Interpretation of Ornamental Compositions in the Costume Complex of the Tsarevokokshaisk Mari

The paper is devoted to the interpretation and analysis of ornamental compositions in the costume complex of the Tsarevokokshaysk Mari of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The model of studying the artistic and semantic interpretation as “element - motif - ornamental zone” as a constructive pattern put forward by modern researchers-ornamentologists is acceptable in the analysis of the embroidery compositions of the ethnoterritorial group of the Tsarevokokshaysk Mari. The figurative interpretation of the ornamental compositions of the costume complex of the Tsarevokokshaysk (Yoshkar-Оla) group of Mari as the most striking artistic phenomenon and richly saturated with the meanings invested in them expresses the ethno-identifying feature of folk art. The embroidered ornamental image is a source of many symbolic meanings and serves as a means of communication. This type of artistic creativity reflects the cosmological model of the world, initially formed in metal and ceramic products, and later their pictorial symbolism passed to embroidery. The images of the sun were accompanied by universal signs of a rhombus, cross, swastika, images of the animal world included such representatives as a bear, elk / deer, horse, ornithomorphic ornament consisted of a duck, swan, wood grouse, black grouse. Particular emphasis was given to the vertically placed image of the world tree, anthropomorphic images and large solar signs. Today, the complexity of deciphering ornamental compositions lies in the layering of one image over another. In expressing its attitude to the external world, the ornament, first of all, is characteristic of the most conservative tradition of manual creativity, manifested in the design of festive and ritual embroidery of both women᾿s and men᾿s costume complexes. In them, along with aesthetic and artistic manifestations, the performing techniques of women᾿s manual craftsmanship are revealed. These abstracted or quite realistic embroidered images are connected with ideological patterns and have received the most diverse manifestations in the compositional solution of the costume complex of the Tsarevokokshaysk Mari.