1.
Tiraspol
–
Tiraspol is internationally recognised as the second largest city in Moldova, but is effectively the capital and administrative centre of the unrecognised Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. The city is located on the bank of the Dniester River. Tiraspol is a hub of light industry, such as furniture. The modern city of Tiraspol was founded by the Russian generalissimo Alexander Suvorov in 1792, the city celebrates its anniversary every year on October 14. The toponym consists of two ancient Greek words, Τύρας, Tyras, the Ancient name for the Dniester River, and polis, i. e. a city. Tyras, also spelled Tiras, was a colony of the Greek city Miletus, probably founded about 600 BC, of no great importance in early times in the 2nd century BC, it fell under the dominion of indigenous kings whose names appear on its coins. It was destroyed by the Thracian Getae about 50 BC, in 56 AD the Romans restored the city and made it part of the colonial province of Lower Moesia. A series of its coins exist that feature heads of Roman emperors from Domitian to Severus Alexander, soon after the time of the latter, the city was destroyed again, this time by the invasion of the Goths. Its government was in the hands of five archons, a senate, a popular assembly, the images on its coins from this period suggest a trade in wheat, wine and fish. The few inscriptions extant are mostly concerned with trade, such ancient archeological remains are scanty, as the city site was built over by the great medieval fortress of Monocastro or Akkerman. During the Middle Ages, the area around Tiraspol was a zone between the Tatars and the Moldavians, and inhabited by both ethnic groups. The Russian Empire conquered its way to the Dniester River, taking territory from the Ottoman Empire, in 1792 the Russian army built fortifications to guard the western border near a Moldavian village named Sucleia. Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov is considered the founder of modern Tiraspol, the city took its name from Tyras, the Greek name of the Dniester River on which it stands. In 1828 the Russian government established a house in Tiraspol to try to suppress smuggling. The customs house was subordinated to the chief of the Odessa customs region and it began operations with 14 employees. They inspected shipments of bread, paper, oil, wine, sugar, fruits, after the Russian Revolution, the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created in Ukraine in 1924, with Balta as its capital. The republic had Romanian, Ukrainian and Russian as its official languages and its capital was moved in 1929 to Tiraspol, which remained the capital of the Moldavian ASSR until 1940. In 1940, following the provisions of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
2.
Russian Empire
–
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
3.
Russia
–
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
4.
Isaac Levitan
–
Isaac Ilyich Levitan was a classical Russian landscape painter who advanced the genre of the mood landscape. Isaac Levitan was born in a shtetl of Kibarty, Augustów Governorate in Congress Poland and his father Elyashiv Levitan was the son of a rabbi, completed a Yeshiva and was self-educated. He taught German and French in Kowno and later worked as a translator at a bridge construction for a French building company. At the beginning of 1870 the Levitan family moved to Moscow, in September 1873, Isaac Levitan entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture where his older brother Avel had already studied for two years. After a year in the copying class Isaac transferred into a naturalistic class, Levitans teachers were the famous Alexei Savrasov, Vasily Perov and Vasily Polenov. In 1875, his mother died, and his father seriously ill and became unable to support four children. The family slipped into abject poverty, as patronage for Levitans talent and achievements, his Jewish origins and to keep him in the school, he was given a scholarship. In 1877, Isaac Levitans works were first publicly exhibited and earned recognition from the press. In 1880 his painting Осенний день, Сокольники was bought by famous philanthropist and art collector Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov. In the spring of 1884 Levitan participated in the art exhibition by the group known as the Peredvizhniki. Levitan often visited Chekhov and some think Levitan was in love with his sister, in the early 1880s Levitan collaborated with the Chekhov brothers on the illustrated magazine Moscow and illustrated the M. Fabritsius edition Kremlin. Together with Korovin in 1885-1886 he painted scenery for performances of the Private Russian opera of Savva Mamontov, in the 1880s he participated in the drawing and watercolor gatherings at Polenov’s house. Levitans work was a response to the lyrical charm of the Russian landscape. Levitan did not paint urban landscapes, with the exception of the View of Simonov Monastery, mentioned by Nesterov, during work in Ostankino, he painted fragments of the mansion’s house and park, but he was most fond of poetic places in the forest or modest countryside. Characteristic of his work is a hushed and nearly melancholic reverie amidst pastoral landscapes largely devoid of human presence, fine examples of these qualities include The Vladimirka Road,1892 Evening Bells,1892, and Eternal Rest,1894, all in the Tretyakov Gallery. Though his late work displayed familiarity with Impressionism, his palette was generally muted, in the summer of 1890 Levitan went to Yuryevets and among numerous landscapes and etudes he painted The View of Krivooserski monastery. So the plan of one of his best pictures, The Silent Monastery, was born, the image of a silent monastery and planked bridges over the river, connecting it with the outside world, expressed the artists spiritual reflections. It is known that this made a strong impression on Chekhov
5.
Valentin Serov
–
Valentin Alexandrovich Serov was a Russian painter, and one of the premier portrait artists of his era. Serov was born in Saint Petersburg, son of the Russian composer and music critic Alexander Serov, Serovs early creativity was sparked by the realistic art of Repin and strict pedagogical system of Chistyakov. The greatest works of Serovs early period were portraits, The Girl with Peaches, in these paintings Serov concentrated on spontaneity of perception of the model and nature. From 1890 on, the became the basic genre in Serovs art. It was in this field that his style would become apparent. Serovs favorite models were actors, artists, and writers, initially abstaining from the polychromatic, brightly colored painting style of the 1880s, Serov often preferred a dominant scale of black-grey or brown tones. Impressionistic features appeared sometimes in construction of a portrait, or to capture a sense of spontaneous movement. As in the work of his contemporaries John Singer Sargent and Anders Zorn, the impressionism is not doctrinaire, receiving wide popularity, in 1894 Serov joined with the Peredvizhniki, and took on important commissions, among them portraits of grand duke Pavel Alexandrovich, S. M. Botkin,1899, and Felix Yusupov,1903 as well as Princess Olga Orlova, in these truthful, compositionally skillful, and picturesque executions in the grand manner, Serov consistently used linear-rhythmic drawing coupled with decorative color combinations. At the same time, he developed a contrasting direction, he frequently produced intimate, heartfelt, chamber portraits, mainly of children and women. In portraits of children Serov aspired to capture pose and gesture, to reveal and emphasize a spontaneity of internal movement, Serov frequently called upon various graphic techniques - watercolors, pastels, lithographs and so forth. Figures in Serovs portraits gradually became more and more refined and economical. From 1890 to 1900 Serov produced many landscape compositions on country themes, Serov married Olga Trubnikova in 1889. His wife and his children were the subject of many of his works, notably, his painting Children was of his sons Yura and Sasha. M. Gorkis museum, Moscow, Maria Yermolova, Feodor Chaliapin - both in the Tretyakov Gallery, and Helena Roerich, Serovs democratic beliefs were clearly shown during the Revolution from 1905 to 1907, he depicted a number of satirical figures exposing chastisers. A full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts since 1903, in 1905 he resigned as a gesture of protest against the execution of striking workers and their families on 9 January, Bloody Sunday. His late creativity found expression in painting, and depth of comprehension of the historical maintenance of an epoch. The last years of Serovs life were marked by works on themes from classical mythology, while addressing images from the ancient tradition, Serov endowed classical subject matter with a personal interpretation
6.
Costume design
–
Costume design is the envisioning of clothing and the overall appearance of a character or performer. Costume may refer to the style of particular to a nation. In many cases, it may contribute to the fullness of the artistic, the most basic designs are produced to denote status, provide protection or modesty, or provide visual interest to a character. Costumes may be for a theater, cinema, or musical performance, Costume design should not be confused with costume coordination which merely involves altering existing clothing, although both create stage clothes. Four types of costumes are used in design, historical, fantastical, dance. Village festivals and processions in honor of Dionysus amongst the ancient Greeks, are believed to be the origin of theatre, the sculpture and vase paintings provide the clearest evidence of this costume. Because of their style of theatre many masks were used giving each character a specific look. Some masks were constructed with a cheerful as well as a side on the same face in an attempt to indicate a change in emotion without a change of mask. The same is true for the Romans, who continued the mask tradition, stereotypical characterization was key when clothing performers for this style of theatre. In most instances actors had to supply their own costumes when playing a character found in daily life, later, in Elizabethan performance during the 1500-1600s in England, costume became the most important visual element. Garments were very expensive because only the finest fabrics were used, ordinarily, fashionable garments were used in both comedy and tragedy until 1727, when Adrienne Lecouvreur adopted the much more elaborate and formal court dress for tragedy. Her practice soon became standard for all tragic heroines Major actors began to compete with one another as to who would have the most lavish stage dress and this practice continued until around the 1750s when costumes became relevant to the character again. Art began to copy life and realistic characteristics were favored especially during the 19th century, for example, Georg the second, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen took personal interest in the theatre and began managing troupes. He advocated for authenticity and accuracy of the script and time period and he also made sure the materials were authentic and specific, using real chain mail, armor, swords, etc. No cheap substitutes would be allowed, in August 1823, in an issue of The Album, James Planché published an article saying that more attention should be paid to the time period of Shakespeares plays, especially when it comes to costumes. In the same year, a casual conversation led to one of Planchés more lasting effects on British theatre, Planché had little experience in this area and sought the help of antiquaries such as Francis Douce and Sir Samuel Meyrick. The research involved sparked Planchés latent antiquarian interests, these came to occupy an increasing amount of his later in life. Despite the actors reservations, King John was a success and led to a number of similarly-costumed Shakespeare productions by Kemble, Planché also wrote a number of plays or adaptations which were staged with historically accurate costumes
7.
Scenic design
–
Scenic design is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trained professionals. Scenic designers design sets and scenery that aim to fully immerse the viewer in the production, a designer looks at the details searching for evidence through research to produce conceptual ideas that’s best toward supporting the content and values with visual elements. The subject of, “How do we generate creative ideas. ”The most consuming part of expanding our horizons toward scenic concepts is more than witnessing creativity. It starts with us opening our mind to the possibilities, to have an attitude toward learning, seeking, and engaging in creativity and to be willing to be adventurous, inquisitive and curious. Whether outside or inside, colorful trees or concerts, star lit skies or the architecture of a great building, discovering what will best clarify and support the story being told. The scenic designer works with the director and other designers to establish a visual concept for the production. All of these required drawing elements can be created from one accurate 3-D CAD model of the set design. Scenic designers are responsible for creating models of the scenery, renderings, paint elevations. Prague, CZ What is Scenography Article illustrating the differences between US and European theatre design practices Special, WhatLinksHere/Julia Anastasopoulos
8.
Natalia Goncharova
–
Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator, and set designer. Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova was born on June 21,1881, in Nagaevo and her father, Sergei, was an architect and graduate of the prestigious Moscow Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Goncharova moved to Moscow at the age of 10 in 1892, in 1901 Goncharova began her own studies at the Moscow Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture as a sculptor, under Pavel Trubetskoi, who was associated with the World of Art movement. By 1903, she began exhibiting in major Russian salons and she was awarded a silver medal for sculpture in 1903-04. It was at the Moscow Institute that Goncharova met fellow-student Mikhail Larionov, Goncharova drew inspirations for primitivism from Russian icons and folk art, otherwise known as luboks. The Donkeys Tail was conceived as a break from European art influence. Goncharova and her counter-part, Larionav, were harassed for their artwork. However, the influence of Russian Futurism is much in evidence in Goncharovas later paintings, initially preoccupied with icon painting and the primitivism of ethnic Russian folk-art, Goncharova became famous in Russia for her Futurist work such as The Cyclist and her later Rayonist works. Goncharova and Larionav painted hieroglyphics and flowers on their faces and walked the streets as a part of a primitivist art movement, Goncharova herself sometimes appears topless in public with symbols on her chest. As leaders of the Moscow Futurists, they organized provocative lecture evenings in the vein as their Italian counterparts. Goncharova was also involved with graphic design—writing and illustrating several avant-garde books and she started to exhibit at the Salon dAutomne since 1906. Goncharova was a member of the Der Blaue Reiter avant-garde group from its founding in 1911, in 1915, she began to design ballet costumes and sets in Geneva. In 1915 she started work on a series of designs—Six Winged Seraph, Angel, St. Andrew, St. Mark, Nativity, and others—for a ballet commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev to be titled Liturgy. Also involved in the project, for which Igor Stravinsky was invited to compose the score, were Larionov and Léonide Massine, Goncharova moved to Paris in 1921 where she designed a number of stage sets of Diaghilevs Ballets Russes. She also exhibited at the Salon dAutomne in 1921, and participated regularly at the Salon des Tuileries, Goncharova and Larionav collaborated on four charity events in Moscow. These events were The Grand Bal des Aristes, The Bal Banal, The Bal Olympique and they both designed much of the publicity materials for the event. Between 1922 and 1926 Goncharova created fashion designs for Marie Cuttolis shop, Maison Myrbor on the Rue Vincent and her richly embroidered and appliquéd dress designs were strongly influenced by Russian folk art, Byzantine mosaic and her work for the Ballets Russes. In 1938 Goncharova became a French citizen, on June 2,1955, four years after Larionov suffered a stroke, the two artists got married in Paris to safeguard their rights of inheritance
9.
Impressionism
–
Impressionism originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s. The Impressionists faced harsh opposition from the art community in France. The development of Impressionism in the arts was soon followed by analogous styles in other media that became known as impressionist music. Radicals in their time, early Impressionists violated the rules of academic painting and they constructed their pictures from freely brushed colours that took precedence over lines and contours, following the example of painters such as Eugène Delacroix and J. M. W. Turner. They also painted scenes of modern life, and often painted outdoors. Previously, still lifes and portraits as well as landscapes were painted in a studio. The Impressionists found that they could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by painting en plein air, the Impressionists, however, developed new techniques specific to the style. The public, at first hostile, gradually came to believe that the Impressionists had captured a fresh and original vision, even if the art critics and art establishment disapproved of the new style. In the middle of the 19th century—a time of change, as Emperor Napoleon III rebuilt Paris, the Académie was the preserver of traditional French painting standards of content and style. Historical subjects, religious themes, and portraits were valued, landscape, the Académie preferred carefully finished images that looked realistic when examined closely. Paintings in this style were made up of brush strokes carefully blended to hide the artists hand in the work. Colour was restrained and often toned down further by the application of a golden varnish, the Académie had an annual, juried art show, the Salon de Paris, and artists whose work was displayed in the show won prizes, garnered commissions, and enhanced their prestige. The standards of the juries represented the values of the Académie, represented by the works of artists as Jean-Léon Gérôme. In the early 1860s, four young painters—Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and they discovered that they shared an interest in painting landscape and contemporary life rather than historical or mythological scenes. A favourite meeting place for the artists was the Café Guerbois on Avenue de Clichy in Paris, where the discussions were led by Édouard Manet. They were soon joined by Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, during the 1860s, the Salon jury routinely rejected about half of the works submitted by Monet and his friends in favour of works by artists faithful to the approved style. In 1863, the Salon jury rejected Manets The Luncheon on the Grass primarily because it depicted a woman with two clothed men at a picnic. While the Salon jury routinely accepted nudes in historical and allegorical paintings, the jurys severely worded rejection of Manets painting appalled his admirers, and the unusually large number of rejected works that year perturbed many French artists
10.
Post-Impressionism
–
Post-Impressionism is a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction against Impressionists concern for the depiction of light. The movement was led by Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, the term Post-Impressionism was first used by art critic Roger Fry in 1906. Three weeks later, Roger Fry used the term again when he organized the 1910 exhibition, Manet, the Post-Impressionists were dissatisfied with what they felt was the triviality of subject matter and the loss of structure in Impressionist paintings, though they did not agree on the way forward. Georges Seurat and his followers concerned themselves with Pointillism, the use of tiny dots of colour. Paul Cézanne set out to restore a sense of order and structure to painting, to make of Impressionism something solid and durable and he achieved this by reducing objects to their basic shapes while retaining the saturated colours of Impressionism. The Impressionist Camille Pissarro experimented with Neo-Impressionist ideas between the mid-1880s and the early 1890s, Vincent van Gogh used colour and vibrant swirling brush strokes to convey his feelings and his state of mind. Although they often exhibited together, Post-Impressionist artists were not in agreement concerning a cohesive movement, yet, the abstract concerns of harmony and structural arrangement, in the work of all these artists, took precedence over naturalism. Artists such as Seurat adopted a scientific approach to colour. Younger painters during the early 20th century worked in geographically disparate regions and in various categories, such as Fauvism and Cubism. Most of the artists in Frys exhibition were younger than the Impressionists, Fry later explained, For purposes of convenience, it was necessary to give these artists a name, and I chose, as being the vaguest and most non-committal, the name of Post-Impressionism. This merely stated their position in time relatively to the Impressionist movement, john Rewald limited the scope to the years between 1886 and 1892 in his pioneering publication on Post-Impressionism, From Van Gogh to Gauguin. This volume would extend the period covered to other artistic movements derived from Impressionism, though confined to the late 19th, Rewald focused on such outstanding early Post-Impressionists active in France as van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat, and Redon. Pont-Aven School, implying more than that the artists involved had been working for a while in Pont-Aven or elsewhere in Brittany. Symbolism, a highly welcomed by vanguard critics in 1891. Rewald wrote that the term Post-Impressionism is not a precise one. Convenient, when the term is by definition limited to French visual arts derived from Impressionism since 1886, rewalds approach to historical data was narrative rather than analytic, and beyond this point he believed it would be sufficient to let the sources speak for themselves. Rival terms like Modernism or Symbolism were never as easy to handle, for they covered literature, architecture and other arts as well, Symbolism, however, is considered to be a concept which emerged a century later in France, and implied an individual approach
.jpg)
.jpg)
