The World of Art ( Mir iskusstva ) played an important role in Russian culture at the turn of the century. This was the name of both a group of artists and the periodical it published. The history an...

In the middle of the nineteenth century, Paris underwent an enormous rebuilding programme, which involved the demolition of the medieval neighbourhoods. A network of new parks, squares and wide avenu...

The disparities between the realities of life and the attempts of the Academy of Arts to idealise it simmered for a number of decades before bursting into the open revolt of a group of students in 18...

During the transition from two-dimensional icon-painting on wood to three-dimensional portraits on canvas, the first Russian artists painted a form of portrait known as a parsuna, meaning the represe...

Ecclesiastical art represents almost seven centuries of Russian culture. Until the start of the eighteenth century, art in Russia was mainly based on religious notions of the world. Early Russian his...