Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
23
3
RUSSIAN ART & ARCHITECTURE
Russian art and architecture remain a mys-
tery to most outsiders, even as the country
itself has opened up to the world. Know-
ing just a little about the evolution of
Russian fine and applied arts, and about
the political movements that often drove
them, will make your trip less overwhelm-
ing and more eye-opening.
For a millennium, from Russia's 9th-
century conversion to Orthodox Christi-
anity until the 19th century, Russian art
was almost exclusively defined by
icon
painting.
This Byzantine practice of
painting saints or biblical scenes on carved
wooden panels was guided rigidly by
church canon, so the icons appear much
more uniform and repetitive than western
European religious art of the Renaissance,
for example. The best advice for a novice
viewer is to pick one or two icons in a
room and study their lines and balance—
don't look for realism or classic propor-
tion, or expect to be uplifted. They're
meant to be somewhat haunting and
introspective.
Some Russian icon painters managed to
infuse originality into their work, but it
takes a trained eye to notice the distinc-
tions. Andrei Rublev was the most famous
and most controversial medieval icon
painter, and brought the genre to a new
level in the 14th century. His works are
best appreciated at Tretyakov Gallery in
Moscow (p. 148) and Trinity Monastery at
Sergiev Posad (p. 193). Spaso-Andron-
nikov Monastery in Moscow (p. 145),
where he lived and worked, has none of
his original work but does contain an
informative exhibit about him. For tips on
purchasing Russian icons, see the box
“Russian Orthodox Icons” in chapter 8.
Russian art fell out of favor after Peter
the Great transferred the capital to St.
Petersburg in the early 1700s and adorned
it with French and Italian masterpieces, or
imitations thereof. It wasn't until the mid-
19th century that the Slavophile move-
ment brought real success to Russian
painters. The
Wanderers,
or
peredvizh-
niki,
broke from the St. Petersburg Acad-
emy of Arts and its Western-style traditions
to focus on portraying Russian village life.
Standouts of this period include Ivan
Kramskoi and Ilya Repin, whose works
are well displayed at Tretyakov Gallery
(p. 148) and at the Russian Museum in St.
Petersburg (p. 258).
The late 19th century saw Russia's ver-
sion of the
Arts and Crafts
movement,
relying on traditional Russian applied arts.
Russian artists also embraced what they
call Style Moderne, or
Art Nouveau.
Stunning interpretations of this style can
be found in Mikhail Vrubel's
Dream Prin-
cess
mosaic around the top of the Metropol
hotel's facade (p. 100) and in a related,
room-size mosaic by him in Tretyakov
Gallery.
The political upheaval of the early 20th
century was a major engine of Russian
artistic growth. Vibrant colors, angular
shapes, and the intensity of urban life
replaced the bucolic rural scenes, and the
Russian
Avante-Garde
movement flour-
ished. Kasimir Malevich and Mikhail
Larionov explored the genres of Futurism,
Rayonism (Russia's only truly abstract art),
and Suprematism. Belarusian Marc Cha-
gall produced surreal and surprising paint-
ings during this period. Many of these
works are on display at Tretyakov Gallery
in Moscow (the old and new wings) and at
the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
Early Soviet leaders initially harnessed
the creativity of free-thinking artists for
propaganda purposes, and the posters,
sculptures, and public spaces designed by
Russian artists in the 1920s are among the
world's most stirring artworks. The
Con-
structivists,
including Vladimir Tatlin,
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