Man always strives for beauty, such is his essence. And he eagerly studies the past, learns from it, works on mistakes, because without this the future is impossible. An example of this combination of art and history is the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii", painted by a brilliant artist in 1830-1833. What is depicted on it, how the painter worked and what he wanted to convey, we will consider in our article.

A few words about the author

The painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" was painted in the first half of the nineteenth century by Karl Bryullov. Born in St. Petersburg in the family of an academician-sculptor, he was imbued with a passion for art from childhood. He studied with the best masters of that time, traveled a lot, often visited Italy, where he lived and worked.

Mostly his canvases are written in the historical and portrait genre. The work to which our article is devoted was awarded the Grand Prix in Paris. It should be noted that the contemporaries of the painter appreciated his work. Even during the life of Bryullov, his canvases received the most enthusiastic reviews. The most famous works are "The Horsewoman", "The Siege of Pskov", "Portrait of the Archaeologist Michelangelo Lanchi" and others. And in 1862, a sculpture dedicated to the millennium of Russia was erected in Novgorod to the best cultural figures. Among the sixteen figures of the composition, there was a place for Karl Bryullov.

History of a masterpiece

The history of the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" is known to us, so we will be happy to share it with the reader.

As we mentioned earlier, Bryullov often visited Italy, where he worked a lot. By the way, he died on this earth, where his body found its last resting place. In 1827, the painter visited the excavations of an ancient Roman city located near Naples. The settlement was buried by the lava of Vesuvius, which suddenly woke up. This moment was captured in the picture.

The last day of Pompey met with a seething life. Unfortunately, the inhabitants of a small but very rich town did not manage to escape. Most of them died from the hot volcanic mass, others suffocated from poisonous fumes and ash. And only a few managed to escape. But the volcano rendered an invaluable service to mankind - it seemed to conserve the life of that time, preserving in its original form the dwellings of the nobility, wall paintings, mosaic floors, paintings, flowers. Clearing the territory from dust, ash, dirt and earth, archaeologists find a large number of objects, and the city itself today is an open-air museum.

Preparation for work

The painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" was painted by Bryullov after a thorough study of that era. The artist visited the excavations several times, trying to remember the location of the buildings, every pebble. He read the works of ancient historians, in particular the works of Pliny the Younger, an eyewitness to the tragedy, studied costumes in museums and household items. This allowed him to realistically depict the life of Italian society during the volcanic eruption, as well as convey the feelings of people who are about to die from the elements.

Outcast Labor

Finally, Bryullov decided that he was ready for the titanic work, and set about painting the canvas. It took him three years to create a masterpiece measuring 4.5 x 6.5 meters. He was enthusiastically received in Italy, France, Russia. In his native Academy of Arts, Karl was carried in his arms into the hall, where his painting was already hanging. The last day (Pompeia could not even imagine then that it was the last for her) of the famous city will now forever remain in the memory of mankind, and he himself has risen from oblivion. Consider the canvas, conditionally dividing it into two parts.

Right side of the painting

Bryullov's painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" captivates with its perfection, storm of emotions, drama and harmony of colors. On the right side, the artist depicted a group of people united by a common grief. This is a young guy and a boy who are carrying a sick father in their arms, a young man who is trying to save his mother, but she orders him to leave her and run away on his own. Presumably, that young man is Pliny the Younger, who brought to us the sad story of Pompeii.

The painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” also depicts a couple: a young man carries a bride in his arms and peers into her face - is she alive? Behind them you can see a rearing horse with a rider on its back, falling houses decorated with statues. And above the unfortunate people, the sky, dark from smoke and ashes, clouds cut by lightning, a stream of fiery lava stretches.

Left side of the masterpiece

We continue our description of the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii." On the left, Bryullov depicted steps leading to the tomb of Scaurus. Another group of people gathered at them: a woman looking directly at the viewer, an artist with paints in a box on her head, a mother with two girls, a calm Christian priest, a pagan priest with jewelry under his arm, a man covering his wife and small children with a cloak.

Another "hero" of the canvas is light, or rather, its effects. The cold shade of lightning contrasts with the glow of the volcano. Against its background, the panorama of the dying city looks very tragic and realistic.

Analysis of the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii"

Bryullov masterfully chose the colors that helped him portray the picture very realistically. Shades of red predominate on the canvas - people's clothes, glow, flowers on the bride's head. In the center of the canvas, the artist used greenish, bluish and yellowish tones.

Finishing the description of the painting “The Last Day of Pompey” (as some mistakenly call the canvas), let's try to analyze it, find the hidden meaning. The viewer should pay attention to the fact that people seem to freeze, as if posing for a painter. Their faces are not disfigured by pain, even the girl lying on the ground is beautiful. People's clothes are clean, no blood is visible on it. This is the principle of convention, with the help of which the painter shows that man is the most beautiful creature on Earth. It is striking that many characters in the picture in moments of danger think not only about themselves, but also about others.

Bryullov departed from the rules of realism, following the basics of classicism. He draws not the usual crowd, which in a panic seeks to leave the city, but ordered groups of people in which similar faces, but different poses. Thus, the master conveyed feelings with the help of movement, plasticity. But the master introduces a lot of new things into art, breaks the accepted rules, which is why the canvas only wins. The artist uses restless light, which gives sharp shadows, a plot full of tragedy. Two themes are intertwined in the picture - the height of the human spirit, love, self-sacrifice, heroism and the catastrophe, which entailed the death of not only the city, but the whole culture.

Instead of a conclusion

The picture, created by the genius of art, is both beautiful and terrible. Yes, a person is powerless in front of the elements, which knows no barriers in its power. However, he can and should remain a Man with a capital letter. Not everyone is capable of this, but this should be striven for. Such conflicting feelings cover everyone who looks at the canvas depicting the last days of the ancient city. And today everyone can see the famous painting by visiting the State Russian Museum.

Plot

On the canvas - one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in the history of mankind. In 79, Vesuvius, who had been silent for so long before that it had long been considered extinct, suddenly “woke up” and forced all living things in the area to fall asleep forever.

It is known that Bryullov read the memoirs of Pliny the Younger, who witnessed the events in Mizena, which survived during the disaster: scenes. The chariots, which we dared to take out, shook so violently back and forth, although they stood on the ground, that we could not hold them, even by placing large stones under the wheels. The sea seemed to roll back and be pulled away from the shores by the convulsive movements of the Earth; certainly the land expanded considerably, and some sea animals were on the sand ... Finally, the terrible darkness began to dissipate little by little, like a cloud of smoke; daylight reappeared, and even the sun came out, although its light was gloomy, as it happens before an approaching eclipse. Every object that appeared before our eyes (which were extremely weakened) seemed to have changed, covered with a thick layer of ash, as if with snow.

Pompeii today

A crushing blow to the cities occurred 18-20 hours after the start of the eruption - people had enough time to escape. However, not everyone was prudent. And although it was not possible to establish the exact number of deaths, the number goes into the thousands. Among them are mostly slaves, whom the owners left to guard the property, as well as the elderly and the sick, who did not have time to leave. There were also those who hoped to wait out the elements at home. In fact, they are still there.

As a child, Bryullov became deaf in one ear after being slapped by his father.

On the canvas, people are in a panic, the elements will not spare either the rich or the poor. And what is remarkable is that Bryullov used one model to write people of different classes. We are talking about Yulia Samoilova, her face is found on the canvas four times: a woman with a jug on her head on the left side of the canvas; a dead woman in the center; a mother attracting her daughters to her, in the left corner of the picture; a woman covering her children and saving with her husband. The artist was looking for faces for the rest of the heroes on the Roman streets.

It is surprising in this picture and how the issue of light is resolved. “An ordinary artist, of course, would not fail to take advantage of the eruption of Vesuvius to illuminate his picture; but Mr. Bryullov neglected this remedy. Genius inspired him with a bold idea, as happy as it was inimitable: to illuminate the entire front of the picture with a quick, minute and whitish brilliance of lightning, cutting through a thick cloud of ash that enveloped the city, while the light from the eruption, with difficulty breaking through the deep darkness, casts reddish penumbra into the background, ”the newspapers wrote then.

Context

By the time Bryullov decided to write the death of the Pompeii, he was considered talented, but still promising. For approval in the status of a master, serious work was needed.

At that time in Italy, the theme of Pompeii was popular. Firstly, excavations were carried out very actively, and secondly, there were a couple more eruptions of Vesuvius. This could not but be reflected in culture: on the stages of many Italian theaters, Pacchini's opera L "Ultimo giorno di Pompeia" was successfully staged. There is no doubt that the artist saw her, and maybe more than once.

The idea to write the death of the city came in Pompeii itself, which Bryullov visited in 1827 at the initiative of his brother, the architect Alexander. It took 6 years to collect the material. The artist was scrupulous in details. So, things that fell out of the box, jewelry and other various items in the picture were copied from those found by archaeologists during excavations.

Bryullov's watercolors were the most popular souvenir from Italy

Let's say a few words about Yulia Samoilova, whose face, as mentioned above, is found four times on the canvas. For the picture, Bryullov was looking for Italian types. And although Samoilova was Russian, her appearance corresponded to Bryullov's ideas about how Italian women should look.

"Portrait of Yu. P. Samoilova with Giovanina Pacini and a black boy." Bryullov, 1832-1834

They met in Italy in 1827. Bryullov adopted the experience of senior masters there and looked for inspiration, while Samoilova burned through her life. In Russia, she had already managed to get a divorce, she had no children, and for an overly stormy bohemian life, Nicholas I asked her to move away from the court.

When the work on the painting was completed and the Italian public saw the canvas, a boom began on Bryullov. It was a success! Everyone at a meeting with the artist considered it an honor to say hello; when he appeared in theaters, everyone stood up, and at the door of the house where he lived, or the restaurant where he dined, many people always gathered to greet him. Since the Renaissance, not a single artist in Italy has been the object of such worship as Karl Bryullov.

In the homeland of the painter, a triumph also awaited. The general euphoria about the picture becomes clear after reading the lines of Baratynsky:

He brought peaceful trophies
With you in the father's shade.
And there was "The Last Day of Pompeii"
For the Russian brush, the first day.

Karl Bryullov spent half of his conscious creative life in Europe. For the first time he went abroad after graduating from the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg to improve his skills. And where, if not in Italy, to do this ?! At first, Bryullov mainly painted Italian aristocrats, as well as watercolors with scenes from life. The latter have become a very popular souvenir from Italy. These were small-sized pictures with small-figured compositions, without psychological portraits. Such watercolors mainly glorified Italy with its beautiful nature and represented the Italians as a people who genetically preserved the ancient beauty of their ancestors.

An interrupted date (Water is already running over the edge). 1827

Bryullov wrote simultaneously with Delacroix and Ingres. It was a time when the theme of the fate of huge human masses came to the fore in painting. Therefore, it is not surprising that Bryullov chose the story of the death of Pompeii for his program canvas.

Bryullov undermined his health while painting St. Isaac's Cathedral

The picture made such a strong impression on Nicholas I that he demanded that Bryullov return to his homeland and take the place of professor at the Imperial Academy of Arts. Returning to Russia, Bryullov met and became friends with Pushkin, Glinka, Krylov.

Bryullov's frescoes in St. Isaac's Cathedral

The last years the artist spent in Italy, trying to save his health, undermined during the painting of St. Isaac's Cathedral. Hours of long hard work in a damp unfinished cathedral had a bad effect on the heart and aggravated rheumatism.

Museums section publications

Ancient Roman tragedy that became the triumph of Karl Bryullov

Karl Bryullov was born on December 23, 1799. The son of French-born sculptor Paul Brullo, Carl was one of seven children in the family. His brothers Pavel, Ivan and Fedor also became painters, and his brother Alexander became an architect. However, the most famous was Karl, who painted in 1833 the canvas "The Last Day of Pompeii" - the main work of his life. Kultura.RF remembered how this canvas was created.

Karl Bryullov. Self-portrait. 1836

History of creation

The picture was painted in Italy, where in 1822 the artist went on a pensioner's trip from the Imperial Academy of Arts for four years. But he lived there for 13 years.

The plot tells about the ancient Roman tragedy - the death of the ancient city of Pompeii, located at the foot of Vesuvius: August 24, 79 AD. e. The volcanic eruption claimed the lives of 2,000 people.

In 1748, the military engineer Roque de Alcubierre began archaeological excavations at the site of the tragedy. The discovery of Pompeii became a sensation and was reflected in the work of various people. So, in 1825, an opera by Giovanni Pacini appeared, and in 1834, a historical novel by the Englishman Edward Bulwer-Lytton dedicated to the death of Pompeii.

Bryullov first visited the excavation site in 1827. Going to the ruins, the 28-year-old artist had no idea that this trip would be fateful for him: “You can’t go through these ruins without feeling in yourself some completely new feeling that makes you forget everything, except for the terrible incident with this city”- wrote the artist.

The feelings that Karl Bryullov experienced during the excavations did not leave him. Thus, the idea of ​​a canvas on a historical theme was born. While working on the plot, the painter studied archaeological and literary sources. “I took this scenery from nature, without retreating at all and without adding, standing with my back to the city gates in order to see part of Vesuvius as the main reason”. The models for the characters were the Italians - the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Pompeii.

At the intersection of classicism and romanticism

In this work, Bryullov shows himself not as a traditional classicist, but as an artist of a romantic direction. So, its historical plot is dedicated not to one hero, but to the tragedy of an entire nation. And as a plot, he chose not an idealized image or idea, but a real historical fact.

True, Bryullov builds the composition of the picture in the traditions of classicism - as a cycle of individual episodes enclosed in a triangle.

On the left side of the picture in the background, several people are depicted on the steps of the large building of the tomb of Scaurus. A woman looks directly at the viewer, in whose eyes horror is read. And behind it is an artist with a box of paints on his head: this is Bryullov's self-portrait, experiencing a tragedy along with his characters.

Closer to the viewer is a married couple with children who are trying to escape from the lava, and in the foreground a woman hugs her daughters to her ... Next to her is a Christian priest who has already entrusted his fate to God and is therefore calm. In the depths of the picture, we see a pagan Roman priest who is trying to escape by carrying away ritual values. Here Bryullov alludes to the fall of the ancient pagan world of the Romans and the onset of the Christian era.

On the right side of the picture in the background is a horse rider who reared up. And closer to the viewer - the groom, seized with horror, who is trying to hold his bride in his arms (she is wearing a wreath of roses), who has lost consciousness. In the foreground, two sons carry their old father in their arms. And next to them is a young man, begging his mother to get up and run further from this all-consuming element. By the way, this young man is none other than Pliny the Younger, who really escaped and left his memories of the tragedy. Here is an excerpt from his letter to Tacitus: “I look back. A thick black fog, spreading like a stream over the ground, overtook us. All around the night fell, unlike moonless or cloudy: it is so dark only in a locked room with extinguished fires. Women's screams, children's squeaks and the cry of men were heard, some called out to their parents, others to children or wives and tried to recognize them by their voices. Some mourned their death, others the death of loved ones, some, in fear of death, prayed for death; many raised their hands to the gods; the majority explained that there were no gods anywhere, and for the world this was the last eternal night..

There is no main character in the picture, but there are central ones: a golden-haired child near the prostrate body of his deceased mother in a yellow tunic is a symbol of the fall of the old world and the birth of a new one, this is the opposition of life and death - in the best traditions of romanticism.

In this picture, Bryullov also showed himself as an innovator, using two light sources - a hot red light in the background, conveying the feeling of impending lava, and a cold greenish-blue in the foreground, adding additional dramaturgy to the plot.

The bright and rich coloring of this painting also violates classical traditions and allows us to speak of the artist as a romantic.

The triumphal procession of the picture

Karl Bryullov worked on the canvas for six years - from 1827 to 1833.

For the first time the picture was presented to the public in 1833 at an exhibition in Milan - and immediately made a splash. The artist was honored as a Roman triumphant, laudatory reviews were written about the painting in the press. Bryullov was greeted on the street with applause, and during his travels on the borders of the Italian principalities they did not require a passport: it was believed that every Italian already knew him by sight.

In 1834, The Last Day of Pompeii was presented at the Paris Salon. French criticism was, unlike the Italian, more restrained. But professionals appreciated the work at its true worth, presenting Bryullov with the gold medal of the French Academy of Arts.

The canvas made a sensation in Europe, and was eagerly awaited in Russia. In the same year it was sent to St. Petersburg. Seeing the picture, Nicholas I expressed a desire to personally meet the author, but the artist went on a trip to Greece with Count Vladimir Davydov, and returned to his homeland only in December 1835.

On June 11, 1836, in the Round Hall of the Russian Academy of Arts, where the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” was exhibited, guests of honor, members of the Academy, artists and just art lovers gathered. The author of the canvas, “the great Karl”, was carried into the hall in his arms to the enthusiastic cries of the guests. “Crowds of visitors, one might say, burst into the halls of the Academy to look at Pompeii”, - writes a contemporary and a witness of that success, which no Russian artist knew equal.

The customer and owner of the painting, Anatoly Demidov, presented it to the emperor, and Nicholas I placed it in the Hermitage, where it remained for 60 years. And in 1897 it was transferred to the Russian Museum.

The picture literally excited the entire Russian society and the best minds of that time.

Arts peace trophies
You brought into the paternal canopy.
And there was "The Last Day of Pompeii"
For the Russian brush the first day! -

poet Yevgeny Boratynsky wrote about the painting.

Alexander Pushkin also dedicated poems to her:

Vesuvius zev opened - smoke gushed in a club, flames
Widely developed like a battle banner.
The earth worries - from staggering columns
Idols are falling! A people driven by fear
Under the stone rain, under the inflamed ashes,
Crowds, old and young, run out of the city.

Mentions "The Last Day of Pompeii" and Mikhail Lermontov in the novel "Princess Ligovskaya": “If you love art, then I can say very good news: Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” is going to St. Petersburg. All of Italy knew about her, the French dismantled her.- Lermontov clearly knew about the reviews of the Parisian press.

Russian historian and traveler Alexander Turgenev said that this picture was the glory of Russia and Italy.

And Nikolai Gogol devoted a long article to the picture, writing: “His brush contains the poetry that you can only feel and can always recognize: our feelings always know and even see the distinguishing features, but their words will never tell. Its coloring is so bright, which it has almost never been before, its colors burn and rush into the eyes. They would be unbearable if they appeared to the artist a degree lower than Bryullov, but in him they are clothed in that harmony and breathe that inner music that living objects of nature are filled with”.

1939 years ago, on August 24, 79 AD, the most devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius occurred, as a result of which the cities of Herculaneum, Stabia and Pompeii were destroyed. This event has become the plot of works of art more than once, and the most famous of them is Karl Bryullov's The Last Day of Pompeii. However, few people know that in this picture the artist depicted not only himself, but also the woman with whom he had a romantic relationship, in four images.

While working on this painting, the artist lived in Italy. In 1827, he came to the excavations of Pompeii, in which his brother Alexander also participated. Obviously, then he had the idea to create a monumental painting on a historical theme. Of his experience, he wrote: The sight of these ruins involuntarily made me go back to a time when these walls were still inhabited ... You can’t go through these ruins without feeling some completely new feeling in yourself that makes you forget everything, except for the terrible incident with this city».

The preparation process took Bryullov several years - he studied the customs of ancient Italy, learned the details of the catastrophe from the letters of the eyewitness of the tragedy Pliny the Younger to the Roman historian Tacitus, visited the excavations several times, exploring the ruined city, made sketches in the archaeological museum of Naples. In addition, Pacini's opera The Last Day of Pompeii was a source of inspiration for the artist, and he dressed his sitters in the costumes of the participants in this performance.

Bryullov depicted some figures on his canvas in the same poses in which the skeletons were found in petrified ashes at the site of the tragedy. The artist borrowed the image of a young man with his mother from Pliny - he described how, during a volcanic eruption, an old woman asked her son to leave her and run away. However, the picture captured not only historical details with documentary accuracy, but also Bryullov's contemporaries.

In one of the characters, Bryullov portrayed himself - this is an artist who is trying to save the most precious thing he has - a box of brushes and paints. He seemed to freeze for a moment, trying to remember the picture that unfolded before him. In addition, Bryullov captured the features of his beloved, Countess Yulia Samoilova, in four images: this is a girl who carries a vessel on her head, a mother hugging her daughters, a woman clutching her baby to her chest, and a noble pompeian who fell from a broken chariot.

Countess Samoilova was one of the most beautiful and wealthy women of the early 19th century. Because of her scandalous reputation, she had to leave Russia and settle in Italy. There she gathered the whole color of society - composers, artists, diplomats, artists. For her villas, she often ordered sculptures and paintings, including from Karl Bryullov. He painted several portraits of her, from which it is possible to establish similarities with the images depicted in The Last Day of Pompeii. In all the paintings, one can feel his tender attitude towards Samoilova, as A. Benois wrote: “ Probably, thanks to his special attitude to the depicted person, he managed to express so much fire and passion that when looking at them, all the satanic charm of his model immediately becomes clear...". Their intermittent romance lasted 16 years, and during this time Bryullov even managed to get married and divorced.

The artist tried to be as accurate as possible in the transfer of details, therefore even today it is possible to establish the place of action chosen by Bryullov - these are the Herculan Gates, behind which the "Street of the Tombs" began - a burial place with magnificent tombs. " I took this scenery all from nature, without retreating at all and without adding, standing with my back to the city gates in order to see part of Vesuvius as the main reason", he wrote in one of his letters. In the 1820s this part of the lost city was already well cleared, which allowed the artist to reproduce the architecture as accurately as possible. Volcanologists drew attention to the fact that Bryullov very reliably depicted an earthquake with a power of 8 points - this is how buildings collapse during tremors of such strength.

The painting depicts several groups of characters, each of which is a separate story against the backdrop of a common catastrophe, but this "polyphony" does not destroy the impression of the artistic integrity of the picture. Because of this feature, it was like the final scene of the play, in which all the storylines come together. Gogol wrote about this in an article devoted to "The Last Day of Pompeii", comparing the painting " by the vastness and combination of all that is beautiful with opera, if only opera is really a combination of the triple world of arts: painting, poetry, music". The writer drew attention to another feature: His figures are beautiful despite the horror of their position. They drown it out with their beauty».

When 6 years later, in 1833, the work was completed and the painting was exhibited in Rome and Milan, Bryullov was in for a real triumph. The Italians did not hide their delight and rendered the artist all sorts of honors: on the street in front of him, passers-by took off their hats, when he appeared in the theater everyone got up from their seats, many people gathered near the door of his house to greet the painter. Walter Scott, who was in Rome at that time, sat in front of the painting for several hours, and then approached Bryullov and said: “ I expected to see a historical novel. But you have created much more. This is an epic...»

In July 1834, the painting was brought to Russia, and here Bryullov's success was no less stunning. Gogol called "The Last Day of Pompeii" universal creation" in which "everything is so powerful, so bold, so harmoniously brought into one, as soon as it could arise in the head of the genius of the universal". Baratynsky wrote a laudatory ode in honor of Bryullov, the lines from which later became an aphorism: “ And the “Last Day of Pompeii” became the first day for the Russian brush!". And Pushkin dedicated verses to this picture:
Vesuvius zev opened - smoke gushed in a club - flame
Widely developed like a battle banner.
The earth is worried - from the staggering columns
Idols are falling! A people driven by fear
Under the stone rain, under the inflamed ashes,
Crowds, old and young, run out of the city.

According to the myth, the gods punished Pompeii for the loose temper of the townspeople:.

L. Osipova

Alexander Bryullov. Self-portrait. 1830.

“Karl, just imagine – eighteen centuries ago everything was exactly the same: the sun shone dazzlingly, pine trees turned black along the edges of the road and donkeys loaded with luggage stumbled over stones. We are on the main road leading to Pompeii. These ruins are the country house of the rich Diomedes, excavations are still underway here, further on is the Cicero Villa. Further on, a hotel, here they found a lot of pottery, marble mortars, on a stone board there was a trace of a liquid that seemed to have just been spilled, and wheat grains in the cellars. If crushed and baked, one could taste the most classic bread, which in our romantic era, I think, would have amazed many with its taste. Bah, don't you think that everything is very animated. Crowds of people rush to the city. Here they are carrying some important gentleman on a stretcher. He is in a tunic of dazzling white, pinned at the shoulder with a gold buckle, in knee-length sandals adorned with diamonds, and behind him is a whole procession of servants. Do you hear the screams of the black? Chariots have appeared, but it is so difficult for them to move, the narrow streets are all crowded with people. Everything is clear - everyone is in a hurry to the amphitheater. Today, gladiator battles with wild beasts are scheduled. Or maybe the judges sentenced one of the guilty to end their lives in the arena in a fight with lions that had just been brought from Africa? Oh, of course, no Pompeian can miss such a sight.

Karl Bryullov. Self-portrait. OK. 1833.

“Calm down, your imagination is starting to bite!” Togo and look, these convicts will turn out to be ourselves. - The Bryullov brothers laugh and, sitting on a roadside stone, plunge into silence, broken only by the rustling of lizards and the rustle of thorny grasses ...
Alexander gets up and, finding a comfortable place on the dilapidated steps, opens a large album and begins to draw. A little later, Carl joins him. But they draw differently. Alexander, as an architect, is interested in the ratio of parts, the proportions that the builders of Pompeii adopted from the Greeks. Every now and then he runs up to Karl, asking him to pay attention to this simplicity and elegance of lines, combined with the richness and even sophistication of decorations - the capitals near the columns are either in the form of twined dolphins, or these are groups of fauns, one of which teaches another to play the flute, that weaving of fantastic fruits and leaves... Sophistication, an overabundance of imagination - this is already a phenomenon of the new time, the influence of Rome. And so it is with the Pompeians in everything: in the richest houses, all rooms, even banquet halls, are very small according to the Greek model - after all, the number of guests should correspond to the number of graces (three) or the number of muses (nine). Meanwhile, it is known that Pompey was not famous for moderation in food and pleasures. Vice versa. At feasts, they served sirloin parts of an African lion, smoked camel legs, foxes fattened with grapes, aromatic rabbits, ostrich brain sauce, earthen spiders, not to mention iced wines flavored with aromatic herbs ... No, our imagination is powerless all this imagine ... Yes, Greece and Rome met in Pompeii so that after the eruption of Vesuvius in August 79 after the birth of Christ, they would be buried by ash and stones for many centuries ...
Carl listens to his brother half aloud. He sketches in an album with a pencil sketch, regretting that he did not capture the colors. He is already in the power of living beauty, he enjoys.
How striking here is the effect of light, piercing and soft! And the throughness of marble - the eye leaves an impression of tenderness. The torso of Venus, the statue of an athlete, recently dug out, cleared of the earth, seem more authentic, natural than living people - these are the best people. Here it is - this world, which he began to comprehend from childhood.
Father - Pavel Ivanovich Bryullov, academician of ornamental sculpture, forced children to draw from antiques, as soon as they learned to hold a pencil in their hands. At the age of ten, Karl was admitted to the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, at fourteen he received a silver medal for a drawing in which, according to general assurance, he revived the times of Phidias and Polikleitos. In the dead world of marble, he felt at home, because with his whole being he felt the laws by which this world was created. Oh, how he believed now in his own strength! Embrace all objects, clothe in harmony, turn all the feelings of the viewer into a calm and endless enjoyment of beauty. To create an art that would penetrate everywhere: into the hut of the poor, under the marble of the columns, into the square, seething with people - as it was in this city, as it was in distant bright Greece ...
...Several years have passed. Alexander went to Paris to improve his knowledge and talent. He also had another intention, which he soon successfully carried out. He published a book about the excavations in Pompeii - on luxurious paper, with his own drawings and drawings. The merits of the book were so highly valued that, after a very short time, its author was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Architecture in London, a member of the Milan Academy of Arts. Alexander was not so much reveling in fame as rejoicing - finally, he has something to report to the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, which seven years ago, in 1822, sent him and his brother abroad after they graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. But Karl... My God, what rumors about him did not reach here from Rome! He managed to pass for a wonderful portrait painter, and every eminent Russian gentleman who came to Italy hurried to order his portrait from him. But the trouble is, if this person began to inspire antipathy in Karl. He could receive him (as was the case with Count Orlov-Davydov) in the most careless suit and the most careless pose and calmly declare that he was not in the mood to work today. Scandal!..


One of the sketches for the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii".

However, the news reached Alexander that recently Charles was making sketches for a large canvas, which he proposes to call "The Last Day of Pompeii." This pleased him so much that he immediately sat down to write a letter in which he eagerly asked whether his brother was going to use historical sources or would it be the fruit of his free imagination; doesn’t he think that the death of Pompeii was predetermined from above: the Pompeians wallowed in luxury and amusements, frivolously neglecting all signs and predictions, languishing in prison the first Christians; where he suggests the scene of the picture; and most importantly, let him, for God's sake, not be distracted from the great work, which, perhaps, is destined for him to reveal his genius to the whole world.
The brother's letter caught Karl at an evil moment. He has already moved from sketches to canvas. It was huge - 29 square meters. He worked drunkenly, almost without interruption, reached complete exhaustion, so that he was often taken out of the workshop. And then the owner came with a request to pay the bills ...
Of course, everyone already doubts that he is capable of creating anything worthwhile. The Society for the Encouragement of Artists has not paid him a pension for the second year. They only gossip around about his frivolous and careless disposition. But a brother must know that if he works out of passion, then even if you put a shroud on him, he will not stop working.

K. P. Bryullov "The Last Day of Pompeii", 1830-1833. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.

For pen and ink, Karl was taken in extreme cases. And then he decided: he would write now - both to the brothers (brother Fyodor, also an artist, lived in St. Petersburg), and to the Encouragement Society. "The scenery ... I took everything from nature, without retreating at all and without adding, standing with my back to the city gates in order to see part of Vesuvius as the main reason - without what would it look like a fire? On the right side I place groups of mothers with two daughters on their knees (these skeletons were found in this position); behind this group one can see a group crowding on the stairs ... covering their heads with stools, vases (the things they save are all taken by me from the museum). Near this group is a running family, thinking to find shelter in the city: a husband, covering himself and his wife holding a baby with a cloak, covering his eldest son lying at the feet of his father with the other hand; in the middle of the picture, a fallen woman, devoid of feelings; a baby on her chest, no longer supported by the mother’s hand, clutching her clothes , calmly looks at the living scene of death ... "
Dozens of sketches and sketches, several years of hard work. No, he wrote not the horror of doom, not the proximity of death. “Passion, true, fiery feelings are expressed in such a beautiful appearance, in such a beautiful person that you enjoy to the point of intoxication,” Gogol said when he saw the picture. The death of the world of sensually beautiful, irrevocable. Yes, glory came to the artist. Triumph accompanied his appearance on the streets, in the theater. In St. Petersburg, a wreath of laurels was placed on his head, in magazines they wrote that his works were the first that an artist who has a higher development of taste and who does not know what art can understand can understand.
Well, Bryullov treated fame for granted, as a burden, not at all burdensome. He laughed nonchalantly when Alexander, tearfully embracing him, insisted that he had done more for Pompeii than any archaeologist or scientist...