Gogol - Goethe - Rome, or a Triangle with arabesques

The article compares Goethe's and Gogol's visits to Rome in the 1780s and 1830s: their vision of the city and the influence of the Eternal city on their lives and works. Goethe's and Gogol's stays in Rome demonstrates amazing analogies in terms of their biographies: they had common friends. From the very beginning of their visits to Rome Goethe and Gogol frequented the same artistic circles. Due to the beauty of nature and the abundance of art around, they both felt a great passion for drawing and art. Goethe demonstrated the love of antiquities and majestic Renaissance, while Gogol, whose taste was influenced by the Baroque tradition of his native culture, had a purely Baroque sense of beauty and was attracted by a modern Rome that had evolved into a work of art during the Renaissance and Baroque. Goethe's Roman happiness had an overtly sensual tone, which was completely alien to Gogol. Gogol eventually fell out of love with the Eternal City, having descended from enthusiasm to indifference, while Goethe left the city on top of the world and was grateful for the "second birth" he had experienced there. In Rome, both writers experienced rushes of inspiration. The life they lived in Rome saved them from secular vanity, with nothing hampering their creative inspiration. Both great writers had similar tastes and even weaknesses. They liked the same art masterpieces, same places, not only well-known, but lone and secluded, as was, for example, was Aqua Achetoza, a remote nook on the bank of the Tiber. Their second meeting with Rome turned out to be more important for both of them, regarding their perception and understanding of the city, its art, personal spiritual evolution and existential categories. Their depth aesthetic, existential and creative experiences distinguish them from the most of other travellers: Goethe and Gogol were not only "writers in Rome", they were interpreters of its aesthetics. They were the "writers of Rome", as they succeeded in creating their unique images of the Eternal City. Gogol's image of Rome is more daring and original than Goethe's, as Gogol managed to overcome the popular love of antiquities and masterpieces of the Renaissance: Gogol shows a deep intuitive understanding of the aesthetic and urban significance of the Roman Baroque. In terms of interweaving motifs and associations in the literary genre of arabesque, the author emphasises the facts that Gogol was familiar with Goethe's Italian Journey.

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