Чари й парадокси історицизму

Abstract

The paper offers a twofold perspective on the subject/phenomenon of historicism: its ideology, on one hand, and its architectural manifestations – on the other. Regarding architecture as a product of a way of thinking, the author tries to trace the roots of historicist ideology, focuses on the conditions of thought of the XIX cent. and certain considerations that informed the production of architecture. Clearly (and it was demonstrated by many thinkers and architectural historians – e. g. Gadamer, Pérez-Gómez, Foucault, Vidler, Tafuri, Krauss, Schorske, or Habermas) the XIX cent. faced head-on the crisis of representation, and thus – the crisis of the subject (as transition from traditional /cosmic/ order to historical one). Traditionally, architectural discourse has been largely a discourse of form and has been dominated by debates that revolve around a question of style, trapped, in fact, within the realm of ‘symptoms’. Trying to investigate “the underlying causes”, the author explores specific ideas brought about by Modernity: History /historicity/, evolution and development /idea of ‘becoming’/, instrumentality, and fragmentation. Hence, we have a “museum-like” vision of culture, where history of architecture appeared as a succession of styles (history of architecture as Stilgeschihte) put forward by Semper, or Durand’s comparative combinatoric tableaux of historic buildings and types. It’s that ‘reification’ of culture (when one can substitute the whole body of primary culture by its mental/abstract/ construction) that gave birth to historicism as an ideology and practice of seeking historic appropriatedness – ‘comparing the relevance which is now to its relevance in the past,’ as Habermas puts it. Not only Viennise Ringstrasse (with its “four crown diamonds” – Parliament, Cityhall, University, and Theater), but also Horodetsky’s projects (St. Nicolas Cathedral, National Gallery, Kenassa, or village /’zemskii’/ hospital), let alone numerous examples of pseudo-Bizantine architecture of the late XIX cent. serve a perfect case in point.