19th Century

Two Russian Styles, Vladimir Stasov and One the Myth in a History of 19th-century Russian Art

Abstract: An actual look at the Russian artistic process of the 19th
century is largely determined by the experience of Soviet art history, which, in turn, appealed to the authority of the critic Vladimir Stasov (1824–1906).
One of the plots that allow us to assess the tendentiousness of his interpretations is related to the question of the
Russian Style in the architecture of post-reform Russia. Now the subjectivist and contradictory nature of Stasov’s
judgments about national and democratic art is reflected by researchers. However, as the author of this article shows, the reading of Stasov’s texts by Soviet architectural historians was also biased. This can be clearly seen in the example of the idea developed by Evgenia I.Kirichenko about what the confrontation between two different
versions of the Russian Style, reflecting the political opposition of the official nationality and the diverse intelligentsia allegedly took place in architecture in the 1870s and 1890s. Indeed, one can find an opposition between two alternatively versions of nationalized architecture that runs through Stasov’s texts. But a closer reading of them, it becomes clear that the critic distinguishes not synchronously developing official and democratic versions of the Russian Style, but two artistic eras — associated with the reigns of Nicholas I and Alexander
II, respectively. Stasov’s apologia for the Russian Style of Victor Hartman and Ivan Ropette, as opposed to the state-official architecture of Konstantin Thon, had a socio-political tone, but there was no connection between the ropetovshchina and the radical intelligentsia’s views. On the contrary, the pathos of his speeches consisted in great sympathy for the cause of the reforms of Alexander II, a quarter-century of whose reign was described by Stasov as a period of unprecedented liberation of Russian creative spirit. The making difference of the Russian
Style according to the “party affiliation” of architects and artists is counterproductive, since this affiliation itself is very doubtful. Periodization, in the opinion of the author of the article, is a much more adequate method of systematizing the materials of the Russian Style.

The origins of heritage conservation in Czech lands are usually dated back to the year
1850 when the Central Commission for Research and Conservation of Architectural
Heritage (Central-Commission für Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmalen) was
founded in Vienna. In the years 1854–1855, fourteen conservators were assigned to the Bohemian area whose job was to search for and describe heritage sites and they also were to initiate their repairs. One of those fourteen conservators was one – still rather unbeknown – František X. Josef Beneš (1816–1888), conservator of Čáslav county, with whose life and work this paper is concerned. He was born into a family of an establishment bureaucrat Josef Alois Beneš in Český Dub, however, soon the family moved to Osek u Rokycan. Having graduated from grammar-school he continued studying at Prague Polytechnic school where he focused on chemistry and sugar industry. He started as a sugar industry adjunct in Dobrovice and later he was moved to Suchdol u Kutné Hory to act as a manager of a local sugar factory. Having helped František Alexander Heber with his work Böhmens Burgen, Vesten und Bergschlösser to whom he gave valuable data about many a building in Kutná
Hora area, Beneš himself began to be interested in conservation. In the 1840's we can already find Beneš as a member of the Archaeology Board of the Museum of the Bohemian Kingdom – a post which doubtless played its part in his appointment as a conservator. In the late 1850's he decribed the Nanebevzetí Panny Marie cathedral in Sedlec, decanal cathedral of St. Petr a Pavel in Čáslav, St. Petr a Pavel church in Čestín, church of St. Václav in Krchleby and with connection to its reconstruction also the memorial of the royal oath in Jihlava. The 1860's are the heritage boom years for Beneš – his main focus is on Kutná Hora; he describes the archdeacon church of St. Jakub, Hrádek nad Páchem, St. Markéta church in Křesetice and other churches. The attempt to photograph ceiling paintings in the hall of Sedlec monastery is among his most distinctive efforts. In the 1860's and 1880's he repeatedly published the decription of ruined tableaux by the painter Juda Tadeáš Supper. Around this
time he also became interested in mapping of strongholds. Upon moving to Prague he
attended Vocel's university lectures and after his death became a conservator for the city of Prague and later also for the Prague counties in his stead. Beneš concerned himself with Prague heritage in the 1870's and 1880's (chapel of St. Prokop in Strahov, Prašná brána, the bridge towers etc.) as is demonstrated by his knowledge of these sites in his later texts. However, gradually his conservation activity ceased; among his last texts is the report on Nanebevzetí Panny Marie church in Tismice. František X. Beneš belongs to the first generation of conservators of the Central-Commission. In his texts, he follows in footsteps of older topographic scholars such as Schaller, Sommer, Dlabacz on one hand and also Jan Erazim Vocel on the other. His main approach was detailed decription of given sites and detection of source findings which he compared quite critically. Epigraphic sites are most important to him. Beneš was a conservator-practician, although his knowledge of medieval buildings was outstanding he never overcame period-critics approach. Despite being wellknown among his peers during his life, he was almost forgotten after his death.

in Slovenia (shelfmark: Kreps, 1847; UKM Ms 563), which contains, among other things, a song about cholera, was the basis for its contextual interpretation and comparison with related recorded songs. This new discovery is important because the song refers to the first wave of cholera on Slovene territory in 1836, whereas other songs describing the disease were written later. The text of the song resembles a collection of frightening news about the disease circulating among the people. The questions of whether the information in the song is real or fictional, genuine or exaggerated are discussed in light of the memory of cholera outbreaks found in other songs of the same genre and historical data.

Η ανακοίνωση παρουσιάστηκε στο  Συνέδριο  «Επιστήμες και Τεχνολογία στη Νεότερη και Σύγχρονη Ελληνική Ιστορία, 1821 - 2021» διοργανώνει το Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Φιλοσοφίας της Επιστήμης (ΙΦΕ) του Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών (ΕΚΠΑ), στις 9 -10 Σεπτεμβρίου 2021.                                                               

Σύμφωνα με την κυρίαρχη ιστοριογραφική άποψη, η σχέση μεταξύ επιστήμης και θρησκείας, συγκεκριμένα του Ορθοδόξου Χριστιανισμού, στον ελληνικό χώρο κατά τον 19ο αιώνα είχε κυρίως συγκρουσιακό χαρακτήρα. Η αντίληψη των θρησκευόμενων λογίων (κληρικών, θεολόγων και λαϊκών) της εποχής για την επιστήμη αναλωνόταν σε άγονες αντιπαραθέσεις – χωρίς ωστόσο να αποκλείονται οι προσπάθειες σύγκλισης· μαχόμενοι κυρίως εναντίον του υλισμού, αναδεικνύοντας παράλληλα τον εθνικό χαρακτήρα στις εισαχθείσες επιστημονικές ιδέες, οι λόγιοι αυτοί, πολλοί από τους οποίους είχαν σπουδάσει στο εξωτερικό, επιδοκίμαζαν τη λεγόμενη «καλή επιστήμη», η οποία πίστευαν ότι θα συνέβαλε στην πνευματική και ηθική βελτίωση των Ελλήνων. Ωστόσο, οποιαδήποτε προσπάθεια κατανόησης της σχέσης της επιστήμης με τη θρησκεία την περίοδο αυτή πρέπει να λάβει σοβαρά υπόψη τις προτεσταντικές και άλλες επιρροές στη διαμόρφωση της αντίληψης για την επιστήμη, οι οποίες συχνά υπερτόνιζαν τον ευσεβισμό και τον ρόλο της νόησης στην πίστη και την καθημερινή ζωή των Χριστιανών. Περαιτέρω, δεν πρέπει να παραβλέπεται η αδυναμία διάκρισης από πλευράς λογίων μεταξύ υλισμού και επιστήμης (όπως στην περίπτωση του Δαρβινισμού) αλλά και διαφοροποίησης του ηθικού, επιστημονικού και φιλοσοφικού υλισμού. Όπως θα φανεί, οι προσπάθειες των θρησκευόμενων λογίων, όπως του Νεόφυτου Βάμβα, του Σπυρίδωνος Σούγκρα και του Ιωάννη Σκαλτσούνη, να κατανοήσουν τη θέση της επιστήμης έναντι της θρησκείας θυμίζουν έντονα αντίστοιχες προσπάθειες στην Ευρώπη. Οι προσπάθειες αυτές μάλιστα φαίνεται να προωθούν συγκεκριμένα σχήματα-περιγραφές της σχέσης επιστήμης και Ορθοδοξίας, όπως εκείνα της συμπληρωματικότητας και της σύνθεσης.

The essay addresses the complex and ambivalent depictions of Texas in German travelogues to the “Lone Star State” from the Vormärz Era, offering an exemplary analysis of three prominent journey accounts written from distinct socio-political perspectives and resulting from journeys through different parts of the region. It examines three German-authored journey accounts of Texas from 1830-180 with a particular regard to their partially contradicting depictions of Texas, on the one hand, and to the ways they connect personal observation and social commentary against the backdrop of the texts’ respective agendas: The clerk Eduard Ludecus’s Reise durch die mexikanischen Provinzen Tumalipas [sic], Coahuila und Texas (1837) provides a critical, yet differentiated picture of German settlement in South Texas on the eve of independence. The geologist Ferdinand Roemer’s Texas: Mit besonderer Rücksicht auf deutsche Auswanderung und die physischen Verhältnisse des Landes (1849) combines a natural scientific interest with the explicit purpose of informing a broad audience about the state of the German colonies that had been established since the 1830s in Texas and the region’s potential for future German settlement. Finally, the posthumously published emigration account of a pastor’s wife, Mit dem Paketsegler 1853 nach Texas: Reisebericht der Christiane Haun [1971], provides a singular female perspective on German settler society in early Nachmärz Texas.

The article investigates the narrative construction of Texas in three German travelogues written during the heyday of German migration to the region in the 1830s and 1840s. It claims that these and related texts contributed substantially to both the contemporary public debate about migration to Texas in Germany and the migratory practices of Germans who were planning to move there. In so doing, the article addresses the potential and social significance of migrant agency. The analyzed texts further offer a unique insight into major push and pull factors that drove so many Germans from their native lands to Texas as well as the impact of travel texts—both the individual examples and the larger body of this type of writing—on their movement.

Spanish American travel narratives about the United States have been performing a crucial function in reversing the dominant trajectory of “Western” travelers’ routes and gaze – the European or U.S.-American traveling and looking South, East, or West.  In contrast to the rather critical perspective of later narratives, Spanish American travel texts of the Jacksonian era tended to depict the United States as a likely model for their own countries. The present essayr focuses on two Spanish American travelogues about the United States from the 1830s and the way they construct notions of both U.S. and Spanish American national identities: the Mexican politician Lorenzo de Zavala’s Viaje a los Estados Unidos del Norte de América (1834) and the Cuban-based Spanish intellectual Ramón de la Sagra’s Cinco meses en los Estados-Unidos de la América del Norte (1836).

The article focuses on Mexican travelers to the then-Mexican province of Texas in the period between Mexican Independence in 1821 and the Texas Revolution of 1836. It discusses different types of travel writing, ranging from official reports via private journals of government inspectors to travelogues of Mexican intellectuals. These writers voice quite diverse assessments of the contemporary situation and future prospects of the region. On the one hand, they almost unanimously bemoan the inefficient Mexican administration and ignorance of the rural population. On the other hand, their appraisal of the Anglo American presence in the province and its political and cultural consequences differ considerably: While some writers viewed the growing Anglo population as a benefit to the development of the region, others harshly criticized their adherence to slavery and their disregard for Mexican rule and customs. Most of the writers discussed in the article further foresaw the danger of United States expansionism and the dominance of Anglo settlers for the territorial integrity of Mexico.

This study approaches a little known episode in the history of Iași: the pogrom of May 16, 1899. At the end of the 19th century, Iași was a center of the anti-Semitic movement in the Old Kingdom. Anti-Semites complained that Jews had become more numerous and more influential than Christians in the local economy. The 1899 pogrom was preceded by other Judeophobic turbulences in several cities, Bucharest included. This article points out the viral character of the idea that violence was an instrument to „solve” – or to speed-up the solution to – the Jewish question. International events, such as the Dreyfus Affair or Russian pogroms, also played a role in the dynamic of events. The perpetrators of the 1899 Iași pogrom were involved in previous incidents and tried to unite in a national or regional anti-Semitic movement. The Iași pogrom was the peak of violence and resulted in numerous injured people and widespread devastation. The atmosphere changed forever in Iași and Jewish-Christian cohabitation became extremely difficult afterwards. Because of this pogrom and other similar incidents, thousands of Jews left the country – they are known as „fussgeyers”. A conclusion of the study is that the anti-Semitic discourse and the appeal to violence had a local tradition, this feature being under-researched, in spite of the fact that it proved influential to the 20th Century history of Iași, which was devastated by another pogrom, in 1941.

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827), the great Swiss pedagogue, not only decisively influenced his native country with his work, but also changed the education practice worldwide during his lifetime. The reception of Pestalozzi’s pedagogical ideas and the pedagogical influence which was exercised in this way, as well, in the Greek region during the 19th century, is an important issue for the formation of Modern Greek Pedagogy.
Adamantios Korais (1748-1833), who was a leading figure of the Modern Greek Enlightenment, was the one who gave prominence to the work of the great Swiss educator in Greece, as early as 1809. This activity was part of the “metakenosis” of the Lights in enslaved Greece. The leading Greek periodical of the pre-revolutionary years Logios Hermes (1811-1821), published in Vienna, played an important role in the dissemination of Pestalozzi’s ideas.
Ioannis Kapodistrias (1776-1831), the first Greek Governor, acting alongside the initiatives of the Greek Enlighteners, believed that the Greek people as a whole needed education in order to be able to claim their freedom; for that reason, he was actively concerned about the state of education in his enslaved homeland. He showed a particular interest in the educational system which was being developed during those years in Switzerland and expressed his admiration for Pestalozzi’s work. Besides, Kapodistrias had personally met Pestalozzi. The Greek Governor had also expressed the same interest in the work of Pestalozzi’s “faithful student”, the noble politician Philippe-Emmanuel von Fellenberg (1771-1844).
Unfortunately, after the Greek Governor’s tragic assassination, his welfare program for the orphans, inspired by the movement of Philanthropismus, deteriorated and shrank. The Othonic monarchy, in collaboration with the Regency, which followed the assassination of Kapodistrias, imposed the one-way Bavarian educational system, with elements from the neo-humanistic and the classicist practice of the time, whereas Philanthropismus was abandoned. This trend was reinforced by many Greek educators who, as scholarship recipients of associations and bequests, studied in Germany during that period, and transferred these pedagogical ideas to Greece.
Finally, systematic historical and bibliographical research shows that Pestalozzi’s writings were also heavily ignored in post-revolutionary Greece.

The study examines popular politics in Damascus during the 1830s with a focus on kinship and other social categories that served as bases for political action. It is based on a close reading of one text, an anonymous Arabic chronicle known as ‘Historical Memoirs’ (Mudhakkirāt tārīkhiyya), which is analysed as a repertoire of contemporary social and political concepts. This analysis reveals an ideology of ‘localist’ resistance against the centralising state and its ‘loyalist’ allies in Damascus. Kinship played an important role in this struggle on the social plane (e.g. by using family networks for political ends) as well as on the cultural plane (e.g. through the use of kinship metaphors or through criticism of kinship ties in politics). It is concluded that the function of kinship in Damascene politics can only be understood in the context of other social categories such as factionalism, religious affiliation, class and ethnicity.

This is a brief look at the lives of Hugo and Gaynee Preller, who operated a floating photography studio on the Mississippi and White Rivers in the U.S. from about 1893 to 1910. The essay is intended as a framing preface to Photographica No2, which is devoted to mobile photography.

Through the quill and the life of the corunnian free-thinker Emilia Pardo Bazán, it reveals her great contributions in the field of women´s education.
The main aim of this work is to put forward concisely one of the most discussed proposals outlined by the author: an educative model with the purpose of facilitate an autonomous life project for women, based in sexual, moral, intelectual and social equality.