The image of an artist in the interpreting space of the notion of beauty

Abstract

Aim The article deals with the images of the artists in the novel by O. Wilde «The Portrait of Dorian Gray» and the short story by O. Kobylyanska «Valse mélanсolique». The aim of this study is to make the comparative analysis of the image of a painter through the notions of «beauty» and morality.

Methods The comparatively-typological approach has been used for the research. With the help of typological method we have managed to trace the correspondences and differences in the concepts of the heroes. The images of the personages-artists as the spokesmen of the authors’ ideas and the means of the embodiment of the main postulates of aestheticism have been observed.

Results The article gives a detailed analysis of the heroes-artists – Basil Hallward from the novel by O. Wilde and Hanna from the short story by O. Kobylyanska, who devoted their lives to serving the Beauty. The art is the main value for them, artificiality prevails naturalness. It is emphasized in the works that outstandingly talented personages live in a different from real world, they are over the crowd. Though, depending on the authors’ intentions, the heroes fulfill different functions. Thus, the image of Basil, who is not handsome, personifies the harmonic unity of inner beauty and morality, which are opposed to the unscrupulousness and cynicism of Lord Henry and the immorality of Dorian. The female character Hanna, who is beautiful and it gives her the power of supremacy over the others, became the representative of modern thinking, she protested against the fixed standards of patriarchal life and grey triviality.

Scientific novelty Despite a great number of scientific works devoted to the research of aestheticism, the creative work of O. Wilde and O. Kobylyanska, in particular by H. Davydenko, O. Rokash, F. Pohrebennyk, N. Shumylo, O. Kabkova, V. Kandynska, etc. it has not been pointed to the typological closeness of the image of a painter from the novel by O. Wilde «The Portrait of Dorian Gray» and the short story by O. Kobylyanska «Valse mélanсolique» in the context of aestheticism.

Practical significance The results of the research point to the wide range of problems in the works about painters and leave much space for further studies.