Criticism of Arts: Language of the Russian Art Studies at the End of XVIII – the first third of the XIX Century

Abstract. The author of the article analyzes conditions of formation and process of language designing for the Russian Art Studies at the end of XVIII – the first third of the XIX century. By means of this language of evaluation and description the idea of specifics of national (Russian) art was created in the XIX century. Still in research literature the main source of art criticism concepts was revealed in French-language letters of D.A. Golitsyn devoted to the Parisian exhibitions and modern works of art. These messages were studied in the Russian Academy of Arts and used for creation of textbooks according to the theory of art. In the given article the process of enrichment of this apprehended language by concepts of the German romanticism (Gothold Lessing and Johann Joachim Winckelmann), and also medico-topographical researches of the Russian Empire is analyzed. These two sources allowed the founder of the first art criticism magazine V. Grigorovich to formulate orders to artists on the national subject, to form culture of vision of the audience and to prove existence of “the Russian school” in “the world of art”.

Keywords: language of the art studies, Russian empire, medico-biological notions, German romanticism, Russian art.