N.Ya. Danilevsky as Art Critic

Abstract

The article considers the aesthetic concept of N.Ya. Danilevsky. The specifics of Russian artistic thinking, revealing a special type of world experience, according to the analysis of N.Ya. Danilevsky, are as follows. 1) Russian art mainly reflects the processes of personal transformation and moral processes in a person. It’s natural, since this is also the essential content of Russian history, and art is the embodiment of the historical experience of the people in a personally expressed form. 2) The special “Russian style” in art is the highest possible realism and noble simplicity of form, combined with the most subtle spiritual movements in a person; this combination is especially difficult for art, and therefore constitutes special Russian achievement, akin to the art of Antiquity. 3) Russian art is conciliar, i.e. it is always the expression of personal experience rather than individual (in contrast to individual experience, personal experience is based on the principle of responsiveness and responsibility for others). 4) Russian art in its highest manifestations is “iconic”, i.e., it is focused on the Evangelical ideal of Holiness and sacrifice, while maintaining continuity with religious art. These four aspects of Russian art in the work of N.Ya. Danilevsky are shown as essential features of our cultural and historical type.