The article is the first to consider Alexander Ivanov's process of drafting the sketches for an unrealized painting based on the Bible story “Joseph’s Brothers Finding a Cup in the Sack of Benjamin”. The paper also considers the artist's discussion of compositional options with his father – historical painter A. I. Ivanov, as well as with famous European masters – Bertel Thorvaldsen, Vincenzo Camuccini, Johann Friedrich Overbeck. Such a dialog and exchange of opinions is of particular importance for understanding the specifics of both Alexander Ivanov's creative personality and the peculiarities of compositional, scenic and figurative approaches to historical painting in the times of classicism.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate an unusual technological feature of the icons of the Old Believer mining and metallurgical Urals, that consists in the use of the minerals crocoite and realgar as artistic pigments. During the technological examination of sixty-two Nevyansk icons of the 18th – 19th centuries in the State Research Institute for Restoration (GOSNIIR) in 2019–2023, realgar was found in twenty-two icons, while crocoite was detected in eleven, which proves the widespread usage of these minerals in Ural icon painting. Chemical analysis of the paint layer samples from the icons was carried out using a set of analytical methods such as polarized microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, micro-FTIR and Raman spectroscopy. It should be noted that both mineral pigments are rare not only for Russian painting, but also for late Russian icon painting of other artistic centers and schools. Thus, it can be assumed that realgar was introduced to the Ural masters as an imported paint from Western Europe under the name Rauschgelb / Rusgeel, where it was in high demand among painters between the 16th and 18th centuries. It is also possible that it could have been brought to Russia, to the Urals, from China or Central Asia, where its large deposits are located. However, the appearance of crocoite in Nevyansk icons is undeniably due to the discovery and development of its deposits in the Middle Urals. Both minerals were first applied in Nevyansk icons in the second half of the 18th century (the lower chronological boundary of crocoite use is the first half of the 60s of the 18th century). Apparently, in the 19th century they gradually ceased to be in common use among the Ural icon painters.

The article outlines the key principles of teaching animalistic sculpture based on methodology developed by Sergey Lvovich Krivtsov (Honored Artist of Russia, senior teacher at the Academy of Watercolor and Fine Arts of Sergey Andriaka). Training in this technique is carried out within the framework of higher, pre-professional and supplementary art education programs at the Academy, as well as a part of the program of additional art education at the Educational Center “Sirius” (Sochi). The article addresses the problem of composition in animalistic sculpture. The work of the 19th century French sculptor Pierre-Jules Mêne “Greyhound With a Hare” is analyzed in detail by a professional artist. The paper describes the logic behind the sequential process of creating a sculpture: from the concept of the artistic image conceived by the author to a dynamic composition executed in compliance with the laws of biomechanics. The peculiarities of developing the main volumes, silhouette and relief of the composition are considered separately, taking into account the careful balance between the entire sculpture and its details, animal anatomy, interpretation of textures, as well as the proportional ratio of figures and plinth.