Karl Bryullov lived in Italy for more than four years before reaching Pompeii in 1827. At that time, he was looking for a subject for a large picture on a historical theme. What he saw amazed the artist. It took him six years to collect material and write an epic canvas with an area of almost 30 m2.
In the picture, people of different sex and age, occupation and faith, caught in a catastrophe, are rushing about. However, in the motley crowd you can see four identical faces...
In the same 1827, Bryullov met the woman of his life - Countess Yulia Samoilova. After parting ways with her husband, a young aristocrat, a former lady-in-waiting who loved a bohemian lifestyle, moved to Italy, where morals are freer. Both the countess and the artist had a reputation for heartthrobs. Their relationship remained free, but long, and friendship continued until Bryullov's death. “Nothing was done according to the rules between me and Karl”, - Samoilova subsequently wrote to his brother Alexander.
Julia, with her Mediterranean appearance (there were rumors that the woman's father was the Italian Count Litta, her mother's stepfather) was an ideal for Bryullov, moreover, as if created for an ancient plot. The artist painted several portraits of the countess and "gave" her face to the four heroines of the painting, which became his most famous creation. In The Last Day of Pompeii, Bryullov wanted to show the beauty of a person even in a desperate situation, and Yulia Samoilova was for him a perfect example of this beauty in the real world.
1 Julia Samoilova. The researcher Erich Hollerbach noted that the heroines of The Last Day of Pompeii, similar to each other, despite social differences, look like representatives of one large family, as if the disaster brought all the townspeople closer and equalized.
2 Street. “I took this scenery from nature, without retreating at all and without adding, standing with my back to the city gates in order to see part of Vesuvius as the main reason”, - Bryullov explained in a letter to his brother the choice of scene. This is already a suburb, the so-called Road of the Tombs, leading from the Herculaneum gates of Pompeii to Naples. Here were the tombs of noble citizens and temples. The artist sketched the location of the buildings during the excavations.
3 Woman with daughters. According to Bryullov, he saw one female and two children's skeletons, covered in these positions with volcanic ash, at excavations. The artist could associate a mother with two daughters with Yulia Samoilova, who, having no children of her own, took up two girls, relatives of friends, to raise. By the way, the father of the youngest of them, the composer Giovanni Pacini, wrote the opera The Last Day of Pompeii in 1825, and the fashionable production became one of the sources of inspiration for Bryullov.
4 Christian priest. In the first century of Christianity, a minister of the new faith could have been in Pompeii; in the picture he is easily recognizable by the cross, liturgical utensils - a censer and a chalice - and a scroll with a sacred text. The wearing of pectoral and pectoral crosses in the 1st century has not been confirmed archaeologically.
5 Pagan Priest. The status of the character is indicated by cult objects in his hands and a headband - infula. Bryullov's contemporaries reproached him for not bringing to the fore the opposition of Christianity to paganism, but the artist did not have such a goal.
8 Artist. Judging by the number of frescoes on the walls of Pompeii, the profession of a painter was in demand in the city. As an ancient painter, running next to a girl with the appearance of Countess Julia, Bryullov portrayed himself - this was often done by Renaissance masters, whose work he studied in Italy.
9 The woman who fell from the chariot. According to art historian Galina Leontyeva, the pompeian lying on the pavement symbolizes the death of the ancient world, for which the artists of classicism yearned.
10 items that fell out of the box, as well as other objects and decorations in the picture, were copied by Bryullov from bronze and silver mirrors found by archaeologists, keys, lamps filled with olive oil, vases, bracelets and necklaces that belonged to the inhabitants of Pompeii of the 1st century AD. e.
11 Warrior and Boy. As conceived by the artist, these are two brothers rescuing a sick old father.
12 Pliny the Younger. The ancient Roman prose writer, who witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius, described it in detail in two letters to the historian Tacitus.
13 Mother of Pliny the Younger. Bryullov placed the scene with Pliny on the canvas “as an example of childish and maternal love,” despite the fact that the disaster caught the writer and his family in another city - Misena (about 25 km from Vesuvius and about 30 km from Pompeii). Pliny recalled how he and his mother got out of Mizenum at the height of the earthquake, and a cloud of volcanic ash was approaching the city. It was difficult for an elderly woman to escape, and she, not wanting to cause the death of her 18-year-old son, persuaded her to leave her. “I answered that I would be saved only with her; I take her by the arm and make her take a step”, said Pliny. Both survived.
14 Goldfinch. During a volcanic eruption, birds died on the fly.
15 Newlyweds. According to the ancient Roman tradition, the heads of the newlyweds were decorated with wreaths of flowers. Flammey fell from the girl's head - the traditional cover of the ancient Roman bride from a thin yellow-orange fabric.
16 Tomb of Skaurus. Building from the Road of the Tombs, the resting place of Aulus Umbritius Scaurus the Younger. The tombs of the ancient Romans were usually built outside the city on both sides of the road. Scaurus the Younger during his lifetime held the position of duumvir, that is, he was at the head of the city government, and for his merits he was even awarded a monument in the forum. This citizen was the son of a wealthy trader in garum fish sauce (Pompeii was famous for it throughout the empire).
17 Demolition of buildings. Seismologists, by the nature of the destruction of the buildings depicted in the picture, determined the intensity of the earthquake "according to Bryullov" - eight points.
18 Vesuvius. The eruption that occurred on August 24-25, 79 AD. e., destroyed several cities of the Roman Empire, located at the foot of the volcano. Of the 20-30 thousand inhabitants of Pompeii, about two thousand did not escape, judging by the remains found.
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PAINTER
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In Italy, the great painter Bryullov painted a grandiose canvas - “The Last Day of Pompeii”. Description of the picture will be presented in our article. Contemporaries gave the work the most enthusiastic reviews, and the artist himself began to be called the Great Charles.
A little about K. I. Bryullov
The painter was born in 1799 into a family that, starting from his great-grandfather, was associated with art. After graduating from the Academy of Arts with a gold medal, he, along with his brother Alexander, a gifted architect, went to Rome. In the Eternal City, he works fruitfully, paints portraits and paintings that delight the public, critics and crowned persons. For six years, Karl Bryullov worked on the monumental dense. “The Last Day of Pompeii” (the description of the painting and its perception by Italians can be expressed in one word - triumph) has become a masterpiece for the inhabitants of the country. They believed that the artist's canvas evokes thoughts about the heroic past of their homeland at a time when the whole country is engulfed in the struggle for freedom.
Historical facts
The description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” must begin with an interesting fact: the master visited the excavations under Vesuvius in 1827. This sight simply stunned him. It was evident that life was interrupted in the city suddenly.
The ruts on the pavement were fresh, the colors of the inscriptions were bright, which announced the rental of premises and the upcoming entertainment. In taverns, where only sellers were missing, there were traces of goblets and bowls on the tables.
Beginning of work
We begin the description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” with a story about the artist’s many years of preparatory work, which went on for three years. First, a compositional sketch was made based on a fresh impression.
After that, the artist began to study historical documents. The artist found the information he needed in the letters of a witness to this natural disaster and the famous Roman historian Tacitus. They describe a day covered in mist, crowds of rushing people who do not know where to run, screams, groans ... Someone mourned their inevitable death, others mourned the death of loved ones. Above the rushing figures is a dark sky with zigzags of lightning. In addition, the artist created more and more new sketches, painted various groups of people, changed the composition. This is the preliminary description of Bryullov's painting "The Last Day of Pompeii". The place where the action takes place was immediately clear to him - the intersection of the Street of the Tombs. As soon as Bryullov imagined a rolling, heartbreaking thunderclap, he vividly imagined how all people froze ... A new feeling was added to their fear - the inevitability of tragedy. This was reflected in the last composition of the artist and is a description of Bryullov's painting "The Last Day of Pompeii". Materials of archaeological excavations gave the artist household items for his canvas. The voids that formed in the lava preserved the contours of some bodies: here a woman fell from a chariot, here are daughters and a mother, here are young spouses. From Pliny, the artist borrowed the image of a mother and a young man.
selfless work
For three years, work was carried out on a huge canvas. Raphael had a huge influence on the compositional and plastic solution, on the characteristics and description of Bryullov's painting "The Last Day of Pompeii". The artist previously studied with him, copying the frescoes "Fire in Borgo" and "The School of Athens", where about forty characters act. How many heroes are depicted on Bryullov's multi-figured canvas? It was very important in the work on the picture to introduce his contemporaries into it, bringing together distant eras. This is how the portrait of the athlete Marini appeared on the canvas - the figure of the father in the family group.
Under the artist's brush, the image of his favorite model appears either in the form of a girl, or in the form of a mother. Yu. Samoilova was the embodiment of his ideal, which was blazing with the power and passion of beauty. Her image filled the artist's imagination, and all the women on his canvas acquired features that the master loved.
The composition of the picture: a combination of romanticism and classicism
Romanticism and classicism are boldly combined on the canvas by Bryullov (“The Last Day of Pompeii”). The description of the painting can be briefly described in such a way that in the composition the master did not seek to enclose everything in classic triangles. In addition, listening to the voice of romanticism, he depicted a massive folk scene, violating the classical principle of bas-relief. The action develops, going deep into the canvas: a man fell from the chariot, who was carried away by frightened horses. The viewer's gaze involuntarily rushes after him into the abyss, into the cycle of events.
But the painter did not leave all the passionless ideas of classicism. His characters are beautiful externally and internally. The horror of their situation is drowned out by the ideal beauty of the characters. This softens the tragedy of their condition for the viewer. In addition, the composition uses a contrast between panic and calmness.
Action composition
In a canvas filled with movement, the rhythm of hand gestures and body movements is very important. Hands protect, protect, hug, with anger stretch to the sky and fall helplessly. Like sculptures, their forms are voluminous. I want to walk around them to take a closer look. The outline clearly encloses each figure. This classic technique was not rejected by the romantics.
The color of the canvas
Tragically gloomy is the day of the catastrophe. Darkness, completely impenetrable, hung over the people in distress. These black puffs of smoke and ash are pierced by sharp, bright lightning. The horizon is filled with the blood-red light of a fire. Its reflections fall on falling buildings and columns, on people - men, women, children - giving even more tragedy to the situation and showing the inevitable threat of death. Bryullov strives for natural lighting, violating the requirements of classicism. He subtly captures the reflexes of light and combines them with distinct chiaroscuro.
Characters of the canvas characters
The description and analysis of Bryullov's painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" will be incomplete if you do not consider all the people acting in the picture. For them, the day of the Last Judgment has come: stone monumental buildings are crumbling, like paper, from tremors. There is a roar all around, cries for help, prayers to the gods who abandoned the unfortunate. The essence of the human soul is completely naked in the face of death. All groups, which are essentially a portrait, face the viewer.
Right side
Among the nobility there are base faces: a greedy thief who carries jewelry in the hope that he will survive. A pagan priest who runs away and tries to save himself, forgetting that he must pray to the gods for mercy. Fear and confusion in the composition of the family covered with a veil... Such is the description of Bryullov's painting "The Last Day of Pompeii". The photo of the masterpiece in the article shows in detail how the young father raises his hand to the sky in prayer.
The children hugging their mother knelt down. They are motionless and just waiting for a terrible inevitable fate. They have no one to help. A Christian with a bare chest and a cross on it believes in a future resurrection.
Only one figure is calm - the artist.
His task is to rise above the fear of death and capture the tragedy forever. Bryullov, introducing his portrait into the picture, shows the master as a witness to the drama that has played out.
Center and left side of the canvas
In the center is a young mother who has broken down tightly, who is hugged by a child who does not understand anything. This is a very tragic episode. The deceased symbolizes the death of the ancient world.
Self-sacrificing sons carry a powerless old father. They are filled with love for him and do not think at all about their own salvation.
The young man persuades the exhausted mother to get up and go to save herself. Together it is difficult, but nobility does not allow a young young man to leave an old woman.
The young guy peers into the face of the tender bride, who has completely lost her strength of mind from the roar standing around, the sight of death, the fiery glow that promises them death.
He does not leave his beloved, although death can overtake them at any moment.
The key picture in the history of art was destined to become the masterpiece "The Last Day of Pompeii" by K. Bryullov. He caught the spirit of the time and created a canvas about those who know how to sacrifice everything for the sake of their loved ones. About ordinary people, whose moral concepts are immeasurably high during severe trials. The spectacle of how courageously they endure the heavy burden that has fallen to their lot should serve as an example of how true love for a person operates in any era and in any place.
After the demonstration of the painting, Nicholas I awarded Bryullov with a laurel wreath,
after which the artist was called "Charlemagne"
Fragment of the painting by Karl Bryullov (1799-1852) "The Last Day of Pompeii" (1830-1833)
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 picture: instead of the three years indicated in the order of the young philanthropist Anatoly Demidov, the artist painted the picture for six whole years. About the imitation of Raphael, plot parallels with The Bronze Horseman, tours of the work in Europe and the fashion for the tragedy of Pompeii among artists.
Before you start looking at the photos that the son took in Pompeii, it is worth understanding how it was.
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. Even now, for a modern person, the word “death” will immediately associatively require the word “Pompeii”, and the phrase: “Yesterday I just had the death of Pompeii” is understandable and metaphorically indicates the scale of the trouble, even if it broke through the fan pipe and flooded the neighbors.
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. This picture is remembered, a kind of blockbuster, it is clear that at a time when there was no cinema, it made an indelible impression on the audience
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 opened the pharynx - the smoke gushed out in a club - the 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 (III, 332).
This is a brief retelling of the picture, multi-figured and complex in composition, not at all a small canvas, in those days it was even the largest painting, 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 something else can be seen. 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 begin to move - the people (people) as a victim of a disaster." And he made a quite reasonable conclusion: Pushkin had just finished his "The 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: "The content of the picture, built compositionally along this diagonal, is often one or another demonstration procession." And further: "The viewer of the picture in this case takes a place, as it were, among the crowd depicted on the canvas."
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 of an Italian artist and for 4 years copies Raphael's "Athenian School", 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 came to Pompeii in 1827 together with Countess Maria Grigoryevna Razumovskaya. She became the first customer of the painting. However, the rights to the paintings are redeemed by sixteen-year-old Anatoly Nikolaevich Demidov, the owner of the Ural mining plants, a 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 adjust the artist, but he conceived a grandiose idea and in total the work on the painting took 6 years.
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 these were the first archaeological systematic excavations in history, when detailed records were made of everything that was found, before that, there were mainly pirate methods, when precious items 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 sketching, 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. In London, the painting was seen by the writer 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 near the fire and smoke, but in the foreground there is a clear image of the characters. scattered on the pavement. 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.
The picture has been familiar to me since childhood, once, back in art school, we analyzed it for a whole lesson, it was on the example of “The Last Day of Pompeii” that the teacher told about the main painting techniques used by the artist. Indeed, it can serve as a textbook on painting, if you take it apart carefully. The artist uses color and light contrasts, skillfully unites groups of people. Although contemporaries-artists nicknamed it "fried eggs" because of the bright colors, mostly a bright compositional center, we understand that Italy, with its bright natural colors, could not help but influence. Bryullov is considered the founder of the "Italian genre" in Russian painting.
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 Karl for his departure from the canons of 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. His curiosity ruined him, in addition, a certain Rektsina sent him a letter asking for help, it was possible to escape from her villa only 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.
Gaius Pliny, who remained in Mizena, 30 kilometers from Pompeii, was forced to flee, since the disaster reached him and his mother.
The painting by the 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 upwards 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, due to its own gravity, began to diverge in width; in some places it was a bright white color, in other places it was covered with dirty spots, as if from earth and ashes raised up.
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 blow 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.
It was this that particularly 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 is already the first hour of the day, and the light is wrong, as if sick. The houses around are shaking; in an open narrow area it is very scary; this is where they collapse. It was finally decided to leave the city; we are followed by a crowd of people who have lost their heads and prefer someone else's decision to their own; frightened, it seems reasonable; we are crushed and pushed in this crowd of departing. When we leave the city, we stop. How amazing and how terrible we have experienced! The wagons that were ordered to accompany us were thrown in different directions on a completely level ground; 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, which was broken through in different places by running fiery zigzags; it opened up in wide blazing 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.
How the catastrophe happened within one day can be seen in the BBC film, or briefly on this installation:
Or watch the movie "Pompeii", where the view of the city and the large-scale apocalypse are also recreated with the help of computer graphics.
And we'll see what archaeologists have unearthed over the years of excavations ..
The first stage in the creation of this work can be considered 1827. Bryullov's painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" was written for six long years. The artist, who recently arrived in Italy, together with Countess Samoilova, goes to inspect the ancient ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and sees a landscape, which he immediately decides to depict on canvas. Then he makes the first sketches and sketches for the future picture.
For a long time the artist could not decide to move on to work on a large canvas. He changes the composition over and over again, but his own work does not suit him. And finally, in 1830, Bryullov decided to test himself on a large canvas. Three years the artist will bring himself to complete exhaustion, trying to bring the picture to perfection. Sometimes he gets so tired that he is unable to leave the place of work on his own, and he even has to be carried out of his workshop in his arms. An artist who is fanatical about his work forgets about everything mortal, not noticing his health, giving himself everything for the good of his work.
And so, in 1833, Bryullov was finally ready to present the painting The Last Day of Pompeii to the public. The assessments of both critics and ordinary viewers are unambiguous: the picture is a masterpiece.
The European public admires the creator, and after the exhibition in St. Petersburg, the genius of the artist is also recognized by domestic connoisseurs. Pushkin devotes a laudatory verse to the painting, Gogol writes an article about it, even Lermontov mentions the painting in his works. The writer Turgenev also spoke positively about this great masterpiece, expressed theses about the creative unity of Italy and Russia.
On this occasion, the painting was shown to the Italian public in Rome, and was later transferred to an exhibition at the Louvre in Paris. Europeans enthusiastically spoke about such a grandiose plot.
There were a lot of good and flattering reviews, there was also a fly in the ointment that stained the work of the master, that is, criticism, not flattering reviews in the Paris press, well, how could it be without it. It is not clear what exactly these leisurely French journalists did not like? Today one can only build hypotheses and guess. As if not paying attention to all this noisy journalistic writings, the Paris Academy of Arts deservedly awarded Karl Bryullov a commendable gold medal.
The forces of nature terrify the inhabitants of Pompeii, the volcano Vesuvius is rampant, ready to raze everything that is in its path to the ground. Terrible lightning flashes in the sky, an unprecedented hurricane is approaching. 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.
On the left in the picture, in the confusion of what is happening, a group of people accumulated on the steps of the tomb of Skaurus. Interestingly, in the frightened crowd, we can recognize the artist himself, watching the tragedy. Maybe by this the creator wanted to say that the familiar world is close to death? And we people may need to think about how we live, and correctly prioritize.
We also see people who are trying to take out all the essentials from the dying city. Again, Bryullov's painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" shows us the confrontation. On the one hand, these are sons who carry their own father in their arms. Despite the risk, they do not try to save themselves: they would rather die than leave the old man and save themselves separately.
At this time, behind them, young Pliny helps her fallen mother to her feet. We also see parents covering their children with their own bodies. But there is also a man who is not so noble.
Looking closely, you can see a priest in the background trying to take the gold with him. Even before his death, he continues to be guided by a thirst for profit.Three more characters also attract attention - women kneeling in prayer. Realizing that it is impossible to be saved on their own, they hope for God's help. But who exactly are they praying to? Maybe, frightened, they ask for help from all known deities? Nearby we see a Christian priest with a cross around his neck, holding a torch in one hand and a censer in the other, in fright, he turns his gaze to the crumbling statues of pagan gods. And one of the most emotional characters is a young man who holds his dead beloved in his arms. Death is already indifferent to him, he has lost the desire to live, and expects death as a deliverance from suffering.
Seeing this work for the first time, any viewer admires its colossal scale: on a canvas with an area of more than thirty square meters, the artist tells the story of many lives united by a catastrophe. It seems that not a city is depicted on the plane of the canvas, but the whole world, which is experiencing death. The viewer is imbued with the atmosphere, his heart begins to beat faster, every now and then he himself succumbs to panic. But Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” is, at first glance, an ordinary disaster story. Even if well told, this story could not remain in the hearts of fans, could not become the apogee of the era of Russian classicism, without other features.
As already mentioned, the artist had many imitators and even plagiarists. And it is quite possible that in the technical side, one of the "colleagues" could surpass Bryullov. But all such attempts became only fruitless imitation, not of interest, and the work was only suitable for decorating booths. The reason for this is another feature of the picture: looking at it, we recognize our acquaintances, we see how the population of our world behaves in the face of death.
The canvas, bought by patron Demidov, was subsequently donated to Tsar Nicholas I, who ordered it to be hung at the Academy of Arts, demonstrating to novice students what an artist could create.
Now the painting The Last Day of Pompeii is in the city of St. Petersburg, in the Russian Museum. Its size is a considerable size is 465 by 651 centimeters.
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 was Karl Bryullov's painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" that caused such a high appraisal, honoring the creator with the title of the great Russian romantic artist. Italian motifs, the classical themes of the Renaissance are reflected in the work of Bryullov, making the picture the most important canvas of the artist's creative path.
"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 (the discovery of the ruins of Pompeii due to archaeological excavations) and 1835 is marked by many works of painting, music, 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" is a truly monumental work (4.65x6.5 meters).
The picture 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 have 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 is an important concept of a country that fought for freedom from Austrian rule. The interest of a foreign artist in the heroic past of the 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 carries the main idea of Bryullov's painting "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 opened a new era of 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 of the 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 no way to convey the amazing monumentalism of the famous work of 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.
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