Russkii stil’: stil’ zhizni, stil’ iskusstva (Russian Style in Life and Art)
St. Petersburg: Muzei istorii Sankt-Peterburga, 2012. sewn pb. This catalogue of an exhibition at the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg uses works of applied art, examples of costume and textiles, drawings, paintings, and photographs to show the amalgam of forms and tastes that took shape from the 1830s to the early 1910s, when the greatness of Russian medieval art was gradually perceived and began to influence contemporary art. Spurred by such publications as Fedor Solntsev’s Antiquities of the Russian State (Drevnosti russkogo gosudarstva), the new awareness led to a revival of forms of design and architecture, many originating in the seventeenth century. Sections cover architectural drawings, prints, furniture, glass, porcelain, ceramics, metalwork, and textiles (costume, tablecloths, hats, etc.). The range of exhibited items is extraordinary from design drawings for churches and book illustrations by such artists as Mikhail Nesterov and Ivan Bilibin to photos of courtiers in seventeenth-century costume and programs for costume balls, many published for the first time; together they show a style that combined the ingenuity of new techniques with the aesthetics of the past. 220 pp., 25 cm, 266 color, 15 b/w, Rus. Item #48
ISBN: 9785432700063
Price: $57.00