Symbol and Simulacrum in Sculpture: Specialist Reception Features

The article is devoted to the study of the specifics of perception of a symbol and simulacrum in art (sculpture) at the denotative level, where the viewer forms the meaning, and at the connotative level, where the viewer realizes the sense. The author analyzes characteristics of the viewer’s perception of sense and meaning in artistic symbol and simulacrum on the example of two works in St. Petersburg — “The Bronze Horseman” (by E. M. Falconet) and “Peter the Great” (by M. Shemyakin). In both cases, the recipient deals with an ambiguously interpreted image. These interpretations depend on social, cultural, political, and environmental contexts. The meaning of the monumental symbol “The Bronze Horseman” is revealed in the process of transcendence, when the viewer resolves in his mind the contradictions between different interpretations of the work he perceives. In the art simulacrum “Peter the Great,” numerous meanings/differences replace each other without suggesting unity, due to which the meaning expands and grows like a rhizome. These two connotative models of perception are equally important for a person, since the viewer discovers different facets in the knowledge of the world and his own “I” through them.