Abstract

The article considers the influence of the scientific world picture on the forms and modes of the existence of art. The author reveals the epistemological function of art in various historical periods of changing scientific paradigms, outlines the role of art in the Middle Ages (pre-scientific knowledge), the Renaissance, the New Age (classical scientific paradigm), and the period of the late 19th – first half of the 20th centuries (non-classical scientific paradigm). Particular attention is paid to modernism, in the art of which the epistemological function is largely realized, and artists embody the achievements of the contemporary scientific world picture in new forms, reflecting the complexity of new scientific theories that an ordinary person must take for granted.