Vasiliy D. Polenov's Gospel Stories in the Context of Religious Philosophy of the Second Half XIX — Early XX Centuries

Abstract

The article examines certain aspects of Vasiliy D. Polenov's work on the Evangelical series of paintings «Christ’s life». A special attention is paid to an analysis of the artist and his contemporaries’ attitude on Evangelical themes in the second half of the XIX — early XX centuries. The protest against the established pictorial canons, which were widely used by the majority of realist artists, the quest for new forms for interpreting the gospel images, were largely determined by the religious attitude in the minds of a new generation of artists. The most pressing issue during this period was the question of the interpretation of the image of Christ. An author also attempts to interpret some subjects of Polenov's works differently taking in account philosophical views of the Russian religious thinkers.