Balls and theaters of the Pushkin era. The end of the 10s and the beginning of the 20s of the 19th century was a time of unprecedented, passionate passion for the theater. To be a young man "with a noble soul" meant to be a theatergoer! Talking about plays, actors, behind-the-scenes intrigues, about the past and future of the theater took as much time as arguing about politics ... And then they talked a lot about politics. People again wanted to plunge into the whirlpool of peaceful life: with its masquerades, balls, carnivals, new theatrical performances. Petersburgers were very fond of the theatre.

Engelgard's house on Nevsky Prospekt was the recognized center of public amusements in autumn and winter in St. Petersburg. Here, in a magnificent hall that could accommodate up to three thousand people, public masquerades, balls, and musical evenings were held. Concerts were given every Saturday. “They played Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven - in a word, serious German music,” recalls one of Engelhard's guests. Pushkin always visited them. »

Even more than concerts, the Engelhard Hall was famous for BALLS and MASQUERADES. In the evenings, a myriad of crews of all kinds flocked to the brightly lit entrance, lining up along Nevsky Prospekt. The balls usually started at 8-9 pm. The balls were reviews of the most expensive, bizarre and luxurious outfits. Future dates were arranged at the balls, balls were the bride of future brides (For the first time they were taken to the ball at the age of 16, and it was a huge event, both for the youngest person and for her parents) The most important thing for the balls was the ability not to stand out from the crowd. Society did not forgive anyone for this, just as it did not forgive A. Pushkin in his time.

Etiquette. We know the secular manners and etiquette of the Pushkin era mainly from the works of the classics of Russian literature of the 19th century and from their artistic adaptations. The aristocratic society condemned the widespread fashion for luxurious gifts that "outside" men made to their beloved ladies (Even the most innocent gift given to a lady by an "outside" man (not related to her) could cast a shadow on her reputation.) Refinement, emphasized politeness , polished gracefulness of gestures - the nuances of secular etiquette.

The generosity of the Russian nobles, their desire and ability to make gifts amazed many foreign travelers. were not stingy and Russian emperors, in the palaces of which entire rooms were set aside for gifts to both foreign guests and their subjects. If subordinates could give gifts to superiors only in exceptional cases, then every nobleman could present a gift to the king and members of the royal family.

The tailcoat was the basis of the men's suit. They were plain, but patterned fabrics were allowed. The tailcoat collar was trimmed with velvet of a different color. A white shirt with a high tight collar was worn under the tailcoat. The men cut their hair short. Curled them and let go of sideburns. Fashion

Women's dresses still have a high waist. If at the beginning of the century they wore mostly white dresses, then by the 20s colored, but plain dresses appeared.

In world literature there is a very small number of works about which one can say: while describing the contemporary era, they simultaneously influence it, creating history anew. Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" is rightfully included in the number of these few "golden" works of human thought, which have become not only the most detailed "encyclopedia of Russian life", but also a kind of manifesto of the first representatives of the awakened public consciousness.

Pushkin began working on Eugene Onegin back in 1823 in Chisinau, and completed his work in 1831, spending a total of 7 years 4 months and 17 days of his life on creating the novel. Such a long and painstaking work on this work has justified itself. "Eugene Onegin" became the central and perhaps the most outstanding Pushkin's creation.

Pushkin himself, conceiving this work, dreamed of creating a story about the fate of the hero, capable of becoming a reflection of the social life of Russian society. The author managed to bring his idea to life, and "Eugene Onegin" became a real panorama of the Russian reality of the nineteenth century.

Not a single, even the most inconspicuous side of the life of Russian society escapes the author's attention, he turns his gaze to literally everything, from the highest Petersburg society to serfs. Therefore, from the nine chapters of the novel, we can easily learn about the social life of that time (theaters, balls, literary societies), and about folk traditions, such as Christmas fortune telling, and even about which ballerinas were the most famous in those years. . The author describes in detail the nature of the places where the action of the novel takes place, paying attention to the change of seasons and the surrounding landscapes.

Such an encyclopedic coverage of reality was made possible thanks to Pushkin's special, new technique in literature - the presence of the author's image in the novel. The narrator appears here in different faces: he is Onegin's good friend, and patron, and defender of Tatyana, and a poet, and a witness to the events taking place in the novel. His image helps to expand the scope of the work from plot to general historical, to make the novel more intense. In addition, the consciousness of the hero cannot contain all the versatility of life, therefore it is the author's comments in lyrical digressions that perform a special function in creating the famous "encyclopedia of Russian life". It is the author who reflects on Russian writers, on romanticism, sentimentalism and classicism, recalls his past, some biographical details of his contemporaries, etc.

lyrical digressions, detailed descriptions people's lives make "Eugene Onegin" a real historical novel. Only instead of the famous personalities of that era, ordinary average people act there, who, nevertheless, are worthy of becoming the face of their time. Thus, through lyrical digressions and images of the main characters, we can now imagine in all details the Pushkin era and the people who lived then.

The most striking in this respect is the image of Eugene Onegin. After all, it was on his example that Pushkin showed “ distinctive features youth of the nineteenth century": "to dreams involuntary devotion, inimitable strangeness, and a sharp chilled mind." This image also reflected the tragic fate of the best people of that era - the noble intelligentsia, whose social role began to fade after the Decembrist uprising. The most important sign of the spirit of the time appears in the work and the mood of the hero - his disappointment, lack of work and purpose in life.

Such a state of the human soul was not uncommon in Pushkin's time. In many ways, such people determined the spirit of this era, becoming its main characteristic. Thus, we can draw the following conclusion: depicting Onegin, Pushkin draws attention to the regularity characteristic of many of his contemporaries, and shows his entire era in a single image.

The Pushkin era was an interesting and controversial time, but the writer was able to display it in his novel in all its complexity and versatility. Therefore, it is not in vain that they say that according to "Eugene Onegin" one can study the nineteenth century, as in a history textbook.

In the center of old Moscow, in the city estate of the XVII-XDC centuries. there is a museum of A.S. Pushkin. And although there was no information that the poet had been here, he knew this corner of the capital well. Here lived his friends and acquaintances, whom he visited, and addressed to others in his poems. The buildings of that time have also been preserved... The museum has more than 40 years of history, and it could be the subject of a separate publication. But we decided to acquaint the reader with his present day, especially since after the reconstruction and restoration of the building, the museum is experiencing, as it were, a second birth.

The doors of the mansion at 12 Prechistenka Street have reopened. On the eve of the 200th anniversary of the great poet, we have created a new exposition "Pushkin and His Era".

On the eve of the overhaul, restoration and reconstruction of the manor complex of buildings, it was necessary to re-understand the essence and purpose of the museum institution, its tasks, development prospects. Ultimately, the next "development" of the space of this house was designed to maximize the richest possibilities of the museum - the owner of national cultural values, a kind of research and cultural and educational institution. It should be noted that the multifunctionality of our museum has its own individual expression thanks to the collected unique collections, the established and constantly developing various forms of its activity. The theme "A. S. Pushkin" was initially seen in broad historical, literary, cultural ties with the pre-Pushkin and Pushkin times, with the present. And just as the work of the poet is characterized by movement, open structures, dialogic connections, "worldwide responsiveness", the museum of A.S. Pushkin is characterized by a search, a desire to expand the scope of his activities, to enter into a dialogue with the world.

The first exposition - "The Life and Work of A.S. Pushkin" - was opened in 1961. Then the expositions "The World Glory of A.S. Pushkin", "A.S. Pushkin and Our Time" were created. They played a significant role in the museum's scientific understanding of the biography and creative heritage of the writer, in understanding his connection with modernity. The exposition materials were widely used in scientific and educational work, in the popularization of Pushkin's works, for many years they were the base for internships for museum workers in the country and became part of the "Pushkin House" - the scientific and cultural center of Moscow. And yet, paying tribute to their undoubted merits, one cannot but admit that by now they required replacement. This is necessary for many reasons. The museum building and its halls were in need of major repairs and restoration. Over the past time, the funds have significantly expanded, now amounting to about 200 thousand units of storage. This made it possible to abandon most of the copies of the materials. There was an opportunity to demonstrate previously unknown to the visitor wonderful works of fine and decorative art, rare books, manuscripts, documents of the 18th - the first third of the 19th centuries, paintings and watercolors by V. Tropinin, P. Sokolov, V. Gau, A. Molinari, S. Tonchi, other masters. Of course, the results of the work of recent decades on the study of Pushkin, numerous publications, which significantly supplemented and deepened our understanding of the poet and his time, were taken into account. A search was made for new forms of museum design. And one more reason that set the task of creating a new exposition for the museum staff:

over the past years, the very understanding of the museum has changed, which is now conceived not as a cultural and educational institution, but as an institution that occupies a special place in the system of modern culture: being a repository of national cultural values, performing research and educational functions, today, with the help of scientific knowledge of the art of exposition, which is of independent value, consolidates the cultural memory of society, carries out the continuity of cultural traditions.

The main exposition "Pushkin and his era" is located in 15 halls. It is intended, demonstrating the richness of our collection, to give a figurative understanding of those cultural values ​​that he inherited from Pushkin's time in the 20th century. and which will inherit the 21st century, reveal the world of the poet, the world of his work.

On the landing of the main staircase, the visitor is greeted by an ancient sculpture - the muse of lyrical poetry Euterpe. "In my infancy, she loved me," Pushkin wrote about the beginning of his journey into poetry. "By the command of God, O muse, be obedient," - with these words he completed his journey. In the halls of the museum there are other muses sung by the poet: Clio, Terpsichore, Polyhymnia... This is how one of the leading themes of the exposition is declared - the dialogue of Russian and world cultures embodied in Pushkin's works.

One of the most promising areas modern science about Pushkin - the study of his work in the context of the history, literature, culture and life of his time. And we have biographical and creative themes given in a broad historical context. The first hall - "Prologue" - is dedicated to the 18th century, at the end of which the poet was born, the second - to the Pushkin era in its historical and ordinary, great and small, tragic and funny. Battle scenes and fashion pictures, government manifestos and letters from private individuals, the "Code of Laws of the Russian Empire" and books for children. Here, for the first time, chronicles for each year of Pushkin's life included in the exposition: Honore de Balzac and Adam Mickiewicz, Karl Bryullov and Avdotya Istomina were born in the year of his birth. In 1799 it was forbidden to dance the waltz and wear whiskers. In 1799 A.V. Suvorov won victories in the Italian and Swiss campaigns. In the chronicles, "strange rapprochements" that always interested the poet make themselves felt: it was no coincidence that he drew attention to the fact that he wrote the playful poem "Count Nulin" in Mikhailovsky on December 14, 1825, not knowing what happened in St. Decembrist revolt. So the museum begins a journey into the Pushkin era, a story about the life and work of Pushkin.

The interiors of the rooms on the mezzanine represent images of an office, a nursery, a living room - they could be in the Moscow Pushkin house, which has not survived to this day, where the great poet spent his childhood (recent studies, in particular the work of V.D. Berestov, allow us to abandon the myth of his bleak childhood of a child unloved by his parents). An attempt was made in the museum to recreate the atmosphere of the hospitable Pushkins' house, to tell about family relationships, about the literary interests of Sergei Lvovich and Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, about their friendly and literary ties with N.M. Karamzin, V.A. Zhukovsky, K.N. Batyushkov, I.I. Dmitriev, about the world of ordinary people, which the boy got acquainted with, listening to the tales of his grandmother and nanny, taking walks around Moscow with the serf uncle Nikita Kozlov.

On a table of Karelian birch next to the works of Homer and Plutarch, a candlestick with a swollen candle - a miniature by an unknown artist (according to the hypothesis of a researcher at the museum, candidate of art criticism E.V. Pavlova - possibly Xavier de Maistre): a blue-eyed boy of two or three years. This portrait, like many museum items, has its own interesting fate. It was presented by the people's artist B.C. Yakut, who played the role of Pushkin on the stage of the Moscow Theater. M.N. Yermolova, attributed to the deputy director of the museum for scientific work N.V. Baranskaya. There are other portraits of Pushkin in the museum, created during his lifetime - this is a special pride of our collection. Books, children's magazines, copybooks, split alphabets, toys - they are almost two centuries old - allow you to look into the world of the poet's childhood.

The exposition "Pushkin and his era" is built on a combination of chronological and thematic principles. Separate halls are devoted to the novel "Eugene Onegin", the poem "The Bronze Horseman", the story "The Queen of Spades", the novel "The Captain's Daughter".

"Eugene Onegin", Pushkin's favorite creation, which was destined to become one of the main works of Russian culture, was given a large living room - the central hall of the front suite. The authors of the exposition tried to see "through the magic crystal" of his poetry the realities of that era. A kind of museum commentary on the novel in verse is given in the hall. And the point is not only that the views of St. Petersburg, Moscow, the provinces are presented here; portraits of unknown young people and ladies; various objects of long-gone life - and the double lorgnette mentioned in the novel, and the signet for letters, and "amber on the pipe of Tsaregrad", and "the album of the county young lady". Another thing is more important - in the exposition "Eugene Onegin" is comprehended not only as an encyclopedia of Russian life, but also as a universal novel of culture, which corresponds to the level of modern studies of the work. So, the dialogue of Russian and world cultures that sounds in Pushkin's text is conveyed by portraits and books of those poets whose names are mentioned in the novel, whose poems are included in the text with quotations or reminiscences - these are Homer, Ovid, Tasso, Petrarch, Byron, Guys, Delvig, Yazykov , Baratynsky, Mitskevich.

Exposition complexes: dressing table of a dandy, on which "porcelain and bronze"; a fashionable picture and a book with Ovid's poem "The Science of Love" (for Onegin succeeded in the "science of tender passion"); the bureau of the poet Lensky, where books by Schiller and Goethe are kept; a fireplace, on which a collection of Onegin's books, described by Pushkin, and "Lord Byron's portrait", and "a column with a cast-iron doll" (a small sculptural image of Napoleon) reveal the world of Pushkin's heroes, the spiritual quest of the poet's contemporaries, while corresponding with the text of the novel. It is significant that the exposition attempts to interpret the poetics of the "free novel", where lyrical digressions are the compositional principle. In vertical showcases - the main first edition of "Eugene Onegin"; the center of each showcase is a reproduction of Pushkin's autograph with one or another digression. Here the voice of the author sounds, reflecting on life and its values, on poetry, on the immortality of the poet. The word presented in this way is connected with a thing, an object, which, in turn, tells about the reality embodied in Pushkin's word.

The design of the hall dedicated to "The Captain's Daughter" is also based on a modern interpretation of Pushkin's prose. The pathos of this last completed novel by Pushkin is seen not in the approval of the popular uprising and its leader Pugachev, but in the kindness and nobility that saved Masha Mironova and Grinev in the terrible storm of bloody rebellion and, according to the writer, can save Russia from fratricidal war.

The front suite ends with a solemn hall dedicated to the last years of Pushkin's life. The portraits, books, manuscripts, documents collected here tell about his courageous resistance to circumstances, about the triumph of his mighty spirit, about the eternity of the art he created.

The exposition "Pushkin and his era" is, in essence, a new collective monograph on the stated topic. It introduces into circulation a lot of unknown materials studied by the museum staff - portraits, books, documents, manuscripts. Among them are lifetime portraits of Pushkin and his contemporaries, an autograph of the great poet, autographs of other writers, rare books and documents. Moreover, the study of the collection collected by the museum allows not only to comprehend the life and work of the poet in the broad context of his era, but also to trace the Pushkin tradition in the history of culture of the 19th-20th centuries. The exposition will be continued by halls that tell about Pushkin in the movement of epochs, rooms where individual collections will be presented - the unique library of Russian poetry by I.N. Rozanova; collection on the history of Russian noble families Yu.B. Shmarova; collection of portraits in engravings and lithographs by Ya.G. Zach; the rarest materials of P.V. Gubara - books of the 18th-19th centuries, the iconography of St. Petersburg of the pre-Pushkin and Pushkin times.

The museum has big plans, in which exposition work is given as one of the priority areas of activity. "There are miracles..." - this is the name of the exhibition dedicated to Pushkin's fairy tales, addressed to children. The history of the Moscow Pushkin Museum, its contribution to national culture will also receive an exhibition solution. There is also a partial re-exhibition in the memorial apartment of Pushkin on the Arbat ... Plans are in place to create a memorial house on Basmannaya for Vasily Lvovich Pushkin - the uncle of the great poet, a well-known poet at the beginning of the last century, the headman of the Arzamas literary circle, a theatergoer and bibliophile, a Muscovite who has become a kind of landmark of the capital...

November 30, 1998 at the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin Museum (The Pushkin Museum) opened the exhibition "Eugene Onegin", "... The Distance of the Free Novel" (created by our museum together with the Pushkin Museum with the participation of 14 other museums in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Klin). Other projects are conceived: "Pushkin in the Moscow archives", "Pushkin and world culture" ... On the threshold of the XXI century. the museum continues its creative search.

Doctor of Philology, full member of the Russian Academy of Education N.I. MIKHAILOVA, Deputy Director for Research of the State Museum of A.S. Pushkin

Arise, prophet, and see, and listen,
Fulfill my will
And, bypassing the seas and lands,
Burn people's hearts with the verb.
A. S. Pushkin

Two feelings are wonderfully close to us -
In them the heart finds food -
Love for native land
Love for father's coffins.
A. S. Pushkin

“Peter (. - L.R.) challenged Russia, to which she responded with a colossal phenomenon", - these words of A.I. Herzen are not an exaggeration. Only by the beginning of the 19th century. in Russian artistic culture, there have been striking changes caused by the dialogue that has begun between two powerful Russian cultural traditions. The first of them, ancient, folk, was born at the end of the 10th century. in the bowels of spirituality and illuminated by the names of Anthony Pechersky, Dmitry Rostov, Seraphim of Sarov. The second is official, noble, young, but already having a rich experience of “Russian Europeanness” of the 18th century. Their dialogue (but in the words of D.S. Likhachev, “a combination of various heritages”) was not direct and immediate.

Suffice it to recall that many nobles of the Pushkin era, and Alexander Sergeevich himself, were not even familiar with their great contemporary, the prayer book for the Russian land, the elder Seraphim of Sarov (1760-1833). It's about something else: early XIX V. Russian secular culture, and above all artistic culture, has acquired the features of maturity. Russian masters have learned to embody in artistic images all those ideas and ideals that have been nurtured by the Russian people throughout their Orthodox history. Therefore, the Christian foundations of art were the first half of XIX V. can be traced in everything: in the desire to know the high truths and laws of Being, and in the desire to understand and reflect in artistic images the suffering and misfortune of a simple, destitute person, and in a passionate protest against the lies, hatred, injustice of this world.

And also - in inescapable love for Russia, for its endless expanses, for its long-suffering history. And finally, in the piercing theme of the responsibility of the artist-creator, the artist-prophet before the people for each of his works. In other words, the centuries-old Orthodox spirituality formed an unwritten moral code among Russian artists, composers, and writers, which became the main guideline in the creative search for “their own path” in the art of the Pushkin era and in the decades that followed. In conclusion of this short preamble to the main content of the section, I would like to compare the statements of the two great sons of Russia. “Acquire the spirit of peace,” called the elder Seraphim of Sarov. “And revive the spirit of humility, patience, love and chastity in my heart,” A.S. Pushkin wrote shortly before his death. In the history of Russian artistic culture, the 19th century is often called the "golden age", marked by the brilliant development of literature and theatre, music and painting. The masters of the "golden age" made a rapid breakthrough to the heights of creativity in the most complex European forms and genres, such as the novel, opera and symphony. The "Russian Europeanness" of the 18th century is a thing of the past, along with outdated colloquial vocabulary and powdered wigs of Catherine's times. To replace the creators of the classic art of the Enlightenment, the "defeated teachers" - Derzhavin and Levitsky, Bazhenov and Bortnyansky - a new generation of Russian artists - "winning students" hurried to replace them. A. S. Pushkin (1799-1837) is rightfully considered the first among them.

Pushkin era, i.e. the first three decades of the "golden age" - this is the "beginning of the beginnings" of the achievements, discoveries and revelations of the great Russian classics, the impulse that predetermined the further cultural development of Russia. The result of this movement is the elevation of art to the level of high philosophy, spiritual and moral teachings. The problems of the Divine and the earthly, life and death, sin and repentance, love and compassion - all this has taken on an artistic form, capturing the complex, extraordinary world of a Russian person who is not indifferent to the fate of the Fatherland and is trying to solve the most acute problems of Being. The creators of the Pushkin era laid down the main thing in the Russian classics - its teaching, moral and educational character, its ability to embody everyday reality, without contradicting the eternal laws of beauty and harmony. Two significant events for Russia took place during the Pushkin era - the Patriotic War of 1812 and the Decembrist uprising of 1825. These upheavals did not go unnoticed. They contributed to the maturation in the Russian public consciousness of protest moods, a sense of national dignity, civic patriotism, love of freedom, often in conflict with the centuries-old foundations of the autocratic state. Brilliant in its artistic merits, A. S. Griboedov’s realistic comedy “Woe from Wit”, depicting the confrontation between “one sane person” from among the educated “unwhipped generation” (A. I. Herzen) of Russian nobles and the conservative nobility is convincing proof of this.

In the midst of the seething polyphony of ideologies, views, attitudes, a phenomenon was born and took place, which today we call the "genius of Pushkin." Pushkin's work is a symbol of Russian art for all time. His poetry and prose deeply and multifaceted captured the national spiritual experience and traditional moral values ​​of the Russian people. At the same time, Pushkin's unique ability to feel world culture as a whole in space and time and to respond to the echoes of previous centuries with all his "worldwide responsiveness" (F. M. Dostoevsky) is obvious. Here it should be recalled once again that it was Pushkin, according to many researchers, who managed to “overcome the duality of Russian culture, to find the secret of combining its opposite principles. The synthesis of deeply national and truly European content in his work occurs extremely naturally. His fairy tales were read both in noble living rooms and in peasant huts. With the works of Pushkin, Russian self-consciousness entered the vast world of the new European culture.<…>The "golden age" of Russian culture bears a distinct imprint of Pushkin's style. This allows us to conditionally designate the type of this cultural epoch as the “Pushkinian” model of Russian culture” 1 . Probably more has been written about Pushkin the writer than about any other Russian genius 2 . Therefore, we turn to the consideration of the phenomena of artistic culture that arose in the bowels of the Pushkin era. V.F. Odoevsky named A.S. Pushkin "the sun of Russian poetry".

To paraphrase these words, the founder of the Russian musical classical school M. I. Glinka (1804-1857) can be called the "sun of Russian music." By the power of his genius, Glinka was the first to bring musical art Russia among the most significant phenomena of world culture. He established the principles of nationality and national character in Russian music, organically linking the achievements of European art with Russian folk song. The composer's artistic credo can be considered his words: "... the people create music, and we, composers, only arrange it." The people are the protagonist of his writings, the bearer of the best moral qualities, dignity, and patriotism. The melodious Glinka melody, sincere, direct, which grew out of the deep layers of Russian musical folklore, became the expression of the nationality. Each voice in the musical fabric of his works sings in its own way, obeying the logic of general development. Glinkin's chant makes his music related to the folk song, making it nationally colored and easily recognizable. At the same time, the composer was inexhaustibly inventive in the variant development of musical themes. This composing method, also "overheard" from the Russian folk song, becomes "significant" for Russian classical music of the 19th century. Everyone who listens to Glinka's music will not bypass the Glinka-Pushkin parallel. This comparison is inevitable: Pushkin's poetry can be heard both in Glinka's romances and in his opera Ruslan and Lyudmila. Both masters were the founders and discoverers of the "golden age". Like Pushkin's poetry, Glinka's music embodies a healthy life principle, the joy of being, an optimistic perception of the world. Complementing this kinship is the "universal responsiveness" that is equally inherent in both the poet and the composer. Glinka was close to the temperamental tunes of the East, the graceful grace of Polish dances, the most complex melodic lines of Italian opera arias, and passionate Spanish rhythms. Listening to the world of foreign-language musical cultures, the composer, like a diligent collector, collected priceless musical treasures of different peoples and refracted them in his work. These are the magnificent Polish scenes in the opera A Life for the Tsar, and the images of "Russian Spain" in the "Spanish Overtures" for a symphony orchestra, and the "Russian East" in the opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila". Opera is central to Glinka's legacy. The composer laid the foundations for the two leading opera genres in Russian classical music - the opera-drama and the epic opera-fairy tale. Glinka called his opera A Life for the Tsar (1836) "Russian heroic-tragic".

The essay, created on the basis of real events in Russian history at the beginning of the 17th century, is devoted to a deeply patriotic theme: the village headman Ivan Susanin dies, at the cost of his life, saving the royal family from the reprisals of the Polish invaders. For the first time in Russian music, the protagonist of an opera composition is the common people - the bearer of high spiritual qualities, goodness and justice. In the mass folk scenes framing the opera, the introduction stands out (from the Latin introductio - introduction) and the epilogue, where Glinka composed the grandiose hymns of Russia. The famous choir “Glory” sounds victoriously and solemnly in the finale of the opera, which the composer called the “hymn-march”. Glinka endowed the main tragic character of the opera, the peasant Ivan Susanin, with the real features of a Russian farmer - father, family man, owner. At the same time, the image of the hero has not lost its greatness. According to the composer, Susanin draws spiritual strength for selfless deeds from the source of the Orthodox faith, from the moral foundations. Russian life. Therefore, themes taken from folk scenes sound in his part. Let's pay attention: Glinka almost never uses genuine folk songs in the opera: he creates his own melodies, close in intonations to folk musical speech.

However, for the first appearance on the stage of Ivan Susanin, the composer nevertheless took a real folk tune - a melody recorded from a Luga cab driver (in the opera, Susanin's remark: "What to guess about the wedding"). It is no coincidence that the composer's enemies, after the successful premiere of the opera, dubbed it "the coachman". But on the other hand, A.S. Pushkin responded to Glinka's creation with a magnificent impromptu: Listening to this novelty, Envy, clouded with anger, Let it gnash, but Glinka cannot be trampled into the mud. Another peak in the work of M. I. Glinka is the opera Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842) based on the youthful poem by A. S. Pushkin. The composer hoped that Pushkin would write the libretto himself, but the untimely death of the poet ruined this beautiful plan. Without changing the outline of Pushkin's text, Glinka made some adjustments to it: he removed a touch of irony, playfulness and endowed the main characters - Ruslan and Lyudmila - with deep, strong characters.

Some changes are connected with the specifics of the opera genre. So, for example, if Pushkin's princely feast in Kyiv takes only seventeen poetic lines, then Glinka turned this holiday into a grandiose musical stage, magnificent and magnificent. Ruslan and Lyudmila is an epic opera, which means that the conflict in it is revealed not through a direct clash of opposing forces, but on the basis of the unhurried unfolding of events captured in finished paintings that have strict logic. The introduction and finale, framing the opera, appear as majestic frescoes of ancient Slavic life. Between them, the composer placed contrasting magical acts depicting the adventures of the heroes in the realm of Naina and Chernomor. In "Ruslan and Lyudmila" the features of the epic, fairy tale and lyrical poem were combined, so heroic, lyrical and fantastic lines can be distinguished in the music of the opera. The heroic line opens with the songs of Bayan in the introduction of a musical work and continues in the development of the image of the noble warrior Ruslan. The lyrical line is images of love and fidelity. She is represented in the arias of Lyudmila, Ruslan, in the ballad of Finn. The bright characters of the opera are opposed to "evil fantasy" - the forces of magic, sorcery, oriental exoticism.

In fantastic scenes, the composer used colorful, unusual-sounding means of orchestral expression and genuine folk themes that exist in different regions of the Caucasus and the Middle East. The anti-heroes of the opera do not have developed vocal characteristics, and the evil Chernomor is a silent character at all. The composer did not deprive the magical evil of Pushkin's humor. The famous "March of Chernomor" conveys the features of a formidable, but funny Karla, whose fairy-tale world is illusory and short-lived. Glinka's symphonic legacy is small in scope. Among Glinka's orchestral masterpieces are Waltz Fantasy, Kamarinskaya, Aragonese jota”, “Memories of a summer night in Madrid”, whose music contains the main principles of Russian classical symphony. A special area of ​​​​the composer's work is "Pushkin's romances": "I am here, Inezilla", "Night marshmallow", "The fire of desire burns in the blood", "I remember a wonderful moment" and many other Pushkin's lines found a surprisingly sensitive and expressive embodiment in magical sounds Glinka. The process of organic connection of two cultural traditions - deep national and pan-European - was vividly reflected in the fine arts. The Russian village, the life of peasants and ordinary townspeople - these are the images of the paintings of the outstanding masters of the Pushkin era A.G. Venetsianov and V.A. Tropinin. The works of A.G. Venetsianov (1780-1847) bear traces of classicist ideas about high ideals of harmonious beauty. When, by decision of Emperor Alexander I, an exposition of Russian artists was opened in the Winter Palace, Venetsianov's canvases took pride of place in it. This is no coincidence. A remarkable master, Venetsianov is rightfully considered the founder of a new promising everyday genre in Russian painting. The son of a Moscow merchant, A.G. Venetsianov, in his youth worked as a draftsman and surveyor, until he realized that his true vocation was painting.

Having moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg, he began to take lessons from the famous portrait painter V.L. Borovikovsky and quickly established himself as the author of classicist ceremonial portraits. The turn in his creative destiny happened unexpectedly. In 1812, the artist acquired a small estate in the Tver province, where he settled. Peasant life struck and inspired the master to completely new themes and plots. Villagers cleaning beets, scenes of plowing and reaping, haymaking, a shepherd sleeping by a tree - all this appears on the artist's canvases as a special poetic world, devoid of any contradictions and conflicts. In the "quiet" paintings by A. G. Venetsianov there is no plot development. His works are fanned by the state of eternal prosperity and harmony of man and nature. The beauty of the touching, skillfully created by the painter always emphasizes the spiritual generosity, dignity, nobility of a simple farmer, forever connected with his native land, with its ancient traditions and foundations ("The Sleeping Shepherd", 1823 - 1824; "On the arable land. Spring", 1820s .; "In Harvest. Summer", 1820s; "Reapers", 1820s).

So calm and harmonious inner world heroes of paintings by V.A. Trolinin (1776-1857), a remarkable Moscow master of portrait painting. Tropinin achieved fame, success, the title of academician thanks to his enormous talent and ability to follow his life's calling, despite the obstacles prepared by fate. A serf, Tropinin served as a lackey for his masters almost to old age, and received his freedom only at the age of forty-five under pressure from the public, being already a well-known artist. The main thing that the master managed to achieve was to establish his artistic principles, where the main thing is the truth of the environment and the truth of character. The heroes of Tropinin's paintings feel light and at ease. Often absorbed in their usual work, they do not seem to notice close attention to them. Numerous "Lacemakers", "Golden Seamstresses", "Guitarists" say that Tropinin, like Venetsianov, somewhat idealized his models, highlighting sparks of reasonable beauty and goodness in everyday everyday life. Among the artist's works, a special place is occupied by images of people of art, devoid of any grand pomposity, attracting with their rich inner content. Such are the portraits of A.S. Pushkin (1827), K.P. Bryullov (1836), self-portrait against the background of a window overlooking the Kremlin (1844), “Guitarist” (portrait of musician V.I. Morkov, 1823). Even during the life of A.S. Pushkin, the words “ Great Karl”, uttered by one of his contemporaries, could mean only one thing - the name of the brilliant artist K.P. Bryullov (1799-1852).

None of the masters of Russia had such fame at that time. It seemed that everything was too easy for Bryullov. However, behind a light brush, superhuman labor and a constant search for unbeaten paths in art were hidden. Look at the famous "Self-Portrait" (1848). Before us is an extraordinary person, confident in himself and his professionalism, but at the same time immensely tired of the burden of fame. The works of K. P. Bryullov captivated the audience with the brilliance of temperament, a sense of form, and the dynamics of saturated color. A graduate of the Academy of Arts, Bryullov already in the first pictures declared himself as an independent master, alien to closed academicism. He knew the canons of classicism well, but, as necessary, freely overcame them, filling the artistic images with a sense of living reality.

In 1821, Bryullov was awarded the Small Gold Medal of the Academy of Arts for the painting Three Angels Appearing to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre. However, the leadership of the Academy unexpectedly refused the master a pension for a trip abroad (apparently, the reason for the refusal was the conflict of a quarrelsome young man with someone from the senior teaching staff). Only the Society for the Encouragement of Artists allocated money for a business trip abroad. But Bryullov pretty soon learned to earn his living. The purpose of his voyage was traditional - Italy. The path to it lay through Germany and Austria, where Bryullov in a short time acquired a European name as a portrait master. Orders literally poured in from all sides.

At the same time, the artist was extremely demanding of himself and never worked just for the sake of money. He did not finish all the canvases, sometimes throwing the canvas, which he ceased to like. The juicy colors of Italian nature aroused Bryullov's desire to create "sunny" canvases. Such magnificent works as Italian Morning (1823), Girl Picking Grapes in the Outskirts of Naples (1827), Italian Noon (1827) are imbued with a mood of delight before the beauties of the world. The artist worked with inspiration and quickly, although sometimes he nurtured his ideas for a long time. So, in 1827, he first visited the ruins of Pompeii - a city near Naples, which died from the eruption of Vesuvius in 79. The picture of the tragedy struck the artist's imagination. But only a few years later, in 1830, he took up the canvas "The Last Day of Pompeii", completing it three years later. Two figurative spheres converged in the picture. The first is a formidable element, beyond the control of man, a fatal retribution for his sins (recall that, according to legend, Pompeii and Herculaneum were punished by God as cities of debauchery, as a place of sexual entertainment for wealthy Romans)1. The second is an image of humanity, sacrifice, suffering and love. Among the heroes of the canvas are those who save the most precious thing in these terrible moments - children, father, bride. In the background, Bryullov depicted himself with a box for paints.

This character is full of close attention to the unfolding tragedy, as if preparing to capture it on canvas. The presence of the artist tells the audience: this is not a figment of the imagination, but a historical eyewitness account. In Russia, the canvas "The Last Day of Pompeii" was officially recognized as the best work of painting of the 19th century. A laurel wreath was laid on the artist to enthusiastic applause, and the poet E. A. Baratynsky responded to the triumph of the master with verses: And the “Last Day of Pompeii” became the first day for the Russian brush. Beautiful human bodies and faces have always attracted K. P. Bryullov, and many of his characters are unusually beautiful. In the last years of his stay in Italy, he wrote the famous Horsewoman (1832). On the canvas - a magnificent lady, with the dexterity of an Amazon, saddled a hot horse. A certain conventionality of the appearance of the prancing beauty is overcome by the liveliness of the girl who ran out to her (Pacchini's sisters, the daughters of the Italian composer, who were brought up in the house of the childless Countess Yu.P. Samoilova, posed for the master).

No less beautiful is the portrait of Yu.P. Samoilova herself with her pupil Amazilia Pacchini (c. 1839). It has a feeling of admiration for the beauty of a model dressed in a luxurious fancy dress. So, literature, music, painting of the Pushkin era, with all the diversity of their images, speak of one thing - the stormy self-identification of Russian culture, the desire to establish Russian national spiritual and moral ideals on the "European field". In those years, the philosophical justification of the “Russian idea” had not yet been found, but artistic traditions had already appeared that developed the idea of ​​the values ​​of Russian statehood, the significance of Russian military victories, overshadowed by the banners of the Orthodox faith.

So, back in 1815, on the crest of popular rejoicing over the victory over Napoleon, the poet V.A. Zhukovsky wrote “The Prayer of the Russians”, beginning with the words “God Save the Tsar”, which was originally sung on the theme of the English anthem. In 1833, the composer A.F. Lvov (on behalf of A.Kh. Benkendorf) created a new melody, which made it possible to approve the “Prayer of the Russians” as the military and official anthem of Russia. But, perhaps, architecture embodied the ideals of the heroic time and the increased Russian self-consciousness most clearly. Images of architecture of the first decades of the XIX century. amaze with their royal splendor, scope and civic pathos. Never before has the construction of St. Petersburg and Moscow, as well as many provincial towns, taken on such a grandiose scale. The achievements of architecture, unlike other arts, are associated with a new stage in the development of classicism, which is called the "high" or "Russian" Empire style. Classicism of the 19th century was not a "repetition of the past", he discovered many original, innovative architectural ideas that met the needs of his contemporaries. And although the Empire came to Russia from Europe, it can be argued that only on Russian soil did it develop most vividly.

In terms of the number of masterpieces of this style, St. Petersburg may well be considered a kind of museum collection of architectural classicism of the 19th century. The main feature of the Russian Empire style is the organic synthesis of architecture, sculpture and arts and crafts. The aesthetic understanding of building tasks has also changed: now each city building was not closed in itself, but was inscribed in neighboring buildings compositionally and logically, with the exact calculation of creating “stone beauty”. The structure determined the appearance of the square, and the square determined the nearby city buildings: such a chain was born in the projects of the early 19th century. This is how the ensembles of the main squares of St. Petersburg are formed - the Palace, Admiralteyskaya, Senatskaya. Moscow, which suffered greatly from the fire of 1812, does not lag behind in updating its appearance: the territory around the Kremlin is being equipped, Red Square is being rebuilt, Teatralnaya is being broken up, new squares are appearing at the intersection of ring and radial roads, old houses are being restored, new mansions, government offices, and shopping malls are being built. ranks.

The founder of high Russian classicism was A. N. Voronikhin (1759-1814). The main work of his life was the construction of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg (1801-1811). A competition for the design of this building was announced during the reign of Paul I. It is known that the emperor wanted to build a temple in Russia like the Roman Cathedral of St. Peter, but Voronikhin proposed a different solution. And won the contest! The architect conceived the cathedral as a palace with a large colonnade covering the "body" of the temple itself. The colonnade formed a semi-circular square on Nevsky Prospekt, the main street of St. Petersburg. It consists of 94 columns of the Corinthian order, about 13 meters high, directly "flowing" into the city (by the way, this is the only similarity with St. Peter's Cathedral, agreed with Paul I). Despite the huge volumes, the Kazan shrine seems weightless. The impression of lightness, free, as if open space is preserved when you enter inside. Unfortunately, the painting and luxurious sculptural decoration, created under Voronikhin, have come down to us far from complete. Kazan Cathedral immediately took a special place in the public life of Russia. It was here, on the Cathedral Square, that the farewell of the people to M. I. Kutuzov, who was leaving for the army to fight Napoleon, took place. It is here, in the cathedral, that the field marshal will be buried, and A.S. Pushkin, having visited the grave, will dedicate the famous lines to the commander: Before the tomb of the saint I stand with my head bowed ...

Everything is sleeping around; only lamps In the darkness of the temple gild Granite bulks of pillars And their hanging row of banners.<…>In your coffin delight lives! He gives us a Russian voice; He repeats to us about that year, When the voice of the people's will Called to your holy gray hair: "Go, save!" You got up and saved... And today on the wall near the holy tomb hang the keys to the enemy cities conquered by the Russian army in the war of 1812. Later, monuments to M. I. Kutuzov and M. B. Barclay de Tolly were erected on both sides of Kazan Square - so Russia immortalized the memory of its heroes. A. N. Voronikhin could no longer see all this - he died in February 1814, when our troops were still approaching Paris. “Stand with a firm foot by the sea…” – this is exactly how A. S. Pushkin formulated the dream of Peter the Great, the founding father of the northern capital. This plan began to be implemented during the life of the emperor. But in its entirety it was realized only by the 19th century. A hundred years have passed, and the young city of Midnight countries, beauty and wonder, From the darkness of the forests, from the swamp of blat Ascended magnificently, proudly.<…>Along the busy banks of the Gromada, slender crowds of Palaces and towers; ships In crowds from all ends of the earth They strive for rich marinas; The Neva is dressed in granite; Bridges hung over the waters; Her islands were covered with dark green gardens... Pushkin, as always, was very accurate in describing the new city, European in appearance, but essentially Russian.

The basis of the layout of St. Petersburg was determined by the river - capricious, bringing a lot of trouble during floods, but full-flowing, accessible for ships of any size. During the period of navigation since the time of Peter the Great, the port was located at the eastern tip of Vasilyevsky Island in front of the famous building of the Twelve Collegia. There was also the Stock Exchange, unfinished in the 18th century. The gifted Swiss architect Thomas de Thomon (1760-1813) was commissioned to erect the building of the new Stock Exchange (1805-1810). The exchange was located on the spit of Vasilyevsky Island, washed from the sides by two channels of the Neva. The architect completely changed the look of this place, turning it into an important point of the ensemble of the center of St. Petersburg. In front of the main façade of the Exchange, a semi-circular square was formed, allowing one to admire the clear, compact composition of the building with unusually simple and powerful geometric shapes. The houses to the right and left of the Stock Exchange were built after the death of the architect by his followers. The construction of the Admiralty (1806-1823) according to the project of the Russian architect A.D. Zakharov (1761-1811) was equally important for the formation of the finished image of the center of St. Petersburg. Recall that the main idea of ​​​​this building belonged to Peter 1.

In 1727-1738. the building was rebuilt by I.K. Korobov. The work of A. D. Zakharov became the highest point in the development of late classicism. The Admiralty appears as a monument to the glory of the Russian capital, as its symbol and at the same time as the most important part of the city. Construction began with the renovation of the old building, but then Zakharov went far beyond the original task and designed a new composition, while retaining the famous Korobovsky spire. The main façade of the Admiralty stretched out along the resulting square, and the side façades of the general U-shaped configuration turned out to be directed towards the Neva. Zakharov believed: The Admiralty needs a sculptural decoration corresponding to the image. Therefore, he himself drew a detailed plan for the location of the sculptures, which was later implemented by remarkable Russian masters - F.F. Shchedrin, I.I. Terebenev, V.I. Demut-Malinovsky, S.S. Pimenov and others. The selection of subjects for the sculptures was determined by the function of the building - the main maritime department of the then Russia. Here are the deities that control the water elements, and the symbolism of rivers and oceans, and historical scenes on the themes of the construction of the fleet and the exploits of Russian sailors. Among the most expressive sculptural decorations is the stucco frieze1 “Establishment of the Fleet in Russia”, created by master I.I. Terebenev.

Thus, the Admiralty became a tribute to the memory of the deeds of Peter the Great, who made Russia a powerful maritime power. In the first decades of the XIX century. preference in architecture is given to buildings of a public, or utilitarian, nature. Theaters and ministries, departments and regimental barracks, shops and horse yards - all this is being built relatively quickly, efficiently and in the best traditions of Russian high classicism. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that many buildings, it would seem, of a practical purpose, acquired the symbolism of monuments glorifying Russia (such as the Admiralty).

The victory in the Patriotic War of 1812 aroused in society a sense of patriotism, national pride and a desire to perpetuate the feat of arms of Russian soldiers. The Champ de Mars, now famous all over the world, was once a swamp. Then, in the time of Peter the Great, it was drained and a palace was built for Empress Catherine I. Tsaritsyn Meadow, as these once perilous lands began to be called, turned into a favorite pastime place for St.

After the war with Napoleon, the square was renamed the Field of Mars (Mars is the god of war). Now military parades and parades were held here, and the field became associated with military glory. In 1816, the barracks of the Pavlovsky regiment began to be built on the Field of Mars. The elite Life Guards Pavlovsky Regiment was a living legend, the embodiment of courage and valor. Therefore, for the Pavlovsk grenadiers it was necessary to create something worthy, solid and extraordinary. The work was carried out according to the project of a native Muscovite, architect V.P. Stasov (1769-1848), to whom the northern capital owes many beautiful architectural creations. The Pavlovsky barracks are a strict, solemn and somewhat austere building, which surprisingly accurately corresponds to their purpose. “Restrained majesty” - this is how Stasov himself assessed the image of the barracks.

This style is preserved by the master in his other works. Another significant building, rebuilt by Stasov, adjoins the Field of Mars - the Imperial stables (1817-1823). The architect turned an inexpressive building of a hundred years ago into a true work of art, making it the center of the organized around the square. This place is of particular importance for us: on February 1, 1837, A.S. Pushkin was buried in the gate church on Konyushennaya Square. A special area of ​​​​V. P. Stasov's work is regimental churches and cathedrals. The architect built two wonderful cathedrals in St. Petersburg for the Preobrazhensky and Izmailovsky regiments. The regimental church in the name of the Holy Trinity (1827-1835) was erected on the site of the wooden church of the same name, which had fallen into disrepair. When offering Stasov the development of the project, the customers specifically stipulated the conditions: the new church should accommodate at least 3,000 people and have exactly the same arrangement of domes as in the old church. The condition was fulfilled, and the majestic snow-white handsome temple rose above the capital with its light blue domes, on which golden stars shone. By the way, this is how the temples were decorated in Ancient Rus', and Stasov knew his native well. The Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior (1827-1829) was also not created from scratch: during its construction, the architect had to use the building

middle of the 18th century, which was badly damaged by fire. The completion of construction work coincided with the victory in the Russian-Turkish war (1828-1829). In memory of this event, V.P. Stasov built an unusual fence around the temple, made up of captured Turkish cannons. On the fifteenth anniversary of the Battle of Borodino, the ceremony of laying the Triumphal Gates at the Moscow Gate took place - the beginning of the journey from St. Petersburg to the old capital. The design of the triumphal building belonged to Stasov and was conceived as a monument to Russian military glory. The gate consists of twelve Doric columns fifteen meters high. A heavy entablature rests on the columns. Above the pairs of extreme columns there are eight compositions made of copper: interlaced armor, spears, helmets, swords, banners, symbolizing the exploits and triumph of Russian weapons. The cast-iron composition was crowned with the inscription: “To the victorious Russian troops”, then the feats committed in 1826-1831 were listed. The first among equals in Russian architecture of the 1810s-1820s. C. I. Rossi (1775-1849) is rightfully considered. In an era when Russia was inspired by the triumph of its victories, Rossi develops the principles of grandiose ensemble urban planning, which have become a model for other masters. And it was at this time that Rossi realized all his ingenious creative plans.

The master thought outside the box and on a large scale. When he received an order for a palace or theater project, he immediately expanded the scope of construction, creating new squares, squares, and streets around the building being erected. And every time he found special methods of harmonic correlation of buildings with the general appearance of the area. For example, during the construction of the Mikhailovsky Palace (now the State Russian Museum), a new square was laid out, and a street was laid from it, connecting the palace with Nevsky Prospekt. It was Rossi who gave Palace Square a finished look by building IT in 1819-1829. the building of the General Staff and ministries and throwing a wide arch between the two buildings. As a result, the incorrect, from the point of view of high classicism, form of Palace Square, inherited from the 18th century, acquired a regular, slender and symmetrical character. In the center of the whole composition is a triumphal arch crowned with six horses with warriors and a chariot of glory.

One of the most beautiful creations of K.I. Rossi is the Alexandrinsky Theater (1816-1834). In connection with its construction, the appearance of the nearest buildings has changed beyond recognition. Rossi organized the square and cut through new streets, including the famous street with symmetrical buildings that now bears his name. The architect had a strong character and an outstanding ability to defend his ideas, which he thought through to the smallest detail. It is known that he supervised all the work on decorating buildings, he himself made projects for furniture, wallpaper, closely followed the work of sculptors and painters. That is why his ensembles are unique not only in terms of architectural composition, but also as an outstanding phenomenon of the synthesis of the arts of high classicism. The last creations of the architect are the Synod and the Senate (1829-1834), similar to the palaces, which completed the ensemble of the Senate Square, where the famous "The Bronze Horseman" by E. M. Falcone is placed.

In the legacy of Russia there is another creation that is not directly related to architecture, but has great historical, spiritual and moral significance. This is the Military Gallery dedicated to the memory of the heroes of the Patriotic War, which adorned one of the interiors of the Winter Palace. The gallery contains 332 portraits of prominent Russian military leaders. A.S. Pushkin wrote: The Russian tsar has a chamber in his halls: It is not rich in gold, not in velvet;<…>In a tight crowd, the artist placed Here the chiefs of our people's forces, Covered with the glory of a wonderful campaign And eternal memory year twelfth. Moscow, in a hurry to renew its appearance after the fire of 1812, adopted the new ideas of high classicism, but at the same time retained many traditional forms.

The combination of new and old gives Moscow architecture a special uniqueness. Among the architects who carried out the reconstruction of the ancient capital, the name of O.I. Bove (1784-1834) stands out. It was he who first tried to connect the medieval buildings of Red Square with a new building - the Trading Rows (1815, later they were dismantled). The low dome of the Torgovy Ryady turned out to be directly opposite the dome of the Kazakov Senate, visible from behind the Kremlin wall. On this formed axis, a monument to Minin and Pozharsky, the heroes of 1612, was erected, with his back to the rows, by the sculptor I.P. Martos (1754-1835). The most famous creation of Beauvais is the Triumphal Gate, placed at the entrance to Moscow from St. Petersburg (1827-1834; now moved to Kutuzovsky Prospekt). The monumental arch topped with six horses echoes the images of St. Petersburg architecture and complements the panorama of the grandiose monuments of Russian architecture that glorified Russia and its victorious army.

Alas! Friends! the years fly by
And with them after one another
Windy fashions flicker
A varied series...
A. S. Pushkin

Now in the museum of A.S. Pushkin on Prechistenka is a very beautiful exhibition "Fashion of the Pushkin era." I want to sincerely thank everyone who took part in the organization of this wonderful project! And, in particular, one of the costume restorers, a talented, wonderful person - Larisa Metzker lameta

The exhibition "Fashion of the Pushkin era" covers the most diverse areas of Russian life and culture in the first third of the 19th century. Its purpose is to show how the concept of "fashion" was reflected in the objects and phenomena of everyday life - material, moral and social. Following the great historical events that agitated Europe and Russia at the beginning of the 19th century, the aesthetic tastes of society also changed. The fashion for architecture and the interior of buildings, for literature and art, for the manner of behavior in society and, of course, for costumes and hairstyles changed. After all, the suit reflected the occupation, belonging to a certain class, the level of material well-being and the circle of interests of its owner. Thus, fashion was not only a fad of dandies, but also a sign of a person's social affiliation, a sign of his political predilections and ideas prevailing in society.

The exposition is devoted to the daily routine of a secular person, whose life reflected the general desire for the ritualization of everyday life for the noble culture. During the day, a person was forced to change clothes several times, as the rules of good manners required a certain type of clothing for different etiquette situations. A frock coat, quite appropriate for a morning walk, was unacceptable for dinner or evening visits, and a secular lady could not appear in a turban or beret in the first half of the day - they were intended for a ball or theater. It is no coincidence that one of Pushkin's contemporaries referred "the art of dressing well" to the "number of fine arts", comparing it with the gift of being "a great musician or a great painter, and perhaps even a great person."

Sorry robe! an idle comrade of bliss,
Leisure friend, witness of secret thoughts!
With you I knew the monotonous world,
But a quiet world where lights shine and noise
It didn't occur to me in oblivion.
P.A. Vyazemsky

Men's attire for the first half of the day was a dressing gown and a dressing gown. The morning toilet for women consisted in dresses of a special cut. For metropolitan fashionistas, these were expensive Parisian toilets, for provincial young ladies - simple home dresses. In the morning dress, they went out for breakfast, saw family or close friends. It was supposed to change clothes for dinner, especially if guests were expected.

In their works, Russian writers of the 19th century often focused readers' attention on the morning dresses of their heroes. The hero of Pushkin's story "The Young Lady-Peasant Woman" Alexei Berestov, having arrived at the Muromskys' house early in the morning, finds Lisa reading his letter, in a "white morning dress". The heroine of L. N. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" Natasha Rostova meets Prince Andrei, who came to visit them, in "home blue dress", Tatyana Larina's mother, having married, "finally renewed / on cotton wool a dressing gown and a cap." A dressing gown, or dressing gown - spacious clothes without buttons, usually belted with a twisted cord - could be worn by both men and women. He was especially popular in 1830 In one of the issues of the magazine "Molva" for 1832 it was reported: "For men, the fashion for dressing gowns has become so established that patterns and fabrics have been invented for them. Shawls are most suitable for this."

However, the most attention of Russian writers was given to the dressing gown, which served from the 18th to the middle of the 19th century as a “ceremonial negligee”. In the poem "Dead Souls" N.V. Gogol noted with irony that the chairman of the chamber "received his guests in a dressing gown, somewhat oily." In "Eugene Onegin" the dressing gown accompanies the philistine and soulless life of Tatyana Larina's parents and is considered as one of the variants of Lensky's fate:

He would have changed a lot.
I would part with the muses, get married,
In the village, happy and horned.
I'd wear a quilted robe...

More than any other home wear, the bathrobe depended on fashion. "Sewn in the form of a long frock coat with velvet lapels", the dressing gown of the hero of the story V.A. Sollogub "Pharmacist" "testified to the dapper habits" of his master. The hero of the "Egyptian Nights" Charsky, in his clothes always "observed the very latest fashion", walked at home" in a crested brocade skullcap "and" a golden Chinese robe girded with a Turkish shawl.

At the same time, P.A. Vyazemsky and N.M. Languages ​​glorified the dressing gown as "clothes of idleness and laziness", opposing the officer's uniform or "living room livery". It was in V.A. Tropinin portrayed A.S. Pushkin, A.I. Ivanov - N.V. Gogol, V.G. Perov - A.N. Ostrovsky, I.E. Repin - M.P. Mussorgsky. Thus, both in Russian poetry and in Russian painting, the dressing gown became a symbol of the freedom of a creative person.

One of the secular duties were visits. Like other etiquette situations, the custom of receiving visits was subject to fashion. During the time of Catherine II, it was considered fashionable to receive guests while dressing, but at the beginning of the 19th century, only elderly ladies adhered to this custom. In addition to visits, the purpose of which was to pay respect, there were congratulatory, thanksgiving, farewell visits and, finally, visits to express participation ... Congratulatory visits were made on New Year, for Easter, on the day of the name day. After receiving an invitation to a ball or dinner, one should certainly pay a visit of thanks. The newlyweds made wedding visits in the first two weeks after the wedding, if they did not immediately go on a honeymoon trip. Participation visits were necessary when visiting a sick person or offering condolences after a funeral.

The accuracy of observing the rules of the visit unmistakably indicated that a person belonged to a secular society. In many houses there were days when they received visitors. It was customary to make morning visits between breakfast and lunch. If the doorman refused to accept the visitor without explaining the reasons, this meant that he was denied the house altogether.

The business suit was of great importance. The Moscow Telegraph magazine regularly reported on new business suits for men and women. A business suit for morning visits had to be elegant, smart, but not formal. This could be perceived in society as an embarrassment and become a topic of general ridicule. The men arrived in frock coats with waistcoats, the women in fashionable attires specially designed for morning visits. After an evening visit, one could go to a theater or a club, so the business suit differed little from evening attire. If a man paid a visit to the head of the service, he had to be dressed in a uniform. However, the hero of "Anna Karenina", Steve Oblonsky, going on a visit to the boss, found it necessary to put on a frock coat, since they were social acquaintances. According to the memoirs of a contemporary, A.P. Yermolov, who arrived in Moscow, could not "testify his respect" to the Grand Duke "having nothing but a tailcoat and a frock coat." The Grand Duke ordered to tell him "that he would see him with pleasure and in a tailcoat" .

Entered: and a cork in the ceiling,
The fault of the comet spurted current;
In front of him is a bloody roast-beef,
And truffles, luxury young years,
French cuisine best color,
And Strasbourg's imperishable pie
Between live Limburg cheese
And golden pineapple.
A.S. Pushkin

In the 19th century, you could dine at home, in a club or restaurant. The magnificence of the dinner parties of the Russian nobility amazed contemporaries. A French traveler who visited Russia at the end of the 18th century noted with some surprise: “It was customary to celebrate the birthdays and name days of every familiar person, and it would be impolite not to come with congratulations on such a day. On these days no one was invited, but everyone was received. .. One can imagine what it cost the Russian bars to observe this custom; they had to constantly arrange feasts. The custom of accepting everyone who wanted to "dine" was preserved at the beginning of the 19th century. In noble families, as a rule, thirty-five - forty people gathered at the table, and on big holidays - hundreds of three guests. However, time made its own adjustments. They sat down to dine no longer at noon, but about four o'clock in the afternoon. The custom of wearing dishes "according to ranks" was a thing of the past. And, of course, the fashion for decorating the dining room and table setting changed. Only fruit bowls and flowers have stood the test of time.

Secular etiquette required a certain costume for the guests. One of Pushkin's contemporaries, describing a dinner at the Moscow Governor-General D.V. Golitsyn, remarked: "Only the British are allowed to be such pigs; we were all dressed up in the parade, although not in uniform, but this eccentric appeared in a frock coat ...".

However, in St. Petersburg and Moscow, young people preferred a club or a restaurant to home-cooked meals. There were few good restaurants, each visited by a certain, stable circle of people. To appear in this or that fashionable restaurant (at Talon or later Dumas) meant to appear at the assembly point of single youth - "lions" and "dandies". In 1834, in one of his letters to Natalya Nikolaevna, Pushkin reported: "... I appeared to Dumas, where my appearance produced general joy ...", and a few days later: "I dine with Dumas at 2 o'clock, so as not to meet with a bachelor gang."

Of course, the dictates of fashion also extended to gastronomy. In the novel "Eugene Onegin" Pushkin mentions many fashionable novelties of the menu of the late 1810s and early 1820s. Among them - a dish of English cuisine "roast-beef bloodied" and "Strasbourg pie" - goose liver pate, brought in canned form. Pineapple - a traditional dessert for Pushkin's time, known in Russia since the middle of the 18th century - was no longer perceived as a curiosity, but still remained one of the favorite treats. Residents of both capitals, accustomed to having dinner at home, had only to send for a pineapple to a neighboring shop, and "secular lions" and "dandies" could order it in expensive restaurants in St. Petersburg or Moscow. "Comet wine" was also in great fashion - champagne of the 1811 harvest, which owes its name to the bright comet, which could be seen from the spring of 1811 to the beginning of the winter of 1812. Three war years made it difficult for him to reach Russia, but after the defeat of Napoleon, French wine merchants hurried to deliver him to the victorious country. For many years, "comet wine" has not lost its popularity, and in literary works was sung so often that it became one of the poetic clichés.

Will I portray in a true picture
secluded office,
Where is the mod pupil exemplary
Dressed, undressed and dressed again?
A.S. Pushkin

The study - a room for solitary studies - belonged to the owner of the house and played an important representative role in the social life of its owner. More than any other room, it gave an idea of ​​the character, level of education, position in the world and the needs of its owner. The office of the count from the story of A.S. Pushkin's "Shot" struck with luxury: "near the walls there were bookcases with books, and above each was a bronze bust; above the marble fireplace there was a wide mirror; the floor was upholstered with green cloth and covered with carpets." "Light blue French wallpaper" that covered the walls of Pechorin's office in M.Yu. Lermontov "Princess of Lithuania", "glossy oak doors with fashionable handles and oak window frames showed a decent person in the owner." Office interior: furniture and objects of arts and crafts, books and paintings, busts of French encyclopedists or "Lord Byron's portrait" not only reflected the interests of man, but also demonstrated the fashion trends of the time.In accordance with the tastes of the era, the office of Charsky, the hero of Pushkin's story "Egyptian Nights", was full of "paintings, marble statues, bronzes, expensive toys arranged on Gothic shelves." Onegin's office was decorated with everything , which was invented by mankind "for luxury, for fashionable bliss": "amber on the pipes of Tsaregrad", "porcelain and bronze on the table", and - a fashionable novelty of the beginning of the 19th century - "perfume in faceted crystal". Pushkin's Moscow acquaintance A.L. Bulgakov described his office as follows: “My office is now almost arranged - five large tables ... In the corner there is a sofa, in front of it there is a round table on which there are books and newspapers, in front of it is a cabinet (for me precious) with pipes. All tubes are in order.

They worked and rested in the office, received the manager and discussed the conditions of the duel with the seconds of their opponent. After a dinner party, the men, as a rule, went to the master's office to "smoke pipes", and gradually the office turned into a hall for men's receptions. Pipes with long stems exported from Turkey, as well as respectable men's accessories for them, were a necessary accessory for the front office. In Russia, they came into fashion in the first third of the 19th century in connection with the all-European passion for the East, with the work of Byron, who glorified oriental exoticism in the poem "Gyaur".

Each type of reception implied certain topics of conversation, regulated by secular rules. There were conversations in the office that were out of place at a ball or in a drawing room. Their diversity reflected the entire male world: the range of personal interests and political views, questions family life and housekeeping, career and honor.

The theater is already full; lodges shine;
Parterre and chairs - everything is in full swing;
In heaven they splash impatiently,
And, having risen, the curtain rustles.
A. S. Pushkin

In Pushkin's time, the theater was the subject of general enthusiasm. Usually the performance began at six and ended at nine o'clock in the evening, so that the young man had time, having been in the theater, to go to a ball, a masquerade or a club.

The theatrical space consisted of boxes, stalls and a district. The lodges were visited by the family public and, as a rule, were subscribed for the entire season. The parterre included 10-15 rows of seats and the parterre itself, where the performance was watched standing up. Seats in armchairs were expensive and, as a rule, they were occupied by noble and wealthy spectators. The ground tickets were much cheaper. Rayek - the uppermost tier of the balcony - was intended for the democratic public, which, according to a contemporary, "without taking off their top dress, poured into the galleries." This is due to the fact that at that time there was no wardrobe in the theater, and outerwear footmen guarded.

For the rest of the visitors, secular etiquette made strict demands on the costume. Women could appear in the theater only in boxes - in evening dresses, in berets, in currents, in turbans, which were not removed either at the theater or at the ball. Men wore a uniform or tailcoat. There were also violations of etiquette in order to shock the public. “Ahead of the stalls, in the very middle, leaning back against the ramp, stood Dolokhov with a huge mop of curly hair combed up, in a Persian costume. He stood in the very sight of the theater, knowing that he was drawing the attention of the entire hall to himself, as freely as if he was standing in his room. Around him, crowded, stood the most brilliant youth of Moscow, and he apparently excelled among them, "Leo Tolstoy wrote in the novel War and Peace.

For the St. Petersburg dandy of the first third of the 19th century, the theater was not only an artistic spectacle, but also a place of social meetings, love affairs and backstage hobbies. In this regard, the rules of good manners extended not only to the costume, but also to the demeanor of the theatergoer. It was customary to enter the hall at the last minute before the start of the performance, exchanging bows and greetings. So, for example, Onegin, being late for the beginning of the performance, "walks between the chairs on the legs." And one more detail of the dandy's behavior is to look at the auditorium in a lorgnette. Onegin "Double lorgnette slantingly directs / At the lodges of unfamiliar ladies."

The whole of Russia is reflected in the English Club as in a chambre obscure.
P.A. Vyazemsky

Clubs first appeared in the UK. In Russia, they came into fashion under Catherine II. In St. Petersburg in 1770-1795, seven clubs were founded, among which the English club was considered the most prestigious. Soon the English club appeared in Moscow. Having ascended the throne, Paul I banned English clubs, as well as other public meetings. With the accession of Alexander I, they were again allowed. Election as a member of the club was associated with many rigors and restrictions. Firstly, only men were admitted to the English Club. Secondly, the name of a new member was announced in advance, and if unseemly deeds were known behind him, the question of his election was immediately removed. If the candidate was not rejected, then the members of the club voted for his acceptance - each of his choice put a white or black ball.

The fame that the English Club acquired in society from the beginning of the 19th century led to the fact that it became not only a fashionable institution, but also influenced the public opinion of the capital. The main activities of the club members were conversations, games and reading newspapers. However, conversations about politics - although they were conducted in the club - were forbidden by the charter.

The newspaper room, which received Russian and foreign periodicals, was an indispensable attribute of the club. Fresh newspapers and magazines were laid out on a special table, they could be freely taken and read. Editions of past years were deposited in the library, from where they could be taken home by signing in a special book. A special attendant supervised the observance of order in the newspaper room. But, as a rule, it was not crowded. According to the memoirs of a contemporary, once P.A. Vyazemsky "as usual traveled around all the balls and all the evening meetings in Moscow and finally turned into a club to read newspapers.<...>The waiter began to pace around him and cough. At first he paid no attention to this, but finally, as he began to noticeably express his impatience, he asked: "What is the matter with you?" "Very late, Your Excellency." “But you see that I am not alone, and they are still playing cards over there.” - "But those, Your Excellency, are doing the job."

Cards - "one of the immutable and inevitable elements of Russian life" - were bred in the English Club immediately after its establishment. For a long time, both commercial and gambling flourished in it - despite the fact that the latter were formally banned in Russia in the late 18th - early 19th centuries. Unlike commercial games, characteristic of respectable people, gambling was in the nature of an "all-encompassing fashion." In addition, at one time there was even a "fashion to play." Repeated attempts were made to eradicate gambling, which could ruin the respectable members of the club, and, in the end, they were crowned with success.

On the occasion of significant events dinners were arranged in the club. One of these dinners was described by L.N. Tolstoy in the novel "War and Peace". In addition, there were daily club lunches and dinners. They were expensive, but there was always a select society here, and for unmarried people, the club replaced homeliness.

And all the Kuznetsk bridge, and the eternal French,
From there, fashion to us, and authors, and muses:
Destroyers of pockets and hearts!
When the Creator delivers us
From their hats! bonnets! and studs! and pins!
And bookstores and biscuit shops! ..
A.S. Griboyedov

In Pushkin's time, the main shopping street in Moscow - a sanctuary of luxury and fashion - was Kuznetsky Most. After the decree of Catherine II on privileges for foreign merchants in the Kuznetsky Most area, the French began to open their fashion and haberdashery stores. In 1812, this is what saved the street from a fire: the Napoleonic guards protected their compatriots from fire and ruin. After the invaders were expelled from Moscow, French inscriptions were banned, and English, Italian and German ones were added to the French shops. The shops on Kuznetsky Most were fashionable and expensive. One of the guidebooks of that time reported: "From early morning until late at night, you see a lot of carriages here, and a rare<.>of them will go without wrapping themselves in purchases. And for what price? Everything is exorbitant; but for our fashionistas this is nothing: the word "bought at Kuznetsky Most" gives each item a special charm. " Over time, many fashionable shops turned the street into a place for festivities and meetings of aristocrats.

In St. Petersburg, fashion stores were concentrated on Nevsky Prospekt. A columnist for the Severnaya Pchela newspaper noted the similarities and differences between the two capitals: “Kuznetsky Most is in full splendor: an abyss of shops of all kinds, fashionable shops; here you can spend an abyss of money in one day. There are no magnificent shops, which are not uncommon in St. Petersburg; the room is cramped, the rooms are dark and low, but the goods are grouped elegantly and are sold as expensive as in St. Petersburg. In the latter, the Kuznetsky bridge does not lag behind Nevsky Prospekt." However, according to the observation of foreigners, St. Petersburg stores were inferior to European ones. To an English traveler who visited Russia in 1829, they seemed "not as conspicuous as those in London," and the choice of goods in them was not so rich. Nevertheless, in St. Petersburg, trade offered the richest selection of products, including in terms of quality and price.

To be continued...