The text is dedicated to the similarities in the intertextual aspect of portraying the folkloremythological foundation of the disappearing Bulgarian patriarchal world and its distinctive plastic-stylistic expression in the two works. The study examines not only thematic and motif-related affinities but also the main narrative features (a dual narrative perspective of the storyteller, layering the viewpoints of the adult and the child, the absorption of historical time into a fairy-tale-like, naively hyperbolic child’s perspective on the world) and stylistic characteristics (stylization of the folkloric-song elements, parody of the heroichistorical). Both works are key to their respective authors and to the artistic reflection of Bulgarian prose of the 1960s and Bulgarian cinema of the 1970s in the exploration and/or farewell to the personal and national past.
This is an analysis of the interrelation between the social categories of gender and class in fashion, influenced by contemporary sociological theories on intersectionality and the author’s own ethnographic research carried out throughout the 2024/25 Fashion and Gender course led by prof. Romana Andò in the Fashion Studies Master’s programme at Sapienza University in Rome. The paper offers a Marxist perspective on the gendered commodification of fashion consumer experiences, leaning on the works of Goffman, Bourdieu, Barthes, and Benjamin, among others.
In a world flooded with images, emerging visual technologies are playing a pivotal role in transforming how images are created, interpreted, and trusted in human vision. This article explores how machine-driven vision fits into a long history of mediated seeing, including drone photography. Drawing on a multimodal social semiotic framework, the study examines two widely circulated case studies: the deepfake of Pope Francis in a puffer jacket and the forged arrest of Donald Trump. Through this approach, the article demonstrates how such images derive from the mobilisation of familiar visual narratives. These synthetic visuals function as culturally resonant signs, blurring the boundaries between realism, satire, and misinformation. In response to these developments, the article suggests that visual culture is transitioning into a post-photographic epoch, characterised by declining reliance on images as direct evidence and their replacement by computer-generated representations. As AI-generated images circulate as seemingly real records, they challenge public trust in visual perception and highlight the need for enhanced visual, digital and algorithmic literacy. These literacies enable viewers to critically understand synthetic images and navigate complex visual environments where authenticity cannot be taken for granted.
The Great Silk Road was an important transport artery connecting China, Central Asia, South Asia, and Europe that had flourished for hundreds of years. Buddhism entered China via the Silk Road, bringing with it the religious art of India and Central Asia. During this period, cultural dissemination was not limited to religion but encompassed various art forms, such as architecture, painting, and sculpture. As cultural exchange along the Silk Road intensified, ancient Chinese sculpture gradually absorbed elements of multiculturalism, developing artistic characteristics that blended Eastern and Western styles. Studying the influence of religious and cultural exchange on the development of Chinese sculpture during the history of the Silk Road remains relevant today. By systematizing relevant materials and analyzing specific cases of religious dissemination through cultural exchange, this article examines the aesthetic features of Buddhist sculpture, specific symbols, and key techniques and methods for processing materials. Through multicultural exchange and religious fusion, the cultural and historical value of the Great Silk Road is revealed. Using contextual and formal-structural analysis of art objects, the multifaceted influence of historical processes on sculpture in Traditional China is revealed.
The text draws a parallel between the absent presence of the West and the present absence of the East, in the person of René Magritte and 9 forms of Shunyata (emptiness) in the Zen Buddhist tradition and aesthetics.
The report presents images of mythological characters such as the snake, the dragon and the sun from Revival-period church stone reliefs in the Central Balkan Mountains. The semantics of the images and their connection with the verbal folklore in the studied region are studied. Special attention is paid to the ancient heritage preserved in some of the images
Visual representations of the Old Testament Queen Esther occupy a prominent place in European art. They appear in the works of some of the most talented artists across various periods and stylistic movements. Our paper examined the visual compositions, following the story narration, the main characters with their relations and also followed the “scenic” characteristics of the setting and its spatial-architectural context. The focus is on artworks from the Early Modern period, up to the 19th century. The outcomes lie in the fields of art studies, as well as in the broader context of European art and architectural history. We conclude that the story of Esther in the selected European paintings revealed the evolution of stylistic and plastic tendencies, individual author’s features, the transformation of public views, and the constantly existing social contradictions in relation to: social status, power–subordination, one’s own–others, reward– punishment.
The author analyses in detail the painting Bei den Grosseltern, 1892, and the watercolour Strickendes Mädchen vor Fensternische, undated; his goal is to understand Anker’s artistic and social position, as expressed in these and other paintings. He believes that Anker’s work can be characterized as assertive realism. The author comes to the conclusion that social sensitivity towards childhood and old age has become a component of modern consciousness in the 19th century. Artistically, Anker is traditional rather than innovative, but his themes are contemporary and express his social position. Anker’s values can be criticised and they have been. The advantage of his art, however, is that the love with which he creates images of people and events has no opponent; this love unites and supports
This article is based on the author’s interest in the response to Stanisław Wyspiański’s artistic work in Bulgaria in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the search for its traces today. Wyspiański’s work is huge in terms of volume and fields of expression: dramaturgy, poetry, murals, stained glass, book art, painting, textile and furniture design projects, and many more decorative forms. Although he was well known with his poetic and dramaturgical work among wider audiences, his artistic realizations remained mostly in the background. This observation is valid for both Bulgaria and the Pan-European context, at least untill the 1970s. Being aware that separating his artistic work from his literary and dramaturgical work cannot be justified, the author attempts to enrich the range of issues in contemporary publications by Bulgarian literary historians through the issues Wyspiański, as an artist, raised in our country. There was a significant difference between the time and artistic milieus of the Polish artist and the time of his perception in Bulgaria, between the period around the 1900s and the years after World War I. Despite all this, some of the protagonists of the broad Native Art movement that emerged in Bulgaria after World War I, with their new sensitivity towards the national idea, saw their own attitudes and experiences in Wyspiański’s work from around 1900. Differently, but also similar to the Polish artist, they were drawn to numerous variants of historicism, legendary imagery, mysticism, folklore forms, folk visual culture, and the experience of National Romanticism, Symbolism, and Art Nouveau in different cultural milieus.
The two architectural spaces, presented in this article provoke reflection on the essence of libraries. In the era of technology, their future as mere repositories for books is often discussed. The analysis of these two spaces – “Library of Light” by Es Devlin and Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library at Yale University represent the far more sophisticated nature of the library, rather closer to the idea of the sacred space. The library is presented as a compass, a mirror, a place for dialogue but also as an unapproachable pillar of knowledge, reminding of axis mundi—the vertical corridor between the different worlds situated in the temples. In both cases, the light as an intangible element has a significant role, both in building the atmosphere and as a message, reminding of the much more comprehensive essence of the library as a shelter and sanctuary of knowledge.
This paper will examine how the illustration of 'Champion Angels (& Scedil;ampiyon Melekler),' created to commemorate the high school volleyball team from Northern Cyprus that lost their lives in the earthquakes in Turkey in 2023, first transformed into a logo for an association and then into a symbol of societal trauma. This transformation is accompanied by the visual prepared by Alireza Pakdel, which officially became the logo. This logo embodies the commemoration, expression, and visibility of the Champion Angels.
