Message to the reader
The Department of History and Theory of Art and its component Departments of General History of Art and History of Russian Art have always been related with Faculty of History of Lomonosov Moscow State University except some temporary interruptions caused by external reasons. But this commonality is not only structural, it has methodological and methodical unity. The principle of historicism is always present in the lecture courses in art history, which sound from the scaffold, defining their logic, composition, and the principle of giving the information and peculiarity of the analysis of individual monuments of architecture and art, and in scientific works of professors, researchers and post-graduate students of the Department.
And the new issue of the journal “History Studies” specially dedicated to the relevant problems of the History of Art seems logical and necessary. This will give an idea of all the aspects of scientific thought represented in the Faculty of History on historical problems and on the History of Art.
In the structure of this issue Editorial board tried to keep the principles of giving the information that were announced in the first issue of the journal “History Studies”, and as far as possible to show the whole range of issues that are studied by researchers of the Department on the methodology and theory of art, on the General History of Art and on History of Russian Art. It is obvious that in one issue, moreover, in the “pilot” issue, it is impossible to present a complete and exhaustive picture of research work of the Department. But the Editorial board intends to make the publication of issues devoted to the problematics of fine art regular, and thus to correct the inevitable one-sidedness of the first issue in prospect.
Arrangement of the material in this issue of the journal “History Studies” follows the usual structural and chronological order. It begins with two publications devoted to art of Byzantium in the section “The articles”. This is the article of O.S. Popova “At the Turn of two Periods in Byzantine Art around the Middle of the 11th Century: Lectionary cod. 163 in the National Library of Athens” and the article of A.V. Zakharova “Images of Saints in Monumental Decoration of Early Christian and Byzantine Churches before the 11th Century”. This choice is very significant. Studying of Byzantine art in Moscow State University is mainly related with the name of the remarkable art historian, connoisseur of the Old Russian and Byzantine art, Renaissance art and West European art of Modern history, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Victor Nikitich Lazarev (1897 – 1976). On his own initiative the reading of independent series of lectures “The Art of the Byzantine Empire” was started at the Department of History and Theory of Art, which for many years O.S. Popova and her students read. This made the Department a center of a large and representative scientific school of Byzantine Studies, which has the widest acceptance and credibility.
The article of E.A. Efimova, that continues the issue, is called “The Serliens projects in the book of «Temples» of Jacques Androuet du Cerceau”, broaches key issues of Renaissance art – the fate, the role and importance of the classical tradition in the Renaissance art and features of the development national schools of the Renaissance art nothward of the Alps with their own formal-shaped structure, in combination the artistic language of Italian Renaissance art played a huge role. And this orientation of scientific and pedagogical activities of the Department, the studying of the Renaissance, baroque and classic art, also has a long and glorious history, provided by the names already mentioned of V.N. Lazarev and his disciple, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Viktor Graschenkov (1925 – 2005), and their predecessors, contemporaries and followers: N.I. Romanov (1867 – 1948), B.R. Vipper (1888 – 1967), M.V. Alpatov (1892 – 1986), J.K. Zolotov (1923 – 1998), V.S. Turchin and many others. Therefore, there are two articles devoted to the art of the Baroque along with the article about the architecture of the Renaissance in France. These are the article of V.N. Bodrova “Image of Church Interiors in Delft around 1650” and the article of T.D. Karyakina “Characters of the Baroque style in Western European porcelain of the XVIII century”.
One of the important directions of scientific activity of the Department of History and Theory of Art is the research of the domestic and European landscape art and the problems associated with the architectural image and monumental decoration of country residence (the ancient and European villa and castle, the Russian estate). O.S. Evangulova, S.S. Veselova, M.V. Sokolova, I.I. Touchkov wrote about that repeatedly. Therefore the presence of the arcticle of M. V. Sokolova “The English Country House: the Idea of State Power and Royal Patronage Developed from the Epoch of Absolutism to the Victorian Time”, where the author considers a very important for the understanding of rural building the social aspect of the problem, issues of patronage by the example of an English country house, is natural.
Practical and theoretical lessons on “The restoration of monuments of painting” is one of the fascinating elements of the Department’s academic process. V.V. Zverev, who is leading this course for many years, has visited the Alexandrine metochion in Jerusalem, where he conducted complex restoration work with the students of The Department of History and Theory of Art. This work was highly commended by the leadership of Alexandrine metochion. In his article “Paintings of Nikolai Koshelev in the temple of Alexandrine metochion in Jerusalem. Examination of technical state of paintings” he sums up his long and painstaking work for the rehabilitation of the picturesque scenery of the temple, and outlines ways for further activities in this difficult field.
The publication “Wrong-side fill the world in the fine genre of trompe-l'œil” of the well-known art critic, disciple of O.S. Evangulova, S.V. Khachaturov, that repeatedly refers to the complex problems of Russian art of the XVIII century, finishes the section “The articles” (one can remember his books: Gothic taste in Russian art culture of XVIII century. Moscow, 1999; Romanticism beyond romanticism. M., 2010).
The important role in the activities of The Department of History and Theory of Art plays the organization of scientific conferences, including international ones. Apart the traditional “Fedorov-Davydov readings” and “Lazarevsky readings” that are held every year by the Departments of General History of Art and History of Russian Art, we should note a large-scale international project – the 2nd International Conference “Art collections, exhibitions and archives in the history of Russian culture” which was held in London on 21 22 March, 2014 in the Courtauld Institute by the Department of History of Russian Art in conjunction with The Cambridge Courtauld Russian Art Centre (CCRAC).
The materials of the reports of Russian participants of the conference related to the stated theme of the conference published in the section “The conference” in this issue: E.S. Smirnova “The collection of antiquities in sixteenth-century Russia. Motivations and methods”; A.S. Preobrazhensky “Icon collections of Moscow Old Believers in early 19th century: evidence of owners’ inscriptions”; A.A Karev “The portrait gallery in the eighteenth-century Russia as an ensemble: a typological aspect”; M.M. Allenov “The Appearance of Christ before the People’ in 1858 as a symbol and symptom of the historical period”; A.P. Salienko “The Fate of the Silver Age in the 1920s: Exhibitions of non-proletarian art”.
In the section “Expedition, tours, discoveries” Editorial board places the report on academic fact-finding excursion of students, post-graduate students and professors of the Department of General History of Art “The ancient kingdoms of the central Anatolia”, as well as materials of reports written at the end of this trip.
In addition to materials of the separate conference in a section “Events, exhibitions, anniversaries” of the given issue of the journal “History Studies” you can have a look at the Chronicle oh the IV International Conference of Young Professionals “Relevant problems of the Theory and History of Art”, which was held on 21 24 November 2013 in the Faculty of History of Lomonosov Moscow State University. This is another very representative in amount and complement of participants conference of the joint project of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University and St. Petersburg State University, the materials of which have been already published in a separate volume (Actual problems of the theory and history of art. IV. Collection of scientific articles, St. Petersburg, 2014), but here we present only its chronicles.
In our opinion, holding a conference where participate both professors and students is an interesting and promising form of scientific and pedagogical work at the university. Such form of research makes more motivated and responsible performance of all the participants of the scientific forum. Thus following the results of the annual student practice, which is usually held in the summer months in Vesuvian University and accompanied by numerous excursions on artistic monuments and museums of Southern Italy, by the Department of General History of Art as part of the annual “Lomonosov readings” in April 2014; and was held in such format conference “The art of antiquity and the classical tradition in art culture of Southern Italy”. The choice of a theme was dictated not only by the features of the monuments that the participants of practice could see; but by the fact that the generic feature of the artistic culture of Southern Italy from the end of antiquity to the neoclassicism, through Renaissance of Staufen and Renaissance art, was a constant focus on the monuments of classical art, permanent bursts of different shape and intensity of the “classicism” and the analysis of which allows to trace an original way of South Italian art and its personality. Chronicle of the conference is placed in the section “Events, exhibitions, anniversaries”.
Materials dedicated to the anniversary of untimely deceased professor of the Department of General History of Art V.P. Golovin who made a bright and unique contribution on the scientific and educational life of the Department of History and Theory of Art concludes given section.
Section “The reviews” contains a review of S.V. Khachaturov placed on the last, the ninth of came out in the publishing house “Art of the XXI century” volumes of the series “Architectural Monuments of Moscow”, the publication of which began in 1983: Natalia Bronovitskaya. Architectural monuments of Moscow. Moscow Architecture 1910 – 1935 years. M., 2012.
(c) 2015 Исторические Исследования
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