The Romantic aesthetic was largely a
result of residual Neoclassicist and Baroque stylistic nuances. In Russia, ornamentation
and complexity generally gave way to high emotionalism and a nearly palpable
softness. Romanticism valued an intense aesthetic experience often inspired by
emotion and nature.
Thus, a visual gentleness popularly
characterized subject matter in portraiture. Often featuring a naturalistic
representation of everyday life (as opposed to the previous heavily
commissioned portraits of the Russian elite), portrait painters poetically depict
the common man. For this reason, Romanticism in Russia ushers in a revolutionary
and widely held notion: the individual is now a valuable measure of society.
Orest Kiprensky’s portrait of
Alexander Pushkin portrays romantic suggestions of an individual personality.
Early Romanticism and the classical reference of the statue in the background
suggest realism and idealism found in Pushkin’s poetry.
-Jenna Bolusky
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