Louis Caravaque and secularization of russian art

Abstract

The article examines the Louis Caravaque’s works (the painting of the portrait genre and also
the works of decorative-applied art including those designed for Orthodox churches) and discusses
the correlation of their secular and religious components. The author highly appreciates the role of
Caravaque’s paintings, his pedagogical activity and religiosity in the processes of secularization of
Russian art. Secular principles of Caravaque’s works are considered by the scientist in the context of
Western Europe culture’s development in the Early Modern epoch. In the light of new data about the
personality of the painter, the author finds out how the creative path of Caravaque was associated with
his religious life. The study shows that in the artist’s works were used many ways to the secularization
of painting, namely: a method of combining of Christian images with mythological images and
symbols (a method of turning these images into some kind of universal cultural secular heritage); the
appeal to erotic characters; a method of purification of pictorial compositions from religious meanings
(the erosion and even elimination of their religious content). The author concludes that aesthetics of
Rococo fully corresponded to moral and religious qualities of Caravaque. In the works of this painter
all artistic images are connected with religion only nominally.