The Face and the Mask in Silver Age Culture

The Masque is a common concept in the Silver age: according to the Silver Age aesthetic vision, only art is capable of getting to the essence of things. The Masque can represent either the sublime or the lowest image. It can be ironic, caricature-like, but it can also unite within itself polar opposites. The article analyzes the portraits of poets made by M. Dobuzhinskij, K. Somov, N. Ul’anov and others and draws in its interpretation on the seminal texts of N. Berdiaev, M. Kuzmin, V. Ivanov, F. Stepun concerning the Face / Masque dichotomy.The Masque is a common concept in the Silver age: according to the Silver Age aesthetic vision, only art is capable of getting to the essence of things. The Masque can represent either the sublime or the lowest image. It can be ironic, caricature-like, but it can also unite within itself polar opposites. The article analyzes the portraits of poets made by M. Dobuzhinskij, K. Somov, N. Ul’anov and others and draws in its interpretation on the seminal texts of N. Berdiaev, M. Kuzmin, V. Ivanov, F. Stepun concerning the Face / Masque dichotomy