Kim Tonin. Mad Artist

2.1. Visuality in the short story by I.A. Bunin "Mad Artist"

Researchers do not have a common opinion about what genre the work "The Mad Artist" belongs to. M. V. Kudrin in the dissertation “ Genre structure short story" defines the genre of "The Mad Artist" as a "decanonized short story", T. Yu Zimina-Dyrda in the article "The World of the Artist in the Stories of I. A. Bunin" - as a story, M. S. Stern in the dissertation "Prose I. A. Bunin in the 1930s-1940s. Genre system and generic specificity” – as a lyrical story. We will show that the genre of the Mad Artist is a short story. This is the genre that prevails in Bunin's work.

In the short story "The Mad Artist" there are lyrical inserts - moments of self-awareness and analysis of one's relationship with others. These are the experiences of the hero, his moods, as well as the author's comments. The very task that the artist sets for himself tells us that an event took place in his life that was vividly imprinted in his soul. Throughout the story, he fusses a lot, drives a cab, screams, reacts violently to any failure, remembers his wife and talks about her to the bellhop. Often his face is distorted with horror.

The title is the code. It should also be considered as a clue to the code. This is a relatively independent element of the text, which is its frame component. The title of the novel says that main character- an artist, a creator, but for some reason he is insane. The explanatory dictionary of D. N. Ushakov defines the concept of “insane” as “extremely reckless; characterized by an extreme degree of something, very intense. Subtext lyric story line reveals the inner emotional experiences of the hero. It only happens at the end of the novel. The death of his wife and child affected the soul of the artist so much that the apocalypse came for him. The canvas can also be interpreted as the death of Russia, because it was precisely this attitude towards the revolution that Bunin expressed in the diaries “Cursed Days”. The namelessness of the artist means that this character is not an individual. There is only one name in the short story - Ivan Matveevich from the police, which is mentioned in a conversation between the owner of the hotel and the bellhop. This means that such a tragedy of the artist is not an isolated case. It could happen to many others.

So, the wife of M. Nesterov Maria in 1885 died immediately after giving birth. The artist recalled: “... It was then Sunday, Trinity Day, clear, sunny. There was a service in the church, and nearby, in a wooden house, she was saying goodbye to life, to me, to her Olechka, to little Olechka, as she was called in advance, my Masha. I was here and saw how death was approaching minute by minute. Here life remained only in the eyes, in that bright point that gradually set behind the lower eyelid, like the sun behind the horizon. Another minute and it's all over... I drew a lot then, and the image of the deceased did not leave me ... . Then the idea came to write "Christ's bride" with the face of my Masha ... . In this simple picture, then I lived out my grief. The Buninsk artist is also trying to overcome his grief and write dead wife in the form of the Mother of God.

The subtext storyline, which arises due to the movement of the motives of haste, suffering, horror, reproduces the emotional experiences of the hero, which are unexpectedly revealed to the reader only in the finale. The chronotope of The Mad Artist allows us to define the short story as a Christmas one.

The artist himself, when we meet him for the first time, is described as “a gentleman in pince-nez, with amazed eyes, in a black velvet beret, from under which greenish curls fell, and in a long dokha of shiny chestnut fur.” In the room, “an artist, short in stature, youthfully light in spite of his age, in a beret and a velvet jacket…; dropping his pince-nez with a movement of his eyebrows, he rubbed his pale, exhausted face with white, as if with alabaster hands. Portraits of other characters are given briefly, but with small details. So, the driver is “a red-haired bearded man on the goats”, the bellboy is “a young fellow with smart cheerful eyes”, the baguette saleswoman is “a ruddy young lady in a fur coat”, the owner of the hotel is seen by the observer as “a squat man with a beaver on the crown of his head and sharp eyes”.

The appearance of other secondary characters (the second driver, merchants) is not described. Throughout the short story, new details appear in the visual appearance of the artist: “His dokha opened wide, dragged through the snow, his eyes wandered around in pain and confusion.” Such an external small detail, like an open doha, reveals to us the inner feeling of the artist, which is emphasized by the pained expression of his eyes. In the dream, “his pale and thin face looked like an alabaster mask. He lay high, on his back ..., spreading his long gray-green hair, and not even his breathing was heard.

Such visual details as the artist's alabaster complexion and green hair evoke thoughts about the dead and drowned people from the works of N.V. Gogol. These two motives are repeated in the short story, but in this passage the motive of death is attached to them - “not even his breathing was heard”.

The spiritual death of the artist is also evidenced by such a feature of his behavior as fear of churches and chapels. After preparing to paint the picture, the observer sees "the white, serious face of the artist and ... the young anxious face of the bellhop." The motif of the pallor, the deadness of the artist's face appears again. This pallor appears brighter against the background of the young face of the bellhop, which is most likely ruddy and swarthy. Further, the character's facial expression gradually changes: "The artist's face became more and more painful", "Suddenly his face was distorted with horror".

Yes, open again inner world hero. During the work, “due to the heat of the candles, the artist’s hair at the temples got wet…. The eyes were watery and burning, the features of the face were cut off. After work, he becomes even paler: “... he was pale with such pallor that his lips seemed black .... Dark eyes burned with inhuman suffering and at the same time with some kind of ferocious delight.

Thus, we see that such a visual detail as the pallor of the artist reflects his internal state. Paleness and suffering increase towards the end of the novel. Such a shade of the face emphasizes that the artist is alive with his body, but his soul, which survived the tragedy, is tense. He is afraid of not having time to paint a picture, he forces himself to do it, he tortures himself, but he does not fulfill the covenant.

The story is told in the third person, from an outside observer. It is known that in the works of Bunin there are a lot of details, details. Visuality in the short story also manifests itself at the level of the narrator. So, he mentions such details as “well-trodden snow”, “in the rooms it was amber from the sun, softened by hoarfrost on the lower windows”, “hoarfrost on telegraph wires was drawn gently and gray across the blue sky and already crumbled, crumbled”, hoarfrost turned gray .

The entire text is permeated with liturgical and religious motives. The artist calls his journey a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is a journey to holy places. For him, holy is the city to which he arrives, holy is Rus', his wife and baby. That is why he represents his wife in the image of the Madonna. "Madonna" is translated from Italian as "my lady"; Roman Catholics call this the Mother of God. The latter was often portrayed by Raphael Santi and Leonardo da Vinci.

Bunin's short story includes the so-called reverse ekphrasis, which are given here from the point of view of the narrator. These are descriptions that cause the reader to associate with the motives, images and mood of various paintings. In this case, these are impressionistic landscapes of a snow-covered Russian provincial town on the eve of Christmas, conveying the natural beauty of nature and the unhurried rhythm of life. Already in the first paragraph of the novella, a series of visual images can be distinguished: “the sun was golden”, “white snowy lowland”, “foggy blue of distant forests”, “brisk morning with light frost and hoarfrost”. These images create an impressionistic, "unfinished" landscape sketch. The reader sees the narrator's desire to convey the changing state of the light ("it got thinner, it became completely sunny", "the sun slowly left the room. Then it completely disappeared", "bright golden light"), colors ("hoarfrost ... was drawn gently and gray across the blue sky" , "a forest of dense dark green fir trees crowded the square", "a frosty winter night turned black" [9: 202]), air ("amber from the sun, softened by hoarfrost on the lower glasses").

The subjective perception of the narrator is also conveyed: “The frost on the windows has turned gray, it has become boring”, “joyful light”. The resulting distance between the hero and the narrator clarifies the attitude of the author himself to the artist, the worldview expressed by him and the state of the world at the beginning of the 20th century, parabolically returning the reader to the title of the novel.

Urban landscapes described from the point of view of the narrator can be compared with the works of K. Korovin “Russian Winter”, “Paris in Winter”, I. Grabar “March Snow”, I. Grabar “Hoarfrost. Sunrise".

The description of the canvas conceived by the artist resembles the icon of the Nativity of Christ. “I have to paint the Bethlehem cave, paint the Nativity and fill in the whole picture - and this manger, and the Baby, and the Madonna, and the lion, and the lamb, reclining nearby, - right next to it! - such a rejoicing of the Angels, such a light, that it was truly the birth of a new man. Only I will have it in Spain, the country of our first marriage journey. In the distance - blue mountains, flowering trees on the hills, in the open skies ... ". However, the canonical icon dedicated to this event should also depict shepherds, an ox and a donkey against the background of a stable. In this picture, blue mountains serve as a background, which are symbols of connection with the earthly sphere of being.

Let's define the types of this ekphrasis according to different parameters that relate to the theme of visuality. According to the object of description, this is a direct ekphrasis, since the narrator mentions that the visual object that he describes is a picture. According to the reality of the existence in the history of the work, or its fiction, this is a mimetic ekphrasis, since it can be assumed that Bunin alludes to real-life visual objects. The ekphrasis is implicit, since neither the author nor the title of the canvas is indicated. From the point of view of the method of presentation in the text, this is an integral ekphrasis, because the description of the picture is given in one paragraph. According to the amount of visual information transmitted, this ekphrasis can be classified as a summary ekphrasis, containing the motifs of several canvases.

The religious ekphrasis of the Bunin artist can be compared with the canvases of M. Nesterov, V. Vasnetsov, M. Vrubel, who painted Russian churches. The picture that the artist imagined can be compared either with an icon or with the paintings of medieval painters. He imagined “Heavens full of eternal light, shimmering with the azure of Eden and swirling with marvelous, though vague clouds, ...; luminous faces and wings of innumerable jubilant seraphim stood out in the terrible liturgical beauty of heaven; God the Father, formidable and joyful, good and triumphant, as in the days of creation, towered among them with an iridescent gigantic vision; The virgin of indescribable charm, with eyes full of the bliss of a happy mother, standing on cloudy clubs, through the blue of the earthly distances stretched out under her, showed to the world, raised high in her divine arms her Infant, shining like the sun, and wild, mighty John, girded with an animal skin, kneeling at her feet, in a frenzy of love, tenderness and gratitude, kissing the edge of her clothes" [9: 204].

This picture is not at all like the canonical icon of the Nativity of Christ. On canonical Orthodox icons of the Nativity of Christ, the Divine Infant, the Mother of God, Joseph and the Magi should be depicted. Angels and animals in the barn can also be depicted - oxen, donkeys, kids, sheep.

The picture of the insane artist resembles icons where the Mother of God is depicted in full growth: Oranta, “The Virgin and Child” by M. Vrubel in St. Cyril's Church; a sketch by M. Nesterov "The Ascension of the Lord", which also depicts azure Seraphim, swirling clouds, the Mother of God, but She stands on the ground; works by M. Nesterov “Annunciation. Archangel Gabriel", "Annunciation. The Virgin Mary".

Consider the icons of the Mother of God, reminiscent of a picture imagined by a mad artist. M. Nesterov often depicted Her in bright blue clothes. In V. Vasnetsov's Hodegetria, the Mother of God sits on a throne on the clouds, holds the Baby in her arms, and two Angels lean towards Them, the sky behind them is azure and starry. God the Father in the picture of the insane artist, as if from Vasnetsov's painting of the same name. Azure, blue color in icon painting is a symbol of purity, holiness. The artist's painting is reminiscent of " Sistine Madonna» Raphael Santi. On it, the Mother of God is depicted in full growth, standing on the clouds, in Her arms Her Son. To her right is Pope Sixtus. At the bottom of the picture are painted Angels in the form of children who look at the Son of God.

According to the object of description, this is a direct ekphrasis, according to the reality of the existence in the history of the work, or its fiction, it is a mimetic implicit ekphrasis. In terms of volume - complete, in terms of the represented subject - ekphrasis of a painting.

This picture can be compared with the icons of the Mother of God. For example, on the Maximovskaya icon, the Mother of God is depicted in full growth, Her Son is in her arms. On one version of the list She is dressed in blue clothes, on the other - in crimson. On the “Cyprus” icon, the Mother of God sits on a throne, in Her arms is the Divine Child. Her omophorion is crimson, and her robes are blue. The icon "Abbess of the Holy Mount Athos" has several variants of lists. On both, the Blessed Virgin is depicted standing over the island. On one of the lists Her omophorion purple, and the robes are dark blue, on the other the omophorion is crimson, and the robes are azure blue with shades of blue, on the third the robes are dark blue, and the omophorion is dark red with shades of crimson. The sky, which acts as a background, is light blue.

On the icon "Evangelist Luke paints an icon Holy Mother of God» The omophorion of the Mother of God is crimson, and the robes are dark blue with azure splashes. In Her arms is the Divine Child, and on the left sits the Evangelist Luke, who paints an icon from Them. On the "Elets-Chernigov" icon, the Mother of God with the Child in her arms is depicted against the background of golden light and a tree spreading its branches. The robes of the Mother of God are dark blue, the omophorion is red. On the Yelets icon, the Theotokos in a crimson omophorion and blue robes is depicted standing on white clouds. Above Her on thrones, also located on the clouds, solemnly sit God the Son, already matured and resurrected, God the Father in the form of a wise gray-bearded old man and God the Holy Spirit in the form of a white dove.

On the “Vutivan” icon, the Mother of God is dressed in a crimson omophorion and dark blue robes. With the Baby in her arms, She sits on a throne that stands on a stone. To the left and to the right of them are depicted two angels stretching out their hands to them. The "Pechersk" icon has several lists. On all these lists, the Mother of God in purple robes and a blue omophorion with the Child in her arms is depicted sitting on a throne, Saint Theodosius stands to the left of Them, to the right - Reverend Anthony. The Nimbus of the Most Pure white-gold color is written in the form of the radiance of the sun. On one of the lists, the throne stands on white-blue clouds, under it are symbolically written two Seraphim in the form of children with wings. Above the throne, to the right and to the left of it, two angels are depicted waist-deep in the form of youths with wings. Above Their heads are halos, their hands are folded in prayer. All figures are painted on an azure blue background.

On another list, the Mother of God with the Son of God are depicted sitting on swirling gray-brown clouds. The Most Pure One is dressed in a crimson omophorion and blue robes, Her halo resembles golden sunbeams separated from one another. The head of the Virgin has a bright light. Radiance also comes from under the clouds and falls on the temple with gilded domes. Saints Anthony and Theodosius stand on brown-gray clouds, which also reflect the golden light of the halo of the Virgin. The figures are written on a black and blue background. On the third list, the Mother of God is written seated on a throne. She has a crown on Her head, She is dressed in crimson robes, and the Virgin holds the Son in her arms. Her halo is yellow-orange, reminiscent of the burning of a warm fire. To the right and left of the throne are Angels, painted in the form of youths with wings, dressed in white tunics and blue dresses. The holy miracle workers bowed at the feet of the Divine Infant. All figures stand on clouds, the background is sky blue.

On the "Terebinskaya" icon, the Mother of God is depicted waist-deep, in a crimson robe and crown. Her arms are bent at the elbows, tenderness is on her face, her gaze is turned to the Son-lad, Who has learned to stand on his own. She is ready at any moment to support the Child so that It does not fall. The Old Russian icon of the Mother of God "Bogolyubskaya" has several lists. On them She is written standing to her full height with a letter in right hand stretching left hand to the Son. Christ is depicted in the upper right corner of the icon waist-deep on white clouds. He blesses His Mother. In the upper left corner, the Seraphim are kneeling on a white cloud, Cherubim are flying above Them.

The background is the blue-blue sky on the left side of the Virgin and the blue-blue sky and the yellow-scarlet sunset on Her right. The light coming from Christ paints the heavens azure. The Mother of God stands on a stone, behind Her is a landscape similar to Central Russian: on the left is a brown-yellow scorched field, on the horizon is a church, on the right are green trees, a grassy-green field, a river, blue forests in the distance.

On another list, the background is a dark blue-violet sky. sunset menacingly blue-violet color, the sun has already set, but the light yellow light from it is still visible. On the third list, instead of joyful nature behind the Blessed Virgin, brown-black mountains, an orange-red sunset, small green-black trees growing one at a time are written. The sky has a green-azure color, the clouds of the same color, but with a blue tint. Christ is written on a golden background, symbolizing closeness to God and bliss, waist-high, around Him is a gray-black swirling cloud.

On the “Modena Kosinovskaya” icon, the Mother of God is depicted standing to her full height, with the Divine Child in her arms, dressed in a crimson omophorion and blue robes. Rays emanate from them, reminiscent of the sun, the Mother of God holds out the Infant to someone invisible, not written on the icon. The background is an azure sky. On the icon “The Housekeeper, or the Economist”, the Mother of God in a scarlet-red omophorion and dark blue robes with the Child in her arms sits on a throne. On one list above Them, only Angels are depicted crowning the Virgin, on the other - God the Son and God the Father, sitting on thrones in swirling dark clouds against a background of light golden radiance. Thus, the picture of the insane artist is more like the "Bogolyubskaya", "Pechersk", "Modenskaya" icons.

The picture that the artist turned out has the right to be called “The Horror of Death”, “The Collapse of the Universe”, “The Torment of Sinners at the End of the World”. It can be compared with the painting by K. Bryullov “The Last Day of Pompeii”, with the works of I. Bosch and contemporary Bunin expressionists E. Munch, O. Dix, D. Ensor and others. Instead of the beautiful vision that the artist’s heart “craved”, on his canvas novelistically unexpectedly and contrary to the genre canons of the "Christmas" happy ending, something apocalyptic-expressionist was captured: “The wild, black-blue sky to the zenith burned with fires, the bloody flames of smoky, collapsing temples, palaces and dwellings. Racks, scaffolds and gallows with strangles blackened against a fiery background ... . The bottom of the picture showed a disordered pile of the dead - and a dump, a squabble, a fight of the living, a mixture of naked bodies, hands and faces. And these faces, bristled, fanged, with eyes that rolled out of their sockets, were so vile and rude, so distorted by hatred, malice, the voluptuousness of fratricide, that they could rather be recognized as the faces of cattle, animals, devils, but not human at all. .

This picture does not correspond to what the artist intended: it can be assumed that he is unable to paint anything beautiful and harmonious in the state of mind in which he is at this period of time. Here again we need to remember the appearance of the artist. He is always pale, his hair is green; in behavior he is restless, fussy, noisy. Perhaps he too deeply feels his guilt before his wife, because there is a share of his guilt in the fact that she died with the child. The artist experiences this event too deeply and becomes unable to feel the beauty and depict it on his canvases. A. Hanzen-Leve in the work “Russian Symbolism. The system of poetic motives” highlights this type of artist – the artist as the devil. God the Creator, Love, creation, goodness and everything connected with it is opposite to the devil, hatred, evil, chaos, etc. The latter phenomenon is characterized by hatred of nature, immersion in the depths of the sea, illuminated by the moon. The one who creates in the name of evil has lost unity with the Creator, the world He created, and his own spiritual integrity, inspiration and freedom. Such an artist-demiurge rebelled against God, forgot Him.

The inability to forget corresponds to the inability to remember. So the crazy artist, on the one hand, remembers his wife, on the other hand, in order to remember how she looked, he needs to look at the photograph. In the photo, she lies in a coffin. This once again reminds the artist of his guilt before her and brings disharmony into his soul.

The artist's picture can be compared with the canvases of I. Bosch, F. Goya, V. Vereshchagin., A. Dürer and contemporary expressionists to Bunin. I. Bosch. in the triptych painting "The Last Judgment" depicted people who inherited eternal bliss, torment, and those who still judge themselves. Those condemned to eternal torment are subjected to various punishments against the backdrop of brown-red plains and mountains. The painting “The Temptation of St. Anthony” depicts people and animals, behind which a fire is burning on the horizon, the sky is brown. An orange-red fire on the horizon is written on his painting "Hay Cart". In the painting "The Pilgrimage to San Isadore" F. Goya captured groups of blind dead walking somewhere. Their faces yellow color, clothes are dark, the procession takes place on a black background with a yellow sunset spot.

O. Dix has a series of paintings "War", in which he expressed his attitude to the military events of 1914-1918. On fifty canvases, he depicted what he experienced himself. So, in one of these paintings, Dix depicted the bodies of dead soldiers, already starting to decompose. The background of the picture is the sky in black and gray clouds. Another painting depicts a field strewn with bayonets, while the sunset is bright patches of blue, scarlet, black and white flowers. The third picture depicts a hungry soldier with an expression of horror on his face, behind which death flies in the form of a skeleton D. Ensor. in one of his paintings he painted human skeletons in home clothes lying in a furnished room. This artist quite often depicted dead bodies on the street, at home or in the office, as something that does not cause surprise and does not attract much attention to itself.

This picture can also be interpreted as the end of Russia. In the diaries "Cursed Days" it was precisely such an emphasis that Bunin placed on her future fate. Revolution - the collapse of the old world, the impossibility of returning to the past. In exile, Bunin could not forget Russia. However plot time short stories - 1916, during the First World War. So, another version of the interpretation of the canvas “Russia is dead”, but for the artist - because of the First World War, and for Bunin, the cause of the death of the country is the 1917 revolution. In 1915, he wrote the novel The Gentleman from San Francisco, which has apocalyptic motifs. The epigraph to this short story "Woe to you, Babylon, strong city" is a quote from the Apocalypse. In The Mad Artist, thanks to the intertext of the novel The Gentleman from San Francisco, an apocalyptic motif functions.

A. Hanzen-Leve in the work “Russian Symbolism. The system of poetic motives" also noted that the symbolic meanings of blue color and its shades are associated with both earthly and celestial spheres. The symbol of azure (“Heaven, ..., smearing with azure of Eden”) stems from the spheres of space, this shade is on the border between outer space and air atmosphere. The latter is dominated by blue and blue. The symbolic meaning of azure can be compared with the meaning of blue and light blue. This is a sign of infinity, the boundlessness of the earthly distance, and in Orthodox iconography, blue is the traditional color of the robes of the Most Holy Theotokos. The blue and gold backgrounds are equivalent from this position - both colors are a replacement for the sphere of the mystical sky.

Azure is a shade of blue. The symbolism of azure stems from the spheres of space - this shade is on the border between outer space and the atmosphere of air; it participates in the transparency of the mystical spheres, the luminaries. Azure and gold stand on the same level of the supernatural, otherworldly; azure color can be a symbol of dreams, remoteness from real life, and blue and blue, in this case, will mean earthly, real. The azure shade can also be a symbol of royalty, divinity.

All these colors and shades of ekphrasis of the conceived picture express the dream of the artist, the play of his imagination. The blue and gold backgrounds are equivalent from this position - both colors are a replacement for the sphere of the mystical sky. Azure is opposite to blue and blue in that it is involved in the transparency of mystical spheres, the luminaries.

Consider the symbolic shades of color that occur in the novel. The symbols of the blue color "Blue of the earthly distances" are associated with the earthly sphere of being. This is a sign of infinity, infinity, distance, coldness, melancholy. Blue is associated with the word "depth". In Orthodox iconography, blue is the traditional color of the robes of the Most Holy Theotokos.

In the Christmas troparion (in the Orthodox Church, this is a short prayer chant that reveals the essence of the holiday or glorifies the saint), Christ is called the Sun of Truth ("Baby shining like the Sun"). As symbols, the solar principle is opposite to the moon, the solar world is opposite to the lunar one. Darkness reigns in the symbolic diabolical world, there is no sun, and the luminary is the moon. The sun is a symbol of the masculine principle, it is associated with fire, gold, light, salvation, royalty, power, energy. sunlight identified with truth.

Black color is a symbol of night, threat, temptation, earthly depths, omens, apocalyptic. Fire and fire are symbols associated with the sun. They correspond with transfiguration, new birth, creativity, life, the Dionysian first fire. The color of fire is most often dominated by red, the meaning of which combines ambivalent concepts: blood and death, birth and death, rise and fall, creation and destruction. The blood-red shade can be a symbol of the Incarnation.

We have shown that The Mad Artist is a novella. The religious ekphrasis of this short story can be compared with the paintings of M. Nesterov, V. Vasnetsov, M. Vrubel. with icons "Ascension of the Lord", "Annunciation. Archangel Gabriel", "Annunciation. Virgin Mary” by M. Nesterov, “Bogolyubskaya” icon, “Pecherskaya”, “Modena” and other icons of the Mother of God. By type, they are direct and reverse. The reverse ekphrasis are the narrator's impressionistic landscapes, which create a distance between him and the insane hero, while the direct ekphrasis are the ekphrasis of the artist's conceived and executed paintings. Ekphrasis of the painting “The Birth of a New Man!” can be compared with the work of K. Bryullov "The Last Day of Pompeii", with the works of I. Bosch, E. Munch, O. Dix, D. Ensor. This picture reflects the state of mind of the artist, who is shocked by the horrors of the First World War. At the same time, this canvas can also be interpreted as an expression of Bunin's attitude to the 1917 revolution.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin INSANE ARTIST The original is here: Digital library Yabluchansky.<...>The sun was golden in the east, beyond the misty blue of distant forests, behind the white snowy lowland, which the ancient Russian city looked at from a low mountain coast.<...>It was Christmas Eve cheerful morning with light frost and hoarfrost.<...>In the old big hotel on a spacious square, against the old malls, it was quiet and empty, tidied up for the holiday.<...>But then a gentleman drove up to the porch. pince-nez, with amazed eyes, in a black velvet beret, from under which greenish curls fell, and in long doha brilliant chestnut fur. <...>- Take me to the very light number he said loudly, solemnly step following a young bellboy who was carrying his expensive foreign suitcase down a wide corridor.<...>- I artist he said, but this time I don't need a room to the north.<...> Corridor opened the door to number the first, the most honorable, consisting of an entrance hall and two spacious rooms, where the windows were, however, small and very deep, due to the thick walls. <...>Carefully dropping the suitcase on the carpet in the middle of the reception area, bellboy, a young fellow with intelligent, cheerful eyes, stopped in anticipation of a passport and orders.<...> Artist, short in stature, youthfully light in spite of his age, in a beret and a velvet jacket, walked from corner to corner and, dropping with a movement of his eyebrows pince-nez, rubbed his white, as if with alabaster hands, his pale! exhausted face. <...>Then he strangely looked at the servant with an unseeing gaze, very short-sighted and absent-minded. human. <...>I must complete the work of all my life. <...>My young friend,” he said, stretching out his hand to the bellboy and showing him two wedding rings, of which one, on the little finger, was a woman’s, “this is a ring - dying covenant! <...>- And I am this covenant I will fulfill! - the artist said menacingly.<...>Speaking and rapping words, the artist point-blank looked through pince-nez to your interlocutor.<...>On the square<...>

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Genius and madness go hand in hand. Gifted people perceive the world a little differently, and their creation sometimes faces the unknown, the forbidden and the mysterious. Perhaps this is what distinguishes their work and makes it truly brilliant.

website remembered a few amazing artists who suffered in different years their lives with mental disorders, which, however, could not prevent them from leaving behind real masterpieces.

Mikhail Vrubel

Mikhail Vrubel, Lilac (1900)

They don’t even try to copy the special aesthetics of his paintings - Vrubel’s work was so original. Madness overtook him in adulthood - the first signs of the disease appeared when the artist was 46 years old. Family grief contributed to this - Mikhail had a son with a cleft lip, and after 2 years the child died. The attacks of violence that began alternated with absolute apathy; relatives were forced to place him in a hospital, where he died a few years later.

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch, "The Scream" (1893)

The painting "The Scream" was painted in several versions, each of which was made different techniques. There is a version that this picture is the fruit of a mental disorder. It is assumed that the artist suffered from manic-depressive psychosis. "Scream" Munch rewrote four times until he was treated in the clinic. This case was not the only time when Munch found himself with a mental disorder in the hospital.

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh, Starlight Night» (1889)

The extraordinary painting of Van Gogh reflects the spiritual quest and torment that tormented him all his life. Now experts find it difficult to say what mental illness tormented the artist - schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, but he ended up in the clinic more than once. The illness eventually led him to commit suicide at age 36. His brother Theo, by the way, also died in a lunatic asylum.

Pavel Fedotov

Pavel Fedotov, Major's Matchmaking (1848)

Not everyone knows that the author of genre satirical painting died in a psychiatric hospital. He was so loved by contemporaries and admirers that many fussed about him, the king himself allocated funds for his maintenance. But, unfortunately, they could not help him - there was no adequate treatment for schizophrenia at that time. The artist died very young - at 37 years old.

Camille Claudel

Camille Claudel, "Waltz" (1893)

In her youth, the sculptor girl was very pretty and unusually talented. Master Auguste Rodin could not help but pay attention to her. The insane connection between the student and the master exhausted both - Rodin could not quit his civil spouse with whom he lived for many years. In the end, they broke up with Claudel, and she was never able to recover from the breakup. Since 1905, she began violent seizures, and she spent 30 years in a psychiatric hospital.

Francois Lemoine

François Lemoine, "Time guarding the Truth from Falsehood and Envy" (1737)

Physical overwork from hard work, constant court intrigues of envious people in Versailles and the death of his beloved wife affected the artist's health and drove him to madness. As a result, in June 1737, a few hours after finishing work on the next painting, Time Protecting Truth from Lies and Envy, during a paranoid attack, Lemoine committed suicide by stabbing himself with nine stabs of a dagger.

Louis Wayne

One of recent works Wayne (presented chronologically), clearly illustrating the artist's mental disorders

Louis was most inspired by cats, to which he attributed human behavior in his cartoons. Wayne was considered a strange person. Gradually, his eccentricity turned into a serious mental illness that began to progress over the years. In 1924, Louis was committed to a psychiatric hospital after he pushed one of his sisters down the stairs. A year later, he was discovered by the press and transferred to Napsbury Hospital in London. This clinic was relatively cozy, there was a garden and a whole cattery, and Wayne spent his last years there. Although the disease progressed, his gentle nature returned to him and he continued to paint. Its main theme - cats - remained unchanged for a long time, until it was finally supplanted by fractal-like patterns.

As a sign of faith in eternal life, in the resurrection from the dead, in the East, in ancient times, the Rose of Jericho was placed in coffins, in graves.

It is strange that this tangle of dry, thorny stems, like our tumbleweed, was called a rose, and even the Rose of Jericho, this desert tough growth found only in the stony sands below the Dead Sea, in the deserted foothills of Sinai. But there is a legend that the Monk Savva himself called it that, choosing for his monastery the terrible valley of Fire, a naked, dead gorge in the Judean desert. The symbol of the resurrection, given to him in the form of a wild thistle, he adorned with the sweetest simile known to him.

For he, this wolf, is truly wonderful. Ripped off and taken away by a wanderer thousands of miles from his homeland, he can lie dry, gray, dead for years. But, being placed in water, it immediately begins to bloom, give small leaves and a pink color. And the poor human heart rejoices, is consoled: there is no death in the world, there is no death to what was, what once lived! There are no separations and losses as long as my soul, my Love, Memory is alive!

So I console myself, resurrecting in myself those luminous ancient countries where my foot once trod, those blessed days when the sun of my life stood at noon, when, in the flower of strength and hope, hand in hand with the one whom God judged to be my companion to the grave, I made my first long journey, a marriage journey, which was at the same time a pilgrimage to the holy land of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the great mowing of age-old silence and oblivion lay before us its Palestines - the valleys of Galilee, the hills of Judaea, the salt and bogey of Pentagrad. But it was spring, and on all our paths all the same anemones and poppies bloomed merrily and peacefully that bloomed under Rachel, the same lilies of the field flaunted and the same birds of heaven sang, the blissful carelessness of which the Gospel parable taught ...

Rose of Jericho. IN living water hearts, in the pure moisture of love, sadness and tenderness, I immerse the roots and stems of my past - and here again my cherished cereal marvelously vegetates. Surrendered. The inevitable hour when this moisture dries up, the heart becomes impoverished and withered - and the ashes of oblivion will forever cover the Rose of my Jericho.

The sun was golden in the east, beyond the misty blue of the distant forests, beyond the white snowy lowland, which the ancient Russian city looked at from the low mountain shore. It was Christmas Eve, a brisk morning with a slight frost and frost.

The Petrograd train had just arrived: uphill, through the well-worn snow, from the railway station, cabs were pulling, with riders and without riders.

In an old large hotel on a spacious square, opposite the old shopping malls, it was quiet and empty, tidied up for the holiday. Guests were not expected. But then a gentleman in pince-nez, with astonished eyes, in a black velvet beret, from under which greenish curls fell, and in a long dokha of shiny chestnut fur, drove up to the porch.

The red-haired bearded man on the box quacked feignedly, wanting to show that he was cold, what should be added to him. The rider did not pay attention to him, leaving the hotel to pay him off.

Take me to the brightest room,” he said loudly, solemnly following the young bellboy who was carrying his expensive foreign suitcase along the wide corridor. “I'm an artist,” he said, “but this time I don't need a room to the north. By no means!

The bellboy opened the door to the first room, the most honorable one, which consisted of an entrance hall and two spacious rooms, where the windows were, however, small and very deep, because of the thick walls. The rooms were warm, cozy and calm, amber from the sun, softened by frost on the lower panes. Carefully lowering the suitcase on the carpet in the middle of the waiting room, the bellboy, a young fellow with intelligent, cheerful eyes, stopped to wait for his passport and orders. The artist, short in stature, youthfully light in spite of his age, in a beret and a velvet jacket, walked from corner to corner and, dropping his pince-nez with a movement of his eyebrows, rubbed his pale hands with white, as if with alabaster hands! exhausted face. Then he strangely looked at the servant with the unseeing gaze of a very short-sighted and absent-minded person.

December twenty-fourth, one thousand nine hundred and sixteen! - he said. - You must remember this date!

I obey, - answered the bellhop.

The artist took out a gold watch from the side pocket of his jacket, briefly, screwing up one eye, glanced at them.

Exactly half past nine,” he continued, again arranging his glasses on his nose. - I'm at the goal of my pilgrimage. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill towards men! I'll give you a passport, don't worry, but right now I'm not up to the passport. I don't have a single free minute. Now I'm in a hurry to the city to return at exactly eleven. I have to complete my life's work. My young friend,” he said, stretching out his hand to the bellboy and showing him two wedding rings, one of which, on the little finger, was a woman’s, “this ring is a dying covenant!

That's right, - answered the bellhop.

And I will fulfill this covenant! - the artist said menacingly. - I'll write an immortal thing! And I will give it to you.

Thank you very much,” the bellboy replied.

But, my dear, the fact is that I did not take with me either canvas or paints - it was absolutely impossible to smuggle them because of this monstrous war. I hope to get them here. I will finally embody everything that drove me crazy for two whole years, and then it was so wonderfully transformed in Stockholm!

Speaking and rapping out the words, the artist looked point-blank through his pince-nez at his interlocutor.

The whole world must know and understand this revelation, this good news! he exclaimed, waving his hand theatrically. - Do you hear? The whole world! All!

All right, sir, answered the bellboy. - I'll report to the owner.

In the world, my friend, there is no holiday greater than Christmas.

There is no mystery equal to the birth of a person. The last moment of the bloody, old world! A new man is born!

It was getting quite cold outside, it was quite sunny. The hoarfrost on the telegraph wires was drawn softly and gray across the blue sky, and was already crumbling and crumbling. The square was crowded with a whole forest of dense dark green fir trees. Frozen white carcasses of naked pigs with deep slits in their thick necks stood at the butcher shops, gray hazel grouses, plucked geese, turkeys, fat and frozen, hung. Passers-by, talking, hurried, cabbies whipped shaggy horses, squealed undercuts.

I recognize you, Rus'! - the artist said loudly, walking around the square and looking at tightly girded, thickly dressed, cheerful merchants and merchants, shouting near their stalls with home-made wooden toys and large white gingerbread cookies in the form of horses, roosters and fish.

He called a free cab and told him to go to the main street.

Only livelier, by eleven I should be at home at work, - he said, sitting down in the cold sled, putting a heavy, hot-hot cavity on his knees.

The driver shook his hat and quickly carried him on his well-fed gelding along the shiny, knurled road.

Live, live! - repeated the artist. At twelve the fullest light of the sun. - Yes, - he said, looking around, - the places are familiar, but thoroughly forgotten! What is the name of this piazza?

What would you like? asked the driver.

I ask you, what is the name of this area? shouted the painter, suddenly furious. - Stop, you bastard! Why did you bring me to the chapel? I'm afraid of churches and chapels! Stop! You know that a Finn brought me to the cemetery, and I immediately wrote letters to the king and the pope, and he was sentenced to death! Take it back!

UDC 821.161.1–3 Bunin.09

S. V. Lomakovich, I. I. Moskovkina
Kharkov National University named after V. N. Karazin

Ekphrasis as a metatext in the prose of I. A. Bunin in the 1920s (to the 80th anniversary of the Nobel Prize)

Lomakovich S. V., Moskovkina I. I. Ekphrasis as a metatext in prose I. O. Bunin in the 1920s (until 1980 he was awarded the Nobel Prize).

In the article, an analysis of the intermediality of the poetics of the novella was proponated. O. Bunin "God's mitets". Particular respect is attached to the specifics and functions of the ekphrasis, which plays a conceptual role in the novel. Its functioning in the form of a metatext clearly explicates the position of the writer before modernist art at the beginning of the 20th century.

Key words: poetics, ekphrasis, intertext, intermediality, metatext, modernism.

Lomakovich S. V., Moskovkina I. I. Ekphrasis as a metatext in I. A. Bunin’s prose of the 1920s (to the 80th anniversary of the Nobel Prize).

The article proposes an analysis of the intermedial nature of the poetics of I. A. Bunin's short story "The Mad Artist". Particular attention is paid to the specifics and functions of ekphrasis, which plays an important conceptual role in the novel. Its functioning as a metatext clearly explicates the attitude of the writer to modernist art beginning of the twentieth century.

Keywords Key words: poetics, ekphrasis, intertext, intermediality, metatext, modernism.

Lomakovich S. V., Moskovkina I. I. Ecphrasis as metatext in I. A. Bunin’s prose of 1920 (the 80th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Prize).

The article presents an analysis of intermedial poetics of I. A. Bunin’s novelette “Crazy artist”. Particular attention is paid to the specifics of features and functions of ecphrasis that plays a conceptual role in the story. Its function as a metatext clearly reflects the attitude of the writer to the modernistic art of the early twentieth century.

Keywords: poetics, ecphrasis, intertext, intermediality, metatext, modernism.

Bunin's skill, noted at the beginning of the twentieth century by two Pushkin Prizes(1903 and 1909), and in 1933 the Nobel Prize, is now universally recognized. Thanks to the works of B. V. Averin, V. Ya. Grechnev, V. V. Zamanskaya, V. A. Keldysh, L. A. Kolobaeva, V. Ya. Linkov, Yu. V. Maltsev, O. V. Slivitskaya, M. S. Stern and other modern researchers, biographical, historical, cultural, ideological and aesthetic origins and aspects of his work, the specifics of his attitude, genre system, poetics and creative method. The milestone summarizing the results of understanding Bunin's creative heritage at the end of the 20th century were the book "Ivan Bunin: pro et contra" and the chapter in the fundamental work of IMLI scientists "Russian literature at the turn of the century (1890s - early 1920s)", written N. S. Broitman and D. M. Magomedova. At the same time, in the process of determining the place of the writer in the literary process of the twentieth century, the vector shifted more and more from realism to neorealism and modernism. However, even today it is still seen differently.

IN last decade ideas about the degree of Bunin's innovation and his contribution to the development of literature are enriched and refined, thanks to new angles of consideration of his works, including the intermedial aspects of poetics. Most often, the attention of scientists is attracted by the specifics and functions of ekphrasis in its short stories, which, apparently, is associated with the productive development of the theory of ekphrasis in recent years. However, not all interpretations of the discovered features of the intermediality of Bunin's poetics seem indisputable. In particular, we are talking about the functions of ekphrasis in the short story "The Mad Artist" (1921) and its interpretation in the context of socio-historical and aesthetic realities of the first third of the twentieth century.

So, in the dissertation research by A. Yu. Krivoruchko “The Functions of Ekphrasis in Russian Prose of the 1920s”, ekphrasis in The Mad Artist is considered mainly from the point of view of its use in work of art to assess the socio-historical changes that shook the country in the early twentieth century. According to the researcher, in this, one of the first, created in emigration, Bunin's works, unlike later ones, the theme of Russia has not yet acquired the character of “Russia of Memories”: “In The Mad Artist, in a polemically pointed form, the author’s sharp rejection of the turning point in Russian history that occurred in 1917 and, in particular, his condemnation of the role of the creative intelligentsia in the revolution, the proclamation of its responsibility for what happened. Creating the image of his hero-artist, Bunin confronts two contradictory and equally unacceptable tendencies for him ... on the one hand, admiration for the West ..., and on the other, the idealization of Russia and the Russian people ... his special mission. The focus of the writer's attention is the failed meeting of the artist, who accepted Western European ideals and decided to transfer them to his homeland, from real Russia» .

Such an interpretation seems to be too straightforward and sociological and, moreover, not accurate - it does not take into account the artistic realities of the work. After all, the events in the novel take place in 1916 in pre-revolutionary Russia, and the artist is shocked by the nightmare of the First World War. In addition, as will be shown below, the "Russia of Memories", appearing in the so-called "reverse ekphrasis", already here plays an important structural and conceptual role.

M. S. Baitsak in his dissertation "Poetics of descriptions in the prose of I. A. Bunin: painting through the word", focuses on another function of ekphrasis in "The Mad Artist" - on the characterization of the creator through his creation. From the point of view of the researcher, “a number of ekphrasis allows us to correlate the creator's intention and its execution. Two detailed conditional ekphrasis, in which there are motifs of paintings by various authors - from Raphael, Michelangelo, I. Bosch to German expressionists - create a specific plot that embodies the main collision of the work. At the same time, “the traditional romantic concept of creativity as madness is revealed in a new way, the problem of the discrepancy between the creative idea and its artistic expression» .

Such an interpretation of the role of ekphrasis and the short story as a whole, in our opinion, allowed the researcher to come closer to understanding the artistic, poetic and aesthetic aspects of the work, but it also needs significant clarification, especially as regards the “romantic concept of creativity”. Indeed, from the interpretation of the functions and essence of ekphrasis in this representative Bunin's prose 1920s, the short story depends on the correct interpretation of not only the "Mad Artist", but also Bunin's aesthetic position.

Scholars have already noted symbolist discourse in Bunin's 1910s short stories such as The Brothers (1914), The Gentleman from San Francisco (1915), Chang's Dreams (1916), with their frankly symbolic-neomythological poetics and philosophical problems. At the same time, such a short story as "Archive File" (1914) revealed a typological similarity with L. Andreev's post-symbolist prose of the 1910s, which ironically assimilated the artistic principles of symbolism and expressionism. Bunin's short story "The Mad Artist" also begs to be compared with the works of L. Andreev. This, like the "Archival case", " Christmas story”, in which genre canons are also paradoxically transformed. In accordance with them, the events are timed to Christmas Eve. The essence of what is happening also seems to be quite consistent with the moment: the artist, in front of the inhabitants of a provincial hotel (and readers), completing “the work of his whole life”, paints a canvas that is likened to them good news. The artist's behavior corresponds to the mission he has entrusted to himself: he is majestic and feels himself either a prophet or the creator of a new world.

The picture he conceived called “The Birth of a New Man!” was intended to "make an unheard of impression." It was supposed to be filled with light and capture the birth of Christ, foreshadowing the death of the old, bloody world: “I have to paint the Bethlehem cave, paint the Nativity and fill the whole picture - and this manger, and the baby, and the Madonna, and the lion, and the lamb, reclining nearby, right next to it! - so rejoicing angels, so light, what was that truly the birth of a new man... ". It is noteworthy that the ekphrasis of the canvas imagined by the hero, in addition to the well-known plot that introduces a wide intertext of European art into Bunin's short story, starting with the wall painting of the Roman catacombs and ancient Byzantine mosaics, also includes new, subjective-personal, intimate details. The artist casually remarks that, contrary to the canon, the birthplace of the New Man will be Spain - his country happy first marriage journey: "In the distance - blue mountains, flowering trees on the hills, in the open skies ...".

While painting, another vision arises in front of the artist's "mental eye", which he tried to convey on his canvas. The ekphrasis of this variant of "The Birth of a New Man!" intertextually linked to another gospel story, repeatedly and variously recreated on the canvases of the masters of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and such prominent contemporaries of Bunin as Vrubel (art historians gave him the code name "The Virgin Mary with the Child and other figures"). The artist “dreamed” of the heavens, “full of eternal light, shimmering with the azure of Eden”, “luminous faces and wings of innumerable jubilant seraphim”, “God the Father, formidable and joyful”, “a maiden of inexpressible charm, with eyes full of bliss of a happy mother, standing on cloudy clubs ... showed to the world, raised high in her divine arms her baby, shining like the sun", "wild, mighty John, girded with an animal skin, knelt at her feet" .

However, instead of the beautiful vision that “his heart longed for”, on the artist’s canvas, novelistically unexpectedly and contrary to the genre canons of the “Christmas” happy end, something apocalyptic and expressionistic was captured: “The wild, black-blue sky to the zenith burned with fires, the bloody flames of smoky, collapsing temples , palaces and dwellings. Racks, scaffolds and gallows with strangles blackened against a fiery background. Above the whole picture, above all this sea of ​​​​fire and smoke, majestically, demonically rose a huge cross with a bloody sufferer crucified on it ... Below the picture was a disorderly pile of the dead - and a dump, a squabble, a fight of the living, a mixture of naked bodies, hands and faces. And these faces, bristled, fanged, with eyes that rolled out of their sockets, were so vile and rude, so distorted by hatred, malice, the voluptuousness of fratricide, that they could rather be recognized as the faces of cattle, animals, devils, but not human at all. .

In the picture, against the will of the artist, something was depicted that turned out to be stronger than his dreams, what actually captivated his imagination, shocked his consciousness and his whole being. The chaos and disharmony that reigned in the distraught, war-torn world seized the artist. From the hero's "slips" that run like a dotted line through the entire narrative, the reader learns the story of the artist's life during the period of nurturing the concept of the painting. Preparing to Proclaim the Good News of the Coming new era Light, Love, Beauty, Kindness, the artist, together with his pregnant wife, undertakes a trip to Europe by sea. Unable to bear the ordeals and horrors of war, his wife and newborn child perish in a foreign land. Therefore, the creation of a painting, in addition to its universal significance, is associated for the artist with a passionate belief in the possibility of resurrecting the dead with the power of his genius and art: “I will paint the Madonna with the one whose name is now sacred. I will resurrect her, killed by an evil force along with new life borne by her under her heart! .

As a result, the good intentions of the artist turn into their opposite not only in life, but also in creativity. Arriving specifically to complete the "work of life", he forgot his brush, has neither a canvas nor paints, wakes up natural light and is forced to paint at night under artificial, ominous lighting. He tries to write a happy Madonna, looking at a photograph of his wife in a coffin, and a newborn - a new one, happy person- from a dead baby. It's no surprise that instead of the Light Realm, the Beast Realm looms - " devilish obsessions life" completely captured his imagination and demanded their incarnation. Wanting to sing Hosanna to the Creator (“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”), he shouted a curse at him (cf.: “The Life of Basil of Thebes” by L. Andreev).

Note that the ekphrasis of both canvases imagined by the artist, apparently, intertextually resonates with similar descriptions in Gogol's story "Portrait", where the writer reflected on the nature of inspiration (divine and demonic) and its creative results, as well as on brilliant canvases, to the creation of which the artist prepared for a lifetime. Eager to capture birth god-man and a new man, the coming of the kingdom of God on earth, Bunin's mad artist proclaimed a martyr's death Son of God on a huge cross, which " demonically towered" above the crowd of creatures (new humanity) with the faces of "cattle, beasts, devils» , i.e. death in a person of everything human and divine (cf.: “In the crowd” by F. Sologub). It is also terrible that for the sake of creations artist sacrificed his son and wife(which also caused associations with the Creator). Therefore, he must fully share with God the responsibility for the world order. Through a special case from the artist's life, a neo-mythological narrative about the ontological foundations of the created universe and man “shone through”.

Thus, first of all, Bunin artistically recreated, researched and explained the type of expressionist artist and the origins of his work. Thanks to intertext and parallels creative artist And God the Creator the writer, like the symbolists, reflected on the ontological foundations of human existence. But at the same time, Bunin did not become like either an expressionist or a symbolist-neomythologist. He managed to keep a distance between himself and the insane hero, whom he looked at from the point of view of common sense and natural human perception, reflected in the title, the reaction of a smart lackey and the narrator's irony, constantly emphasizing the absurdity of the hero's appearance and behavior. Here, too, irony saved Bunin from the temptation to proclaim the new News and Truth in the last instance.

"The Mad Artist" is a "matryoshka" short story. Brilliantly executed ekphrasis of a fictional writer, but recreating character traits and the “common places” of the expressionist canvas (moreover, typologically similar to the picture of the world captured in The Wall, Red Laughter and other symbolic-expressionist short stories and short stories by L. Andreev, intertextually included in Bunin’s short story), is inscribed in the frame of neo-mythological symbolist novel. The latter is inscribed in the frame of the narrative on behalf of the narrator, who created an ironic distance between himself, the “new myth” and the mad hero.

This distance is also clarified and constantly maintained by the inclusion in the short story of impressionistic landscape sketches and interiors that capture the narrator's perception of the low-key, natural beauty of a snow-covered pre-Christmas Russian town and human habitation during those days, during which the mad artist completes his Good News. The short story begins with a morning landscape: “The sun was golden in the east, behind the foggy blue of distant forests, behind the white snowy lowland, which the ancient Russian city looked at from a low mountain coast. It was Christmas Eve, a brisk morning with a slight frost and hoarfrost. Then the interior of the hotel room appears: “The rooms were warm, cozy and calm, amber from the sun, softened by frost on the lower glasses.” In the course of development, Bunin “draws” an urban landscape that conveys the nuances of midday light and color: “It was getting quite wet outside, it became completely sunny. The hoarfrost on the telegraph wires was drawn softly and gray across the blue sky, and was already crumbling and crumbling. A whole forest of dense, dark-green fir-trees crowded the square…” and so on.

In these descriptions, the "painterliness", the intermediality of Bunin's prose is revealed - the transfer to literature of the techniques of fine art, which give the verbal image picturesqueness, mise-en-scene, colorfulness. Bunin's short story includes the so-called "reverse ekphrasis" - descriptions that cause the reader to associate with the motives, images and mood of various paintings. Despite criticism contemporary art, the writer knew him perfectly (both literature and painting) and mastered his techniques. As researchers have shown, the degree of saturation of his works with "quotes" from paintings contemporary artists very high. Among the most frequent sources of "quotes" are rightly called the modernist canvases of F. Malyavin, A. Rylov, L. Bakst, V. Borisov-Musatov. According to the observations of M. S. Baitsak, Bunin, operating with "topoi", created a kind of rhetoric of "common places" in Russian and European painting and saturated the narrative with it. A citation of this kind allowed the author to create an aestheticized image of reality: the world as beauty, which was one of the main creative guidelines for him.

Thus, although Bunin, following Andreev, Sologub and many other modernists at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, was forced to state the strengthening of the power of chaotic destructive forces over the world and man, his worldview and worldview did not boil down to this alone. Bunin was given the ability to see, experience and recreate the harmony and beauty of the universe. About the bipolarity of his artistic world O. V. Slivitskaya has convincingly said. The explicit or hidden ekphrastic nature of the descriptions largely determined the specificity of the figurativeness of Bunin's prose, and, apparently, one can speak of it as a distinctive and important feature of his poetics. Taking into account, assimilating and, at the same time, overcoming the experience of not only realists, but also modernists (symbolists, expressionists, impressionists), Bunin found new, original, artistic ways study of the fundamental fundamental principles of human life and humanity. It was they, and not only and not so much the concrete historical collisions of pre-revolutionary or post-revolutionary Russia, that were the subject of historiosophical and artistic comprehension in prose. Nobel laureate- Russian writer, whose innovations have enriched world literature.

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18. Stern M. S. In Search of Lost Harmony: I. A. Bunin’s Prose of the 1930s-1940s / M. S. Stern. - Omsk: Publishing House Omsk. state ped. un-ta, 1997. - 40 p.

Keywords: Ivan Bunin, criticism, Bunin's work, works, read criticism, online, review, review, poetry, Critical articles, prose, Russian literature, 19th century, analysis, Nobel Prize, ekphrasis, metatext, modernism