The main stages of development of the image of the East in the European painting of the 18th - 19th centuries

The article analyzes the specific image of the East in the European culture of the 18 th - 19 th centuries. By case study of the European painting starting from the image of “noble savage" of the Age of Enlightenment, a dreamy philosopher and traveler in the land of harems and sheikhs in the culture of Romanticism, and ending with the Orientalism of the 19 th century, the author reviews the tradition of understanding of the East in the European art.