Catholic Louis Caravaque: to the question about religiosity of the painter of the Rococo

Abstract

The article examines the religious parameters of personality and the church biography of the
painter Louis Caravaque, one of the most famous artists of Rossica in the 18-th century. For solving
the problem of reconstruction of Caravaque’s religious image the author uses the method of complex
analysis of the structural components of religiosity. Thus the religiosity is treated as a system of the
person’s active relations with society. On the basis of many archival sources the article analyzes the
relationships of Caravaque with the Petersburg Roman Catholic parish, defines characteristics of his
social and psychological traits, and introduces a new biographical data. The author concludes that
Caravaque had shown no interest in church rites. The religiosity of this man demonstrates the expressed
cognitive component and identification component; however this religiosity contains almost
no behavioral part. The characteristic of Caravaque’s religiosity in the article is defined as formal and
shallow. It virtually eliminates the possibility of strong emotional experience of liturgy and mysteries.
Such religiosity implies domination of the secular over the sacred. The author believes that Caravaque’s
religiosity expresses the essence of secularizing processes inherent in European civilization. Also she
raises the question of the role played by the painter with his religion in the secularization of Russian
culture in the 18-th century.