Structural elements of an artistic work: creative and research innovations by R. J. Collingwood

Abstract

The article reconstructs the process of formation of the structural elements of an artistic work: mimesis – canon – style – image – form – artistic method, which in the logic of the historical and cultural movement of art have gained significant importance in relation to the process of reproduction of reality. The specificity of the gradual introduction of these structural elements into both theoretical and practical circulation is shown in accordance with the development and complication of creative tasks of each specific art form. The specified structural elements were later evaluated as fundamental components of art history, and in a practical aspect, they were implemented in the process of creating artistic works and gave them those outlines that met the requirements of a certain historical period. It is emphasized that the deformation of the outlined structural elements took place at the beginning of the 20th century, when numerous formalist trends began to take shape on European soil, the representatives of which consciously rejected either mimesis or image. It is noted that after the avant-gardes, the elements of the work of art were revised in the 70s of the 20th century by supporters of "postmodern" aesthetics. The main theoretical principles of the monograph "Principles of Art" (1938) by the famous English philosopher, historian of science and art critic Robin George Collingwood (1889–1943), who proposed his own vision of the structural elements of an artistic work, which we evaluate as "creative and research innovations", are analyzed. In this article it is emphasized that, acting as an opponent of the vast majority of avant-garde experiments, the scientist consistently recreated the progressive "movement" of mimesis, canon, image and form in the dynamics of the historical and cultural process, for various reasons ignoring "style" and "artistic method".