Material and dimensional environment in landscape paintings of Russian symbolism

Symbolism in landscape paintings of the late 19th - early 20th centuries suggested not only a modification of iconography, but also a change in their artistic communication and author’s point of view. «World of Art» artists and Yakunchikova demonstrated methods in their paintings which are designed to show an unusually uncommon view of the world. Experiments in the field of perspective and angle construction caused a high level intellectual control in the masterpieces. This tendency in their works is most often motivated by the interest in the object-material component of the curved space. «Cult of things» contributed to the introduction of still life in landscape compositions and its active role in the interpretation of the whole masterpiece. The still life did not become allegorical imagery, but it set certain semantic coordinates of its understanding. In addition, it was the object-material component of the landscape that built up its architectonics, denoting the crisis at the turn of the centuries’ era in the relations of nature and culture. These peculiarities in the works of the «World of Art» artists and Yakunchikova demonstrate the embodiment of one of the conceptual trends of the art of symbolism.