Author's stucco decor in Khabarovsk

Bazilevich Evgenii Mikhailovich PhD in Psychology Associate Professor, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Pacific State University 680035, Russia, Khabarovskii krai, g. Khabarovsk, ul. Tikhookeanskaya, 136 000460@pnu.edu.ru

Introduction

Relief stucco decorations have been used for facade and interior finishing works since antiquity up to the present time, more or less widely, depending on the features of the prevailing style: the measure of its asceticism, or, conversely, lush decorative. In Khabarovsk, a number of pre-revolutionary buildings and many buildings built in the 1930s -1950s, the so-called "Stalinist style", are decorated with stucco decor. As for the latter, these are mainly stucco plant garlands with festoons, traditional rosettes, sometimes with Soviet symbols, made on the basis of albums of standard samples. This kind of decor is not original and can be seen in almost all cities of the country. The authorship of these ornaments is anonymous and they are considered as a purely applied, handicraft work. Decor with pictorial motifs is much less common. It is all the more interesting when it is an author's work designed for a specific architectural object. The subject of the author's research is the stucco decoration on the facade of the administrative building of the Khabarovsk branch of the Art Fund.

The relevance of the study is due to both general and particular grounds. In the process of architecture development, traditional forms of stucco decoration and its characteristic motifs have developed. Simultaneously with the forms, the technologies for making stucco decoration were formed, which remained almost unchanged until recently, when the use of new modern materials and methods radically changed the situation. Instead of an individually designed decor for a specific building, and executed, as a rule, on the spot by master sculptors, certain variants of industrially manufactured standard products of a limited range are used, which, in fact, only create a more or less successful imitation of stucco decorations and look faceless. At the same time, there is a problem of losing the skills of the traditional craft of making stucco decor, which can lead to high-quality costs during restoration work, therefore, the problem of studying and fixing the experience of creating traditional stucco decor becomes relevant.

The relevance of the research is also determined by the need to study and preserve the historical urban environment, individual samples of architectural and artistic heritage, including on the periphery of Russia.

The example of architectural decoration of the facade considered in the article is unique for Khabarovsk. The actual tasks of the study were to study the history of creation, the artistic features of this sample of stucco decoration, the restoration of the name of its author. The described stucco decor has aesthetic value, and in this quality it is relevant for the present and future time.

The study was the first to study and describe the stucco decoration of the administrative building of the Khabarovsk branch of the Art Fund, sketches, drawings, photographs from the previously unknown archive of the decorator Genendlis M. A. were published. In the course of the study, a full-scale study of the object, its photo fixation was carried out, a wide range of sources, including archival materials, were studied, a survey was conducted among Khabarovsk architects and artists.    

Decorative reliefs on the facade of the administrative building of the Khabarovsk branch of the Art Fund (this is the name of the building according to the documents) ^{[1, item 14]}, which is located at 65 Frunze Street, stand out against the background of ornamental stucco decorations typical of the 1950s (Fig. 1, Fig. 2). Relief decoration of the facade of the building it is solved in the style of classicism in the form of expressive stucco compositions enclosed in octagonal medallions with borders of small ionics. Below the medallions are stucco garlands in the form of palmettes with volutes, ending in deciduous festoons. The plot of relief compositions of medallions is a traditional set of "attributes of the arts": a bust of Apollo, a palette with brushes, a paper scroll, a classical capital, an oak branch (Fig. 3, 4). The tradition has deep roots: it is enough to recall the still lifes of J.B.S. Chardin with the attributes of art. This motif has been varied many times by different authors in all types of fine art and continues to be used as an easily recognizable symbol by art classes very widely. Sculptural compositions of art objects are made in the form of two identical high reliefs mirror-symmetrical to each other. The image of Apollo in the form of a bust reproduces the canonical image of the sculpture of Leohar. The figure of Apollo is not dominant in the composition, it is visually balanced by images of a palette with brushes and a scroll. The objects in the composition of the high relief form two spatial plans: a bust of Apollo, a palette, a scroll and an oak branch form the foreground against the background of the Ionic capital. Both plans are organically inscribed into the octagonal base of the relief and are well combined with a belt of small ionics forming the frame of the medallion. Stucco garlands of palmettes are well combined in scale and dimensions with the composition of the high relief. The silhouettes of objects and the depth of the details of the decor are successfully found and are especially expressively readable in side lighting. The symmetry of the composition creates a mood of significance, stability. The reliefs harmoniously fit into the overall composition of the facade of the building and create two semantic and plastic accents in its entire image.

Figure 1. The facade of the administrative building at 65 Frunze Street in Khabarovsk. Photo by E. M. Bazilevich

Figure 2. The location of relief compositions on the facade of the building. Photo by E. M. Bazilevich