Russian school of painting briefly. Russian painting

In the second half of the 18th century, a style was formed in Russian art classicism. The originality of Russian classicism lay in the fact that its masters turned not only to antiquity, but also to their native history, that they strived for simplicity, naturalness and humanity. In classicism, the ideas of an absolutist state, which replaced feudal fragmentation, found their artistic embodiment. Absolutism expressed the idea of ​​firm power, and the eternity of the absolutist system was promoted. In the second half XVII century Along with other forms of art in Russia, painting is undergoing serious changes. To a certain extent, they prepare for the radical reforms that took place in it at the beginning of the 18th century. Entering the position of modern art with a significant delay compared to other advanced artistically European countries, Russian painting in its own way reflects general patterns this stage of development. Comes to the fore secular art. Initially, secular painting was established in St. Petersburg and Moscow, but already from the second half of the XVIII century becomes widespread in other cities and estates. A traditional branch of painting, icon painting is still widely practiced in all levels of society.

Russian painting developed throughout the 18th century in close contact with the art of Western European schools, joining the common heritage - works of art of the Renaissance and Baroque, and also making extensive use of the experience of neighboring states. At the same time. As researchers have long established, art in general and painting in particular, throughout the 18th century, were connected by a single focus and had a pronounced national character. During this period, the greatest masters of their craft - representatives of the domestic art school and foreign painters - worked in Russia. The most interesting phenomenon in the art of Peter the Great's era was the portrait. At the origins portrait painting worth new time I.N. Nikitin (approx. 1680 - 1742).

I.N. Nikitin vividly embodies the power of human possibilities opened by the era of Peter the Great. The greatest reformer of Russian painting, he shares with him triumphs, and in the end - tragic misfortunes. The portraits created by Nikitin in the early period are already quite European in nature, images closest to the works of the French school of the early 18th century. Using pan-European experience, the Russian artist realizes his own ideas about peace, beauty and individual characteristics models. This is how a version of the portrait arises - generally understandable and completely unique. The brush of this great artist includes such works as: a portrait of Tsarevna Anna Petrovna and Tsarevna Praskovya Ioannovna (presumably 1714). Perhaps the most powerful work after Nikitin’s return from Italy is the portrait of State Chancellor G.I. Golovkin (1720s). In addition to increased literacy in drawing and painting techniques, he demonstrates the spirituality of expression and the interaction of the image with the viewer. No less seriousness is inherent in the “Portrait of a Floor Hetman” (1720s). The author's independence is manifested in the portrait of S.G. Stroganov (1726) and in the painting “Peter I on his deathbed” (1725). With the death of Peter, the life of the artist himself ended tragically - he was tried on false charges and exiled to Tobolsk. The work of another Russian painter also belongs to the Peter the Great era in spirit - Andrey Matveev (1701-1739). By order of Peter, he was sent to Holland to study, which provided the necessary level of knowledge. Even during his training, he created paintings - “Allegory of Painting” (1725) and “Venus and Cupid”. Matveev’s most famous work is “Self-Portrait with his Wife” (1729). Makeev’s work distinguishes this artist from his new culture of relationships. The husband and wife not only act as equals: the artist carefully and proudly presents his wife to the viewer. Interest in art and hard work. In the mid-18th century, A. Antropov was a major master of pictorial portraiture, combining a variety of artistic techniques. The son of a soldier, at the age of sixteen he began to study with Matveev, with whom he created a number of decorative paintings in St. Petersburg, Moscow and other cities. In the portrait of Peter III there is no idealization, usual for ceremonial royal portraits created by foreign artists, although the same compositional solution. Antropov painted a very truthful, sharp, almost caricatured image of the tsar - narrow-shouldered, with long, skinny legs. The magnificent surroundings - a column, a canopy, a throne and a gilded table with royal regalia - emphasize the physical and spiritual insignificance of the king. Many artists of the 18th century came from serfdom, and some remained in serfdom until the end of their days. Count Sheremetyev's serf was Ivan Petrovich Argunov, a representative of a very talented family who gave many artists to Russian art. He is known primarily as a portrait painter. By order of the owner, he had to paint portraits of the St. Petersburg nobility, Sheremetyev’s acquaintances and members of his family. Usually they did not pose, and Argunov, as he himself said, painted them while observing them during ceremonial holidays in the owner’s palace. Sheremetyev did not appreciate the artist in Argunov, often gave him a variety of instructions and, finally, sent him to Moscow to manage his Moscow house, thereby almost depriving the artist of the opportunity to paint. Argunov's creative activity unfolded in the years 1750-1760. His fame was brought to him by the portraits of B. Sheremetyev and V. Sheremetyeva - self-confident and arrogant nobles of a noble family. Argunov, who studied with Groot, mastered the style of Western European ceremonial portraiture. It is no coincidence that he received an order to paint a portrait of the new empress, Catherine II. Although classicism reaches full maturity at the beginning of the 19th century, already in the second half of the 18th century portrait art reaches its true flowering. The greatest painters create at this time F. Rokotov, D. Levitsky and V. Borovikovsky , who created a brilliant gallery of portraits of their contemporaries, works full of deep thought, glorifying the beauty and nobility of human aspirations. These portraits not only brought to us the images of many remarkable people, but also were evidence of the high artistry of Russian artists, their originality, as well as the maturity of pictorial and plastic culture. Artists knew how to recreate a real image using various painting means: exquisite color shades, additional colors and reflections, a rich system of multi-layer paint application. Among the largest Russian portrait painters of the second half of the 18th century, F. Rokotov was the most original. Already as a young man, he became widely known as a skillful and original painter. His creative legacy is significant. Rokotov was already a student at the Academy of Arts in 1760, and three years later became its teacher and then an academician. The service distracted the artist from creativity, and official orders became a burden. In 1765, Rokotov left the Academy of Arts and moved permanently to Moscow. There a new, creative, very fruitful period of his life began. He became the artist of the enlightened nobility in independent and sometimes freethinking Moscow. His works reflected the desire of the best, enlightened part of the Russian nobility to follow high moral standards, characteristic of that time. The artist loved to depict a person without a formal entourage, without posing. People in Rokotov's later portraits become more attractive in their intelligence and spirituality. Rokotov usually uses soft lighting and focuses all the attention on faces. People in his portraits almost always smile a little, often looking intently, sometimes mysteriously, at the viewer. They are united by something in common, some kind of deep humanity and warmth. In terms of spirituality, picturesqueness, and general sophistication, many of Rokotov’s portraits have an analogy in the portraiture of the best English masters of the 18th century. When Rokotov's work flourished, the work of another major painter began - Dmitry Levitsky, who created a series of truthful, deep-characteristic portraits. He was probably born in Kyiv and initially studied fine art with his father, a famous Ukrainian engraver. In 1770, at an exhibition at the Academy of Arts, Levitsky presented a number of portraits, immediately appearing as a mature and major master. For one of them - the architect A. Kokorinov - he was awarded the title of academician. The artist still relies on the traditions of Baroque portraiture. Soon Levitsky created the famous series of portraits of Smolyanka girls - students of the Smolny Institute. Made by order of Empress Catherine II, it brought him real fame. The artist depicted each of the pupils of this privileged noble educational institution doing your favorite activity, in a characteristic pose. Levitsky perfectly conveyed the charm of youth, the happiness of young life, and different characters. Levitsky's intimate portraits from the heyday of his work, which occurred in the 1770s and 1780s, represent the pinnacle of the artist's achievements. In St. Petersburg he wrote who visited the Russian capital French philosopher Denis Diderot, deliberately depicting him in a dressing gown and without a wig. M. Lvov’s portraits are filled with grace and femininity; Ursula Mniszech appears to be an empty social beauty; calculating coquettishness is inherent in the Italian prima donna comic opera singer A. Bernuzzi. Levitsky treated the models of his portraits differently: some - with warmth and sympathy, others - as if indifferently, and condemned others. Like many Russian artists of that time, Levitsky received much less for his portraits than visiting foreign painters. He died in dire need as a very old man, before last days leaving no brush behind. V.L. Borovikovsky (1757-1825) as it were, he closes the galaxy of the largest Russian portrait painters of the 18th century. Borovikovsky, like Levitsky, he comes from Ukraine. Already in the first years of St. Petersburg, he became close to the circle headed by N.A. Lvov, and repeatedly portrayed people close to this society. Quite quickly, with the support of friends, acquaintances and the Austrian painter I.B. Lampi, who enjoyed success at the court, Borovikovsky became popular among a wide circle of the St. Petersburg nobility. The artist portraits entire family “clans” - the Lopukhins, Tolstoys, Arsenyevs, Gagarins, Bezborodkos, who spread his fame through related channels. Portraits of Catherine II, her many grandchildren, Finance Minister A.I. Vasilyev and his wife date back to this period of his life. Predominant place in creativity Borovikovsky are occupied by intimate portraits. The artist’s canvases are very elegant thanks to the graceful posing of the models, graceful gestures and skillful use of costume. Heroes Borovikovsky usually inactive, most models are intoxicated with their own sensitivity. This is expressed by the portrait of M.I. Lopukhina (1797), and the portrait of Skobeeva (mid-1790s), and the image of the daughter of Catherine II and A.G. Potemkin - E.G. Temkina (1798) . The artist pays great attention to small-format miniature portraits, which he has achieved very well. Also Borovikovsky- author of a number of double and family group portraits that appeared after the 1800s. From all of the above, we can conclude that throughout the entire 18th century, the Russian art of painting has come a long way in its formation according to the laws of modern times. The needs of the era were reflected in the predominant development of secular painting - portrait, landscape, historical and everyday genres.

Bibliography

• 1. History of Russian art. In 6 volumes 1956
• 2. Encyclopedic dictionary of Russian artists. Pedagogy. 1983
• 3. Album “Russian artists from “A” to “Z””, M., Slovo 1996
• 4. Children's Encyclopedia 12, Moscow, Pedagogika Publishing House, 1977
• 5. G. Ostrovsky “The Story of Russian Painting”, Moscow, Fine Arts, 1987

Main trends in the development of painting in the XIII - XV centuries

The development of painting in the $13th - $15th centuries continued in line with the development of Russian art in the pre-Mongol period. After the Tatar-Mongol invasion, the centers of painting moved from the south to northern cities Yaroslavl, Rostov, Pskov and Novgorod. In which not only monuments of old art have been preserved, but also carriers have survived cultural traditions. The isolation of Rus' from Byzantium, as well as the feudal fragmentation of Russian lands, stimulated the flourishing of local trends in art. In the $13th century. the final formation of the Novgorod, and in the $XIV$ century. - Moscow schools of painting. The flourishing of painting in the $XIII$ - $XV$ centuries. can be seen more clearly in Novgorod monuments, which have been preserved in greater numbers than in other cities. In Novgorod icons, the drawing acquired color, became more graphic and was based on contrast bright colors. The red-background icons created in Novgorod became a real “rebellion” against Byzantine traditions ( “The Savior on the Throne with Etymasia” and “Saints John Climacus, George and Blasius”).

Novgorod school. Feofan the Greek

XIV century - the heyday of Novgorod painting, which was greatly influenced by Feofan the Greek arrived in the $70s. $XIV$ century. to Rus' from Byzantium. In $1378 he completed work on the painting of the Church of the Savior on Ilyin. From the surviving fragments of this painting, we can say that this master is characterized by wide brush strokes, confident highlights, and a predominance of yellow and red-brown colors. Theophan's influence, for example, can be seen in the frescoes of the Church of Fyodor Stratelates, created by Russian masters in the late $70s - $80s.

Unlike frescoes, it developed more slowly in the $XIV$ - $XV$ centuries. Novgorod icon painting. All monuments that have reached us from that time are characterized by an archaic style, dating back to the 13th century.

Example 1

Among the icons, where the features of the local style can already be traced, one can include the icon "Fatherland" , in the “New Testament” version, interpreting the Trinity - not in the form of three angels, but anthropomorphically, i.e. God the Father as a gray-haired old man, God the Son as a youth, and the Holy Spirit as a dove.

A new iconographic form appeared in Novgorod when the church waged a fight against heresy that rejected the Christian dogma of the Holy Trinity. A new type of icon, which reflected historical subjects, appeared in the 15th century.

Note 1

For example, an icon "The Miracle of the Icon of the Sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (or "Battle of Suzdal with Novgorod"), which depicts the victory of the Novgorodians over superior forces Suzdal in $1169$, reflects a certain freedom of Novgorod icon painters, who were interested not only in sacred history, but also in their own.

Moscow school. Andrey Rublev

The rise of Moscow painting $XIV$ - $XV$ centuries. had no equal in scope and ramifications. Around $1390, Feofan the Greek moved to Moscow from Novgorod.

With his direct participation, the main monuments of painting were created: paintings of the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the Archangel and Annunciation Cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin, etc. The most reliable work of Feofan himself in Moscow are the $7$ icons of the Annunciation Cathedral early. $XV$ c. ( “Savior”, “Our Lady”, “John the Baptist” and etc). Several icons of the iconostasis of the Annunciation Cathedral are associated with the name of one of the greatest icon painters Rus' Andrey Rublev. Little reliable information has survived about his creative life.

Example 2

For example, Andrei Rublev was first mentioned in $1405, when he, together with Feofan the Greek and Prokhor from Gorodets, worked on the painting of the Kremlin Annunciation Cathedral. In addition, the name of Rublev was mentioned in $1408, when the icon painter, together with Daniil Cherny, created the painting of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, of the frescoes of which the scenes depicting the Last Judgment are the best preserved to this day.

Subject doomsday, had a significant influence on the work of Russian icon painters. However, in its interpretation by artists of the Moscow school, an enlightened motif is noted, most characteristic of Andrei Rublev. He depicted the Last Judgment with the unconventional optimism characteristic of Russian hesychasm. This was determined both by popular expectations (belief in universal forgiveness, characteristic of a significant number of believers), and by the attitude of the artist himself, who predicted the coming revival of Rus' after the Tatar-Mongol invasion. The “Last Judgment” depicted by Andrei Rublev and Daniil Cherny does not generate feelings of fear and impending retribution. This is not a trial in anticipation of punishment, but the final triumph of good, the victory of justice, a reward to humanity for the suffering it has endured. In addition, for the Assumption Cathedral, icon painters created a grandiose three-row iconostasis, including a $61 icon, among which - "Our Lady of Vladimir". Your most important work is an icon "Trinity ", Rublev created in the $10s - $20s. $XV$ c. for the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Deeply overestimating Byzantine composition, Andrei Rublev abandoned genre details and focused on images of angels. The cup with the head of a calf placed in the center of the icon symbolizes the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The three angels depicted by Rublev are one, but not the same. Their agreement is achieved by a single rhythm, a circular movement. The circle, which has symbolized harmony since ancient times, is formed by the poses, movements of angels, and the correlation of their figures. Thus, Rublev managed to solve the most difficult creative problem, expressing two complex theological ideas about the sacrament of the Eucharist and the trinity of the deity. Andrei Rublev died between $1427$ and $1430$ and was buried in the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery in Moscow.

In $XIV$ -$XV$ centuries. in the most difficult conditions of the national liberation struggle and the strongest patriotic upsurge, the unification of North-Eastern Rus' was carried out. Moscow becomes the political and religious center of the rising united Russian state, the center of the formation of the Great Russian nation. The rise of national self-awareness, the idea of ​​unity, the tendency to overcome centrifugal tendencies in social thought, literature, art - all this testified to the emergence of an all-Russian (Great Russian) culture.

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Realism and Direction
Realism is usually considered the main moment in the history of Russian painting and its distinctive feature over all other schools. Since then, however, realism has ceased to be a “modern” phenomenon and
moved back into
historical perspective,
its outlines entered into true proportions with the other phases of Russian painting, and it lost its predominant significance. From now on, realism can only be considered as
one of significant movements in our school.
In the 18th century, with the exception of portraitists and landscape painters, realism appeared partly on the basis of amateur and imitative, partly on the basis of ethnography. A class was founded at the Academy of Arts household painting, called a “home exercise class” and had the goal of educating Russian Teniers and Wauwermans for lovers of Russian painting. But the works of various foreign ethnographers and individual series of engravings by foreign artists, who for the first time drew attention to the peculiarities of Russian life, were of much greater importance for our everyday painting.
Of course
these draftsmen
–
Leprince,
Geisler, Damam, Atkinson and others were not realists in
in the real sense of the word.

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Realism and Direction
The principle of their creation was not the desire to depict lovely Everyday life; they just brought it in curiosities special way of Russian life. But what was important was that they drew the attention of Russian society to picturesqueness and picturesqueness folk life. Several Russians followed on their heels: under Catherine II -
curious, but still unexplored
Ermenev, as well as Tankov, Mikh. Ivanov, sculptor
Kozlovsky; Later
Martynov, Alexandrov,
partly Orlovsky (discussed above),
Karneev; illustrators: Galaktionov, I. Ivanov,
Sapozhnikov and others. Of all these artists, the most interesting is Tankov (1740 (41?)–1799).
He took on complex subjects, like "Fair"
or “Fire in the Village,” and dealt with them quite successfully with the help of reminiscences of Dutch and Flemish paintings.
The real first realist undoubtedly remains Alexei Venetsianov (1780–1847), one of the most amazing figures of the Russian school. IN
the beginning of its activities,
not being a professional painter, he avoided the leveling influence of the Academy. Venetsianov was not touched by the successes of his peers Egorov and
Shebueva in classic taste. He modestly chose a special path for himself and methodically, calmly

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Realism and Direction passed him by,
and laid the foundation for a small school of artists, just like him,
engaged in an ingenuous depiction of the surrounding reality.
From the subsequent phase of realism art
Venetsianova is distinguished by one very characteristic and
in a purely artistic sense, a valuable feature:
it
meaningless. They didn’t touch the stories, they didn’t touch the jokes,
In most cases,
Venetsianova
6
, but purely picturesque motives,
purely colorful tasks,
directly offered to him by nature. And Venetsianov was at his best, which allowed him to solve these problems very simply and artistically. In technical terms, Venetsianov received more than many of his peers. He was lucky enough to be a student of Borovikovsky at one time, and from this virtuoso he learned more than one secret of painting skill,
subsequently completely forgotten.
Best paintings
Venetsianov: his portraits, his “Threshing Floor”, in which he set out, in imitation of Grana,
depict the inside of a poorly lit building, its charming “Landowner busy with housework”,
reminiscent of light effect paintings by Pieter de Hooch, his group

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Realism and the Direction of the Peasants “Cleaning the Beetroot” belongs to the undeniably classic works of the Russian school.
Venetsianov was aware of his separate significance and sought to strengthen the art he had planted on his native soil. At the same time, he even dared to enter into some struggle with
Academy and created his own academy,
wherein the only leadership he exhibited a careful study of nature.
There were also patrons of this idea, and at one time Venetsianov’s school flourished. They came out of it
Plakhov,
Zaryanko,
Krylov,
Mikhailov,
Mokritsky, Krendovsky, Zelentsov, Tyranov,
Shchedrovsky, all modest, invisible people, but who passed on to posterity a very true image of their time. Among them, Krylov (1802–1831) and Tyranov were distinguished by their special subtlety
(1808–1859);
did the most
Shchedrovsky, who left a long series of types of Gogol's Petersburg. Unfortunately, Venetsianov’s school did not have time to put down strong roots, and the master himself, in his old age, had to see
like his best students, blinded by success
Bryullov, cheated on him and moved one after another to the workshop of the author of "Pompeii", where they quickly lost their freshness and turned into

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Realism and the Direction of Cold and Pompous Academicians. There was only one faithful student of Venetsianov left
Zaryanko (1818–1870), a good technician, but, unfortunately,
very limited person
who turned the living instructions of his teacher into a motionless and dead formula. Portraits
The Robins are impeccably drawn and painted with remarkable method, but they are dry and lifeless, reminiscent of colorized photographs.
Separately from Venetsianov, in the first half
In the 19th century, several more realists worked,
engaged, however, almost exclusively in portraiture. These include Warnek (very life artist and an excellent draftsman,
Unfortunately,
had an unpleasant coloring) and subtle watercolorists: P. F. Sokolov,
M.
Terebenev and
A.
Bryullov.
Several first-class interieurs were written, completely in the spirit of Venetsianov, by Count F. P. Tolstoy. IN
In them, the harsh atmosphere of the empire is softened by a sweet and sincere coziness in the execution. These are some of the most touching paintings in Russian painting.
In the 1920s, the so-called “genre” began to play a prominent role in the West.
those.
sentimental,
ridiculous or

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Realism and Direction are moral stories from life conveyed in pictures. This type of painting was brought to us in
30s.
He acquired several followers among Russian artists: Sternberg, who died early, and partly Neff,
a little later Iv. Sokolov, Trutovsky,
Chernyshev and others. Their art differed from Venetsianov’s in that their main task was no longer painting itself, but one or another subject,
told through painting
7
They laid the first foundations for “meaningful art,” and soon, again following the West, realism on a tendentious basis flourished in our country.
The trend embraced almost the entire next generation of artists. Only the faithful sons of the Academy and such artists remained on the sidelines,
who, by the very essence of their field, had to remain within the limits of simple rendering of nature: landscape painters and portrait painters
(among the latter is Zaryanko and the talented, dexterous
Makarov). A special place, however, is also occupied by the magnificent, although extremely uneven Peter
Sokolov
(1821–1899).
Of the entire series of artists of the 40s - 70s, he was the only one who remained faithful to painting and its direct tasks. Unfortunately,
Peter
Sokolov was a man too

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Realism and Direction are disorderly, and this trait was reflected in his work in an eloquent way. The vast majority of his things are improvised bad taste. Just some of his portraits,
some dull typically Russian landscapes,
some of his hunting scenes show us how great master And
a true artist. Next to it you can also call
Sverchkov (1818–1891), an artist who was not particularly gifted or skillful, but who nevertheless created a special field for himself and expressed in it his simple-minded love for the “Russian horse.”
The founder of tendentious, "ideological"
painting in
Russia was
P.
A. Fedotov
(1815–1852), a poor officer, an ardent art enthusiast, who turned to the “small” kind of everyday painting partly because he had more “serious” and higher tasks -
self-taught amateur -
not available. However,
significant role in
talent formation
Fedotov was also played by the conditions of his life. The son of a modest retired officer, Fedotov grew up in semi-provincial freedom,
amidst the characteristic peculiar atmosphere of the Moscow philistinism. Here Fedotov could learn to the very roots all the peculiarities of the customs of provincial inhabitants. In the building and, later, in

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Realism and Direction in the company of his comrades, he became acquainted with the world of the military, so significant in Nicholas times. Finally, he came into contact with the artistic world as a fully formed person, when it was already too late for him to study again, when all his concepts had formed and he had developed his own manner of grasping and capturing phenomena.
“Direction” was already in the air in the mid-1840s. After world grief and the abstract aestheticism of the romantics, the first calls for
reconstruction of reality.
U
us Westerners and
the Slavophiles formed camps and from recent friends turned into bitter enemies;
a powerful galaxy of our great writers has matured,
contributed Russians thoughts into general culture, and despite the bronze government of Nicholas -
there was a suffocating mood of conspiracy in the air.
I felt the need to change my skin,
renew, improve. Society has outgrown the forms in which it was bandaged.
In painting this mood was to find its echo; but it is quite natural that this echo could not sound from the walls
Imperial Academy of Arts, from this bureaucratic, semi-court world, and completely

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Realism and Direction are natural too,
that's not methodical
Venetsianov and his unpretentious students could provide the first examples of "thinking"
painting. Fedotov alone was almost entirely suitable for this, but he, a pensioner from the sovereign, a former officer, a modest man,
simple-minded and
despite your intelligence
childishly naive, could not become on par with literature.
He limited himself to
what Gogol had limited himself to fifteen years before, i.e.
a rather sharp, but not particularly caustic mockery of the weaknesses and stupidities of his compatriots.
This was the first time he spoke to the public in
1849 with his oil paintings:
"Fresh Cavalier" (a rather bold satire on bureaucratic ambition for the time) and with its "Major's Matchmaking", a more cheerful than evil illustration of the merchant milieu. After that, he created a series of pictures in which the first attempts at female emancipation were ridiculed,
funny sides of the petty nobility, bureaucratic world- all themes that were sufficiently used by humor magazines of the time.
A special place is occupied by it latest works, in which he seemed to turn towards

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Realism and Direction more poetic,
calm and
artistic direction: “Widow” and the charming picture, exceptional in its aching melancholy, “Anchor, more anchor!”
Fedotov was torn away from art,
still relatively in
young years,
severe mental illness, which was soon followed by death. If we take into account that he took up painting seriously only for thirty years, it becomes quite understandable why his work seems more like just a talented “introduction” than a complete whole.
The best that this sensitive artist could give,
unusually quickly developed from an inept self-taught artist into a subtle and sometimes even beautiful painter (remember the pieces of dead nature in his paintings, worthy of the “old Dutch”) -
He took this best to his grave. His direct heir was another Muscovite, according to the changed spirit of the times, much more daring, but less attractive, almost inept - Perov.
Perov was born in 1834. His childhood and youth passed in the village and in the provinces (he was a student of the Stupino art school in
Arzamas), and his youth in Moscow, where he graduated
School of painting and
sculptures
WITH
him

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Realism and Direction the Mother Throne decisively enters into
the history of Russian art, and this is quite natural, not so much because typically Russian life was in full swing in Moscow,
attracted
in the coverage of realistic literature, everyone’s attention is paid to themselves, because
what in
In Moscow there was an art school in which reigned full
Liberty
and even more likely stupid and
unscrupulousness. Zeitgeist of the 50s and 60s,
who set the ideal of the emancipation of the human personality,
should have had a negative attitude towards all kinds of fetters,
to all traditions connecting creativity, and, consequently, to the St. Petersburg Academy with its Areopagus. In this, however, lay a great danger for young Russian art: it became freer and
more interesting,
But,
overwhelmed by the splendor of literature,
it was losing its independence and at the same time decisively turning away from its special laws.
A new period of Russian painting began,
the so-called “original Russian school” was born, and at the same time it was precisely
school
went out,
equipment was lost
painting was forgotten.
Perov was a true son of his time.

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Realism and Direction
A person with a great gift of observation,
inquisitive, courageous, passionately devoted to his work - he certainly belongs to very large phenomena of Russian culture, but his paintings are bleak as such; he wrote stories in colors that would be much brighter and clearer in verbal presentation. He was not interested in pictorial themes, but in stories that could be depicted through painting. Even in
Paris,
where did he go as a pensioner
Academy, he completely missed the whole storm that was bubbling at that time. artistic movements, and in Parisian life, almost from the first day of his arrival, he began to look for motives for the same “meaningful” paintings for which he had already become famous in his homeland. Of course, nothing came of this, and, confused in the study of a world alien to him, he, with rare frankness and conscientiousness, abandoned his idea and asked permission to return to his homeland. IN
This fact is a whole page of history.
TO
unfortunately,
not for our art alone,
but for our entire culture the feverish rise of social life,
that followed the Crimean campaign and the accession to the throne of Alexander II, too soon settled down on half measures, on cruel

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Realism and Direction of the mutual misunderstanding of the government and
intelligentsia, on the inert savagery of the vast majority of the people.
After several “liberal” years, during which we seemed to begin to catch up with the general civilization of mankind, a gloomy reaction set in, and this reaction had the most deplorable effect on our art: even those modest sprouts of some kind of unique understanding of the tasks of art,
which
we appeared in
works of Fedotov and Perov, froze and withered. Perov, who went abroad in 1864 after creating his crude, but pleasant in his harshness of accusatory paintings, he returned to his homeland at a moment when there was nothing to even think about continuing such painting.
As a result of this, his art, and after him the art of the masses of other artists, remained some kind of unspoken word.
Perhaps the least artistic thing that Perov did were his first paintings,
written by him during the period of "great reforms". But at the same time, these works of his - “The Arrival of the Chief for Investigation”, “Sermon in the Village”, “Tea Party in
Mytishchi" and especially "Rural religious procession at Easter"
8
belong to the most valuable of what he has done. They have flaws

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Realism and the Direction of painting are redeemed (just as in the contemporary painting
Jacobi "Halt")
historical character and
courageous straightforwardness. Like works of art
- they are as bad as historical documents- they are priceless.
IN
further works
Perov, however, has more than one subtle trait of observation and touching attention to life, but in general they are inferior to his first attempts. From the style of Courbet, Perov moved in them to a sentimental caricature in the spirit of Knaus, and since his painting did not manage to acquire anything, the result was something boring and tasteless. In the same spirit, he performed only “Meal”
and "The Arrival of the Governess at the Merchant's House", an unusually typical picture worthy of the best scenes
Ostrovsky. The last paintings in which
Perov suddenly turned to Bryullov and began to depict historical anecdotes in enormous proportions, which are hitherto a mystery and indicate
anyway,
at the artistic lack of culture of the master, at the complete stupidity in his views. Wanting to get away from the “direction,” he found no other way out than into banal academicism.

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Realism and Direction
Despite all his shortcomings, Perov is the largest figure of all the artists of the time
Alexandra II. But next to him, and for several years after his death, many curious craftsmen worked, almost without exception, collected
P. M. Tretyakov in his gallery. One circumstance united some of these artists and created from them the core, which later grew into
Association of Traveling Exhibitions. This circumstance is known in history as the “failure of 13 competitors.”
At that time, among academic youth, the central figure was the cheerful, intelligent and incomparably more mature than all his comrades, I. Kramskoy. He managed to group around himself a galaxy of the freshest young men, and little by little the passion of this group for new ideas (a passion that initially found some encouragement from the academic authorities) took on a more conscious, more programmatic character. The silent struggle gradually turned into an open one and ended with the fact that at the act of November 9, 1863, thirteen competitors for gold medals refused the given
Academy themes with mythological plot And,
having failed to achieve the conditions they set for a freer competition,
left
Academy.

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Realism and Direction
Finding themselves suddenly in the whirlwind of life, yesterday’s students were forced to unite more closely and found a kind of community, which they called
Artel.
The very fact of rejection from the Academy of a group of young and brave people was of great importance. The seed of protest against the imposed school formula had been sown. Everything that was fresh and
independent in
Russian artistic youth, now pestered
Artel, and if it was not part of it, then, in any case, it was fed by those theories, and most importantly,
that fortitude
which were developed and
were supported by the first private artistic community in Russia.
Later, with the founding of the Association of Traveling Exhibitions (in 1870), the role of such a “headquarters”
of advanced Russian art passed to the Partnership, which it remained with for more than 20 years, until the emergence of the World of Art exhibitions.
And yet the most important of our artist-preachers and denouncers was not a member of the Artel and not a member of the Partnership.
The completely isolated figure of V.V. Vereshchagin has the honor of being, after Perov, the most prominent representative of new artistic

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Realism and Direction of Views.
Vereshchagin (1842–1904) is a very typical personality for Russia in the 1860s and 1870s. IN
the opposite of most of his comrades, who came from the people and remained semi-cultured all their lives and, as a result, somewhat closed, cut off from the “good”
society by people,
Vereshchagin,
on the contrary,
by its origin,
education and
partly even by position he belonged to this “good” society. IN
this is the basis of an incomparably more widespread meaning and
a more conscious program of his work, greater courage and consistency in his preaching.
It is not without reason that Vereshchagin is the most famous Russian artist abroad. Touching on Russian topics, he approached them from the point of view of a completely cultured person - a global citizen. IN
there is no trace of naive Russophilia in his paintings,
stubborn and stupid separatism from the general culture,
characterizing many of his peers. Vereshchagin was a typical Russian "master"
person with
very broad-minded, with a very sympathetic mind, with great nobility in intentions and absolutely ignorant of petty and narrow nationalism.

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Realism and Direction
Unfortunately, this feature of “lordship” loses almost all meaning,
as soon as we turn to the study of the works themselves
Vereshchagin. And this is very typical for a Russian artist. Vereshchagin was a “European” in his entire program, in his entire idea, but in the execution of his idea he remained some kind of barbarian. His belonging to the “best society” did not save him, and Vereshchagin could not get the correct views on art from communicating with people in his circle, in most cases with
contempt and
perplexed about his calling. He could learn even less for his art from communication with our advanced artistic camp,
completely occupied with social tasks and completely indifferent to
purely aesthetic purposes. True, Vereshchagin came to Europe as a young man, but his little aesthetic preparation in his homeland did not show him such phenomena there from which he could draw beneficial instructions for himself.
Menzel, Degas, Manet, Monet and many others,
alive and vigorous, remained for him - alive and vigorous - absolutely incomprehensible.
This is the reason for the bleak impression,
received from Vereshchagin's creativity. Not that

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Realism and Direction It’s bad that he was more of an ethnographer than an artist, not that he was a preacher of complete sincerity, telling in his paintings what he saw and experienced, but that
that in all his creation there is too little
picturesque
advantages.
This cultured man was cultured only mentally. He was interested in ideas, but he was indifferent to forms.
Nevertheless, Vereshchagin will retain a place of honor in the history of Russian art.
To begin with, his paintings have not yet lost their interest. This means that great power is hidden in them,
big creativity. True, they are poorly written and helplessly drawn, but they were conceived with great wit and
arranged with
outstanding "director's" talent. And this is not the last thing in art. But even in a purely picturesque sense, Vereshchagin, despite his shortcomings, is not without significance. He was a pioneer in his time, and many of his discoveries of light and color can still serve as valuable indications. Some of his Indian sketches are indeed saturated with light and heat, and in other costume studies the brightness and brilliance of his colors are striking.

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Realism and Direction
The largest, next to Vereshchagin,
among the generation of Russian artists of the 1870s,
undoubtedly
is
AND.
E.
Repin,
who found the Academy of Arts back in the days of Bruni’s rectorship, but is in fact the most prominent student and follower
Kramskoy. It is curious that Kramskoy himself, in his work, remained aloof from the movement he encouraged. He was too smart and sensitive to give himself entirely to the rather naive art program of his time. But
Kramskoy felt relative the temporary importance of this program and
dialed in
representatives of everyone who could be useful to her. He took on their education or re-education with special zeal, regardless of the damage that he caused them by such imposition of a narrow formula.
One of victims Kramskoy was also Repin,
undeniably a wonderful talent
cheerful and
broad, his whole life, however, spent in some kind of wanderings in areas that have little in common with the true tasks of art.
Repin by his very nature - painter.
During the period of complete decline of our picturesque
schools, when the Academy was dominated by those who were excellent in themselves, but completely unsuitable for their

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Realism and the Direction of Time were Bruni's recipes, when in the rest of the artistic society, following Perov, everyone abandoned all concern for painting, when in our high society the last word remained with the mannered and cloying Zichy, Repin managed to create for himself a unique and strong manner of painting and develop a very fresh and correct palette for that time. It is remarkable that in this area he remained completely independent from
Kramskoy, from his teacher’s pedantry and timid copying of nature. Repin took one step completely to the side and in his painting resembled the energetic old masters who knew no other school than the persistent study of nature.
Unfortunately, Repin was also prevented from
lack of education. Repin worked a lot on himself and has come a long way from the peasant apprentice he was from Chuguev to
Petersburg in 1863. However, at the root of the matter, Repin remained a man unconscious of his calling. And he, like
Vasnetsov, left the naive and sensitive folk understanding of art, but never came to a conscious,
cultural attitude.
IN
In particular, the meaning of painting remained an unsolved mystery for him. All his life Repin

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Realism and Direction applied his magnificent, but underdeveloped pictorial gift to the service of non-artistic tasks, and, of course, neither Stasov’s sermon, sympathetic in its sincerity, nor the influence of the politician Kramskoy could save him from delusions.
Repin was not corrected even by foreign lands, where he was sent by the Academy after he had created energetic and
beautifully composed "Barge Haulers on the Volga". In Rome, with the sincerity of a barbarian, he criticized the classics of painting, and in
In Paris, following the example of all Russians, he became completely confused and began to rush from side to side,
not being able to draw anything from the only sources useful to him. Upon returning home, Repin never recovered. He copied all the outstanding people of his time, created a number of revealing paintings with
stories from the “nihilist” and “gendarmerie” times,
finally, he tried his hand at the “historical genre”, but almost never set himself the tasks of pure painting; everywhere he subordinated the technique and beauty of the colorful effect to some kind of rational considerations.
Repin’s misfortune is that, having believed in the formula of “meaningful” painting, he believed

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Realism and Direction and the fact that he has a strong dramatic talent.
Of course, Repin great artist and as such,
very impressionable
a person who grasps things vividly. But still, his vocation was not in “meaningful” painting,
but in painting itself, taken an und für sich.
Through clever calculation
Repin managed to adjust his paintings with great effect, with great clarity (“Religious procession in
Kursk province"), sometimes with a note of true tragedy ("Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan"),
sometimes with humor ("Cossacks"), almost always with successful directorial dexterity, but nowhere can one find a genuine mood in them,
living revelation, what is in Ivanov and in
Surikov.
Best of all about Repin are his portraits. But rudeness casts an unpleasant shadow on them. Repin is a purely external talent,
Meanwhile, he tried his best to give “characteristics” of faces in his portraits. As a result, his portraits are tasteless in color and composition, haphazardly drawn and sculpted,
carelessly and ugly written and at the same time,
in the sense of characterization, they are full of rude and unpleasant underlinings. In this respect they lag far behind the clever portraits of Ge and

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Realism and Direction of even accurate portraits of Kramskoy.
Perov, Vereshchagin and Repin are the main foundations of our “meaningful” realism, but many artists worked alongside them, whose works are of great interest for the history of art and especially for the history of our culture.
Particularly typical “directors” are: the stern Savitsky,
conscientious dry Maksimov and Yaroshenko,
perpetuating the image of "nihilist" youth
1870s and 1880s. Less strong, but still characteristic things were given: the same age as Fedotov
Shmelkov (1819–1890), “competitors of 1863”:
Korzukhin
(1835–1894),
Lemokh,
Morozov and
Zhuravlev (1836–1901), as well as
Zagorsky,
Skadovsky, Popov, Solomatkin, M. P. Klodt and others.
Finally,
epigones of this trend,
who continue in our time to repeat the backs of the program
1860s,
are:
Bogdanov-Belsky, Baksheev and Kasatkin.
TO
epigones should also be included
Vladimir Makovsky (born in 1846), although he is only two years younger than Repin. Makovsky has all the characteristic features of an epigone. His art contains no attentive rigor
Perov, neither the cheerful persuasiveness of Savitsky or Yaroshenko, nor the strong artistic

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Realism and Direction of Repin's temperament.
Vladimir Makovsky among all his gloomy, even gloomy,
strict and thoughtful comrades - “joker”,
having a constant smile on his face, constantly winking at the viewer to make him laugh.
But this laughter of Makovsky is not the cheerful laughter of the simple-minded Fedotov or the evil laughter of Perov.
Jokes
Vladimir
Makovsky
–
jokes of a proud person who considers it his duty to amuse the audience and tries to attract attention even in such moments when everyone is absorbed in common and heavy grief. Strange affair,
but this feature of Vladimir’s art
Makovsky became clear only little by little, and in his time he was considered the same full-fledged warrior of the “serious trend” as Perov,
Repin or Savitsky. Technically
Vladimir Makovsky in his heyday was better than many of his comrades.
Only later did his coloring become heavy and unpleasant, his painting timid. The paintings “Nightingale Lovers” 1872–73, “Bank Collapse”
1881, "Acquitted" 1882, "Family Affair"
1884 and several of his portraits belong to the most perfect paintings of the “Wanderers”. They have a certain quickness of the brush and mastery of paint that cannot be found in

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Realism and Direction in the works of Savitsky and Yaroshenko.
Another artist
–
"director"
deserves special consideration
–
This
Pryanishnikov (1840–1894) – His first painting “Jokers. Gostiny Dvor in Moscow", written a year after Perov left abroad,
is next to the "Procession" and "The Arrival of the Governess"
one of the most significant paintings of the 1860s. However
Pryanishnikov is even more interesting because over time he tried to break out of the narrow rut of direction and was one of the first to begin looking for new paths. Let's say his "Spassov day on
North" 1887 strongly resembles a photograph and is not an exemplary painting, but it was also important that while Repin was busy with his version of the "Religious Procession",
Vladimir Makovsky continued to write his humorless jokes, and everyone else tried to write “necessary” things. Pryanishnikov suddenly abandoned all intentions to teach, tell,
impose his thoughts and turned to a simple depiction of reality. At that time this was still a bold innovation, but less than ten years had passed before pure realism became the slogan of all young Russian art.

The development of painting and the architectural temple style of Russia originates in the mists of time. In 988, Kievan Rus, along with the adoption of Christianity, received the enormous cultural heritage of the Byzantine Empire, combining the features of the sparkling splendor of the East and the ascetic simplicity of the West. In the process of synthesizing this multifaceted artistic style and specific original art the architecture and painting of Ancient Rus' were formed.

Historical background for the development of the original style of architecture and painting of Ancient Rus'

The painting of Ancient Rus' as a monument of pre-Christian culture is unknown to modern scientists, and the sculpture of this era is represented by only a few wooden statues of idols. The situation is the same with architectural monuments pre-Christian Rus', most likely due to the fact that they were created from wood and have not survived to this day.

Painting in Rus' began to experience its rapid development in the 10th century, when, after the introduction of the Slavic alphabet into use on the territory of Rus' by Cyril and Methodius, it became possible to exchange experiences between Russian and Byzantine masters, who were invited to Russian cities after 988 by Prince Vladimir.

At the beginning of the 11th century the situation in political and social spheres The ancient Russian state developed in such a way that the pagan religious component began to be forcibly removed by the ruling class from all spheres of public life. Thus, the architecture and painting of Ancient Rus' began its development precisely from the Byzantine heritage that poured into this environment.

Prerequisites for the development of stylistic features of architecture

The architecture and painting of Ancient Rus' as an integral stylistic ensemble appeared under the direct influence of Byzantine architecture, which synthesized the forms of ancient temple buildings, gradually forming the type of cross-domed church known since the 10th century, which was very different from early Christian basilicas. By transferring the domes to the semicircular rigid ribs of the quadrangular base of the temple, using the latest developed “sailing” system for supporting the dome and easing its pressure on the walls, Byzantine architects achieved maximum expansion of the internal space of the temple and created high-quality new type Christian temple building.

The design features described above apply to temples based on the so-called “Greek cross”, which is five squares located at the same distance from each other.

Much later - in the 19th century - the so-called "pseudo-Byzantine" style of temple buildings was formed in Russia, in which squat domes are located on low drums surrounded by a window arcade, and the interior of the temple represents a single area, not divided by pylons and cross vaults.

Prerequisites for the development of stylistic features of painting

The painting of Ancient Rus' as an independent type of artistic decoration of churches took shape after invited Byzantine masters brought their icon-painting experience to this territory. Therefore, numerous wall paintings and frescoes of the first Christian churches of the pre-Mongol period are indistinguishable in Russian and Byzantine origin.

In theoretical terms, the Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the works of which belong to the brushes of Byzantine masters, perfectly illustrates the iconography and painting of Ancient Rus'. The temple itself has not survived, but its interior decoration is known from a description recorded in the 17th century. The invited icon painters remained in the monastery and began learning their craft. Reverends Alypius and Gregory were the first Russian masters to emerge from this school of icon painting.

Thus, the art, iconography, painting of Ancient Rus' traces its theoretical and methodological continuity from the ancient knowledge of eastern masters.

Specifics of the architectural and construction type of residential and temple buildings in Ancient Rus'

The culture of Ancient Rus', painting, iconography and architecture of which constitute a single ensemble, had little impact on the architecture of public and residential buildings, which continued to be built either by standard tower buildings or fortresses. Byzantine architectural norms did not imply any practical protection of the complex of buildings or each of them separately from enemy attacks. the painting and architecture of which can be shown using the example of Pskov and Tver monastery buildings, is focused on their structural security, the lightness of the domed parts of the building with maximum thickening of the load-bearing structures.

Cult ancient Russian painting

The culture of Ancient Rus', whose painting progressed under the comprehensive influence of Byzantine art, finally took shape by the end of the 15th century, having absorbed all its brightest specific qualities and assimilated with the original ancient Russian artistic techniques. And although some types of fine arts, such as artistic sewing and wood carving, were known to ancient Russian masters, they received their widest distribution and development in the bosom of religious art precisely after the arrival of Christianity in Rus'.

The Orthodox culture of Ancient Rus', whose painting is represented not only by temple frescoes and icon painting, but also by facial embroidery and carvings reflecting symbols of faith and used in everyday life by lay people, left its mark on the interior decoration of buildings and the decoration of their facades.

Variety and composition of colors

Monasteries and icon-painting workshops of Ancient Rus' were places of concentration scientific achievements and experiments in chemistry, as they made paints by hand from various ingredients.

In parchment and icon painting, masters mostly used the same paints. They were cinnabar, lapis lazuli, ocher, and others. Thus, painting remained true to its practical skills; Byzantine painting was not able to completely replace local methods of obtaining paints.

However, each specific painting technique had and still has its own favorite techniques and methods - both for making the paint itself and for applying it to the surface.

According to the Novgorod icon-painting original of the 16th century, the greatest preference among the masters was cinnabar, azure, white, and green. The names of these colors also appeared in the original for the first time - yellow, red, black, green.

Whitewash, as the most popular paint, was most often used in color mixtures and served to apply gaps and “whiten” other paints. Whitewash was produced in Kashin, Vologda, Yaroslavl. The method of their manufacture was to oxidize lead strips with acetic acid and then wash the resulting white color.

The main component of “facial writing” in icon painting to this day is ocher.

The painting of Ancient Rus', as well as its Byzantine standard, assumed the use of a variety of coloristic materials in painting holy images.

One of the main widely used paints was cinnabar, a sulphide of mercury. Cinnabar was mined at the most famous Russian Nikitin deposit in Europe. The production of paint took place in the process of grinding cinnabar with water, followed by dissolving in it the accompanying pyrite and pyrite in the ore. Cinnabar could be replaced by cheaper red lead, obtained by burning white lead.

Blue, like white, was intended for writing spaces and obtaining tones of other colors. In the past, the main source of lapis lazuli was from deposits in Afghanistan. However, since the 16th century, a large number of ways to obtain blue pigment from lapis lazuli have appeared.

Along with these basic paints, Russian icon painting used cormorant, scarlet, prazelen, greenery, verdigris, krutik (“blue”), cabbage roll, sankir (brownish tones), gaff, refft, and game. The terminology of the ancient painter designated all colors in different words.

Artistic style of ancient Russian icon painting

In each territorially integral state association, a certain consolidation of artistic and aesthetic norms occurs, which subsequently lose some connection with the standard model. Such a separate and self-developing sphere of national-cultural manifestation is the painting of Ancient Rus'. Ancient painting, more than other areas of art, is subject to technical and visual change, so it is worth mentioning separately its features, which are closely related to architecture and writing methods.

Mongol invasion destroyed most of the icon-painting and fresco monuments of Ancient Rus', undermining and stopping the process of writing new works. However, it is possible to reconstruct a certain picture of the past from surviving documents and scanty archaeological remains.

From them it is known that in the era of the pre-Mongol invasion, Ancient Rus' had a significant influence on icon painting with its technical techniques - laconic composition and gloomy, restrained color - however, by the 13th century this color began to give way to bright warm colors. Thus, by the 13th century, the Byzantine icon painting technique was undergoing a process of refraction and assimilation with such ancient Russian national artistic techniques as freshness and brightness of colors, rhythmic compositional structure and spontaneity of color expression.

In this era, the most people work famous masters who brought the painting of Ancient Rus' to modern times - this list can be briefly represented by Metropolitan Peter of Moscow, Archbishop Theodore of Rostov, Reverends Andrei Rublev and Daniil Cherny.

Features of Old Russian fresco painting

Fresco painting in Rus' did not exist before the advent of Christianity and was completely borrowed from Byzantine culture, in the process of assimilation and development somewhat modifying the existing Byzantine techniques and techniques.

To begin with, it is worth saying that the culture of Ancient Rus', whose painting previously existed in the form of mosaics, modified the use of plaster preparatory materials, using a sub-mosaic limestone base for frescoes, and by the end of the 14th century there was a transition from ancient Byzantine techniques of writing and making materials to new ones original Russian techniques of fresco painting.

Among the radically changed processes for the manufacture of bases and paints, one can highlight the appearance of plaster, created exclusively on the basis of pure limestone, first diluted for strength with quartz sand and marble chips. In the case of Russian painting, the plaster fresco base - gesso - was made by keeping lime in a mixture for a long time. vegetable oils and glue.

Old Russian facial sewing

After 988, with the advent of Byzantine traditions in the painting of Ancient Rus', ancient painting became widespread in the area of ​​cult ritual, especially in facial embroidery.

This was greatly facilitated by the Tsarina’s workshops, which functioned under the patronage of the Grand Duchesses Sophia Paleologus, Solomonia Saburova, Tsarina Anastasia Romanova and Irina Godunova.

Face embroidery as religious painting of Ancient Rus' has many common compositional and graphic features with the icon. However, face sewing is collective work, with a clear distribution of the roles of the creators. The icon painter depicted a face, inscriptions and fragments of clothing on the canvas, the herbalist depicted plants. embroidered neutral color; face and hands - with silk threads in flesh tones, including ties located along lines along the contours of the face; clothing and surrounding objects were embroidered either in gold or silver threads, or multi-colored silk.

For greater strength, canvas or cloth was placed under the embroidered fabric, under which a second lining of soft fabric was attached.

The double-sided embroidery on banners and banners was especially complex. In this case, the silk and gold threads were pierced through.

Face embroidery has a wide range of applications - large shrouds and airs decorated the temple, were placed under icons, covered the altar, and were used on banners. In many cases, paintings with the faces of saints were attached to the gates of a temple or palace, as well as inside reception halls.

Territorial variability of ancient Russian art

The culture of Ancient Rus' - painting, iconography, architecture - has some territorial variability, affecting both the decoration of churches and the architectural and construction features of buildings.

For example, the art of Ancient Rus', the painting of which involves the use of either mosaics or frescoes as decorations for the interior decoration of churches, is perfectly illustrated by the example of the Cathedral of St. Sophia of Kyiv. Here there is a free combination of both mosaic and fresco painting; when examining the temple, two layers of soil were revealed. In the Church of the Transfiguration in the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy, all plaster bases are made of pure lime without fillers. And in the Spassky Cathedral of the Spaso-Andronievsky Monastery, blood albumin was identified as a connecting link in the plaster gesso.

Thus, we can conclude that the peculiarity and uniqueness of ancient Russian art lies in its territorial orientation and individual personal preferences and the ability of Russian artists to convey the color and character of an idea in accordance with its national norms.

Federal Agency for Railway Transport

Siberian State University communication lines

Department " Philosophy and cultural studies»

(name of the department)

Great names of Russian painting

Essay

In the discipline "Culturology"

Head Developed

Student gr. D-113

Bystrova A.N. ___________ Fitkova I. V.

(signature) (signature)

_______________ ______________

(date of inspection) (date of submission for inspection)

2011

1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………...2
2. Development of art in the XIII………………………………………………………4
3. Art at the turn of the XI V - X V ………………………………………....5
4. Art XVI…………………………………………………………..7
5. Development of art in X V II century…………………………………………..7
6. Art in X V III……………………………………………………...10
7. Art XIX - early XX centuries……………………………………12
8. Development of art in the revolutionary era of the USSR…………………16
9. Conclusion……………………………………………………………17
10. References……………………………………………………..18

Introduction

Love painting, poets!

Only she, the only one, is given

Souls of changeable signs

Transfer to canvas.

Nikolai Zabolotsky.

Nikolai Zabolotsky quite rightly notes that any changes in social space are reflected in the works of poets, writers, painters, public figures

Among the many types of art, there are three special ones - the most important, in my opinion: literature, music, fine arts. Word, sound, image - without them all other forms of art are impossible: not a play, not a film, not a pop concert. They listen to music, heroes literary works readers imagine mentally, in their imagination. And we see works of fine art with our eyes. It is the oldest of the three main ones people did not yet know how to speak, but they were already creating images, rock paintings, for example. Fine art is created by artists. They depict the world as we all see it, and as it is seen by one single person, the artist himself. Everything can be depicted: and visible world objects, people, animals, and the invisible world of feelings joy and sorrow, truth and lies, good and evil. . The history of our state can be studied not only from documents and artifacts, but also from the artistic heritage of our great ancestors. Painting is no exception. To write the essay, I used “Essays on Russian culture IX-XVIIcenturies" (authors A.V. Muravyov, A.M. Sakharov), "Essays on the history of Russian culture of the XVIIIcentury" by B.I. Krasnobaeva, "History of Russian Art" by V.N. Alexandrova. These books give the main stages of the cultural history of our country, their features and distinctive features. The development of culture is considered as part of history, which helps to reveal the objective laws of the historical process. IN different eras in Russia, such outstanding painters as Andrei Rublev, Dionysius, Levitsky and Rokotov, Kiprensky and Fedotov, Bryulov and Ivanov, Repin and Surikov, Vrubel and Serov and many other masters who brought genuine and undeniable glory.

Russian painting has undergone many changes during its formation, but has retained its originality; within the framework of this project, I consider it necessary to trace the process of formation of the Russian tradition in painting.

Target: carry out an overview of the work of great Russian artists (from the 14th to the 20th centuries) in the context of the socio-cultural characteristics of the period of creativity of a particular artist. Theoretical object of study: representatives of Russian painting represented by artists, schools, trends

Development of art in the 13th century

Russian art in general, and Russian painting in particular, emerged from the art of Kievan Rus, which cannot yet be called completely original, because along with Christianity, Prince Vladimir brought artistic traditions from Byzantium. They are intricately intertwined with pagan culture, gradually changing over time. The most important sources of Russian art at the stage of its formation were folk decorative and visual arts, as well as Byzantine examples. Fast social political and cultural development Russian lands leads to the creative processing of these sources and to the emergence of an original and majestic style in architecture, fresco, and decorative art of Rus'. The development of original Russian icon painting begins. But in the 13th century, due to the Mongol-Tatar invasion, these cultural processes slowed down and even stopped; a significant part of the monuments of pre-Mongol Russian culture was irretrievably lost. The Mongol invasion, having destroyed many Russian cities, caused enormous damage to Russian urban culture, but from the middle of the 11th century V centuries indicate signs of revival. At the turn of XI V - X V centuries, Moscow knew not only the works of Constantinople masters, but the works of South Slavic artists: one of the greatest painters of that time, Theophanes the Greek, who came from Novgorod as a fully established master, worked here. The skill of Theophanes the Greek aroused the desire of Moscow painters to imitate him. Many of Theophan the Greek's works have not reached us, except for the icons of the Annunciation Cathedral.

Art at the turn of the XI V - X V

The rise of Moscow art prepared the work of the great Russian artist Andrei Rublev. The most important milestone in the art of the turn of the 11th century V - X V centuries began the formation of the Moscow school of painting, which was headed by the outstanding artist Andrei Rublev. In his icons and paintings, Rublev developed such a perfect artistic language that throughout the 15th century his style became the leading one.

Unfortunately, it is not known exactly when Andrei Rublev was born. Most researchers consider the year 1360 to be the date of birth of the artist. Andrei Rublev was a monk of the Trinity-Sergius and then the Savior-Andronikov monasteries. In 1405, together with Theophan the Greek and Prokhor from Gorodets, he painted the Annunciation Cathedral. Feofan’s imperious, stern, emotionally rich pictorial language, the violation of traditional iconographic schemes, and the extraordinary change of images could not fail to make a deep impression on Rublev. It is very significant that Rublev’s name is mentioned in third place in the chronicles of that time. From this we can conclude that at that time Andrei Rublev was not only the youngest, but also the least famous author.

Andrei Rublev and under his leadership, many temples were painted, and a whole series of Deesis, festive and prophetic icons were painted.

B 1425 14 27 Rublev together with Daniil Cherny and painted by other mastersTrinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Monasteryand created the icons of his iconostasis. Icons have been preserved; they are made in different manners and are of unequal artistic quality. The time when new internecine wars were brewing in Rus' and the harmonious ideal of man, which had developed in the previous period, did not find support in reality, also affected Rublev’s work. In a number of works, Rublev managed to create impressive images; in them one can feel dramatic notes that were not previously characteristic of him (“Apostle Paul”). Some sources call the painting of the Spassky CathedralAndronikov Monastery(in the spring of 1428; only fragments of ornaments have survived) the last work of Rublev.

A number of works are also attributed to him, the attribution of which to Rublev’s brush has not been definitely proven: frescoesAssumption Cathedral on Gorodokin Zvenigorod (late XIV early 15th centuries; fragments have been preserved), icons “Our Lady of Vladimir” (about 1409 , Assumption Cathedral, Vladimir), “The Savior is in Power” ( 1408 , Tretyakov Gallery), part of the icons of the festive rite (“Annunciation”, “Nativity of Christ”, “Candlemas”, “Baptism”, “Resurrection of Lazarus”, “Transfiguration”, “Entry into Jerusalem” all about 1405 ) Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin (the iconostasis of this cathedral, according to the latest research, comes fromSimonov Monastery), part of the miniatures "Gospel Khitrovo"(around 1395, Russian State Library, Moscow).

Rublev's creativity is one of the pinnacles of Russian and world culture. Rublev's most famous work is the Trinity icon, painted in 1425-1427 for the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. The plot is based on a biblical legend that tells how three beautiful young men appeared to the elder Abraham, and how he and his wife Sarah treated them under the shade of the Mamvrian oak tree. In Rublev’s icon, everything secondary and unimportant is discarded; the figures of Abraham and Sarah, numerous dishes are missing, only three figures of angels remain. The middle of the angels is Christ. All three figures seem to form a circle. The painting has a very calm, but at the same time consistent and clear rhythm of circular movement, to which the entire composition is subordinated; the colors are pure and harmonious. The combination of colors of green, blue and yellow, as well as the color of ripe rye, chosen by Rublev, has never before sounded so bright in Russian painting.

Thus, the Moscow school of icon painting differs from Novgorod icons in the spirituality of images, the flexibility of figures, and the harmonious consistency of color. In contrast to the energetic red, yellow, white, dark blue, olive green, which Novgorod masters constantly resort to, Moscow painting is dominated by light transparent tones and shades of blue, golden brown, pale green, cherry brown and lilac.

In the work of Andrei Rublev, Russian art took a huge and very important step towards the formation of a realistic principle with individual freedom of artistic creativity; the harsh ascetic tradition of Byzantine art was overcome. The works of Andrei Rublev are humanistic, they reveal the beauty and strength of the human soul, they are imbued with love for man.

Art XVI

In the 80s X V century, a Russian centralized state takes shape and the remnants of dependence on the Mongol-Tatar khans disappear, Moscow becomes the capital of a large state. Its importance as a center uniting the cultural heritage of the reunited lands is increasing. The main task of art becomes the glorification of Rus', which gives political meaning to many works of painting. X V I century. Leading position in late X painting V century was occupied by the Moscow school. The centralization of power and the strengthening of the role of the church in the life of the state led to an even greater subordination of art to official ideology. These phenomena manifested themselves to a certain extent in the work of the greatest Moscow master of the late 19th century. V beginning X V I century - Dionysius. He was most likely born in 1440; unlike Andrei Rublev, he was not a monk. His two sons Vladimir and Theodosius were also painters and helped him in his works. The creative activity of Dionysius was closely connected with the highest secular and spiritual circles of the state. The master carried out the most important orders of the Metropolitan and Grand Duke, in particular in connection with the victory won in 1480 over the army of the Tatar Khan Akhmat. The most complete creativity of Dionysius is reflected in the paintings of the Ferapontov Monastery; this painting is dedicated to the theme of praise to the Mother of God; bright combinations of colors, colorful patterns of clothes, many depicted herbs and flowers create a festive and solemn impression. The art of Dionysius, for all its splendor, loses some remarkable qualities in comparison with Rublev’s era: if Rublev was primarily interested in the inner, spiritual world of man, Dionysius has a desire for external beauty and decorative splendor.

Development of art in X V II century.

In Russian painting X V I century, a number of innovations favorable for the further development of art have been noticed. Russian masters for the first time begin to reproduce pictures of everyday life, nature and people in their modern appearance. Thus, in the painting of the 16th century, features appeared that prepared the development of realistic principles. V II centuries.

For a long time, the view of X V The 2nd century, as the time of decline of Old Russian painting, the art of this time, when compared with the time of Andrei Rublev and Theophanes the Greek, was considered as lower in strength and means of artistic representation.Indeed in painting X V There are no works of the 2nd century marked by such perfect composition of pictorial skill and spirituality as in the works of the great masters of the 10th century V - X V I centuries. Time of Troubles, “rebellious age”, church schism, all these events influenced the development of Russian art X V II centuries.

X V The 2nd century was a turning point in history in the field of painting, when extremely important processes took place, primarily the desire for “secularization,” the strengthening of secular elements, and the tendency toward realism.

The highest level of development of painting art in X V II century is associated with the activities of the outstanding artist Simon Ushakov (1626-1686). A native of the townspeople, Simon Ushakov worked in the Armory and was elevated to the rank of nobility. The significance of this master is not limited to the numerous works he created, in which he sought to overcome artistic dogma and achieve a truthful image - “as it happens in life.”

Evidence of Ushakov’s progressive views is the “Word to a Lover of Icon Painting,” which he apparently wrote in the 60s. In this treatise, Ushakov places a high value on the purpose of the artist, who is capable of creating images of “all intelligent creatures and things... to create these images with varying degrees of perfection and, through various arts, to make what is conceived easily visible.”

Ushakov considers painting to be higher than all the “arts existing on earth”, which “is superior to all other types because it depicts the represented object more delicately and vividly, more clearly conveying all its qualities...”.
Ushakov likens painting to a mirror that reflects life and all objects

“A Word to a Lover of Icon Painting” was dedicated by the Ushakovs to Joseph Vladimirovich, a Moscow painter, a native of Yaroslavl, who enjoyed considerable fame in the 40-60s. Joseph Vladimirov is the author of an earlier treatise on icon painting, in which he, although not as clearly as Ushakov, also declared himself: a supporter of innovation and demanded greater vitality in art.

Ushakov - artist, scientist, theologian, teacher - was a man of a new era, a new type of thinker and creator. Being an innovator in art, he at the same time understood the value of the ancient traditions of Russian culture and carefully preserved them. It was precisely because of these qualities and his noted rare breadth of views that he was able to stand at the head of Russian art for more than thirty years.

While educating his students and trying in every possible way to pass on his knowledge to them, he even conceived the idea of ​​publishing a detailed anatomical atlas. “Having from the Lord God the talent of icon painting... I did not want to hide it in the ground... but tried... to fulfill with skillful icon painting that alphabet of art, which contains all the members of the human body, which in various cases are required in our art, and decided to cut them out on copper boards...” Ushakov wrote about his plan, but the atlas, apparently, was not published.

From the first years independent creativity Ushakov’s interest in the image was determined human face. Ushakov’s famous work is his “Savior Not Made by Hands,” in which the artist depicted a classically correct face, its volume, the fabric on which, according to church tradition, the image of Christ appeared very well.

By persistently repeating this theme, the artist sought to get rid of the conventional canons of icon painting and achieve a flesh-colored complexion, a restrained but clearly expressed volume of construction and an almost classical regularity of features. True, the icons of the Savior by Ushakov lack the spirituality of Russian icons of the 14th-15th centuries, but this is to a certain extent redeemed by the artist’s sincere efforts to recreate a living human face on the icon as believably as possible.

Ushakov painted an icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, called “Planting the Tree of the Russian State” (1668). This icon should be considered a picture of the triumph of Russian statehood. In the lower part of it are depicted the wall of the Moscow Kremlin, behind it the Assumption Cathedral, the main shrine of the Russian state. At the foot of the cathedral, Prince Ivan Kalita, the collector of Russian lands, and Metropolitan Peter, who was the first to transfer the metropolitan see from Vladimir to Moscow, are planting the tree of the Russian state. On its branches there are medallions with portraits of all the most significant political figures of Ancient Rus'. In the central, largest medallion, there is an icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, revered as the patroness of Moscow. Below, on the Kremlin wall, stand Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Tsarina Maria Ilyinichna with princes Alexei and Fedor. Ushakov tried to make the portraits of the king and queen perhaps more similar.

Information has been preserved about a number of portraits painted by Ushakov. Some of them were executed in the technique of oil painting, which was new to ancient Russian art. Unfortunately, none of these portraits have been discovered so far. To characterize Ushakov’s extremely versatile personality, it should be pointed out that he was not only a theorist, painter, draftsman - “standard bearer”, the author of many drawings for engravings reproduced by Russian engravers of the second half of the 17th century, but, apparently, he also engraved: he is credited sheets of “Fatherland” (Trinity) and “Seven Deadly Sins” engraved on copper with dry point in the 60s.

Ushakov provided big influence on the development of Russian painting at the end of the 10th V II century, when his students Grigory Zinoviev, Tikhon Filatiev, Fyodor Zubov performed a number of works in the spirit of Ushakov’s traditions. A remarkable phenomenon in the history of Russian pictorial art X V In the 2nd century there was a school of Yaroslavl masters. The influence of secular, townsman culture was clearly manifested here. The range of subjects has expanded, the secular principle is decisively invading the church-dogmatic. The artists boldly use familiar images of Russian life in scenes sacred history: a peasant horse is depicted in the plowing scene of Cain, reapers in pink and blue shirts are waving Russian sickles. The church fiercely resisted the new direction in painting, but this could no longer prevent its liberation from church icon painting traditions.

Art in X V III

At the end of X V II beginning of X V III century, Russian art is experiencing a decisive turning point; there is a transition from medieval religious forms to secular ones, close to European art of modern times. Russian artists quickly mastered European models, introducing into them their own understanding of form and national content. In 1757, the Imperial Academy of Arts was created, which began training highly qualified artists who, in their work, combined the experience and artistic heritage of previous generations with the needs of Russian artistic life. The Baroque style became widespread in the art of Russia, the leading genre of painting and graphics became the portrait, and the historical and landscape genres also received significant development.

I would like to dwell in more detail on the work of Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky (1735-1822).Already in his early works, he showed himself to be a first-class master of ceremonial portraiture, capable of finding an expressive pose and gesture, combining the intensity of color with tonal unity and richness of shades.

Fame came to the artist in 1770, when at an exhibition at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts the public saw 6 first-class portraits by his brush. Among them Special attention attracted the ceremonial portrait of the architect A.F. Kokorinov (1769), the author of the project for the building of the Academy of Arts and its first director.

For this portrait Levitsky was awarded the title of academician of painting. At the same time, he was offered to head the portrait class of the Academy of Arts, the head of which he remained until 1788. The gallery of portraits of his contemporaries created by the artist brought him well-deserved fame.

In the 1780s, the artist created a unique portrait gallery of Russian cultural figures. They are particularly warm intimate portraits Levitsky, created during the heyday of the artist’s work (mid-1770s - early 1780s). Also in 1773 the master executed a portrait of D. Diderot, which amazed his contemporaries with his life-like persuasiveness and exceptional truthfulness in recreating the appearance of the philosopher. The encyclopedist, writer and critic is shown by Levitsky very simply: Diderot is depicted without a wig, bald, with folds of skin under his eyes, but the strong and complex human nature hidden behind external features comes to the fore. The face testifies to creative talent, courage, fortitude and inquisitiveness of mind. One of Levitsky’s best creations is a portrait of young M. Dyakova (1778), poetic, cheerful, painted in a rich range of warm colors.

Realism and humanistic character of advanced Russian art X V III centuries were fully manifested in the work of D. G. Levitsky.

Art XIX - early XX centuries

In the first half of the 19th century, the development of art in Russia was significantly influenced by socio-historical processes - the national patriotic upsurge associated with the victory over Napoleon in the Patriotic War of 1812, and the emergence of the anti-monarchist movement, which resulted in the Decembrist uprising in 1825. Romantic tendencies appeared in painting (portrait, historical genre), and by the middle of the century the democratic orientation of art (everyday genre) intensified. In the genre system of the Academy of Arts, everyday painting was given tertiary importance, but the progressive Russian artist Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov (1780-1847) established the everyday genre and realistic painting in general as an equal and important field of art.

Venetsianov's brushes include a portrait gallery of his contemporaries: the artist painted N.V. Gogol (1834), V.P. Kochubey (1830s), N.M. Karamzin (1828). For the title of academician, Venetsianov was asked to paint a portrait of the inspector of the Educational School of the Academy, K. I. Golovachevsky. A.G. Venetsianov depicted him surrounded by three boys, symbolizing the union of “the three most noble arts”: painting, sculpture and architecture. However, the images of peasants he painted brought A.G. Venetsianov the greatest fame. "Reapers"“The Sleeping Shepherd”, “Zakharka”, “The Barn”, “At the Harvest”. “Girl with Cornflowers” ​​is considered one of Venetsianov’s best peasant portraits. With soulful lyricism, Venetsianov touches on the subtlest notes of a person’s intimate experience, revealing his reverent spiritual world. This makes the image he created spiritual and beautiful.

The most important place in the painting of Russia in the middle XIX century is occupied by the artist Karl Pavlovich Bryullov, who created portraits of Countess Samoilova, E.P Saltykova, O.P Ferzen, K.A Tonna, A.N Lvova, he painted more than 80 portraits. His characteristic dramatic perception of life was embodied in the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” (1830-1833).

The spread of democratic ideals among the Russian intelligentsia led to the development of new aesthetic views. Artists joined the fight for fair social orders, critical realism became widespread in painting.

The Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions, created in 1870, played an important role in the artistic life of the country in the second half of the 19th century.

The partnership united around itself all the best painters and sculptors of the second half of the 19th century- beginning of the 20th century. These are Perov and Kramskoy, Myasoedov and V. Makovsky, Savitsky and Maksimov, Pryanishnikov and Ge, Savrasov and Shishkin, Kuindzhi and Dubovskoy, V. Vasnetsov and Polenov, Kostandi and Pimonenko, Gun and Nevrev, Repin and Surikov, Serov and Levitan, Yaroshenko and Nesterov, Kasatkin and S. Ivanov, Pozen and Andreev, Popov and Arkhipov, Baksheev and Byalynitsky-Birulya and many others. At some exhibitions of the Itinerants, Antokolsky, Vereshchagin, K. Korovin, S. Korovin, Malyavin and others participated as exhibitors.
In the 70-80s, the activities of the Partnership reached their peak. The leading place in traveling exhibitions belonged to paintings by Repin, as well as by Surikov, Kramskoy, Polenov, Nesterov, Myasoedov, Makovsky, and Perov. In their work they reflected the most significant phenomena of the surrounding reality in all their complexity and contradiction. The Peredvizhniki had a huge influence on all aspects of the artistic life of Russia and on the formation of national art schools. Among the members of the Association and exhibitors were artists of various nationalities. Many of them became the founders of the realistic, democratic art of their peoples.

At the beginning of the 70s, for the first time, the talent of one of the great painters of the 19th century manifested itself clearly and strongly.Repin Ilya Efimovich (1844-1930). One of Repin's first paintings to gain wide recognition was a large group portrait Slavic composers, commissioned by an entrepreneurA. A. Porokhovshchikova.

In 1872 for his programmatic work “The Resurrection of Jairus’s Daughter” he received a Grand Gold Medal and the right to 6 years of study in Italy and France, where he completed his art education.

Since 1873 Repin travels abroad asAcademy pensioner. In Paris he writes “The Parisian Cafe” and the fabulous “Sadko”.

The work that immediately put Repin in the forefront of Russian artists was the painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga” (1870-1873), which awakened compassion for the people oppressed by slave labor. Upon Repin's return from France in 1876, the period of the highest flowering of his creativity began. He acts as a portrait painter, a master of everyday and historical painting. The portrait was not only the leading genre, but also the basis of Repin’s work in general. Creates a gallery of images of outstanding representatives of Russian social thought, science and culture. In his best portraits of V.V. Stasov, L.N. Tolstoy, M.P. Mussorgsky Repin achieves fullness of life and versatility of characterization thanks to amazing compositional depiction and the activity of visual means. The tendency towards psychological drama in depicting situations is also reflected in historical painting Repin: “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan”, “The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan.”

The clarity and accessibility of the figurative language itself, the highest realistic skill, the truth of characters, interest in the burning issues of our time are the guarantee of the enduring value of Repin’s artOf course, the history of Russian painting does not end there. The end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century was a turning point in all spheres of social, political and spiritual life in Russia. All types of art advocated the renewal of the artistic language; a style emerged that affected all plastic arts, called Art Nouveau. A major role in the popularization of domestic and Western European art played by artists from the association “World of Art” (1898-1924), “Union of Russian Artists” (1903-1923). At the beginning of the 20th century, Russian art was penetrated latest trends West symbolism, primitivism, different directions modernist art. Avant-garde associations of artists “Blue Rose”, “Jack of Diamonds”, “Donkey’s Tail” appeared, Cube-Futurism and abstractionism spread.

Let us dwell on the work of Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (1878-1935). K.S. Malevich - Russian avant-garde artist , teacher, art theorist, philosopher, founder Suprematism directions in abstract art, a combination of colored simple geometric shapes (square, circle, triangle), as well as volumetric shapes superimposed on a plane.

Malevich was fond of impressionism. An example would be the seriespaintings of the spring garden: “Blossoming apple trees”, “Spring”, “Spring blooming garden”.In the work of Malevich at the end of the first decade XX century, different trends coexist. This includes impressionism, combined with Cézanneism ("River in the Forest"), and modernism, manifested in sketches for fresco painting ("The Triumph of Heaven"), and ever-increasing expressionist and fauvist elements. This compactness, layering of different styles and manners on top of each other is characteristic of both modern Russian art and Malevich’s work.

At the second “Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings” in 1915, entitled “0.10 (zero-ten)”, held in Petrograd, Malevich shows 39 new paintings. These were non-objective works presented under the title “New Pictorial Realism”. Among the paintings was the famous “Black Square”. “Black Square,” according to Malevich’s plan, embodies the idea of ​​a new spirituality, is a kind of icon, a plastic symbol of a new religion. This was the beginning of Suprematism.

Malevich died on May 15, 1935. The urn with his ashes was buried near the dacha in Nemchinovka. The location is marked by a white cube with a black square on it.

The art of the pre-revolutionary years in Russia was marked by the extraordinary complexity and inconsistency of artistic quests, but along with experimenters in the field of abstract forms, the “Miriskusniks”, “Goluborozovites”, and “allies” continued to work in Russian art of this time. There was also a powerful current of neoclassical movement, an example of which is the work of Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova. It has its roots in the high national traditions of Russian art, primarily Venetsianov - “Peasants” (1914), “Harvest” (1915), “Whitening the Canvas” (1917)

Development of art in the revolutionary era of the USSR

The revolutionary era occupies a special place in the history of Russian art. The total transformation of socio-economic and political life contributed to the entry of the most radical art movements into the arena of artistic life. Numerous groups and individual artists have made experimentation the main principle of their creativity. This art later received the general name Russian avant-garde. (Works by P.N. Filonov, A.M. Rodchenko).

By the beginning of the 1930s, the authorities established strict control over art. The years of Stalinism were one of the most tragic periods in the history of Russia and its art. The freedom of expression of the artist was violated, a method was formed socialist realism, the artists were supposed to glorify the idea of ​​socialism, the triumph of collective consciousness. At the same time, with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, artists accepted the most Active participation in the fight against the enemy, showing one's civil position and patriotism. The work of such artists as A.A. dates back to this period. Plastov, S.V. Gerasimov, A.A. Deineka. In the last years of the war, one of the best paintings created Kukryniksy (a union of three artists M.V. Kupriyanov, P.N. Krylov, N.A. Sokolov) “Flight of the Nazis from Novgorod.”

As a reaction to the rejection of socialist realism in the early 1960s, a “severe style” emerged in painting. Artists P. Nikonov, N. Andronov, V. Popkov, O. Filatchev, M. Savitsky and others, in search of the truth of life, turned to a restrained conventional form, rejecting any descriptiveness. The heroic principle in the works of the “severe style” is born from the truthfulness in the transfer of harsh everyday life from here and the name. V. Popkov “Builders of the Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station.” P. Nikonov “Our Everyday Life” and others.

Conclusion

Having studied this literature, I became acquainted with the creative activities of great Russian artists of the 15th-20th centuries, and came to the conclusion:

Outdated forms of social organization have gone forever into the past, the way of life and views of people have changed, but just like several hundred years ago, modern man is concerned about the marvelous creations of spiritual culture created a long time ago;

A characteristic feature of Russian artists, and above all the great masters, was close unbreakable bond their art with social life, progressive scientific thought;

They enriched the traditions of Russian art, affirmed its nationality and humanism, high moral ideals;

Russian art has always been distinguished by its citizenship and patriotism.

I believe that knowing and loving everything priceless that you have created with your talent outstanding masters Russia, this is not only a duty, but also a duty of every modern educated person.

Thanks to working on this topic, I became closer to the world of art.

Bibliography

1. B.I. Krasnobaev. “Essays on the history of Russian culture of the 18th century” Moscow: Enlightenment, 1987.

2. A.V. Muravyov, A.M. sugars "essays on the history of Russian culture of the 9th-17th centuries." Moscow: Enlightenment, 1984

3. V.N Alexandrov. “History of Russian Art” Minsk: Harvest, 2007.