Introduction: On the History of Oriental Studies (by Natalia Sychova)

The Museum of Oriental Art founded in Moscow in October 1918 by decree of the Soviet government is the only museum in the Soviet Union wholly devoted to Eastern art. It is one of the largest centres in which artistic monuments of Asiatic and African peoples are accumulated, preserved, studied and popularized.

The creation of such a museum in Russia was rendered possible by the October Revolution of 1917, which gave real freedom and equality to all nations and ethnic groups of the former Russian Empire. The foundation of the Museum specially devoted to Oriental art was a manifestation of the national policy of the young Soviet state- the policy which was based upon Lenin's principles of acknowledging the right of every nation to self-determination. It was also a manifestation of a deep respect for the peoples of the East, who had made their invaluable contribution to the history of civilization.

The Museum has played an important role in the studies of the art and culture of the East, particularly in the solution of the so-called "West versus East" problem posed by European science.

The notions of East and West had existed in the time of the Phoenicians and ancient Greeks, but for centuries afterwards, from the historical and cultural points of view, the Old World was not divided into East and West. The destinies of the peoples of the West and of the East were interlinked since ancient times and merged into one complex whole.

The history of ancient Greece, where the notion of the Oriental world covered both the lands east of the Aegean Sea and Greek colonies in Asia Minor, encompasses the history of both Europe and Asia. It is common knowledge that ancient East played an important role in the formation of the Antique culture.

The Hellenistic world which established itself as a result of Alexander the Great's conquests embraced Greece in Europe, Egypt in Africa and vast areas of the Middle East and Central Asia. The formation of "the kingdom of the Greeks in the heart of Asia", i.e. the Greek Empire which extended as far as Bactria and which possessed a unique culture amalgamating Greek and Bactrian traditions, is a vivid example illustrating the historical fusion of the ancient West and East.

During the Roman period the "Quartet of the Ancient Empires"-Rome, the Parthian, Han and Kushan kingdoms-spread their influence over the entire Old World. They were connected by the first transcontinental trade route in the history of civilization-the Great Silk Route- and maintained extensive commercial and diplomatic contacts with the countries of the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Central Asia, Hindustan and the Far East. That was the era of "tight cultural links and mutual enrichment, of mutual attraction of nations and cultures, of peaceful development and progress" (Б. Г. Гафуров, Кушанская эпоха и мировая цивилизация, М., 1968, с. 20 [В. Gafurov, The Kushan Epoch and World Civilization, Moscow, 1968, p. 20].). This, however, did not prevent the Romans from having a view of the East as of a peculiar world, a world of coarseness and ignorance compared with the Roman and Greek worlds and Europe as a whole. Thus, Strabo in his geographical writings referred to Europe as a unique part of the world superior to all other parts. The Roman claim of superiority-military, political and cultural-over the nations of the East gave new meaning to the notions of "East" and "West", although the Roman Empire itself was far from being an exclusively European state, either in terms of geography or culture.

During the Middle Ages the historically conditioned affinity of the West and the East persisted as before. Characteristically, it was the East that after the fall of Rome took the lead in artistic development-hence the flourishing of Byzantine art which, according to E. Redin, a well-known Byzantologist, was "a revival of Classical Greek art on new fertile soil and under new favourable conditions" (История европейского искусствознания. Вторая половина XIX века- начало XXвека, т. 2, М., 1969, с. 12 [History of European Art Studies. The Second Half of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries, vol.2, Moscow, 1969, p. 12].).

Both the West and the East were affected in the Middle Ages by the Huns, Turks, Arabs and Mongols whose activity extended from Eastern Asia to Central and even Western Europe.

Despite the fact that at the time of the Crusades Western Europe adopted the Roman concept of the West's superiority over the East, the latter was ahead of the former in terms of the progress of civilization at its medieval stage. The achievements of Indian, Chinese, Arab, Iranian and Mid-Asiatic cultures of that time are indisputable. Not only in art and literature, but also in other branches of knowledge and in the sphere of material culture the countries of the East definitely surpassed the West.

It was only at the time of major social and economic changes which occurred in European countries between the 14th and 18th centuries, at the time when capitalism was superseding feudalism, at the time of discoveries and cultural progress, that the East began gradually falling behind Europe-first economically, then politically and culturally. Colonial expansion by European countries was on the one hand accelerating the decline of feudalism and the growth of capitalism, and on the other hampering the development of Oriental countries. Therefore, the West with its Renaissance and later with its modern culture was opposed by the East with its old feudal one. As a result the East was treated by the Europeans as an utterly different and alien world. This view became one of the reasons why the modern humanities which had originated in Europe were for a long time concerned mainly with the history and culture of the West, while those of the East were the subjects of a separate branch of knowledge-Oriental studies.

The appearance of that discipline in Europe was preceded by a practical, first-hand acquaintance with the countries of the East, by the accumulation of data and facts connected with the great age of discoveries and colonial expansion.

Numerous diplomats, merchants, missionaries and travellers in the 15th and 16th centuries recorded their impressions of various Asiatic countries. As a result, a considerable amount of material on the geography and languages of the East was eventually collected. In the 16th century in Paris and in the 17th century in Oxford Oriental languages were introduced into the curricula of universities, for practical rather than purely scholarly reasons. At the same time the first dictionaries of Arabic and Persian were published in Europe.

The interest of the Europeans in Eastern culture was at that time largely superficial and did not go far beyond mere curiosity. Some Europeans, however, were even then ready to admit that there was a lot to be learnt from the East. Thus, they were convinced of the superiority of Eastern medicine and mathematics. Handicraft articles from the East, for example carpets and rugs, were greatly valued in Europe. It was not by accident therefore that Oriental rugs found their way into the paintings of some Italian Renaissance artists, among them a Madonna by Lippo Memmi (1350), The Betrothal of Mary by Niccolo Buonaccorso (1380), Family Group by Lorenzo Lotto (1523-25) and the murals of the Pistoia cathedral executed by Lorenzo di Credi (1475). Eastern carpets also figure in pictures by 15th- to 17th-century Dutch and German artists and by 16th- and 17th-century English artists. Indian textiles were likewise in great demand in 16th-century Western Europe.

The interest and the thirst for knowledge in the spheres of art and culture were reciprocal. We know that in the early 14th century the Chinese had produced their first copies of Western European paintings, and three hundred years later the missionary Matteo Ricci supervised the production of an enlarged copy of a European print for Emperor Wang-Li. In the middle of the 16th century, European paintings first appeared in Japan. In 1565 the missionary Luis Froes commissioned Japanese jewellers to execute part of the altar for the chapel at Sakai near Osaka, and in 1585 Giovanni Nicolao founded St. Luke's Academy in Nagasaki, where he taught the Japanese the techniques of oil- and fresco-painting and print-making.

In the 17th and early 18th centuries the scope of knowledge about the East was growing particularly fast. It was the time when Oriental studies lost their practical implications and acquired a scholarly character. The literature on the subject was becoming more extensive, the written sources more numerous; some universities acquired large collections of Oriental manuscripts; old and contemporary Oriental texts began to be published in Europe both in the original and in translation; the range of Eastern languages taught and studied in Europe grew considerably, and comprehensive dictionaries of those languages were published along with detailed descriptions of Oriental countries containing information on their geography, history and culture. Moreover, the artistic legacy of the East was becoming an object of imitation.

Carpaccio and Rembrandt were fascinated by the beauty of Oriental miniatures to the point of copying them. Wat-teau, who was familiar with Chinese painting, believed himself to be working in the Chinese manner, although he had never studied it especially and was playing with Chinese motifs rather than anything else. Porcelain articles exported from China were highly valued in Europe and, having become a model for imitation, eventually stimulated the appearance of 17th-century Delft faience. In the 18th century, Oriental motifs become fashionable in interior decoration, exert a powerful influence upon the minor arts and, changed beyond recognition, finally become an integral part of Rococo.

Furthermore, the East is known to have influenced the writers and philosophers of the Enlightenment.

The second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th marked a new stage in the evolution of the relationship between the West and the East. It was characterized by a further expansion of European colonial empires, by Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, by the establishment of British rule in India, by a flow of English and American missionaries into China and, finally, by a closer and less superficial acquaintance of the Europeans with the East. Upon this acquaintance the Europeans were stunned by the ancient civilizations revealed to them. European scholars succeeded in deciphering the hieroglyphic writing system of Egypt and also Old Persian, Assyrian and Babylonian cuneiform script. A translation of Avesta appeared; Sanscrit and Chinese took their place in university curricula. Special institutions for teaching Oriental languages were opened in Vienna and Paris. Comparative studies of Sanscrit and European languages gave birth to a new discipline-comparative linguistics. Fundamental works on the history and culture of the ancient and medieval East started appearing in Europe. In some countries special Asiatic societies were established-The Bengal Asiatic Society in Calcutta, The Royal Asiatic Society in London, The Asiatic Society in Paris, The German Society for Oriental Studies in Leipzig, etc.

It was not only scholars whose interest in the East was stimulated by Oriental literature. Victor Hugo wrote in the Preface to Les Orientales: "At the time of Louis XIV there appeared the Hellenists. Nowadays one has to be an Orientalist. . . Shall we not see farther and deeper if we study antiquity in the ancient East?" The idea of a cultural synthesis of the West and the East was at that time also contemplated by Johann Wolfgang Goethe in his book of poems, West-Ostlicher Divan.

While the scholars and writers of the time already treated the East as an object for serious study, the artists, especially the Romanticists of the early 19th century, regarded it primarily as an exotic land. This and the newly awakened interest in the freedom-loving Eastern peoples brought some Romanticist poets and artists (among them Lord Byron and Eugene Delacroix) to the East, where they found new sources of inspiration, new motifs and images, and new heroic ideals to be opposed to the mediocrity and pessimism of the bourgeois world.

The influence of the East upon the Western minor arts was at that time growing stronger. Chinese lacquers, porcelain ware, embroidered articles and textiles which charmed the Europeans with their striking decorative-ness, their exquisite finish, their delicate colours and ornamentation were coming into vogue in the West.

At the same time first steps were being made in the field of Oriental art studies. On the whole, this area of knowledge was far less developed than other aspects of Orientalistics, for "by the end of the 18th century the history of art as a discipline did not yet reach beyond isolated observations, brilliant but accidental conjectures and abstract theorizing divorced from the knowledge of real facts" (История европейского искусствознания. Первая половина XIXвека, М., 1965, с. 7 [History of European Art Studies. The First Half of the 19th Century, Moscow, 1965, p. 7].). However, towards the close of the 18th and in the first half of the 19th century the foundations which ensured the future development of Oriental art history were laid. Of primary importance was the growth of museum activity. Although the idea of opening public art museums had been first expressed by the Encyclopaedists, little had been done until after the French Revolution, when in 1792 by decree of the Convention the Louvre was declared a public museum in which nationalized royal and private collections were to be displayed. After Napoleon's Egyptian campaign in which a group of French scholars had taken part with the aim of studying, sketching and measuring ancient Egyptian monuments, the Egyptian Institute was founded in Paris. It housed a large collection of Oriental art. The early 19th century saw the opening of many of the largest European art galleries and museums.

In the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th the East was drawn even more closely to Europe. It was a result of numerous researches carried out by the scholars of that time, and also of the work of artists which introduced the Western world to Oriental art. Meanwhile, further accumulation and systematization of data concerning the ancient and medieval history of the Eastern countries were going on, series of Oriental texts were published and dictionaries of Oriental languages compiled. The largest European collections of Oriental manuscripts and books were being catalogued and the catalogues published. Archaeological research was carried out on a large scale in India, Afghanistan and Asia Minor. The ruins of Petra, Samarra and ancient Phoenician towns were among the sites which attracted archaeologists of that time. Congresses of Orientalists became fairly regular. In short, the need for a transition "from generalizations to specialization and a thorough study of the history of particular countries, peoples and periods on the basis of authentic records" (. Бартольд, История изучения Востока в Европе и России, Л., 1925, с. 161 [V. Bartold, History of Oriental Studies in Europe and Russia, Leningrad, 1925, p.161].) was becoming increasingly urgent.

The achievements of Oriental studies, exploration of new countries, discovery of previously unknown relics of the past, as well as the transformation of art history into a full-fledged university discipline, resulted in a considerably broadened scope of knowledge. The first publications on Eastern art were followed by fundamental works on the history of European, Asiatic and African art. Thus, for example, the eight-volume Geschichte der bildenden Kunste (1843-79) by the German scholar K.Schnaase included sections on the Ancient East, China, India and the Arab countries.

Among the issues with which European art historians were concerned at that time was the relationship between Oriental and Western art, particularly the role of Eastern art in the development of art in Europe. An eminent representative of the Austrian school, A. Riegl, in his book Stilfragen. Grundlegungen zu einer Geschichte der Ornamentik, traced the influence of the Egyptian and Western Asiatic traditions on Hellenistic ornaments. Another Austrian art historian, J.Strzygowski, and his followers looked for the sources of European art in Asia Minor, Syria and further to the East-in fact, as far as the Altai. G. Millet was concerned with the interaction of Eastern and Western traditions in Byzantine art.

The artistic activity of the time made a considerable contribution to the popularization, understanding and revaluation of Oriental art. Thus, in the middle of the 19th century the English Pre-Raphaelites revealed to the Western world the beauty of the Oriental miniature and of Iranian art, in the 1880s French artists introduced Western Europe to Japanese prints-the art admired by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir and others. After the exhibition of Japanese art which was held in Paris in 1883, and several others that followed, many Western European painters introduced certain principles of Oriental art into their own idiom. The pictorial method of these painters was to a great extent determined by the laws of Eastern art and was characterized by certain principles of spatial treatment, composition, perspective and decorativeness, previously unknown in European painting. It was a step forward. What the Impressionists borrowed from Oriental art was not its exotic and highly ornamental character, but a number of pictorial devices which, combined with traditional European ones, resulted in a totally distinct manner. The discovery of Japanese art therefore had a tremendous effect upon the evolution of Western European painting.

In the face of the conflict which existed in the capitalist world between the technical progress and humanistic ideals, at a time when the isolation and detachment of individuals were growing into a problem, some European artists were again attracted by the East with its age-long traditions and ancient culture. They saw in the East the quest for harmony and the pursuit of stability and integrity.

Both the Post-Impressionists and the Fauvists were, directly or indirectly, influenced by Eastern art. Among the artists whose creative work was affected by Oriental artistic traditions were Pablo Picasso, Andre Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Amedeo Modigliani and Auguste Rodin. Many European writers of that time were equally under the spell of the East-among them Guy de Maupassant, Charles Dickens and Gustave Flaubert. Besides being an object of research for scholars and a source of inspiration for writers, artists and composers, the East became also a fashion to which the public at large was eager to respond in their own way.

The acquaintance with and the study of the artistic and material culture of the East eventually generated an interest for its ethical and religious teachings. The ideology of Buddhism (first in its Chinese variety) penetrated into Europe and, among others, interested such eminent figures of the early 20th-century culture as Remain Rolland, Anatole France, Henri Matisse and Georg Mahler.

At the same time, even though the leading representatives of European culture and thought paid tribute to the East for its great contribution to the history of civilization, the prejudice against Oriental nations and the superior attitude to them, inherited from the first colonial expansion, still persisted. Up to this day some Western scholars, to say nothing of ideologists and politicians, tend to treat the East and the West as two essentially different "branches of mankind". Moreover, the system of social and cultural relations which established itself in Western Europe in the course of modern history is regarded by them as something intrinsically and exclusively Western in kind, while feudal features are viewed as Oriental by origin on the grounds that they still survive in some Asiatic countries. Such an historically ill-grounded approach to the problem of the West-East relationship distinguishes two opposite ideological trends-the "Eurocentric" and the "Orientocentric" ones.

These two trends attracted art historians as well, including some specialists on Oriental art. Thus, A. Riegl, for example, insisted that the peoples of the East-in contrast to the Indo-Europeans who had played an active part in history-were conservative by definition, and, accordingly, their influence upon world culture was a negative, rather than a positive, factor. J. Strzygowski, on the contrary, tried to prove the dependence of Western art upon the art of the East. These claims of superiority of either the West or the East, supported by Western or, alternatively, by Eastern reactionary circles, nowadays can be seen to contradict both the real course of events and the contemporary stage of Oriental studies.

The October Revolution of 1917 in Russia gave freedom to a number of nations of the East which, even without going through the capitalist stage, took the route of Socialism, thus overtaking some of the so-called "progressive" countries of the West. The peoples of the Soviet East nowadays form an integral part of the Soviet Union, and although they have preserved their national identity and their national culture, they are in many respects- politically, economically and culturally-closer to the European peoples of the Soviet Union than to the peoples of the non-socialist East. In other words, "socialism has marked the beginning of the era of national liberation" (Программа КПСС, М., 1972, с. 44 [The Programme of the CPSU, Moscow, 1972, p.44].), which, especially if a non-capitalist type of social and economic relationship is chosen, guarantees to the newly liberated peoples the most favourable conditions for economical, political and cultural progress.

Archaeological discoveries have been a powerful factor in the appreciation of Oriental culture in the Western world. Many archaeologists continued the work of their predecessors in several countries of the East. One of the greatest achievements was the discovery of one of the oldest civilizations of the world-the Harappa culture. A great contribution to our knowledge of ancient and medieval history was made by A. Foucher's and R. Ghirshman's work in Afghanistan, by D. Schlumberger's excavations in Iran, etc. The research carried out by E. Herzfeld, Ch. L. Woolley and A. Stein elucidated certain points connected with the study of the Primitive Age and of the earliest agricultural civilizations in the Middle East.

Much has also been done by Western experts on the East along the lines of producing fundamental works on the history of Oriental culture, literature, religious thinking and philosophy. The number of Oriental studies centres has increased considerably, as well as the number and scope of publications on the East.

Oriental art history has received the status of an independent discipline. Enormous material on the art history of different nations and cultural regions of the East has been collected by such eminent specialists in the field as B. Grey, A. Pope, O. Siren and others.

After gaining their national independence, many former colonies in the East began training their own specialists on the history and culture of their peoples. These specialists are now carrying out an extensive research programme aimed at collecting, studying and publishing materials constituting the national cultural legacy. Many of these scholars have been recognized by their European colleagues as the leading authorities in the field.

The materialistic approach to history nowadays attracts an ever-increasing number of supporters among art historians and Orientalists outside the Socialist world. The dialectical materialism which lies at the base of the Marxist method and the internationalist approach have always been the principal tenets of Soviet art history and art criticism. They have ensured a deep understanding and appreciation of the traditions of Russian Oriental studies, as well as the continuity and successful develop­ment of these traditions.

Russian Oriental studies as a discipline was always characterized by an almost total lack of national or racial prejudice. Instead, it was traditionally marked by a great respect for the long history and rich culture of Eastern peoples. It was only natural, for the history of some of them had always been closely linked with the history of Russia itself.

The East European Plain, upon which the Old Russian state was formed, due to its geographical position was a link between the West and the East. It was through this plain that- even before the Russian state appeared-the historically recorded "road from the Varangians to the Greeks" had led. The rivers of the plain connected the Baltic and the Caspian Seas, thus providing the waterways between Europe and Asia. This determined the unique character of Old Russian art, which at its earliest stage was already absorbing certain traits of Classical Antiquity on the one hand and Oriental art on the other. The neighbourhood of nomadic tribes, close contacts with Byzantium and, after its conquest by the Crusaders, with the countries of the Middle East, constant ties with the Christian East, the Mongol invasion, the extension of the Russian supremacy beyond the Urals, to the Caucasus, Central Asia and to the Pacific coast-these factors testified to Russia's connection with the East and determined the fascination Russian people have always had for the latter.

The earliest travels of the Russians to the East, according to the surviving records, date back to the period between the 12th and the 15th centuries. They were undertaken by pilgrims to "the Holy Land", i.e.Palestine: the chronicles refer to Father Superior Daniel (12th cen­tury), Metropolitan Pimen and Deacon Ignatius (14th century). In the 14th century Russian merchants visited the main city of Kwarasm-Gurgandge, and in the 15th century, when Russia found itself on the principal route connecting Western Europe and Iran, Russian merchants joined foreign legations and trade missions on their way eastwards beyond Kwarasm. One such merchant was Afanasy Nikitin of Tver, the first Russian to visit India. His travel notes describing India-a country "three seas away", as well as the account of travels in China undertook by I. Petlin in the early 17th century and by F. Baikov and N. Spafaria in the second half of the same century, are the earliest written records dealing with the East in Russian literature.

In the 17th and 18th centuries the amount of geographical information pertaining to the East was considerably increased. The notion of Central Asia and Siberia gradually lost its vagueness, and due to the activity of Russian explorers, travellers and scientists, new lands- of whose existence neither ancient nor medieval scholars had been aware-were discovered.

This was the time when the foundations of Russian Oriental studies were laid. In the reign of Peter the Great, who not only "cut a window into Europe", but showed a great interest in the East as well, the practical learning of Oriental languages began in Russia. A Russian religious mission was established in Peking; the activity of the mission paved the way for the beginnings and development of Russian Sinology. In the middle of the 18th century the recognized leader of contemporary Russian science, Mikhail Lomonosov, promoted contacts between Russia and peoples of the East, and was responsible for the opening of an "Oriental academy" and a department of Oriental languages at the University of St. Petersburg. His views were later supported by progressive Russian writers-Nikolai Novikov, Nikolai Karamzin and Alexander Radishchev.

By the early 19th century numerous translations of important works on the geography, history, ethnography and philology of Mongolia, Manchuria, China, Japan and other countries of the East had been published by Russian scholars.

Interest in the Oriental cultural legacy was growing. Peter the Great himself, having visited the ruins of the Volga Bulgars' settlements, gave orders for their preservation. He also commissioned the copying and translation of Tartar and Armenian inscriptions which amounted to an impressive collection of volumes. The so-called Siberian collection of Peter the Great, which included Turkish, Iranian, Indian and Indonesian weapons pre­sented to him by various foreign visitors, Oriental coins and other objets d'art from the East, formed the bulk of the exhibits displayed in the Kunstkammer-the first Russian museum founded by Peter the Great. The expansion of trade with the East resulted in an inflow of Oriental artistic objects, particularly china, which decorated the palaces of the St. Petersburg and Moscow noblemen. It was at these palaces that first private collections of Oriental art were assembled. Precious gifts from the rulers of the East to Russian emperors-objects of the decorative arts from Iran, India, Turkey, etc.-became part of the Kremlin Armoury collection in Moscow. The monasteries and cathedrals possessed fine arrays of Oriental velvets and brocades which were used for the making of vestments. But all these articles were at that time still treated as luxuries rather than objets d'art representing Oriental culture. The urge for studying and systematizing them had not yet been felt, even though they had formed the basis of collections which were built up later.

At the beginning of the 19th century the teaching of Oriental languages was included into university curricula. The first university to take it up was the University of Kazan; the St. Petersburg University followed suit. Oriental studies were recognized by the Imperial Academy as a scholarly discipline in its own right, and a special institution for its promotion-the Asiatic Museum-was opened.

The conditions under which the new discipline developed were far from favourable-it was the time of political reaction and oppression, and the tsarist regime was on its guard against every manifestation of free and progre