Малая история византийской эстетики

The expression "Byzantine aesthetics" has a broader semantics in Bychkov's work than it seems at first glance. "Byzantium" - i.e. the region that gave the classic examples of Christian culture, both material and spiritual. Those. "Orthodox aesthetics" (a term launched into scientific circulation by Bychkov) is somehow "Byzantine" or goes back to it. "Aesthetics" is understood extremely broadly, in the spirit of Losev, whose student was Bychkov, as the totality of all components of the "system of non-utilitarian relationships between a person and the world (natural, objective, social, spiritual), as a result of which he experiences spiritual pleasure. The essence of these relationships is reduced or to the expression of some meaning in sensually perceived forms, or to the self-sufficing contemplation of some object (material or spiritual).Spiritual pleasure (in the limit - aesthetic catharsis) testifies to the subject's superintelligent vision in the aesthetic object of the essential foundations of being, the secret truths of the spirit, the elusive laws of life in of all its integrity and deep harmony, about the realization, in the end, of spiritual contact with the Universe (and for a believer - with God), about breaking the connection of times and, at least momentarily, exiting into eternity, or more precisely, about feeling oneself involved in eternity. thus acts as a universal characteristic of all its complex of non-utilitarian relationships of man with the world, based on his vision of his original involvement in being and eternity, his harmonious inscription in the Universe. From these brief definitions, one can imagine the huge scale of the "Small History of Byzantine Aesthetics". Bychkov defines the periodization of his "Small History of Byzantine Aesthetics" as follows: I-III centuries. - the early Christian, or pre-Byzantine, period, when the active formation of the basic ideas and principles of Byzantine aesthetics proper began. 4th-7th centuries - the early Byzantine period, coinciding with the "golden age" (VI century) of Byzantine culture; it also accounts for the beginning of the flowering of Byzantine aesthetic thought, the formation of basic concepts, concepts, and the categorical apparatus. VIII - trans. floor. 9th century - the iconoclastic period, in which a detailed and comprehensive development of the theory of the image was carried out in connection with the fine arts - the theory of the cult image, icons. Deut. floor. IX-XII centuries (before the invasion of the crusaders) - the time of maturity and stabilization of artistic and aesthetic culture and aesthetic consciousness with a strong tendency to restore and idealize late antique and early Byzantine motifs. XIII - ser. 15th century - a period of confrontation between the church-hesychast and the anti-Kyzantian trends in Byzantine culture, which is declining towards sunset. Regarding the characterization of his "History of Byzantine Aesthetics" as "small", Bychkov writes: "Here is the first model of the author's reconstruction. Today, the author is convinced that it adequately reflects the real historical picture. [...] the study of primary sources continues. This explains the name monographs. The time for the "Great" or complete history of Byzantine aesthetics has not yet come."