The Power of Flowers: Kilims and the Cossacks Elite

in the Eighteenth-Century Hetmanate

(2024-present)

This project intends to present in monograph form my ongoing research on kilims that circulated among Cossacks elite in the eighteenth-century Hetmanate. In this study, I shall explore the social significance of these kilims in relation to their consumers as a social class. My work will contribute to a better understanding of the complex overlap between art, the elite’s self-image, and social inequality.

The Hetmanate was a Cossack state located in the lands of present-day central Ukraine. It emerged after 1648 CE in the result of Cossack rebellion against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and existed until 1782 CE when it was finally dissolved in the Russian Empire. The Hetmanate was ruled by the so-called ‘Znachne Vijskove Tovarystvo’ (Distinguished Military Fellowship), a privileged class that comprised the Cossacks army leadership and former nobility of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The Hetmanate’s elite invested their wealth in luxury and in the arts. Kilims, a pileless flat-weave with floral design, such as the one reproduced above, were important objects of the elite’s consumerist desire.

Although many of the Hetmanate’s kilims have been discussed in scholarship, multiple issues remain unaddressed. Since most of the 20th century scholars held the view that kilim must be a manifestation of Ukrainian “people’s talent,” or “national soul,” they completely disassociated Hetmanate kilims with the social class that owned them and triggered their production -- the Cossack elite. As a consequence of the emphasis on the ‘folk’ nature of kilims, the origins of their ornamentation have never been properly researched. Most scholars believed that kilim designs emerged either as direct observations of nature, or as a result of weaving techniques, and thus left the issues of fashion and cross-cultural exchange undiscussed.  In my research, I offer a new perspective on these kilims, which will investigate their relationship to the social class for which they were produced, and on behalf of which they operated as cultural agents or markers. The theoretical framework of my project combines the approaches that are known under the name of “social art history” with sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital. In my research, I aim to find out what was the social significance of Hetmanate kilims in relation to their consumers as a social class (the Cossack elite). Such a focus will allow my project to contribute to the ongoing global conversation of the complex overlap between art, an elite’s self-image, and social inequality that disrupts societal harmony. 

This project has received funding from the Vector Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation.

Early Modern Discourse on Nature and Textiles

in the 18th Century Cossack Hetmanate

(2024-present)

This project explores representations of nature in Hetmanate textiles through the lens of ecocritical theory to investigate the role these representations played in shaping the habitus of the Cossack elite.

The Cossack Hetmanate was a state in the 17th and 18th centuries, located in central Ukraine. It emerged in 1648 after a Cossack uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and, after seven years of independence, came under Russian protection. In the 18th century, the Russian Empire absorbed the Cossack state, gradually erasing its political institutions and enforcing a policy of Russification.

The Hetmanate's culture is most famous for the Cossack Baroque in architecture and icon painting, but many other traditions of applied art, including textile industries, also flourished there. Carpets, interior fabrics, and clothing textiles were imported as well as produced locally in workshops. Today, extensive textile collections are preserved in museums such as the National Museum of Ukrainian Decorative Folk Art in Kyiv, the Poltava Art Museum, the Chernihiv Historical Museum, the Museum of Ethnography and Applied Art of the Institute of Ethnology in Lviv, and others across Ukraine and abroad.

Over the past twenty years, I have published articles on Hetmanate carpets (Kohut, 2000, 2003, 2022). In the project "Early Modern Discourse on Nature and Textiles in the 18th Century Cossack Hetmanate," I take a step further and expand my research to all textiles of the Hetmanate, applying an ecocritical theoretical perspective that has not been previously applied to this material. Guided by this ecocritical theoretical perspective, I formulate the following research question for my project: How did the role of nature representations in Hetmanate textiles contribute to the formation of the habitus of the Cossack elite, the primary commissioners and consumers of textile works? Situated at the intersection of nature, art, and society, my project will contribute to understanding the connection between real nature and its representations in art. It will also explore the link between nature representations and the construction of identity in society. By defining the role of nature representations in the elite's habitus, this project will also shed light on how people in the early modern period interacted with the natural environment, perceiving and interpreting it. Ultimately, my project will enrich the history of European and global textiles with previously unknown material.

This ongoing project is supported by a grant from the Philipp Schwartz Initiative of the Humboldt Foundation.