Abstract ♦ The article looks at the subject of the demonic in the works of Victor E. Borisov-Musatov, Russian painter of the “Silver age”. The "demonic" as a concept of world culture have found a powerful expression during the “Silver age”. At the same time, the demonic in Borisov-Musatov’s works has not yet become an object of critical attention.
Following the psychoanalytical method of criticism, namely Carl G. Jung's doctrine about archetypes of the collective unconscious, we view the demonic as the human double.
The demonic in the Russian art can also be traced back to the Western tradition of the antiquity. In the ancient Greek tradition the Demon is connected with the soul, thus becoming a kind of double of the human. When the person dies, it is the Demon who follows his soul to Hades. Having served the necessary term there, the soul returns to earth, being led by yet another demon.
The vector of development of the "demonic" in the artistic culture of the “Silver age” was set by Mikhail A. Vrubel. Therefore, we pay ample attention to Vrubel's influence on Borisov-Musatov. The former presents the "demonic" as androgynous, whereas the latter, as something elusive, hardly susceptible to analysis. On the one hand, Borisov-Musatov’s demons are close to Socrates’s daimones. On the other, he most vividly presents the demonic in female images. We have attempted to explain it by means of opposition between the "light and dark", the "terrestrial and heavenly". These oppositions have been heavily influenced by neo-romanticism and F. Nietzsche's philosophy.
Popova Liana Vladimirovna, Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, Culturology and Politology, Moscow University for the Humanities; Postgraduate student, State Institute for Art Studies. Postal address: Bldg. 3, 5 Yunosti St., Moscow, Russian Federation, 111395. Tel.: +7 (499) 374-61-81. E-mail: . Research advisor: I. V. Kondakov, Doctor of Philosophy, Candidate of Philology, Professor.
Citation: Popova L. V. (2014) «Demonicheskoe» v tvorchestve V. E. Borisova-Musatova [The “Demonic” in the Works of V. E. Borisov-Musatov]. Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, no. 3, pp. 367–375. (In Russ.).
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