A Rehabilitation of Gothic Culture in Work of F. R. de Chateaubriand
The article is devoted to one of the aspects of creation of a famous XIX century writer and philosopher F. R. de Chateaubriand. The article focuses on the history of gothic art rehabilitation in French literature during the Romanticism. It describes how the theory of the Gothic style origin by F. R. de Chateaubriand (the so-called «wood theory») was created and estimates its role in developing interest to scientific analysis and artistic interpretation of the medieval art elements once forgotten. Another problem posed in the article is that of ruins cult, typical for many romanticists, including F. R. de Chateaubriand; it reveals the link between the ruins cult and the interest to Gothic architecture. The author mentions the theories of Gothic culture origin, one of its authors being the pioneering romanticist F. R. de Chateaubriand. The reasons why romanticists together with F. R. de Chateaubriand took interest in Medieval art, its architecture, both laic and ecclesiastic, are mentioned as well. In his «Génie du christianisme» F. R. de Chateaubriand suggested and proved the «wood theory» of Gothic art origin comparing Gothic churches with his native French woods. The article describes how the writer explains appearance of the first churches in France comparing them with Greek and Egyptian temples. Another question discussed in the article is why F. R. de Chateaubriand abandons his Gothic origin theory and supports another one, which states that gothic architecture was brought to Europe from the East as a result of the Crusades.