The aesthetic concept of V. V. Stasov: national and historical in art (to the 200th anniversary of his birth)

Abstract

The article attempts to present in a holistic form the aesthetic views of one of the central figures of Russian culture and aesthetics of the mid and second half of the 19th century – Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov, whose views on the fundamentals of the development of art and artistic culture in general are relevant at the present time. In connection with the task, the concepts of nationality, historicism and nationality in art, which form the core and main line of development of Stasov’s aesthetic thought, come to the fore. At the same time, the unity of the theoretical attitudes of Stasov, who has enormous erudition in the field of both ancient and modern art, with his extensive practical activities as a music and art critic, responding to all significant events of cultural life, is emphasized. Based on the analysis of Stasov’s colossal critical and epistolary heritage, a general description of his aesthetic position is given, combining a democratic approach to understanding nationality, historicism as a support for the visual brightness of the national character, along with the elaboration of those shortcomings that are associated with the embodiment of these principles in art (“official” , “artificial” pseudo-nationality, stylizations - rough and refined, direct transfer of old outdated forms into modernity). The comparative historical method used in the study is represented mainly by analogies, as well as a statement of the existing differences in the cultural and aesthetic concepts of Stasov and the writer and philosopher, author of the famous «Russian Nights» V.F. Odoevsky. In this vein, the problem of Stasov’s influence on the aesthetics of the Balakirev circle in the field of music and the principles of social service, realism and nationality in the art of the «Itinerants» in painting are touched upon. The peculiarity of the article is that it is based to a large extent on rare sources – lifetime journal publications and the publication of Stasov’s collected works of the late 19th century.

Keywords

• stasov’s aesthetics
• artistic culture
• art
• nationality
• national identity
• historicism