Karagoda K.P., Torosyan V.G. Women in Religion and Artistic Culture of the XVIIIth - the XXth Centuries

Abstract: The present article is devoted to the development of the 'female' theme in the art of the XVIIIth - XXth centuries and Russian art as illustrated by the images of churchwomen and nuns. The authors of the article discovers a complex relationship between secular culture and religion. Having received the impression of the Age of Enlightenment, the literature of the XVIIIth century depicted monkery as something negative like slavery or prison the heroines tried to escape by all means as illustrated in Denis Diderot's, Abbé Prévost's and Marquis de Sade's works. The XIXth century did not make the images of nuns more realistic. For example, the 'Ballet of Nuns' from Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera is a bright example of how the secular society of the July Monarchy treated monkery. Romanticism and the Pre-Raphaelites depicted nuns from the piont of view of Gothic romance and poetical images which again had very little to do with the reality. On the contrary to those secular tendencies, the XIXth century faced numerous pilgrimage centers and facts of manifestation of Holy Mother. That was the time when Saint Anne Catherine Emmerich who had the marks of stigmata lived. In the XXth century secular art started to depict lives of nuns and churchwomen with more understanding (Georges Bernanos), however, at the age of globalization pop culture created a false image eroticizing monkery in cinematograph and pop music. The problem is that secular art expresses opinions and views of people who lead a bohemian life and therefore very far from understanding monkery as another social category. Gender themes demonstrate particular socio-cultural changes in social life and attitude to religion as well as the problem of the man-and-woman relationship. The relevance of the research is caused, first of all, by the fact that the authors appeal to the image of women who had devoted their life to God, i.e. nuns and churchwomen. The authors of the present research describe the times after the French Revolution with all its contradictions. According to the authors, it is very importance for us to analyze that experience because we ourselves are living in the age of changes, historical paradigm shift and development of the society.  

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