Abstract: The Age of Enlightenment was characterized by passionate scientific discussions, which involved not only scientists, but also representatives of various social circles. Sciences such as physics and astronomy are becoming a hobby and entertainment, scientific experiments are being conducted at home, friends and acquaintances are invited to conduct them, and amateur scientific courses are being organized. The article highlights how these processes were reflected in the painting of the XVIII century. Science is considered not only as a widespread subject in works of fine art, but also as a force capable of influencing artistic theory and practice. The author also studied the coexistence of scientific, religious and "mythological" thinking, since in this era all these forms remained relevant. A wide range of visual material is used, allowing us to see fascination and even admiration for science as a pan-European trend, to which Russia was also attached. The research methodology involves a combination of a sociological approach, as well as a variety of methods used in art criticism. The need to work with the original tests of the 18th century implied the use of source analysis. Researchers, especially foreign ones, have shown interest in the topic of interaction between art and science, but a full-scale study on this topic has not yet been carried out. Although this article does not pretend to be complete, it nevertheless touches on very significant and little-studied topics. The author managed to show the variety of aspects of reflecting the scientific sphere of the Enlightenment in the mirror of painting. It demonstrates how interest in science placed the painter in the context of constant searches and led to unexpected discoveries and results. For the first time, attention is drawn to the fact that many masters of that time were involved in the dialogue between art and science, much more numerous than it seems at first glance, and understanding scientific issues became a sign of the artist's integration into the European cultural environment, a symptom of his successful socialization.

Abstract: The article is dedicated to research of sources and documents linked with recollection of Parisian painters of 1650–1800 by contemporaries and scholars. Since the origin of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture appeared regularly a sum of biographical essays devoted to French academic masters. The texts were created by historiographer of Academy until the middle of the 18th century. Later it were connoisseurs of fine art who continued to produce these writings. The authors were recruited from members of Academy as well as friends and relatives of an artist. After research of such sources and documents, the author strives to define a role of memory and posthumous glory for the most eminent artists and representatives of artistic milieu. The author takes in consideration an image of a Parisian painter displayed before his descendants. The article also treats an idea of personal glory connected with artists’ aim to make the Academy and its pictorial school flourish and rule throughout Europe. The research novelty is based on the lack of fundamental publications on the topic in Russian and Western historiography. The relevance of this study is caused by recent trends of social art history interested in everyday life and worldview of a real artist in the real world. Author’s careful work with authentic documents helped to trace a certain scheme used in such biographical writings. They contain biographical data, a tribute to personal qualities of the late artist and, finally, a scrupulous description of his works. The texts written by artist’s friends and relatives are usually more sentimental and have a touch of biographical novel. Virtually, both of these genres were intended not only to keep memory of artist’s creative heritage but also to represent his individuality. In doing so the biographers of any artist not only aimed to compose several individual vitae but also to create a panoramic view of French school of painting as the leader of artistic progress of the time.

Abstract: The article is dedicated to the problem of church patronage of fine arts in the 18th-century Paris. The predominance of secular art at the time did not lead to withdrawal between the Church and the artists who kept interacting with each other in the area of patronage, mainly of fine arts. In tracing documents and sources for this research the author deals with many academic aims, as follows: to classify church orders for the painters, to define its peculiarities, to value the meaning of church patronage for a painter at that time, to find a point of intersection of secular and religious artistic orders in the circumstances of a perpetual stream of luxurious secular orders. Meanwhile the author aims to distinguish different kinds of church assignments, such as small works for poor congregations, great altarpieces for Parisian cathedrals, paintings for monasteries usually based on sophisticated inventions (programs) understandable only by the ‘devoted’, and portraits of church leaders. Academic novelty of the article is determined by the exiguity of publications on the topic written by recent Russian researchers. In the meantime, French art historians are continually working with these problems and offer some of its solutions well-known to article’s author. The total investigation progress in this area is exemplified in the text by typical but semantically complicated works of art. The author of the article is led to a conclusion that church patronage took a considerable part of a Parisian artist’s carrier though church orders were not the main mover of artistic life of the time. Nevertheless religious painting was still an integral part of French fine art. During the 18th century the Church had been remaining to be a perpetual customer and a partner of painters settled in Paris who could fulfil a request for all kinds of high quality artistic production.