Historical and objective method of attribution of the Don military portrait of the 1812 epoch

Introduction . The article discusses the formation and development of the Don military portrait in the context of the formation of the South Russian nobility and military events of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. “For exploits and wounds,” Don officers and generals received ranks, orders, and insignia, lands, estates, money, and valuable gifts, and were elevated to the nobility. They consolidated their new social status in a visual form: ceremonial, semi-ceremonial, chamber, military, and coat of arms portraits, a large number of which have been preserved in museums in Russia and abroad and in private collections. Methods and materials. Relying on the historical-subject method of attribution of portraiture and at the interdisciplinary level, the artistic image of the Don military elite of the 1812 epoch is studied; attribution, characterization of the content, interpretation of images, and their accompaniment are carried out. The portrait of the hero of the 1812 epoch, Major General Pyotr Grekov the 8th, accompanied by the family coat of arms of the nobility, is being studied. Analysis . The evolution of the Don Cossack uniform and fittings, the imperial award system and its extension to the generals and officer corps of the Don army are characterized, and the rules for depicting awards on portraits and heraldic symbols are described. All of them act as sources of attribution for portraiture, revealing the character and merits of the Don General. Results . Based on the historical-subject method of attribution of works of portrait painting, the date of writing is established, and an assumption is made about the model and the author of the image.