Dialogue of Poetic and Visual Image: The Color Palette of Icon Painting in the Poetry of S.A. Yesenin

The article is devoted to the analysis of the specific functioning of the color symbolism of icon painting in poetry, using the example of S.A. Yesenin's "Little Poems" of 1917–1919 – "The Advent", "The Transfiguration", "Pantocrator", where the palette is based on key tones consonant with the colors of thematically related icons. The study of color symbolism in S.A. Yesenin's poetry, connected with the traditions of Old Russian painting, touches upon a number of important scientific fields: historical poetics, the semiotics of color, and art history. The research contributes to understanding the specifics of the dialogue between the poetic text and the visual canon, revealing the mechanisms for translating stable pictorial codes (icon-painting color formulas) into the dynamic space of the word. The aim of the work is to identify the specifics of the dialogue between S.A. Yesenin's poetic text and the visual canon of Russian icon painting, based on the selected poems, through the analysis of color symbolism. The main task is to identify the mechanisms of assimilation and artistic transformation of the color canon of icon painting into poetic imagery for expressing the idea of cosmic transfiguration. This presupposes reliance on the comparative-historical method, hermeneutic approach, and mythopoetic analysis. To systematize the empirical material, a quantitative (statistical) method was also applied, which consisted of a continuous sampling and frequency analysis of color vocabulary. Color in S.A. Yesenin's "Little Poems" performs a dual function, combining natural colors with deep symbolism rooted in the icon-painting canon. The key image of the "red horse" in "Pantocrator" expresses the central conflict of the poet's work – the clash of heavenly harmony with the fiery chaos of revolutionary modernity. The statistical increase in references to the gold color after 1917 testifies an intense search for a sacred foundation in an era of upheaval. The color palette of the poems, built on icon-painting tones (gold, blue, red, white) and devoid of halftones, makes S.A. Yesenin's poetics akin to the aesthetics of the icon-painting canon, where the icon appears as a living bridge between the earthly and the heavenly. The mechanism of translating the stable color formulas of the icon into the dynamic space of the word allows for the visualization of the presence of the Divine.