Among the masters of Russian romanticism, Karl Bryullov is an outstanding figure. His monumental canvases, portraits of contemporaries, constitute the golden fund of Russian painting. History has preserved the epithets received by the artist from acquaintances: "Brilliant", "Magnificent". It's the picture Karla Bryullova"The Last Day of Pompeii" was so highly appreciated, honoring the creator with the title of the great Russian romantic artist. Italian motifs, classical themes of the Renaissance are reflected in the work of Bryullov, making the picture the most important canvas. creative way artist.
"The Last Day of Pompeii": the history of the creation of the painting
79 AD. Volcanic eruption destroys the ancient city of the Roman Empire. During the disaster, more than two thousand inhabitants die, some are buried alive under lava flows. The Pompeii theme is very popular for the work of the early 19th century. The period between 1748 (discovery of the ruins of Pompeii due to archaeological sites) and 1835 is marked by many works of painting, musical, theatrical art, and literature about this event.
1827. Karl Bryullov personally gets acquainted with the history of the lost city. He visits the excavations. The young artist was unaware of the fatality of the trip. Then the master will write that he experienced a new sensation, forgetting about everything except the terrible fate that hit the city. The author of the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" was deeply impressed. For several years, Bryullov has been working on sources: historical data, literary evidence. The artist studies the history of the region in detail, feeling more and more the theme of the lost city. It is known that the artist communicated with people who carried out archaeological excavations, read a lot of works on the topic.
Karl Pavlovich repeatedly visits the ancient city, taking all the details of the future canvas from nature. Sketches, the picture very accurately convey the look of Pompeii. Bryullov chose the intersection known as the "street of the tombs" as the scene of action. Here the ancient Pompeians buried the ashes of their deceased ancestors in marble mausoleums. The choice is intentional, filled with deep symbolism.
The artist considered the key point to be the need to illuminate Vesuvius. The volcano, which caused the tragedy, occupies the background of the work, creates a depressing impression, enhancing the monumentalism of the work. Bryullov painted from nature of local residents. Many Italians living in the vicinity of Vesuvius are descendants of the indigenous inhabitants of the deceased city. Having made a sketch of the composition, roughly seeing what the picture would be, the artist began work on the greatest work of his own creative path.
1830-33. Work on the work, which brought world fame, was in full swing. The canvas was filled with life, the spirit of inevitable death. The picture differs slightly from the original sketch. The point of view has shifted slightly, there are more actors. The plan of action, the idea, the stylistic composition, executed in the spirit of the works of the era of classicism - everything remains. "The Last Day of Pompeii" - indeed monumental work(4.65x6.5 meters).
The painting brought Bryullov world fame. The canvas is sent directly to Rome almost immediately after writing. The reviews from critics were overwhelming. The Italians were delighted, seeing how deeply the Russian artist felt the historical tragedy, with what painstaking, involvement he wrote out the smallest details of the work. "The Last Day of Pompeii" the Italians called the "triumphant" picture. Few Russian artists received such high marks abroad. The end of the first third of the 19th century was a turbulent time for Italy, foreshadowing strong historical upheavals. Bryullov's painting, in modern terms, has become really trendy. historical memory- an important concept of a country that fought for freedom from Austrian power. The interest of a foreign artist in the heroic past of original Italy only spurred the revolutionary mood of the country.
The painting was later sent to Paris. The Louvre was visited by many of the great contemporaries of Bryullov, who wanted to see the magnificent canvas with their own eyes. Among those who appreciated the work was the writer Walter Scott, who called the picture extraordinary. In his opinion, the genre of the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" is a real pictorial epic. The artist did not expect such success. Bryullov became a triumph along with the picture.
In the artist's homeland, St. Petersburg, "The Last Day of Pompeii" went in 1834, where it is located to this day.
Description of the artwork «The last day of Pompeii»
The composition of the canvas is made according to the strict canons of classicism, but the work of Bryullov is a transitional stage on the path to romanticism. Hence the pronounced theme of the tragedy is not a man, but the people. Appeal to real historical events is another characteristic romantic feature.
The foreground of the left corner of the picture is a married couple covering their children with their bodies. It depicts a woman hugging her daughters and a Christian priest. He expresses calmness, humility, accepting what happened as God's will. The antipode image of other characters in the canvas, his eyes do not carry horror. Bryullov laid deep symbolism, the opposition of Christian and Roman, pagan religion. In the middle of the canvas, the priest, saving the temple valuables, runs away from inevitable death. So the author marked the historical death of the pagan religion after the advent of Christianity. On the steps of the tomb on the left we see a woman whose gaze is full of primal horror. Despair, a silent plea for help is noticeable to everyone. The woman is the only character who looks straight, addressing the viewer.
The right side of the picture is the side of the volcano. A rolling lightning strike destroys the statues. The sky blazes with a fiery glow, foreshadowing death. Through sharp, dark strokes, the artist metaphorically shows "falling skies". Ashes fly. A young man carries a lifeless girl (a marriage crown flaunts on his head). The elements prevented the marriage. A similar pose is taken by sons carrying an old father. The rearing horse throws the rider. The young man helps his mother to get up, persuading her to run away.
In the center is the main element of the composition. A dead woman lies on the ground, a baby is on her chest. The element bears main idea Bryullov's paintings "The Last Day of Pompeii": the death of the old world, the birth of a new era, the opposition of life and death. Very romantic symbolism.
Contrasting the hot scarlet flame of the background of the canvas with the cold, “dead” light of the foreground. Bryullov enthusiastically plays with chiaroscuro, creating volume, immersing the viewer in what is happening. Russian art criticism rightly considered Karl Pavlovich an innovator who discovered new era Russian painting.
Interesting facts about the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii"
Bryullov's work is fraught with many hidden meanings and mysteries. It is important for an erudite person not only to know who painted the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii”, but also what secrets the canvas holds:
- The artist standing on the steps is a self-portrait of the author. With this element, Bryullov showed how deeply he experiences the tragedy of the eruption of Vesuvius, sympathizing with the heroes of the canvas;
- Countess Samoilova, the closest friend, the muse of the artist - the model of four characters in the picture at once (a dead woman, a woman with horror in her eyes, a mother covering her children with a cloak);
- The name of the canvas has actually become winged for the Russian language. "Pompeia" is used in the feminine form singular, but according to the rules, the word is plural;
- Bryullov's painting was repeatedly mentioned directly in the works of classical Russian literature by Lermontov, Pushkin, Turgenev, Gogol;
- Among the surviving victims of Pompeii is Pliny the Younger, an ancient historian. The artist depicted him as a young man helping his fallen mother to rise.
Where is The Last Day of Pompeii located?
Images are not ways to convey delightful monumentalism famous work art, so be sure to come to St. Petersburg! 1895 - the canvas becomes part of the permanent exhibition of the Russian Museum. Here you can safely enjoy the magnificent masterpiece of the famous painter.
CategoryBryullov Karl Pavlovich (1799-1852)
Neither of European artists did not receive such a grandiose triumph in the 19th century as fell on the lot of the young Russian painter Karl Pavlovich Bryullov when, in the middle of 1833, he opened the doors of his Roman workshop to the public with a freshly finished painting" ". Like Byron, he had the right to say about himself that one fine morning he woke up famous. The word "success" is not enough to characterize the attitude towards it. picture. There was something more painting caused the audience an explosion of delight and admiration for the Russian artist, who seemed to open a new page in the history of world art.
Autumn 1833 painting appeared on exhibition V Milan. Here the triumph of the Russian master reached its highest point. Everyone wanted to see a work "of which all Rome is talking." Rave reviews were published in Italian newspapers and magazines about " The last day of Pompeii"and its author. As the great masters of the Renaissance were once honored, so now they began to honor Bryullov. He became the most famous person in Italy. He was greeted with applause in the street, they gave him an ovation in the theater. Poets dedicated poems to him. When moving on the borders of the Italian principalities, he was not required to present a passport - it was believed that every Italian was obliged to know him by sight.
In 1834 "" was exhibited at the Paris Salon. French Academy arts awarded Bryullov gold medal . One of the first biographers Bryullov, N. A. Ramazanov, says that, despite the envious talk of some French artists, the Parisian public mainly riveted their attention to " last day Pompeii"and with difficulty and reluctance moved away from this paintings".
The glory of Russian art has never spread so widely throughout Europe. More celebration awaited Bryullov at home.
Brought to St. Petersburg in July 1834 and exhibited first in the Hermitage and then at the Academy of Arts, it immediately became the center of attention of Russian society and became a subject of patriotic pride.
“Crowds of visitors, one might say, burst into the halls of the Academy to look at Pompeii,” a contemporary narrates. In his official annual report Academy of Arts acknowledged bryullovskaya picture best creation 19th century. Widespread engraved playback "Last day of Pompeii". They smashed glory Bryullov throughout the country, far beyond the capital. The best representatives of Russian culture enthusiastically welcomed picture. Pushkin wrote:
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.
Gogol wrote about The last day of Pompeii"an extensive article in which he acknowledged this picture"a complete universal creation", where everything is "so powerful, so bold, so harmoniously brought into one, as soon as it could arise in the head of a universal genius."
Bryullov's painting unusually high interest in painting in the most wide circles Russian society. The incessant talk about The last day of Pompeii"in the press, in correspondence, in private conversations, they clearly showed that a work of painting can excite and touch people no less than literature. public role visual arts in Russia it began precisely with the Bryullov celebrations.
history painting, which has long occupied a leading position in academic art, addressed, for the most part, to stories taken from the Bible and the Gospel or from ancient mythology. But even in cases where plot paintings was not a legendary legend, but a real historical event, the painters of the Academy were, in fact, very far from historical accuracy in understanding and interpreting what was depicted. They did not seek historical truth, because their goal was not to recreate the past, but to embody this or that abstract idea. In their pictures historical figures took on the appearance of conditional "ancient heroes", regardless of whether the event was depicted in ancient Roman or Russian history.
"paved the way for a completely different understanding and interpretation of the historical theme.
In search of life's truth Bryullov, the first among Russian artists, set himself the goal of recreating in picture real event past, based on the study historical sources and archaeological data.
In comparison with the fantastic "archeology" of predecessors Bryullov this outward historicism was in itself a major pioneering achievement. They, however, far from exhaust the meaning bryullovskaya paintings. Archaeological authenticity served Bryullov only a means for a deeper disclosure of the topic, for expressing a modern attitude to the past.
"Thought paintings belongs entirely to the taste of our age, which, as if feeling its terrible fragmentation, strives to unite all phenomena in general groups and chooses strong crises felt by the whole mass, "Gogol wrote, revealing the content" Last day of Pompeii".
Unlike the previous history painting with its cult of heroes and emphasized attention to individual, opposed to the impersonal crowd, Bryullov conceived "" as crowd scene in which the people would be the only and true hero. All major actors in picture are almost equal exponents of its theme; meaning paintings is embodied not in the depiction of a single heroic act, but in an attentive and accurate transfer of the psychology of the masses.
However, Bryullov with intentional and even sharp straightforwardness emphasizes the main contrasts in which the idea of the struggle of the new with the old, life with death, the human mind with the blind power of the elements is expressed. Everything is subject to this thought. ideological And artistic solution paintings, hence its features that determined the place " Last day of Pompeii" in Russian art XIX century.
Subject The painting is taken from ancient Roman history. Pompeii(or rather Pompeii) - an ancient Roman city located at the foot of Vesuvius - on August 24, 79 AD, as a result of a strong volcanic eruption, it was flooded with lava and covered with stones and ash. Two thousand inhabitants (of which there were about 30,000 in total) died on the streets of the city during a stampede.
For more than one and a half thousand years, the city remained buried underground and forgotten. Only in late XVI century, during the production of earthworks, a place was accidentally discovered where a lost Roman settlement had once been. Archaeological excavations began in 1748, especially intensified in the first decades of the 19th century. They aroused increased interest in artistic circles not only in Italy, but throughout the world. Each new discovery became a sensation among artists and archaeologists, and the tragic subject Ibeli Pompeii at the same time it was used in literature, painting and music. Opera appeared in 1829 Italian composer Paccini, in 1834 - historical novel English writer Bulverlitton " The last days of Pompeii". Bryullov turned to this topic earlier than others: etude sketches of his future paintings belong to 1827-1828.
Bryullov was 28 years old when he decided to write "". The fifth year of his retirement in Italy was expiring. He already had several serious works, but none of them seemed to the artist quite worthy of his talent; he felt that he had not yet justified the hopes that were placed in him.
From Bryullov waited big historical picture- precisely historical, because in the aesthetics of the early 19th century this kind of painting was considered the highest. Without breaking with the dominant aesthetic views of his time, Bryullov and he himself sought to find a plot that would correspond to the inner possibilities of his talent and at the same time be able to satisfy the requirements that could be presented to him. contemporary criticism and the Academy of Arts.
Looking for a story like this Bryullov I hesitated for a long time between themes from Russian history and ancient mythology. He intended to write picture "Oleg nails his shield to the gates of Constantinople", and later outlined the plot of stories Peter the Great. At the same time, he made sketches on mythological themes (" Death of Phaethon", "Hylas kidnapped by nymphs"and others). But the mythological theme, highly valued at the Academy, contradicted the realistic tendencies of the young Bryullov, and for the Russian theme, he, being in Italy, could not collect material.
Subject destruction of Pompeii solved many problems. The plot itself was, if not traditional, then undoubtedly historical, and from this side it met the basic requirements of academic aesthetics. The action was to unfold against the backdrop of an ancient city with its classical architecture and monuments of ancient art; the world of classical forms was thus included in picture without any deliberateness, as if by itself, and the spectacle of the raging elements and tragic death opened access to romantic images in which the talent of the painter could find new, yet unseen opportunities for depicting great feelings, passionate spiritual outbursts and deep feelings. It is no wonder that the topic has captivated and captured Bryullov: it combined all the conditions for the most complete expression of his thoughts, knowledge, feelings and interests.
Sources based on which Bryullov solved his topic, authentic monuments of antiquity appeared, discovered in the lost city, the works of archaeologists and a description catastrophes V Pompeii made by a contemporary and an eyewitness, Roman writer Pliny the Younger.
Work on " The last day of Pompeii" dragged on for almost six years (1827-1833), and evidence of deep and intense creative quest Bryullov are numerous drawings, sketches and sketches, clearly showing how the artist's idea developed.
Among these preparatory work a special place is occupied by a sketch of 1828. In terms of the strength of artistic influence, he, perhaps, is not inferior to the most picture. True, the sketch remained not completely finalized, individual images and characters were only outlined in it, and not fully disclosed; but this external incompleteness is combined in a peculiar way with deep internal completeness and artistic persuasiveness. The significance of individual episodes, subsequently developed in detail in picture, here, as it were, dissolves in a common passionate impulse, in a single tragic feeling, in an integral image of a dying city, powerless before the pressure of the elements falling on it. The sketch is based on the romantically understood idea of man's struggle with fate, which is personified here by the elemental forces of nature. Death approaches with inevitable cruelty, like ancient fate, and a person with all his mind and will is unable to resist fate; it remains only for him to face inevitable death with courage and dignity.
But Bryullov did not stop at this decision of his topic. He was not satisfied with the sketch precisely because the notes of hopeless pessimism, blind resignation to fate and disbelief in human strength sounded so insistently in it. Such an understanding of the world stood outside the traditions of Russian culture, contradicted its healthy folk foundations. The life-affirming power inherent in gifting Bryullov, couldn't come to terms with" Last day of Pompeii", demanded an exit and permission.
Bryullov found this way out, opposing the destructive elements of nature with the spiritual greatness and beauty of man. Plastic beauty turns in him into a powerful force that affirms life in spite of death and destruction. "... His figures are beautiful with all the horror of their position. They drown him out with their beauty," wrote Gogol, who subtly noticed the main idea bryullovskaya paintings.
In an effort to express the various psychological states and shades of feelings that gripped the inhabitants of the dying city, Bryullov built his picture as a cycle of separate, closed episodes, plot-wise not connected with each other. Their ideological meaning becomes clear only when the gaze of all groups and independent plot motifs, constituting "".
The idea of beauty triumphing over death is expressed with particular clarity in the group of figures crowded on the steps of the tomb on the left side. paintings. Bryullov deliberately combined here the images of blossoming strength and youth. Neither suffering nor horror distorts their ideally beautiful features; on the faces one can read only an expression of surprise and anxious expectation. Titanic power is felt in the figure of a young man, with a passionate impulse making his way through the crowd. It is characteristic that in this world of beautiful classical images, inspired by ancient sculpture, Bryullov brings a noticeable shade of realism; many of his characters are undoubtedly painted from life, and among them stands out a self-portrait of Bryullov, who depicted himself as a Pompeian artist who, escaping from the city, takes with him a box of brushes and paints.
In the main groups of the right side paintings the main ones are the motives that emphasize the spiritual greatness of a person. Here Bryullov concentrated examples of courage and selfless fulfillment of duty.
In the foreground there are three groups: “two young Pompeians carrying on their shoulders their sick old father”, “Pliny with his mother” and “young spouses” - a young husband supports his wife, who is falling in exhaustion, crowned with a wedding wreath. However, last group psychologically almost not developed and has the character of a compositional insert necessary for rhythmic balance paintings. Much more meaningful is the group of sons carrying their father: in the image of an old man, majestically stretching out his hand, the proud inflexibility of the spirit and stern courage are expressed. In the image of the youngest son, a black-eyed Italian boy, one feels an accurate and direct sketch from nature, in which a vivid realistic feeling is clearly manifested. Bryullov.
Realistic beginnings are expressed with particular force in the remarkable group of Pliny with his mother. In sketches and early sketches, this episode is designed in classical forms emphasizing the historicity and antique character of the scene. But in picture Bryullov resolutely moved away from original intention- the images created by him amaze with their unbiased and genuine vitality.
IN center paintings there is a prostrate figure of a young woman who crashed when falling from a chariot. It can be assumed that in this figure Bryullov wanted to symbolize the whole perishing ancient world; a hint of such an interpretation is also found in the reviews of contemporaries. In accordance with this intention, the artist sought to find the most perfect classical embodiment for this figure. Contemporaries, including Gogol, saw in her one of the most poetic creations Bryullov.
Not all episodes are equally important for the development of the theme, but in their alternation and comparison, the main idea is persistently revealed. Bryullov about the struggle of life with death, about the triumph of reason over the blind forces of the elements, about the birth of a new world on the crumbling ruins of the old.
It is no coincidence that next to the central figure of the murdered woman, the artist depicted a beautiful baby as a symbol of the inexhaustible power of life; it is no coincidence that the images of youth and old age are contrasted in the groups of Pliny with his mother and sons carrying their aged father; Finally, the accentuated contrast between the "pagan", in an antique beautiful crowd on the steps of the tomb and the majestically calm "family of Christians" is not accidental. IN picture there is both a pagan priest and a Christian priest, as if personifying the departing ancient world and the Christian civilization emerging on its ruins.
The images of the priest and the priest, perhaps, are not deep enough, their spiritual world is not shown in picture and the characterization remained, to a large extent, external; this subsequently gave rise to V.V. Stasov to severely reproach Bryullov for the fact that he did not use the opportunity to sharply contrast decrepit, dying Rome and young Christianity. But the thought of these two worlds is undoubtedly present in picture. With simultaneous and complete perception paintings the organic connection of its constituent episodes clearly emerges. The shades of feelings and various mental states expressed in them, acts of valor and self-sacrifice, next to manifestations of despair and fear, are given in " The last day of Pompeii to a harmonious, harmonious and artistically integral unity.
Wonderful canvases. L., 1966. P.107
Restoration of the painting The Last Day of Pompeii
An exceptional event in the life of the Russian Museum was K. P. Bryullova"". Numerous previous restorations only delayed the start of fundamental work on the canvas - the canvas of the painting “burned out”, became fragile; there were 42 plasters at the places where the canvas had been torn, which appeared on the front side; the loss of the paint layer was tinted with an approach to the author's painting; the lacquer has changed a lot in color. After strengthening the painting was transferred to a new canvas. Have done this wonderful work restorers I. N. Kornyakova, A. V. Minin, E. S. Soldatenkov; consulted S. F. Konenkov.
Painting by K. P. Bryullov “The Last Day of Pompeii” entered the Russian Museum from the Hermitage in 1897. After a major restoration in 1995, the painting was stretched on a pre-repaired author's stretcher and returned to the exhibition.
The decision to start the restoration of the painting was made at a meeting of the extended Restoration Council of the State Russian Museum on March 15, 1995.
At the beginning of the work, it was strengthened with a prophylactic paper seal and then the canvas was removed from the author's stretcher. After that, the painting was stretched by the edges on a marble floor with a colorful surface down and the back side was cleaned of surface contamination. From the back, two layers of ancient restoration duplicating edges were removed, which caused severe deformations of the canvas along the edges, and more than 40 restoration patches that stood in the places of old canvas breaks. Places of more than hundreds of losses of the author's canvas, especially numerous along the edges, were repaired with inserts from a new canvas. After that, the painting was duplicated on a new canvas, identical in character and quality to the author's, ordered in Germany. The places where the paint layer was lost were filled with restoration primer and tinted with watercolors. Author's varnish is completely restored by regeneration with alcohol vapor.
In the process of work, methods of strengthening the paint layer and soil in a large space were worked out. An important result work was the development of new devices that facilitate and simplify the process of technical restoration. According to a special project, a durable duralumin stretcher was created with a system of special fasteners for stretching the duplicating canvas. This system made it possible to repeatedly tighten the canvas to the desired tension in the process of work.
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We have long known the picture Karla Bryullova THE LAST DAY OF POMPEI, but we did not consider it in detail. I wanted to know its history and examine the canvas in detail.
K. Bryullov. The last day of Pompeii. 1830-1833
BACKGROUND OF THE PICTURE.
In 1827, the young Russian artist Karl Bryullov arrived in Pompeii. He did not know that this trip would lead him to the pinnacle of creativity. The sight of Pompeii stunned him. He walked all the nooks and crannies of the city, touched the walls, rough from boiling lava, and, perhaps, he had the idea to paint a picture of the last day of Pompeii.
From the idea of the picture to its completion will take a long six years. Bryullov begins with the study of historical sources. He reads the letters of Pliny the Younger, an eyewitness to the events, to the Roman historian Tacitus.
In search of authenticity, the artist also turns to the materials of archaeological excavations, he depicts some figures in those poses in which the skeletons of the victims of Vesuvius were found in hardened lava.
Almost all items were painted by Bryullov from authentic items stored in the Neapolitan Museum. The surviving drawings, sketches and sketches show how persistently the artist was looking for the most expressive composition. And even when the sketch of the future canvas was ready, Bryullov regroups the scene about a dozen times, changes gestures, movements, poses.
In 1830 the artist began work on a large canvas. He wrote at such a limit of spiritual tension that it happened that he was literally taken out of the studio in his arms. Finally, by the middle of 1833, the canvas was ready.
Eruption of Vesuvius.
Let's take a short digression to get to know historical details events that we see in the picture.
The eruption of Vesuvius began on the afternoon of August 24, 79 and lasted about a day, as evidenced by some of the surviving manuscripts of the "Letters" of Pliny the Younger. It led to the death of three cities - Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabia and several small villages and villas.
Vesuvius wakes up and brings down all kinds of products of volcanic activity on the surrounding space. Tremors, ash flakes, stones falling from the sky - all this took the inhabitants of Pompeii by surprise.
People tried to hide in houses, but died from suffocation or under the ruins. Someone overtook death in public places - in theaters, markets, forums, temples, someone - on the streets of the city, someone - already beyond its borders. However, the vast majority of residents still managed to leave the city.
During the excavations, it turned out that everything in the cities was preserved as it was before the eruption. Streets, houses with full furnishings, the remains of people and animals that did not have time to escape were found under many meters of ash. The force of the eruption was such that the ashes from it flew even to Egypt and Syria.
Of the 20,000 inhabitants of Pompeii, about 2,000 died in the buildings and on the streets. Most of the inhabitants left the city before the disaster, but the remains of the dead are found outside the city. Therefore, the exact number of deaths cannot be estimated.
Among those who died from the eruption was Pliny the Elder, scientific interest and out of a desire to help people suffering from the eruption, he tried to approach Vesuvius on a ship and found himself in one of the centers of the disaster - near Stabia.
Pliny the Younger describes what happened on the 25th at Miseno. In the morning, a black cloud of ash began to approach the city. Residents fled in horror from the city to the seashore (probably, the inhabitants of the dead cities also tried to do the same). The crowd running along the road soon found itself in complete darkness, screams, crying children were heard.
Those who fell were trampled down by those who followed. I had to shake off the ashes all the time, otherwise the person instantly fell asleep, and there was no way for those who sat down to rest to rise. This went on for several hours, but in the afternoon the ash cloud began to dissipate.
Pliny returned to Miseno, although the earthquakes continued. By evening, the eruption began to subside, and by the evening of the 26th everything had subsided. Pliny the Younger was lucky, but his uncle is an outstanding scientist, author natural history Pliny the Elder - died during the eruption in Pompeii.
They say that he was let down by the curiosity of a naturalist, he stayed in the city for observations. sun over dead cities- Pompeii, Stabia, Herculaneum and Octavianum - it seemed only on August 27th. Vesuvius has erupted to this day at least eight more times. Moreover, in 1631, in 1794 and 1944 the eruption was quite strong.
DESCRIPTION.
Black darkness hung over the earth. A blood-red glow paints the sky near the horizon, and a blinding flash of lightning momentarily breaks the darkness. In the face of death, the essence of the human soul is exposed.
Here the young Pliny persuades his mother, who has fallen to the ground, to gather the remnants of her strength and try to escape.
Here are the sons carrying the old man on their shoulders, trying to quickly deliver the precious burden to a safe place.
Raising his hand towards the crumbling skies, the man is ready to protect his loved ones with his chest.
Nearby is a kneeling mother with children. With what inexpressible tenderness they huddle together!
Above them is a Christian shepherd with a cross around his neck, with a torch and a censer in his hands. With calm fearlessness, he looks at the flaming skies and the crumbling statues of the former gods.
And in the depths of the canvas, he is opposed by a pagan priest, running in fear with an altar under his arm. This somewhat naive allegory proclaims the advantages Christian religion over the outgoing pagan.
A man who raised his hand to heaven is trying to protect his family. Next to him is a kneeling mother with children who seek protection and help from her.
On the left in the background is a crowd of fugitives on the steps of the tomb of Skaurus. In it, we notice an artist saving the most precious thing - a box with brushes and paints. This is a self-portrait of Karl Bryullov.
But in his eyes, not so much the horror of death as close attention artist, exacerbated by a terrible sight. He carries on his head the most precious thing - a box with paints and other painting accessories. It seems that he slowed down his steps and tries to remember the picture that unfolded before him. Yu.P. Samoilova served as a model for a girl with a jug.
We can see it in other images. This and a woman smashed to death, sprawled on the pavement, where next to her is a living child - in the center of the canvas; and a mother attracting her daughters to her, in the left corner of the picture.
The young man holds his beloved, in his eyes there is despair and hopelessness.
Many art historians consider the frightened child lying near the dead mother to be the central characters on the canvas. Here we see grief, despair, hope, the death of the old world, and perhaps the birth of a new one. This is a confrontation between life and death.
A noble woman tried to escape on a fast chariot, but no one can escape Kara, everyone must be punished for their sins. On the other hand, we see a frightened child who against all odds, he survived to revive the fallen race. But, what is his further fate, of course, we do not know, and we can only hope for a happy outcome.
The baby mourning her is an allegory of the new world, a symbol of the inexhaustible power of life.
How much pain, fear and despair in the eyes of people.
"The Last Day of Pompeii" convinces that main value in the world is a man. To the destructive forces Bryullov contrasts nature spiritual greatness and the beauty of man.
Brought up on the aesthetics of classicism, the artist strives to give his heroes ideal features and plastic perfection, although it is known that residents of Rome posed for many of them.
Seeing this work for the first time, any viewer admires its colossal scale: on canvas, with an area of more than thirty square meters, the artist tells the story of many lives united by disaster. It seems that not the city is depicted on the plane of the canvas, but the whole world surviving death.
HISTORY OF THE PICTURE
In the autumn of 1833, the painting appeared at an exhibition in Milan and caused an explosion of delight and admiration. An even greater triumph awaited Bryullov at home. Exhibited in the Hermitage and then at the Academy of Arts, the painting became a subject of patriotic pride. She was enthusiastically welcomed by A.S. Pushkin:
Vesuvius zev opened - smoke gushed in a club - flame
Widely developed like a battle banner.
The earth worries - from staggering columns
Idols are falling! A people driven by fear
Crowds, old and young, under inflamed ashes,
Under the stone rain runs out of the hail.
Indeed, the worldwide fame of Bryullov's painting forever destroyed the disparaging attitude towards Russian artists that existed even in Russia itself. In the eyes of contemporaries, the work of Karl Bryullov was proof of the originality of the national artistic genius.
Bryullov was compared with the great Italian masters. Poets dedicated poems to him. He was greeted with applause in the street and in the theater. A year later, the French Academy of Arts awarded the artist a gold medal for the painting after her participation in Paris Salon.
In 1834, the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" was sent to St. Petersburg. Alexander Ivanovich Turgenev said that this picture was the glory of Russia and Italy. E. A. Baratynsky composed a famous aphorism on this occasion: “The last day of Pompeii became the first day for the Russian brush!”.
Nicholas I honored the artist with a personal audience and awarded Charles with a laurel wreath, after which the artist was called "Charlemagne".
Anatoly Demidov presented the painting to Nicholas I, who exhibited it at the Academy of Arts as a guide for beginner painters. After the opening of the Russian Museum in 1895, the canvas moved there, and the general public gained access to it.
Karl Bryullov was so carried away by the tragedy of the city destroyed by Vesuvius that he personally participated in the excavations of Pompeii, and later carefully worked on the painting: instead of three years indicated in the order of the young patron Anatoly Demidov, the artist painted the picture for six whole years.
(About imitation of Raphael, plot parallels with The Bronze Horseman, tours of the work in Europe and fashion for the tragedy of Pompeii among artists.)
The eruption of Vesuvius on August 24-25 in 79 AD was the largest cataclysm of the Ancient World. On that last day, several coastal cities lost about 5,000 people.
This story is especially well known to us from the painting by Karl Bryullov, which can be seen in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
In 1834, the "presentation" of the painting took place in St. Petersburg. The poet Yevgeny Boratynsky wrote the lines: "The last day of Pompeii became the first day for the Russian brush!" The picture struck Pushkin and Gogol. Gogol captured in his inspirational article on the painting the secret of its popularity:
"His works are the first that can be understood (although not equally) by an artist who has a higher development of taste, and who does not know what art is."
Indeed, a work of genius is understandable to everyone, and at the same time, a more developed person will discover in it still other planes of a different level.
Pushkin wrote poetry and even sketched a part of the painting's composition in the margins.
Vesuvius zev opened - smoke gushed in a club - flame
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 (III, 332).
This brief retelling paintings, multi-figured and complex compositionally. Not a small piece at all. In those days it was even the most big picture, which already amazed contemporaries: the scale of the picture, correlated with the scale of the disaster.
Our memory cannot absorb everything, its possibilities are not unlimited. Such a picture can be viewed more than once and every time you see something else.
What did Pushkin single out and remember? The researcher of his work, Yuri Lotman, identified three main thoughts: "the uprising of the elements - the statues are set in motion - the people (people) as a victim of a disaster". And he made a very reasonable conclusion:
Pushkin has just finished his " Bronze Horseman and saw what was close to him at that moment.
Indeed, a similar plot: the element (flood) is raging, the monument comes to life, frightened Eugene runs from the elements and the monument.
Lotman also writes about the direction of Pushkin's gaze:
"Comparison of the text with Bryullov's canvas reveals that Pushkin's gaze slides diagonally from the upper right corner to the lower left. This corresponds to the main compositional axis of the picture."
The researcher of diagonal compositions, artist and art theorist N. Tarabukin wrote:
Indeed, we are unusually captivated by what is happening. Bryullov managed to make the viewer involved in the events as much as possible. There is a presence effect.
Karl Bryullov graduated from the Academy of Arts in 1823 with a gold medal. By tradition, gold medalists went to Italy for an internship. There Bryullov visits the workshop Italian artist and for 4 years copies Raphael's "School of Athens", and all 50 figures are life-size. At this time, Bryullov is visited by the writer Stendhal.
There is no doubt that Bryullov learned a lot from Raphael - the ability to organize a large canvas.
Bryullov got to Pompeii in 1827 together with the countess Maria Grigorievna Razumovskaya. She became the first customer of the painting. However, the rights to the paintings are bought by a sixteen-year-old Anatoly Nikolaevich Demidov, owner of the Ural mining plants, rich man and philanthropist. He had a net annual income of two million rubles.
Nikolai Demidov, father, recently deceased, was a Russian envoy and sponsored excavations in Florence in the Forum and the Capitol. Demidov will later present the painting to Nicholas the First, who will donate it to the Academy of Arts, from where it will go to the Russian Museum.
Demidov signed a contract with Bryullov for a fixed period and tried to fit the artist, but he conceived grand design and in total The painting took 6 years to complete. Bryullov makes many sketches and collects material.
Bryullov was so carried away that he himself participated in the excavations. It must be said that the excavations began formally on October 22, 1738 by decree of the Neapolitan king Charles III, they were carried out by an engineer from Andalusia, Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre, with 12 workers (and this was the first archeological systematic excavation in history when detailed records were made of everything that was found, before that there were mainly pirate methods when precious objects were snatched out, and the rest could be barbarously destroyed).
By the time Bryullov appeared, Herculaneum and Pompeii had already become not only a place of excavations, but also a place of pilgrimage for tourists. In addition, Bryullov was inspired by Paccini's opera The Last Day of Pompeii, which he saw in Italy. It is known that he dressed sitters in costumes for the play. (Gogol, by the way, compared the picture with an opera, apparently felt the "theatricality" of the mise-en-scene. She definitely lacks musical accompaniment in the spirit of "Carmina Burana".)
So, after a long work with sketches, Bryullov painted a picture and already in Italy it aroused tremendous interest. Demidov decided to take her to Paris to the Salon, where she also received a gold medal. In addition, she exhibited in Milan and London. The writer saw the painting in London Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who later wrote his novel The Last Days of Pompeii under the impression of the canvas.
It is interesting to compare the two moments of the interpretation of the plot. With Bryullov, we clearly see all the action, somewhere nearby there is fire and smoke, but in the foreground there is a clear image of the characters. When panic and mass exodus had already begun, the city was in a fair amount of smoke from the ashes. The artist's rockfall is depicted as a small Petersburg rain and pebbles scattered along the sidewalk. People are more likely to run from the fire. In fact, the city was already shrouded in smog, it was impossible to breathe...
In Bulwer-Lytton's novel, the heroes, a couple in love, are saved by a slave, blind from birth. Since she is blind, she easily finds her way in the dark. Heroes are saved and accept Christianity.
Were there Christians in Pompeii? At that time they were persecuted and it is not known whether the new faith reached the provincial resort. However, Bryullov also contrasts the Christian faith with the pagan faith and the death of the pagans. In the left corner of the picture we see a group of an old man with a cross around his neck and women under his protection. The old man turned his gaze to heaven, to his God, perhaps he would save him.
By the way, Bryullov copied some of the figures from the figures from the excavations. By that time, they began to fill the voids with plaster and got quite real figures of the dead inhabitants.
Classicist teachers scolded Charles for deviating from the canons classical painting. Karl tossed between the classics absorbed at the Academy with its ideally sublime principles and the new aesthetics of romanticism.
If you look at the picture, you can distinguish several groups and individual characters, each with its own history. Something was inspired by excavations, something by historical facts.
The artist himself is present in the picture, his self-portrait is recognizable, here he is young, he is about 30 years old, on his head he takes out the most necessary and expensive - a box of paints. This is a tribute to the tradition of Renaissance artists to paint their self-portrait in a painting.
The girl next to her carries a lamp.
The son who carries his father on himself is reminiscent of the classic story about Aeneas who carried his father out of the burning Troy.
With one piece of cloth, the artist unites a family fleeing disaster into a group. During the excavations, couples who embraced before death, children together with their parents, are especially touching.
The two figures, the son persuading his mother to get up and run on, are taken from the letters of Pliny the Younger.
Pliny the Younger turned out to be an eyewitness who left written evidence of the death of cities. There are two letters written by him to the historian Tacitus, in which he talks about the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder, a famous naturalist, and his own misadventures.
Gaius Pliny was only 17 years old, at the time of the disaster he was studying the history of Titus Livius in order to write an essay, and therefore refused to go with his uncle to watch the volcanic eruption. Pliny the Elder was then an admiral of the local fleet, a position that he received for his scientific merits was an easy one. Curiosity killed him, in addition, a certain Rektsina sent him a letter asking for help. The only way to escape from her villa was by sea. Pliny sailed past Herculaneum, people on the shore at that moment could still be saved, but he strove to see the eruption in all its glory as soon as possible. Then the ships in the smoke with difficulty found their way to Stabia, where Pliny spent the night, but the next day he died, inhaling the sulfur-poisoned air.
Guy Pliny, who remained in Mizena, 30 kilometers from Pompeii, was forced to flee, as the disaster reached him and his mother.
Painting by a Swiss artist Angelica Kaufmann just shows this moment. A Spanish friend persuades Guy and his mother to run away, but they hesitate, thinking to wait for their uncle to return. The mother in the picture is not at all weak, but quite young.
They run, the mother asks her to leave and escape alone, but Guy helps her go on. Fortunately, they are saved.
Pliny described the horror of the disaster and described the type of eruption, after which it began to be called "Plinian". He saw the eruption from afar:
“The cloud (those who looked from afar could not determine which mountain it arose over; that it was Vesuvius, they recognized later), in its form most of all resembled a pine tree: it was as if a tall trunk rose up and from it branches seemed to diverge in all directions. I think that it was thrown out by a current of air, but then the current weakened and the cloud from its own gravity began to diverge in width; in places it was bright white, in places in dirty spots, as if from earth and ash raised upward.
The inhabitants of Pompeii had already experienced a volcanic eruption 15 years before, but did not draw conclusions. Blame - seductive sea coast and fertile land. Every gardener knows how well a crop grows on ashes. Mankind still believes in "maybe it will carry over."
Vesuvius and after that woke up more than once, almost once every 20 years. Many drawings of eruptions from different centuries have been preserved.
The last one, in 1944, was quite large-scale, at that time the American army was in Naples, the soldiers helped during the disaster. It is not known when and what will be the next.
On the Italian website, the zones of possible victims during the eruption are marked and it is easy to see that the wind rose is taken into account.
It was this that especially affected the death of cities, the wind carried a suspension of ejected particles towards the southeast, just to the cities of Herculaneum, Pompeii, Stabia and several other small villas and villages. During the day they were under a multi-meter layer of ash, but before that, many people died from a rockfall, burned alive, died of suffocation. A slight shaking did not suggest an approaching catastrophe, even when stones were already falling from the sky, many preferred to pray to the gods and hide in houses, where they were then walled up alive with a layer of ash.
Gaius Pliny, who survived all this in a light version in Mezima, describes what happened:
“It’s already the first hour of the day, and the light is wrong, as if sick. The houses around are shaking; it’s very scary in the open narrow area; they’re about to collapse. to our own; with fright it seems reasonable; we are crushed and pushed in this crowd of departing. Having gone out of the city, we stop. How amazing and how much terrible we have experienced! The wagons that were ordered to accompany us were thrown into the different sides; despite the stones placed, they could not stand in the same place. We have seen the sea recede; the earth, shaking, seemed to push him away. The coast was clearly moving forward; many marine animals stuck in dry sand. On the other hand, a terrible black cloud that broke through different places running fiery zigzags; it opened up in wide flaming stripes, similar to lightning, but large.
The agony of those whose brains exploded from the heat, their lungs turned into cement, and their teeth and bones decayed, we cannot even imagine.
August 15th, 2011 , 04:39 pm
1833 Oil on canvas. 456.5 x 651cm
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Bryullov's painting can be called complete, universal
creation. It contained everything.
Nikolay Gogol.
On the night of August 24-25, 79 AD. e. Vesuvius eruption The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabia were destroyed. In 1833 Karl Bryullov wrote his famous painting "The last day of Pompeii".
It is difficult to name a picture that would have enjoyed the same success with contemporaries as The Last Day of Pompeii. As soon as the canvas was completed, the Roman workshop of Karl Bryullov was subjected to a real siege. "INall Rome flocked to see my picture", - wrote the artist. Exhibited in 1833 in Milan"Pompeii" literally shocked the audience. Laudatory reviews were full of newspapers and magazines,Bryullov was called the revived Titian, the second Michelangelo, the new Raphael...
In honor of the Russian artist, dinners and receptions were arranged, poems were dedicated to him. As soon as Bryullov appeared in the theater, the hall exploded with applause. The painter was recognized on the streets, showered with flowers, and sometimes the honors ended with the fact that fans with songs carried him in their arms.
In 1834 a painting, optionalcustomer, industrialist A.N. Demidov, was exhibited at the Paris Salon. The reaction of the public here was not as hot as in Italy (envy! - the Russians explained), but "Pompeii" was awarded the gold medal of the French Academy of Fine Arts.
It is hard to imagine the enthusiasm and patriotic upsurge with which the picture was received in St. Petersburg: thanks to Bryullov, Russian painting ceased to be a diligent student of the great Italians and created a work that delighted Europe!The painting was donated Demidov Nicholas I , who briefly placed it in the Imperial Hermitage, and then presented it academies arts.
According to the memoirs of a contemporary, "crowds of visitors, one might say, burst into the halls of the Academy to look at Pompeii." They talked about the masterpiece in salons, shared opinions in private correspondence took notes in diaries. The honorary nickname "Charlemagne" was established for Bryullov.
Impressed by the picture, Pushkin wrote a six-line:
“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.
Gogol devoted a remarkably profound article to The Last Day of Pompeii, and the poet Yevgeny Baratynsky expressed the general jubilation in a well-known impromptu:
«
You brought peaceful trophies
With you in the paternal shadow,
And became "The Last Day of Pompeii"
For the Russian brush, the first day!
Immoderate enthusiasm has long subsided, but even today Bryullov's painting makes a strong impression, going beyond the limits of those sensations that painting, even very good, usually evokes in us. What's the matter here?
"Street of the Tombs" In the background is the Herculaneus Gate.
Photo of the second half of the 19th century.
Since excavations began in Pompeii in the mid-18th century, interest in this city, which was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, has been on the rise. e., did not fade away. Europeans flocked to Pompeii to wander through the ruins freed from the layer of petrified volcanic ash, admire the frescoes, sculptures, mosaics, marvel at the unexpected finds of archaeologists. The excavations attracted artists and architects, etchings with views of Pompeii were in great vogue.
Bryullov , who first visited the excavations in 1827, very accurately conveyedfeeling of empathy for the events of two thousand years ago, which covers anyone who comes to Pompeii:“The sight of these ruins involuntarily made me transport myself to a time when these walls were still inhabited /…/. You can’t go through these ruins without feeling some completely new feeling in yourself, making you forget everything, except for the terrible incident with this city.
To express this "new feeling", to create a new image of antiquity - not an abstract museum, but a holistic and full-blooded one, the artist strove in his picture. He got used to the era with the meticulousness and care of an archaeologist: out of more than five years, it took only 11 months to create the canvas itself with an area of 30 square meters, the rest of the time was taken up by preparatory work.
“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,” Bryullov shared in one of his letters.Pompeii had eight gates, butfurther the artist mentioned “the stairs leading to Sepolcri Sc au ro "- the monumental tomb of the eminent citizen Skavr, and this gives us the opportunity to accurately establish the scene chosen by Bryullov. It's about the Herculanean Gates of Pompeii ( Porto di Ercolano ), behind which, already outside the city, began the "Street of Tombs" ( Via dei Sepolcri) - a cemetery with magnificent tombs and temples. This part of Pompeii was in the 1820s. already well cleared, which allowed the painter to reconstruct architecture on canvas with maximum accuracy.
Tomb of Skaurus. Reconstruction of the 19th century
Recreating the picture of the eruption, Bryullov followed the famous messages of Pliny the Younger to Tacitus. The young Pliny survived the eruption in the seaport of Miseno, north of Pompeii, and described in detail what he saw: houses that seemed to have moved from their places, flames spread widely along the cone of the volcano, hot pumice stones falling from the sky, heavy rain of ash, black impenetrable darkness , fiery zigzags, similar to giant lightning ... And all this Bryullov transferred to the canvas.
Seismologists are amazed at how convincingly he portrayed the earthquake: looking at collapsing houses, you can determine the direction and strength of the earthquake (8 points). Volcanologists note that the eruption of Vesuvius was written with all possible accuracy for that time. Historians argue that Bryullov's painting can be used to study ancient Roman culture.
In order to reliably capture the world of ancient Pompeii destroyed by the catastrophe, Bryullov took objects and remains of bodies found during excavations as samples, made countless sketches in the archaeological museum of Naples. The way to restore the death poses of the dead by pouring lime into the voids formed from the bodies was invented only in 1870, but even during the creation of the picture, the skeletons found in the petrified ashes testified to the last convulsions and gestures of the victims. Mother hugging two daughters; a young woman who was crushed to death when she fell from a chariot that ran into a cobblestone, turned out of the pavement by an earthquake; people on the steps of the tomb of Skaurus, protecting their heads from rockfall with stools and dishes - all this is not a figment of the painter's fantasy, but an artistically recreated reality.
On the canvas, we see characters endowed with portrait features of the author himself and his beloved, Countess Yulia Samoilova. Bryullov portrayed himself as an artist carrying a box of brushes and paints on his head. The beautiful features of Julia are recognized four times in the picture: a girl with a vessel on her head, a mother hugging her daughters, a woman clutching a baby to her chest, a noble Pompeian who fell from a broken chariot. A self-portrait and portraits of a girlfriend are the best evidence that in his penetration into the past, Bryullov really became related to the event, creating a “presence effect” for the viewer, making him, as it were, a participant in what is happening.
Fragment of the picture:
Bryullov's self-portraitand a portrait of Yulia Samoilova.
Fragment of the picture:
compositional "triangle" - a mother hugging her daughters.
Bryullov's painting pleased everyone - both strict academicians, zealots of the aesthetics of classicism, and those who valued novelty in art and for whom "Pompeii" became, according to Gogol, "a bright resurrection of painting."This novelty was brought to Europe by a fresh wind of romanticism. The dignity of Bryullov's painting is usually seen in the fact that the brilliant pupil of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts was open to new trends. At the same time, the classicist layer of the painting is often interpreted as a relic, an inevitable tribute to the artist's routine past. But it seems that another turn of the theme is also possible: the fusion of two “isms” turned out to be fruitful for the picture.
The unequal, fatal struggle of man with the elements - such is the romantic pathos of the picture. It is built on sharp contrasts of darkness and the disastrous light of the eruption, inhuman power soulless nature and high intensity of human feelings.
But there is something else in the picture that opposes the chaos of the catastrophe: an unshakable core in a world shaking to its foundations. This core is the classical balance of the most complex composition, which saves the picture from the tragic sense of hopelessness. The composition, built according to the "recipes" of academicians - the "triangles" ridiculed by subsequent generations of painters, into which groups of people fit, balanced masses on the right and left - is read in the lively tense context of the picture in a completely different way than in dry and deathly academic canvases.
Fragment of the picture: a young family.
In the foreground is a pavement damaged by an earthquake.
Fragment of the painting: dead Pompeian.
“The world is still harmonious in its foundations” - this feeling arises in the viewer subconsciously, partly contrary to what he sees on the canvas. The hopeful message of the artist is read not at the level of the plot of the picture, but at the level of its plastic solution.The violent romantic element is subdued by the classically perfect form, And in this unity of opposites lies another secret of the attractiveness of Bryullov's canvas.
The film tells a lot of exciting and touching stories. Here is a young man in despair peering into the face of a girl in a wedding crown, who has lost consciousness or died. Here is a young man trying to convince an exhausted old woman of something. This couple is called “Pliny with his mother” (although, as we remember, Pliny the Younger was not in Pompeii, but in Miseno): in a letter to Tacitus, Pliny conveys his argument with his mother, who urged her son to leave her and, without delay, run away, and he did not agree to leave the weak woman. A helmeted warrior and a boy are carrying a sick old man; a baby, miraculously surviving a fall from a chariot, embraces a dead mother; the young man raised his hand, as if to divert the blow of the elements from his family, the baby in the arms of his wife, with childish curiosity, reaches for the dead bird. People try to take away the most precious things with them: a pagan priest - a tripod, a Christian - a censer, an artist - brushes. The dead woman was carrying jewelry, which, useless, is now lying on the pavement.
Fragment of the painting: Pliny with his mother.
Fragment of the picture: earthquake - "idols fall."
Such a powerful plot load on the picture can be dangerous for painting, making the canvas a "story in pictures", but Bryullov's literary character and abundance of details do not destroy the artistic integrity of the picture. Why? We find the answer in the same article by Gogol, who compares Bryullov’s painting “in terms of its vastness and the combination of all that is beautiful in itself with opera, if only opera is really a combination of the triple world of arts: painting, poetry, music” (by poetry, Gogol obviously meant literature at all).
This feature of "Pompeii" can be described in one word - synthetic: the picture organically combines a dramatic plot, vivid entertainment and thematic polyphony, similar to music. (By the way, the theatrical basis of the painting had a real prototype - Giovanni Paccini's opera The Last Day of Pompeii, which during the years of the artist's work on the canvas was staged at the Neapolitan theater of San Carlo. Bryullov was well acquainted with the composer, listened to the opera several times and borrowed costumes for his sitters.)
William Turner. Vesuvius eruption. 1817
So, the picture resembles the final scene of a monumental opera performance: the most expressive scenery is reserved for the finale, all storylines are connected, and musical themes are intertwined into a complex polyphonic whole. This picture-performance is similar to ancient tragedies, in which the contemplation of the nobility and courage of the heroes in the face of inexorable fate leads the viewer to catharsis - spiritual and moral enlightenment. The feeling of empathy that grips us in front of a picture is akin to what we experience in the theater, when what is happening on the stage touches us to tears, and these tears are heart-pleasing.
Gavin Hamilton. Neapolitans watch the eruption of Vesuvius.
Second floor. 18th century
Bryullov's painting is breathtakingly beautiful: a huge size - four and a half by six and a half meters, amazing "special effects", divinely built people, like living antique statues. “His figures are beautiful despite the horror of his position. They drown it out with their beauty,” Gogol wrote, sensitively capturing another feature of the picture - the aestheticization of the catastrophe. The tragedy of the death of Pompeii and, more broadly, of the entire ancient civilization is presented to us as an incredibly beautiful sight. What are these contrasts of a black cloud pressing on the city, a shining flame on the slopes of a volcano and ruthlessly bright flashes of lightning, these statues captured at the very moment of falling and buildings collapsing like cardboard…
The perception of the eruptions of Vesuvius as grandiose performances staged by nature itself appeared already in the 18th century - even special machines were created to imitate the eruption. This "volcano fashion" was introduced by the British envoy to the Kingdom of Naples, Lord William Hamilton (husband of the legendary Emma, Admiral Nelson's girlfriend). A passionate volcanologist, he was literally in love with Vesuvius and even built a villa on the slope of the volcano to comfortably admire the eruptions. Observations of the volcano when it was active (several eruptions occurred in the 18-19 centuries), verbal descriptions and sketches of its changing beauties, climbing to the crater - these were the entertainments of the Neapolitan elite and visitors.
It is human nature to follow with bated breath the disastrous and beautiful games of nature, even if for this you have to balance at the mouth of an active volcano. This is the same “rapture in battle and the gloomy abyss on the edge”, which Pushkin wrote about in “Little Tragedies”, and which Bryullov conveyed in his canvas, which for almost two centuries has made us admire and be horrified.
Modern Pompeii
Marina Agranovskaya
