Family reading in the visual arts

The reader and the reading process are widely represented in works of fine art, in particular in painting and graphics. Particular attention is paid to the history of the formation of the reader’s image from symbolic to realistic ones. The main stages of the transformation of the reading process in images of different eras are shown, from Antiquity and Early Christianity to modern times inclusive. The author analyzes works depicting family reading, makes an attempt to trace the way its understanding has changed in the visual arts. In general, the article is an overview of pictorial and graphic images of the reader in European art with an emphasis on Russian art from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the XXth century.