The image of the bird-maiden in the art of the countries of Eurasia (to the question)

The image of a bird with the head or torso of a woman (less often a man) has been known since ancient times. This image almost simultaneously appeared in the art of the Mesopotamia and Egypt in the I-II millennium BC, and then manifested itself in almost all the bright artistic cultures of Eurasia. This image is included in the iconographic systems associated with various religious and religious traditions, is not central in them, most clearly manifesting itself on the border of religious and folk arts. The bird-maiden in each culture bears its name, has its own external and symbolic features, but at the same time preserves the unchanged visual appearance. Note that a comprehensive, interdisciplinary research on its presence in the art of a number of countries has not been carried out, there are works related to specific regions or specific areas of art. Thus, at this point in time, sufficient study of the image of the bird-maiden within different cultures allows us to again address the issues of studying this image in an interregional and interdisciplinary context. However, this task poses a number of methodological issues that the authors raise in this article. One of the first questions concerns the difficulty of establishing the relationship of literary sources and numerous images of the bird-maiden in a particular culture. As you know, reliance on literary sources in the interpretation of ancient and medieval art is one of the most common ways of disclosing the inner meanings of medieval and ancient visuality. However, the analysis of literary sources, usually serving as a reliable aid to art historians, in this case works poorly. The second no less important issue in the study of this image is associated with the almost onetime existence and popularity of the bird-maiden in different cultures of Eurasia in medieval times. What are the reasons for this fact? Did this image be based on a single prototype, or is it based on the universal idea of the bird-man, characteristic of all peoples? Thus, the study of the visual image of the bird-maiden at the present stage of art history is one of the interesting examples of sustainable visual common Eurasian visual codes, and provides a wide field for further research both within individual cultures and studies that pose more general questions concerning cross-cultural ties peoples of the East and the West, as well as the transformation of artistic phenomena that stand outside the history of “great styles”.

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