Тhe philosophical and aesthetic Сoncept of unity in variety in the architectural criticism of nestor Кukolnik

Abstract

The article is devoted to the philosophical and aesthetic interpretation of the critical works of the writer, art historian, art and architecture critic Nestor Vasilievich Kukolnik (1809-1868), devoted to the architecture of early eclecticism in Russia. The author's views on architecture, in the context of contradictory worldview trends of the Romantic era, correlate with the principles of the philosophical and aesthetic concept of unity in variety, the realization of which is aimed at achieving a qualitatively new architecture of «high taste». The critic comes to the assertion of the artistic significance of the new polystylistic approach in architecture by identifying the continuity and commonality of the style formation. The result of N.V. Kukolnik's critical reflection can be seen as a philosophical and aesthetic decomposition of the principle of unity in variety in its applied meaning in the field of architectural creativity of the period of national architectural eclecticism of the XIX century, which has not lost its relevance in present days.