Letter from the editor

Dear readers, We are pleased to present to you Issue 3, 2022, of the scientific and analytical journal Burganov House. The Space of Culture. Upon the recommendation of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission, the journal is included in the List of Leading Peer-reviewed Scientific Journals and Publications in which the main scientific results of theses for the academic degrees of doctor and candidate of science must be published. The journal publishes scientific articles by leading specialists in various humanitarian fields, doctoral students, and graduate students. Research areas concern topical problems in multiple areas of culture, art, philology, and linguistics. This versatility of the review reveals the main specificity of the journal, which represents the current state of the cultural space. In the article “The Colossus of Hera in Argos by Polykleitos the Elder: Experience of Reconstruction”, the team of authors, K. Gavrilin, I. Akilov, N. Akilov, proposes and substantiates a new graphical reconstruction of the chryselephantine colossus of Hera in Argos, created by Polykleitos the Elder in 400 BC. The combination of art sources, archaeological data and ancient documents by Pausanias, Tertullian and Maximus of Tyre describing the lost throne statue of the goddess allows us to recreate it in sufficient detail, completely discarding the speculative methods of the past. In the article “Sculptures of the Head of Beheaded John the Baptist”, M. Burganova considers the appearance and spread of the iconography of the plot “the Head of Beheaded John the Baptist”. The article analyses the works created by masters in the major cultural centres of Western and Eastern Europe. On the examples of works made by masters in different European art centres, the author analyzes the evolution of the image of the head of John from the image-symbol in the 13th century to the imageillustration of a real action, which became a reflection of a special religious sensibility in the culture of Europe of the 16th‑17th centuries. The article also provides a comparative analysis of the characteristic features of Eastern and Western Christianity in the iconographic renderings of the plot of the Beheaded John the Baptist. The multicultural and multiethnic integration and unprecedented flourishing of trade during the Mongol-Yuan period in the context of the Silk Road is analyzed by Ding Liang in the article “The Influence of the Grassland Silk Road on the Porcelain Styles of the Yuan Dynasty Вuring the Mongol-Yuan Period”. The culture, technology, materials, and craftsmen of the western regions dispersed throughout this space had a greater influence on the decorative modeling of Yuan Dynasty porcelain. Yuan Dynasty porcelain was inclusive, open and innovative, not only absorbing the culture of the western regions, grassland culture, and the culture of the Central Plains but also integrating and developing multiple cultures, forming unique decorative modeling characteristics, which contributed to the rapid development of porcelain in the Yuan Dynasty. In the article “The Mediterranean as a Сontext and Concept in the Art of Modernism”, N. Getashvili examines the role of the Mediterranean in the context of the antinomy of Nordicism and Greco-Latin civilization. Examples that confirm this postulate from the works of representatives of Fauvism (Braque, Derain, Matisse), cubism, Maillol, Picasso, de Chirico, Dali, and Klee, are given. In the article “Relevance of the Study of Forgotten and Little-known Artists of the Russian Landscape School on the Example of Mikhail Germashev”, T. Bocharov and P. Kozorezenko consider the issues of studying the work of little-known Russian artists. The authors analyse why this or that artist came to the periphery of the attention of culture lovers and art historians, highlighting the merits of the artistic manner of one of the forgotten Russian masters. The article describes the distinctive features of Germashev’s creative style and his strong artistic connection with the Moscow region and the capital. The creative method of sculptors of the midtwentieth century and the historical context of the construction of the Stalin skyscrapers are analysed by P. Dobrolyubov in the article “Soviet Sculptors and the Stalinist Empire Style. High-rise Building on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment”. The author tells in detail about the creative team of wonderful, talented Soviet architects, sculptors, engineers, designers who decorated Moscow with their monumental works during the construction of the Stalin skyscrapers, using the example of the construction of the high-rise building on Kotelnicheskaya embankment. In the article “Dubai Expo 2020. A Look Into the Future”, J. Smolenkova examines the innovative, constructive and artistic features of the main pavilions of the World Expo 2020, which became the basis of the concept of the fair. Gerardo Picardo presents a review of artist A. Kurakina’s work, tracing the formation of the creative path and the influence of different cultures on the artist’s style. The publication is addressed to professionals specialising in the theory and practice of the fine arts and philology and all those interested in the arts and culture.