Image of the Paradise garden in manuscript book art of ornamentation of drawing-artist Feodor Basov (end of the 16^th - the beginning of the 17^th centuries)

The author investigates the rare in the work of Russian medieval “znamenschiks” (drawingartists) phenomenon - ornamented frontispiece to handwritten books. The recognized master of book hand-written art Feodor Basov, one of the znamenshiks brothers Basovs, fulfilling the orders of N.G. Stroganov in 1590, developed this type of manuscript book decorations on the basis of the prevailing old-printed style. He placed magnificent decorative trees, sometimes accompanied by images of animals and birds, in the centre of his compositions. According to the researcher, the diversity of the drawings of the Tree performed by Feodor Basov, shows that the drawing-artist embodied the image of the paradise garden for reminding people about the Kingdom of Heaven, about achieving the goal of finding eternal life here due to his service to the Lord, including participation in church worship and singing. In the images made by the master, we see the hardness of the hand in the drawing and hatching, strict accuracy, and, if necessary, the perfect of the mirror arrangement of the elements of the ornament. The viewers are impressed of clarity and elegance of the drawing, the absence of erroneous lines and corrections. The researcher believes that the old printed style of book ornamentation was particularly developed in the work of this master. His images of trees in the frontispieces to the church chant collections from the Stroganovs' scriptorium can be considered as the peak in the heyday of this style. Once borrowed from work of I. Meckenem the decorative elements in the original or processed form, as well as the author's elements of ornament developed in the same style, began to fill in large-scale images. The drawing-artist, when filling the crowns of each tree with these decorative elements, which often completely occupying the entire page of the manuscript, retains the former highly professional technique of execution. The author also determines the sources used by the master as samples for some images, including works by great European artists-engravers (Israhel van Meckenem, Albrecht Durer). This complements our information about the master as an enlightened person preacher, who tried to keep abreast of the achievements of the fine arts, to use them in creativity.

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