Early Italian Art in the Works of Nicholas Roerich (1900s‐1910s)

In the works created by Nicholas Roerich in the 1900s –1910s various cultural influences were synthesized. These were conditioned by the consistent pattern of the development of Russian art as well as by the individual preferences of the artist. The artistic heritage of old Italy became one of the strongest influences on Roerich and was interpreted by him in a particular way. The article examines the factors that determined Roerich’s interest in Italian art of the Middle Ages and the Early Re-r naissance and analyzes the experience of his trips to Italy in 1901 and 1906. The study of the style and methods of old masters significantly enriched Roerich’s means of expression and helped to establish his mature style.

The Anachronic Madonna Lactans: Impersonations of the Nursing Virgin by Cindy Sherman, Catherine Opie, and Vanessa Beecroft

This article examines Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #216 (1989), Catherine Opie’s Self-Portrait/ Nursing (2004), and Vanessa Beecroft’s White Madonna or VBSS.002 (2006) in relation to the medieval and Renaissance artworks these photos quote and re-instantiate: Jean Fouquet’s Virgin of Melun (1452–1455); Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Madonna del Latte (1325–1335) and Leonardo da Vinci’s Litta Madonna (1490s); and Tino di Camaino’s Charity (1321) and Jan van Eyck’s Lucca Madonna (1436), respectively. This juxtaposition — framed by reference to Alexander Nagel’s and Christopher Wood’s concept of “anachronism” and to Aby Warburg’s notion of the Pathosformel — helps us ask new questions and gain new insights about the “old masters” under discussion.

Painting for Fools

Manuscripts and notes by Michel Foucault on the visual arts recently deposited at the Bibliothèque Nationale reveal a reliance on canonical oil paintings by the ‘old masters’; a respect for the primary sources in the history of European art; an understanding of the necessity of research in both literary and visual sources, particularly self-portraits; and a sense of the value that a certain philosophical milieu – beginning with Sade and Nietzsche and expanding to his near contemporaries, Bataille, Blanchot, and Klossowski – could offer to an understanding of paintings. The essay argues that Pierre Klossowski’s monumental drawing La Nef des fous (1990) provides an essential key for understanding the place of Hieronymus Bosch’s painting of the same title in History of Madness and the centrality of theories of similitude to Foucault’s thinking about visuality ca. 1960–74. The later significance of the figure of the artist for Foucault can be traced to these earlier writings on painting and madness.

Shitao and the Enlightening Experience of Painting

Having reached its zenith in the Song dynasty, Chinese landscape painting in the dynasties that followed became highly formulaic as artists simply copied the old masters to perfect their skills. This orthodox approach was not accepted by everyone however; some painters criticized it, arguing it was better to learn the ideas behind the techniques of the old masters than to blindly copy them. Shitao was one such critic and his Manual on Painting exemplifies his desire to disassociate himself from the classical approach to painting. This paper will investigate the three major themes of Shitao’s text—the holistic brushstroke, brush and ink, and the method of no-method—in order to show how they shaped his view of landscape painting and how said paintings subsequently embodied them. Unlike the near-scientific approach taken by his contemporaries and predecessors, Shitao paints to capture the unifying simplicity of nature, an onto-aesthetic experience that is profoundly enlightening.

Attribution of Works by Vladimir Grinberg and Alexander Vedernikov: The Problem of the Artist’s Signature

This article considers the phenomenon of the authors’ signatures of Vladimir Grinberg (1896—1942) and Alexander Vedernikov (1898—1975), two representatives of the Leningrad Landscape School community in the 1930s—1940s. During this period, they entered a single circle of friendly and professional communication and experienced mutual influences. The artists’ work is considered more broadly and goes beyond their participation in the community. The goal of the article is to single out the most significant periods of their activity, trace changes in the authors’ handwriting from decade to decade, pay attention to the period of apprenticeship and formation of the artists, and focus on controversial issues in the attribution of their paintings and drawings. A study of all the works by Grinberg and Vedernikov currently identified in museum and private collections, makes it possible to trace the changes in the authors’ styles and discover the artistic landmarks of the masters. Grinberg’s manner repeatedly transformed. The neoclassical stylistics of his works of the late 1910s and citation of paintings by the old masters gave way to modest still lifes in the 1920s. After landscapes and scenes of everyday life on a black background in the early 1930s, there was a lightening of the colour scheme during his work on the New Leningrad series in the middle of the decade. In the early 1940s, Grinberg began to paint very broadly, generalising and simplifying the images. This scandalising manner has parallels with the style of the 1960s. Vedernikov was influenced by the art of French post-impressionists. Also, he took interest in the art of Russian folk crafts in the post-war period, more particularly, in Gorodets painting. The article pays much attention to Grinberg’s and Vedernikov’s lithographs. A significant part of their works has been catalogued and published, which facilitates dating and attribution, but much remains unknown (for example, an episode in Vedernikov’s work associated with the unification of the Masters of Analytical Art). In the article, the author describes the marking of works in detail, the placement and outline of the signatures, and traces the changes in them, which will help determine the range of works and authorship more accurately.