Ekaterina Tyukhmeneva
Institute of Theory and History of Fine Arts of Russian Academy of Arts, Russia
The article by Jeremia Isayevich Ioffe (1891–1947) entiled “The Russian Renaissance” was published in 1944 in the Philological Series of the “Scientific Essays” (Uchenie zapiski) of the Leningrad State University. Unlike his other works, however, this one has remained practically unnoticed by experts in the field. Meanwhile, Ioffe was the first to raise in it a number of important issues related to the formative process of Russian art culture of a new type — the Modern period (18th — beginning of the 20th century) culture. Interpreting the Renaissance as “a humanistic stage in the history of mind”, he “traces the development of a Renaissance worldview in monuments of Russian art”. The article contains three vast parts, arranged in chronological order. The first two, “The Preparation for the Renaissance” and “The Early Renaissance”, cover the 16th and 17th centuries respectively, whilst the third and most voluminous one, “The High Renaissance”, is dedicated to the 18th century.
First of all, Ioffe stresses the point that Russian art history should be treated as an integral part of the world’s history of art, developing under the same general laws. It is in the 18th century that Russia, later than other European countries, makes a swift transition towards the Modern period culture. The foundations for this move, however, have been already laid in the late Middle Ages. Peter the Great’s role in the process is particularly stressed here. The article looks into such fundamental features of the Modern period art as the appeal to the real world and the real human, the secular and open character of culture welcoming close international art contacts. Antiquity is understood as the common Past. Considerable attention is paid to national specifics of Russian art. Many of the problems touched upon by Ioffe in this article will be further developed by the researchers of generations to come.