IMAGE OF LOPUKHINA: CASE OF THE GAZE
UDC index:
75.041
DOI: 10.31773/2078-1768-2024-68-209-217
Article ID in the RSCI:
Article file: Download
Information about authors: Abramkin I.A., PhD in art history, associate professor, Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow, Russia). ivanabramkin@list.ru
Annotation: The article is devoted to the consideration of the masterpiece of Russian portrait painting of 18th Century – “Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina”, created by famous artist V.L. Borovikovsky (1757-1825) in 1797. With the immense popularity of this work in the scientific literature, the historiography shows insufficiently detailed comprehension of the essence of its artistic impact, which determines the relevance of the study. The purpose of this article is to study the compositional organization of the work to determine the position and behavior of the model in the artistic space of the portrait. The research methodology combines formal analysis with an appeal to philosophical categories inherent in the culture at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries (F. Shelling, I. Kant and G. Gegel) and characteristics reflecting the experience of poetic perception of the work (the poem “To the Portrait” created by Y.P. Polonsky in 1885). A close examination of the portrait allows the author to draw a paradoxical conclusion that the contrasting interaction of the characteristic gaze and smooth painting, flowing composition, relaxed figure in the artistic solution of the work enhances the effect of harmony that is so peculiar to it. This image embodies the balance between the individuality of the appearance and the ideality of the type, which determines its uniqueness in artistic, philosophical and worldview way for the history of Russian culture.
Keywords: 18th Century, Russian art, portrait painting, V.L. Borovikovsky, M.I. Lopukhina, Y.P. Polonsky, formal analysis.
DOI: 10.31773/2078-1768-2024-68-209-217
Article ID in the RSCI:
Article file: Download
Information about authors: Abramkin I.A., PhD in art history, associate professor, Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow, Russia). ivanabramkin@list.ru
Annotation: The article is devoted to the consideration of the masterpiece of Russian portrait painting of 18th Century – “Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina”, created by famous artist V.L. Borovikovsky (1757-1825) in 1797. With the immense popularity of this work in the scientific literature, the historiography shows insufficiently detailed comprehension of the essence of its artistic impact, which determines the relevance of the study. The purpose of this article is to study the compositional organization of the work to determine the position and behavior of the model in the artistic space of the portrait. The research methodology combines formal analysis with an appeal to philosophical categories inherent in the culture at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries (F. Shelling, I. Kant and G. Gegel) and characteristics reflecting the experience of poetic perception of the work (the poem “To the Portrait” created by Y.P. Polonsky in 1885). A close examination of the portrait allows the author to draw a paradoxical conclusion that the contrasting interaction of the characteristic gaze and smooth painting, flowing composition, relaxed figure in the artistic solution of the work enhances the effect of harmony that is so peculiar to it. This image embodies the balance between the individuality of the appearance and the ideality of the type, which determines its uniqueness in artistic, philosophical and worldview way for the history of Russian culture.
Keywords: 18th Century, Russian art, portrait painting, V.L. Borovikovsky, M.I. Lopukhina, Y.P. Polonsky, formal analysis.
