Abstract

The study of the nature of Russian painting in the second half of the 19th century has long artifi cially detached it from its Orthodox Christian foundation, and religiosity has been presented as a kind of negative metaphor rather than as a scientifi c problem requiring careful analysis. Despite increasing secularization, in the age of skepticism, Darwinism, and positivism the Christian worldview was not forced out of human consciousness in the second half of the 19th century, but was elevated to a new qualitative level. This is evidenced not only by many Russian writers, but also by such painters as Perov, Ge, Kramskoi, Repin, Surikov, Yaroshenko, and other masters, who were fascinated by the development of new ideas and new forms of expression. Today it is clear that in a number of paintings of that time Christianity serves as the cementing foundation, or the basis of life order. Christ appears as a real, historical fi gure who gave the organization of spiritual life on Earth. These issues arise in the works of outstanding masters of this time, correspondence and reviews. They are of paramount importance to the artistic culture of the second half of the nineteenth century. The deeply ambiguous nature of Kramskoi’s “Christ in the Desert” (1872) allows for a highly controversial interpretation, which can be very schematically expressed as from Christ or to Christ. The painter’s own interpretation has attracted art critics for decades. His thoughts on Christianity and attempts to reconsider traditional approaches, the birth of a new view, hesitation and doubt, alternation of the historical and religious-mystical are contained in his vast correspondence. The opinions of writers, artists, collectors and critics testify to important spiritual processes that were taking place in the minds and hearts of Kramskoi’s contemporaries. Studies by art historians help to penetrate deeper into the development of the artistic consciousness of the era.

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