@font-face { font-family: #x0022;Times New Roman#x0022;;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Helvetica; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: #x0022;Times New Roman#x0022;; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }Therole of the frame in art can refer to a material frame bordering an image andto a conceptual frame #x2013; a text, for instance, which is to serve as a commentaryto the visual image. What is the meaning of a frame in our understanding ofwhat we see? Why, in some cases, does a frame seem necessary, while in othersartists deliberately remove it?In Framing Russian Art, Oleg Tarasovinvestigates the role of the frame both literally and conceptually, both in theorganization of the artistic space of a work of art and in the very perceptionof a visual image #x2013; an icon, a building, a painting, an etching or aphotograph.

Part One is dedicated to exploring the frame of the Russian iconand related arks, folding images and prints, from the Middle Ages to the latenineteenth century, including analyses of Grigoriy Shumayev#x2019;s vast andextraordinary Baroque masterpiece, which he called #x2018;the iconostasis of the life-givingCross#x2019;, and the sumptuous blending of medievalism and late Romanticism in theChurch Not Made by Hands at Savva Mamontov#x2019;s estateof Abramtsevo outside Moscow. Part Two examines the successive roles of the frame inBaroque imperial portraiture, the dynastic grandiloquence of the nineteenthcentury, the impact of Western ideas and new technology (photography inparticular) on the celebrated battle painter VasiliyVereshchagin, and finally the impact of the vanishing frame in abstract art andModernism.A captivating account of the cultural phenomenonof the frame and its ever-changing functions, this book will open many newvistas for students and scholars of Russian culture and art history.