Keywords: contemporary art; Russian contemporary art; body; nu; antiquity; postmodernism; prototype
This article addresses the influence of antique (primarily, ancient Greek and Roman) art on contemporary Western European and Russian art. Among the great variety of aspects the cult of body as an expression of the conceptions of beauty appears to be the most interesting one for comparing and identifying similar features and essential differences. To the cold ideal beauty of a god-hero, representatives of contemporary Western European culture preferred a close contemplation of a real human, his or her faults turning imperfection into an object of celebration. A special topic of the discomposure of flesh and form, which was unnatural for the antique masters but found its reflection in different myths, has become popular among the contemporary European artists. In artworks of Russian artists who work in traditional genres of art, the connections with the Antique heritage are stronger mostly due to the preservation of the classical school and a high level of excellence. Nevertheless, along with the representatives of up-to-date art, they try to offer their own interpretation of contemporary beauty and topical issues.
More...Keywords: anatomical veracity; Russian icons; the Subject of the Crucifixtion; Rublev; Dionisius (Dionisii)
The article considers the problem of anatomical veracity in the subject of the Crucifixtion in the Russian iconography of the 15th–early 16th centuries. The figural representations are analyzed with the help of the language of anatomical description. The research is based on the icons from the Andrey Rublev Museum, the Cathedral of the Annunciation in the Moscow Kremlin, the Cathedral of the Dormition in Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, and the icon by Dionisius for Pavlo-Obnorsky Monastery preserved in the Tretyakov Gallery. The psychological and anatomical veracity in the icon from the Cathedral of the Annunciation (Rublev school) combined with the fluent rhythm and harmony in composition makes it outstanding for its time. The spirit of antiquity rests on the balance of diverse tendencies but not merely on copying ancient Greek models. The anatomical details in the icons of the late 15th–early 16th centuries were represented schematically, with ornamental interpretation. The problem of anatomical veracity arose in Russia anew with the beginning of the Modern Age.
More...Keywords: Biedermeier; Antiquity; Classicism; Neoclassicism; noble simplicity; esthetic man; object; F. Schiller; L. Eichrodt; A. Kussmaul; A.G. Venetsianov; C.W. Eсkersberg; G.F. Kersting; W. Bendz; K. Koebke; K.A. Zelentsov; A.V. Tyranov
The article applies to such an unusual subject as a relationship between Biedermeier and Antiquity. For a long time Biedermeier was considered to be a purely «burgher style». But the author seeks to show, by an example of Biedermeier painting, that this style was rather of a noble, classical origin and the Classical Antiquity, consumed as a principal of «noble simplicity», gave one of the impulses to Biedermeier’s appearance. Along with the Weimar classicists (Goethe, Schiller), Biedermeier artists primarily treated the Classical Antiquity as the worldview – an example of a reasonable and balanced way of life. The spiritual and corporeal Antiquity cosmos scales down in Biedermeier to a reasonably arranged cosmos of home life. Reflected differently in the national versions of the style, namely in the German, Austrian, Danish and Russian ones, these features still form the essential core of Biedermeier. All of the aforesaid allows us to re-evaluate the works of such modest artists as G.F. Kersting, W. Bendz, K.A. Zelentsov, A.V. Tyranov, as well as to look at the recognized masters, such as A.G. Venetsianov and his Danish counterpart C.W. Eckersberg, from a different perspective.
More...Keywords: Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum of Modern Art; Bilbao Effect; Museum audience; Interactivity in museum; Museum space; Museum architecture; Contemporary museum architecture; Tate Modern; MOMA
The aim of this research is to understand what a Museum of Contemporary Art is and what makes it different from other Art museums. This research is an attempt to outline characteristic features of Museums of Contemporary Art (MCA), how they are understood by their visitors, and to reveal some positive and negative aspects from the position of visitors. The methodology used to achieve this goal was based on a survey, in which respondents were questioned about their interest towards contemporary art and their experience of visiting MCA(geographical frames of the research included countries of EU and Latin America, Russia, USA and Japan). According to the results, people tended to stress three main features that distinguished MCA from other museums. These features included contemporary art and its interpretation in museum space, interactive approach to learning and architecture of museum buildings. Every aspect was explored more in depth. A tight connection between high level of popularity of MCA and the development of touristic industry throughout two last decades was revealed. This correlation between cultural and economic spheres allows looking at MCA from the angle of economic changes in society and makes a basement for a further research.
More...Keywords: ancient Pskov; Dovmontov Gorod; archaeology; frescos; iconography; attribution
During the excavation (in the 1960s–1970s) in the Dovmontov Gorod at Pskov frescoes formerly unknown to the scholarly community were discovered. The greater part of them was found in the churches № 1 (near the southern wall of the Krom) and № 9 (near the eastern wall of the Dovmontov Gorod), according to the plan made by V.D. Beletskii. The analysis of their iconographic scheme the author of the article has realized that they follow the tradition of wall-painting specific of the 14th-century Orthodox churches. In the church № 9 compositions were placed strictly in tiers. An interesting fact is that painters depicted scenes with numerous figures and details even on the sides of the dome columns. Narrative principle and careful reproduction of the Holy Writ texts are peculiar of Pskovian wall-painting. The general theme of the iconographic programme of the painting in church № 9 is the Sacrifice of Christ It is presented in the symbolic scene of ‘Do not Weep for Me, Mother’ in the northern part of the altar. This composition was widely spread in wall-painting of the late 14th – early 15th century in Veliky Novgorod and the Balkan countries. This testifies to the fact that the frescoes of church № 9 were created later than mid-14th century, according to the opinion of V. D. Beletskii. The style of painting in church № 9 belongs to the so-called “pseudo-expressive” one. The iconographic scheme of wall-painting in church № 1 is also traditional enough for the 14th century. As to the manner of painting, most of the fragments resemble frescoes created by Balkan wall-painters in Our Saviour’s Church at Kovaliovo (1380). Still, types of images, the method of depicting hair of the saints, and white strokes of light reveal an affinity with frescoes of church № 9. It is, thus, possible to consider the attribution of church № 1 to be similar to the church of the Resurrection (1395) and church № 9 – as the church of the Nativity (1388).
More...Keywords: liturgique space; medieval art; synthesis of arts; ensemble; canon; pneumatology
The report presents an overview of the main approaches to the definition of a term «liturgical space» in historiography and reveals the significance of this concept in the context of the study of medieval iconography. The emphasis is on its characteristics and relationship with the concept of an ensemble, a canon and in the synthesis of the theory of art. Comprehensive method of studying of icons, leads, as one of the possible options for interpreting a functional side of an icon, to analysis of it in the context of the liturgical ritual. Icon as an object placed in the liturgical space, becomes a part of the ensemble of a temple, and the notion of an ensemble is fundamental to the understanding of its organization. The ensemble of the inner space of a temple is formed not on the basis of the desire for unity of artistic style, but because of the focus on “primordial-united activity” («pervoedinoy activity», a term coined by a priest Pavel Florensky) is the liturgy. Thus, of great importance is a reference to sources and research papers which on dogmatic theology, in particular, the doctrine of grace, the sacraments, and pneumatology.
More...Keywords: Nakhichevan-on-Don; Armenian monastery Surb-Khach; architecture; Church of the Armenian
Nakhichevan is a city on the Lower Don which was founded in 1779 by Armenians. Its history is closely connected with the policy of the Russian Empire of development of southern lands and their integration into the socioeconomic structure and culture of the country. This policy was inextricably linked with the idea of a regular city and principles of classicism. It was the first city in this district established not as a fortress, but as a trading and crafting and craft settlement. Unlike other towns of this kind, which were normally formed spontaneously, Nakhichevan was originally built according to the plan corresponding to architectural ideas of the last quarter of the 18th century. The Central square with the Church of St. Gregory the Illuminator (1783) built in the style of Russian classicism united all the streets intersecting at right angles. The Church determined the style of the most important city buildings: magistrate, theatre, parish churches, etc. Outside the city there was The Church of the Armenian monastery Surb-Khach (1781) which also became a fine embodiment of classicism. The architectural culture of Nakhichevan is based on classicism which defined the architectural appearance of the city and was appreciated by the citizens so much that even the facades of the edifices built in the period of eclecticism gravitated towards classical forms.
More...Keywords: Werefkin; Jawlensky; München; Switzerland; Ascona; Monte Verità; symbolism; modernism
In the early years of her artistic career Marianna von Werefkin created portraits in a realistic manner. Taking the number of portraits as examples, this research shows how the artist reconsiders the notion of beauty denoting the principles of classical art in favour of the abstract ideal beauty. Then she ceased painting for ten years and started drawing portraits in notebooks instead. These notebooks are filled with portraits of her friends, musicians, ladies and gentlemen at the cafes and dance floors. Numerous sketches from these small albums have not yet been published. They mark a transition to modernism in von Werefkin’s art. In 1906 von she shifted back to painting. Portraits of this period A are clearly expressionistic. As a consequence of a thorough study of the artists’ archives, memoirs and correspondence we reached the vivid understanding of her reconsideration of the classical ideals of beauty. The philosophical implications, the richness of color, the complexity of plastical solutions bring up the renewal of the pictorial language. In her later works the symbolization of the expressionistic portrait took place.
More...Keywords: religious sculpture; Baroque; Italian sculpture of the 16th-17th centuries; Spanish art of the Golden age
The article is dedicated to the image of a Spanish ruler in Western European art of the 16th–17th centuries. It mainly focuses on sculpture. The evolution of an image of a ruler is observed in connection with Spanish history. The relevance of the article is explained by lacunas, which exist in research of connections between national schools, influence of ancient heritage on art and Spanish sculpture of the Golden age. In the 16th century imitations of Greek art of the Classical period and Roman art of the Imperial period became very popular. In the 17th century masters used works of artists who belonged to various European schools of the Modern period and creatively changed them according to their artistic manner. Since the second half of the 17th century decorative and representative elements increased in sculpture. The same tendency is typical to Spanish painting of the same period.
More...Keywords: retablo; iconostasis; Spanish painting; Russian icon; religious art; frontal (antependium)
A Spanish retablo and a Russian iconostasis were finally formed at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. Different in location inside a church (an iconostasis is established in front of an altar, and a retablo is an image behind an altar), semantics (an iconostasis presents the image of the Heavenly world, and a retablo has only didactic and decorative functions), decorative facilities (in a retablo sculpture is used), these phenomena developed parallel to each other. Despite the obvious differences, these types of artworks have several common compositional and structural points. Like iconostasis, retablo is a fixed (unlike folding altars) small architectural form, which has a tendency towards expansion in width and height conserving a system of verticals and horizontals in composition, a distinct structure and a hierarchy. It seems possible to determine a frontal, or antependium, widely spread in Byzantium and Western Europe, as a common source for both retablo and iconostasis.
More...Keywords: Malevich; Suprematist projecting concept; Suprematist order; international artistic style; architektonа
The paper deals with the semiotics and projecting ideology born within the early 20th century Russian avant-garde movement. V. Kandinsky, M. Larionov, P. Filonov, M. Matiushin, K. Malevich, V. Tatlin were the first artists to step away from representational painting and lay the foundations for nonobjective art. But it was Malevich who applied the new radical approach to three-dimensional art forms and architecture introducing a new form of artistic expression released from the constraints of objectivity. Devoid of meaning, the Supremacists form served to create a new reality on the basis of modular approach both in the two-dimensional and three-dimensional arts and design. Thus, the foundations for a new international art language were laid, making artistic form a universal symbol, and the Suprematist order spread, widely reproduced, closely studied and analyzed. The Suprematist basic forms have been used to create various objects in the field of architecture and design. Seen in this light, the legacy of the early 20th-century art greatly contributes to the vision of design nowadays and shows its prospects, broadening artists’ horizons.
More...Keywords: Woelfflin; politics; Nietzsche; avant-garde; Modernism; totalitarian aesthetics
The issues of classic aesthetics in Heinrich Woelfflin’s works are considered in this paper in the context of avant-garde discourse. The notions of visual, bodily, ideological are examined in relation to Swiss art historian’s system. The paper explores the points of convergence between Woelfflin’s theories and different trends in Contemporary Art History (semiotics, post-structuralism etc.). Special attention is paid to philosophical foundations of Woelfflin’s system, its closeness to Friedrich Nietzsche’s intuitions. Theory of classic art is interpreted taking into account its social connotations, its totalitarian, normativistic and utopian dimension. The author comes to conclusion that the elements of reductionism and extremism are important for Woelfflin’s Neo-Kantian «essentialism», which is «value-neutral» but amenable to the interpretation theory of «radical conservatism». According to this methodological strategy politico-philosophical program of formalism (as the precursor of the Social History of Art) can be (re)constructed.
More...Keywords: St. Petersburg State University; Lomonosov Moscow State University; theory and history of art; international conference; antiquity; classical art; classical allusions and connotations
The review considers the results of the 5th annual international conference “Actual problems of theory and history of art”, organized by St. Petersburg State University and Lomonosov Moscow State University with the participation of the State Hermitage Museum. The leading topic of the conference in 2014 was “Images of Classical Antiquity. The Art of the Ancient World and Its Heritage in the World Culture” and its materials are published in two different books reviewed: the present collection of articles “The Classics in Art through the Centuries” and the 5th issue of “Actual problems of theory and history of art” (2015).
More...Keywords: Manierism; Romanism; Spanish art; allegorical interpretation; classical images
The Romanism was not the center of attention of the Western European and Russian historiography and was interpreted as the art of decadence, of low artistic level, not national, the art being ordered by Power. The theme of Classical Images in the Art of Spain and in the Art of Romanism in Spain has not so far been enough investigated. But the specific features of interpretation of classical images in painting of Romanism in Spain of the end of the 16th – beginning of the 17th centuries show the originality of this complicated period in the development of Spanish Art. Heroic interpretation of Classical Images in Spanish Art of 16th century gave way to allegorical interpretation of them. An interesting example of a monument of Romanism in Spain is the decoration of the library of Escorial (1592) that was made according to the Programme prepared by a Spanish scholar Arias Montano and a librarian and historiographer of Escorial padre Jose de Siguenza. The Italian painters Pellegrino Tibaldi (1541–1583), Niccolo Granello (died in 1593) and Bartolome Carducho (1560–1608) took part in the decoration of the library. Formally the composition duplicates the decoration of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, but the sense of decoration is different. The programme illustrates the way of preparation to understanding of Theology through studying of Philosophy and the seven Liberal Arts. Allegorical Images here are the Divinities. Classical gods, scholars, poets, mythological characters present in the context of the ensemble not themselves but the districts of knowledge, in which they distinguished themselves. This and similar programmes were created for intellectuals, who were able to understand its sense.
More...Keywords: Favorskii; VKhUTEMAS; INKhUK; Greek relief; Hildebrand; Florenskii; Rodchenko; Productivism; Constructivism
The discussion about composition and construction was started by V.Kandinskii at INKhUK (Institute of Artistic Culture) in 1921. It was developed at VKhUTEMAS (Higher Art and Technical Studios) by A. Rodchenko, L. Popova, V. Stepanova and others. The Productivists and Constructivists, whose ideas dominated the VKhUTEMAS, rejected traditional easel painting as obsolete, striving instead to transform and enhance utilitarian objects by means of a constructivist approach. Characteristic of this standpoint is a slogan «Thingism-Constructivism-Productivism» created by B. Arvatov. Favorskii, on the other hand, insisted on the unification of a tangible object and an artistic image, for which he coined the term «Thing-Image». This principle of unification was established in a course of lectures held by V. Favorskii and P. Florenskii in VKhUTEMAS. In these lectures, he defined composition very broadly, as organization of space in a two-dimensional plane. 2 of the 17 lectures were dedicated to Ancient Greece. Thus, Greece became a live model for studying forms as these stirred renewed interest during the 1920’s.
More...Keywords: ancient ceramics; European porcelain; plastic decoration; conservation; loss compensation
The article is devoted to problems of conservation of ancient ceramics and European porcelain as exemplified in the case of vases “The Fire” and “The Earth” from the “Four Elements” series (Saxony, Meissen porcelain manufactory, 19th century, after I. I. Kändler’s models, 1742). Peculiar attention is paid to the question to what extent experiments in the field of shape and decoration aimed at search for new artistic effects affect further functioning and state of preservation of objects. In this connection central aspects of loss compensation on both porcelain and ancient ceramics are analyzed. In this respect conservation approaches appear to be pronouncedly contrast ranging from full non-interference with visual structure of ancient object to its full reconstruction when dealing with porcelain. At the same time it is reasonable to consider ways of improving the construction of vases rather common than depending on the type of the item.
More...Keywords: N. Flittner; scholar; lecturer; university; Egyptology; Assyriology; memoirs of N. Flittner; Hermitage’s Archive
The author’s aim was to trace the main landmarks in the life of a famous orientalist, egyptologist and assyriologist Natalia Flittner and to characterize different sides of her versatile scholarly and educational activities. Nataliya Flittner was one of the first Russian women to graduate a university, thus she could lecture at the higher education institutes. She happened to become a lecturer of the Leningrad State University and of the I. Repin Institute of painting, sculpture and architecture (The Academy of Fine Arts) and also a research officer of the State Hermitage museum. Her rare endowments conduced to the great achievements both in the oriental studies with the lecturing at the university and in the establishment of the new museum structures. She worked out and held a course on the Ancient Eastern Art’s History. In 1927 an egyptological study group appeared in the University and established its own magazine “The egyptological study group’s Collection”. N. Flittner published several articles in Russian and German languages in this periodical. Her scholarly endeavor led to the appearing of profound studies of the monuments of Ancient Eastern Art kept in the State Hermitage Museum and in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, what was reflected in her research papers. In 1918 N. Flittner was attached to the Hermitage with the task to found a new “Museum Department”, that was a prototype of the modern Educational Department of the Hermitage. The year 1927 saw her managing the organization of a new exposition – that of the Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian Art. In 1929 she wrote “The Ancient Egypt’s exposition’s Guide” that was the first guide-book on the Ancient Egyptian art’s exposition in the Hermitage. In 1934 N. Flittner was one of the creators of the first major permanent exhibition of the Ancient Egyptian Art and Culture in the Hermitage. N. Flittner’s fundamental monograph “The Art and Culture of the Mesopotamia and the neighboring countries” was for the first time issued in 1958 and republished twice in the 21st century, as it hasn’t lost its significance. The article is based upon the memoirs and diaries by N. Flittner; the author had a good fortune to be the first explorer of her archive that came into the possession of the State Hermitage in 2001.
More...Keywords: historical representations; place of memory; the Republic of Novgorod; stereotypes of the past of Russia; state ideology
The article is devoted to a problem of the influence of art on forming of stereotypes about the past in the Russian society of the 18th – early 19th centuries. It offers the analysis of antique images which embody the past of Novgorod in Russian history painting and sculpture On the material of several unconnected works of art created over a long period the author describes the dynamics of perception of certain symbols and reaches the conclusion that works of art were deeply influenced by official state ideology as the authorities used them as effective instruments to establish concrete stereotypic notions about the past in public opinion.
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