Nikolai Gogol dwells on the connection between the types of art and the periods in the history of mankind. The author believes that the greatest achievements in sculpture, which was the first to originate, belong to Ancient Greece, where “the noble beauty of man” was valued above anything else. Sculpture is capable of conveying “ferocious anger, an instant cry of anguish, a sudden scare, tears,pride…” The Christian Medieval period brought about and established such painting experience that “continues life beyond the borderline of the sensual” and is able to express inexpressible. Unlike in sculpture, spirituality prevails in painting, “it requires compassion and not delight”. Music “belongs to another world”, it rescues the soul from the “cold and terrible egotism” of the epoch. It can completely take over a person and force the spirit “to break free of the body”. At the end of the article Gogol poses a rhetorical question: “What will become of the world if music abandons it?”
Key words: N.V. Gogol, types of art, sculpture, painting, music.