“Rural festivities” of Ivan Tankov

Abstract

The article is devoted to the works of Ivan Tankov (Tonkov), whose oeuvre remains a mystery in the history of Russian painting of the last third of the 18th century. The content of the artist’s creations, called “rural festivitiesˮ, has not yet been deciphered, as their stylistic features go beyond the mainstream development of the landscape genre. The connection of Tankov’s paintings with the manor culture and everyday life of a country estate suggests as the primary sources of the artist’s pictorial fantasies: the theatrical performances in the Demidovs estates Sivoritsy and Taitsy, located not far from St Petersburg. Comparison of the works by Tankov and by his contemporary, the landscape painter Semion Shchedrin, shows the stylistic multidirectionality of the landscape genre in the era of classicism. Romantic tendencies in scenery painting are intertwined with traditions of a bucolic landscape. The article concludes that in Tankov’s works pictorial models and real-life impressions are fused together in the spirit of Baroque art.