V. N. Maksimov: zodchii russkogo natsional’nogo stilia (V. N. Maksimov: Architect of the Russian National Style)
Moscow: Sovpadenie, 2006. sewn pb. In the early eighteenth century Peter the Great wrenched Russian culture westward, which was especially evident in architecture (steepled churches replaced onion-domed ones, for example). Nevertheless, Russian building traditions did not cease to interest and attract architects. As the achievements of medieval architecture began to be studied and understood during the nineteenth century, the best architects learned not merely to imitate past forms of architecture, but to create new compositions in the spirit of medieval Russian building, freely plying a whole array of creative methods of their predecessors. That freedom to choose and compose anew impelled the rise of traditional Russian forms in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, for example in the work of V. A. Pokrovskii and A. V. Shchusev: in their designs one senses not only a deep appreciation but a real assimilation of a national character of architecture. At the same time, they had a command of the new forms of modern architecture spreading through Europe. “Study the past, but don’t just copy it,” said Shchusev. This monograph probes the work one architect working in the neo-Russian style to show how old forms pervaded the early twentieth century yet in new compositions and to answer new purposes. 174 p., 6 3/4 x 9 1/2 ins., 17 x 23.8 cm., 125 b-&-w illus. and line drawings, Rus. Item #2176
ISBN: 5903060323
Price: $28.00