Alexandra Radushevskaya
Saint Petersburg State University, Russia
Russian icon painting of the modern era has not been researched for a long time because of historical and economic reasons, but today it becomes interesting for scholars. Nevertheless, interaction between icon painting and the Art Nouveau style is still unexplored. This impedes attribution of many icons, a substantial number of works of art remain in the shadows. This work delves into the history of searching for the way of icon painting renewal through introducing the Art Nouveau style into it. This required:
• to define the role of the Art Nouveau style in Russian icon painting, its criteria and possibility of adoption by icon painting; measure of interaction;
• to describe the role of painters and scientists in this process and evaluate the changes;
• to apply the developed criteria to individual works of art.
Publications on this theme are limited. We can only point out the growing interest at the turn of the 20th century to the situation in icon painting and the problems of national and religious expectations. Among contemporary works of special notice are those by O. Tarasov, V. Putsko, V. Gusakova. Close to the topic are works by D. Sarabianov, V. Turchin, G. Sternin, T. Borisova.
This paper defines criteria of the Art Nouveau style in Russian icon painting, introduces an attempt to separate “icon” and “religious painting”, describes the circle of painters and icon painters who created “icon of the modern style”. Alongside with this, the article offers an attribution of icons from the private collection.
So far as this work is just the beginning of systematic research of the theme it proposes further development of specified directions.
Materials of this research can be used while writing research works, reading the course on Russian culture and art and in arranging museum expositions. Besides, provisions made in the work could be useful in attribution of icons of the Art Nouveau style.