You will learn all about the representatives of classicism by reading this article.

Representatives of classicism

What is classicism?

Classicism Is a style in art that is based on imitation of the standards of Antiquity. The flowering of this trend dates back to the 17th-19th centuries. It reflects the desire for integrity, simplicity, and consistency.

Representatives of Russian classicism

Classicism in Russia appeared at the beginning of the 18th century from the moment of the transformations of Peter I and the publication of the theory of "Three Calms" by Lomonosov and the reform of Trediakovsky. The most prominent representatives of this trend are:

• Antioch Dmitrievich Cantemir,
• Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov
• Ivan Ivanovich Chemnitser.

Russian architecture mixed Russian baroque and Byzantine culture. The main representatives of classicism in architecture - Eropkin, Kazakov, Zemtsov, Rossi, Korobov, Montferrand and Stasov.

In painting, the smoothness of forms is emphasized, and chiaroscuro and line are the main elements of the form. Representatives of classicism in painting: I. Akimov, P. Sokolov, K. Lorrain and N. Poussin. Lorrain created landscapes in which he depicted the connection between nature and man, their harmony and interaction. And Poussin painted masterpieces depicting heroic deeds in a historical style.

Representatives of classicism in Russian literature

The brightest representatives of classicism in literature: Sumarokov, Trediakovsky, Kantemir, Lomonosov. A little more detail about each of them. Trediakovsky went down in history as a man who revealed the essence of classicism. But Lomonosov did an excellent job on the artistic form. Sumarokov is the founder of the dramatic system of classicism. Him famous work "Dmitry the Pretender" revealed opposition to the tsarist regime.

It should be noted that all subsequent well-known representatives of classicism studied under Lomonosov. He owns the design of the rules of versification and the processing of the grammar of the Russian language. This writer introduced the principles of classicism into Russian literature. He divided all words into three main groups ("three calm"):

• The first group is distinguished by solemnity and grandeur. It is dominated by the old Russian vocabulary. Odes, tragedies, heroic epics fit into it.
• The second group included elegies, dramas, satire.
• The third group included comedies and fables.

Outstanding representatives of classicism divided their heroes into positive (who always win) and negative characters. The plot was usually based on the love triangle, the struggle of men for the possession of a woman. The action of the works is limited in time (no more than 3 days) and takes place in one place.

Literature of the 18th century

1) Literature of Peter's time

2) Formation of new literature. Russian classicism (A.D. Kantemir, V.K. Trediakovsky, M.V. Lomonosov, A.P. Sumarokov and others).

3) Literature of the Age of Enlightenment (N.I. Novikov, D.I.Fonvizin, G.R.Derzhavin, I.A.Krylov and others).

The first period is Preclassicism, or the literature of Peter's time. The name was suggested by Professor P.A. Orlov, this period begins in 1700 and continues until the early 30s.

Russian literature was born along with the Peter's transformations.

"Our literature suddenly appeared in the 18th century ..." - wrote A.S. Pushkin, while a writer, of course, knew that the origins of Russian literature go back to antiquity. In this phrase, the key word is "suddenly". With this word, Pushkin emphasized that literature, formed in the dynamics of Russia's development, has rapidly gone from infancy to maturity ("suddenly" - not even in a century, but in 70 years). "Young Russia" "matured with the genius of Peter" (Pushkin).

Main feature - an intensive process of secularization (secularization).

A new concept of man: to be a citizen of the Fatherland. This concept becomes the main moral value for Peter's contemporaries. It was during this period that the word appears in Russian greek origin - a patriot. That is, the son of the Fatherland. A person ceases to be perceived as a source of sinfulness, as it was in old Russian literature, but becomes an active person. Not wealth, not a noble origin, but intelligence, education, courage, social benefit - this is what elevates a person to the high rungs of the social ladder. That is why among the ascetics of the sovereign there are people of common origin: the first governor of Petersburg, Menshchikov, diplomat Yaguzhinsky, senator Nesterov, and even the wife of Peter I, the future empress, was not distinguished by the nobility of the family.

A brief description of the period: the ideological pathos of the literature of those years - support for Peter's reforms, hence the journalistic nature of the works; artistic consciousness is characterized by a thirst for novelty and at the same time a gravitation towards age-old traditions, hence the eclecticism, the absence of a single aesthetic system, a single literary trend.

Among the new beginnings of Peter's time, it should be especially noted:

1) Creation of the first newspaper - "Vedomosti", which began to appear in December 1702. Peter himself took part in the publication of the newspaper: he selected material for publications, edited them, and often appeared on its pages.

2) Opening of a public (not court!) Theater in 1702 in Moscow. It existed until 1707. One of the main reasons for its short existence was the lack of a national repertoire that would meet the pressing needs of the time (by the way: the theater was headed by a director and actor invited from Germany Johann Kunst. The main roles were played by German actors). School theaters worked more successfully at that time (in Moscow, Kiev, Novgorod, Tver, Astrakhan, Rostov, and other cities).

3) Transformation of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy in Moscow into a state institution, instead of the boyar Duma - the Senate, instead of the patriarch - the Synod, the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, the introduction of the civil type, more books have been published in 25 years of the 18th century than in the previous two centuries.

4) The development of Russian journalism.

One of the famous writers of Peter's time was Feofan Prokopovich (1681 - 1736) - literary theorist, playwright, orator.

Grew up in a relatively democratic environment - was the son of a Kiev merchant. After the death of his father, he lived with his mother in extreme poverty. He brilliantly graduated from the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, was tonsured a monk, went to Rome for 3 years, where they predicted a career as a brilliant preacher. was gifted with oratory. But in his way of thinking he differed from the priests in a critical fashion, understood the significance of Peter's reforms, and in Peter's struggle with the clergy he took the side of the sovereign, which caused the curses of the orthodox clergy. Sermons occupy a prominent place in his literary activity. It gives a new meaning to this traditional church genre: it tells about topical political tasks, the activities of the sovereign, about the benefits of enlightenment, travel. This form of communication between the priest and the flock still exists today. Any church service in the church ends with the priest's appeal to the believers.

According to Professor P.A. Orlov, author of the textbook "History of Russian Literature", Feofan Prokopovich "became known as a playwright: for the school theater at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, he wrote the play" Vladimir "in 1705. The author defined the genre of his play as a tragicomedy. The content was the adoption of Christianity by the Kiev prince Vladimir in 988. The plot is based on the struggle of Vladimir against the defenders of the old faith - pagans - priests Zherivol, Kuroyad, Piyar. The novelty lies in the fact that the plot is based not on a biblical event, as it was earlier in ancient Russian literature, but on a historical one. This made it possible to give the play a topical character. The opposition of the prince to the pagan priests was very much reminiscent of Feofan Prokopovich's contemporaries of the struggle of Peter I with the reactionary clergy. The play ended with the affirmation of the new - that is, Christianity and the overthrow of pagan idols. So, at the beginning of the 18th century, a writer in the vestments of an archbishop gave Russian literature a special feature - the ability to speak on topical topics, using events of deep antiquity or insignificant events. This feature of Russian literature will become a tradition in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Throughout his life, Feofan Prokopovich composed poetry in the syllabic system of versification characteristic of the 18th century, but only 22 poems have survived to us.

The second period - the formation of Russian classicism... It covers the 1730s - 60s of the 18th century. These are the first steps of Russian classicism, which are carried out by the "chicks of Petrov's nest" - Kantemir, Trediakovsky, Lomonosov, Sumarokov.

Russian classicism

Classicism(lat.classicus - exemplary) - artistic method and the aesthetic trend in art and literature of the 17th – 19th centuries.

The origins of world classicism– France XVII century; views that belonged to the outstanding French playwrights Corneille and Moliere and the literary theorist N. Bouileau.

Characteristic features of Russian classicism:

1. Focused on the forms of antiquity, primarily the heroic classics.

2. Proclaims the primacy of state interests over personal interests, the prevalence of civil, patriotic motives, the cult of moral duty.

3. Establishment of the rigor of art forms in aesthetics: compositional unity, normative style and plots.

The process of nation formation, the rise of statehood and the unprecedented flourishing of secular culture in Russia were the historical and ideological soil that fed the patriotic pathos of Russian classicism.

1. The idea of \u200b\u200bnatural equality of people became the ideological basis of Russian classicism, in literature it led to the appeal to the development of the ethical essence of man.

2. The artistic form of expressing this problem has become emphasized presence of the author (relation to the depicted). In Russian classicism they received great development genres that imply a mandatory author's assessment of historical reality: satire (A.P. Kantemir), fable (A.P. Sumarokov, V.I. Maikov, I.I.Khemnitser), ode (M.V. Lomonosov, G.R. Derzhavin).

3. In the subject of tragedies prevailed national historical subjects.

4. Characteristic features Russian classicism are close connection with modernity and accusatory orientation. Russian classicists allowed themselves to teach and educate the autocrats, defining their duties in relation to subjects (ode "On the day of accession to the throne of Elizabeth Petrovna, 1947" by Lomonosov, "Felitsa" by Derzhavin, etc.)

5. Literature of classicism contributed the formation of the Russian literary language and the transformation of versification ... The new content of the classicists' works - the glorification of civil and social ideals - required new form literary works... The classicists were the first in Russian literature to use such genres as an ode (M.V. Lomonosov "On the day of accession to the throne of Elizabeth Petrovna", G.R.Derzhavin "To Sovereigns and Judges"), tragedy (A.P. Sumarokov "Dmitry the Impostor" ), satire (AD Kantemir "To his mind", "On nobility"), comedy ((DI Fonvizin "Brigadier", "Minor"), fable (IA Krylov).

Features of the comedy of classicism:

1) Heroes are divided into positive and negative , the author's assessment is clearly expressed. Each hero is a bearer of some trait (virtue or vice), which is reflected in "Speaking surnames" (Skotinin, Prostakov, Milon, Pravdin, Starodum at Fonvizin).

2) Classical pieces are characterized by "Role system" .

Amplua - a stereotype of character, which passes from play to play. For example, the role of a classicist comedy is ideal heroine, lover Hero, second lover (Jonah); reasoner - a hero who almost does not take part in the intrigue, but expresses the author's assessment of what is happening; soubrette - a cheerful maid, who, on the contrary, actively participates in intrigue. Þ

The plot is usually based on "Love triangle" : heroine - hero-lover - second lover.

At the end of the classicist comedy, vice is always punished and virtue triumphs.

3) Principle three unities follows from the requirement of imitation of nature:

- unity of time: the action develops no more than a day;

- unity of action: one storyline, the number of characters is limited (5 - 10), all characters must be associated with the plot, i.e. no side effects, no characters.

4) Requirements for classic composition: in a play, as a rule, there are 4 acts - in the 3rd culmination, in the 4th denouement. Features of the exposition: the play is opened minor charactersthat introduce the viewer to the main characters and tell the back story. The action is slowed down by long monologues of the main characters.

5) A clear division into high and low genres.

In literature, classicism originated and spread in France in the 17th century. Nicolas Boileau is considered the theorist of classicism, who formed the basic principles of the style in the article "Poetic Art". The name comes from the Latin "classicus" - exemplary, which emphasizes the artistic basis of the style - the images and forms of antiquity, which began to be of particular interest at the end of the Renaissance. The emergence of classicism is associated with the formation of the principles of a centralized state and the ideas of "enlightened" absolutism in it.

Classicism glorifies the concept of reason, believing that only with the help of the mind can you get and order the picture of the world. Therefore, the main thing in the work becomes its idea (that is, the main idea and form of the work should be in harmony), and the main thing in the conflict of reason and feelings is reason and duty.

Basic principles of classicism, typical for both foreign and domestic literature:

• Forms and images from antique (ancient Greek and ancient Roman) literature: tragedy, ode, comedy, epic, poetic odic and satirical forms.
• A clear division of genres into "high" and "low". The "high" are ode, tragedy and epic, the "low", as a rule, funny - comedy, satire, fable.
• A distinctive division of heroes into good and bad.
• Compliance with the principle of the trinity of time, place, action.

Classicism in Russian literature

XVIII century

In Russia, classicism appeared much later than in European states, since it was "brought" along with European works and education. The existence of a style on Russian soil is customary to fit into the following framework:

1. The end of the 1720s, the literature of Peter the Great's time, secular literature, which differs from the church literature that previously dominated in Russia.

The style began to develop first in translation, then in original works. The names of A.D. Kantemir, A.P. Sumarokov and V.K.Trediakovsky are associated with the development of the Russian classical tradition (reformers and developers of the literary language, they worked on poetic forms - on odes and satire).

1. 1730-1770 - the heyday of the style and its evolution. Associated with the name of M. V. Lomonosov, who wrote tragedies, odes, poems.
2. The last quarter of the 18th century is the appearance of sentimentalism and the beginning of the crisis of classicism. The time of late classicism is associated with the name of DI Fonvizin, the author of tragedies, dramas and comedies; G.R.Derzhavin (poetic forms), A.N. Radishchev (prose and poetic works).

(A.N. Radishchev, D.I.Fonvizin, P. Ya.Chaadaev)

DI Fonvizin and AN Radishchev became not only developers, but also destroyers of the stylistic unity of classicism: Fonvizin in comedies violates the principle of trinity, introduces ambiguity in the assessment of heroes. Radishchev becomes a harbinger and developer of sentimentalism, providing psychologism to the narrative, rejecting its conventions.

(Representatives of classicism)

19th century

It is believed that classicism existed by inertia until the 1820s, but during late classicism, the works created within its framework were classical only formally, or its principles were used intentionally to create a comic effect.

Russian classicism of the early 19th century departs from its breakthrough features: the assertion of the primacy of reason, civic pathos, opposition to the arbitrariness of religion, against its oppression over reason, criticism of the monarchy.

Classicism in foreign literature

The original classicism was based on the theoretical developments of ancient authors - Aristotle and Horace ("Poetics" and "Epistle to the Pisons").

In European literature, with identical principles, the style ends its existence since the 1720s. Representatives of classicism in France: François Malherbe (poetry, the reformation of the poetic language,), J. La Fontaine (satirical works, fable), J.-B. Moliere (comedy), Voltaire (drama), J.-J. Rousseau (late classicist prose writer, forerunner of sentimentalism).

In the development of European classicism, two stages are distinguished:

• The development and flourishing of the monarchy, contributing to the positive development of the economy, science and culture. At this stage, representatives of classicism see their task as glorifying the monarch, asserting its inviolability (François Malherbe, Pierre Corneille, leading genres - ode, poem, epic).
• The crisis of the monarchy, the discovery of shortcomings in the political system. Writers do not glorify, but rather criticize the monarchy. (J. La Fontaine, J.-B. Moliere, Voltaire, leading genres - comedy, satire, epigram).

FORMATION OF RUSSIAN CLASSICISM

In the 30-50s, the struggle between supporters and opponents of the Peter's reforms did not stop. However, Peter's successors on the throne turned out to be extremely mediocre people. The seal of increasing self-interest marked in this era the behavior of the nobility, which, while retaining privileges, seeks to throw off all responsibilities.
During the reign of Peter III, on February 18, 1762, a decree was issued on the freedom of the nobility, which freed the nobles from compulsory service.
And yet, neither the inertia of the rulers, nor the predation of the favorites, nor the greed of the nobles could stop the progressive course of development of Russian society. “After the death of Peter I,” wrote Pushkin, “the movement transmitted by a strong man was still continuing in the vast structures of the transformed state.” But the bearers of progress were now not the representatives of the authorities, but the progressive noble and various intelligentsia. The Academy of Sciences begins its activity. The first Russian professors, V.K.Trediakovsky and M.V. Lomonosov, appeared in it. The Academy of Sciences publishes the journal "Monthly Compositions, Employees for Benefit and Pleasure". The future writers A.P. Sumarokov and M.M. Kheraskov studied in the Land Gentry Corps, created in 1732. In 1756, the first state theater... Its core was the amateur troupe of Yaroslavl artists headed by the merchant's son FG Volkov. The first director of the theater was the playwright A.P. Sumarokov. In 1755, thanks to the persistent efforts of Lomonosov and with the assistance of the prominent nobleman I.I. Shuvalov, Moscow University was opened and two gymnasiums with him - for noblemen and for commoners. Serious changes are also taking place in the field of literature. In it, the first literary trend in Russia - classicism - takes shape.
The name of this trend comes from the Latin word classicus, that is, exemplary. This was the name of the ancient literature, which was widely used by the classicists. The most striking embodiment of classicism was in the 17th century. in France in the works of Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Boileau. The ideological basis of literary trends is always a broad social movement. Russian classicism was created by a generation of European educated young writers who were born in the era of Peter's reforms and sympathized with them. "The basis of this artistic system," writes G. N. Pospelov about Russian classicism, "was the ideological outlook that emerged as a result of the realization of the strengths of the civil transformations of Peter the Great."
The main thing in the ideology of classicism is state pathos. The state, created in the first decades of the 18th century, was declared the highest value. The classicists, inspired by the Peter's reforms, believed in the possibility of its further improvement. They seemed to them to be a reasonably organized social organism, where each estate fulfills the duties assigned to it. “The peasants plow, the merchants trade, the soldiers defend the fatherland, the judges judge, the scientists cultivate the sciences,” wrote A. P. Sumarokov. The state pathos of the Russian classicists is a deeply contradictory phenomenon. It also reflected the progressive tendencies associated with the final centralization of Russia, and at the same time - utopian ideas, coming from a clear reassessment of the social possibilities of enlightened absolutism.
Equally contradictory is the attitude of the classicists to the "nature" of man. Its basis, in their opinion, is selfish, but at the same time lends itself to education, the influence of civilization. The reason for this is reason, which the classicists opposed to emotions, "passions". Reason helps to realize the "duty" to the state, while "passions" distract from socially useful activities. “By virtue,” Sumarokov wrote, “we do not owe our nature. Morality and politics make us, in the size of enlightenment, reason and purification of hearts, useful to the common good. And without that people would have exterminated each other long ago without a trace. "
The peculiarity of Russian classicism lies in the fact that in the epoch of its formation, it combined the pathos of serving the absolutist state with the ideas of the early European Enlightenment. In France in the XVIII century. absolutism had already exhausted its progressive possibilities, and society faced a bourgeois revolution, which was ideologically prepared by the French enlighteners. In Russia in the first decades of the 18th century. absolutism was still at the head of the country's progressive reforms. Therefore, at the first stage of its development, Russian classicism adopted from the Enlightenment some of its social doctrines. These include primarily the idea of \u200b\u200benlightened absolutism. According to this theory, the state should be headed by a wise, "enlightened" monarch who, in his views, stands above the self-serving interests of individual estates and demands from each of them honest service for the benefit of the whole society. An example of such a ruler was for the Russian classicists Peter I, a personality unique in intelligence, energy and broad state outlook.
Unlike the French classicism of the 17th century. and in direct accordance with the era of the Enlightenment in Russian classicism of the 30s -50s, a huge place was given to sciences, knowledge, education. The country has made a transition from a church ideology to a secular one. Russia needed accurate knowledge useful for society. Lomonosov spoke about the benefits of sciences in almost all of his odes. The first satire of Cantemir, “To my mind. On blasphemous doctrine. The very word "enlightened" meant not just an educated person, but a person-citizen, whom knowledge helped to realize his responsibility to society. “Ignorance” meant not only a lack of knowledge, but at the same time a lack of understanding of one's duty to the state. In Western European educational literature of the 18th century, especially at a later stage of its development, "enlightenment" was determined by the degree of opposition to the existing order. In Russian classicism of the 1930s-1950s, "enlightenment" was measured by the measure of civil service to the absolutist state. Russian classicists - Kantemir, Lomonosov, Sumarokov - were close to the struggle of the educators against the church and church ideology. But if in the West it was about the protection of the principle of religious tolerance, and in a number of cases and atheism, then the Russian enlighteners in the first half of the 18th century. denounced the ignorance and rude morals of the clergy, defended science and its adherents from persecution by the church authorities. The first Russian classicists already knew the enlightenment idea about the natural equality of people. “The flesh in your servant is one-person,” Kantemir pointed out to the nobleman who was beating up the valet. Sumarokov reminded the "noble" class that "from women born and from ladies / / Without exception, all the forefather Adam." But this thesis at that time was not yet embodied in the demand for the equality of all estates before the law. Kantemir, proceeding from the principles of "natural law", called upon the nobles to treat the peasants humanely. Sumarokov, pointing to the natural equality of nobles and peasants, demanded that the "first" members of the fatherland enlightenment and service to confirm their "nobility" and command position in the country.
In the purely artistic field, the Russian classicists faced such complex tasks that their European brothers did not know. French literature of the mid-17th century already had a well-processed literary language and secular genres that had developed for a long time. Russian literature at the beginning of the 18th century did not have either one or the other. Therefore, the share of Russian writers of the second third of the 18th century. the task fell not only of creating a new literary direction. They had to reform the literary language, to master genres unknown until that time in Russia. Each of them was a pioneer. Kantemir laid the foundation for Russian satire, Lomonosov legalized the genre of odes, Sumarokov acted as the author of tragedies and comedies. In the field of the reform of the literary language, the main role belonged to Lomonosov. Such a serious task as the reform of Russian versification, replacing the syllabic system of the syllabo-tonic one also fell to the lot of the Russian classicists.
Creative activity Russian classicists was accompanied and supported by numerous theoretical works in the field of genres, literary language and versification. Trediakovsky wrote a treatise entitled "A New and Brief Method of Composing Russian Poems", in which he substantiated the basic principles of the new syllabo-tonic system. Lomonosov, in his discourse "On the Use of Church Books in the Russian Language", carried out a reform of the literary language and proposed the doctrine of the "three calm". Sumarokov, in his treatise "Guidance to Writers Who Want to Be," gave a description of the content and style of classicist genres.
As a result of persistent work, a literary movement was created, which had its own program, creative method and a harmonious system of genres. Artistic creativity was thought by the classicists as strict adherence to "reasonable" rules, eternal laws, created on the basis of studying the best examples of ancient authors and French literature of the 17th century. Distinguished between "correct" and "incorrect" works, ie, corresponding or not corresponding to the classical "rules". Even Shakespeare's best tragedies were considered “wrong”. The rules existed for each genre and required strict implementation. The creative method of the classicists is based on rationalistic thinking. Like Descartes, the founder of rationalism, they seek to decompose human psychology into its simplest composite forms. It is not social characters that are typified, but human passions and virtues. This is how the images of a miser, a bigot, a dandy, a braggart, a hypocrite, etc. are born. It was strictly forbidden to combine different "passions" in one character, and even more so "vice" and "virtue." The genres also differed in exactly the same "purity" and unambiguity. Comedy was not supposed to include "touching" episodes. The tragedy ruled out the display of comic characters. As Sumarokov said, one should not irritate the muses “with their poor success: Talia with tears, // and Melpomene with laughter” (p. 136).
The works of the classicists were represented by clearly opposed high and low genres. A rationalistic, well-thought-out hierarchy took place here. High genres included an ode, an epic poem, and a speech of praise. To low - comedy, fable, epigram. True, Lomonosov also proposed "middle" genres - tragedy and satire, but tragedy gravitated more towards high, and satire - towards low genres. Each of the groups assumed its own moral and social significance. In high genres, "exemplary" heroes were portrayed - monarchs, commanders who could serve as role models. Among them, the most popular was Peter I. In low genres, characters were brought out, seized by one or another "passion".
Special rules existed in the classicist "code" for dramatic works. They had to observe three "unities" - place, time and action. These unity subsequently caused a lot of criticism. But, oddly enough, the demand for "unity" was dictated in the poetics of the classicists by the desire for plausibility. The classicists wanted to create a kind of illusion of life on the stage. In this regard, they strove to bring the stage time closer to the time that the audience spends in the theater. “Try to measure my clock for hours in the game, / So that I, being forgotten, could believe you” (p. 137), Sumarokov instructed the novice playwrights. The maximum time allowed in classicist plays was not to exceed twenty-four hours. The unity of the place was conditioned by another rule. The theater, divided into an auditorium and a stage, gave the audience an opportunity to see someone else's life, as it were. Transferring the action to another place, the classicists believed, would break this illusion. Therefore, the best option was considered to be a performance with non-replaceable decorations, much worse, but acceptable - the development of events within the same house, castle, palace. And finally, the unity of action implied in the play the presence of only one storyline and a minimum number of characters participating in the events depicted.
Of course, this likelihood was too external. At this time, playwrights were not yet able to fully realize the fact that convention is one of the attributes of each of the types of creativity, without which it is impossible to create genuine works of art. “Plausibility,” wrote Pushkin, “is still considered the main condition and foundation of dramatic art ... What if they prove to us that the very essence of dramatic art excludes plausibility? .. Where is plausibility in a building divided into two parts, of which one is filled spectators who agreed, etc. " .
And yet, in the stage laws proposed by the classicists, there was also a rational grain in the notorious "unities". It consisted in striving for a clear organization of the dramatic work, in concentrating the viewer's attention not on the external, entertaining side, but on the characters themselves, on their dramatic relationships. However, these requirements were expressed in a too strict, categorical form.
Subsequently, in the era of romanticism, the indisputable rules of classicist poetics caused ridicule. They appeared to be shy bonds that fettered poetic inspiration. This reaction was absolutely correct for that time, since outdated norms interfered with the forward movement of Russian literature. But in the era of classicism, they were perceived as a salutary principle created by education and the principles of state order.
It should be noted that, despite such a regulation of creativity, the works of each of the classicist writers had their own individual characteristics. So, Kantemir and Sumarokov attached great importance to civic education. Both writers painfully perceived the self-interest and ignorance of the nobility, their neglect of their public duty. Satire was used as one of the means to achieve this goal. Sumarokov, in his tragedies, subjected the monarchs themselves to harsh judgment, appealing to their civil conscience.
Lomonosov and Trediakovsky absolutely do not care about the problem of educating the nobles. They are closer not to the estate, but to the national pathos of Peter's reforms: the spread of sciences, military successes, the economic development of Russia. Lomonosov in his laudable odes does not judge the monarchs, the heirs of Peter I, but seeks to captivate them with the tasks of further improving the Russian state. This also determines the style of each of the writers. So, artistic means Sumarokov are subordinate to didactic techniques. Hence the desire for clarity, precision, unambiguity of the word, for the logical thoughtfulness of the composition of works. Lomonosov's style is distinguished by splendor, an abundance of bold metaphors and personifications, corresponding to the grandeur of state transformations.
Russian classicism of the 18th century went through two stages in its development. The first of them belongs to the 30-50s. This is the formation of a new direction, when genres unknown before that time in Russia are born one after another, the literary language and versification are being reformed. The second stage falls on the last four decades of the 18th century. and is associated with the names of such writers as Fonvizin, Kheraskov, Derzhavin, Knyazhnin, Kapnist. In their work, Russian classicism most fully and widely revealed its ideological and artistic potential.
Each major literary movement, leaving the stage, continues to live in later literature. Classicism bequeathed to her a high civic pathos, the principle of human responsibility to society, the idea of \u200b\u200bduty based on the suppression of personal, egoistic principles in the name of common state interests.

Pushkin A.C. Full. collection op. T. 8, p. 121.
Pospelov G.N.Literary style problems. M., 1970.S. 128.
A.P. SumarokovFull collection of all compositions. M., 1781. Ch. 6.S 277.
Sumarokov A.I. Full. collection all compositions. Ch. 10, p. 150.
Kantemir A. D.Coll. poems. L., 1956.S. 75.
A.P. SumarokovFav. manuf. L., 1957. S. 189. Further footnotes on this edition are given in the text.
Pushkin A.S.Full collection op. Vol. 7, p. 212.

Having entered a period of decline at the end of the 17th century, K. is reviving in the era of the Enlightenment.

The new, educational K. coexisted throughout the 18th century. from educational realism, and by the end of the century it becomes again the dominant artistic movement.

Enlighteners largely continue the traditions of the 17th century. They turned out to be close to the position of a person, expressed in K., who consciously relates to the world and to himself, capable of subordinating his aspirations and passions to social and moral duty; pathos of civilization; rationalistic concept artistic creation.

However, the socio-political orientation of educational K. is changing. In the traditions of classicism, Voltaire creates tragedies imbued with the struggle against religious fanaticism, absolutist oppression, and the pathos of freedom. The appeal to antiquity as to the world of ideal prototypes, which was the essence of K., including the educational one, had deep roots in the ideology of the Enlightenment. Where the enlighteners sought to penetrate beyond the external empiric of life, to go beyond the framework of private life, they found themselves, as a rule, in a world of ideal abstractions, since in all their constructions they proceeded from an isolated individual and the essence of a person was not sought in the social conditions of his being , not in history, but in abstractly understood human nature.

The literature of the Great French Revolution, which clothed heroic aspirations in ancient myths and legends (the work of M.J. , necessary for them in order to hide from themselves the bourgeois-limited content of their struggle, in order to keep their inspiration at the height of the great historical tragedy "(K. Marx and F. Engels, ibid., vol. 8, p. 120).

Under the influence of French literature, capitalism also develops in other European countries: in England (A. Pop, J. Addison), Italy (V. Alfieri, and partly Ugo Foscolo), and Germany (IK Gottshed). Gottsched's classicist works, entirely focused on French models, did not leave a significant trace in German literature, and only in the second half of the 18th century. a new German ceramics was formed as an original artistic phenomenon (the so-called Weimar classicism).

Unlike French, it brings to the fore the moral and aesthetic problems. Its foundations were laid by I.I.Vinkelmann, but it reached its highest peak with I.V. Goethe and F. Schiller in the Weimar period of their work. German poets opposed the "noble simplicity", harmony and artistic perfection of the Greek classics, which arose under the conditions of polis democracy, to the squalor of German reality and the entire modern civilization crippling man. Schiller and partly Goethe sought in art the main means of educating a harmonious personality and, turning to antiquity, sought to create a new, contemporary literature high style capable of performing this task.

In the era of the Napoleonic empire, Kiev lost its living progressive content. He was characterized by external official pomp and splendor, cold and dead academicism. Nevertheless, as an epigone current, he existed in France until the 30-40s. 19th century

In the middle of the 18th century. a new direction in K. arises, corresponding to educational K. in literature and developing initially in polemics with Rococo. In architecture, they are now increasingly abandoning rigid planning schemes, striving to emphasize the constructive meaning of the order, special attention is paid to the interior and flexible layout of a comfortable residential building. The landscape environment of the "English" park becomes an ideal setting for a classicist building of a new type.

Huge influence on K. in the 18th century. provided the development of archaeological knowledge about Greek and Roman antiquity (especially the excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii), as well as the theoretical works of I.I.Vinkelmann, I.V. Goethe, F. Militia.

In the French architecture of this era, new architectural types were formed: an exquisitely intimate mansion, a laconic and monumental public building, an open city square (architects J. A. Gabriel, J. J. Soufflot). Civic pathos and lyrical daydreaming are combined in different ways in the sculptures of J. B. Pigalle, E. M. Falconet, J. A. Houdon, historical and mythological painting of J. M. Vien, and the decorative landscapes of J. Robert.

On the eve of the Great French Revolution in architecture, a striving for austere lapidarity of forms, for impressive didactic images arises, architects more and more often turn to motives of the Greek archaic, the art of Ancient Egypt, sometimes to an orderless system (buildings and projects by K.N. Ledoux, E.L. Bull , J. J. Lekeu). These searches (also marked by the influence of the architectural etchings of G. B. Piranesi) served as the starting point for the late K., or Empire style.

In K.'s painting, the greatest representative of the revolutionary trend was J.L. David, whose work is saturated with courageous drama and the solemnity of the figurative system. In the epoch of Napoleon I, the features of lush representativeness (Ch. Persier, P. Fontaine, J. F. Chalgrin) intensified in the architecture of the French Empire style, which often led to excessive refinement of details, which also affected decorative and applied art. The painting of late K., despite the emergence of certain major masters (D. Ingres), degenerates into an official apologetic or sentimental erotic salon direction.