Abstract: The article considers the synthesis of arts as a phenomenon that has spread to different areas of culture and art in the second half of the XIXth — early XXth centuries. It was during that period when the other visual language and new forms of perception of art were formed. In her article Nikiforova analyzes the basic sources of the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk and various forms of its realization: mythologizing as a special way of thinking, ontologization of art, the desire to go beyond the purely artistic imagery, aesthetic dimension of humanism, synthetic thinking and universalism of the artist. Particular attention is given to the historical and cultural context throughout the XIXth century, beginning with the views of the Jena Romantics, Wagner’s theory of music and ending address to the creativity of Art Nouveau artists and innovators of the theater scene. The investigation also considers the problem of emergence of new forms of artistic creation. The analysis of the key trends reveals the importance of the idea of synthesis of arts for culture in a broad perspective: from philosophy, poetry and literature, architecture and fine art to design, new trends in the theatre research and cinematography.

Abstract: The article conciders the processes taking place in the European culture of the second half of XIX — early XX centuries. Particular attention is given to the various manifestations of the crisis of the old system of art forms and gradual search for other ways except for established ways of reality transmission. Impressionist painters, French writers and poets developed a new understanding of art and its role in human life. During that period aesthetic appreciation and creative intuition rose to the level of the leading means of knowledge of reality. The present study has been carried out through successive selection of various cultural phenomena that allowed to describe changes not only in the arts but also in philosophy as artistic creativity of that period was closely related to the interest demonstrated by philosophers towards consciousness, intuition and new understanding of the category of time. The novelty of this study is caused by the fact that the researcher has identified what caused the failure of the previous model of reality perception when reality lost its unchanging and solid status and the boundary between the internal feelings and external reality increasingly blurred. From this point of view, philosophical concepts of Ernst Cassirer and Maurice Merleau-Ponty can be considered as the final stages of the process that orignated from the «impressionist» vision of the world.