I.V. Zholtovsky’s early works as a special case of constructing the classics during the modernist era

I.V. Zholtovsky’s (1867–1959) the earliest works are traditionally considered by researchers like a sort of marginalia in his professional biography, although it is reasonable to assume that he was formed as an architect just during the pre-revolutionary period. According to S.O. Khan-Magomedov, Zholtovsky was engaged in something like laboratory experiments in 1900–1910s, selecting the forms and techniques that were most perfect from an artistic point of view. However, that process should be viewed not so much in the plane of abstract artistic quality as in the context of stylistic searches of the early 20th century aimed at overcoming eclecticism. It is usually to associate those searches with Art Nouveau, but in Russia the idea of acquiring a true style was embodied in neoclassic tendency. The new classical architecture as a phenomenon was built against the background of the steady modernization of the society and culture, so that the talking about the revival of the historical traditions had a small relation to reality. The originality of the aesthetic choice became truly significant in architecture, and Zholtovsky’s radical Palladianism, based not on approximate imitation of the classics, but on the exact quotation of famous villas and palazzo, fully corresponded to the trend.

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