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Russian Furniture in the Style of the ‘Second’
and ’Third’ Rococo; Reproduction Furniture and Retrospectivism These books have been written by a leading specialist of the State Hermitage's Department of Russian Culture, doctor of art history Natalya Yu. Guseva. They are beautifully illustrated and intended for specialists and for collectors, as well as for anyone interested in the history of Russian decorative and applied art. Russian Furniture in the Style of the 'Second' and 'Third' Rococo is devoted to one of the brightest chapters in Russian decorative art - the production of furniture in Russia in the 19th century. Furniture in the age of historicism gave expression to diverse artistic tendencies and decorative innovations produced by the Golden Age of Russian culture. The historical style set out by 18th century art - the imitation of the luxury of the French courts of Louis XIV and Louis XV - was a special reaction to the severity and rationalism of Classicism and became widely known in the history of art as the 'second' Rococo. The influence of the Rococo style on social consciousness was so great that over the course of nearly an entire century it did not leave the world artistic arena and was a sort of decorative "tuning fork" of bourgeois society. After going through an evolution at the end of the 19th century, this style easily fit into the aesthetics of Art Nouveau in the form of a 'third' Rococo, which in the 20th century became a Classical standard in the art of furniture. The second publication deal - Reproduction Furniture and Retrospectivism - deals with little studied phenomena in the history of Russian furniture which contemporaries called “meuble de style.” This and "retrospectivism" were special trends in Russian furniture of the 19th and 20th centuries which expressed all the stylish and fashionable currents in art during the age of historicism. It is no coincidence that even a special term like "reproduction furniture" entered the general vocabulary and came to mean objects of home decoration with easily recognized features from well known historical epochs. Guseva's book is a first attempt to examine furniture made in historical styles as a unique artistic phenomenon. |
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