HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS IN THE RENEWAL OF THE LANGUAGE OF CHURCH MONUMENTAL PAINTING IN FRANCE AT THE TURN OF THE 20th CENTURY ON THE EXAMPLE OF PAINTINGS BY MAURICE DENIS

Abstract

The study analyzes the historical and philosophical origins of the renewal in church monumental art in French culture at the turn of the 20th century. The crisis that broke out in the second half of the 19th century within the philosophical knowledge and classical religion and an attempt to rethink the evolution of Christianity entailed significant changes in artistic creativity devoted to the sacred theme. The author explores the topic based on the church mural paintings of the French painter Maurice Denis, who stood at the origins of the transformation of the language of religious painting and whose role is significant for the further history of European art. The relevance of the work lies in the fact that all previous studies on this topic were primarily art criticisms. They paid special attention to the analysis of the artistic language and pictorial and expressive means. At the same time, questions of historical and philosophical nature and their role in the formation of new European religious painting were analyzed to a much lesser extent.