Art History and Visual Culture Program Presents
Philip Fedchin, Senior Lecturer, Smolny College
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Reem-Kayden Center Room 102
On Icons and Sages: Walter Pater in Russia
On Icons and Sages: Walter Pater in RussiaWalter Pater (1839 – 1894), Victorian writer, literary scholar, and art critic, is the central name of British Aestheticism. Pater has recently gone through a new phase of appreciation in Russia, with new editions of his Renaissance and an influx of scholarly publications on his oeuvre appearing in quick succession. What is the relevance of this Victorian sage for the contemporary Russian culture? Tracing the history of Pater's reception in Russia, we move from the early fin-de-siècle euphoria to the moment of deeper recognition of and engagement with Pater’s ideas in the 1910-20s, in order to compare their total rejection in the Soviet era and their re-evaluation in the Post-Soviet period. Pavel Muratov (1881 – 1950), a Russian critic, historian, and Pater scholar, well known for his seminal work on icons, serves as a key figure by which to re-evaluate Russia’s indebtedness to Pater and Victorian aestheticism.
Reception to Follow.
For more information, call 845-758-7239, or e-mail [email protected].
Location: Reem-Kayden Center Room 102