On the semantics of the animal image in old Russian art on the way to the formation of the animal genre

The article discusses the semantics of animal images in the artistic thinking of Kievan Rus'. The mindset of the era was the culturological space that revealed the medieval views on the essence of things, determined the specifics of animal images within the accepted iconography. The background of the animal genre is considered, and in this regard, features that contribute to the formation of the early style are revealed. The author wonders whether ancient Russian animalier art should be considered a starting point on the way to the formation of an independent genre, or the artistic concept of the animal image at that time depended solely on pagan and Christian perception, was embedded into the corresponding plots, determined priorities in the choice of characters and was inseparable from the accepted pictorial norms and rules. The article aims to look at the ancient Russian animalier art from the perspective of two interrelated and interdependent mindsets: the ancient Christian archaic and the Christian of a later time with features of “naive realism”, which are directly reflected in the stylistics of the pictorial language.