The Past as “self-citations”: The 18th century and its creative reflection in the works of the members of the World of Art Movement

Abstract

The article gives an analytical review of the visual poetics of the works of Mir iskusstva (World of Art) artistic group in the context of the relationship of the innovative features of the Art Nouveau with the Past. The perception of Time through the images of Art, inherent in the symbolist worldview, is considered as one of the main sources that gives the retrospective dreams of the leading World of Art masters the character of a subjectively significant poetic longing for an ideal. Nostalgia for the imaginary past, the appropriation of its artistic reality to its own inner world, led the artists of the group to the path of turning a “quote” into a “self-citation”, a “sample” into an “image”, a “copy” into a “likeness”. This process expanded the semantic component of the artistic language, opening up new possibilities for the synthesis of the past and the presentin the creative practice of the first third of the 20th century.