Hermeneutical "reading" of world view meanings in the art of symbolism

The paper focuses on the art of symbolism and its «language» which presents a certain difficulty for its understanding. It considers the paintings of the symbolist artist M.A. Vrubel dedicated to the theme of the Demon («Seated Demon», «Flying Demon», «Defeated Demon»). The authors aim to read deep, ideological meanings in the named works of the artist, abstracting from traditional evaluative stereotypes. The specifics of the subject and the task set singles out the problem of the method which makes the paper a significant methodological and theoretical contribution. Hermeneutic logic acts as a methodological basis in this study. It also increases the relevance of the research, since the use of hermeneutics as a method in scientific studies is a rare phenomenon. The main stages of «hermeneutical following» in the text of the article are accompanied with the necessary explanations. The use of hermeneutic logic reveals the deep meanings of M. Vrubel’s paintings associated with the worldview of the artist (the philosophy of F. Nietzsche, A. Schopenhauer) and their interpretation in the «prism of choice» of the superpersonality (Demon).