Alexander P. Lobodanov

The article continues the study of the little-known phenomenon of Leonardo da Vinci's creativity — his innovative works in the field of scenography. In the fourth part, Leonardo's handwritten and iconographic materials for the proposed Milan production of «La Fabula di Orfeo» on the text of the pastoral drama by A. Poliziano are analyzed in historical, textual and art criticism aspects. The author turns to the analysis of Leonardo's drawings, fragments of his notebooks related to the development of stage space, stage mechanisms and stage plasticity of this possible production.

The author is based on the methodology of complex textual, iconographic and art criticism analysis, which makes it possible to show more deeply the historical significance and place of Leonardo da Vinci's scenographic works in the culture of the High Renaissance, in the formation and development of complex scenography as an iconic ensemble.

The author comes to the conclusion that the scenography of «Orfeo» is a key stage in the evolution of Leonardo's scenographic thinking. The constructive organization of the game space, embodied in the production of «Orfeo», transformed not only all the previous types of constructive and decorative design of the playground — aggregate and simultaneous, but also foreshadowed a new path of development of European scenography — the spatial and temporal perception of theatrical performance.

The article raises the question of the place of art faculties in the system of modern education in the field of art in classical universities on the example of the Faculty of Arts of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The principles of modern art history education (integrativity, synthetics, interdisciplinarity, following traditions) are objectified and formulated; the role and importance of art education for preserving and strengthening the historical unity of society is substantiated.

The author is based on the methodology of historical analysis of the stylistic and creative aspirations of several generations of students, the influence of destructive forms and forms of vandalism, as well as on the methodology of art criticism analysis of modern forms of aesthetic extremism in various types of art, in particular, in fine art.

The author comes to the conclusion that classical universities translate the culture of society into the culture of the individual. The innovative model presented in the article, based on the idea of systematic knowledge about art, opens up a powerful potential for the development and improvement of education in the field of art and meets the modern needs of the younger generation.

The article is devoted to the study of the multifaceted activities of graduates of Imperial Moscow University: playwrights, writers, publishers, actors, singers, directors, who made an outstanding contribution to the development of Russian artistic culture and Russian theater in the middle and second half of the 18th century.

Based on archival data on the history of Moscow University, "Dramatic Dictionary" (1787) and "Dramatic Album" (1850), as well as several editions of the plays written in the second half of the 18th century, the author represents the wide range of roles that graduates of Moscow University played in the history of the Russian stage.

The author uses a complex approach to studying the materials and uses textual, iconographic and art criticism analysis. This allows for an in-depth studying and describing how significant and complex the contribution of university students and graduates was to the development of theatrical business in Russia. Not only playing, singing and staging were their main activities, but also writing and translating for their university theatre. Due to this the development of domestic theatrical art was enhanced; so was writing drama in the Russian language and translating drama into Russian.

The author concludes that outstanding graduates of Moscow University undertook an intense activity in running the university theatre, which contributed greatly to the formation of professional Russian theater, drama and music, and, generally, to Russian education.

The article is based on the comparison of stage images created Russian and Soviet actress O.L. Knipper-Chekhov in the play "The Cherry Orchard" and the Chinese actor Mei Lanfang in the play "A Dream in the Garden". The article explores the principles of creating a female image in the Russian and Chinese stage tradition of the mid-20th century, as well as the peculiarities of theatrical and stage culture of China and the USSR of this period. The study reveals the differences in the ways the actors approach to their roles and create images according to the Russian and Chinese stage traditions. Knipper-Chekhov's principle of a 'Secret marriage to an image' and Mei Lanfang's method of 'Moving without changing shape' reflect different aspirations for 'reality' and 'beauty'. This comparative study is based on the creative potential of theatrical art images of the mid-20th century. The article focuses on the way the theatrical directions represented by the two actors understand the universal issues of theatrical art differently, as well as the way the intersection of the key principles of Russian and Chinese (more broadly, Eastern and Western) theatrical traditions leads to mutual penetration and resonance.

The article approach musicology as a type of literature. Distinguishing between three types of basic contacts the word and music might establish, the author focuses on the historical analysis of the third type, which is the description of the semantics and style of musical works in musicological and critical publications. The article shows that the dictionary describing music uses the same concepts and terms as the ‘dictionary’ of visual arts. It is noted that the simultaneous emergence of stylistic movements in both art forms, which are referred to using the same terms, implies that the authors of the works and critics perceived the concepts of avant-garde and modernism, on the one hand, and neoclassicism, on the other, as the embodiment of the spirit of the epoch, which marked the early 20th century.

Acknowledging the difficulties that arise when describing works of musical art in terms of their content and style, the author illustrates the possibilities of developing the content of musical images using the language of science and criticism through the scientific and critical work of the outstanding composer, musicologist, art historian, and teacher Boris Vladimirovich Asafyev (1884–1949).

The methodology implied in the analysis relies on the principles of integrative art history, considering the terminological interdisciplinary parallelism of the vocabulary of different types of art in the early 20th century through the lenses of social psychology, philosophy, and semiotics.

The author draws the conclusion that, firstly, the task of imagining the subject of musical content can be solved, apparently, on the basis of the principle of integrativity, which is ensured by the systematic nature of art criticism analysis. Secondly, the systematic approach may be achieved by combining the intersubjective semantic connections of a single object of study — art. Thirdly, the systematic nature of art criticism analysis allows for the identification of at least two main historical universals of art development.