Mythological Birds in the Culture of the Silver Age: Revival of the Archaic

Abstract

Deals with some trends in Russian art at the beginning of the 20th century. The author argues that the Archaic revival of the Silver Age reflected the active denial of contemporaneity by the artistic elite. The national folklore and mythology representing the Indo­European roots of Russian culture became popular among the visual artists while the mythological birds Humayun, Sirin, Alkonost, the Swan Princess and the Firebird were pictured by Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Vrubel, and Ivan Bilibin; their images were created in the verses by Alexander Blok, in Igor Stravinsky’s music, and in choreographic masterpieces by Mikhail Fokine and Anna Pavlova.