Aesthetic problems of antiquity in Russian journalism of the early 19th century (a case of the Lyceum magazine)

The article explores the problem of the explicit reflection of the aesthetic thought in Russian journalism in the early 19th century using the example of the 1806 Lyceum magazine. The study revealed the eclectic nature of the writing style of this period’s authors and demonstrated the need to turn to ancient prototypes. The review of all the articles in the 12 issues of this magazine, identified texts containing direct reminiscences of ancient aesthetics or implicit references to ancient authors in solving aesthetic problems. The study revealed that the aesthetic issue most often discussed on the pages of the Lyceum magazine was the art classification issue. Examples of addressing this problem suggested by the magazine’s authors are compared with the positions of ancient philosophers. The article also discusses a variety of the magazine contributors’ approaches to solving the issue of the origin of art from aesthetic, ethical, and epistemological points of view. The article pays special attention to the direct reminiscences of ancient aesthetics in determining the categories of mimesis, beauty (in all its varieties), and kalokagathia. As a result, it is concluded that there was a significant reception of ancient samples in the texts of Russian authors dealing with aesthetic problems.