Art and Design
Art and Design
ISSN 2617-0272 e-ISSN 2617-0280
DOI: 10.30857/2617-0272
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Portrait drama: Lesya Ukrainka in the intertext of visual art

Olha Tarasenko

Received 07.12.2025, Revised 11.03.2026, Accepted 09.04.2026 Published 10.04.2026

Abstract

The relevance of the study is conditioned by the growing interest of contemporary art history in the interdisciplinary analysis of visual images as carriers of cultural memory, identity and symbolic meanings, and the need to rethink the Ukrainian artistic experience in a European and global context. The image of Lesya Ukrainka as a key figure in national culture remains insufficiently understood in terms of portrait dramaturgy and intertextual interactions between visual art, literature, and philosophy. The purpose of the study was to interpret the portrait images of Lesya Ukrainka in the context of European visual practices considering their connections with baroque, romantic and neo-romantic traditions, and to understand their artistic and symbolic dimension in the development of cultural identity. A comprehensive methodological approach was applied, including hermeneutics, analytical psychology, iconography, iconology, comparative, historical and cultural, and semiotic methods. The study analysed the evolution of the female portrait image from normative and idealised representations to a psychologically in-depth visual embodiment of the creative personality, within which symbolic structures and dramatic organisation of the composition acquire a defining meaning-creating significance. The study covered portraits created during the life of the poetess and posthumously in various types of art (painting, graphics, sculpture, photography). The comparison of Lesya Ukrainka’s portraits with European Works was conditioned by the need to contextualise her image within the broader artistic tradition. This made it possible to identify shared features in the techniques used to convey psychological depth and symbolism that are characteristic of romanticism, neo-romanticism, and modernism. The Ukrainian context, in particular the influence of “The Forest Song” (1911) and other works of the poetess, gave the portraits local specifics, which emphasised their uniqueness. The analysis showed the theatricality and psychologism of Lesya Ukrainka’s images, and their connection with the universal motives of love, death, and the spiritual verticality. The symbolic components of the compositions actualised the ritual function of the portrait as a mediator between the past, present, and future


Keywords:

artistic representation of poets; iconographic analysis; neo-romanticism; gender; theatricality; photography

https://doi.org/10.30857/2617-0272.2026.1.6

Retrieved from Vol. 9, No. 1, 2026

Pages 65-77

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Suggested citation

Tarasenko, O. (2026). Portrait drama: Lesya Ukrainka in the intertext of visual art. Art and Design, 9(1), 65-77. https://doi.org/10.30857/2617-0272.2026.1.6