The article is devoted to the symbolics of doves on epigraphic embroidered towels (mainly known as rushnyks with inscriptions), which were massively produced by Ukrainian girls and women from the end of the nineteenth till the middle of the twentieth century. Embroidering lines from folk songs or proverbs on textile was a very popular kind of so-called written (or fixed) folklore. By combining these verbal texts with different images of pigeons, fundamentally new works were created. For some time, this phenomenon (...) was almost forgotten. However, in the course of recent years Ukrainian collectors and artists have been actively using old embroidered samples for souvenir products or stage decorations. Being popularized and updated in our time, the meaning of these embroidered birds has undergone significant changes. On specific examples, the author shows how one and the same image of pigeons acquires different, often even opposite senses depending on the context. (shrink)

This article focuses on the famous folklorized text De zghoda v rodyni, tam myr i tyshyna, shchaslyvi tam liudy, blazhenna storona (“When there is harmony in the family, peace and quiet are there, these people are happy and this land is blessed”), mainly on its genesis and connection with Hryhorii Skovoroda. At the first sight, its authorship is clear and easy to identify. It seems obvious that these lines come from the play Natalka Poltavka by Ivan Kotliarevskyi, who was, in (...) his turn, deeply influenced by Hryhorii Skovoroda. However, the folklorization of this verse, which is, subsequently, of great research interest, has caused numerous misattributions of the authorship. The article illustrates the folklorization of these famous lines with concrete examples of epigraphic embroideries listed on the author’s Interactive Online Index of Folklore Formulas (Epigraphic Embroidery). (shrink)

The article focuses on the role of Olena Pchilka1 and Lesia Ukrainka in epigraphic embroidery development. Undoubtedly, Olena Pchilka was an ardent proponent of folk art purity. Following from this, there is a tendency to think that she was against all novelty in Ukrainian embroidery. Many researchers and antiquity enthusiasts refer to her authority when arguing against inscriptions on textile as a phenomenon resulting largely from printed cross-stitch on paper. However, not all embroidered verbal texts have been of print origin. (...) Most of them were folkloric texts. What is more, Olena Pchilka to some extent provided her own comment on epigraphic embroidery in approving Lesia Ukrainka’s rushnyk containing the inscription “Oh, my thoughts, my thoughts, woe is with you! Love one another, brethren, love Ukraine”. In modern embroidery, embroideresses reproduce the citation with new connotations of these words, thereby continuing the epigraphic embroidery tradition. The author illustrates the folklorization of oft-cited lines from Taras Shevchenko’s poetry with examples of epigraphic embroidery from her own Interactive Index of Folklore Formulas. (shrink)