Russian animal studies of the 20th century as a cultural phenomenon of the time in the focus of natural science aspects of the study of nature

The article discusses the features of Russian animalistic art of the XX century from the perspec tive of the study of nature. Animalism is considered as a specific cultural phenomenon of the time. One can state the formation of a special natural “picture of the world”, in which the animalistic image acted as a significant phenomenon, formed an idea of wildlife, of the degree of its study. In connection with the natural science aspects of the study of nature, the 20th century was marked by the flourishing of zoological illustration, which reflected a general interest in the knowledge, first of all, of native nature and wildlife, and, along with other types of fine art, played an important role in the development of the animalistic genre. The concept of a sculptural animalistic image, which plays the role of a scientific illustration for biological museums, is considered, the features of its image and its significance for scientific and artistic circles are deter mined. The uniqueness of these works is determined by three significant moments. Firstly, they were the only works of this kind, they had no similar analogues in Europe. Secondly, they were focused on the museum exposition of a biological profile, which determined the specifics of themes and images, their functions, their place in the exposition, which implies a comprehensive display of all works. Thirdly, for the first time on the example of sculptural works (not only graphic), the features of scientific illustration were refracted in an original way. The purpose of the article was to identify the cultural aspects of the development of Russian animalistics, in the structure of which the study and evaluation of nature occupied a prominent place. The historical typological method of classification makes it possible to reveal the nature of the image in time in parallel with scientific knowledge about nature.