Until the beginning of the 18th century, mainly icon-painting traditions developed in Russian painting.

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, in Russia at that time any images were taken for icons: often, when they came to a stranger's house, Russians, as usual, bowed to the first picture that caught their eye. However, in the XVIII century. painting gradually began to acquire European features: artists mastered a linear perspective that allowed them to convey the depth of space, sought to correctly depict the volume of objects using chiaroscuro, studied anatomy in order to accurately reproduce the human body. The technique of oil painting spread, new genres arose.

A special place in Russian painting of the XVIII century. took the portrait. The earliest works of this genre are close to the parsuna of the 17th century. The characters are solemn and static.

Ivan Nikitich Nikitin (1680 - circa 1742) was one of the first Russian portrait painters. Already in his early portraits - the elder sister of Peter I Natalya Alekseevna (1715-1716) and his daughter Anna Petrovna (until 1716) - the volume and natural pose of the model are conveyed with rare skill for that time. However, some simplification is obvious in these works: the figures are snatched out of the darkness of an indefinite space by a beam of bright light and exist out of touch with the environment; the artist still clumsily depicts the structure of the figure and the texture of materials - velvet, fur, jewelry.

Returning to St. Petersburg after a four-year trip to Italy, Nikitin created his best works, which showed the increased skill of the artist. This is a portrait of Chancellor G. I. Golovkin and a portrait known as the "Outdoor Hetman" (both - 20s).

During the Petrine era, many foreign masters settled in Russia, working in different styles and genres. Johann Gottfried Tannauer (1680-1737), who came from Germany, painted portraits of members of the imperial family and

close associates of Peter I, as well as battle paintings. His famous painting "Peter I in the Battle of Poltava" (10s) is a type of portrait of a commander against the backdrop of a battle, common in Europe.

Louis Caravaque (1684-1754), a French master invited to Russia, soon achieved great fame and position as a court painter. He worked in Russia for many years and painted portraits of all Russian monarchs from Peter to Elizabeth. His brush belongs to the famous ceremonial portrait of Anna Ioannovna in a coronation dress (1730), which served as a model for other works of this genre. The portrait conveys not only the appearance of the Empress - a woman of powerful physique, depicted in a solemn and majestic pose, but also her nature, superstitious and suspicious. Many Russian painters of the middle of the 18th century came out of the workshop of Caravacca.

By the end of the 20s - 30s. 18th century refers to the short but bright work of the painter Andrei Matveevich Matveev (1701 - 1739). After spending more than ten years in Holland and Flanders, he became the first Russian master who knew how to "paint stories and persons", that is, not only portraits, but also paintings on mythological and historical subjects.

However, Matveev is best known as a portrait painter. His most famous work is considered to be "Portrait of spouses" (circa 1729). Disputes of art historians about who is depicted on it have not subsided so far. Most likely, this is a self-portrait of the artist with his wife, that is, the first self-portrait in the history of Russian painting.

From 1727 until his death, Matveev led the "picturesque team" of the Chancellery from buildings. Before the opening of the Academy of Arts, almost all artists studied and served in it.

By the 40-50s. 18th century refers to the work of Ivan Yakovlevich Vishnyakov (1699-1761). The most exquisite portrait of Vishnyakov depicts Sarah Eleanor Fermor, the daughter of the head of the Chancellery from the buildings (1749). A young girl in a luxurious silver-gray satin dress embroidered with flowers is preparing to curtsy. She gracefully holds a fan in her hand. The hands on Vishnyakov's canvases are almost always painted with special grace: fingers only lightly touch objects, as if gliding over their surface. The “Portrait of Sarah Fermor” draws attention to both the fine lace painting and the decorative landscape background, the motifs of which echo the embroidery on the dress.

Alexei Petrovich Antropov (1716-1795) never managed to overcome some iconographic flatness of the image: in his portraits, the viewer does not feel the space surrounding the model. So, in the “Portrait of a State Lady A. M. Izmailova” (1759), an elderly and rude woman, bright colors of the foreground and an absolutely dark, “deaf” background are contrasted. In the portrait of Peter III (17b2), depicted by the artist in the form of a commander with a marshal's baton in his hand, the contrast between the puppet-graceful figure of the monarch and the pompous setting with the attributes of imperial power - a mantle, an orb and a crown - is striking against the backdrop of the battle.

In the second half of the 18th century, new genres appeared in the painting of Russian masters - landscape, domestic and historical, which the Academy of Arts considered the main one. However, the most significant works were still created in the portrait genre.

"PETROVSKAYA BAROQUE"

Peter's time - Peter's reforms - was a turning point for the whole of Russian life, marked the transition from the Middle Ages to the New Age. At the same time, the orientation towards Western Europe became decisive and even compulsory. Under the influence of the West, as well as at the behest of the times, art gradually took on a secular character, freeing itself from the bonds of religion.

The foundations of the new art were laid in Moscow. The church in Dubrovitsy, the Church of the Archangel Gabriel (Menshikov Tower), the Sukharev Tower, the Lefortovo Palace were a kind of forerunner of the new, Petersburg style. This unique artistic style, developed in specific historical, geographical and climatic conditions, was a reflection of Peter's personal tastes.

The city founded in the delta of the Neva River by the emperor himself and named by him Petersburg in honor of his heavenly patron, the holy apostle Peter, was to realize the dream of a new ideal city. Peter conceived it as a variant of his beloved Holland, as a port city-fortress. But, according to the Russian artist and art historian A.N. Ben, only the intention was to make something Dutch out of St. Petersburg, but it came out of its own, special ... St. Petersburg style is a special feeling of space and historical time. The appearance of St. Petersburg is, first of all, a combination of the low northern sky, the leaden-gray expanse of the Neva and the verticals of gilded spiers soaring upwards. The Neva, "its sovereign current", is the main "avenue" of the city, its main "square". This "pathos of breadth" - the predominance of a horizontal line over a vertical one - was determined by the originality of the landscape - the water spaces of the Bolshaya Neva, Malaya Neva, Bolshaya Nevka, Malaya Nevka, Fontanka, Moika, Ekaterininsky Canal, Kryukov Canal, etc. The combination of water and land gives perfect horizontal lines. Above the contours of the water and embankments rises a strip of houses attached to each other of almost the same level due to the prevailing requirement to build no higher than the Winter one.

This jagged, as if trembling line of houses against the sky creates an impression of ghostly, ephemeral urban development, which is enhanced by the play of light and the colorful range of lemon-white buildings, marble and granite. The continuous building of the streets is typical for St. Petersburg, while the streets, due to the absence of ups and downs, become, as it were, the interior of the city. Gardens and squares were built into the dense lines of houses, which is another expression of the horizontality of the city.

Characteristic elements of the urban landscape - the spiers of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Admiralty and the Mikhailovsky Castle are perpendicular to the horizontal lines and thereby emphasize them. The spiers are echoed by the high bell towers of the cathedrals.

The uniqueness of the St. Petersburg style was also determined by the fact that the city rose at the will of one person, immediately and from scratch. Moscow, picturesquely spread "on seven hills", grew spontaneously around its historical center in

for many centuries. Petersburg was erected in just a quarter of a century and almost immediately in stone.

The construction of the new capital was connected with the events of the Northern War (1700-1721), which was waged by Russia and Sweden for the liberation of primordially Russian lands on the banks of the Neva and the Gulf of Finland in order to establish itself on the Baltic Sea.

In May 1703, a ceremonial laying of the fortress took place on Hare Island. In the same year, a wooden church in the name of the Apostles Peter and Paul, crowned with a spire, was laid in the center of the earthen fortress. The first seven years of the city's existence constituted the "wooden period" of its history, from which only the house of Peter the Great on Berezovsky Island has survived.

1st half of the 18th century - the era of Petrovsky reforms. At this time, all kinds of fine arts reach their heyday. Peter's reforms were aimed at Europeanization of all areas of Russian life. Understanding the urgent needs of the country, he overcame backwardness by decisive measures. Encouraged the use of European experience in all areas. He believed that Russian society needed to master the language of poetry and art accepted in Europe with allegories and mythological images commonly used there. Those. in fact, Peter created a new aesthetic. Peter sends out a large number of professionals from Europe, but in addition to visitors, Peter is working to create his own national staff in all areas. Uses the practice of sending the most talented youth abroad, introduces the concept retirement(a person who went abroad to study at public expense). In the era of Peter, serving the fatherland is significant, using one's talent, and generosity goes to the 2nd plane. In society, interest in man is growing. Proceeding from this, the portrait becomes the leading genre.

Russian portraits of the early 18th century (painting) trace the traditions of the artistic experience of ancient Russia (parsuna, icon), folk art (DPI), and used European cultural traditions. In contrast to the medieval era, when all artists worked by order of the church, secular art and literature developed intensively in the 18th century (book editions are widely illustrated). Before his death, Peter 1 issued a decree on the establishment of the "Academy of Arts and Sciences". Painting The leading genre is a portrait. At this time, the genre of easel paintings of historical and everyday content arose. In the earliest portraits, there is a strong influence of the old parsuna Portrait of Yakov Turgenev, 90 years of the 17th century Member of the entertainment gathering of Petrovsky time "All the most drunken, most erratic collection." Parsnnost lies in the static posture, the planar interpretation of the figure, the folds of the clothes are written very close to the gaps (like the clothes on the icon). On the other hand, a caustic mockery, a smirk, a vitality of the face. A mockery of past church rituals, asceticism. The image of the "European jester". Ivan Nikitich Nikitin (about 1685 - not earlier than 1742) After studying in Italy, he returns to Russia as the first artist. "Portrait in a circle or Portrait of Peter the Great" Master's personality. In contrast to the Western European masters, who gave the ceremonial portrait of the emperor, Nikitin does not emphasize royalty, but emphasizes the person. The background is dark, from which the light is a beam that snatches out Peter's face. Very contrasting transitions of light and shadow. Fatigue, thoughtfulness, mind are emphasized. A look into the distance. The depth of the inner content, sincerity, truthful transmission of the inner state. "Peter 1 on his deathbed" The portrait is not finished. Drawn within a few hours after death. Expressive portrait. He conveyed his own attitude towards Peter, the folds on the pillow, the calm noble face. An attempt to wrest dear features from eternity. "Portrait of Praskovia Ioannovna" There is a lot of old Russian painting. There is no anatomical correctness. Black and white modeling is carried out from dark to light, but he does it from dark to light. Posture static. Lack of color reflections, i.e. the light is even, diffused. The folds on the clothes are written in style, close to the gaps on the icons. A certain character, self-esteem is read in the face. Very expressive eyes are the center of the composition. Not the slightest coquetry, absolute silence of beauty, nothing ostentatious. "Portrait of Chancellor Count Golovkin" Count, representative of high society. Clothes, wig, no exposure. The chancellor is a politician, a diplomat, so there is a certain detachment from us. Straight posture, smart look. Appears the way he wants to be for others. "Portrait of the Outdoor Hetman"

An old warrior, seasoned in battle. Courageous man, all open, no wig. Natural, in its openness, ready to meet face to face with the enemy. Using chiaroscuro, draws attention to the eye. The look is severe, but there is strength and nobility. Andrei Matveevich Matveev (1701/1704 - 1739) Known as the author of a number of portraits, paintings, decorative paintings, which he made for the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the Winter Palace, etc. In the last years of his life, he led the "picturesque team of the Chancellery from Buildings." This organization was engaged in interior painting of various architectural structures. After his death, Vishnyakov will become the leader of the team ("Portrait of Sarah Fermor") Performed portraits of emperors. "Portrait of Peter 1" Portrait in an oval. Activity state. Vital. "Portrait of Golitsyna" By order of the Golitsyns, a pair portrait was commissioned. Lady of State - close to the Empress. There was also the "Prince-Abbess of the All-Shuteysky Cathedral." She was publicly flogged in connection with the case of Tsarevich Alexei. An expressive image, telling the face a mixture of obnoxiousness, arrogance, resentment, bewilderment. Straight back, head held high. An unusual characteristic of the model. The author sympathizes, but does not condemn. "Self-portrait with wife" For the first time, an expression of feelings, an expression of love, is shown. With one hand he holds his hand, with the other he hugs his shoulders. Very gentle and sensitive relationship. Maximum unity. The motif of "life partner" is born. He admires, he stands a little behind, because the figure of his wife is more illuminated. Showing lyrics of feelings. Alexey Petrovich Antropov (1716-1795) Son of a soldier. From the age of 16, he began to study with Matveev, and then with Vishnyakov. Together with Vishnyakov, he creates a number of decorative paintings in different cities of Russia. In 1752, Antropov was invited to Kiev to paint the interior of St. Andrew's Church. Upon his return from Kiev, he holds the position of the chief artist of the Synod. He directs the activities of all icon painters and paints portraits of priests himself. In his portraits, he manages to capture and convey the most essential, and therefore his portraits have an amazing vitality. Characteristically in portraits is a half-length image, a figure and a face as close as possible to the viewer. The coloristic solution is based on the contrasts of local color spots. Contrasting black and white modeling of volumes. Elderly faces were especially successful. He noted that they are signs of a lived life. Created images of great authenticity. "Portrait of Izmailova" Accessories of difference, speaking of social status. "Portrait of Buturlina" Traces of life. Dull look, sadness, memories of what was, what is lost. It is impossible to talk about a subtle psychological portrait, but at the same time it is impossible to say that the author of the portrait strives for an exceptional transfer of portrait features. I was able to capture the essential in character. "Portrait of Rumyantseva" Lots of light and heat. Cheerfulness. The essential start caught another. Enlightenment. "Portrait of Peter 3" Splendor, pomp, only emphasizes the failure of Peter. Ivan Petrovich Argunov (1729-1802) A representative of a dynasty of artists who have been Sheremetyevo's serfs from time immemorial. Known primarily as a portrait painter. I had to paint portraits of the St. Petersburg nobility. I made sketches and then wrote from memory. The most fruitful was the decade 1750-1760. At this time, Argunov was studying with the artist Groot. At this time, he masters the style of a formal portrait. "Portraits of Khripunov with his wife" Like Antropov, he gives the models a close-up. A simple face, but a smart look. "Portrait of Labanov-Rostovsky" Proud posture. Loving yourself. Contrast of blue and red. It is possible to convey the materiality of things. Writes out a fur trim and an air cuff of a shirt. "Portrait of an unknown peasant woman in a Russian costume" Beautiful well-groomed skin, like marble. Purity, wisdom, the height of natural, natural beauty. Living beauty. Warm colour. A simple Russian woman is depicted in the genre of a custom-made portrait, because. he portrayed her as a lady of state. Showed the greatness and beauty of a simple woman. Sculpture.Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli (1675 - 1744)

There are many works in the portrait genre and in decorative monumental plastic arts. Bust of Peter 1 Typical baroque sculpture. Appeal for decoration. Baroque is a dynamic composition with emphasized spatiality and an emphasis on many textures. Possesses light and shade contrasts of plastic masses, their painting. It is rather a portrait of an entire era, rather than a specific individual. This generalization gives the bust the features of monumentality. The dynamism and impetuosity of the Baroque is visible in the folds. The proudly raised head of Peter is the image of Russia, ready to compete with Europe. Interest in details. Equestrian statue of Peter 1 It stands at the Mikhailovsky Castle. During Rastrelli's life, only the model was cast, and after his death it was cast by his son. The spirit of equestrian statues of antiquity and the Middle Ages. Inner aspiration is transmitted. On his head is a laurel wreath - he is the winner of all his undertakings and reforms. Clarity, harmony of composition. Complex movement, pomposity - baroque. The gigantic image personifies victorious Russia. Anna Ioannovna with Arapchonok Rastrelli shows the fashion of that time (at that time it was possible to have a negro in the service). Contrast: on the one hand, the motif of splendor is inherent in the figure of Anna Ioannovna. The inner core, proud spruce, arrogant. She is in formal dress. Rastrelli makes it according to the latest fashion of the time. The attire shows her belonging to Europe. Rigid appearance in facial features, despotism. Asian despotism, but dressed in European style. On the other hand, the genre inherent in the black woman is a household nuance. The contrast of the mass is the small figure of a black woman and the large figure of Anna Ioannovna.

The eighteenth century in Western Europe is the last stage of a long transition from feudalism to capitalism. In the middle of the century, the process of primitive accumulation of capital was completed, a struggle was waged in all spheres of social consciousness, and a revolutionary situation was ripening. Later, it led to the dominance of the classical forms of developed capitalism. Over the course of a century, a gigantic breakdown of all social and state foundations, concepts and criteria for evaluating the old society was carried out. A civilized society arose, a periodical press appeared, political parties were formed, a struggle was going on for the emancipation of man from the shackles of a feudal-religious worldview.

In the visual arts, the importance of a directly realistic depiction of life increased. The sphere of art expanded, it became an active spokesman for liberation ideas, filled with topicality, fighting spirit, denounced the vices and absurdities of not only feudal, but also the emerging bourgeois society. It also put forward a new positive ideal of an unfettered personality of a person, free from hierarchical ideas, developing individual abilities and at the same time endowed with a noble sense of citizenship. Art became national, appealed not only to the circle of refined connoisseurs, but to a broad democratic environment.

The main trends in the social and ideological development of Western Europe in the 18th century manifested themselves unevenly in different countries. If in England the industrial revolution that took place in the middle of the 18th century consolidated the compromise between the bourgeoisie and the nobility, then in France the anti-feudal movement had a more massive character and was preparing a bourgeois revolution. Common to all countries was the crisis of feudalism, its ideology, the formation of a broad social movement - the Enlightenment, with its cult of the primary untouched Nature and the Mind that protects it, with its criticism of the modern corrupted civilization and the dream of the harmony of beneficent nature and a new democratic civilization gravitating towards the natural condition.

The eighteenth century is the age of Reason, all-destroying skepticism and irony, the age of philosophers, sociologists, economists; the exact natural sciences, geography, archeology, history, and materialistic philosophy, connected with technology, developed. Invading the mental life of the era, scientific knowledge created the foundation for accurate observation and analysis of reality for art. Enlighteners proclaimed the goal of art to imitate nature, but ordered, improved nature (Didero, A. Pope), cleared by the mind from the harmful effects of a man-made civilization created by an absolutist regime, social inequality, idleness and luxury. The rationalism of the philosophical and aesthetic thought of the 18th century, however, did not suppress the freshness and sincerity of feeling, but gave rise to a striving for proportionality, grace, and harmonious completeness of the artistic phenomena of art, from architectural ensembles to applied art. Enlighteners attached great importance in life and art to feeling - the focus of the noblest aspirations of mankind, a feeling that longs for purposeful action, containing a force that revolutionizes life, a feeling capable of reviving the primordial virtues of a “natural person” (Defoe, Rousseau, Mercier), following natural laws. nature.

Rousseau's aphorism "A man is great only in his feelings" expressed one of the remarkable aspects of the social life of the 18th century, which gave rise to an in-depth, refined psychological analysis in a realistic portrait and genre, the poetry of feelings imbued the lyrical landscape (Gainsborough, Watteau, Bernay, Robert) "lyrical novel", " poems in prose" (Rousseau, Prevost, Marivaux, Fielding, Stern, Richardson), it reaches its highest expression in the rise of music (Handel, Bach, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Italian opera composers). On the one hand, “little people” became the heroes of artistic works of painting, graphics, literature and theater of the 18th century - people, like everyone else, placed in the usual conditions of the era, not spoiled by prosperity and privileges, subject to ordinary natural movements of the soul, content with modest happiness. Artists and writers admired their sincerity, naive immediacy of the soul, close to nature. On the other hand, the focus is on the ideal of an emancipated civilized intellectual man, generated by the enlightenment culture, the analysis of his individual psychology, conflicting mental states and feelings with their subtle nuances, unexpected impulses and reflective moods.

Acute observation, a refined culture of thought and feeling are characteristic of all artistic genres of the 18th century. Artists sought to capture everyday life situations of various shades, original individual images, gravitated towards entertaining narratives and enchanting spectacle, sharp conflicting actions, dramatic intrigues and comedic plots, sophisticated grotesque, buffoonery, graceful pastorals, gallant festivities.

New problems were also put forward in architecture. The importance of church building has decreased, and the role of civil architecture has increased, exquisitely simple, updated, freed from excessive impressiveness. In some countries (France, Russia, partly Germany) the problems of planning the cities of the future were solved. Architectural utopias were born (graphic architectural landscapes - Giovanni Battista Piranesi and the so-called "paper architecture"). The type of private, usually intimate residential building and urban ensembles of public buildings became characteristic. At the same time, in the art of the 18th century, in comparison with previous eras, the synthetic perception and completeness of the coverage of life decreased. The former connection of monumental painting and sculpture with architecture was broken, the features of easel painting and decorativeness intensified in them. The subject of a special cult was the art of everyday life, decorative forms. At the same time, the interaction and mutual enrichment of various types of art increased, the achievements acquired by one type of art were more freely used by others. Thus, the influence of the theater on painting and music was very fruitful.

The art of the 18th century went through two stages. The first lasted until 1740–1760. It is characterized by the modification of late baroque forms into the decorative rococo style. The originality of the art of the first half of the 18th century is in a combination of witty and mocking skepticism and sophistication. This art, on the one hand, is refined, analyzing the nuances of feelings and moods, striving for elegant intimacy, restrained lyricism, on the other hand, gravitating towards the “philosophy of pleasure”, towards fabulous images of the East - Arabs, Chinese, Persians. Simultaneously with Rococo, a realistic trend developed - for some masters it acquired a sharply accusatory character (Hogarth, Swift). The struggle of artistic trends within national schools was openly manifested. The second stage is associated with the deepening of ideological contradictions, the growth of self-consciousness, the political activity of the bourgeoisie and the masses. At the turn of the 1760s-1770s. The Royal Academy in France opposed rococo art and tried to revive the ceremonial, idealizing style of academic art of the late 17th century. The gallant and mythological genres gave way to the historical genre with plots borrowed from Roman history. They were intended to emphasize the greatness of the monarchy, which had lost its authority, in accordance with the reactionary interpretation of the ideas of "enlightened absolutism."

Representatives of advanced thought turned to the heritage of antiquity. In France, the comte de Caylus opened the scientific era of research in this area ("Collection of Antiquities", 7 volumes, 1752-1767). In the middle of the 18th century, the German archaeologist and art historian Winckelmann (History of the Art of Antiquity, 1764) urged artists to return to "the noble simplicity and calm grandeur of ancient art, bearing in itself a reflection of the freedom of the Greeks and Romans of the era of the republic." The French philosopher Diderot found plots in ancient history that denounced tyrants and called for an uprising against them. Classicism arose, which contrasted the decorativeness of Rococo with natural simplicity, the subjective arbitrariness of passions - knowledge of the laws of the real world, a sense of proportion, nobility of thought and deeds. Artists first studied ancient Greek art at newly discovered monuments. The proclamation of an ideal, harmonious society, the primacy of duty over feeling, the pathos of reason are the common features of classicism of the 17th and 18th centuries. However, the classicism of the 17th century, which arose on the basis of national unification, developed in the conditions of the flourishing of a noble society. Classicism of the 18th century is characterized by an anti-feudal revolutionary orientation. It was intended to unite the progressive forces of the nation to fight against absolutism. Outside of France, classicism did not have the revolutionary character that it had in the early years of the French Revolution.

At the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century. in Russian culture there is a transition of exceptional importance for the further paths of its historical evolution from medieval religious forms of spiritual life to secular culture and science. The decisive leap in the cultural life of the country was not sudden and, moreover, was not the result of the activity, will and desire of even such a truly outstanding historical figure as Peter I.

The turn was caused by the internal laws of the development of the Russian noble-landlord society, the emerging economic unity of the country. In order to successfully solve the great international problems posed by history to the Russian state, it was necessary to raise the state structure and military affairs to the modern level, strengthen the emerging manufactories in the country, give impetus to the development of science and culture, freeing them from the fetters of religious guardianship.

The historical significance of the reforms of Peter I consisted in the fact that, in the interests of the noble state, he accelerated the implementation of the historically urgent turn with that iron perseverance and consistency, with that merciless cruelty, which, by the way, always manifested itself when the cause of historical progress was carried out by the exploiting classes through strengthening absolute power of the monarch or his all-powerful minister.

The reforms of Peter I, as a result of which the Russian feudal-absolutist state finally took shape, strengthened serfdom, the rule of the nobility and at the same time raised the importance of the merchants, who increased their capital thanks to the benefits received, the promotion of trade and industry. At the same time, in the second half of the 17th - early 18th century. as a result of Russia's foreign policy successes, its international significance has grown. She occupied one of the significant places in international life; expanded and strengthened not only economic, but also cultural ties between Russia and many foreign countries.

A quick and decisive transition in Russian artistic culture to secular art, based on the experience of the development of European post-Renaissance realism, was prepared by the entire previous stage in the history of Russian culture. Remarkable ancient Russian art, which made such a great contribution to world culture, by the 17th century. exhausted its possibilities. The aesthetic tasks set by the new stage of the historical development of Russia, the interests of the further development of the spiritual culture of the Russian nation could not be successfully solved in the conventional, ecclesiastical forms of the old art that had become obsolete and came into conflict with the course of life.

An appeal to a detailed knowledge of the world, the introduction of exact sciences, rational methods of research, propaganda of the strength and organization of a secular state, overcoming medieval inertia - these were the tasks set before culture by the objective course of development of Russian society of that time. Preceding 17th c. in the history of Russian art, this is a time of slow and indecisive growth of the features of a new type of realism, a time of gradual grinding and disintegration of the old methods and forms of medieval art. It was in the 17th century. an interest is awakened in nature, in the motives of a real landscape and a realistic perspective. During these years, the portrait genre, the so-called parsuna, was also born. However, the "secularization" of culture and art took place within the framework outlined by the dominant religious form of culture. Naturally, the results achieved were of a half-hearted, compromise nature.

The need for a decisive historical leap was brewing. It was carried out at the beginning of the 18th century. Thanks to this leap, Russian culture, after some interruption, joined the general course of European cultural and artistic progress. Russian art took a place befitting the art of a great people, a great nation, and again after the heyday of the 11th-16th centuries. made its important and original contribution to the artistic culture of mankind. When characterizing the art of Russia in the 18th century, one should keep in mind the multinational character of the Russian state, which was already emerging in the 16th and 17th centuries. and developed further in the 18th century. In Ukraine, in Belarus, in the annexed in the first quarter of the 18th century. In the Baltics, art developed in close interaction with Russian culture, and at the same time, the formation of national art schools continued.

Russian art of the 18th century went through several stages of development. The first of them is connected with the reforms of Peter I. During these years, the formation and strengthening of a strong centralized state that entered the international arena took place. Patriotic service to the national interests was considered the first duty of a Russian person. The Russian Empire was an absolute monarchy that protected the interests of the landlords and partly of the merchants, but its activities were nevertheless progressive in nature, carrying out the cause of historical progress in the only form possible at that time.

Art of the first quarter of the 18th century. reflected the creative pathos that was characteristic of that time. New ideas about the value of the human person, the conquest of Russian weapons, the grandiose construction of these years, have unusually expanded the mental horizons of the Russian person.

After a short period of the so-called boyar reaction in the middle of the 18th century. a new upsurge of Russian art begins. From the second half of the 18th century. The artistic culture of Russia occupies one of the leading places in European art. Her contribution to the development of architecture is especially significant. The scope of urban planning and the perfection of artistic solutions turn Russian architecture into one of the significant phenomena of world culture. The flourishing of Russian architecture, both in the period of its connections with the Baroque (until the end of the 1760s), and especially in the period of the formation of classicism, has historical reasons. The fact is that in the 18th century Russian noble absolutism, in contrast to the old regimes of Western Europe going to decline, far from exhausted its historical viability.

The upheavals of the peasant war led by Emelyan Pugachev, which clearly showed that the problem of maintaining or abolishing serfdom became the main social problem of the era, the conflict between the feudal autocracy and the emerging freedom-loving trend in the development of Russian social thought (Fonvizin, Novikov, Radishchev), although they revealed all the limitations the social and cultural positions of absolutism were still not strong enough to crush the building of the noble monarchy. In Russia there were no social forces capable of sweeping away the feudal system and the state corresponding to it and replacing it with more advanced social relations; there was no well-organized, economically strong, politically mature bourgeois class.

Russian enlightenment, which originated in the 1760s, in most cases was only an opposition movement that did not encroach on the class hegemony of the nobility. Its best representatives rebelled against the sovereign despotism of Catherine II, against the landowners' abuse of their power over the peasants, but for the most part they did not question the very foundations of the noble monarchy, that is, they did not rise to the idea of ​​a revolutionary transformation of society. They believed that the path to the destruction of all the vices of the serf system was enlightenment, that is, the education of the Russian nobility in the humanistic principles of justice, the expansion of its mental horizons. Only a very few of the people of this circle in solving the pressing social problems of our time rose above their class; such a person was the largest representative of the Russian enlightenment of the 18th century. A. N. Radishchev, who came to the idea of ​​a revolutionary overthrow of the existing social order. Therefore, the Russian noble state, although it revealed, especially in the last third of the 18th century, its exploitative and protective function, retained the ability, albeit inconsistently and contradictoryly, to solve a number of national tasks facing the country, such as governing the state, fighting in the international the arena for the state interests of Russia, a certain development of the productive forces, the rise of culture, etc.

Naturally, this created especially favorable conditions for the success of architecture, the flourishing of which is possible only with the powerful support of the state or large civil groups. At the same time, the formation of a layer of progressively and democratically thinking minds, their impact on leading artists determined the possibility of saturating the architectural images of the erected structures with a broader humanistic ideological content than the official program of perpetuating the noble state. With particular force, this feature was reflected in the work of such a brilliant architect as Bazhenov.

In the field of sculpture and painting, the achievements of Russian culture of the 18th century. are also very significant, although in the field of fine arts the ugly aspects of the autocratic regime and its apologetics had a more noticeable restrictive effect on the ideological and artistic level of works than was the case in the field of architecture. At the same time, proper humanistic and civic progressive tendencies appeared in the visual arts more clearly. In particular, in Russian painting and sculpture of that time, the ideas of the high moral dignity of man asserted themselves with particular artistic persuasiveness. In the art of Rokotov, Levitsky, in the sculpture of Shubin, a European realistic portrait of the 18th century. found one of his most remarkable incarnations. Great success was also achieved by monumental and decorative sculpture, inextricably linked with the great architectural ensembles of the era. "The Bronze Horseman" by Falcone, the work of Kozlovsky, together with the work of Houdon, form the pinnacle in the heyday of European sculpture of this time.

In general, Russian art of the 18th century is an important milestone not only in the history of Russian artistic culture, but also played a major role in establishing the progressive aesthetic ideals of European culture in the 18th century. generally.