Modern problems of science and education. Kim Tonin

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In his article, the author characterizes the methodology for working with concepts at the final stage literary education in high school, isolating two stages of studying concepts in the story of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. The perspective of the analytical and interpretive activity of students is determined. Much attention is paid to text analysis artwork, titles of the story, work with dictionaries. Artistic concepts are considered through the analysis of their associative links. The article presents a comparative analysis of Ivan Bunin's stories "The Mad Artist" and "Christmas" by Vladimir Nabokov. Identification of the content of the associative-semantic field of the content of the concept. The concept of "Christmas" in I. Bunin's story "The Mad Artist" is considered in the context of light symbolism, which acquires a universal meaning in the short story. The article also presents various types of contextual approach to the study literary work(Vladimir Nabokov's story "Christmas", paintings by Perov, Salvador Dali dedicated to the crucifixion).

interpretation

metaphor

context

1. Bolotnova N. S. Cognitive direction in the linguistic study of a literary text / N. S. Bolotnova // Poetic picture of the world: word and concept in lyrics silver age: mater. VII All-Russian. scientific - pract. seminar / ed. prof. N. S. Bolotnova. - Tomsk: Tomsk State. ped. un-t, 2004. - S. 7-19.

2. Bonami T.M. Artistic prose I.A. Bunin (1887–1904) / T.M. Bonami. - Vladimir, 1962. - 120 p.

3. Bunin I.A. Collected works: in 6 volumes. V.4. Works 1914–1931 / Ed.: Yu. Bondarev, O. Mikhailov, V. Rynkevich; Afterword article. and comment. A. Saakyants. - M.: Khudozh.lit., 1988. - 703 p.

4. Zusman VG Dialogue and concept in literature. Literature and music / V. G. Zusman. - Nizhny Novgorod, 2001. - S. 162.

5. Ozhegov S.I., Shvedova N.Yu. Dictionary Russian language: 80,000 words and phraseological expressions / Russian Academy Sciences. Institute of the Russian Language. V.V. Vinogradov. - 4th ed., add. – M.: Azbukovnik. 1999. - 944 p.

6. Tsurkan V.V. Anthology of artistic concepts of Russian literature of the XX century. – M.: Flinta, 2013. – 356 p.

Using the example of studying the story “The Mad Artist” by I. A. Bunin in the eleventh grade, we will reveal the methodology for working with concepts in the framework of school literary education.

The story "The Mad Artist" was written by I.A. Bunin in 1921, in the first year of his stay in France after leaving Russia, the events in which shocked him and caused a sharp and unconditional denial. In the first years of his life away from his homeland, Bunin was in a state of deep depression. This state and disappointments in oneself were facilitated by a severe financial situation family and the events of his personal life (the death of his wife's brother, which he was acutely worried about). It is these moods of pessimism and despair that are reflected in the story "The Mad Artist".

Students are invited to read this work by I.A. Bunin.

The two-hour lesson on the story itself consists of several stages.

Before building students' activities directly related to concepts, it is necessary to introduce them into the artistic world. Bunin's work, focusing on the plot and the psychological world of the protagonist.

First, students find in the text and read out the following portrait characteristics of the nameless artist, commenting on them: “a gentleman in pince-nez, with amazed eyes, in a black velvet beret, from under which greenish curls fell, and in a long dokha of shiny chestnut fur”, “The artist, short in stature, youthfully light in spite of his age, in a beret and a velvet jacket, walked from corner to corner and, dropping pince-nez with the movement of eyebrows, rubbed his white, as if with alabaster hands, his pale, exhausted face.

1. How does the world appear in the story, to which the gentleman “with astonished eyes” returned from his wanderings? How does this world meet the artist?
2. What details of behavior most clearly characterize the state of the hero?
3. How can you title a paragraph that begins with the words "Soon youthful strength took possession of him"?
4. How does the motif of the struggle between darkness and light develop in the story? How can you explain the discrepancy between the idea and the embodiment in the work of the artist - the hero of the story?
5. Do you agree with the following statements: “If the world were to split, then the crack would go through the heart of the poet” (Heinrich Heine); “Life is never beautiful: only its pictures in the purified mirror of art are beautiful” (Arthur Schopenhauer)? Match them with the content of Bunin's story.

Together with the students, we think: what is a person? What is the meaning human life? What is the relationship between the rational and the mystical, the rational and the transcendent in man? What is the life of the spirit? What is time and eternity?

These questions are necessary to immerse students in the depth of a short story, preparing them for thoughtful work with the text of the work.

Then we pay attention to the title of the story, as it sets the vector for revealing the meaning of the concepts with which we will work further. The word "artist" is undoubtedly associated with the theme of creativity, and "insane" - with his state of mind and the world around him. The events described in the story take place even before the revolution in Russia (before and in 1916), so it is difficult to talk about the relationship between the picture of the death and destruction of the world and the events in Russia. Most likely, the story reflects the general moral and philosophical views of Bunin: the ideas of the catastrophic nature of the world and its inevitable death. In this regard, the story "The Mad Artist" is comparable to his more early story"The Gentleman from San Francisco" (1915), which has already been considered in the lessons. Ask students to look for similarities between the works. Benchmarking allows us to reveal that in both stories their hero is not called by name. In the "Mad Artist" - only one name - a certain "Ivan Matveyevich from the police." All other characters (the hotel bellhop, its owner, the shop assistant, the cabbies) are nameless. But Ivan Matveevich in the story is a passive character, and he is only mentioned in the conversation of two nameless characters - the bellhop and the owner of the hotel. We conclude with students that Bunin in this way emphasizes the idea that what happened to his hero can happen or even inevitably happen to any artist, to any artist striving for beauty and harmony. At the moment of creation, the artist, having given himself over to his idea with all his heart, “imagines himself not a slave of life, but its creator.” Reality refutes his idea, since he is powerless before it.

We invite students to reconstruct the plot of the story. An unnamed artist tries to create an "immortal thing" on Christmas Eve. He thinks "write the cave of Bethlehem, write Christmas and fill the whole picture - and this manger, and the baby, and the Madonna, and the lion, and the lamb, reclining nearby ... with such exultation of the angels, with such light that it was truly the birth of a new man ... ". Already in the second sentence of the story we meet with the word "Christmas". Of course, this is the key word of the narrative, an artistic concept, “expressoid” (V.P. Grigoriev, “overtone” (M.M. Bakhtin), “figurative-thematic knot” (A.A. Lipgart). It is the key to understanding the text Pupils look for the word "Christmas" in the text, find its connection with other words.

As noted by V.V. Tsurkan, “... an obligatory stage in the study of an artistic concept is the definition of the dictionary meaning keyword- representative and its interpretations depending on the literary text, individual author's content of the word ". We clarify with students the meaning of the word CHRISTMAS in the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language” by S.I. Ozhegova and N.Yu. Shvedova.

Christmas

1. (capital R). One of the Christian (for the Orthodox - one of the twelve main) holidays in memory of the birth of Jesus Christ (December 25 / January 7). Night service under R. Solemn service on R. On the night before Christmas or around Christmas.
2. Self-birth of Jesus Christ. Great event - r. Christ. * Nativity of the Virgin - one of the twelve main Orthodox holidays in memory of the birth of the Virgin Mary - the mother of Jesus Christ (September 8/21). II gushl. Christmas, -th, -th (to 1 value). R. post. Christmas frosts. R. grandfather (the same as Santa Claus).

We conclude that Bunin's story is about a holiday (1 meaning) and about the birth of a new person whom the artist wants to capture. Next, we try to expand the scope of dictionary meanings.

Consideration of an artistic concept necessarily includes an analysis of its associative links, revealing the content of the associative-semantic field of the concept content and the features of its representation in a work, since in a literary text “the dialogue between the author and the addressee occurs on an associative basis” .

Therefore, we ask the students: “What do you associate the word CHRISTMAS with?”

The associative string might look like this: holiday, Jesus Christ, light, joy, winter, sacrament, Christmas trees, bazaars…

Next, we invite students to find a quote-description of Christmas in the text of Bunin's story. “What a day! God, what a day! Exactly at midnight the Savior is born! Savior of the world! I will sign under the picture “Birth of a New Man!”. These are the words of an artist who suddenly beamed with delight. Pay attention to the abundance of exclamation marks that convey this delight.

Light is an important element of the semantic field associated with the word (concept) CHRISTMAS.

During the lesson, it was already said that in Bunin's story we find ourselves in the complex inner world of an elderly painter, filled with many painful contradictions. With the help of light painting, the author divides the story into two parts. We ask students to highlight them: before and after sunset. Next, we ask the question: “What is the basis of this division?”

Back to the light again. Students note that the entire first part is literally permeated with light, its dominant colors - gold, blue and white - are noble and associated with creativity: "The sun was golden in the east, beyond the misty blue distant forests, beyond the white snowy lowlands"- this is how the story begins, defining the color and light space in the work. The artist himself also strives for the sun: "Take me to the brightest room<…>The rooms were warm, cozy and calm, amber from the sun, softened by hoarfrost on the lower windows.. sunlight he needs to fulfill the covenant of his dead wife: "I have to paint the cave of Bethlehem, paint Christmas and flood the whole picture<…>such a light as to be truly the birth of a new man.". Thus, the meaning of painting a picture is to convey light, symbolizing new life. However, fate is unfavorable to the hero: exhausted by the road, he wakes up at noon. The second part of the story begins - the triumph of twilight. With the advent of the night, the artist begins to torment scary pictures of the past. Students find these descriptions very emotional, so you can ask someone to expressively read them aloud. This is important, since such reading fulfills the task of “understanding”, “final comprehension” of the text as a whole, as a meta-sense. “We went through a thousand different slingshots, did not sleep, did not eat for almost six weeks. And the sea! And crazy jocks! And this incessant fear that, you look, you will fly into the air! Having calmed down a little, the artist again yearns for light: "I need an abyss of light!"- he needs this not only to paint a picture, but also to calm the disturbed wounds. However, candlelight creates an unsettling and tense atmosphere: “The room took on a strange, festive, but also sinister look from this abundance of lights. The windows are blackened. Candles were reflected in the mirror above the sofa, casting a bright golden light on the white, serious face of the artist.. Next, we ask the students: “What color appears in the story that scares the artist?”. Of course, the guys talk about the dangerous black color, and besides, it’s night outside the windows, and the darkness frightens the artist: “Outside the windows blackened a frosty winter night<…>The artist's face became more and more painful.. And yet he overcomes his fear and takes up the brush. Further, we come with the students to the idea that in the process of working on a picture in the mind of the artist, colors associated with God, creativity, the world prevail, and the color-light space of what he represents becomes blue-gold: “The heavens, full of eternal light, shimmering with the azure of Eden and swirling with marvelous, albeit vague clouds, he dreamed<…>maiden of unspeakable beauty<…>, standing on the cloudy clubs, through the blue of the earthly distances, stretched out under it, showed the world<…>baby shining like the sun. However, the artist's subconscious plays a cruel joke with him: instead of "The Birth of a New Man", the painting depicts a terrible scene from hell. We ask students to find in the text of the story a description of this scene and read it expressively. “The wild, black-and-blue sky to the zenith blazed with fires, the bloody flames of smoky, collapsing temples, palaces and dwellings. Racks, scaffolds and gallows with strangles blackened against a fiery background<…>over all this sea of ​​fire and smoke<…>there was a huge cross with a bloody martyr crucified on it".

Next, we ask the students: “Is there a connection between color, light and the inner world of the artist?”. In the course of reflection, the guys come to the conclusion that the color and light in the picture - bloody red, black, fiery - are a kind of "guide" to the soul of the hero: after the death of his wife and child, pain and despair constantly lived in his heart, transforming into such a terrible picture in the subconscious and "escaped" to the outside. We also find confirmation of this in the Bunin researcher T. M. Bonami, who believed that the substitution occurred, since “a breakdown occurs in the artistic consciousness of the hero because there are mysterious connections between art and life, the imagination is fed by reality” . And the reality in which the artist lives is cruel, which is why the picture that has arisen on cardboard is so frightening.

Continuing the conversation, we introduce students to V. Nabokov's story "Christmas". The work is small in volume, so it can be read in the classroom. We check the perception, create a setting for the analysis of the story, ask to restore it plot plan. Next, we ask students: "What unites the stories of Bunin and Nabokov?". They will undoubtedly say that these are the themes of life and death, the motive of remembrance, the mood of the works, the image Christmas. How does he perceive the preparation for this holiday main character? - we ask students. They note that the main Christian holiday, Christmas, finds the hero in a depressed state. It is both joyful and at the same time reminds a person of the coming sufferings of the born Christ. The servant Ivan does not forget to bring the Christmas tree, the traditional symbol of this holiday, but Sleptsov, the main character of the story, asks to remove it, because, although implicitly, he blames the son of God for the death, considering it (death) an injustice. Perhaps the spruce is a bitter reminder of the happy moments spent with his son. On Christmas Eve, Sleptsov thinks about the death of his son, his own ("Tomorrow is Christmas ... And I'll die. Of course. It's so simple. Today ... Death"). And at the moment when it becomes "to the end understandable, to the end naked earthly life - sad to the point of horror, humiliatingly aimless, barren, devoid of miracles ...", Sleptsov watches how a butterfly is born in a biscuit box. "What does this indicate?" - we talk with the guys. It turns out that life is not barren and absolutely not devoid of miracles. Butterfly was not dead, she hatched from the heat. This butterfly is a continuation of the boy's life, his second birth, Christmas. This word is the title of Nabokov's story. And the title of the work, according to V.V. Tsurkan, "not only determines the perception of the text, but also sets the vector for revealing the meaning of the concept" .

So, the concept of Christmas both in Bunin's story and in Nabokov's story is filled with deep psychological content. And its semantics cannot be considered outside the mental states, experiences of the heroes of the works. Speaking about the concept of "Christmas" in the stories of Bunin and Nabokov, at this stage of the lesson we focus on the extra-textual connections of Bunin's story "The Mad Artist", on its inclusion in the communicative act, historical, cultural and social discourses. V.G. wrote about the importance of this stage. Zusman in Dialogue and Concept in Literature.

Continuing the conversation, we are trying to find out from the students if in the second part of the story “The Mad Artist”, especially in its finale, there is one more symbolic image, opposite image CHRISTMAS. This is important, because in working with a separate artistic text, as noted by V.V. Tsurkan, the greatest results are brought by the conjugation of the concept dominant for the work under study with a circle of other concepts closely related to it, determined by the conceptual structure of a particular text and the author's intention, which in turn allows us to identify the features of the author's concept sphere aesthetically reflected in the work.

Therefore, it is necessary, in our opinion, to draw the attention of students to the concept of CRUCIFICATION.

Students find in the text and expressively read aloud a description of what the artist ended up depicting. "... Above the whole picture, above all this sea of ​​​​fire and smoke, majestically, demonically towered a huge cross with a bloodied sufferer crucified on it, widely and obediently spreading his hands along the crossbeams. Death, in armor and a jagged crown, baring his coffin jaw, leaning forward with a run, deeply planted an iron trident under the heart of the crucified. The bottom of the picture showed a disorderly pile of the dead - and a dump, a squabble, a fight of the living, a mixture of naked bodies, hands and faces. And these faces, bristled, fanged, with eyes that rolled out of their sockets, were so vile and rude, so distorted by hatred, malice, the voluptuousness of fratricide, that they could rather be recognized as the faces of cattle, animals, devils, but not human at all..

After reading this description-prophecy, we consider with the students the paintings of Perov “The Crucifixion” and Salvador Dali “Premonition of the Civil War” (1936) and “The Crucifixion or Hypercubic Body” (1954), “The Face of War”. In the center, of course, is the figure of Christ on the cross.

How else can paintings, you can ask the students, help to better imagine the picture conceived by Bunin's hero and embodied by him? What other works of art could you include in an associative context that helps to comprehend Bunin's story?

We ask you to compare their content, composition, mood, palette with the descriptions in I. Bunin's story.

crucifixion

1. See crucify.
2. Cross depicting the crucified Christ. Gilded r.

Then we ask the students to highlight the semantic field for the word CRUCIFICATION. Working with the text of the story, high school students write out "darkness, death, silence, coffin, horror, cross, blood, sufferer, dead face, fear." Students also include the words “war, iron age, cave age” here. They are more connected with the fate of the crucified country, its suffering and death. Reflecting, we come with the students to the conclusion that the Gospel image of the crucified Christ echoes the image of a dying, suffering country. In terms of art, the mad artist wins: in the image crucifixion he succeeds, albeit in addition to own will to express the truth about what is happening in Russia, about its history. Although the author accuses the character of blindness, unforgivable for the artist, the drawing he created expresses, first of all, Bunin's understanding of the events taking place in the country.

Further, it is possible to continue the conversation about the work foreign literature- about the story of Honore de Balzac " Unknown masterpiece", about which Additional information homework is prepared by one of the students in the class. Despite the fact that there is no direct evidence of Bunin's acquaintance with the "Unknown Masterpiece" and the name Balzac is rarely mentioned in studies devoted to the Russian writer, the influence of the story on the analyzed story seems undeniable. For the first time, The Unknown Masterpiece was published in the newspaper L "Artiste" under the name "Maitre Frenhofer" in August 1831, later Balzac included the story in "Philosophical Studies" and "Human Comedy". The heroes of the work are three artists: fictional Frenhofer and historical Porbus and Poussin. In the text, Frenhofer appears as a true genius, "the god of painting," and the painting "La Belle Noiseza", on which he has been working for ten years now, seems to himself, to other heroes and readers, an unsurpassed masterpiece. However, when the artist finally decides to show work to colleagues, it turns out that the canvas is simply spoiled: the ingenious image that once was on it is buried under separate strokes, lines, color spots, devoid of meaning.

We draw conclusions of a methodological nature.

1. Working with concepts is necessarily preceded by the stage of immersion of students in the artistic world of a literary work.
2. In the organization of work with the concept, it is necessary to find the angle of its consideration (in our case, special attention was paid to color and light images).
3. Working with concepts is unthinkable without updating the skills of students' comparative activity, which is based on a contextual approach to the study of a work (we note that in this case it is also possible to go beyond literature as an art form).
4. The method of working with concepts in literature lessons at school can be a method of interpreting concepts adapted to the age characteristics of students, established in philology (in our article, we relied on the study of V. V. Tsurkan).

Bibliographic link

Propadeeva E.N. CONCEPTS CHRISTMAS AND CRUCIFICATION IN THE LESSONS ACCORDING TO I. A. BUNIN'S STORY "MAD ARTIST" // Modern problems of science and education. - 2016. - No. 3.;
URL: http://science-education.ru/ru/article/view?id=24609 (Accessed 03/10/2019). We bring to your attention the journals published by the publishing house "Academy of Natural History"

Kim Tonin(1900–1951) was born in Pyongyang. The work of this writer is one of the most interesting phenomena in Korean literature of the 1920s-1930s. At the beginning of the 20th century, he gained fame as one of the recognized masters of Korean prose. Special place in artistic heritage the writer belongs to short story. In 1919, Kim Tonin created the first purely literary magazine in the history of Korean literature, Creation.

Translation by Inna Tsoi

Mad Artist

Story

Guardian Spirit.

A young pine tree stands on a rock, and moss glistens under the pine tree.

Bending down, I see several orchid bushes under the rock, which bloom with yellow flowers.

Orchid leaves sway from the blows of the wind hitting the rock.

I bent down and poked at the bottom with a stick. However, there was still a meter and a half to the orchids. He shifted his gaze, and there - the gorge.

Gorge. Its entire surface is covered with pine needles. Although in some places you can see the rocks gray color You can't see the ground under the trees. If you fall in this place, you will roll over the pine needles and, probably, fall down somewhere, in some unknown ravine.

And I also have rocks behind me - high, more than six or seven meters. If you climb these rocks, then on the other side of the Muak mountain pass you can see a huge valley. Under my feet is an old rock. Below it are several bushes of orchids, even lower are two or three young pines, behind the pines there is again a rock, on the rock there are bluebell flowers, and below the rock a steep gorge begins.

In the place where the gorge ends, a part of the city's Gyeongsong Street1 can be seen above the pines. From afar you can see how cars drive back and forth along the road. Before my eyes is the same picture of a chaotic and noisy world.

But here, where I now stand, there are deaf mountains. Mountains that fully justify the name "deaf". And the wind, and the caves, and sheer cliffs, and pines - these are all deaf mountains, where you can fully feel the charm of solitude and peace.

Once on the site of this city there was a valley surrounded by dense mountains. For five centuries, the valley was leveled, plowed up and built up, and now here is the city of Gyeongsong. Now you don't know what was on the mind of the founder of the Li dynasty when he decided to build a capital in such a narrow valley. However, in the opinion of today's walker, Seoul is a city of unique beauty in the world. If you think that while living in the city, you can go out for a walk after eating, as they say, without even tying up the ribbons on your pants2, and immediately find yourself in the remote mountains, in solitude and silence, then in this respect Seoul is a unique city.

I took a look at the city with a five-hundred-year history, quietly spread out below under dark gray roofs. Grass is growing all around me. The noise of a mountain river running into a gorge, and amazing birds flying in front of me, cause delight, which travelers usually experience.

I stuck my stick into a crack in the rock. And in order not to fall and slide down head over heels, he noticed a place between a rock and a pine tree and sat down there, bent over. I wanted to smoke, but found that I did not bring tobacco with me. I thought that I would go out for a short walk, but imperceptibly, step by step, I wandered off somewhere. There is nothing to smoke.

On one side of me there are high cliffs, on the other - a blue sky, and on the very edge one can see three or four pine branches with needles. From somewhere faintly comes the smell of pine resin. The noise of the wind in the pines ... Indescribable silence and solitude. Indeed, how many people since the creation of the world have been here, in this place where I am sitting now? Am I not the very first person to step on this rock in its entire existence? Was there anyone else besides me, a fool, who was climbing the rock, trying his best to get to this place, and wasting so much energy? There are many brave souls who climb into the back mountains for the sake of adventure, but I don't think there were many who would be desperate to get to the guardian spirit itself.

There is a cave in the rock behind me.

Afraid of running into snakes, I did not go inside, but rummaged around with a stick and found that three people could fit in the cave.

Is there any way to use this cave?

For five hundred years in Hanyang, this city of intriguers and conspirators, all sorts of vile performances were played out. If only these people knew about the existence of this cave, the entrance to which was cut right on the nearby street, and that it can be reached from the outskirts of the city in just half an hour, then maybe they would use it for conspiracies?

Empty dreams!

Bewitched by this deep silence, I fell deeper and deeper into joyless empty dreams, and the cave was to blame.

All kinds of conspiracies, which were accompanied by massacres, blackmail, exiles and exiles - these terrible images of the five hundred years of the Li dynasty led me to dark fantasies.

In order to quickly get rid of such bleak thoughts, I again rummaged in my pockets in search of tobacco, but it still had nowhere to come from.

I looked down again, and suddenly something flashed through the dense tops of the pines!

Looking closer, I saw a spring with spring water. The brook, peering through the gaps between the pines, apparently seeped through a crevice in the rock, and this trembling sound is certainly the sound of the wind. It cannot be that the sound of a spring gushing far below could be heard even here, in this very place.

Shouldn't I try to write a story about a spring? After all, the running water is so beautiful, and its murmur is pleasant, and the taste is excellent - maybe some interesting story about the stream will be born in my head? Wouldn't it be better to come up with another, more beautiful story than the bleak empty fantasies of conspiracies and murders that came to my mind when I saw this cave?

I pulled out a stick stuck in a crevasse in the rock. Lightly tapping it on the rock at my feet, I began to compose a story.

There lived an artist. And what was his name?

It's a troublesome business to come up with names, so I'll take the name of a famous painter from the Silla period and call him Solgo.4

Maybe take the time of the reign of sovereign Sejong, when the city that is seen in front of me was experiencing the most beautiful time of its heyday.

Hundreds of atrocities were conceived and committed here. There stands the Gyeongbokgung Palace, the center of the vitality of all of Hanyang. A middle-aged man with an expression of anguish on his face is hiding in a mulberry garden outside the north gate of Sinmu.

This is the artist Solgo.

Midsummer, mulberry foliage saves from hot sun rays. The air is warm - in this mulberry garden, where green leaves are overhead, and it is humid and stuffy on the ground, the artist Solgo is hiding. Judging by the little bundle the lunch is wrapped in, he intends to stay here until dinner time.

But what does he do? He just sits with a pained look, drenched in sweat.

This garden, by decree of the king, was used for breeding silkworms, and ordinary people were forbidden to enter there. For the whole day, even the shadow of a person will not flash there.

Occasionally the wind will rustle over the trees, but where Solgo is hiding, there is not the slightest movement. With every breath of breeze in the sultry air, Solgo shudders in surprise, but continues to gaze intently somewhere into the distance, as if waiting for something.

After some time, twilight, having overcome the mountain pass of Muak, descends on this city. After waiting until it gets dark, the artist quietly leaves his hiding place.

The day went by. Maybe watch again tomorrow?

Sighing heavily, the artist returned to his shack. It was almost completely dark, but in some places there were still dimly lit places. And when the artist got into the strip of light, his face appeared, and it was ugly. Few people have seen such ugliness in this world.

The nose is like a clay bottle. The eyes are like two large circles. Ears are like scoops. The mouth resembles a copper pipe. Facial expression like a toad. He had such an ugly face that it would take every possible adjective to describe him. In addition, this face was so large that even from a distance one could clearly distinguish its features.

With such a face, he himself was ashamed to appear somewhere in the daylight.

Indeed, Solgo had never shown himself in public in daylight, although he was already of a conscious age.

He married early, at the age of sixteen, a girl from a noble family, who was betrothed to him by his mentor, but when she saw Solgo's face, she immediately lost consciousness and, recovering herself, hastily ran away to her home. He tried to marry again, however, his other betrothed managed to hold out for only one night, and on the second day the girl stubbornly told her parents that she was scared and she could not be near him, even if she died. So he survived the second tragedy in his personal life ...

After suffering two shocks, Solgo gradually began to shun women, and this desire became stronger every day. And then he did not want to deal with those who call themselves people at all.

To hide away from human eyes and devote himself entirely to painting, he left the human settlement and arranged for himself a tiny dwelling in a dense forest thicket. So he lived for almost thirty years, hiding there from people. In order to get what he needed for life or for painting, that is, every time he had to go out into the city street, he put on a large bamboo hat and also covered his face with hemp cloth.

Forty years have already passed since he began to paint pictures, thirty years since he was forced to lead the life of an ascetic and a recluse; and that masculine strength that he could not realize, living alone, accumulated in his head. Male Energy, concentrated in his brain, transmitted to his fingertips, splashed out on paper, and there were already a myriad of such drawings. Initially, he did not feel dissatisfied with his paintings.

Every time this or that picture appeared - the fruit of the talent given to him by nature, the skills acquired from the master and the male potency accumulated by him - he, appreciating it, was completely satisfied and even felt proud.

However, following the same path, in the twentieth year, the artist gradually began to feel the first sprouts of discontent in his soul. It is possible that at some point he began to think differently about the techniques of painting.

Can't you draw something else?

Mountain, sea, tree, stream, an old man with a staff in his hand. Bridge or boat with raised sails, flowers. Moon, ox, shepherd...

Has he tried to draw anything else so far?

He wanted to portray something other than these traditional landscapes, imbued with the spirit of antiquity.

I wanted to draw another face, more alive than the faces of those venerable, gray-haired elders or the faces of shepherds playing the flute. He learned this from the master. I wanted to capture a more expressive face.

And since that time, not sparing himself and using one or another traditional means and techniques of drawing, Solgo for ten years tried to convey in the drawing the expression of a living human face. However, the artist, who retired from the human world and lived in complete solitude, could not remember what a person's face looks like.

The rogue faces of merchants, the impassive, inexpressive faces of passers-by, the lean faces of bird-catchers ... Only such faces he met at that time, and even now he can easily meet people with such physiognomies on the road. Isn't there a face with a different expression?

A face with a different expression!

A face with different emotions!

As this passionate desire matured and intensified in the soul of the artist, a certain memory vaguely surfaced in his head.

The expression on his mother's face.

Now it is almost completely erased from memory, but still sometimes the expression on the mother’s face, when she pressed him, a little one, to her chest and, bending down, looked at him with eyes full of tears, this memory rose from the very depths of his memory.

His mother was a rare beauty. She was so beautiful that she seemed to have taken away all the beauty for many years to come from subsequent generations.

The artist was born to this beauty after the death of her father.

A mother clutching her fatherless child to her heart. A bowed face with eyes from which no tears were allowed to flow.

As an adult, the artist saw only fright and fear on the faces of those who looked at him. Therefore, at times, with chilling sadness, he yearned for the beautiful, loving face of his mother, who looked at him with such love more than forty years ago.

He wanted to draw her face.

Tears stand in huge eyes, and yet they sparkle with joy and tenderness, and on the lips there is a hidden smile.

He wanted to capture this vision, which for a moment lit up his soul like lightning, and again eluded. The artist shunned the world and lived in constant hiding, so in his strange and bizarre soul the desire to depict this world became just as passionate. And as this desire intensified, his soul was filled with a feeling of resentment and discontent.

The artist threw away his brush and thought with a gloomy look that somewhere just at these moments, earthly women and men in their prime are having fun and joking, squeezing each other in their arms.

The artist, whose soul was in constant turmoil, became more and more capricious and fastidious day by day. He decided to paint a portrait of the most beautiful woman on earth.

At first he was going to draw just a woman with pretty face. But, not being able to see with his own eyes such a beauty up close, the artist was not able to draw what his soul demanded. In irritation, he moved the tip of the brush over the paper, and somehow imperceptibly during these fruitless efforts, his ideas about the beauty of a woman changed.

He wanted to draw the ideal beauty that he would like to see as his wife.

The world did not give him a wife.

Look, even a small insect, even a small bird, and they look for a mate, rejoice and have fun, find each other and enjoy, and here a person - the great master of everything that exists on earth - has been living without his half for fifty years now, - from these Discontent grew in his mind.

He thought that earthly people had deprived him of a couple, that earthly women did not want to come to him, and that no one would even know about him, who spent his whole life alone, when he died, and that he would perish somewhere in the mountains. . As a result, he came to the conclusion that this world is not only not worthy of regret, but, on the contrary, this ruthless world is hated by him.

Well, he himself, with the tip of his brush, will create the wife that the world has deprived him of, and he will also laugh at him.

Compared to the most beautiful woman that ever existed on this earth, the beauty created by his brush will be incomparably more beautiful. He will also laugh at earthly beauties who consider themselves irresistible, although in fact they are ugly.

He will still look with contempt on those foolish men who have married not so beautiful women, but they believe that these are incomparable beauties throughout the Celestial Empire.

He will also make those scoundrels bow before him who have four or five wives and concubines with them, enjoy and dance with pleasure.

Gorgeous! Gorgeous!

The artist first closed his eyes, then opened them, clasped his head in his hands, but no matter how hard he tried to imagine the beauty’s face, he could not do anything.

Of course, if the face is smooth, without roughness, and all its features are harmonious, then such people are usually called earthly beauties. If you paint blush or smiling eyes on such a face, it will become even more attractive. Such a face can be imagined, and it is not difficult to draw it with a brush.

But the artist, in whose memory the image of his mother and her face, as he remembered it in childhood, was imprinted with a light shadow, such beauties did not bring satisfaction.

So he suffered and tormented himself year after year.

Several years have passed since the lower part of the portrait of the beauty was painted. About the same, how to depict the upper part - the face, he had no idea.

Every time the artist entered his shack, the picture that hung at the entrance seemed to reproach him and called: “Come on, paint my face and neck.”

The picture made the artist feel embarrassed.

Previously, if there were no special cases, the artist did not go outside during the day. Now, as usual, having wrapped his face, he began to wander around the city in the daytime.

Even if on the road, but suddenly he will be lucky enough to meet an extraordinary beauty.

If even for a moment he could see a beauty he liked on the road, then maybe he would be able to clearly keep this image in his head and draw a portrait from memory ...

However, in this city, where the laws for men and women were strict, women from noble families did not appear on the street with their heads uncovered during the day. If any women met, then for the most part they were either servants or women of the lower class.

Although occasionally there were those among them who could be called attractive. However, the portrait required a woman of pure beauty. On their faces only dullness was expressed, it was impossible to catch anything else.

Having wrapped his face around, the artist wandered the streets, staggered and loitered now at the well, then at the market in the hope that many women would gather there. And if he came across at least a little attractive, he followed them and tried to study their faces, but so far he could not find a beauty who would satisfy his needs.

Maybe in the houses, in the half where women live,5 there will be a beauty that will please him? Ah, this women's room! Ladies quarters! If only for once you could see all the women from these rooms and appreciate their faces! ..

At the end of a day spent in unrest and anxiety, the artist, in search of a beauty, chose the royal mulberry garden as a last hope and entered there to see the faces of court ladies collecting mulberry leaves. But, unfortunately, the boldly traveled path turned out to be in vain: no one came to the garden that day.

It was the height of the silkworm breeding season, and if you decide to wait patiently and for a long time, then the day would come when the ladies of the court would appear in this garden. The artist, burning with anger and a passionate desire to paint the face of his wife, the next day again entered the garden and hid there. Hiding among the mulberry trees, he waited patiently.

Every day for a whole month, the artist, taking food with him, went to the mulberry garden. But each time he returned home in the evening, he only sighed deeply.

Not at all because he could not see the ladies of the court.

As if on the bride, which seemed to have been specially arranged for the artist, hiding in the mulberry thickets, every day women from the royal palace appeared and passed in front of him. The sleeves and hem of their dresses fluttered in the wind. They gathered in groups of several, plucked mulberry leaves and left. So in the whole month he saw forty or fifty ladies of the court.

They were all high class beauties. Compared to the women glimpsed on the road or at the well, their faces were more refined, there was no doubt about it.

But the eyes… The artist imagined them like this…

There was tenderness and joy in those eyes. They are filled to the brim with love. The court ladies did not have this. In other words, they were ordinary beauties.

The great ambitions of the artist, who wished for himself the most beautiful of all beauties, and who thereby wished to take revenge on this pitiless world for depriving him of such a woman, could not be satisfied with beauties of this kind.

Each time he returned to his shack, he sighed long and hard, and these sighs continued. whole month. He didn't go to the mulberry garden anymore.

It was one of the days when the autumn sky is transparent and gives off an amazing blue.

With soul-filled indignation and unsatisfied desire, the artist, attaching a bamboo basket to his side, went to the stream to wash rice for dinner.

But after taking a few steps, he suddenly stopped.

On a rock near the stream, which shone through the sprawling pines, he saw a girl. She sat aloof, taking in the spotted rays of the evening sunset through the pine branches, and looked down at the running stream.

How did this girl get here?

In a place quite remote from human habitation. In a place that is located too high for a person from the village to get there. In a place where there is not even a path. Until now, and even then occasionally, only a woodcutter or a shepherd came here, but so that there were traces of someone else? This has never happened here. How did this girl end up in a place like this?

The artist stopped in confusion and began to watch her from afar. And as he watched, a heavy tension gradually built up in his chest.

Step by step, trying not to make noise, he began to move forward.

The distance between them gradually decreased, and the girl's face became more and more distinct ... The blood rushed to the face of the artist.

There are few such beauties in the world. She is seventeen or eighteen years old. Her features were beautiful, but even more wonderful, surprisingly beautiful was the expression on her face.

Either the girl could not take her eyes off the running water, or she was listening to something, but one way or another, all her attention was riveted to this stream. Opening her eyes wide, as if she had forgotten how to blink, she gazed fascinated at the running stream.

Maybe in this stream she sees the dragon's palace? What does it seem like to a bent over girl with a bang, slightly fluttering from the wind and flying apart from contact with the pines? What does it seem like to a girl who has completely given herself over to contemplation, who has concentrated all her dreams, all her passion, all her delight in a charming smile shining in her eyes and on her lips?

Finally he found it! it admirable the expression on the face that for ten years the artist tried to see and find on the roads near human settlements or at the well, and even in the royal mulberry garden, but could not find it. He found this face quite unexpectedly and right here.

The artist quickened his pace. He completely forgot how terrible his face was, and did not think how scared this girl would be if she looked at him. He quickly walked towards her.

Hearing the steps of the artist, the girl raised her head easily. She looked straight at him. But the girl's wonderful gaze was directed somewhere into the boundless distance.

When the artist, with a heavy heart, not knowing what to say, made some incomprehensible sound, as if his tongue had suddenly become wooden, the girl was the first to break the silence:

What kind of place is it?

Here is a mountain that does not even have a mountain guardian spirit, and you, so young, why are you here?

Yes ... - Suddenly the girl became sad. - Somehow I groped my way along the stream.

The artist tilted his head. I tried to move. But the girl's gaze remained motionless, as if rushing somewhere into the distance. Her eyes, although wide open, looked through him, and it was impossible to understand where her gaze was directed.

Suddenly the artist cried out loudly.

Do you see what's ahead?

I'm blind.

She was blind. Hearing how the girl answered, holding back tears, the artist came closer to her.

You can't even see what's in front of you! How did you get to this lonely place?

The girl lowered her head. She seemed to say something in response, but the artist could not catch her words. That surprisingly bewitching expression that he had seen a few minutes ago disappeared, and the artist lost interest in the blind girl.

Of course, there was no doubt that she was a rare beauty. But it was not only her beauty that struck the artist at the very first moment. He was attracted precisely by this amazing charm, which was then reflected on her face.

Poor thing. Evening is drawing near, get down and go home before it gets dark.

Having said this, the artist decided to give up on the girl. But she answered him:

Although it is dark, the twilight is still very beautiful, right?

Beautiful are beautiful...

How beautiful are they?

Golden light streams in the western mountains. There, the whole heavenly world was painted in a bright red color - and green pines, and dark blue rocks, and brown tree trunks - everything is buried in golden color ...

And what color is it - gold, bright red, green and dark blue, what are all these colors? I heard that the landscape of these mountains is very beautiful, and although I somehow got here, except for the noise of the wind and the sound of water, besides what is heard in my ear, I cannot know where and how beautiful it is.

Gradually, the girl regains her former refined expression, a wave of joy flashed in her wide-open eyes. The beautiful expression that had disappeared for a moment began to reappear.

In the end, the artist came up and sat opposite the girl.

If you go down the stream, you can see the sea, and in the depths of it - the dragon's palace. There are columns entwined with silk of seven colors, skillfully carved stone steps and bizarrely shaped stairs, bells made of gold under the roof, doorposts decorated with pearls ...

As the artist spoke, the girl's eyes became more and more brilliant every moment. Finally, the artist decided that he would return home with the girl.

I will tell you about the dragon palace. That's only if your house will not worry ...

So the artist lured the girl, and she raised her huge eyes, looked high into the sky and said that even if her parents lost such a cripple like her, they would not worry too much. And she willingly followed the artist.

My dreams, which had taken me a thousand li6, were suddenly interrupted at this point. How to continue this story?

Thoughts rush through my head. At the same time, lines from a popular song reach me from somewhere ...

I raised my head. Apparently, people are approaching from somewhere on the other side. Involuntarily listening to this loud song, I prevent myself from concentrating.

This annoying song. Damn her.

Because of this cursed song, there is no way to collect the interrupted story.

Are there stories without end? Shouldn't there be some sort of solution?

Maybe end like this: the artist took the girl with him, returned to his shack and, while telling her about the dragon's palace, painted her face and fulfilled his old dream?

Where did such a sweet ending come from? But since it turned out like this, it’s not worth starting a story!

And then what?

Then maybe we should come up with a different ending?

The artist returned home with the girl. And told her about the dragon palace. However, compared to the way the girl heard about the palace then, for the first time, now, she apparently did not feel such strong enthusiasm, and her expression was not so wonderful. The intentions of the artist burst like a soap bubble. He had no choice but to leave this picture unfinished forever.

And that ending doesn't work either.

Then again...

The artist returned home with the girl. And at home, the longer he looked at her, the more she fascinated him, so that in the end he stopped finishing the picture, and the girl became his wife. The blind girl and the ugly artist lived their lives carelessly and cheerfully. The artist, who wanted a woman painted in a picture to become his wife, acquired a real beauty as his wife.

Again, not that.

Boring and primitive. Damn this song.

I got up. Having lost interest, I did not want to stay and just sit in this place. The sounds of the popular motif are still heard. I'll go where this song is not heard.

Bending down, I saw that in the distance something flashed through the pines - that same spring. I'll go down to that spring, which formed the basis of my story. Going down this steep cliff was more difficult than climbing it. When you climb a mountain, if you fall, stumbling, then at least you will end up in the same place. However, if you stumble with your foot during the descent, then you don’t know how long you will roll down. In extreme cases, you can even reach the very outskirts of Cheongundong. Moreover, that stick, which helped me when I was going up, was terribly in the way when I was going down.

It took about half a quarter of an hour to reach the spring.

And there really was a rock near the spring, on which one person could fit just fine. Maybe the artist was washing rice on this rock? Or maybe it was on it that the girl sat and indulged in dreams? I thought that there was a deep cliff under it, but it turned out that water flows there in a weak, sluggish stream, making its way from under the rock no more than a span.

The gorge itself was completely silent. Even the sound of the wind came from somewhere above, in the distance. In those ancient times, this rather gloomy gorge with pines and rocks, perhaps, brought joy to the artist.

The artist returned home with the girl.

He was in such tension, and his soul was so joyful that he did not even want to cook dinner. Entering the shack, he saw that the unfinished portrait of a woman, which had been waiting for several years for the head to be added to it, seemed to welcome him with joy.

So, sit down there.

The prepared paints were waiting for him.

With a heart beating with excitement, ready to burst, the artist stood in front of the canvas, seated the girl so that the light fell in her direction, and, having dipped the brush, began his story.

He wanted to fulfill his old dream today, when there was still a little time before dusk. That force of the artist, which had accumulated in him all these ten years, when he only conceived his picture, but could not start work, is now completely concentrated in his hands.

And... you understand, don't you?

He looked at the girl, talked about the dragon's palace, and his hands controlled the brush with lightning speed.

In the dragon's palace precious pearl Money7 . With this pearl, you can achieve anything your heart desires. Once you pass it over your eyes, you can see the bright sun and moon.

Yes? Is there such a gem?

Yes, there is. But only you must obey me well, and then in a few days I will take you to the palace to the dragon, where we will ask for the pearl of Mani's desires, and I will cure your eyes.

And then I, too, will be able to see the bright sun and moon?

Yes, the bright sun, and the moon, and a wonderful bright seven-color rainbow, and a beautiful grove, and a deep gorge - what only you will not see!

Oh, to get this pearl of desires as soon as possible!

Ah, amazing, beautiful expression. The artist did not miss anything from this amazing expression of admiration that appeared on the face of the girl and overwhelmed her. He transferred this expression to the canvas.

Twilight somehow imperceptibly changed into the night. The woman in the picture was not painted only pupils, everything else was completely completed.

He wanted to finish the pupils too. But it was already too dark for that, and the vitality of the whole picture depended on the pupils.

What will happen if he finishes drawing these pupils during the day, when it dawns? But one way or another, and the soul of the artist, who finally, after a long ten years, achieved his cherished dream, experienced incomparable joy.

This exclamation of admiration was that exclamation of joy that is heard at the completion of a long-planned task. But along with the ensuing calm in the soul of the artist, other feelings awakened - tension and passion.

In order to better see the girl's face in the impenetrable darkness, the artist sat down at her knees so close that he almost touched them. He calmed down a little and almost completed the picture, but because he smelled the girl’s body and felt her closeness with all his gut, his nerves tensed to the limit. Gradually, his whole body began to shake. In this darkness, the delightfully sparkling huge eyes of the girl and her lips, quivering with passionate desire, completely captured the consciousness of the artist ...

During the day, the artist and the blind girl were no longer strangers to each other.

Today I'll draw the pupils.

The artist, who lived a bachelor life for thirty years and ate alone for thirty years, for the first time had breakfast not alone, but with a blind girl. He sat down again in front of the picture.

What about the dragon palace?

The girl's eyes sparkled with joy. However, those eyes, the brilliance of which he enjoyed as an artist, did not sparkle like yesterday.

Of course, there are no other such beautiful eyes in the world. But now they were the eyes of a woman longing for love. These were the eyes of a woman, the passionate and loving eyes of a girl who in the past endured insults for her injury, and now she has freed herself from this oppressive feeling and for the first time since yesterday night has known what the “spring of life” is.

Dragon Palace?

Let's quickly go to the dragon's palace, find the pearl of desires there, and you will open my eyes. I want to quickly open my eyes, look at this bright world, and at you ... Will you get it for me?

Yes, how can I not get it, I'll get it. This seven-color bright…

Rather, I want to look at the seven colors.

Of course of course. In the meantime, think and imagine it now in your head.

Yes, but I want to see it as soon as possible...

You bend down and see that the picture standing at its knees is just waiting for its pupils.

But what was reflected in the eyes of the blind girl, although it was beautiful, still could not express anything but love and passion. Those eyes weren't worth the dedication of ten years.

Come on, think of the dragon palace!

What if I'm going to think? You really need to see it with your eyes.

Yes, at least try to think.

If you have an idea about this, then thoughts arise, don't they?

Think like you thought yesterday!

In the end, irritation appeared in the artist.

Come on dragon palace! Dragon Palace!

Think of the dragon palace! So what is the palace like?

Seven colors and bright.

Yes, what else?

And also golden columns, no, columns woven from silk. And green pearls...

Green is not pearl! Green is jade!

Green either the roof or the doors.

Eh, fool!

The artist with his huge hands tightly grabbed the shoulders of the blind girl. Grabbed and began to shake them.

Come on again, carefully. Dragon Palace?

Palace in the depths of the sea...

The artist could not restrain himself and hit the girl on the cheek. The girl shook with fear and fright.

Where else can you find such a fool? Look - so these sick eyes do not even know how to blink, and everyone is looking somewhere into the void. The artist looked into these empty eyes, and discontent and annoyance more and more seized him. He grabbed the blind girl by the throat.

Oh you fool! Idiot! Cripple!

Grasping her by the throat, he began to shake her, constantly showering curses that came to his mind, and bringing down all his anger on her. When he saw that something like a feeling of resentment and bitterness arose in her eyes, which were clouded, like those of a patient, he began to shake her harder. He suddenly let go of her. The body of a blind girl became too heavy ...

The girl slipped out of the hands of the artist and fell on her back. Falling, she hit the ink pot, and it overturned. Droplets of mascara rolled down from the ink pot onto the girl's face.

Frightened, the artist tried to shake her, but the blind girl no longer belonged to this world.

The artist did not know what to do. He tossed about in complete confusion and suddenly involuntarily glanced at his picture, and ... Oh! With a cry, he fell.

Pupils somehow imperceptibly managed to appear on the face that looked at him from the picture. The artist came to his senses, got up and looked at the picture again: pupils were completely drawn near the eyes.

But the way the pupils were drawn made the artist sit up again, and he could not move from his seat. The eyes of a blind girl looked at him, in which the same expression of despair was reflected when the artist grabbed her by the throat!

These were the same pupils as then, at that moment.

There was nothing strange in the fact that a blind girl fell and hit the ink pot, and there was nothing strange in the fact that when the ink pot tipped over, drops of ink splashed out of it, but how did these drops fall in such a miraculous way? How is it so amazing that because of the spread of the mascara around the eyes, even the irises appeared, while at first only the pupils appeared, and even then because of the fact that droplets of mascara fell there? On the one hand - a dead girl, on the other - a finished portrait. The artist just sat with an absent look and could no longer get rid of the small trembling beating him.

A few days later, inside the city fortress, a crazy old man appeared, who, with a gloomy face, wandered around the city, holding a very strange portrait of a woman in his hands. No one knew where he came from, and no one knew about his past. The old man must have treasured this portrait very much, because he resisted with all his might that people looked at the picture, and immediately ran away.

So he wandered for several years, and once in a strong snowstorm he lay down on stones and died. Even dying, he continued to press this single portrait to his chest.

Old artist! I mourn your sad fate. I lowered the stick into the water, wiggled it a little more, and slowly got up.

Looking up, I saw that the summer evening sunset was already dancing over the snow-white series of mountains and a mountain bird was flying south over this ancient gorge.

1 One of the old names for Seoul.

2 In traditional Korean clothing, men's pants were tied at the bottom with ribbons.

3 One of the old names for Seoul.

4 The biography of the artist Solgo is included in “Samguk Sagi” - “Historical Records of the Three States” by Kim Pusik (1075–1151), in the book. 48th: Solgo is from Silla. From birth, he had neither funds nor service, so there is no record of his pedigree left. From birth, he already knew how to draw well. Once upon a time, he painted an old pine tree on the wall of the Hwangnyeong Temple. There were scales and cracks on the trunk, and the branches with needles curved like a bowl. Crows, falcons, swallows and sparrows, seeing a pine from afar, flew towards it, but, having flown close, helplessly stopped and fell. As the years passed, the colors darkened. The monks of the temple touched up the tree with red and green paints, but the birds no longer flew. The portraits of the Bodhisattva in the temple of Punghwansa from Gyeongju and in the temple of Tangseok from Jinju are the creations of his brush. People say that it is written in the spirit.

5 Cor. unban- in traditional Korean houses, the inner part of the house, the female half. According to Korean law, the entrance to unban outsiders were prohibited. Even the authorities had no right to enter there to arrest the owner of the house.

6 A measure of length equal to 0.576 km.

7 In Buddhist traditions, this was the name of a precious pearl, with the help of which a person could fulfill all his desires. According to other legends, this pearl is in the Dragon's mouth.

Translation I. V. Tsoi

Inna Valerianovna Tsoi was born in 1973 in Leningrad. Graduated from the Department of Korean Philology of the Oriental Faculty of St. Petersburg State University. Candidate of Philology. The dissertation was devoted to the work of the writer Kim Tonin (1900–1951). Research interests: modern Korean literature, culture and linguoculturology. She worked as a teacher in the Republic of Korea: from 2003 to 2004 at the University of Foreign Languages ​​"Hanguk", from 2004 to 2006 - at the University of Hallim. Currently he teaches at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at St. Petersburg State University. Author of more than 10 scientific publications.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I obey, - answered the bellhop.

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

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

That's right, - answered the bellhop.

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

Thank you very much,” the bellboy replied.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What would you like? asked the driver.

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

The driver reined in the runaway horse and looked at the rider with bewilderment:

Where do you order? You said to the main street...

I told you - to the art store!

You'd better, sir, hire another, we don't understand.

Well, get the hell out! Here are your pieces of silver!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When asked about the analysis of Bunin's work "The Mad Artist", where to start, it does not come to mind at all, given by the author European the best answer is And I would read the book first.

Answer from Rain.[guru]
Answer a few questions:

Answer from Kavkaz Center[guru]
I would take it from here. This is for teachers.
What is a person? What is the value, meaning, content of human life? What is the relationship between the rational and the mystical, the rational and the transcendent in man? What is the life of the spirit? What is time and eternity? . Each cultural epoch, each thinker and artist offer their own versions of the answers to these questions. The way a person felt and thought at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries turns out to be unusually close to us today, at the beginning of the 21st century.
And then answer questions and that's it.
MAD ARTIST": CONTEXT APPROACH
The lesson on the story “The Mad Artist” is built in a fundamentally different way: it is a problem analysis using the techniques of the contextual approach.
Bunin's researchers call the year 1920 "silent". The first year in a foreign land, in exile, is the year of the writer's silence. One can only guess what mental anguish he experienced. But gradually Bunin returns to creativity. The Artist and the World, the purpose and essence of artistic creativity - these are the problems that concern a mature and already experienced writer. Students are invited to read the 1921 short story "The Mad Artist" in advance, answer a series of questions and complete assignments. Discussing them will serve as the basis of the lesson. The last of the tasks can be individual or offered to a group of students, at the discretion of the teacher.
1. After reading the story, how did you discover the meaning of its title?
2. How does the world appear to which the gentleman “with astonished eyes” returned from his wanderings? How does this world meet the artist?
3. What details of behavior most clearly characterize the state of the hero?
4. How can you title a paragraph that begins with the words “Soon youthful strength took possession of him”?
5. “In the first half of the 1920s, the struggle between two principles was stronger than ever in Bunin's work: darkness and light,” writes researcher Anna Saakyants. How does the motif of the struggle between darkness and light develop in the story? How can you explain the discrepancy between the idea and the embodiment in the work of the artist - the hero of the story?
6. Do you agree with the statements below? Match them with the content of Bunin's story. “If the world split, then the crack would pass through the heart of the poet” (Heinrich Heine). “Life is never beautiful: only its pictures in the purified mirror of art are beautiful” (Arthur Schopenhauer).
7. Find and examine reproductions of paintings: Raphael. " Sistine Madonna» ; Erich Enge. "Desecration of Democracy"; Salvador Dali. "Premonition of Civil War", "The Face of War", "Christ of Saint Juan de la Cruz". How do paintings help to better present the picture conceived by Bunin's hero and embodied by him? (Compare their content, composition, mood, palette with Bunin's descriptions.) What other works of art could you include in an associative context that helps comprehend Bunin's story?
Such lessons help to form and consolidate such skills of students as identifying the style of the writer, determining the universal content of works, correlating works various kinds arts.