CONTRIBUTION OF 18TH-CENTURY EXPEDITION ARTISTS AND 20TH-CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHERS TO THE STUDY OF CAUCASUS
The article deals with the works of the 18th-century expedition artists and 20th-century photographers who captured various natural objects in the North Caucasus, the Caucasus and the South Caucasus. Little is known about these people, but their ability to adequately depict natural objects is highly valuable for understanding the nature of the corresponding territories and water areas. The existing literature on "art chambers" of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences comprises the works of art historians, who mostly rely on the 18th century academic editions (in the better case, these are coloured engravings). When the Academy of Art was established, expedition artists virtually disappeared. However, the need for adequate capture of natural objects arose again. In the middle of the 19th century photographers came to help. The aim of this publication is to draw attention of researchers to a large complex of preserved but still little-known field visual expedition materials, stored in the archives and libraries of the Russian Academy of Sciences, including the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and St. Petersburg; in the collections of full-size drawings at the Botanical and Zoological Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences; in the archives of the Navy and the Military Historical Archive, as well as of the Russian Geographical Society and the Russian National Library in Saint-Petersburg; in the manuscript departments of the Russian State Library and many other archival depositories of the country.