THE CHERUB THEME IN UKRAINIAN EDITIONS OF WORKS BY IVAN FIODOROV. AN INTERPRETATION ATTEMPT
The paper presents an interpretation proposal for one of the elements of ornamentation, i. e. the Ukrainian Cherub, that Ivan Fiodorov designed for his last Ukrainian prints. The author refers to the biblical descriptions of the Cherubim (The Book of Ezekiel, The Revelation of St. John the Divine). Then the author presents the most representative realizations of the cherub theme in the Western iconography of angels. Special attention is devoted to the head + wings scheme, employed by Ivan Fiodorov in a form that has no precedent either in his artistic practice or in the iconography of the West.