Античность и бидермайер: что общего?
Аntiquity and Biedermeier: What Do They Have in Common?

Summary/Abstract: The article applies to such an unusual subject as a relationship between Biedermeier and Antiquity. For a long time Biedermeier was considered to be a purely «burgher style». But the author seeks to show, by an example of Biedermeier painting, that this style was rather of a noble, classical origin and the Classical Antiquity, consumed as a principal of «noble simplicity», gave one of the impulses to Biedermeier’s appearance. Along with the Weimar classicists (Goethe, Schiller), Biedermeier artists primarily treated the Classical Antiquity as the worldview – an example of a reasonable and balanced way of life. The spiritual and corporeal Antiquity cosmos scales down in Biedermeier to a reasonably arranged cosmos of home life. Reflected differently in the national versions of the style, namely in the German, Austrian, Danish and Russian ones, these features still form the essential core of Biedermeier. All of the aforesaid allows us to re-evaluate the works of such modest artists as G.F. Kersting, W. Bendz, K.A. Zelentsov, A.V. Tyranov, as well as to look at the recognized masters, such as A.G. Venetsianov and his Danish counterpart C.W. Eckersberg, from a different perspective.

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