Libmonster ID: RS-599
Author(s) of the publication: A. N. SAKHAROV

M. "Prosveshchenie". 1974. 335 pp. Circulation of 250,000 copies. Price 1 rub. 28 kopecks.

In Soviet historiography and art criticism, there are many works devoted to the problems of ancient Russian art1 . Nevertheless, L. D. Lyubimov's book is probably destined to take its special place in this representative list. Drawing on the research achievements of Russian pre-revolutionary and Soviet historiography and art criticism, L. D. Lyubimov created a book that is distinguished by the breadth of chronological coverage (from the first centuries AD to the end of the XVII century), the scale of the problems posed, and the vividness and imagery of the presentation.

The works of researchers of the art of Ancient Russia, as a rule, are characterized not only by great scientific power, but also by high literary skill, great enthusiasm for their subject. It seems that L. D. Lyubimov felt the influence of these works to a considerable extent. It is no accident that throughout the book he lavishes quotes from his predecessors. And at the same time, he managed not only to create an independent historical and art history study, but also to convey to the reader his love for the art of Ancient Russia.

L. D. Lyubimov shows ancient Russian art-architecture, painting, art crafts, decorative and applied arts - against a broad historical background, in close connection with world artistic processes, in continuous development and improvement, in a difficult and contradictory movement caused by socio-economic, political, and religious factors. This comprehensive approach determines the abundance of factual material included in the book,

1 See: I. E. Grabar. Istoriya russkogo iskusstva [History of Russian Art], Vol. 1, Moscow, 1953. O drevnerusskom iskusstvo [On Ancient Russian Art], Moscow, 1966; B. A. Rybakov. The art of the ancient Slavs. "History of Russian Art", Vol. I. Moscow, 1953; N. N. Voronin. Drevnerusskoe iskusstvo [Old Russian Art], Moscow, 1962. Vladimir, Bogolyubov, Suzdal, Yuriev-Polsky, Moscow, 1967; D. S. Likhachev. Kul'tura Rusi vremena Andreya Rublev i Elifanii the Wise (kontsa XIV-nachalo XV c.) [Culture of Russia in the times of Andrei Rublev and Elifaniy the Wise (late 14th-early 15th centuries)]. Sculpture of Ancient Russia. Vladimir, Bogolyubovo, Moscow, 1969; V. N. Lazarev. Russkaya srednevekovaya piskin [Russian Medieval Painting], Moscow, 1970. Drevnerusskie mosaiki i freski [Old Russian mosaics and frescoes]. Moscow, 1973; M. N. Karger. Novgorod. L.-M. 1970, as well as collections of articles: "Old Russian Art of the XV-early XVI centuries", Moscow, 1963; "Old Russian Art of the XVII century", Moscow, 1964; " Old Russian Art. Khudozhestvennaya kul'tura domongolskoy Rus ' [Art Culture of Pre-Mongolian Russia]. Moscow, 1972.

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concerning various fields of art, the author's appeal to the history of art of neighboring countries and peoples-Byzantium, Serbia, Bulgaria, Armenia, Georgia, the art of ancient Greece, the Italian Renaissance, with which L. D. Lyubimov compares ancient Russian artistic values, rightly believing that the world's cultural development was moved forward by the creativity of many peoples, each of which made its own contribution. a contribution to the artistic treasury of humanity. The author's desire and ability to talk about ancient Russian art in close connection with world artistic processes is perhaps one of the most striking and original features of the book.

L. D. Lyubimov consistently carries out the thesis put forward by him in the introduction that the art of Ancient Russia, "which arose on national soil and fed on national sources, is closely intertwined with other remarkable artistic cultures, and above all with the Byzantine art system" (p.9, 10). Page by page, he unfolds this artistic system. We begin to understand both the strengths and weaknesses of Byzantine art, comprehend its irresistible influence on other countries and involuntarily ask ourselves the question: what did Ancient Russia take from the Byzantine art system, how did it master it, applying it to its own national experience and tradition? The author slowly brings us to the answer to this question: it does not immediately reveal the deep connections connecting the dying Byzantine culture and the artistic values of the young Old Russian state.

First of all, L. D. Lyubimov introduces the reader to the artistic world of Serbia and Bulgaria, Armenia and Georgia - countries that adopted the best features of the Byzantine art school and, having melted them down into their own artistic values, influenced the development of art in Ancient Russia. It shows "in the neighborhood of what highly developed artistic cultures the artistic culture of Ancient Russia developed ... organically connected with the Byzantine artistic system" (p.80). And further, analyzing the art of the Ancient Russian state, Vladimir-Suzdal Russia, Novgorod, Moscow, L. D. Lyubimov once again returns to the idea of the beneficial power of progressive artistic influences and mutual influences. It shows how the artistic traditions of Romanesque and Gothic Europe, the Baltic States, Scandinavia and ancient Novgorod were mutually enriched. This noble and historically accurate line of unity of world cultural development, mutual influence of individual cultures, their national achievements, reflecting the artistic genius of the people runs through the entire book.

L. D. Lyubimov reveals the most ancient origins of the art of the Old Russian state. Perhaps a too deliberate attempt to link this art with Paleolithic and Neolithic artistic phenomena will cause some irritation, but there can hardly be any doubt in the author's final conclusion that in the kurgan finds of objects of ancient art, as M. V. Alpatov wrote, "that integrity and simplicity of the image, which will later become the main feature of the art, are already evident." characteristic features of Russian folk art" (p. 85). The innate sense of beauty, the close harmonious connection of ancient Russian art with nature, the sensitivity of Russian architects, painters, carvers to the true artistic values of other peoples - this is the ground on which, in the fair opinion of L. D. Lyubimov, the artistic culture of the Kiev state flourished luxuriantly. In the art schools of architecture, painting, and crafts in Polotsk, Chernihiv, and Smolensk, the author saw how "Russian folk art brought good, life-loving aspirations to the ancient tradition" (p.99). The democracy of Russian art, its national worldview, and lyricism transformed the Byzantine tradition, making it warmer and more human. And this was already a new Old Russian art, rooted in the hoary antiquity.

The idea of the continuity of the artistic process, its closest connection with folk art, folk artistic vision passes through the sections devoted to the art of post-Kievan Old Russian state formations. And although feudal fragmentation like rust corroded the political unity of Russia, its artistic unity did not crumble, but grew stronger and developed. "It was a work in a single field of Russian art," writes L. D. Lyubimov (p.129), analyzing the art of politically disparate Vladimir - Suzdal Russia. And when the Mongol-Tatar invasion hit Ancient Russia, the Russian people took this trage-

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the day is seen not only through the prism of destroyed cities and villages, beatings and carjacking of their inhabitants, but also as the death of the "beauty of the famous" created by the people for centuries on their land.

A similar approach is shown by L. D. Lyubimov when analyzing trends in the development of art in Novgorod. In Novgorod's solidly built, massive and at the same time surprisingly slender temple buildings, in the fiery cinnabar of Novgorod painting, in its incomparable silhouettness and native Russian emotionality, in the bright, colorful Novgorod sewing and patterns, L. D. Lyubimov saw all the same Russian artistic tradition modified depending on local conditions, which is still intact. during the Mongol-Tatar invasion, the country bloomed in a magnificent and original color. The popular democratic principle, consonant with the Veche Novgorod and Pskov orders, also powerfully broke through in this religious art of the Russian North-West.

And, finally, the art of Moscow, which, as L. D. Lyubimov writes, "was destined to crown all ancient Russian pictorial creativity, just as the Ascension Church near Moscow (in Kolomenskoye) probably marks the pinnacle of all ancient Russian architecture" (p.227). Moscow's art was nourished by all-Russian and all-Slavic artistic juices. Suffering under the heel of Sultan's Turkey, the Slavic peoples of the Balkans saw in Moscow Russia not only the citadel of Orthodoxy and Slavic statehood, but also the light of Slavic culture. It is no accident that talented representatives of the Balkan peoples find support and shelter in Moscow, combining the traditions of the southern Slavs and Greeks with purely Russian traditions in their work. The work of Feofan Grek and Andrey Rublev became the pinnacle of this all-Russian, all-Slavic artistic synthesis.

Considering the art of the Russian centralized state-the work of Dionysius, the majestic architecture of the cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin, this, in the words of M. Y. Lermontov, the "altar of Russia", the ensemble of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, L. D. Lyubimov takes the slightest opportunity to show the vitality and in this period for all Russian art, folk traditions, people's perception of the world, which nourished all Russian art works.

The XVII century is the final chronological facet of the book. This period in the history of Russian art L. D. Lyubimov quite rightly defines as contradictory, connected with the decline of the former pictorial tradition, characterized by majestic conciseness and spirituality, and the emergence of a new realistic school, proclaimed in the works and works of Simon Ushakov. One can hardly agree with L. D. Lyubimov's assessment of Russian art of the 17th century as an art in decline, on the eve of Peter I's reforms that renewed it, as a "beautiful burnout" (p. 300). However, the author himself tries to overcome these somewhat extravagant assessments. True to his favorite compass - the folk origins of art, L. D. Lyubimov writes a lot and in detail about how painting and architecture of the XVII century were ennobled by the flow of folk art, and this closely connected the XVII century with the former artistic tradition. And other facts cited by the author show that the XVII century. it was a glorious continuation of Russian artistic creativity.

The book's strong point is its deep historicism in its approach to the phenomena of art. Not a single major turn in the history of art in the countries bordering Russia, as well as in the history of art in Ancient Russia itself, not a single major artistic movement or the creation of a creative school is disconnected from the socio-economic, political, and cultural factors of the era. L. D. Lyubimov explains why the principles of Byzantine art were so deeply perceived and brilliantly developed in the art of the Old Russian state. This happened not only because the artistic system of ancient Russian pagan art was full of ideas, traditions, and techniques that were consonant with the humanistic traditions of Hellas, which were brought to Russia through Byzantium, Bulgaria, Armenia, and Serbia, but also because the very Russian creative impulse of the Kievan times was based on a powerful social foundation-the awakening of a young statehood to life. and talented people, the promotion of Kiev to the ranks of the largest cities of the world at that time.

L. D. Lyubimov analyzes the history of Novgorod art, taking into account the geographical location of the city, which was spared to a certain extent from the bloody inter-princely feuds, the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars, and the special forces of the Russian Empire.-

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development of the Novgorod "aristocratic republic", its foreign economic and political relations. "Just as the voice of the people sometimes made its way noisily through the veche, the people's democratic principle was imperiously and vividly manifested in artistic creativity, as perhaps nowhere else in Russia," writes L. D. Lyubimov (p.170). And that's fair enough. The transition of the leading role in ancient Russian artistic creation to Moscow, which raised the banner of unification of Russian lands and their subsequent centralization, is also understandable.

One of the main problems of the book is the question of the correlation between religious form and humanistic content in art, the oppressive role of the church, which regulates art, and the talent of painters and architects, who break these church ties with the help of folk art traditions in the first place. The history of the struggle of the living folk stream in ancient Russian art against the mortifying churchism is a remarkable feature of the work. And the more the church became a brake on social development, the more actively and mercilessly it dictated its dead dogmas to art. Is this not the explanation for the crisis of art that began in the seventeenth century, and it was only later that the secular realistic tendency brought it out of it? The works of Feofan the Greek and Andrey Rublev were covered up, icons of the Don and Vladimir Mother of God were hidden under expensive tasteless salaries, and the charters of painters were instructed that they "would not describe the deities with their own guesses out of self-reflection" (p.203). The author has thoroughly identified the growing pressure on all aspects of social life, including ancient Russian art, not only from clerical reaction, but also from the developing feudal relations (pp. 304 - 306).

The book revives the almost forgotten genre of research - essay, which involves not only a scientific analysis of the problem, but also its purely personal, emotional perception by the author, solving it not only by scientific and analytical means, but also by artistic and imaginative, even poetic ones. This genre was brilliantly mastered by V. O. Klyuchevsky. The best examples of Soviet historical literature also do not exclude literary skill and figurative expressiveness. Truly poetic are the stories in the book about the appearance in Russia of the Byzantine icon of the "Vladimir Mother of God", whose amazing beauty became sacred in her new homeland, about the creation of the Kievan Sophia, Rublevskaya" Trinity", the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye, St. Basil's Cathedral, the ensemble of Rostov the Great, the Kremlin cathedrals. The pages of the book are warmed by the author's reflections on the fates of outstanding painters and architects of Ancient Russia. Such sections of the book as "How to look at an Icon" or "On the meaning and fate of Ancient Russian Iconography" have independent historical and cognitive significance, in which the author tells about its "discovery" already in the XX century, shares his observations on the method of cognition of ancient Russian art.

The essayistic nature of the book carries not only a great emotional charge, not only the opportunity to confirm a scientifically proven conclusion with the power of an artistic image. Admiration for ancient Russian art sometimes leads L. D. Lyubimov to idealized assessments, vague statements. Speaking, for example, of the Slavs of Kievan Rus', the author writes: "They were young in spirit, young-minded and simple-minded" (p. 99). No, we sometimes took the chronological youth of the state for the youth of the people, for the simplicity of the people, which is not the same thing. The characteristics of Vladimir's time, which, of course, was distinguished not only by "prowess", "fun", and "bravery" (p. 103), but also by many other qualities - the most brutal violence against its own people and the peoples around it, the heavy exploitation of the poor, bloody palace dramas, etc., are also guilty of idealization. About the time of feudal fragmentation, the author writes that, " despite the misfortune, this people (Rus. - A. S. he kept a single will, believed in his own strength." This kind of abstract and inaccurate "prettiness" is found in the book. The history of Novgorod and Pskov medieval democracy is somewhat idealized. The rules in these cities were much harsher and more socially exposed than they are represented by L. D. Lyubimov. It seems that these shortcomings, as well as some factual errors (not Batu's grandson, but Batu himself-the grandson of Genghis Khan, besieged Kiev-p. 101; Kazan did not threaten Russia with violent raids for centuries, but the Crimean Khanate-p. 274) could easily be eliminated when editing the book.

On one of the pages of his work, talking about Rublev's "Trinity", about all the events of the year.-

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The overwhelming power of authentic art breaking through religious dogma, L. D. Lyubimov wrote: "But such is the power of art that, regardless of this faith (Christianity - A. S.), the inner content of Rublev's Trinity is clear to us, just as it will be clear to those who come after us" (p.235). After us... Bright and sad words. Most recently, Lev Dmitrievich Lyubimov died, and his book will live a long time and give people the joy of joining the arts of the great people.

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