A conference on Fine Arts and Theatre: Theme, Image, Method

A conference on Fine Arts and Theatre: Theme, Image, Method was held in the Hermitage on 1-2 March 2005 as part of the same program as the temporary exhibition Muses and Masks. Theatre and Music in Antiquity. The Antique World on the Petersburg Stage (10-30 March). The idea for this project arose in connection with a unique circumstance: the Hermitage is the only art museum in Russia which has within it a theatre dating from the age of Catherine the Great which is used for performances to the present day. I.G. Etoeva (State Hermitage) explained the history of the theatre to the assembled participants at the conference in a speech which opened the conference. More than 20 reports were presented and they touched upon a wide range of issues.

The methodological function of opposites, theatrical and anti-theatrical, as set out in the works of Michael Fried, was the subject of an address by K.L. Lukicheva (Russian State University of the Humanities, Moscow). In her report entitled "Enacting a Picture: An Archaic Type of Theatrical Presentation," N.V. Braginskaya (Institute of Higher Studies in the Humanities, Moscow) shared several results of her investigations into the early forms of theatre which were closely bound up with fine arts. G.Z. Kaganov (The European University in St Petersburg) demonstrated some of the original "scenographic" effects of Rastrelli's architecture. A.A. Egorov (State Hermitage) delivered an analysis of the Nogaku Gafu album by Japanese artist Sakamaki Koge (l910), which was devoted to traditional Japanese Noh theatre. Other reports touched upon questions of scenography and the interpretation of theatrical images in fine arts. E.P. Yakovleva (State Russian Museum) spoke about the works for theatre by N.K. Roerich which she has put into scholarly circulation over the past several years.

Most of the reports were in one way or another devoted to the special application of theatrical principles in the fine arts from the Middle Ages to our own day: "Stage principles of medieval religious mystery plays and their reflection in the composition of a 15th century xylographic book, the Biblia pauperum" (Å.V. Korolkova, Academy of Arts, St Petersburg); "Rococo: Viewer in the Picture" (S.M. Daniel, The European University in St Petersburg); "Stage Presentations as a Subject and the Principle of Depiction in the Works of Hogarth" (M.V. Sokolov, Moscow State University); and "Stage decoration as the scenography of life (monumental art in Italy during the 1930's)"(E.V. Tarakanova, State Hermitage). E.P. Trubkina's (State Hermitage) speech entitled "Irina Birul's Theatre of Things" was noteworthy for the way it dealt with the work of a contemporary Petersburg artist who was present in the hall and showed conference participants one of her latest works entitled An Epitaph to Singer, which is a convincing affirmation of the original ‘theatricality' of her thinking.

The conference materials will appear in a collection of scholarly articles in a volume planned for publication in the fourth quarter of 2005.