ABSTRACT
Between the beginning and the end of the seventeenth century something happened to Russia culture that historians have tried to explain with reference to “Westernization,” “secularization,” or even a delayed Renaissance, linking novel, “modern” features in the arts-for example, the use of naturalistic-looking light, shade and perspective in religious painting; the proliferation of elements of the Classical order system in architecture; the appearance of genres new to Russia, such as portrait-painting-to broader developments in domestic and foreign affairs. The notion of “modernization” in the figurative arts is, of course, a relative concept, which has little to do with efficiency or movement towards a clearly defined goal. Even in architecture, new engineering or materials may produce buildings which are taller, safer, or warmer, but architectural style defies categorization in terms of linear progression. When art historians speak of “modern art,” they usually have in mind developments in European painting and sculpture from the latter half of the nineteenth century onwards, when artists consciously broke with “old” Renaissance conventions. The Renaissance, too, has been construed in terms of a shift from “medieval” to “modern.” In neither case can Russian developments neatly be accommodated in the Western time frame, no more than Russian history fits easily into categories such as “medieval,” “early modern” and so on. This paper revisits the question of change in seventeenth-century Russian art and architecture. In doing so, it does not offer a systematic survey of artistic developments, but aims to provoke a fresh look at received wisdom on a contentious and under-researched topic.
