Russian Art and Architecture

Papers: A midterm paper (6 - 8 pages, 30% of course grade) is due on Monday 13 February, and a final paper (8 - 10 pages, 40% of grade) on Friday 25 March. You can turn in your papers as email attachments by midnight on the due day, with a hard copy at the next class meeting. We'll develop paper topics during class discussions.

Tests: There will be two tests of your ability to identify the images displayed and discussed in class, the first on Monday 13 Feb, the second on Wednesday 15 March. Each test counts for 10% of the course grade.

Participation in class discussion counts for the remaining 10% of the course grade.

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The few books you need to acquire for this course are:

- G.H. Hamilton, The Art and Architecture of Russia.
- Leonid Uspensky and Vladimir Lossky, The Meaning of Icons, 1952ff.
- William Brumfield, A History of Russian Architecture, 2nd ed., p'back.
- Theofanis Stavrou (ed), Art and Culture in Nineteenth-Century
   Russia, 1983.
- Camilla Gray, The Russian Experiment in Art: 1862-1922, 2nd ed., 1986.

The best source for these is Amazon.com, which has used as well as new copies available, sometimes at very low prices. They may be available elsewhere, including public as well as the UW libraries. If you have any difficulty finding them, please let me know.

The following are available in the UW Libraries (with the exception of Atkinson, of which I have some copies and if necessary I'll distribute photocopies of some excerpts):

- James Billington, The Icon and the Axe.
- Ernst Gombrich, Art and Illusion.
- Dmitrii Sarabianov, Russian Art from Neo-Classicism to
   the Avant-Garde, 1990.
- J. Beavington Atkinson, An Art Tour to Russia, 1986
   (reprint of a nineteenth-century travelogue).
- Rosalind Blakesley, Susan Reid (eds.), Russian Art and the West, 2007.
- Andrei Kovalev, Between the Utopias: New Russian Art
   During and After Perestroika, 1995.

I'll be making more suggestions for background reading in the course of the quarter, partly in reponse to your thoughts on paper topics.

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An introduction to iconography
Wed 4 Jan	Introduction to the course: organization, assignments, grading and expectations. Lecture: Paintings as cultural objects. Iconography as a phenomenon, and its relation to verbal communication.
Mon 9 Jan	Origins of the Christian icon in late Classical memorial portraiture, and the earliest Christian iconography. Early Russian icons and the Byzantine iconographic tradition.
Wed 11 Jan	Russian icon painters and European religious painting in the 17th and 18th centuries. Russian religious painting in the 19th century.
At your leisure	Click on this line for a foretaste of the Day of Judgment
Reading: Uspensky and Lossky, selected chapters.

Secular Art 1860 - 1917
Mon 20 Feb	H o l i d a y.
Wed 22 Feb	Art education in mid-19th-century Russia, and the rebellion in the Academy. The art of the 'peredvizhniki' and its legacy in theme and technique. Nationalism in the arts from the 1880s to the Revolution. The dawn of Modernism in Russian art: Mikhail Vrubel.
Reading: Sarabianov, Part II, Chs. 1-5; Gray, Ch. 1.

Soviet Art and Architecture in the Stalin period and after: 1930s - 1980s
Mon 13 Mar	After the Early Soviet honeymoon: the aesthetic face of Stalinism in art and architecture. Architecture in the twilight of the Soviet Union.
Wed 15 Mar	Painting the Soviet Union in the wake of Stalin. The Sotheby's Auction of 1989.
Fri 17 Mar	Final paper due.
Reading: Kovalev, pp. 6 - 108.

Post-Soviet Art and Architecture: 1991 - 2000
Tue 4 Dec	The key movement in post-Soviet art: Moscow Conceptualism. Andrei Monastyrskii's Dictionary and its Preface. Installation Art played a role in the movement, including Monastyrskii's Action Objects and The Fourth Height's performance piece The Crown.which brings an idiosyncratic Russian feminism into the equation.
Thu 6 Dec	Wrap-up discussion, and an excursion into humor. Second recognition test
Thu 13 Dec	Final paper due.

What makes a good paper? If you have any doubts about any aspect of your paper, or just want to try out ideas before you commit the time and effort to developing them at length, please feel free to come by and talk about it. Here are the guidelines that will be the basis for grading your term papers.

4.0 - 3.6 The paper shows maturity: thoughtful analysis clearly expressed.

The title reflects a clear and non-trivial topic, and the organization is logical and coherent: questions are raised, suggested answers are presented through well-connected arguments based on detailed evidence, and conclusions do not overreach either the evidence or the arguments.
Evidence from the relevant primary texts is not outweighed by opinions drawn from secondary sources, and there are some original insights.
The writing is good: no grammatical problems, spelling mistakes or sloppy punctuation; sentences are neither too short (leads to repetition of many basic sentence elements, weak connection between ideas and difficulty in constructing an argument) nor too long (points get lost, arguments are hard to follow); vocabulary and style are appropriate for the context.

3.5 - 3.0 The paper is less mature, and doesn't meet the 'A' criteria consistently.

The title could be fuller or clearer, organization could be tighter, questions clearer, argument more detailed, conclusions more specific.
Too much reliance on opinions expressed in secondary works, too little direct evidence from the primary texts, few personal insights.
Some minor problems with grammar, spelling and punctuation, and style, e.g. inappropriate use of slang expressions.

2.9 - 2.5 The basics are there, but there's a lot of room for improvement.

Topic not clear, organization weak, argument thin or hard to follow, conclusions sweeping, not well supported or not directly relevant to the topic.
Paper is based on others' opinions (secondary works, class notes or websites), with no analysis of the primary texts and no personal insights.
Serious writing problems: sentences are poorly constructed and linked, vocabulary is often inappropriate for the context, or gratuitously colloquial.

2.4 - 2.0 The paper reflects very little thought or effort, and is difficult to read.

Topic poorly defined, and not much clearer by the end of the paper. Organization very weak, and statement takes the place of argument. The paper may be too short, and consist of more 'padding' than substance.
Little reference to the primary texts, possibly because of difficulty in understanding them, and secondary sources are used to compensate for this.
Writing is bad enough to make attendance at a writing workshop advisable.

1.9 - 0.7 Writing problems obscure the content of the paper, even if there is one.

Topic trivial, makes little sense, or is of limited relevance to the course materials. Little or no organization, too little content for there to be a structure.
Little evidence that the primary texts have been read and understood, and use of secondary sources is paraphrase bordering on plagiarism.
Writing is bad enough to require remediation at the Freshman Composition level.

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Religious art 12th c. - early 20th c.
Mon 16 Jan	H o l i d a y
Wed 18 Jan	'Iconicity' as a property of 19th-century Russian secular painting. Icons and iconicity in 20th-century Russia. The geography of Russian architecture -- purpose and materials. Moscow and Russian wooden architecture.
Reading: Uspensky and Lossky.

Secular Architecture to 1700
Mon 23 Jan	Kremlins and 'The Kremlin'.
Wed 25 Jan	Civic buildings in the century before Peter I.
Reading: Brumfield, Parts I and II.

Ecclesiastical Architecture to 1900
Mon 30 Jan	The St. Sophia model: the Orthodox church as an icon. Medieval Russian churches.
Wed 2 Feb	Russian churches between the Middle Ages and the mid-17th century. Russian bellringing and the European tradition are quite different.
Reading: Brumfield, Parts II and III.

Secular Art 1600 - 1800
Mon 6 Feb	Pre-Petrine Western influences: the icon and official portraiture. The Europeanization of Russian art: motives and methods.
Wed 8 Feb	Who were the painters in 18th-century Russia, and who taught them? Russian folk art: Embroidery, Toys, Shopsigns and The lubok.
Reading: Sarabianov, Part I, Ch. 1, and Stavrou, Chs. 7, 10, 11.

Secular Art 1800 - 1860
Mon 13 Feb	First recognition test
Wed 15 Feb	Midterm paper due today Russian Romantic portraiture, 1790s-1820s. Genre painting: a Dutch technique, a Russian look? Landscape painting: an Italian technique, an Italian look?
Reading: Sarabianov, Part I, Chs. 2-7; Stavrou, Chs. 5, 6, 8.

Secular Architecture 1700 - 1917
Mon 27 Feb	The need for monumental architecture in Petrine Russia. Russian public buildings from Peter I to Alexander II.
Wed 1 Mar	Landscape architecture: England and the look of the Russian country estate. Imperial elegance and Art Nouveau.
Reading: Sarabianov, Part II, Ch. 6; Brumfield, Part III, and Part IV Ch. 13.

Fin-de-Siècle and Avant-Garde 1900 - 1930s
Mon 6 Mar	The '-isms' of the modernist aesthetic revolution. The Futurist Manifesto Modernism in Russian art and architecture in the revolutionary period: a convergence of aesthetic and social ideals.
Wed 8 Mar	Second Recognition Test
Reading: Gray, Chs. 3 - 8; Sarabianov, Part III, Chs. 1 -7; Brumfield, Part IV, 14 & 15.