Abstract. Perception of history in terms of culture and, above all, in such category as memory, makes it possible not only to get deeply into the historical dimension of culture, but also to reveal the layering, variability and ambivalence of history and culture. Analysis of the past is always associated with the evaluation of its cultural significance, which, in turn, is based on the cultural values of a particular era. An important part of the history is the history of art, which represents the symbolic history of mankind in its artistic images. Art forms the historical memory – and artistic monuments play the same role in the study of culture, as written records: they help to restore a torn historical context, to imagine in all its fullness the life of a bygone era. An example is the fate of the Portrait Gallery of Russian writers created by the artist Ivan Parkhomenko, which is stored in the State Literary Museum in Moscow.