The Moods of Early Russian Art
University of Chicago Press, 2026
Cloth: 978-0-226-84805-1 | eISBN: 978-0-226-84806-8 (all)
Library of Congress Classification N6985.W55 2026
See other books on: 1400-1600 C.E. | Art, Russian | Criticism & Theory | Moods | Russian & Soviet
See other titles from University of Chicago Press
Cloth: 978-0-226-84805-1 | eISBN: 978-0-226-84806-8 (all)
Library of Congress Classification N6985.W55 2026
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
An examination of the values and debates that shaped early East Slavic art.
The Moods of Early Russian Art describes an alternative early modernity at the easternmost border of the European cultural sphere, where the Renaissance marked a return not to secular humanism but to the religiosity and art of the Middle Ages. Charting a kind of “Renaissance in reverse,” art historian Justin Willson explores how the value placed on style and virtuosity faded in importance as the Church cultivated miracle-working images during the reigns of Ivan the Great and Ivan the Terrible. Arguing for a broader unity of interests among artistic workshops across the Muscovite landscape—a system of interconnected values that he explains using the language of “moods”—Willson examines icons, illuminated manuscripts, enamelwork, and murals, tracing how the interpretive framework of the age shifted from the “aesthetic” and “literal” moods to the “intoxicated” and “romantic” over the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The Moods of Early Russian Art describes an alternative early modernity at the easternmost border of the European cultural sphere, where the Renaissance marked a return not to secular humanism but to the religiosity and art of the Middle Ages. Charting a kind of “Renaissance in reverse,” art historian Justin Willson explores how the value placed on style and virtuosity faded in importance as the Church cultivated miracle-working images during the reigns of Ivan the Great and Ivan the Terrible. Arguing for a broader unity of interests among artistic workshops across the Muscovite landscape—a system of interconnected values that he explains using the language of “moods”—Willson examines icons, illuminated manuscripts, enamelwork, and murals, tracing how the interpretive framework of the age shifted from the “aesthetic” and “literal” moods to the “intoxicated” and “romantic” over the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
See other books on: 1400-1600 C.E. | Art, Russian | Criticism & Theory | Moods | Russian & Soviet
See other titles from University of Chicago Press
