Living Echo of the Cossack Elite: Georgiy Narbut in Paraska Apostol’s Kontusz with Kelep and Colonel Miloradovych

In the photograph, Georgiy Narbut stands in the Cossack hall of the Tarnovsky Museum (now a room of the Chernihiv Regional Library for Youth), fully immersed in a historical Ukrainian image. He is dressed in the kontusz of Paraska Apostol, daughter of Hetman Danylo Apostol, holding a kelep in his right hand, while to his right stands Colonel Mykhailo “Cannon” Miloradovych. This staged yet documentary scene shows Narbut not just studying Cossack-era artifacts, but literally wearing them, turning himself into a living embodiment of the Ukrainian noble-Cossack past.

Living Echo of the Cossack Elite: Georgiy Narbut in Paraska Apostol’s Kontusz with Kelep and Colonel Miloradovych

Lina Kostenko

The signing of the Kuchuk-Kainarji Treaty, an engraving from the late 18th century.

Yaroslava Music. 1965. Central State Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, f. 251, op. 1, unit. collection 20, sheet 3.

Yaroslava Lvivna Music

Sofia Nalepinska–Boychuk

Sophia Baudouin de Courtenay and Sophia Nalepinska

Ivanova Antonina Nikolaevna

Oksana Pavlenko

Cossacks

Black Sea Cossacks

Daniel Galachowski (Danylo Haliakhovskyi), The Triumph of Hetman Ivan Mazepa, 1708, engraving, detail, Warsaw National Museum.

Portret Marie Bashkirtseff

Marie Bashkirtseff on a chair

Portrait of Mariebashkirtsef with a puppy

Mariya Bashkirczeva in a hat

Maria Bashkyrtseva paints a portrait in the studio

Louise Nevelson, "Sky Cathedral," 1957. Painted wood, 57 x 149 x 16 inches. San José Museum of Art. Gift of Beverly and Peter Lipman, 2010.16. Photo by Douglas SandbergIn the 1950s, Louise Nevelson pushed unorthodox use of material and form to include light and shadow in the creation of large-scale sculptural environments in “a search for continuity between beings, things, and spaces.” At that time, the artist also developed a flamboyant and grandiose persona—jet-black eyelash extensions, colorful coats, and bold jewelry—that reflected the enigma and complexity of her sculptures.

Cossack weapons: Pernach, saber, powder magazine, two flintlocks, whip.

Boychukists studying in the workshop

Work On A Wall Painting In The Club Of Katarzhyn Village Near Odesa

Ukrainian art at the Mezhyhirya Ceramic School Club. Portrait of an Unknown

Boychuk in a workshop in an apartment in Lviv

Boychuk against the backdrop of the murals at the entrance to the chapel of the Jacobite Bursa in Lviv

Group “Renovation Byzantine” of the first waveThe “Renovation Bizantine” group of the first draft – Mykhailo Boychuk (sitting below, in the center); together with the master – Helene Schramm, Mykola Kasperovich, T. Nalepinsky, Sophia Baudouin-de-Courtenay, future wife Sophia Nalepinska, Sophia Segnot, Yanina Levakovska; Paris, 1910