Christianity and the Arts in Russia

The contributors to this 1992 book examine various aspects of the relationship among Christianity and the visual arts, architecture, and music in Russia.

William C. Brumfield (Edited by), Milos M. Velimirovic (Edited by)

9780521413107, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 November 1991

266 pages
24.4 x 17 x 1.6 cm, 0.63 kg

The contributors to this 1992 book examine various aspects of the relationship among Christianity and the visual arts, architecture and music in Russia. Within this broad area the book concentrates on specific topics rather than attempting a broad survey. Nonetheless, the range of material extends from the earliest stages of the introduction of Byzantine art forms in Kievan Russia to the relation between Christian and folk decorative/iconographic motifs to the use of religious imagery in the work of contemporary filmmaker Andrei Tarkovskii. The related interests of the contributors create a concentration of topics in certain periods such as the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some of the chapters are academically specialized, others are easily accessible to a general audience; but all are based on thorough and careful scholarship. Christianity and the Arts in Russia is based on, but not limited to, a symposium held at the Library of Congress in 1988 to mark the millennium of Russian Christianity.

Part I. The Art of the Medieval Church: 1. Aural icons of orthodoxy: the sonic typology of Russian bells Edward V. Williams
2. On the links between music and icon painting in medieval Rus Tatiana Vladyshevskaia
3. The role of the devotional image in the religious life of pre-Mongol Rus Natalia Teteriatnikov
4. The Slavic reception of Byzantine chant Kenneth Levy
Part II. Christianity and Russian Folk Belief: 5. Piety and pragmatism: Orthodox saints and Slavic nature gods in Russian folk art Alison Hilton
6. 'We don't summon spring in the summer': traditional music and beliefs of the contemporary Russian village Margarita Mazo
Part III. Religious Traditions and Modernity: 7. Christian themes in Russian opera Richard F. Taruskin
8. The 'New Style' and the revival of Orthodox church architecture, 1990–14 William C. Brumfield
9. Liturgical singing or sacred music? Understanding the aesthetic of the new Russian choral school Vladimir Morosan
10. The icon and the machine in Russia's religious renaissance, 1900–9 Robert L. Nichols
11. Orthodoxy and the avant-garde: sacred images in the work of Goncharova, Malevich, and their contemporaries John E. Bowlt
12. Art and religion in the films of Andrei Tarkovskii Anna Lawton.

Subject Areas: Christianity [HRC], Religious subjects depicted in art [AGR]