic, with its, for that time, innovative and original composition, its classical style very little resembling contemporary works, was set back in its historical and geographical context.

This research is dedicated to two rare cycles of monumental painting from the second half of the 14th century, in the interior of Königsberg (Kaliningrad) Cathedral and St. Catherine’s Church in Arnau (Rodniki, Kaliningrad region). Although these monuments are almost completely lost, their reconstruction based on available photo documents, sketches, and descriptions carries a special value towards understanding the visual intertextuality of the Speculum humanae salvationis iconographic program in the symbolic context of the architectural space of the two churches. Contrary to the monumental cycles of Europe sharing this iconography, here in these two the zoning of space for knights and townspeople plays an important role. The study concludes that the manuscript miniatures from Wolfenbüttel HAB 2805 and the East Prussian mural cycles have a common protograph of the “Italian” or “mixed” type in an abbreviated edition (“Cologne group”), which can be traced back to an earlier prototgraph (of the “Italian” type), used in the Darmstadt Codex Hs. 2505. The interest of the patrons in the iconographic program, which preaches the dignity of the priesthood, could be associated with the relationship between the clergy of the Samland diocese and the Teutonic Knights engaged in northern crusades.

The article focuses on the structure and semantic analysis of figurative reliefs in the façade decoration of the Bologna palazzo del Podestà (13th – 15th c.), which was rebuilt in Renaissance style in the epoch of Giovanni II Bentivoglio (ruled in 1463–1506) and presents an important example of Quattrocento palace architecture in the northern Italian region of Emilia Romagna. The problem of the palace reconstructions makes it necessary to look at its decoration in the broader context of 15th century secular buildings in Bologna and Emilia Romagna. Consequently, firstly, three groups of reliefs are discerned (prevailing floral reliefs, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic reliefs, reliefs on historical subject). Secondly, the “retrospective” character of many elements concerned seems obvious and may be explained as inspired by local as well as tramontane Romanesque decorative tradition. Thirdly, semantic interpretation in the historical context of Bologna is accepted as applicable not only to the reliefs on historical subject here, but also to other carvings.

The unique decoration of the Sacristy of San Marco, executed by Melozzo da Forlì together with his assistant Marco Palmezzano between 1477 and 1493 in the Basilica of Santa Casa in Loreto, is an outstanding example of illusionistic Quattrocento painting. The article analyzes the structure of the architectural work, into which the real interior of the sacristy was transformed, by means of perspective and of painting, and suggests an approach to a reconstruction of the perception of this ensemble by Melozzo’s contemporaries. The connection of the artistic solution of the sacristy of San Marco with the Florentine architecture of the 15th is traced, including how the forms of the lantern of the Florentine Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore were repeated in the octagon painted on the vault of the sacristy.

The poem “Earthly and Heavenly Journey of Simone Martini” (1994) was composed by a great Italian poet of the 20th century Mario Luzi when he was eighty years old. Simone Martini’s painting, spiritual, poetic, rooted in courtly culture and at the same time reflecting a meditative and medieval worldview, is close in spirit to Luzi’s poetry. The poet and the painter share the focus of their creative gaze on the Heavenly, viewing the world sub specie aeternitatis. “Giving a voice” to the Sienese painter, speaking on his art, Luzi expresses his views on his own poetry: painting in the poem becomes a metaphor for poetry and, more broadly, for art in general. At the same time, an excellent knowledge of the art of Simone Martini enabled the poet to create a surprisingly accurate and expressive image of his work. The purpose of the article is to analyse part of the poem entitled “He, his art”.