«Картина и рама». На основе материалов выставки Государственной Третьяковской Галереи

This report is based on the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery, and it concerns interaction between pictures and frames. Sometimes frames contain texts on their own plane. Texts affect the perception of the image, amplifying viewer’s emotions. Quoting texts on frames is not a new technique but in Russia of the second half of the ХIХ century it acquires national characteristics. This report deals with two groups of examples: pictures and frames created by the state order and those made according to the author's idea. Presented examples show the importance and inseparability of the ‘union’ of frames with the paintings. The report underlines the importance of conservation and restoration of author's frames in order to keep the ability of paintings and frames to dialogue.

Идентичность иранцев в архитектуре X-XII вв

The political environment in Khurasan with the arrival of the Samanid dynasty contributed to an increase in the national identity of Iranians on the one hand and mutual enrichment of cultures in the cosmopolitan climate on the other. The formation of style in the architecture is associated with the visual-spatial memory of Iranians themselves in a direction determined by Muslim religion. Hardly had the Iranian artists appealed to their traditional forms when they transformed them in according to the new Islamic discourse. The study also revealed that there is some evidence to suggest that Iranian art in the first centuries of Islam had its independent development course based on the flexibility of culture and awareness of its own identity.

La matrice espressiva nel livre d’artiste di Iliazd

Due to the involvement of Iliazd in a range of major artistic movements, from Russian Futurism to Dada during its Parisian period, his work may be considered within a range of different study frameworks. These experiences led to an interest in printed art and later to publishing. The ‘architecture’ of the books he produced was influenced by the character of the zaum poetry he practised in his early years. His contribution to the genre of modern artist’s book is unquestionable, although it has not enjoyed the attention of much scholarship. This paper seeks to analyse the expressive devices in Iliazd’s mature work in illustrated books and to trace their origins, showing how they led to the emergence of liberal and original correspondences between writing and visual forms.

L’immagine religiosa dall’epifania al feticcio

The aim of this paper is to illustrate how the nexus between monotheistic religion and iconoclasm has its basis in a process of rationalisation of both religious experience and worldview. Firstly, I will show in what sense the ban on images is one of the most striking aspects of monotheism (1); then I will point out the strong truth claim that emerges in the religious field since the Mosaic Law (2), and compare it with the more archaic religious attitude of polytheism (3). Finally, I will try to argue that the shift from polytheism to monotheism, especially regarding the role of images, it is not an incidental one but lies on a process of rationalisation of consciousness and religion (4).

Chiara Fumai. Medium, Media, Medium

Chiara Fumai was one of the most relevant Italian artists of her generation, her work having been shown at both the Venice Biennale’s Italian Pavilion and Documenta. In her practice, the performer often quoted feminist texts while playing the role of a woman possessed. I give an account of Fumai’s use of video, comparing it to Rosalind Krauss’s essay Video: The Aesthetics of Narcissism. I explain the artist’s work as a dialectic overcoming of the analogy the critic institutes between the notion of art medium and the figure of the Medium. Highlighting that both Fumai and Krauss see Acconci’s early works as a benchmark, I illustrate how the two built an archeology of contemporary mediality.

My Boyfriend Came Back From The War: una narrazione visiva di Olia Lialina

The contribution proposes the analysis of Net Art’s world-famous masterpiece of one of its founders: My Boyfriend Came Back from the War (1996) by Olia Lialina. Combining black and white images and words, it evokes the encounter of two lovers who have been separated so long by the war. With her work, Lialina shows us the potential for interaction of the new screen – that of the computer. She experiments with a non-linear narration, where users edit the story frames thanks to hypermedia platform, resulting in a new relationship between author and public. Considering such operations, the paper aims to highlight the work’s ludic connotation beside the impact of filmic narrative on the web.

Вопросы художественного провенанса

This article provides a brief overview of heterogeneous signs and graphic symbols, signatures, seals and stamps left by artists, collectors and art dealers at various art objects in the course of their social history. These signs and graphic symbols can help shed some light on the issue of provenance in art history.

К истории рецепции и интерпретации творчества Боттичелли в России

The paper focuses on reception and interpretation of Botticelli’s œuvre in Russian nineteenth-century cultural context. It describes the premises of interest in his work in literary and artistic circles starting from the 1830s and analyses a series of early publications dedicated to Botticelli that appeared in 1880s – 1890s. It reconstructs critical response of Russian writers and artists to his work and generally to the art ‘before Raphael’, considering various factors that influenced the reception of his style and image.

Baltrušaitis e la leggenda della forma di Gilgamesh

Jurgis Baltrušaitis is one of the most representative scholars of the New Formalist School led by Henri Focillon in Paris during the first half of the 20th century. By going through Baltrušaitis’ publications, an interesting case of study is the representation of Gilgamesh. The Lithuanian student wrote a long genealogy of this form that goes from ancient Mesopotamian East to Christian medieval West. We will use Gilgamesh’s shape to explore and compare the formalist method of Baltrušaitis, the iconological method of Panofsky and the relation between words and pictures by Schapiro. In doing so, we will try to re-establish a bond between the visual outline of a man with two specular beasts and the written legends of Gilgamesh and Daniel.