The problem of the artist
in the “Italian prose” of Apollon Maykov (“Picnic in Florence”) and in the novel “The Precipice” by Ivan Goncharov

The Maykov literary and artistic salon played a significant role in shaping the aesthetics of Ivan Goncharov, with some members sharing the writer’s creative attitudes towards the contemporary historical and literary process. One of the influential figures was Apollon Maykov. During the 1840s, a time when Russian literature was at an “aesthetic crossroads,” the poet travelled to Italy. His stay in this country resulted in the essay “Picnic in Florence” (1848) where the poet, art critic, and former artist, addresses important problems of verbal and visual art. At the same time, Ivan Goncharov, Maykov’s teacher and a close friend of his family, begins to write a novel “The Artist” (“The Precipice” 1869). In their critical works on painting, both Goncharov and Maykov discussed the two fundamental schools of Italian and Flemish art, which together create a comprehensive depiction of life and embody a holistic approach to art. The main characters in Goncharov’s and Maykov’s texts are remarkably alike, characterized by their innate talent for transforming reality into poetic visual representations. The proximity of Goncharov’s Raisky to Maykov’s Gorunin and Tarneev images highlights their shared commitment to the fundamental principles of modern art: a meticulous portrayal of everyday existence and a celebration of the beauty inherent in the ordinary. These postulates allowed Goncharov and Maykov to achieve a creative synthesis of the “high” and the “every-day,” a central aspect of their aesthetic stance.